Hi Rodney,

I went through a few of my books last night looking for photos of torpedoes in the torpedo room to see if I could tell if they were covered with grease and the ones I found didn't seem to be. I found a number of photos of the crew sitting on them (not on something covering them but actually sitting on the torpedoes) and had they been covered in grease it would have gotten all over the crew. They had enough hygiene problems without having thick grease all over them for the duration of the patrol so I am beginning to think the grease may have only been used to get them inside the U-boat and that it was cleaned off immediately once the torp was inside. Also the only photos I found of the crew greasing the torpedoes was on the deck before the torpedo was slid into the torpedo room.

I didn't go through all of the books but if the sample I looked at was representative then the torpedoes may not have had any grease on them at all when they were placed in the torpedo tubes.

Perplexing.

Regards,

Ken Dunn