General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: History Channel tonight
Posted by:
Kustenflieger
()
Date: October 27, 2004 03:19PM
Hi,
Concerning these masts : normally the masts were turned up or down by a mechanism in the inside of the U-boat, not the outside of it and could not be used in heavy seas, as they were to break off. They were of light material (originally wood and later steel cylinders)and using them in heavy sea would also give a possibility on electrical problems such as shortcircuiting and in case of bad weather they also used the Minenabweiser for radio transmissions, in this case only with half of the range they normally had. The masts had a range between 200 and 700 miles, depending on early or late war and other circumstances, and also on the fact if it was day or night.
Transmissions were only made in case of important news, avary or return home hour and date. So the antennas can very well have been up to signal the success they had with the sinking of the two ships earlier that evening.
BTW Michael and co, I also helped a bit on the documentary with photo's of the UB III class and other and with the war diaries of some of the U-boats such as UB107 and UB110 (sinking of the Malvina ?). Marinekorps Flandern archive - Regulus One Publishing in the end titles, doesn't that ring a bell ? :-)
Best from Kustenflieger
Concerning these masts : normally the masts were turned up or down by a mechanism in the inside of the U-boat, not the outside of it and could not be used in heavy seas, as they were to break off. They were of light material (originally wood and later steel cylinders)and using them in heavy sea would also give a possibility on electrical problems such as shortcircuiting and in case of bad weather they also used the Minenabweiser for radio transmissions, in this case only with half of the range they normally had. The masts had a range between 200 and 700 miles, depending on early or late war and other circumstances, and also on the fact if it was day or night.
Transmissions were only made in case of important news, avary or return home hour and date. So the antennas can very well have been up to signal the success they had with the sinking of the two ships earlier that evening.
BTW Michael and co, I also helped a bit on the documentary with photo's of the UB III class and other and with the war diaries of some of the U-boats such as UB107 and UB110 (sinking of the Malvina ?). Marinekorps Flandern archive - Regulus One Publishing in the end titles, doesn't that ring a bell ? :-)
Best from Kustenflieger
