General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: escape from U-64 in Norway
Posted by:
Ken Dunn
()
Date: February 05, 2008 09:13PM
Hi John,
There was no such thing as an “escape cylinder†in a WWII U-boat. The author of “Grey Wolf, Grey Sea†has misunderstood the escape procedure. He is referring to the skirt that was attached to the hatch in early U-boats. It was removed later in the war.
The real procedure was simply to wait until the boat had flooded enough to equalize the pressure inside the boat with the pressure outside the boat then open the hatch & escape by breathing through your Draeger lung all the way to the surface. If you didn’t have a Draeger lung you took a good breath of air once the pressure was equalized and then swam to the surface as fast as possible while exhaling all the way. The air in your lungs would be at ambient pressure when you left the boat (because you had to wait until the pressure equalized in order to get the hatch to open so you could get out) and would expand as you ascended making it imperative that you exhale all the way up to prevent the air in your lungs from damaging your lungs as it expands (frequently resulting in a fatal air embolism).
The emergency out of air ascent procedure is taught to every beginning scuba diver in the basic course and I have done it a number of times, once from close to 100 feet. It’s kind of like driving a car – it’s dangerous if you break any of the rules but if you carefully follow them and the conditions aren’t too bad (your not too deep, you have a clear shot at the surface, no freezing cold water, strong currents, floating ice, encounters with hostile marine life on the way up, nothing to get entangled in, not badly injured etc.) it can be done safely.
There is another danger though if you have been breathing air at increased pressure for a while before surfacing– the bends. However if it is a choice between certain death in a sunken U-boat or taking a chance of getting the bends the emergency out of air ascent procedure is the obvious choice.
I picked up an [e-reads] copy of “Grey Wolf, Grey Sea†to see what context “escape cylinder†was used in as I thought from your post the author might have been referring to the small cylinder containing air in the Draeger apparatus but he clearly wasn’t.
Something else I immediately noticed when the book arrived was the disclaimer just above the copyright notice in the front of the book. It reads:
“This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locals or persons, living or dead, is entirely accidental.â€
I haven’t actually read the book yet – I just looked up the relevant part for this post. Due to the disclaimer it is now at the bottom of my list of books to read. Based on the cover you would think it wasn’t fiction so there is something amiss with this book – beware.
Regards,
Ken Dunn
There was no such thing as an “escape cylinder†in a WWII U-boat. The author of “Grey Wolf, Grey Sea†has misunderstood the escape procedure. He is referring to the skirt that was attached to the hatch in early U-boats. It was removed later in the war.
The real procedure was simply to wait until the boat had flooded enough to equalize the pressure inside the boat with the pressure outside the boat then open the hatch & escape by breathing through your Draeger lung all the way to the surface. If you didn’t have a Draeger lung you took a good breath of air once the pressure was equalized and then swam to the surface as fast as possible while exhaling all the way. The air in your lungs would be at ambient pressure when you left the boat (because you had to wait until the pressure equalized in order to get the hatch to open so you could get out) and would expand as you ascended making it imperative that you exhale all the way up to prevent the air in your lungs from damaging your lungs as it expands (frequently resulting in a fatal air embolism).
The emergency out of air ascent procedure is taught to every beginning scuba diver in the basic course and I have done it a number of times, once from close to 100 feet. It’s kind of like driving a car – it’s dangerous if you break any of the rules but if you carefully follow them and the conditions aren’t too bad (your not too deep, you have a clear shot at the surface, no freezing cold water, strong currents, floating ice, encounters with hostile marine life on the way up, nothing to get entangled in, not badly injured etc.) it can be done safely.
There is another danger though if you have been breathing air at increased pressure for a while before surfacing– the bends. However if it is a choice between certain death in a sunken U-boat or taking a chance of getting the bends the emergency out of air ascent procedure is the obvious choice.
I picked up an [e-reads] copy of “Grey Wolf, Grey Sea†to see what context “escape cylinder†was used in as I thought from your post the author might have been referring to the small cylinder containing air in the Draeger apparatus but he clearly wasn’t.
Something else I immediately noticed when the book arrived was the disclaimer just above the copyright notice in the front of the book. It reads:
“This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locals or persons, living or dead, is entirely accidental.â€
I haven’t actually read the book yet – I just looked up the relevant part for this post. Due to the disclaimer it is now at the bottom of my list of books to read. Based on the cover you would think it wasn’t fiction so there is something amiss with this book – beware.
Regards,
Ken Dunn
