General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: What is this horizontal pipe?
Posted by:
Ken Dunn
()
Date: March 06, 2011 03:41AM
Hi Simon,
First I have no idea what was inside the pipe. However spare barrels were always carried for the original 20mm AA gun as I have seen references to them in various books and in at least one KTB. They were kept inside the boat back then. Like any machine gun barrel they could be damaged by sustained full automatic fire resulting in extremely poor accuracy and most light machine guns have quick change barrels just for that reason. However, The more likely reason in this case is a barrel bursting. This did happen from time to time. They fired high explosive rounds which could malfunction on the one hand and any barrel obstruction including heavy rust or being full of water can cause barrel damage or even rupture. I have no experience with 37mm full auto weapons but I think it is safe to assume they had the same problem though I haven't (yet) seen a reference to one of them bursting that I can remember.
I have even seen a photo of one of the early 20mm U-boat AA guns and the 37mm gun mounted on the deck aft of the wintergarden on a Type IX with barrel plugs like the 88mm & 105mm deck guns had and firing any weapon with a plugged barrel by mistake would normally cause the barrel to burst. I haven't seen photos of barrel plugs in any of the full auto 37mm AA guns though.
At any rate carrying spare barrels for any machine gun when you can is a good idea since they are subject to damage and you generally can't repair a damaged barrel in the field other than by cutting off the bad part and that only works in some cases. They also carried some spares for other parts of these guns that were likely to fail or sustain damage.
Looking at the photo, the pipe is longer than necessary to house 20mm barrels and it is not convenient to the area where the 20mm guns are mounted as it is under the wintergarden. It does look like it’s about the right length to house a spare 37mm gun barrel though and one end of the pipe looks like it would be convenient to the 37mm gun. We know that getting the 20mm barrels up through the conning tower hatch isn’t a problem because that’s how they were normally stored but I am not sure how easy it would be to get the longer & heavier 37mm barrel from wherever it was stored inside the boat up through the conning tower and that would make it reasonable to add that pipe to hold them. Just a thought as I have no idea exactly how long or how heavy the 37mm barrel was or even if it could be changed in the field. Again I don’t claim to know what was actually kept in that pipe.
Regards,
Ken Dunn
First I have no idea what was inside the pipe. However spare barrels were always carried for the original 20mm AA gun as I have seen references to them in various books and in at least one KTB. They were kept inside the boat back then. Like any machine gun barrel they could be damaged by sustained full automatic fire resulting in extremely poor accuracy and most light machine guns have quick change barrels just for that reason. However, The more likely reason in this case is a barrel bursting. This did happen from time to time. They fired high explosive rounds which could malfunction on the one hand and any barrel obstruction including heavy rust or being full of water can cause barrel damage or even rupture. I have no experience with 37mm full auto weapons but I think it is safe to assume they had the same problem though I haven't (yet) seen a reference to one of them bursting that I can remember.
I have even seen a photo of one of the early 20mm U-boat AA guns and the 37mm gun mounted on the deck aft of the wintergarden on a Type IX with barrel plugs like the 88mm & 105mm deck guns had and firing any weapon with a plugged barrel by mistake would normally cause the barrel to burst. I haven't seen photos of barrel plugs in any of the full auto 37mm AA guns though.
At any rate carrying spare barrels for any machine gun when you can is a good idea since they are subject to damage and you generally can't repair a damaged barrel in the field other than by cutting off the bad part and that only works in some cases. They also carried some spares for other parts of these guns that were likely to fail or sustain damage.
Looking at the photo, the pipe is longer than necessary to house 20mm barrels and it is not convenient to the area where the 20mm guns are mounted as it is under the wintergarden. It does look like it’s about the right length to house a spare 37mm gun barrel though and one end of the pipe looks like it would be convenient to the 37mm gun. We know that getting the 20mm barrels up through the conning tower hatch isn’t a problem because that’s how they were normally stored but I am not sure how easy it would be to get the longer & heavier 37mm barrel from wherever it was stored inside the boat up through the conning tower and that would make it reasonable to add that pipe to hold them. Just a thought as I have no idea exactly how long or how heavy the 37mm barrel was or even if it could be changed in the field. Again I don’t claim to know what was actually kept in that pipe.
Regards,
Ken Dunn
