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 07, 2011 07:15PM
Hi Jcrt,
One of the problems determining what that pipe is for is that the photos we have been working with only show one end of the pipe/container. The other end is in the shadows. Well it finally occurred to me (a senior moment I guess) to go back & look at the photos I took of the U-505 the last time I was there and I did have a photo that shows both ends of the pipe (see below). It is not connected to anything on either end. It is simply a pressure tight container with a lid or cap on the wintergarden end and is closed on the conning tower end. The end closest to the conning tower appears to be permanently sealed and it doesn’t connect into the conning tower at all. It is definitely just a container, not any part of the ventilation system.
You can also compare the length of the barrels of the 20mm guns and the length of the container in the photos. Looks like it could hold either 20mm barrels or the longer 37mm barrels or a mix of both. Every photo showing the container so far shows boats that have both 20mm and 37mm guns.
Of course we still don’t know for sure what was carried in the container but at least we have eliminated the ventilation system. We can also see that it is a container and not just a pipe.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Ken Dunn
One of the problems determining what that pipe is for is that the photos we have been working with only show one end of the pipe/container. The other end is in the shadows. Well it finally occurred to me (a senior moment I guess) to go back & look at the photos I took of the U-505 the last time I was there and I did have a photo that shows both ends of the pipe (see below). It is not connected to anything on either end. It is simply a pressure tight container with a lid or cap on the wintergarden end and is closed on the conning tower end. The end closest to the conning tower appears to be permanently sealed and it doesn’t connect into the conning tower at all. It is definitely just a container, not any part of the ventilation system.
You can also compare the length of the barrels of the 20mm guns and the length of the container in the photos. Looks like it could hold either 20mm barrels or the longer 37mm barrels or a mix of both. Every photo showing the container so far shows boats that have both 20mm and 37mm guns.
Of course we still don’t know for sure what was carried in the container but at least we have eliminated the ventilation system. We can also see that it is a container and not just a pipe.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Ken Dunn
