Hi Urs,

I have seen photos of the IIWO directing fire from the bridge and some of him doing it from the deck. He would actually have gotten a better view of the target from the bridge. Perhaps it depended on the IIWO.

That said, I haven't seen many photos of the IIWO directing fire other than target practice and then he generally is on the deck but not always. Most photos I have seen when the gun was actually being used against the enemy only show the gun crew so you can't tell where the IIWO is but as I mentioned I have seen some of him directing fire at the enemy from the bridge.

Additionally I am unclear about who passes ammo from the bridge down the chute to the gun crew on the deck. I wouldn't think it would be one of the bridge watch. I have the same question about passing ammo from the bridge to the AA gun crew. Is there a designated "ammo passer" on the bridge for each gun?

What about boats with the extended winter garden. The second one is a long way from the bridge so perhaps that are two or more for that gun with one of them on the deck.

Lastly, I only recently came across a photo of two small lockers at the base of the conning tower with a caption saying that is where the optics for the deck gun were kept. I don't know if it existed on all boats though. It would make sense to have a locker there because climbing the ladder to the bridge with the optics in one hand wouldn't have been easy and passing them up would have slowed things down too. The optics were removable lest they be destroyed by depth charges even though I think they were pressure proof & could be left on in an emergency.

Then of course there is the ammo chute in the bridge for the deck gun. I have seen a lot of conning tower photos that don't appear to have that chute but perhaps it wasn't located in the same place on all boats.

As you can see I have a lot of questions about the operation of the guns and I certainly don't claim to be an expert. I pretty much have to go on the photos I have seen and the details are elusive.

There are exceptions to the rules too. For example, the IWO is normally the torpedo officer for all torpedoes fired while the boat is surfaced, but I know of at least one boat where every torpedo fired while the boat was surfaced for a whole patrol was fired by the IIWO. I have the torpedo reports and he is named as the torpedo officer there and he also signed them as the torpedo officer. The IWO for that patrol never fired a torpedo during that patrol but when the IIWO transferred off after that patrol, the same IWO became the torpedo officer for torpedoes fired while surfaced so it wasn't a matter of him not being trained. The commander just preferred to use the IIWO for that patrol & there is nothing in the KTB to explain why. Both of these men went on to command their own boats too.


Also, I have no idea what BÜ means.

Regards,

Ken Dunn