Hi Victor,

I hadn't given it much thought but like the battle flag, they could have been displayed while in port on special occasions but not while at sea.

I looked through a good many of my U-boat photos and one of the standard commissioning photos has the commander on the back of the winter garden saluting the flag being raised on the stern with the crew mustered on the stern in their dress uniforms and many, but not all, showed the bell at the back of the winter garden. I would have assumed that the bell would have always been displayed during commissioning but perhaps that was discontinued at some point.

I also found some photos of boats docked in port flying the battle flag but not displaying the bell. I think they routinely broke out the battle flag when returning to port but not the bell.

Being full of silt & sand is normal for a sunken U-boat. Also many of the connectors that connected things to the hull inside the boat have rusted through and things are hanging down to entangle or cut the diver or his equipment. Many things are not where you expect them to be and no telling what is buried in the silt, sharp edges and all. Moving around inside the boat stirs up the silt and the metal particles in the silt make it very difficult for a light to penetrate it. It is all very disorienting & that makes it an even more dangerous dive.

Getting trapped in there is a distinct possibility and that can drastically change the dive plan.

Plus you might be able to see with a light going in but when you turn around to try to find your way out you find you have stirred up the silt on the way in so much your light is useless.... Also without direct access to the surface it is not possible to make an emergency out-of-air ascent if you need to.

Special training, special equipment, lighted safety lines, rescue divers, spare air on the decompression line, perhaps bang sticks on the decompression line, and considerable planning (including a plan to get a bent diver to a recompression chamber) etc. are required. The list goes on and on.

When the navy does it they have a recompression chamber aboard the dive boat & the dive team uses surface supplied air whenever possible. They also pump out as much silt as possible before penetrating the boat.

Of course, all of this assumes that like U-1277, it is not a war grave.

Regards,

Ken Dunn