Hi Kristoff, There was an air filtration system but they lived with all kinds of contaminants in their air & all sorts of smells as there were no shower facilities and most of the crew hot bunked. Not to mention the (sometimes spilled) buckets that had to be used when the boat was submerged & the heads couldn't be used. There was no storage tank for the contents of the heads &am
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Kristoff, Living conditions on a U-boat really, really sucked. The secret to tranquility on a U-boat was getting used to the fact that there was no getting used to it. Smoking If you were a smoker a U-boat was no place for you. Smoking wasn’t ever allowed in the boat. Occasionally, a few men at a time might be allowed to go up into the conning tower & smoke but the conning to
Forum: General Discussions

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
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Picklepatch, A normal bridge watch consisted of one watch officer (IWO, IIWO, or the IIIWO – usually the navigator, not actually an officer) and 4 lookouts. Later in the war sometimes a 5th lookout was added as an additional pair of eyes to watch the sky. The AA gun crew may or may not be present on the wintergarden. Sometimes a shot or shots (from the AA guns or the deck gun) was fire
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Thorsten, Thanks for the update. I haven't been in contact with Thomas since he retired from the archive in Stuttgart a year or two ago. That was the only email address I had for him.
Forum: General Discussions

Your post interested me and I happened to have both books so I looked into it to satisfy my own curiosity. I grew up on Galveston Island in the Gulf of Mexico and Wiggins lived there too though I didn’t know her. Also note that per Rainer, uboat.net’s original “Ships Attacked” section was based on Rohwer’s book and they subsequently coordinated any changes with him through Thomas Weis (now re
Forum: General Discussions

Which map at uboat.net are you looking at that shows the ships sunk in the Gulf of Mexico?
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Sergio, If you are looking for a wreck somewhere other that in the middle of the ocean, make friends with a fishing boat operator. They know where all the wrecks are in the area they fish. If they use nets the nets snag on the wrecks so they avoid getting too close to them but otherwise the wrecks attract fish & they go there to catch them. Also a local dive shop will also know whe
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Urs, Thanks much for the information on the bubble sextant. I have never used a sextant myself & knew there was more to it but not the details. A friend had sent me some information on the Gyro sextant that used a different technique to come up with an artificial horizon. Here is some of the text that went with it: "To use the gyro sextant a supply of compressed air is requ
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Sergio, What follows here is relative to WWII. I know nothing about WWI, though the merchant ship’s procedures must have been quite similar to those of WWII, assuming the merchant ships had radios. The short answer is that the locations that went into the records were as accurate as the technology of the day and the fog of war permitted. As Michael points out, the locations shown o
Forum: General Discussions

Hi COYS1882, Try watching the movie Das Boot for a start. That should generate some specific questions. It is just a movie but it is the most accurate movie about life on a U-boat you are likely to encounter. It can't convey the smells (which the crew got somewhat used to) or the temperature in the boat under different conditions or what the food tasted like once it absorbed the dies
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Michael, Good points, thanks much.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Michael, Thanks for the info. Johannes Graf von Ballestrem came aboard U-126 as a Leutnant zur See d. R. but was promoted to Oberleutnant zur See before the next patrol & I wasn't sure if the d. R. still applied now that he was on active duty. After his promotion, Bauer didn't reference his as d. R. anymore. I really have no idea how the Kriegsmarine dealt with reserve of
Forum: General Discussions

Hi All, I need photos (scans or cellphone camera copies are fine or even the name of a book or website that has a photo of any of them) of the following men that served on U-126 (the officer's crew affiliations would be of help too - for example Ruland was Crew 35): Aboard U-126 when she was sunk with all hands: Oberleutnant zur See Johannes Graf von Ballestrem Leutnant zur See
Forum: General Discussions

Hi AlexRyassky, Great idea. Go ahead & do it. just remember it needs to be in English and be about the U-boat War as that is what this forum is all about. I think there are few books about the soviet contribution to the U-boat War in English. There are plenty about the Soviet contribution to the war on land & some good movies too though. There are some good books about the Allies
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Rohan, Try Just enter his last name.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi All, From: USNI News Daily Update for 03/02/2020
Forum: General Discussions

Hi windchargermike, This is every bit as accurate as some of the other U-boat information on wikipedia. In other words it is complete BS. Either put there by a moron, someone with an agenda, or a 10 year old kid like some of the the rest of their U-boat information. Nobody that knows the subject matter really monitors wikipedia and the kids that review it generally know nothing about the
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi Jliller, See: . Scroll down.
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi Robert, Hague has her in Lake Charles, Dec 12, 1945 so she wasn’t sunk in 1942. According to Captain Author R. Moore’s “A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking” : SS EASTERN SUN (9,100 GRT) Sun Oil Company. She was attacked by a sub three times on May 14, 1942. Missed by three torpedoes, 1st at 02:15 CWT position 28-40 North/91-21 West, second torpedo at 02:35, and third at 04:38. En ro
Forum: General Discussions

Hi All, Werner Hirschmann passed away Nov.7th at age 96 in Canada. . He was a good guy and will be missed. Werner was the LI on U-190 when the war ended and the author of “Another Place, Another Time – A U-boat Officer’s Wartime Album”. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2004. ISBN: 1-59114-013-7. Copyright: Werner Hirschmann and Donald E. Graves, 2004. He was one of the few U-
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Neal, Edition 10 of U-boot im Focus page 28 contains 2 photos of a woman and 2 crewmen on a U-boat underway. She is one of 4 women escaping from Danzig on U-778 January 30, 1945. There were also 2 children, an administrative officer & about 40 radio operators aboard. Perhaps these are the photo you are looking for.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi klosterreich, The mercury was stored in the keel for transport to Japan. The equivalent weight in ballast was removed from the keel to make room for it and to keep the boat properly weighted. A question I have been interested in for several years is what was Japan going to do with the mercury? They ordered far too much of it just for primers. It must have been vital to its war effort
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Urs, Thanks for the info.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Urs, Didn’t know Lott Was there. He & Franz were both Crew 26 and both made Kapitänleutnant 1 April, 1936. However Lott made Korvettenkapitän 1 November, 1940 & Franz didn’t make it until 1 April, 1941, so though they were both Kapitänleutnant in 1939, Lott might have been senior to Franz in some way, perhaps higher in the Rangliste which I don’t have.
Forum: General Discussions

Franz was Crew 26 & was promoted to Kapitänleutnant 1 April, 1936. He was promoted to Korvettenkapitän 1 April, 1941. Glattes was Crew 27 & was promoted to Kapitänleutnant 1 October, 1936. He was promoted to Korvettenkapitän 1 September, 1941. In 1939 they were both Kapitänleutnant and there is no rank between Kapitänleutnant & Korvettenkapitän so Franz would have been the sen
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Scott, Yes. They also used it for their batteries.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi undercurrents, U-boats also had a still aboard capable of making 65 gallons of fresh water a day.
Forum: General Discussions

Hi Maurice, Spare barrels for the 37mm AA guns.
Forum: Technology and Operations

Hi A.G. Brunson, See: There was one with that last name that became a POW in 1944.
Forum: General Discussions