The secrets of Nazi U-Boats
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Title (Dublin Core)
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The secrets of Nazi U-Boats
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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The secrets of Nazi U-boats. These undersea wolves, built as deadly prowlers, sacrifice their crews' comfort for speed and punch
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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CAPTURED intact by the British, a Ger-
man U-boat now reveals the secrets
of the coastal type that Hitler has been
building in large numbers to prey upon
ships approaching England.
Moderate in size, for speedy cour _ruction,
the 221-foot-long submarine carries a crew
of about 45 officers and men. On the surface,
it displaces 773 tons and travels at about
171; knots, enough to overtake all but the
fastest cargo vessels, under the power of
twin Diesels. Submerged, with its displace-
ment increased to 882 tons, it makes about
eight knots, driven by electric motors.
Armament consists of four bow torpedo
tubes and a single torpedo tube astern.
These all are loaded at the start of a voyage,
and seven additional torpedoes are carried,
making a total of 12. To conserve these
valuable missiles, a 41-inch deck gun dis-
poses of helpless, unarmed vessels. An anti-
aircraft gun of smaller caliber, just aft of
the bridge, combats the serious danger of
attack by planes. The pressure hull is made
circular to give the vessel strength against
depth charges, and two “bulges” high on
port and starboard give further protection.
For hunting its victims, the sub is pro-
vided with a hand-operated cruismng peri-
scope with interchangeable lenses. A wide-
angle eyepiece gives a broad view of the
horizon to detect telltale smoke trails.
Switching to a telescopic eyepiece then per-
mits identification of a particular vessel.
As the U-boat closes in on the ship, the
commander takes his place at a massive,
electrically driven “attack periscope,” which
he trains by foot controls. Without moving
from his seat, he can ride it in a full circle,
Through voice tubes, he issues steering and
firing orders to the men below.
An additional aid to the underwater raid-
er, a multi-unit hydrophone detects the beat
of a distant ship's propellers. Red and green
lights, appearing on a graduated dial of
this sensitive instrument, betray the position
of the surface ship. This permits the peri-
scopes to be retracted, in clear weather
when their wake would be visible, and en-
ables the submersible to make its attack
while completely under the surface.
By special permission of the Admiralty,
G. H. Davis, well-known British artist, was
allowed to go aboard the captured U-boat
and make a remarkable series of drawings,
which are reproduced here through the
courtesy of The Illustrated London News.
They give a revealing picture of the craft
that menace the Atlantic seaways.
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1943-06
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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57-60
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Matteo Ridolfi
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 142, n. 6, 1943
