5 replies to this topic

[Ironoutlaw]

Hi guys!

 

I noticed in the FAI Rules 7.4.8, that Fixed Tubes can be reloaded in 2 Game Turns per Tube.  As Turns are 3 Minutes, this would suggest a Tube can be reloaded in 6 Minutes.  This is at odds with the correct time which was a good 30 Minutes to reload each Tube, and this was in WW II U-boats!  Source: "U-boats Under the Swastika," by Jak P Malmann Showell, Ian Allan, Shepperton 1998, page 90.

 

No doubt the WW I submarines would have taken at least as long.  So a Boat having fired her 4 Tubes would take around 2 Hours, in real time, to reload 4 Tubes.

 

A surface Ship with fixed Tubes, having much more space, would likely have had the equipment to do it in less time.  I would be interested in a source for that if anyone knows of one.

 

Cheers

 

Brad

[healey36]

Brad - Per Jak Showell's reference guide for the Kriegsmarine, a Type VII-C required twenty minutes minimum to reload a single tube, and this had to be done at reduced speed and submerged to a depth suffiicient to minimize wave-action. Thus a reload of the four bow tubes would require well over an hour (while the convoy was speeding away). First World War tech probably significantly more time-consuming.

 

It should be noted that reload-tech improved dramatically with later types. A Type XXI with its hydraulic-hoist gear could reportedly reload all six bow tubes in roughly the time required by a Type VII to reload one.

 

Healey

[Ironoutlaw]

Thanks Healey!  SH III also has the reload time at around 30 minutes!

 

Brad

[Cpt M]

_{Actually, the turn length is 6 minutes (not 3).  And the reload rate is based on a reading of wartime logs of operational boats which state a range of 10 to 20 minutes per tube while at battle stations (depending on training, crewing, etc).  So a reload rate of 12 minutes is not that farfetched.  And while the later reload gear used in WWII was somewhat more modern, it wasn't dramatically so.  And remember, a WWII G7a (the standard German torpedo for submarines) weighed just over 3300 lbs; its WWI counterpart weighed just over 1700 lbs; at nearly half the weight. (and somewhat easier to manhandle).}

[Ironoutlaw]

Thanks for that, some good points.  I don't use the 6 minute factor in the rules, running everything in 3 minute real time Turns so I guess a 5 Turn reload time would be fair.

[Ironoutlaw]

Just another thought about time.  Once a submarine has fired her torpedoes she must go deep and away from ships that might pick her up acoustically due to the noise generated by the reloading procedure.