U-Boats , Subs and Das Boot

coupla things bothering me while watching the damed Bosh being depth charged to within a litre of their lives...

1 - the engine looks like combustion so where does the exhausrt go...?

2 - the ventilator shafts ...how do they ventilate it...??

3 - how could anyone bear it ..???

[ethariel]

1- Subs use the Diesel engines to a) Run on the surface and b0 Charge batteries. Batteries are used when submerges (at least till they came up with the 'snorkel' which allows them to vent exhaust and take in clean air around 1944 iirc).
2- Same as an office or ship really, just allows fresh air to enter an area/compartment and allows extract of 'stale' air when surfaced.
3- That i dunno, i had the dubious honour of a 12 hour trip out in a diesel engined Uk sub when i was about 14, the creaks and groans you hear from just normal running put the fear of hell into me, let along be entombed in a steel coffin whilst under attack!

nice one etherial, just think it would be a diabolical way to spend your war / or any of your time for that matter. ...

re the vents, how do you ventilate the place while under water is the question....they have a fire in the place must have been filled with noxious smoke you cant do anything about....

[TEC]

Originally Posted by pete m

re the vents, how do you ventilate the place while under water is the question....they have a fire in the place must have been filled with noxious smoke you cant do anything about....

They didn't, had to put up with the noxious smoke till they could surface crazy people submariners, they swim with

Originally Posted by pete m

just think it would be a diabolical way to spend your war / or any of your time for that matter. ...

Oh I dunno. There's a scene in the Mel Gibson movie about Vietnam, We Were Soldiers, where they're getting hammered - bullets flying, shells exploding, people getting killed left and right - and one says to another "kinda makes you wish you'd joined the submarine service, don't it?"

Still, damned un English all the same.

Originally Posted by ethariel

3- That i dunno, i had the dubious honour of a 12 hour trip out in a diesel engined Uk sub when i was about 14, the creaks and groans you hear from just normal running put the fear of hell into me, let along be entombed in a steel coffin whilst under attack!

The thrill of hanging out with other big German men in leather shorts?

Originally Posted by pete m

3 - how could anyone bear it ..???

During the "Happy Time" when they could hunt in the mid=atlantic with impunity, it was a sought-after posting with a good chance of medals and yor pic in the paper. Got bit nasty once their was air cover across the whole atlantic, better Enigma intercepts, etc...

[fizzwheel]

Read the book the TV series is based on it explais some of the techy stuff in more detail. Its a cracking read, the TV series / film is bl**dy well done though.

1- Subs use the Diesel engines to a) Run on the surface and b0 Charge batteries. Batteries are used when submerges (at least till they came up with the 'snorkel' which allows them to vent exhaust and take in clean air around 1944 iirc). Still do have diesel in most boats.
2- Same as an office or ship really, just allows fresh air to enter an area/compartment and allows extract of 'stale' air when surfaced. not any more thank to science.

3- That i dunno, i had the dubious honour of a 12 hour trip out in a diesel engined Uk sub when i was about 14, the creaks and groans you hear from just normal running put the fear of hell into me, let along be entombed in a steel coffin whilst under attack!Thats very luck

[Stingo]

we are able to produce our own oxygen using an electrolyser. This oxygen is fed back into the ventilation system. Noxious gasses such as co and co2, aliphatics and aromatics, can be cleansed or removed from the atmosphere by chemical methods. Freon is too complex a substance to dispose of chemically so we are always ln our guard with that one. The atmosphere is monitored 24/7 gor quality and must meet particular criteria. The old diesel submarines didn't have any of this technology and so relied on periodical running of thr diesel engines to drae in fresh air through either the snort madt or open hatches. Thr exhaust gumed eere expelled through an exhaust system.
With regard to firegighting in submarines, the ventilation can be lined up to assist with smoke clearance from required sreas..there eill then be a requirement to ventilate the boat...once the atmosphere is back in soec breathing apparatus can be removed.
We do it because we are slightly bonkers. Wibble.