As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
One of the best recordings of a German U Boat attack is provided by Commander Heinz Schaeffer, before he took command of a boat. There is though in this the most detailed of explanations of a secret German device which to this day there does not seem to be a description or any photos of the ATTACK TABLE.
I honestly did attempt to track this down with the current German Navy at Kiel and their submarine builders, but nothing came of it, and when I did attempt to gain some information from Sharkhunters, I was informed that the person knew Schaeffer, but the person I would have to speak with was a member, and it cost 50 dollars a year to be a member of that group. As I am homeless 50 bucks is a bit much, so the best you will get in your rich people deadbeat donations is the Schaeffer report which is most interesting as literally the Germans were in the space age and Americans were still in the stone age of submarine warfare.
What opens in this sequence is the U Boat has been chasing a very fast British tanker for almost 24 hours. They have reached a point in this chase in almost blowing up their ship in trying to keep her raised higher to run quicker and in running the diesels wide open, that the entire crew is wore out. They have a 15 minute window remaining or they will lose their attack window of light.
The Commander is on the tower. The submersible is running above. Schaeffer takes great care to explain that the Germans never had submarines, but ships that were submersibles. The Germans attacked most effectively above water.
The Commander has ordered the long process of the torpedo tubes ready. The Engineer has a most trying job as keeping a U Boat trim or even, so that it will handle correctly to make an attack and keep them alive, is something he has to reckon by judging the correct amount of water to let into the water tanks after the attack.
"Tubes one to five ready." The torpedo officer is shouting. The tubes are wet and the outer doors are open. Meanwhile the engineer is reckoning the quantity of water we'll need to have in our tanks to correct the boat's trim after the torpedoes have been discharged. All five are ready in case we need them.
This is the sequence which is the top secret part and as Schaeffer stated, after the war, the Americans were stunned by the German ability to automatically target ships. Nothing like this existed in the American arsenal, including self guiding torpedoes, including the latter German invention of acoustic torpedoes which homed in on a ship's screw or propellers.
It is important to note that the German torpedoes were fast and designed to automatically run to around 25 feet, in blowing up just under a ship. American torpedoes would miss shallow hull targets as they were not that advanced.
A German torpedo never was designed to detonate on contact. They were proximity detonations which used water pressure to blow ships apart and did so most effectively.
We are still moving parallel with the enemy and slightly before his beam. The attack sight is "on" with the target in the center of the crosswires.
"Target Red 90. Speed 16 1/2 knots. Range 7000 meters. Torpedo speed 30 knots, running depth 7 meters.
Our torpedoes are set to run at at depth of 7 meters below the surface to pass about 2 meters below the target. A magnetic pistol fires the charge, which blows in the keel plates which causes the ship to break up.
What was one of the major advancements of the German design is that the torpedoes could be fired at 90 degree angles. That is why a German U Boat always paced their target and slightly ahead. This was attack formation, not to point at a ship, but to run with the ship which was so far advanced as there was never any need for lead in a straight on firing.
The later torpedoes actually would fire at 180 degrees if necessary. A German U Boat could fire simultaneous tubes at the same target or other targets and be at any attack angle and be successful.
The attack table though is incredible for the genius of Germans. It literally was a mechanical computer, a fire control mechanism which linked the inner calculator of the attack table, to the periscope sight which was tracking the target, and when an attack was initiated, the attack table and sighting glass, transmitted to the torpedo all the settings it would require to locate and strike the target.
This was 1940 AD in the year of our Lord and the Germans had a machine which literally could have fired a moon shot out of orbit. This is an incredible advancement and probably why there are not any photos of this device.
The torpedo officer at the attack table reports "lined up" with the switch is made in which the attack table is connected with the gyro compass and the attack sight.
The mechanism churns around and two red lamps that the process of calculating the information which has been fed into it is not yet completed. The lights go out after a few moments and the petty officer reports the resulting settings to the torpedo officer.
From this point onwards our own alternations of course are of little importance, being allowed for automatically.
The target must simply be held in the crosswires of the attack sight in order for the apparatus to do it's job. The torpedo officer gives the order "Follow" to the attack table. A lamp glows and that attack table is now controlling the binoculars on the bridge.
Meanwhile the constantly changing attack settings are automatically being transmitted to the torpedoes and set on their angling mechanism. With this system we can fire at any moment and on any course, providing that the 90 degree limiting angle is not exceeded.
The torpedoes will run to a pattern that spread roughly over a ship's length.by the time they reach the range of the target.
We turn to our attacking course.
Once the fish or torpedoes were away, the U Boat would already be moving away for safety sake of the crew to attempt to save themselves from destroyers hunting them with depth charges for hours, which was always the case.
In this, the U Boat would already by the Commander, be tracking to a course to begin another attack run on a convoy.
In one instance, the Commander of Schaeffers boat literally had run inside of a convoy to make an attack at night, as the Commander deduced that inside the convoy spread was the safest place to be as the British would not be looking for them there.
Things did change with later radar, but it was incredible in the ability of these Commanders. In some instances their prowess is what did get them killed as they would get in too close and the concussion from the detonations would wreck their boat too.
I place this here as an historical fact of German genius. They had literally by mechanical mechanisms solved the problem of what a computer would be used for generations later.
To put this in literal terms, the British and French conspiracy against Lutheran Germany, in using American resources bribed to genocide the German Race in two world wars, set back humanity 1000 years. Yes Americans had innovation in electronics, but imagine a world where Germany left untouched in her naturally rectified National Socialism as Charles Lindbergh deduced would take place, would have advanced the world.
It is a given that if left to her own measures, Germany would have by the 21st century created Star Trek type travel with all the advancements accompanied with it. Instead humanity was regressed to the American 101010110 computer codes and an addiction to smart phones more intelligent than the asstards who are nursing on them like nipples.
With that, Nuff Said
agtG
