Author Topic: Type V11 Deck Material  (Read 690 times)

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Offline Raymic1

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Type V11 Deck Material
« on: 12 May , 2018, 16:53 »
Hello All.
This could be a basic question for most of you but not being a U-boat expert I thought I would just double check my understanding.


It seems to me that the Wooden deck slat construction was only on the /41 version as per U995 and not on the Type V11C?
Or is this a post war addition on U995 being the Type V11C/41?


In some literature it does mention parts of the deck of the Type V11C having wooden construction but in photos it does look metal to me.
Were some parts metal and some wood?

If this was metal on the Type V11C, I'm assuming it was also painted a black color for camouflage purposes?

Would not this metal also have been very slippery in icy and wet conditions?


Any help please?


UPDATE: And on the Nautilus Website they state
 "The Type VIIC U-boat was built with a slotted wood deck"

Is this correct?
The Type VIIC had a Slotted wooden deck?
The Type VIIC/41 had a Slat wooden deck?

UPDATE
Just answered my own question.
Quote from Subcommittee forum.


"The decks of the Type VII were made from wood....except for the extreme fore/aft sections. In photos where you see the fore/aft deck painted a light grey....those are the metal deck sections.[/size]The decks of these boats were made by laying down planks and then adding in "spacers" between the planks. These spacers were rectangular in shape.....except that the short sides were concave. When inserted between two planks, this created that slotted deck look that is characteristic of the class.At some point mid- to late-war, they eliminated the spacers....but retained the planking. This simplified construction then created that late-war deck look.I have heard a number of ansers to the question of what wood was used for the deck. The most common answer that I hear is pine. This makes good sense as these boats were not built for long service lives. The wood decks that were freshly painted/treated had an almost black look to them. This color quickly faded to a dark-to-medium grey due to the effects of weather and saltwater. Boats that were out to sea on long missions often ended up with sections of the deck where the wood color would show through.If you have access to the book Vom Original Zum Model] by Fritz Kohl, there is an excellent photo of a boat under construction where the individual wood planking can be seen. I'd have to check, but I think this book also has a photo of a boat with extreme damage to the bow...and the wood deck (spacers, etc.) can be plainly seen"

Internet picture of U-35 after it crashed with the Graf Spee....lots of wood there.

thanks Mike
« Last Edit: 12 May , 2018, 23:41 by Raymic1 »

Offline dougie47

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Re: Type V11 Deck Material
« Reply #1 on: 13 May , 2018, 05:33 »
Hi there,

It has been assumed that all VIICs had the slotted deck (SD) and all VIIC/41s the planked deck (PD). This is not quite true. I think all the VIIC/41s did indeed have the planked deck. The early VIICs all had the slotted deck but there were plenty of VIICs launched in early 1943 with the planked deck. 

There is a table in the article "Late War Type VIIC & VIIC/41 Configurations" which tries to give more details. It can be downloaded from -

http://amp.rokket.biz/lib_uboats.shtml

If anything is still unclear after reading this article please let me know.

There was a metal section at the bow and another at the stern. They would get very slippery so they had small anti-slip bumps on the surface. Sailors didn't really need to walk near the bow and stern when at sea so there wasn't too much problem having metal at the bow/stern. The hatches in the main wooden deck area were either metal or wood. The metal ones tended to be smaller and also had the small anti-slip bumps on the surface.

The painting regulations called for the horizontal surfaces (which included the metal hatches and the bow/stern) to be black.

Any question just shout.

Cheers,

Dougie

Offline Raymic1

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Re: Type V11 Deck Material
« Reply #2 on: 13 May , 2018, 14:51 »
Thanks Dougie that's fantastic. Cheers

Offline NZSnowman

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Re: Type V11 Deck Material
« Reply #3 on: 13 May , 2018, 23:56 »
One of the big changes in the planked deck are the deck hatches during the war. Hatches become simpler in design, larger, metal was replaced with wood, a few new hatches were added for the Schnorchel, and a few hatches were remove i.e. deck torpedo container.

Offline Raymic1

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Re: Type V11 Deck Material
« Reply #4 on: 15 May , 2018, 20:11 »
Tks Snowman