Very wise words. When we try to figure out why a VIIC was equipped like this or that, we often forget the situation in Germany the last years of WW2. The VIIC technology is pretty much from the 1920 and 1930 years. In contradiction to f.i. the RN which in the 30 ties had their subs equipped with telemotor operated vents and hydroplanes, the germans still used mechanical transmission, rods and links.The VIIC was the workhorse based on wellproven prewar technology. I remember in 1943-1944 as a boy in an occupied country, the germans where desperate in getting rawmaterial, they confiscated all our copper- and nickelcoins, all the brass items on subwaycars,trams and railwaycars like handles, supportrods, ashtrays etc. The brass and nickel items were remelted as a substitute we got steel and zinc coins, wooden supportrods etc. After Stalingrad, end 42 beginning 43, the families had to supply the German military with their private rubberboots, blankets and rucksacs. In the years of the schnorchel installation, the shipyards and factories were heavily bombed and destroyed, making it pretty difficult to get the proper parts and material for the conversion. It is easy to forget the prevailing circumstances when you wonder why the German did it the way they did and why they did not use copper, bronze and brass in the piping.
Tore
