Tores mailbox VIIC and VIIC/41 operation and technical details

[Katuna]

Wow Don, what a fantastic book. I wish it were financially viable to put it into print. At $700 a pop, it's just a bit out of my price range (at least if I still want to sleep inside my house!) but a soft back coffee table version would be wonderful. Too bad it's such a limited market. If you could get a version down to $100 I bet you could sell a few at Laboe.


Congratulations on such a beautiful end to a long project.

[Don Prince]

Hello Mr. Tore and All,


Thank you all for your approval of my printed Skizzenbuch. However, I just added one page to the front of the book just after the paisley cover page. It is an autographed photo of Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Georg Hess who was the last German Commander of U-995 during WWII.


Regards,
Don_

[SG]

Congratulation Don! It 's been a titanic effort but what a reward! Thank you for that. i hope to be able to buy a copy someday. Enjoy the taste of victory now   

[Don Prince]

Hello Mr. Tore and All,


I provided the www.Wehrmacht-Awards.com/Kreigsmarine War and Qualification Badges/  website with a download of Skizzenbuch and it looks like there will be more than 240 downloads within a week and their members are worldwide... I have been a member for several years and there experts helped me to determine if some of my badges and Iron Crosses were original or reproductions...


Regards,
Don_

[Raymic1]

Congratulations Don.
Fyi.
I also promoted the download on multiple Facebook U-boat sites.
From the comments a lot of members downloaded and enjoyed it. Thanks

[NZSnowman]

Hello Mr. Tore and All,

Here are the attached photos of the only known printed version of Skizzenbuch. The metal covered leather post binder and the 11 x 17 inch 80 pound card stock paper and the printing cost came to about $690.00. This was my Christmas present to me!

Regards,
Don_

Hi Don, The metal covered leather post binder look beautiful! Would be keen to do something like that for my book, where did you get it done?

[NZSnowman]

Hello Mr. Tore,

The photo of the modernized Kya reveals a clear wind screen at the front of the bridge/tower sail. Was it a fold down type or permanently in place. There also looks to be an extension tube to the aerial periscope. Did they switch from using the attack periscope while schnorchelling to the aerial periscope because of the larger head optics?

This would mean that they extender the length of the aerial periscope to place it near the schnorchel head... That would eliminate the issue with the exhaust gases in front of the attach periscope causing vision problems.

<See attached drawing>

Regards,
Don_

Not sure if this is helpful but the aerial periscope on U-995 is not for a Type VIIC its from a Type XXIII.

[Don Prince]

Hi Simon,

The post binder came from:

http://www.spectra-associates.com/postbinders/postbinders.html

They will do embossed printing on the binder as well... The binder has a small hole in the binding end where you insert a key. You turn the key several turns which moves a locking slide to open the binder. They have end covers to match the binder and the post comes at a standard length and you add extensions to increase the binder width. Also, I believe the posts come in 2 diameters 5/16 and 3/8 of an inch. Here is my order# 34154-F to see my complete order...

I thought the aerial periscope top half was just another Type VII C attack periscope?

<see attached photos>

Do you have additional info?

Regards,
Don_

[tore]

Don and Simon. It seems to me that they have removed the aerial or navigation periscope on the museum U-995 and possibly substituted with an attack periscope for some reason. Below are a few images showing the original aerial, navigation periscope from my time onboard. The other image shows the last German CO Hess during a visit end 1990 looking into the aerial , navigation periscope, currently installed and clearly a different type. The last image shows U-995 returning from her last patrol in the Barentz sea march 1945 to Trondheim to have her Schnorchel installed.
Tore

[NZSnowman]

Don and Simon. It seems to me that they have removed the aerial or navigation periscope on the museum U-995 and possibly substituted with an attack periscope for some reason. Below are a few images showing the original aerial, navigation periscope from my time onboard. The other image shows the last German CO Hess during a visit end 1990 looking into the aerial , navigation periscope, currently installed and clearly a different type. The last image shows U-995 returning from her last patrol in the Barentz sea march 1945 to Trondheim to have her Schnorchel installed.
Tore

Yes, in the first photo you can cleanly see the Type VII navigation periscope and they changed it to a Type XXIII attach periscope. Maybe the old periscope was damage

[Don Prince]

Hi Simon,


Do you have any documentation or photos that will verify it is a Type XXIII periscope? It looks like the forward periscope optical tube has a much smaller diameter than the original Type VII C Aerial Periscope optical tube...


Regards,
Don_

[Don Prince]

Hello Mr. Tore and Simon,

It looks like Simon is correct about U-995 aerial periscope being replaced with a Type XXIII attack periscope...

1st image from <U-995>

2nd and 3rd image - U-2367 (S171 U-Hecht) Captain-Lieutenant Bringevat stands at the periscope on the submarine Hecht. On the submarines of the XXIII series a periscope of 7.5 m in length was installed, its stroke was 4.16 m. It could be used for day and night attacks. Small changes in depth made the commander often change his posture (to engage in "periscope squatting").

Regards,
Don_

[tore]

Don and Simon.
Below an image showing the difficult position of an aerial/navigation periscope squatting, the other showing the comfortable sitting and turning the attack periscope by footpedals.
I am not sure, but we had one type XXIII submarine in our fleet KNM Knerten, ex U-4706 having an unfortunate career of battery explosion and was never commissioned. It could be the periscope was donated to the germans at the time of handing over the U 995.
Tore

[NZSnowman]

Hi Simon,


Do you have any documentation or photos that will verify it is a Type XXIII periscope? It looks like the forward periscope optical tube has a much smaller diameter than the original Type VII C Aerial Periscope optical tube...


Regards,
Don_

When Maciek and I were working on the periscope project we realise it was the wrong periscope. 

[Don Prince]

Hello Mr. Tore and Simon,

Do we have any idea as to what happened to the original U-995 aerial periscope?

Regards,
Don_