MG34 Bridge Mount

[SG]

Hi Dougie,

The possible solution came under my nose this morning, by chance, reading issue 19 of UBiF: U94!
Same handrail bilaterally and same lenght of the handrail (a), same Turm configuration and same MG 34 mount with the "cylindrical joint" (b) as the mystery boat. Am not saying that the boat is the same boat pictured in that closeup but yess, it's an early VIIC, as you correctly pointed out. Plus I learned that a handrail on the inner tower sides of a VIIc is not an odd find after all    .



https://u.cubeupload.com/SGm/U94.jpg

Cheers,

SG

[dougie47]

Hi SG,
Nice find. I can see the U 94 photo and handrail in UiF 19.

There is also a handrail a bit lower down on U 553 (which has the slat intake on the outside of the tower) on page 10 of UiF 17. U 553 did have the machine gun mounted in a different photo.
I think that U 94 didn't have the handrail originally and it was fitted at some point - perhaps 1942 or so. It could be other slat boats other than U 94 and U 553 had these handrails in 1942 but we don't see them in some photos because the photos were taken prior to the handrails being fitted.

Some other VIICs such as U 415 did have a handrail but this was about three-quarters of the way up the bulwark rather than near the top.
Cheers,
Dougie

[SG]

Super