Happy New Year Tore,
I know you said last time I had a question that you had more experience of type VIIs than IXs, but I thought I'd try here with this question if that's ok as i'm not having much success finding out about these anywhere else yet.
Here's a sketch of two things that I can see on type IXC/40 U-889 in period photos.
The top 'thing' is something I see on type IXs quite a bit in photos. They are usually found over the deck 'flap-type' hatches sometimes immediately forward of the magnetic compass housing
or sometimes on the hatches midway betweeen the tower and bow on the foredeck. There's often a longer version of these over the hatches at the stern end of the boat too.
All I can make out in photos are the sketchy sort of details that I've drawn above and that might be enough for 72nd scale, but I did wonder if you might have ever come across these or something like them and knew what they are or how they work/attach?
The bottom 'thing' is something that I've seen in photos on some Type IXs (including the U-889) which looks to me like a sort of bar/rod that 'locks' over part of this type of hatch.
I've seen this type of hatch on some type VIIs as well, so wondered if you might have come across anything like this and knew again what it is and how it works? Not all hatches of this type seem to have this 'bar' across them so I wondered if it might be a modification/later introduction or something?
Thanks very much for any help.
Bob.