U-804

[Islandern]

Good day,


I am researching for a future project on the U-804.
It seems that she was built together with U-801-806 in Bremerhaven.


As far as I have understood she was of type IXC/40.


In November 1944 she was in Kiel for modifications to type A. What is the difference of A and B? Is this about the "quick-diving-hull"? What was type A and B?


So far I have not found one picture of her for a pity. Can I use her sister, the captured U-805 as reference for details?


Is there someone out there having pictures of the actual U-804 so please write a line.


What do you think about conning tower marking? I have not found any insignia yet. She was a part of the 33rd Uboat flotilla in the end, that is what I know.


Many questions but if you have any good information, please let me know. I would very much appreciate it.


Regards,


Anders

[dougie47]

Hello Anders,

I am not sure what the difference between A and B is, though it is certainly to do with the quick diving hull (also known as the cut out foredeck). Only U 539 is known to have B. There is only one image of U 539 I have seen and that only shows a little part of the cut out foredeck.

U 804 was fitted with A between October 1944 and sometime in 1945.

The photo below is thought to be U 804. The yellow training band on the tower means it was taken during the training period in early 1944. The rust streaks means it must be at least a month or two after the commissioning ceremony (04/12/43) because boats were all freshly painted for commissioning. Note that the cut out foredeck has not yet been fitted. Here is the photo -



There is another image which is thought to be of U 804 (though I would not like to say for 100% that is is U 804) -



I don't know the source of the images or where the originals may be found unfortunately.

Note the problems with paint adhesion on the dark grey paint of the tower. This was a common problem with late war IXs seen on many other boats such as U 505, U 805 etc.

If you do not find any more photos, then you could look to U 805 as a reference for the details. Just because they were sister boats does not mean the modifications they received would be the same. But without photos to go for, then you could look to U 805.

Cheers,

Dougie

[Islandern]

Thank you Dougie for your reply,


That means you could go with a standard Revell IXC/40 (U190) kit and continue from there? I am mainly thinking of the quick diving hull.


I've understood that the U805 was most likely painted with Dunkelgrau 51 at its upper hull and maybe Blauschwartz 58/2 at its tower. (I realize now that I just reffered to your own work "Kriegsmarine U-boat colours and markings".)


Both boats U804 and U805 belonged to 33rd Uboat flotilla in the end of the war. The U805 don't have any insignia on the tower as far as I've seen. Was it possible that U804 had an insignia painted on the tower or went with Blauschwartz 58/2 only?


Have a good day, Anders.

[dougie47]

Hi Anders,

Yes, the U 190 Revcell kit is the one to use.

My colours article was written quite a long time ago now. Since then I have revised opinion on the colours scheme that was often used on late war IXs. I'm thinking that Blaugrau 58/1 would be more likely that Dunkelgrau 51 on the upper hull (but still think that Blauschwarz 58/2 was on the tower). I have written more about this on pages 43, 44 and 45 of the article "U 505 Modifications, Colour & Insignia" which is available on the AMP books page. On page 44 there is a photo of U 858 which should prove useful to you.

U 805 did not have any insigina when on patrol. It did have the UAK markings during training (black club symbol above a black horizontal line) which was added near the top of the radar box on the port side.

In regard to U 804, this boat had a slightly different UAK training symbol (black diamond above black horizontal line) which was presumably added in the same location as U 805's symbols. These would have been removed when it went to an operational flotilla. U 804 is not known to have any insignia. It could very well be the case that there was no emblem at all as plenty of late war boats had no emblem at all. If we had many photos of the tower of U 804 then we could prove definitively that there was no emblem.

The one thing I was mention is that U 804 probably had the Askania fairing at the foot of the front of the tower rather than the old magnetic compass fairing. For some reason Revell chose to add  the old magnetic compass fairing to their U 190 kit rather than the more usual Askania used on most boats at the end of the war.

Cheers,

Dougie

[GlennCauley]

Was the lower hull still painted in Schiffsbodenfarbe Grau ?

[dougie47]

Hi Glenn,

Yes, I would be.

Cheers,

Dougie