U-35 of WWI

[Pat]

Does anybody have any pictures and data on WWI U-boats, in particular U-35?

U-35 was the most successful U-boat of all time, sinking 224 ships in 17 patrols, 54 ships on one patrol alone.  A record that is likely never to be surpassed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterseeboot_35_(1914)

I have three drawings of U-35 in a Time-Life hardcover book, the U-boat volume of their 'Seafarer' series, and it looks like it would make a good subject for a scratch build.  There's many similarities to WWII U-boats, but also enough differences to make it bery interesting.

For instance, in front of the conning tower windscreen, there's actually another open deck with a ship's wheel and a speaking tube, so that the boat can be steered from up top.  It would be an awful, unprotected place in a heavy sea, but perhaps it was only used in port for docking?

There are two masts, one on either side of the CT, for the jumpwire attachements for wireless, with two wires forward as well as aft.  And the antennas on the jumpwires at the stern seem to be a long sort of cage, with round insulator-spacers to keep the wires separated.

The saddle tanks seem to be flat on top, and decked so that they can be used for walking.  The deck itself is narrower than in WWII, so that the deck gun has to have an platform sticking out for the crew to work the gun suspended out over top of the saddle tanks.

There are guard wires and struts out over top of the dive planes, and a sort of cage protecting the anchor.  The dive planes themselves are much longer and square shaped.

And the bow stem is vertical, not slanted backwards as in WWII subs of all nations.  The torpedo tubes form blisters on either side of the bow, and have no shutters, just the out hatches.  Unlike WWII, the rivets are more prominent everywhere.

Also of interest would be the WWI Kaiser flag which is white, with an Iron Cross in the canton on top of a black/white/red square and a black cross on the fly just like the WWII flag.  Except where the swastika is in WWII, instead it has the Imperial Eagle.

I think a very interesting topic.  Enough like a WWII U-boat that you can see the progression but enough different to be very interesting in it's own right.  It might be possible to convert a type VII model to this one with a liberal use of putty and styrene sheet.  The 105mm deck gun looks little different from WWII except without the safety handles for the crew ont he sides.

[Pat]

Here's a model of U-35 in 1/350, much too small for my tastes, but it helps illustrate some of what I was talking about.

http://www.modelingmadness.com/reviews/misc/ships/ger/bodilyu35.htm

In this model, the boat appears to have two deck guns, which was common during WWI, but the deck is too narrow to work on them, it doesn't have the extensions on either side like the pictures I have.  It's possible one deck was removed later on to compensate for the slower speed of the deck extensions?

Note also that there are two masts, one on the stbd side forward and one aft.  I think these masts were only raised if the boat was going to be on the surface for a long time and needed to send a message, since they stick up higher than the periscopes and would cause a lot of drag when submerged.  However, the masts are common with WWI subs of all navies.  When submerging, the masts were folded down on top of the saddle tanks.

You can see the odd frame for the wireless antenna between the two masts.  Sometimes it was flat, as in this model, and sometimes there were about 6-8 wires stretched between the masts, making it sort of a tube.

Note also at the stern what looks like it might be an exterior muffler for the diesel engines.

The steering wheel is hard to see in these pix, but it's right at the front of the railing at the forward edge of the conning tower, with the speaking tube extending up the port side beside it.

[Pepper-mint]

Hi Pat,

Interesting project... WW1 is a bit forgotten.

It's in French, i can help if you need a translator :
http://www.histomar.net/arnauld/htm/14-18.htm
http://fr.academic.ru/dic.nsf/frwiki/1672311

and :
http://www.cityofart.net/bship/u_boat_gallery.html
http://keadive.gr/submarine-u-73/

Quick search, i hope it will help ; enjoy 

Cheers,
Pepper

[Pepper-mint]

And a plan :
http://img35.imageshack.us/i/plansu1.jpg/
...

[NZSnowman]

Pat, I have a set of plans for the 'Type U-63 class' if they be any use to you.

Simon

[Pat]

Yes, they probably would be of use Simon.  Even though not the same type (at least I don't think it was), I think it would probably give insight into the sort of design and construction ideas that went into boats of that period.  Or maybe with information, I might deside on a different WWI sub instead.

[Pat]

Pepper-mint, the pictures #2 -3, in the second link of yours (U-boat gallery) http://www.cityofart.net/bship/u_boat_gallery.html are two of the three that I have in my book, so you can see what I was trying to describe.

You can see in the pic, the folded masts on the starboard side of the saddle tanks. 

It seems that painting the boats white might have been fairly common in WWI, which seems odd until you remember that S-boots in WWII were also painted a very similar sort of dinghy white, and they were designed mostly to attack at night.

My guess is that the thinking was that the bright colour wasn't meant to camouflage the boat.  The idea would be that the boats had to get so close to use their guns that they'd be spotted no matter what sort of colour of they were painted.  Therefore, if they were painted a bright white, it could throw off the aim of enemy gunners in a time before radar.  At sea, distance makes all vessels look greyish so white would make the boat look closer than it actually was and therefore gun layers would get the range wrong.

[NZSnowman]

Hi Pat,

Here the link for the plan.

http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/plans/SM_U63-65_1916//langsschnitt_einrichtungsplan_decksplan_100dpi.jpg

[Pepper-mint]

...It seems that painting the boats white might have been fairly common in WWI, which seems odd until you remember that S-boots in WWII were also painted a very similar sort of dinghy white, and they were designed mostly to attack at night....

Pat,

This is in "The Wolf Pack" from Dougie M. And Wink G. (http://amp.rokket.biz/lib_uboats.shtml)

"...The same can be said for the Arctic, where conning towers were sometimes painted white. U-boats operating out of Norway sometimes had the upper half of the conning tower, above the spray deflector, or all of their conning tower, painted white. This was intended to allow the boat to blend in better with the sea mists and fogs that often hang close to the surface of the water in high latitudes...)

...  =)

[Pat]

Thanks Simon.  That will help.

[Pepper-mint]

 
Very nice !

Hi Pat,

Here the link for the plan.

http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/plans/SM_U63-65_1916//langsschnitt_einrichtungsplan_decksplan_100dpi.jpg