Hollywood Blockbuster experience: Lifelike graphics and spectacular audio/visual effects offer an incredibly immersive gaming experience. If the bow cut under a wave, the boat could unintendet dive serval dozen meters (even with empty tanks in heavy sea), because the flat deck act like a dive plane.Īlso deck awash slow the boat down and cost more fuel.īut for short times, in calm sea, it was done to mask the siluette, with men on the bridge.Learn more about the Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific Model Brand Traveling deck awash, was way too dangerous. There was an exception to that, expierienced crews where allowed to flood tank 5 immediatly on alarm, to dive faster. For that reason only the commander or the LI gave the order "dive", not some random guy like in the movie. It was the other way around, it was forbidden to start diving (flooding the tanks) until the boat was ready to dive (diesel off, air intakes closed, hatch closed, ect.). It was verboten to leave the hatch open or to have men on the bridge when the ballast tanks were flooded. Then they blow one tank after another (with air or diesel) until bubbles rised on the side of the boat, wich showed that the tank is empty, and close the flood valves.įor deck awash, they dont blow the tanks partially (that would make the boat even more unstable), they flood some tanks and left some empty, like flooding tank 5 (bow) and 1 (aft) or tank 3 (center). Using the diesel or not, when surfacing they never blow the tanks fully (only in case of an emergency) until they are on the surface. At least, not in the way that you're thinking.Like i said in the other thread, you are mixing up two different things. Originally posted by McDewgle:As it turns out, decks awash was not a thing that U-boats did. So I do not fully agree with the "not realistic" standpoint. It was mentioned on more than one occasion where decks awash was used in such a manner. I actually have read werner's biography, in regard to night surface attacks. Oddly enough I have seen this sort of copied and pasted else where in the discussion. At least, not in the way that you're thinking. But it's more realistic at least than having men on the bridge while running decks awash, as that was definitely not something they did, and was not safe. It may not be realistic to cruise along at decks awash as it was primarily used when surfacing the boat. It's a nice stop-gap to use before you get the snorkel to replenish your oxygen and maybe recharge the batteries by running on diesels. This allowed them to save compressed air (minimizing the time needed to run the air compressors).Īnd served to coat the interior of the ballast tanks in soot-oil from the diesel exhaust which protected steel from rust and prolonged the life of the ballast tanks between maintenance intervals.īut history lesson aside, yeah I like decks awash too. They would then start up the diesels and used the exhaust gasses to blow the rest of the water out of each of the ballast tanks. U-boats did surface with their tanks still partially flooded though. But he was not decks-awash when he did it. Yes, Otto Kretschmer would often attack at night while surfaced.
As were the chance of men getting swept away or drowned (if they were wearing harnesses). The U-boat becomes too unstable and the chance of water flooding in through the hatch were too high. As it turns out, decks awash was not a thing that U-boats did.