German submarine cartoon1/7/2023 In most torpedo attacks, the target could be seen the target's angle relative to the attacker and its bearing would be observed, then a rangefinder in the periscope was used to establish the distance to the target from this speed could be derived and a basic mechanical computer would offset the aiming point for the torpedo, the depth of which had to be set based on target identification. It was theoretically possible to compute a firing solution in all four dimensions – time, distance, bearing and target depth – but this had never been attempted in practice because it was assumed that performing the complex calculations would be impossible, plus there were unknown factors that had to be approximated. Launders tracked the U-boat for several hours and it became obvious she was not going to surface but he needed to attack before his batteries lost their charge. This made the German submarine quite safe according to the assumptions of the time. U-864 remained at snorkel depth and as the hydrophone plot emerged, she was seen to be zigzagging. He tracked the U-boat by hydrophone, hoping she would surface and allow a clear shot. The noise of the diesel engines made the U-boat's hydrophones much less effective and it is doubtful U-864 would have heard Venturer running slowly on her electric motors.Ĭombined with the hydrophone reports of the strange noise, which he determined to be coming from a submerged vessel, Launders surmised they had found U-864. For Launders' hydrophone operator to hear diesel noises from a submerged U-boat, the snorkel would have had to be in operation. The snorkel limited the U-boat's speed and depth. The snorkel was still a new device and probably unknown to Launders and his crew. It is highly likely he had, in fact, spotted the U-boat 's snorkel. Then the officer of the watch on Venturer's periscope noticed what he thought was another periscope above the surface of the water. Launders decided to track the strange noise. He thought that the noise sounded as though some local fisherman had started a diesel engine. Rear view of a type IX submarine at Trondheim, next to a smaller type VIIĪs Venturer continued her patrol of the waters around Fedje, her hydrophone operator noticed a strange sound which he could not identify. The Admiralty ordered the submarine Venturer to intercept and destroy U-864. The British were reading the German machine cypher, Enigma and the Royal Navy was concerned the secret cargo might enable the Japanese to extend the duration of the Pacific War. Wolfram decided to return to the pens at Bergen to repair the engine. There were many Allied (primarily British) ships, submarines and aircraft in the area on anti-submarine patrol. In 2013, Preisler and Sewell wrote that an air compressor may have been wrongly installed or had worn out causing the engine to misfire with "loud, fitful vibrations". Jones wrote that sound probably came from "noisy machinery". On 6 February 1945, U-864 passed through the Fedje area off the Norwegian coast without being detected but an engine kept misfiring. U-864 was a Type IX U-boat ( Korvettenkapitän Ralf-Reimar Wolfram) on a clandestine mission, Operation Caesar, to the Empire of Japan. Main articles: U-864 and Operation Caesar The sinking is the only incident where one submarine sank another in combat while both were at periscope depth. During the action of 9 February 1945, HMS Venturer, a V-class submarine of the Royal Navy, which was patrolling the waters around Fedje Island, off the Norwegian coast in the North Sea, attacked and sank the German U-boat German submarine U-864.
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