Type VII U-Boat Question.

[ZoidFile]

Hello,

 

A few days ago I saw the making of the new "Das Boot" TV show (Which is pretty awful BTW).

They showed the seaworthy wooden mock up they build for the show and one thing caught my eye. See the small hatches in front of the conning tower?:

 

 

In one scene those hatches are open and people were looking out of them as if they were windows.

I could not find any historic pictures with this hatches being open. So my question is, are those really windows? Because the placement looks kinda dangerous and not very practical.

Or did the just cleverly use those hatches to hide the real controls of the mock up and their (film)crew?  Also, if they are not windows what is really behind the hatches? I am curious.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

[zFireWyvern]

It's possible they're for passing out deck gun ammunition from inside the conning tower to the crew on deck.

[ZoidFile]

4 minutes ago, zFireWyvern said:

It's possible they're for passing out deck gun ammunition from inside the conning tower to the crew on deck.

That makes a lot of sense, I did not think of that.

Those shell hatches and trays can be seen on many ships.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[ZoidFile]

22 minutes ago, zFireWyvern said:

It's possible they're for passing out deck gun ammunition from inside the conning tower to the crew on deck.

 

 

Also found this, you were right right on target.

 

The hatch seems to be much smaller than on the mock up, so I think they fudged it a bit and reused them as windows for the people that are actually steering the ship while the actors are on the bridge.

[zFireWyvern]

30 minutes ago, ZoidFile said:

 

Also found this, you were right right on target.

 

The hatch seems to be much smaller than on the mock up, so I think they fudged it a bit and reused them as windows for the people that are actually steering the ship while the actors are on the bridge.

Possibly, either way it's quite interesting