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This was taken from “The Secret War†by Brian Johnson and I thought it was pretty interesting. I wonder how hard it would be to build a scale one of these to tow behind a U-boat…
Fa330 Bachstelze (Wagtail)
This small machine was not, strictly speaking, a helicopter but a rotary-wing kite. It was carried in dismantled form in two watertight compartments on the deck of Type IX ocean-going U-boar; its function was to provide a high vantage point for spotting targets in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic, where isolate ‘independents’ – single merchant ships – sailed these little frequented waters without escorts for protection. The loe height of a surfaced U-boat’s conning tower strictly limited the range of the search, but, towed by the U-boat, the Bachstelze could climb to 500 feet, enabling its pilot/observer greatly to extend the submarine’s field of vision. A telephone cable connected the pilot to the U-boat’s commander and, on sighting a ship, he was in theory winched down to the deck. However, if the vessel reported was thought to be warship, or if an aircraft appeared, the submarine would crash-dive and the unfortunate pilot had to the jettison the rotors, which flew upwards, deploying a parachute as the departed which enabled him to descend into the sea still seated in the simple tubular fuselage, He then released his seat straps and, in the cynical words of a wartime report, ‘drowned in the normal way’. Two Fa330s survive in England: one in the Science Museum, the other in store for the RAF Museum.
A couple of links:
If you like WWII technology, it’s a great book. There is a chapter on U-boats which covers ASDIC (ultrasonic pulses), naval RADAR and its progression during the war, Huff Duff (radio-based direction finding), Leigh Light development and tactics (combined with airborne 10-cm RADAR made running on the surface at night MORE dangerous than doing so during the day), Metox and Naxos (German RADAR detectors), Sumpf (stealth covering applied to schnorkel tubes), the ongoing effort to crack the improvements with the Enigma, etc.
Fa330 Bachstelze (Wagtail)
This small machine was not, strictly speaking, a helicopter but a rotary-wing kite. It was carried in dismantled form in two watertight compartments on the deck of Type IX ocean-going U-boar; its function was to provide a high vantage point for spotting targets in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic, where isolate ‘independents’ – single merchant ships – sailed these little frequented waters without escorts for protection. The loe height of a surfaced U-boat’s conning tower strictly limited the range of the search, but, towed by the U-boat, the Bachstelze could climb to 500 feet, enabling its pilot/observer greatly to extend the submarine’s field of vision. A telephone cable connected the pilot to the U-boat’s commander and, on sighting a ship, he was in theory winched down to the deck. However, if the vessel reported was thought to be warship, or if an aircraft appeared, the submarine would crash-dive and the unfortunate pilot had to the jettison the rotors, which flew upwards, deploying a parachute as the departed which enabled him to descend into the sea still seated in the simple tubular fuselage, He then released his seat straps and, in the cynical words of a wartime report, ‘drowned in the normal way’. Two Fa330s survive in England: one in the Science Museum, the other in store for the RAF Museum.
A couple of links:
If you like WWII technology, it’s a great book. There is a chapter on U-boats which covers ASDIC (ultrasonic pulses), naval RADAR and its progression during the war, Huff Duff (radio-based direction finding), Leigh Light development and tactics (combined with airborne 10-cm RADAR made running on the surface at night MORE dangerous than doing so during the day), Metox and Naxos (German RADAR detectors), Sumpf (stealth covering applied to schnorkel tubes), the ongoing effort to crack the improvements with the Enigma, etc.
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