Type XXI: anchor?

[gerwalk]

In the excellent forum u-historia (in spanish, I'm afraid) http://www.u-historia.com/uhistoria/for ... php?p=8678
there is an ongoing discussion on wether the XXI had an anchor or not and what is the so called (at least in the Anatomy of the Ship book on the Typ XXI) Hawspipe.

The triangular shape just in front of the starboard foreplane could hide a small anchor. What was the use of that thing? (here a rope is passed through it)



The Wilhelm Bauer had a new anchor built as in modern submarines. This could suggest that the original U-2540 had no anchor.

[PaulC]

Gerwalk,

It's my understanding that the

Gerwalk,

It's my understanding that the Type XXI anchor retracted into the triangular cover on the starboard side of the bow. The bottom is open and in the picture of U-3008 in the linked thread you can see the anchor in the opening. The cover's peak is open as well to facilitate flooding.

The U-2540 was constructed in the same manner. But the anchor was shifted under the chin when she was converted to the U-Wilhelm Bauer. We have a special curved GRP piece we offer with the U-WB kit to modify the standard Type XXI hull.

That's a very cool forum. A shame it doesn't have an English language version. I'd love to read it all. Hopefully I'm not repeating what others have already said there.

[JWLaRue]

What Paul has stated is

What Paul has stated is correct. Type XXI's had an anchor on the starboard side just aft of the bow planes as shown in the following extract from the Fritz Köhl drawings:



The drawing shows the formed metal cover that the anchor slides up underneath for stowage. You can also see the area directly beneath the anchor stowage location where the free-flood openings have been eliminated so as to prevent the anchor from getting hung up.

-Jeff

[gerwalk]

Paul and Jeff,
I concur with

Paul and Jeff,
I concur with your point of view but at the same time I couldn't find any schematics or plans showing the anchor mechanism. One of the guys -gesalinas- speculates that the small anchor was released and retracted manually from inside that cover.

This report on the interrogation of the survivors of u-1229 mentions the lack of the anchor in the then "new Type XXI":

http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-1229INT.htm

page 26: "The anchor winch and upper-deck containers have been eliminated. "