Late war U-218 question

[der-held]

Hey,

Here is a Question for real U-Boat experts^^. Its about U-218 a Type VII D. I am planning on building a 1/72 scale R/C model of it…Late war version, I already have the Model kit from Revell (Wolf Pack). And now I have 3 Questions for you guys.

1)Did the late war Type Ds have 2x Single 20mm AA guns or 2x Twin 20mm AA guns?

2)Where can I get a 1/72 conversion kit for a Type 3 conning tower (aka Turmumbau 3)

3) Last and the hardest question is: What did the Platform look like that the 37mm was placed upon???. I know that the Platform covered 2 of the 5 mine silos, but what did it look like? And how was it placed on top of the Silos?. Does anybody have any pictures or blueprint of what it looked like?

If any of you could help me that would be great, since I haven’t found anything on google about the late war Type Ds.

Thanks

[greenman407]

Re: Late war U-218 question

Im sorry, Im sure im not much help. Jeff Larue is the resident U Boat man. He might have missed this post. Try PM to him.

[mike dory]

Re: Late war U-218 question

Howdy - When I was building my Type 2 U-boat model (20) years ago, I had a book on The history of Type 2 Uboat in WW2, ( I believe I got from Skip Asay, which he may still have.) Now I was only interested in the U-23, which was a C class boat. However, the book showed that it had two 20mm guns, one on the fore deck and one on the wintergarden. I can't recall seeing any photo's of twin 20mm on Type 2 U-boats. The book did say that Capt's. had alot of say in how there boat were fitted out for a war patrol. Two other people you might want to talk to about this is Bud Lederer. Bud's library on u-boats is very extenive and Capt. Herb Werner, (Last Commanding Officer of U-953) Capt Werner and Bud Lederer get together about every other week or so. You can find Bud's phone number in the Sub Committee directory Look under Florida listings....Best Wishes...Mike Dory

[raalst]

Re: Late war U-218 question

I think Revell does a type D in 1/144. might be wise to buy that kit for study.

http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/misc/ships/tmc7d.htm

please note the type D was about 10 meters longer than the type C.

[JWLaRue]

Re: Late war U-218 question

...not sure why this thread veered off into Type II U-boats, but.....

Of the 6 Type VIID U-boats built (U-213 - U-218), there appears to have been one boat that was modified from the original, as-built configuration of 1 x 2cm Turm gun. The U-217 was modified in 1943 to carry the 4 x 2cm Zwillings.

The only photos of the VIID Turm that I came across in a quick search of my 'library' were of the 1 x 2cm mount. Having said that, a large number of photos and documentation did not survive the war......so one could reasonably take some liberties in building a model with something different if that's what you wanted to do.

I would be surprised if these guns were the same, or even based on, the similarly named ones used by the Wehrmacht. The naval variants requiring special consideration for being submerged. Which makes finding gun kits that are accurate difficult.

-hope this helps,

Jeff