Posted on 03/02/2015 4:20:54 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-3519
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_XXI_submarine
Between 1943 and 1945, 118 boats were assembled by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, AG Weser of Bremen, and F. Schichau of Danzig. Each hull was constructed from eight prefabricated sections with final assembly at the shipyards. This new method could have pushed construction time below six months per vessel, but in practice all the assembled U-boats were plagued with severe quality problems that required extensive post-production work to rectify. One of the reasons for these shortcomings was that sections were made by companies having little experience in shipbuilding, following a decision by Albert Speer. As a result, of 118 Type XXIs completed, only four were fit for combat before the Second World War ended in Europe.[5]
It was planned that final assembly of Type XXI boats would eventually be carried out in the Valentin submarine pens, a massive, bomb–hardened concrete bunker built at the small port of Farge, near Bremen.[6] Construction took place between 1943 and 1945, using around 10,000 concentration camp prisoners and prisoners of war as forced labour.[7] The facility was 90% completed when, in March 1945, it was badly damaged by Allied bombing with Grand Slam “earthquake” bombs and abandoned. A few weeks later, the area was captured by the British Army.[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-3519
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_XXI_submarine
Between 1943 and 1945, 118 boats were assembled by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, AG Weser of Bremen, and F. Schichau of Danzig. Each hull was constructed from eight prefabricated sections with final assembly at the shipyards. This new method could have pushed construction time below six months per vessel, but in practice all the assembled U-boats were plagued with severe quality problems that required extensive post-production work to rectify. One of the reasons for these shortcomings was that sections were made by companies having little experience in shipbuilding, following a decision by Albert Speer. As a result, of 118 Type XXIs completed, only four were fit for combat before the Second World War ended in Europe.[5]
It was planned that final assembly of Type XXI boats would eventually be carried out in the Valentin submarine pens, a massive, bomb–hardened concrete bunker built at the small port of Farge, near Bremen.[6] Construction took place between 1943 and 1945, using around 10,000 concentration camp prisoners and prisoners of war as forced labour.[7] The facility was 90% completed when, in March 1945, it was badly damaged by Allied bombing with Grand Slam “earthquake” bombs and abandoned. A few weeks later, the area was captured by the British Army.[8]
Maybe others have noted this:
Page 9:
“Press Photo Proposed As Model for Monument”
“I do not believe any product of the mind of the artist could equal this photograph in action.”
Interesting about the Type XXI submarines. The component construction doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I’m also not sure how much the relative inexperience of the German firms contracted to build sections affected the end product. Knowing how much building a submarine is a very exacting craft, I would think that the labor force, both in the components and final assembly, is probably key to whether the Germans were making good submarines or not.
So a labor force of concentration camp inmates, Russian POWs and slave laborers, who don’t know dick about the technology, and who really don’t want to see Germany win the war, isn’t a labor force that’s going to build good submarines. Once you’re working with that, it doesn’t really matter how good your blueprints are.
At this point in the war it’s pretty hard to feel sorry for anyone.
Yes, it is a dramatic picture although I think it was a staged rendition of an earlier flag raising.
It is a photograph of the actual raising of a replacement flag.
Really - so it was an impromptu raising of a replacement flag and a photographer just happened to be in the right place at the right time? What happened to the original flag?
They only got 4 out of 118 that they had parts produced for seaworthy! Unbelievable that they could have produced so many high-tech boats while being bombed day and night.
I was prompted to do more research on this particular sinking by noting that 75 sailors were lost as opposed to the usual 50 or so indicating a much larger boat.
As I said once before, this is all in the excerpt from "Flags of our Fathers" I posted on February 23.
I seem to remember some time ago slave laborers at Peenemunde were passing on information to Allied intel.
In Cornelius Ryan’s “The Last Battle,” he interviewed one of the slave labor workers at a factory in Spandau. The guy was making alternators for panzers. He could easily have turned out 50 in a day, but usually only turned out four, and they were defective. I would imagine most of the slave workers were doing the same.
One of my college roommates got a summer job assembling truck doors at the AM General plant in South Bend. He could easily turn out 40 in a day, but only did that once. That was when the union shop steward told him he was a “rate buster” and made them all look bad. My roomie was told in no uncertain terms that the norm was ten...and only ten.
So apparently the American automobile industry took too many notes from the Germans.
My dad and a younger brother were the first in their family to go to college and became Republicans. The two brothers who didn't go to college stayed Democrats.
“Interesting about the Type XXI submarines. The component construction doesn’t sound like a bad idea. “
That is how we build big ships today. See this BIW page.
https://www.gdbiw.com/Shipbuilding.html
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