[Greg Wak]

Okay so you've got all your target info plotted. Course, speed, AOB. You send the tdc info to the torpedo. What exactly physicaly happens. I think the fish had gyroscopes but how were these settings changed in the tube?

[Kron161]

The introduction of a torpedo in the tube was not just a matter of pushing it in. (otherwise, the reloads would just take a few minutes).

The information was fed in to the torpedo internal systems by rotatory spindlers that protuded from the tube's wall once the torpedo was inside the tube. No need to say that the small square holes in the fore half of the torpedo that receptioned the spindlers needed to match the exact position of the spindlers from the tube.

The ugliest part of the whole reloading process was to rotate the torpedo to the exact position so when the spindlers were deployed, entered precisely the holes in the torpedo. It took an awful amount of time wrestling with the heavy and large torpedo inside the tube until the spindlers matched the torpedo reception holes. You'll see on some photos a sort of a big wrench installed on the tail of the torpedo while it is still in the tube... this was the wrench used to turn the greased torpedo inside the tube to match the spindlers. (grease or not, a torpedo was a beastly heavy long thing to mess with)

There was a spindler for each parameter. (depth, course deviation, etc..)

The spindlers were retracted back inside the tube's walls just before the lauch of the torpedo.

[Greg Wak]

wow! I can't imagine trying to do that under duress ang or in heavy seas. Of course I'm sure they practiced alot. So did the spindles move a prescribed amount based on the info in the TDC?Thanks for the info.

[Heibges]

In heavy seas, sometimes the uboat had to submerge to reload the tubes for exactly this reason.