Type VIIC Free-Flooding Vent Patterns

Medium-sized vents above central drainage area

It was commonplace for the medium-sized vents located above the large central drainage area (above the saddle tanks) in the early boats to have been arranged in pairs. The early VIIC style of paired vents was changed at some stage to a later style in which these medium-sized vents were evenly spaced apart (unpaired).




There were some boats which had 4 extra single medium-sized vents on the port side and 4 extra single medium-sized vents on the starboard side. The U-boats which sported this pattern include U 80, U 81, U 82, U 132, U 136, U 251, U 253, U 267, U 269, U 275 and U 278. As all these boats were built in the Bremer Vulkan-Vegesacker Werft shipyard in Vegesack, this pattern appears to be particular to boats built in this shipyard.

The medium-sized vents on the U-boats from Vegesack were evenly spaced apart (unpaired). This was unusual for U-boats built at the start of the war, since all the boats from other shipyards had these vents arranged in pairs.

There are a few vents missing in this area of the Revell kit. Should U 94 be chosen as a subject, 8 vents have to be drilled. As with the main groups, it would have been more prudent of Revell to have chosen a pattern which had the maximum number of vents, for it is always easier to fill than drill.

The Revell model has the medium-sized vents evenly spaced apart, as was the norm on the mid-to-late war VIICs. This is good news for those modellers who are converting their Revell kit into a mid-to-late war boat, or building a U-boat that originated from the Bremer Vulkan-Vegesacker Werft shipyards. However, it is not such good news for those of us who wish to make an early VIIC, which the kit is meant to depict. To accurately model an early VIIC, the unpaired (evenly spaced apart) pattern on the kit should be altered to the pattern in which the vents are arranged in pairs. This is not the easiest of tasks, and one which many modellers would prefer not to have to undertake.