Type VIIC Free-Flooding Vent Patterns

by Dougie Martindale
Vents near torpedo doors
Type VIICs had a row of vents between the torpedo doors, plus a double row of smaller elongated vents above the upper doors. Since most photos of VIICs were taken of the Uboats in the water, this area is most often hidden from view. As such, it often proves difficult to ascertain which bow vent pattern featured on a particular boat.







This drawing illustrates the differences in the vent patterns near the port torpedo doors. The starboard vent patterns were the mirror image of the port vent patterns.

U 228 and U 1064 had the arrangement that I have called “bow pattern A.” This pattern had seven paired medium-sized vents between the doors and nine double rows of paired elongated vents above the upper doors. It is likely that all the boats which were built in the same batches as U 228 and U 1064 also had pattern A. Both of these boats were built at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft A.G. shipyards in Kiel.

A higher percentage of U-boats had the arrangement that I have called “bow pattern B,” with eight paired medium-sized vents between the doors and ten double rows of paired elongated vents above the upper doors. The boats included U 69, U 94, U 333, U 407, U 441, U 451, U 458, U 471, U 551, U 559 and U 703. Some had the additional two elongated vents towards the stem, whereas some did not.

A much rarer pattern, bow pattern C, consisted of ten unpaired medium-sized vents between the doors and ten unpaired medium-sized vents above the upper doors. I have seen this pattern only once, in a photo of a VIIC dry-docked in Samalis in 1942. The early Type VIIBs had ten unpaired medium-sized vents between the doors (as in bow pattern C) but none above the upper doors. I have not seen any photos of late VIIBs in which this area of the hull casing is exposed, so I cannot say which pattern was present on the late VIIBs.

Bow pattern A is the pattern depicted in the Revell kit. As many popular subjects such as U 69, U 96, U 201 and U 552 all had pattern B, an extra six vents need to be drilled for these boats. Accuracy in this area becomes ever more difficult when it is realised that the torpedo doors are a few millimetres too long in the Revell kit. By shortening the doors to their correct length, the line of vents then appear too long in length also.

Many modellers will consider these inaccuracies to be of no concern. What they might be more concerned about in the Revell kit is the basic shape of the vents in this area. The vents were all oval in shape, but for some reason they are rectangular on the Revell kit.

About the Author

About Dougie Martindale (dougie47)
FROM: SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM


Copyright ©2021 by Dougie Martindale. _OPINIONS Model Shipwrights, KitMaker Network, or Silver Star Enterrpises. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of Model Shipwrights. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2008-06-23 00:00:00. Unique Reads: 6337