I've sort of managed to get my scanner working, and thought I'd share this pic you.

As we all know, the French U-boat bases took poundings from British bombers, and this photograph shows the Fangrost Bomb Trap on the roof of the Bordeaux bunker. Concrete beams with a curved upper surface were laid over supporting square beams to create a space just above the roof of the bunker proper. Any bombs that hit the complex would detonate against these beams with the blast being dissipated into these voids. A highly succesful system.



(Taken from 'U-Boat Bases and Bunkers 1941 - 45' by Gordon Williamson

That is extremely interesting and I have never head or seen anything about this technology before!
KUrtz.

Oh, I betcha have. Ever see skirt armor HEAT screens on the side of a late war German tank? Same principal.

speaking of German technology....did you know that the Third Reich had a sound gun, that used sound pressure, to cause damage to the human body? in 60 seconds anyone within 30 meteres of the soundgun, could be killed, and anyone in 60 meters would be severly injured........way to fend off the neighbors cat thats always doing it's buissness in your yard eh?

Ha Ha Ha, I want one. Put that neighbors cat to misery

That trap would be worthless against a deep penetrating bomb. That one has a timing device wich detonates the bomb 10 seconds after the initial impact. Also, a 10 ton Earthqauke bomb or a 5,5 ton Tallboy would cause some dammage too.

quote:

Originally posted by takfo:
Also, a 10 ton Earthqauke bomb or a 5,5 ton Tallboy would cause some dammage too.

Indeed it would! They were used against subpens in Farge and Brest with impressive results:

I've read in several sources that no U-boat was ever destroyed inside one of those pens, in spite of that last photo. Targeting the pens themselves was a waste of effort on behalf of the Allies. Their most successful endeavor in this respect was their bombing of the shipyards themselves [to prevent them from being built in the first place!] and Germany's transportation network, such as rail lines and canal barges. Post-war studies show that they were successful in delaying the production of significant numbers of U-boats and were also partly responsible for the delay in the introduction of the more advanced U-boats until the last days of the war, when it was too little, too late.

I would suspect that the rounding of the top of each concrete runner played a part in keeping the bomb from penetrating with full force. It looks to me that the bomb would deflect to the right or left after hitting th beam thus releasing in the open spaces and not penetrating the ceiling beneath. Quite clever!

quote:

I've read in several sources that no U-boat was ever destroyed inside one of those pens

Me too. But who are we to say.

I've got a good book that has all that sort of thing in.
The u boat bunkers are very interesting things.
The reason they are still there is because at the end of WW2 they tried to destroy them, and failed.
If i remember right a unit of american commandos managed to make the roof fall in on one of them crushing the u boat inside.
But they only did that AFTER they go inside.
Apparently the sheer ammount of explosives needed to destroy one of them is so high and costly that it's not worth doing.

If the germans decided to retreat into a u boat bunker they would have to be starved out as you simply could'nt damage it except for the doors, which were covered by various machine guns etc.

I'm taking this from memory but i believe i'm right. The book has everything to do with u boats from the boats themselves to the training given to crews/captains and explains how the bases were set up and defended from various possible attacks.

It is a great book to have. I would go find it now but it's the middle of the night here.
I will find it and let you know the title and author in case anyone wants to get a copy.

Another interesting bit in it i never heard of before is that they used to use the decoy launcher to get rid of rubbish. You stuff the decoy with rubbish and fire it, after a time it sinks and your rubbish is'nt found by the enemy.

I'll find it tomorrow anyway.

D.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DarkOmen13,

Ok i found the book.

It's called Wolf Pack, the story of the u boat in world war II.
It's by Gordon Williamson and published by Osprey.
Very good book you won't be sorry you bought.

D.

That's the very same book I have DarkOmen, it's from there the scan is taken. The illustrations are cool too aren't they?

Yes it's a very good book that one. There is a lot of things in it i have'nt seen anywhere else.

D.