NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: U-boat Celestial Navigation WWII
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2016 Jan 8, 22:11 +0000
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2016 Jan 8, 22:11 +0000
Way cool reading the logbook. I grew up in Chicago and have been aboard U-505 at least 20 times, most recently just two years ago. It is a unique resource and anybody going near Chicago shouldn't miss it. Go early in the day, tickets sell out early, I missed out last July by getting to the museum to late. U-505 is a type IX large sub captured on the high seas in 1944.
Gl
Gary:
Some years back, I became acquainted with a retired U.S. Naval Officer. Earlier in his career, he had been a navigation officer in surface vessels, this was post WW2. He later switched to submarines and commanded one, I believe it was a diesel-electric, not nuke type. In any event, re navigation of submaines, he stated the following.There was a sextant mounted on one of his boat's periscopes, I believe it was a flexible mount. When positioned for shooting, they could shoot a 3 body fix, star fix as I recall, in a couple of minutes, atmospheric conditions permitting, this while submerged.
Alan
