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 12, 07:10 +0000
Every day there is a comment comparing the accuracy of the dead reckoned position with the recent fix, interesting to read about this since it is based on the skill of professional Navy navigators.
From: Jerry Mason <NoReply_JerryMason@fer3.com>
To: garylapook@pacbell.net
Sent: Friday, January 8, 2016 11:19 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: U-boat Celestial Navigation WWII
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2016 Jan 12, 07:10 +0000
Of interest to us here, if your read to the end of the logbook at the link you posted, the captain praises the gyro-sextant
| 7. Navigation | |||||
Gyro-sextant is extremely useful. Good results up to Sea State 6. | |||||
Every day there is a comment comparing the accuracy of the dead reckoned position with the recent fix, interesting to read about this since it is based on the skill of professional Navy navigators.
l.
gl
From: Jerry Mason <NoReply_JerryMason@fer3.com>
To: garylapook@pacbell.net
Sent: Friday, January 8, 2016 11:19 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: U-boat Celestial Navigation WWII
Many thanks to Gary LaPook for the interesting references concerning the HR Position Line Slide Rule whch I was completely unaware of. I am looking into this with my Germn U-boat contacts. I have learned that the German version of the Nautical Almanac was the Nautisches Jahrbuch and the rough equivalant of HO229 was F-Tafel : Tafel zur vereinfachten Berechnung von Höhenstandlinien. I am wondering if any other references were necessary. In 1944 some U-boats deployed with a gyro sextant which was spun up with compressed air and then used to take sights without a clear horizon. I recently translated the war diary (KTB) for a boat that carried this device and made some comparisons with the regular sextants. You can see the KTB here http://uboatarchive.net/KTB1228-2.htm
