Wolfpack – Diving and Surfacing

A U-boat maintains its buoyancy by filling and emptying large water tanks. With the ballast tanks empty, the u boat has a positive buoyancy and floats on the surface. With the ballast tanks flooded, the u boat will have a neutral buoyancy and will maintain its current depth. To flood the forward and aft ballast tanks, open the ballast vents located in the front and back of the control room. Once the tanks have been flooded, it is good practice to close the vents.

The ballast vents are located in the front and back of the control room.

Before diving: Make sure the diesel engines are turned off, that the crew is safe inside the U-boat, and that the top hatch is closed.

When the U-boat is neutrally buoyant, it can change its depth using the dive planes. The dive planes are pairs of horizontal rudders located in the stern and bow. If the U-boat has forward momentum, the dive planes force the U-boat up or down depending on the tilt of the plane. The dive plane controls are located on the forward starboard side of the control room. The forward dive plane can be moved using the A and D buttons, and the aft diveplane can be moved using the left and right arrow keys. The U-boat’s tilt is indicated by the tiltmeter (blue liquid), and the depth is indicated by both the papenberg meter (red liquid), the fine depth meter (0-20 meter), and the coarse depth meter (0-200 meter).

The forward dive plane can be moved using the A and D buttons, and the aft dive plane can be moved using the left and right arrow keys. The U-boat’s tilt is indicated by the tiltmeter (blue liquid), and the depth is indicated by the papenberg meter (red liquid).

The U-boat can surface by blowing the ballast tanks using compressed air. The amount of compressed air required to blow the tanks is relative to the external water pressure. Water pressure increases with about 1 atmosphere with every 10 meters of depth. The tanks have a combined volume of 150 cubic meters and require around 190 kg air per atmosphere of external pressure to be blown. The ballast tanks are blown using the ballast tank controls located in the starboard side of the control room. Compressed air is shown by the dials at the ballast air controls, the negative tank controls, and on the bilge pump. To fill the compressed air, start the compressor while surfaced.

The U-boat is also equipped with a negative tank. The negative tank is small enough so that if the negative is flooded and the ballast is blown, the u boat still has positive buoyancy, and will float. If, however, both the ballast and negative tanks are flooded, the U-boat will rapidly sink. The negative tank is used for crash diving. Once the U-boat is below the surface, the negative tank should be blown, to keep the u boat from sinking. Both the negative tank vent and the negative tank air controls are located on the starboard side of the control room, next to the ballast tank air control.

The negative tank is used for crash-diving. The negative tank vent is located on the starboard side of the control room.

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