German U-Boat questions......

[Raupleminze]

Hello,
First off I am not sire if I have the right area, if not I apologize. I had the pleasure of talking to my neighbor who was a WW2 Navy veteran. He stated that he saw a german uboat U-858 somewhere in florida after the wars end and it had a unique pipe that ran like a periscope off of the top of the boat so that the germans could use their diesel engines to charge their batteries without having to surface. He showed me pictures of the boat with this contraption stating that the US Navy was trying to figure out how the germans did it. He said him and some of his buddies tried to get close to it and were told to leave by the shore patrol. He said that he always wondered what happened to that ship and if anyone else might know anything about it . So I told him that I would check around online and see what i could find out. If anyone knows anything about this particular ship and or its specialized exhaust please let me know and i will pass along the info.
Thanks,
Brian

[Adrian]

Thanks to the guys at ubootwaffe.net here is some info on U-858:
<TABLE cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=5 width=450 bgColor=#bbbbbb><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>Operations information for U-858</TD><TR><TD>12.06.1944 - 27.09.1944
First Sailing
U-858 left Kiel under the command of Thilo Bode on 12th Jun 1944 and arrived at return on 27th Sep 1944 after over fifteen weeks.

<TR><TD>28.09.1944 - 29.09.1944
Second Sailing
On the 28th Sep 1944, U-858 left Farsund under the command of Thilo Bode and after one day arrived at return on 29th Sep 1944.

<TR><TD>01.10.1944 - 04.10.1944
Third Sailing - active patrol
U-858 departed under Thilo Bode from Marviken on 1st Oct 1944 and arrived at return on 4th Oct 1944 after three days.

<TR><TD>02.03.1945 - 09.03.1945
Fourth Sailing
U-858 left Kiel under the command of Thilo Bode on 2nd Mar 1945 and after one week arrived at return on 9th Mar 1945.

<TR><TD>11.03.1945 - 14.05.1945
Fifth Sailing - active patrol
On the 11th Mar 1945, U-858 left Horten under the command of Thilo Bode and arrived at return on 14th May 1945 after just over nine weeks.

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
and from uboat.net:

U-858

<TABLE class=info-table cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=4 width=600 align=center border=2><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle>Type



</TD><TD align=middle>IXC/40



</TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD>Ordered</TD><TD>5 Jun, 1941</TD><TD>


</TD></TR><TR><TD width=100>Laid down</TD><TD width=95>11 Dec, 1942</TD><TD>AG Weser, Bremen (werk 1064)</TD></TR><TR><TD>Launched</TD><TD>17 Jun, 1943</TD><TD>


</TD></TR><TR><TD>Commissioned</TD><TD>30 Sep, 1943</TD><TD>Kptlt. Thilo Bode</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Commanders</TD><TD vAlign=top colSpan=2><TABLE class=table-clean cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=right width=180>30 Sep, 1943 - 14 May, 1945 </TD><TD vAlign=top>Kptlt. Thilo Bode</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Career</TD><TD vAlign=top>2 patrols</TD><TD vAlign=top>30 Sep, 1943 - 30 Apr, 1944 4. Flottille (training)
1 May, 1944 - 30 Sep, 1944 2. Flottille (front boat)
1 Oct, 1944 - 8 May, 1945 33. Flottille (front boat)


</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Successes</TD><TD vAlign=top colSpan=2>No ships sunk or damaged</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=100>Fate</TD><TD width=400 colSpan=2>Surrendered at Delaware, USA, on 14 May 1945. Scuttled at the end of 1947 after being used for torpedo trials near New England.


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- End of main profile table -->
View the 2 war patrols

Attacks on this boat

19 Sep, 1944
The boat was hit and damaged by an unknown Allied aircraft but reached base at Flensburg on Oct 4. <CITE>(Sources: Blair, vol 2, page 643)</CITE>
1 recorded attacks on this boat.

General notes on this boat

U-858 was originally docked near Fort Miles, Delaware, where the crew were held, and then she was taken up to the Philadelphia Naval Yard. She was also the first German warship to surrender to U.S. forces.

If you look here: http://candotg.org/PillsburyPhotos.htm you will see photos of the crew on the boat after capture.
There is some more info here: http://www.fortmiles.org/u858.html

Hope this helps!

[Steve Sherlock]

From your description, Brian, it sounds like the U-858 might have been equipped with a snorkel, "a long tube that could be extended like a periscope and sucked in enough air to allow a submarine to start its diesel engines underwater and expel the exhaust. With diesels running, the battery could be recharged without the boat having to expose itself on the surface for long periods." (Ronald Spector, At War At Sea, 2001)

The Germans developed these during the war so that their U-boats would be less exposed to allied aircraft when recharging their batteries.

Steve

[VtwinVince]

The "snorkel" was actually the creation of Helmuth Walter, the rocket engineer.

[Raupleminze]

Thanks guys, I printed out some info on that sub that I found on the internet and my neighbor was pretty excited.

[boersma]

The "snorkel" was actually the creation of Helmuth Walter, the rocket engineer.

The snorkel was the ceation of Jan Wichers (1933) from te netherlands
first german u boot with the snorkel U 256 (1943)