Lookouts Aboard U-178

Lookouts aboard the long-range U-178 under Korvettenkapitän Wilhelm Dommes, shortly after having left the Gironde Estuary in France to follow a small convoy through the coastal minefield. The head lens of the attack periscope is visible on the right and the raised rod aerial on the left. In later years, these aerials could be operated electrically from the inside the boat, but initially they were hand-cranked from the top of the conning tower and would not run down on their own without breaking the mechanism's sprockets. As a result, early boats were 'unfit for diving' as long as the aerial was raised. The grid by the base of the aerial was the top of a ventilation shaft leading down to the engine room. Usually there were four lookouts and a watch officer on duty on the conning tower.