Submarines

We’ve been watching the series Das Boot on TV. It’s about German submarines in the Atlantic during WW2, with a sub-plot following the activities of the Gestapo vs. the French Resistance in La Rochelle.

I knew there was a submarine at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle, and I wanted to go inside to see the real thing. Unfortunately it’s closed to the public at present, because it’s impossible to keep social distance in the cramped conditions of a sub.

I was lucky in finding there were guided tours of the outside, led by an ex-submariner who had actually served on the boat:

This is the HMAS Ovens. It was decommissioned in 1969, and the 6 subs were replaced by the Collins class in 1970. Collins are now to be replaced by French-built subs, partly to be built in France and partly in South Australia.

During WW2 there were 168 subs operating out of the Fremantle base, mainly American and Dutch. Australia had only 2 old subs from WW1 at the time. If the Japanese had known about this, they would certainly have bombed Fremantle as they did Darwin, but it was a closely guarded secret.

There were three torpedo tubes that opened inwards (bottom left). The full scale model shows how it all worked, so that they could be fired in a straight line from the pointy end of the boat:

Modern torpedoes are worth $3m each because of all the technology they contain. The defence budget for hardware is enormous. They are rarely fired now as subs are mostly used for reconnaissance. 

HMAS  Ovens had 448 batteries which were replaced every 5 years.  The batteries were used for “silent running” and they were charged from the noisy Diesel engines when the sub was at or near the surface. There was a crew of 63 including 2 chefs and they typically spent 70 days at sea.

Australia at present has 6 submarines only, and they are not fully operational because of the lack of crew. Recruiting and training is ongoing at the Garden Island Naval Base off Fremantle. Submariners earn approximately twice as much as normal servicemen. There are currently 50 women on the subs.

I hope I got all this information right! Afterwards I had a quick lunch at Bread in Common, a trendy restaurant in the town centre. I had anchovy toast with egg yolk: