In every WWII submarine movie, the sub is under a depth charge attack and very high pressure water starts spraying from around a valve or two. The captain yells, "Chief, take care of that!" The Chief grabs a big spanner and starts turning a nut or coupling What's he doing? Tightening the packing? I've been wondering about this for a long time. We never had water leaks like this in airplanes.
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WWII Submarine Movies
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Maximumbob54
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He's tightening the clear metal bowl because he doesn't have a BT punch handy.
UncleEd
Member
It's a lesson submariners learned early: "Tighten the valve!"
Unfortunately surface sailors never learned. Prime example: The Titanic
Unfortunately surface sailors never learned. Prime example: The Titanic
Airplanes have.......
Airplanes have hydraulic leaks, but they are usually nowhere that anybody can access most of it in flight. I don't know enough about plane damage control to know if it's SOP for anyone to fix a hydraulic leak in flight. I'll bet in some of those WWII bombers, somebody tried.
The submarine school has a test room where pipes start leaking all over the place in different ways and the crew uses special techniques to pack cracks and the like while the room fills up with water. I think one fix is to bolt 2 halves of a wrapper around the pipe at the leak. I'm sure in the modern subs pressures can get PRETTY high. I recall in 'Das Boot' they were wrapping wire around flange gaskets to stop them from leaking.
Airplanes have hydraulic leaks, but they are usually nowhere that anybody can access most of it in flight. I don't know enough about plane damage control to know if it's SOP for anyone to fix a hydraulic leak in flight. I'll bet in some of those WWII bombers, somebody tried.
The submarine school has a test room where pipes start leaking all over the place in different ways and the crew uses special techniques to pack cracks and the like while the room fills up with water. I think one fix is to bolt 2 halves of a wrapper around the pipe at the leak. I'm sure in the modern subs pressures can get PRETTY high. I recall in 'Das Boot' they were wrapping wire around flange gaskets to stop them from leaking.
In many of those old sub movies when a pipe starts to leak a crewman jumps up moves a few feet reaches up and turns off a small size valve ( has a handle that one hand can wrap around) that immediately shuts down the flow.
Dave, now retired pipefitter!
Dave, now retired pipefitter!
As a civilian I have used things like that.
We have emergency fixes for lines that we just have to keep running (like at a power plant or water treatment plant) you will get plenty wet and HOPEFULLY It’s rather potable!
BLACKHAWKNJ
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How many of those movies had real submariners as technical advisers? I read an interview with R. Lee Ermey where he noted Marine Corps movies always have some general or colonel as "technical adviser" but those people have no knowledge of what it's really like in a platoon or how to deal with young Marines.
THE PILGRIM
Member
Had an uncle who was taken off of Attu by submarine. He used to talk and laugh about the difference in Flushing a submarine commode whether you were submerged or on the surface.
The Navy guys went to great length to make sure that the army guys knew how to flush properly.
The Navy guys went to great length to make sure that the army guys knew how to flush properly.
lrb1200
Member
Don't know, I'm OK with just sitting back and enjoying the old movies.
Dennis The B
US Veteran
Isn't there a saying out there by Airedales, "If a plane isn't leaking fluid somewhere, it must not have any anywhere."?
THE PILGRIM
Member
Since the airborne airplane repair was mentioned I'll tell you a B 36 story.
The B-36 always had a lot of problems. One of which was its electric propeller control system. You could be flying along and one or more of your propellers would go into feathered, like neutral.
The B-36 had an access tunnel in the wing. You could go out as far as the second engine. The propeller control boxes were also down there.
So one day a B-36 was flying a training mission up in Nevada. The propellers started feathering. Crewmembers entered both tunnels in an effort to get the propellers working.
They were down to two working engines and could not maintain altitude. He aircraft commander kept sending other personnel into the tunnels to tell them to come up And bail out. The mountains were coming up.
The guy who told me this story was the third pilot. The aircraft command told him to go in both Tunnels and tell everybody you need to bail out now.
All of the crew members came out the tunnels and started bailing out.
Everybody including the guy telling the story, bailed out except the aircraft commander and the flight engineer. Before they bailed out some of the propellers came back on line.
They declared an emergency and landed at nearby Nellis Air Force Base.
Nellis still have it old world War II runway not made for a B-36.
The B-36 destroyed the runway.
The crew bailed out into afternoon thermals. The third pilot who was a small thin guy, had trouble getting down. He Kept entering Upward Thermals and going back up. It took him over an hour to get down.
Here's the B-36 that's over at Tucson. Its got the four additional jet engine that were added.
The B-36 always had a lot of problems. One of which was its electric propeller control system. You could be flying along and one or more of your propellers would go into feathered, like neutral.
The B-36 had an access tunnel in the wing. You could go out as far as the second engine. The propeller control boxes were also down there.
So one day a B-36 was flying a training mission up in Nevada. The propellers started feathering. Crewmembers entered both tunnels in an effort to get the propellers working.
They were down to two working engines and could not maintain altitude. He aircraft commander kept sending other personnel into the tunnels to tell them to come up And bail out. The mountains were coming up.
The guy who told me this story was the third pilot. The aircraft command told him to go in both Tunnels and tell everybody you need to bail out now.
All of the crew members came out the tunnels and started bailing out.
Everybody including the guy telling the story, bailed out except the aircraft commander and the flight engineer. Before they bailed out some of the propellers came back on line.
They declared an emergency and landed at nearby Nellis Air Force Base.
Nellis still have it old world War II runway not made for a B-36.
The B-36 destroyed the runway.
The crew bailed out into afternoon thermals. The third pilot who was a small thin guy, had trouble getting down. He Kept entering Upward Thermals and going back up. It took him over an hour to get down.
Here's the B-36 that's over at Tucson. Its got the four additional jet engine that were added.
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Alpo
Member
Vietnam War novel. The Gooney Bird. The gooney bird;: A novel, : William C Anderson: Amazon.com: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JmbgqUzqL.@@AMEPARAM@@51JmbgqUzqL
They are turning a C47 into a new SECRET WEAPON - the AC47. And while flying from California to Hawaii, they discover they have no hydraulics. They check and find a big mess under the pump. Leak. Fix the loose connection, but have only one quart of hydraulic fluid aboard. Captain say, in a pinch, "any fluid beats NO fluid". The add in what's left in the water jug, what's in the coffee jug, the AC's quart of scotch, the loadmaster's quart of vodka, all the after shave from the entire crews' shaving kits, and then pass the empty water jug around, saying, "That ain't quite enough, boys. Fill it up."
steveno
Member
at Rhein Mein AB we had 5 C-118 , 5 C-131 and 2 gooney birds and all of them had drip pans under the engines. for all I know they might have siphoned the oil out of the pans and put it back in the engines the next day
Oil
The old Boeing KC-97 tanker had a 55-gallon drum of engine oil that could be pumped (by hand) to each of the four engines' oil tanks.
Speaking of leaks, I think it was in the movie, "Gathering of Eagles" where a B-52 had a fuel leak so bad that the aircrew had fuel up to their ankles. Col. Rock Hudson thought better of taking a smoke break.
The old Boeing KC-97 tanker had a 55-gallon drum of engine oil that could be pumped (by hand) to each of the four engines' oil tanks.
Speaking of leaks, I think it was in the movie, "Gathering of Eagles" where a B-52 had a fuel leak so bad that the aircrew had fuel up to their ankles. Col. Rock Hudson thought better of taking a smoke break.
THE PILGRIM
Member
A lot of the old aircraft engines used and leaked a lot of oil.
In many cases like the mentioned KC-97, the range and flight endurance is limited by the oil supply. So if you can carry extra oil and add when you need it,
You can extend your aircraft range.
finesse_r
Member
I believe Duck Tape makes an emergency in flight hydraulic repair kit that you can buy from Harbor Freight for 2.98 or 1.99 on sale. I don’t think they have a submarine kit.
gdnagle
US Veteran
Ah the wonders of movies.
They make good and bad duck tape. I don't think I would bet my life on HF duck tape. Maybe I would trust Gorilla Tape.
Now wasn't there a thread about thread drift on the forum.
Seems to have found it's way here.
Cpo1944
Member
I was a destroyer sailor. I spent my time trying to sink subs. We wanted to blow great big jagged holes in those buggers not just make some stupid pipe leak. If we did our job right all of the spanners in Christendom would be of no use at all, but maybe with the right duct tape?????
pineappleshooter
US Veteran
Two kinds of ships in the Navy - submarines and targets!
