Räumboote
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Very quiet on the forum. Cmpared to BA nearly dead.
Well, I did again some scratch building.
I wanted some R- Boote / Räumboote for my 1/300 Kriegsmarine. Warlord offers the R 23 , based on the basic type R 21-24 and R 41 – 150 . R 25 – 40 / R 151 – 300 being similar, main difference below water, no Voith Schneider Propellers. These are ttached om a pivot system so that they could be turned 360°, making the boat turning on spot. Not bad in mine service but it costs a bit of max. speed and building was complicated.
Why scratch building if there are ready made models available?
Reason 1: Fun. I love scratch building.
Reason 2: Price. Ahem, yes. For the money two resin kits cost I can buy material for a fleet of R-Boote. With less fun for crazy me.
Reason 3: I wanted to do Boats based on R 53 – 72 sub type-. Two in 1940/41 version, with mast and 2 x 2 cm AA. And two in 42/43 conversion with mast replaced by an antenna and 1 x 3,7 cm + 2 x 2cm AA. One of each with mines. For that the resin models are only bases anyway.
And 4, the main reason: Brexit. Now delivery to continent takes an XXXX time. In the moment I’m waiting for a campaign book, send with UPS on 28th January. 16<sup>th</sup> February it reached the border custom service office and is now, four days later with local custom office.
These boats saw much service, mine clearing and laying, escort and anti submarine work and patrolling. Many got lost but a surprising number of these wooden hull boats survived. From my R 53 – 72 version seven got used post 45 for mine clearing and other jobs.Some strange, so R 55 became a restaurant at Oldenburg for some time.
The two main loss reasons being mines or plane attacks. But R 60 – 62 got destroyed at Helsinki. Some claimed a sabotage attack but may be it was an explosion caused by a careless sailor. 61 men died in that.
Three are lost by mines as escorts to KSK 7 Komet in his second sortie. A good scenario with my Komet.
The R-Boote had many crew losses due to MTB / MGB fire but few boats got lost. Like the German claims those of RN Coastal forces are far too high. Mostly fighting at night, half blind by star shells and tracer, all claimed too many sinkings.
In cruel sea games they will meet MTB. History showed that R-Boote had not been immune to Torpedoes. R 15 was sunk in Adria by an MTB one, R 41 at Barfleut by another. R 218 met his fate by MTB guns following a torpedo hit. R 180 , 184 and 192 are destroyed by MGB fire.
Many battle reports mix R-Boote to the similar sized S-Boote. The allied use of E for enemy boat is an explanation. The S-boat reached double the speed but both had much firepower in second half of war.
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Compared to R 53 boats very small
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