Yes, I get the purpose of using red light and I know that it was indeed used historically on submarines, the question is if it was used specifically on German U-Boats during Battle of Atlantic?
Digging more on the subject, I found this:
https://www.forum-der-wehrmacht.de/i...t-beleuchtung/
Discussion is in German so I have to rely on Google Translate a bit, but the gist of it is:
- Specifications of Type VII, XB, and XIV U-Boats do not mention any installation that would allow or be intended to switching to red lighting.
- Only mention of blue light is in torpedo firing procedures, where switching on a blue light is signaling that bearing is currently not passed to torpedoes through torpedo calculator. In other words, it's an indicator light not a lighting system
- only mention of switching to different lighting in diving/silent running procedures is command to lower the voltage on lights from 110V to 90V to prevent lightbulbs bursting as result of voltage spikes during depthcharging
- only "night light" mention refers to night lamps mounted in officers and NCO's quarters, and from context they are probably means to allow officers to read when main lights are switched off
- There's also mention (with link that sadly is dead now) of Lothar-Günther Buchheim mentioning red light in "Das Boat" as creative license on part of the movie director. This would further support the notion that Germans simply didn't use such lighting.
It's very easy to find sources confirming using red light on US fleet boats. Indeed, it's enough to google a photo of American boat to see two separate sets of light bulbs, one red and another white:
Meanwhile, you can see interior of surviving Type VII in Laboe here:
https://www.360cities.net/image/subm...ommand-central
I don't see any similar system with different lighting visible here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpheratz
"THE SUBMARINE COMMANDER'S
HANDBOOK ("U.Kdt.Hdb.") 1942 New Edition 1943:
133.) The underwater attack is also practicable at dawn and dusk, and on moonlit nights. In these cases, the following points should be observed:
a) Complete blacking out of the conning tower and the control room is necessary, as otherwise the light is still reflected, to a considerable extent, in the periscope. ".
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The above quote, to me, suggests that instead of turning on some special night light system, the procedure was to simply turn off lights in control room and conning tower during night attacks (which wolud line up nicely with mention of phosphorescent layer on gauges and switches needed to operate the boat which, according to that quote, allowed for normal operation in case of lighting failure)