Norm's Rareties, #5.

[m1903a3]

Originally Posted by Diver6106

I am very skeptical that these are ammo boxes for "small arms - pistols, rifles, submachine guns." Now it would be logical to have 'ready service ammo' in water-pressure tight boxes next to and for 50 caliber or larger fixed guns, so they can be brought into surface actions very quickly. But no U boat would surface to engage in action with small arms. And they would be brought out loaded with magazines for rapid action, and spare magazines in pouches. Is there an authoritative German source for this?

It is, I believe, a misnomer to call them "U-Boat" ammo boxes. The fact that they are Imperial Navy watertight boxes for the storage of 9mm ammunition (which meant P.04 Lugers in the Imperial Navy) cannot be reasonably disputed. There are several around, I personally know of at least seven that surfaced in France, Belgium and one in Norway. Most have the remnants of their original labels specifying how many rounds of ammo, and a couple of the labels have dates that tell us the boxes were still in use during WWII. So far I haven't scored one for myself, but I remain hopeful.

There is no suggestion they are ready ammo boxes. Any ready ammo for the lugers would be in magazines. It is my opinion that they are simply storage containers for additional ammo for use on U-Boats, Torpedo Boats and other vessels where the P.04 was the primary small arm and the environment was perpetually wet.

I think this is supported by the fact that the boxes seem to show up in areas that were primary U-Boat and/or Torpedo boats bases.

As for surfacing, in the early years of WWI that is exactly what the U-Boats did. The Germans scrupulously followed the international rules of cruiser warfare, surfacing and sending Luger armed boarding parties to search neutrals for contraband and/or enemy merchant ships for log and code books. After letting the crews abandon ship they would sink it with their deck gun. It wasn't until the Brits armed the merchant ships that the U-Boats started shooting first. Even then, it was preferable to use a gun rather than one of the precious few torpedoes the early boats carried.