Comments by "" (@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684) on "U-534 - July Restoration Update and Artifact Tour" video.

  1. That WAS U-534. The site you walked past was the old "Spillers flour mills" on Birkenhead's East Float dock. Which was where the "Merseyside Historic Warship Preservation Trust" was sited prior to its closure in 2006. You could around the mid to late 1990s pay for a guided tour around the interior and exterior of U-534, which myself and a friend did. The Historic Warship Preservation Trust, which also hosted the Rothesay-class frigate HMS Plymouth, the "Oberon Class" sub HMS Onyx, and the last remaining D-day tank landing craft HMLCT 7074 as well as the U-534, before the museum folded in 2006.
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  2. A friend and myself in the late 1990s booked a tour of U-534 when it was sited next to the "Spillers flour mill" at Birkenhead's "east float dock" as part of the "Historic warship preservation trust". Such a tour would not be permissible now due to the over extended nonsense of modern "elf and safety". After climbing onto her deck via a scaffolding gantry our small group was taken for a full walk through of the entire sub (WITHOUT the respiratory protection), including ascending from the control room and standing on the "turm" or raised bridge, and looking out over the rotted wooden decking which exposed her high pressure air cylinders and torpedo storage tubes beneath. Not many people nowadays can say they've stood on the bridge of a type XI uboat and surveyed its decks. While walking through her internal compartments which were coated with rust, in each compartment there was a small area up near the roof where the original paintwork and labelling of valves etc was still visible. It became apparent that this was where air trapped inside the sub after its sinking had prevented the salt water from corroding the metal. The thought of panicking sailors trapped in a sinking sub, fighting for their last breaths with their faces pressed into such pockets did leave a lasting impression on me. I still to this day drink my tea from the "U-534" mug that I bought at the MHWPT giftshop (a small portacabin) on that day. It's fantastic that a project to save the sub from further degradation, reinstate it from the ridiculous cutting up it suffered in the 2000s, and place it within a protective building is taking place, and is to be applauded.
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  3. It wasn't a war grave... stand down.
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