Items from uboat

**Bonecollector** · 06-19-2023, 04:53 PM

Hi. Not interested in buying these but just wanted to point out anomalies. In this group we have a Varta battery plug and what appears to be a radiator valve cap. Not being an expert on uboats but would you expect to find these items on uboats? Did Varta manufacture communication equipment batteries with these plugs or is it, as I think from a car battery? Likewise, did uboats type lX use anything that may have had a valve cap like this Heimeier cap, or is it, as I suspect from a domestic radiator? You would think that the seller may have noticed these. Thanks

German group of bottle tops some with maker markings recovered from inside U-Boat U534 which was sunk on the 5th May 1945 by RAF bombers | Relics from the Front

**Andre** · 06-27-2023, 12:11 PM

Hi, I would agree these two items in question are not bottle caps, and are what you say a battery top and possible valve top. Could be possible they were indeed on board U534? but the listing seems to have not reflected what they are also in my opinion.

**Bonecollector** · 06-27-2023, 08:17 PM

Yes. What a car battery and a radiator is doing on a uboats I've no idea? I imagine that it's just ground dug, not easy to sell so it's given the uboat story.

**Martin Bull** · 06-28-2023, 09:53 AM

I can't add anything to the provenance. But Varta were a major wartime maker of low-voltage batteries for the German forces. Some 'low-voltage batteries'were very large ( eg for tramcars, electric locomotives etc ). Varta has since run into controversy over use of slave labour in bad conditions ( chemicals,acids,etc ). Theodor Heimeier Metallwerke were, and still are, noted makers of thermostats and were undoubtedly involved in WW2 military supply.

I know absolutely nothing about U-Boat technology but I'd guess that logically, these items could have had uses on diesel-electric vessels.

As usual, caveat emptor......