UDT Kit by Monogram

I was beginning to think that I was the only one who ever even heard of this one. I believe the net was supposed to help them board,but, the instructions had it in the wrong place.My uncle was U.D.T. and he was around when I built mine and he helped me make her more correct.I haven,t even seen this one on sale tables at the I.P.M.S. show here  in TEXAS. If you still have it good on you. tankerbuilder

I have a vague memory of a training film, whereby one recovered divers by streaming a rubber boat over the side. 

The divers would form in a line 50-60 yards apart, and the recovery boat would stream down that line, inboard of the divers.  The rubber boat would be on the seaward side.

It was easier to "yank" the divers out of the water while underway onto the rubber boat, for the lower freeboard, but also for the "bounce" on landing.   If this sounds a bit odd, consider how much taller even that rubber raft is to a diver floating only "shoulder-high" out of the water.

The diver would then scramble up the net and into the recovery boat.

That kit is still a gem, it's the only way to have an Higgins LCPR in 1/32 short of scratch building.

And, I have this nagging memory that the UDT types used an LCP rather than an LCPR more typically, too.  But, that could be a flawed memory, too.

I remember an old movie from the early 50's about the birth of the Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams.  There was some good footage of casting the swimmers (rolling them off the raft) and then the pickup (snagging them with the hoop and throwing them into the boat.

Check IMDB for more info on the flick

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043565/

Capn,

Your description stirred an old memory in my often faulty mind, so I did a little digging. I remembered the scene you described from the 1951 movie " The Frogmen" starring Richard Widmark. There were extensive scenes from the training, and as a kid I was thrilled by the dropping off and picking up of the divers.I think I spent the next summer begging my parents for a mask and swim fins. It was one of those movies that started out saying it couldn't have been made without the cooperation of the US Navy. The training scenes certainly had that training film look. That film is still out there and could be worth a look as a reference.

I think the "tennis net" part on the Monogram model was supposed to be some sort of signal flag.

I always wished the kit had frogmen figures in the same scale as the boat gunner and helmsman (they weren't -- they were smaller), and in just masks, fins, and trunks, like the guys in real life -- UDTs didn't use scuba tanks during WWII.

"The Frogmen," a classic movie that encouraged many a man to enlist in the Navy for the UDTs, was partly filmed on and in the waters around the small islands of  Vieques and Culebra off Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The "Japanese" base seen at the end of the film was actually the Submarine Base on St. Thomas.

I picked up the Revell-Monogram re-release of the kit a few years ago on Ebay.  Not sure if there are still out there now, but actually got mine for a reasonable price.  Bought it mainly for the early Higgins boat and thought that it could be converted into a British ATC(?) used to transport some of the Rangers at Normandy, but then found out more details about the unique British boats.   Then I found a copy of Frogmen at Best Buy, now I want to build it as the UDT boat.   Does anyone know how the old Italeri frogman set compares in scale with this kit?   I saw an article where these figures were modified for an Apollo 11 recovery diorama using the 1/32 Monogram CSM.

Went and dug out the kit box and looked at it again.

The "tennis net" looks like it is supposed to be some sort of signal that recovery is underway.  Although, why it needs all that rigging remains an open question.

My memory is questionable at best, and it has been many years since I have seen "The Frogmen" but I have a vague memory that the "tennis net" was used to deploy the divers. I clearly remember the pickup was done with a hoop of rope much like a hula hoop. The drop offs and pickups involved getting closest to shore so was done at top speed. The divers would line up in line treading water with both hands up. They would grasp the loop and the momentum would help swing them into the rubber boat and then onto the craft making room for the next diver. The droppiung off is where my memory gets fuzzy, but I believe the divers would roll over the gunnel into the raft, and then roll off onto the net trailing in the water. At a signal from thew boat they would drop off into the water so there would be the proper spacing between the divers. There would be a steady movement of men from craft, to raft, to net, to water. I seem to remember those drop off and pick up scenes as the most exciting in the movie. Hopefully someone who has a copy of the movie can confirm or correct my recollections.

I can see how a net would be used to drop the men off, but from the Revell or Monogram kit and box image (web searchable as UDT navy boat),  the "tennis net" is way up by the side of the boat, nowhere near the water. Of course the crew can position devices as needed, but seems like R/M  would have placed the net in it's most logical  and useful position.   But right now that looks like a small game of beach volleyball.  

 Let's keep this convo going until we get a definitive answer.