There were also U-Boat landings on Cape Cod and in Maine back then, amazing that they were able to come in virtually undetected.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Like I said: initially, we were unprepared. Then, it became a matter of trying to cover a whole lot of ocean with not a lot of ships and subs and air assets, much of which were positioned either on convoy duty or in the European theater of operations or in the Pacific (a true two-front war). Doing so fell to coastal defense forces such as the Coast Guard and reserve elements -- but there was a full-on shooting war "over there." So some math was done, and an acceptable loss level (kind of like a commander's estimate of casualties) was calculated and...

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Its been a few years since I watched Das Boot. It might be time again.

Yeah, the U-boat guys in WWI and WWII (and U.S. submarine forces in WWII) really were the derring-do undersea devils of the war. The audacity and crazy-courage nature of the German U-boat crews in both wars was something to behold. The problem for Germany was that they simply couldn't field enough of them and that they didn't have enough time to mature their tactics to deal with increasingly effective anti-submarine warfare operations by the Allies.

There's a wealth of non-fiction and fiction available from Daniel V. Gallery, a Navy rear admiral who saw extensive action in WWII, especially in fighting German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. His most memorable explications on U-boats in WWII were probably his non-fiction works "U-505" and "We Captured a U-boat." I've read them both. Excellent stuff. And the story of the capture of U-505 is the stuff of legend.

The Navy lieutenant who led the boarding party (Albert David) -- which was also the last time the command "Away All Borders!" was given by a Navy ship's captain -- received the Medal of Honor for his actions, which prevented the sub from being scuttled and in which they managed to grab an Enigma coding machine. Gallery was able to impress on his crews the need for absolute secrecy in grabbing U-505 (the German crew was put in internment for the remainder of the war) in order to prevent word leaking out and the Germans changing up their coding wheels.

Gallery was figuratively keelhauled by the Chief of Naval Operations at the time, Ernest King, another Navy WWII legend (when I was an enlisted man, one of the barracks in which I lived was "King Hall" ;-), for his capture of the U-boat. King threatened to court martial Gallery for the exploit, which seriously endangered the lives of many Navy crewmen. It was only his success in getting his crews to keep the secret of the capture of U-505 that prevented him from being court martialed. Instead, he was awarded a medal. But it was a close-run thing. LOL!

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

About 3 out of 4 U-boot sailors never came home. A frightening statistic, and testament to the efficacy of radar, sonar, and depth charges.

X2. Great movie. I'll also watch it again.

there's a u-boat off the coast of NJ down near Cape May I believe. I would love to dive on it but it's deep and from what I know a dangerous dive.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

He sank merchant ships in support of the Nazi cause.

Sure did. I don't think I said that the man himself had my admiration. But there's no doubt he's a historical figure, and so were the German U-boats and their crews, and that his passing is something notable, because it's another vestige of the last world war that's now left the stage.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I flew fighters with the USAF from 1976-1996. We would read about and sometimes get to meet some of the WWII fighter pilots from both Allied and Axis air forces. The ideology of some of the German and Japanese pilots (Erich Hartmann, Saburo Sakai, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, etc) never seemed to be a big concern. We were impressed with their skill and what they had accomplished.

Hartmann ended up serving in the post-war Luftwaffe after spending time as a prisoner in the Soviet Union. Sakai separated from the Japanese military but he had some close ties with US groups after the war.

Rudel was an interesting case. He had flown more than 2500 sorties in Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers, and among other things he claimed to have destroyed more than 500 Soviet tanks. However, post-war he was a member of a Neo-Nazi party. I remember the story of the German F-4's flying over his funeral in 1982 and whether this was some sort of unauthorized fly-past. He was an especially interesting pilot to those of us flying A-10's in Europe during the 1980's preparing to take on the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies when they charged over the inner German border. Certainly a flawed person, though.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Highly recommend the book "Iron Coffins" if you've not read already...

The U-boat guys were to Germany what the Spitfire pilots were to the U.K. No way can I personally imagine how claustrophobic it must have been for those young sailors in one of those coffins.

More than just one off the east coast of the USA, Some are within recreational dive limits while others are definitely mixed gas tech dives. Wife and I have discussed the possibility of a Morehead, N.C. dive vacation some time. If we do it, would definitely look into diving the U-boat in the area.

https://uboat.net/fates/dive/dive_us.htm

More like the RAF Bomber Command aircrews. (Both were inside metal coffins.)

"Of every 100 airmen who joined Bomber Command, 45 were killed, 6 were seriously wounded, 8 became Prisoners of War, and only 41 escaped unscathed (at least physically). Of the 120,000 who served, 55,573 were killed including over 10,000 Canadians. Of those who were flying at the beginning of the war, only ten percent survived. It is a loss rate comparable only to the worst slaughter of the First World War trenches. Only the Nazi U-Boat force suffered a higher casualty rate.


On a single night, Bomber Command suffered more losses than did Fighter Command during the entire Battle of Britain."

http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/commandlosses.html

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

The U-505 is in a museum in Chicago, if you weren't aware - https://www.msichicago.org/...its/u-505-submarine/

Not too many WWII U-boats left since the majority were scuttled after the war.

Yup, that was my uncle Jerry. He was in a RCAF Lancaster bomber from 41-45. Flew something like 18 missions and miraculously survived them all. Lived to be 90 and passed away about 7 yrs ago. RIP Unc Jerry.

So much courage and selflessness.

Interesting to look at the fate of the RAF Bomber Command aircrew members who flew the "Dambuster" mission (Operation Chastise) in May, 1943. The 19 Lancasters used on the mission carried 133 aircrew. On this mission, 53 were KIA and 3 were captured POW. The surviving aircrew continued flying operations, and subsequently another 32 were KIA and 7 more captured POW before the war ended. Only 48 of the 133 (36%) survived the war, and 10 of these 48 survived only as POW's in German prison camps.



The Mohne, Sorpe, and Eder dams are all located in what was designated "LFA 3" in Germany when I was flying A-10's there in the 1980's. We could legally fly as low as 250 feet, and we'd go out and fly over these dams on the attack paths used by the Lancasters. But we were doing dry runs in daytime in a maneuverable and relatively high performance single seat jet. The 617 Squadron Lancasters pilots were flying at night in a four engine bomber, flying at 60 feet over water, in order to deliver a 9000 pound bomb. Throw in the fact that they were being shot at during the attacks on the Mohne dam. The terrain around the Eder dam is especially hilly, and simply flying any aircraft into the required position in daylight is challenging. Such men.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chastise

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

At the Museum of Science and Industry (one of the greatest museums in the world, IMHO :-). I've been in it. I was stationed at Great Lakes as a division officer back in the day. Also got to check out one of those Japanese midget subs (HA-30, though some dispute that designation and insist it was HA-8) when I was a department head at the submarine base in Groton, CT. And then there were the U.S. WWII submarines like the Balao class diesel-electric boats. Man, they weren't kidding with that whole "steel coffins" thing. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

We bought our house off a retired Admiral in the UK submarine force:. There was this quiet old guy of about 85 sat in a chair as we wandered around his house for a viewing which was full of submarine portraits and memorabilia. I'd seen Das Boot so I had the slightest inkling of just what a life he must have had. What a legend.

I'm going to watch Das Boot again this weekend.

So am I. What a flick! And it shows yet again just how brutal war really is. No one. NO ONE. Should ever be hoping for war. If they are, they need their brain housing group flushed out ASAP.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I have over a hundred dives on the 365. I was a divemaster on a boat for a couple summers. Everyone wants to do it. Its kinda boring, but if you have not done it then I guess its ok. 110 to the sand.

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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.