A lot more than you'd think can survive. People who go around blowing things up are frequently caught because a lot of pieces are recovered. In this case, the parts supposedly recovered were propellers, which could be expected to have serial numbers, and can be matched to torpedo type.
Forum: General Discussions

External fuel tanks aren't a new concept. Walter included external, bladder-type tanks in his designs for hydrogen peroxide boats, probably for much the same reason.
Forum: Technology and Operations

Well, not to be too nit-picky, but it's "Banzai!" "Bonsai" are miniature trees.
Forum: General Discussions

There's been a fair amount of discussion of this very subject at www.rcgroups.com. J.T. McDaniel
Forum: Modeling and schematics

Like the guy said over there, it's an outboard motor. J.T. McDaniel
Forum: Technology and Operations

USS COD (SS-224) was an EB boat and has the anchor on the starboard side, which fits the pattern; USS Drum (SS-228) is a Portsmouth boat and also has the anchor on the starboard side, which doesn't. I have heard that story, but either it didn't really work that way or a lot of boats had their anchors moved at some point. The Manitowoc boats were built to the EB design; Mare Island boats
Forum: General Discussions

The way I've seen it explained, orders were placed for blocks of boats and the numbers assigned to each. There was no particular concern with consecutive numbering, as was done with American boats until the Seawolf's and that abortive effort to start over (at 21). In both countries, numbers were assigned before construction started, so if a U-boat was blown up in a bombing raid before i
Forum: General Discussions

Whatever we used, it didn't always work. COD (SS-224) experienced her only personnel loss when a torpedo being charged experienced a hydrogen explosion and caught fire in the ATR. The theory I've heard as to the cause was human error. Two torpedoes were being charged, one having completed its charge and the other still charging, and the theory is that the TM disconnected the wrong one,
Forum: Technology and Operations

They didn't really think centimetric radar was impossible. It was simply that, based on their own experiments in that area, they didn't think anyone could build a set small enough to fit into an aircraft. Such thinking is natural, even if also a violation of one of the more basic (if frequently ignored) rules of both science and warfare: "Just because you can't do something
Forum: Technology and Operations

For sheer longevity, there's the Hai Shi, ex. USS Cutlass (SS-478), which entered service in March 1945 and, last I heard, is still in service in the ROC Navy as a training boat. U-505 was suffering not only from the weather, but from what, from a naval viewpoint, could be viewed as a considerable lack of maintenance. Ships have to be kept painted, and you have to be pretty aggressive ab
Forum: Technology and Operations

I wander in occasionally now, but mostly hang around over on Martini's board these days. I probably should check in here more often. J.T. McDaniel
Forum: Movies and Films

Knowing little or nothing about the subject is probably an advantage in watching most sub movies. If you know very much all the mistakes tend to detract from the story. The boat used is quite authentic, at least externally, but it is not an actual German boat. It was built in a Maltese yard as a prop for the movie U-571, and has substituted for other submarines (usually very inappropriately) i
Forum: Movies and Films

I'll note that the American edition of Arthur Baudzus' "The Nazi" is now of out print, but the book now appears to have been re-issued by an Australian publisher under ISBN 9781921406959.
Forum: General Discussions

The size of the U.S. boats was dictated by function. You needed a big boat to carry sufficient fuel for Pacific operations, which generally involved up to a week or more of steaming just to get to the hunting grounds. The fleet boats were also designed to operate with the battle fleet (though they never did so in practice), hence both the name and the high surface speed. Now the IXD2 U-boats cons
Forum: General Discussions

The problem, simply enough, is that water drops don't scale. When they were shooting Das Boot the producers determined that a 45' model was about the smallest that would give a realistic effect at sea, but, of course, that model couldn't dive. This is much less of a factor today. Unlike the real stuff, CGI water DOES scale quite nicely. It was also much less of a factor at the t
Forum: Movies and Films

Actual visibility at sea on a clear day (in miles) is 1.2246 x the square root of the observer's eye height above the sea (in feet). U-boats being fairly low in the water, say the lookout's eye level is about 10' above the surface gives a horizon of just under 4 miles. Of course, the target sticks up above the horizon, so if the highest visible part of the target in 40' above
Forum: Technology and Operations