General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: U-864 to be raised
Posted by:
Preisler
()
Date: August 12, 2012 06:30PM
Robert,
I was referring to the post (and DVD) below. As far as my serving on a boat (which I of course haven't done), not quite sure how that's relevant. I don't claim to qualify for submarines, any more than I assume you'd claim to have worked at Bletchley Park decrypting ULTRA transepts (forgive me if you did and I'm unaware of it) or been a Shetland Bus cutter pilot. Or written a book that involves some understanding of all three. I'm an author. That's my job. That's what I have done for thirty years. I'm now writing a book about someone who had a brain aneurysm at the age of 12 and recovered after a 30 day coma and yearlong stay in the hospital. Do I have to have had that experience to write about it? Do you have to be a police officer to write about police? A criminal to write about crime?
This is silliness, Bob. Rather than get confrontational for no sane reason, I certainly would rather we communicate from positions of mutual respect--and I don't think I've ever disrespected you. We aren't discussing ALL HANDS DOWN, and I'm not going to go tit for tat with you naming the lifelong friends I made in the submariner community--among them several men who actually served aboard Scorpion--versus as those outraged men you claim to have met.
If you have issues with ALL HANDS DOWN, fine, I can certainly accept it, it dealt with a highly controversial subject that encompassed many disparate points of view. That said, ALL HANDS DOWN and CODE NAME CAESAR are very different books. I'm not asking you to read (as opposed to buy) CAESAR, which you can pick up at the library and read for free. I'm only asking you to read it BEFORE you choose to comment on it--which you did here, publicly, for reasons I won't conjecture about--because it's the only basis anyone can have for a rational discussion. And because I think you might appreciate the book. It is straight up World War 2 history, and exciting material at that, that I was frankly surprised hadn't been documented before I got around to it. It was all there in the archival records of Germany, Great Britian, Norway and the United States. No one bothered to look, is all.
There's a lot of dumb stuff concerning U-864 that was promulgated by the media. It made its way into newspapers like the New York Times and others because lazy reporters just cribbed and cribbed from the articles that originally appeared in Der Spiegel to push its documentary. As a result history's been distorted. The only guys who took time to write about Venturer/U-864 in an informed way were a couple of journalists from the Norwegian daily newspaper Bergens Tidende. The rest, or most of the rest, were looking for Hitler himself to be hiding aboard the U-Boat (figuratively speaking). I gathered what was known or knowable to set the record straight.
FYI, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY gave the book a great review, and the NEW YORK POST named it one of the summer's top nonfiction reading picks.
Again, the post/DVD reference is below.
Jerome
<<Vidart:
Do you know how I can get a DVD of the History Channel's movie titled
"U-864: Hitler's Last Secret?"
I tried the History Channel's list of movies, but it is not listed.
Any help will be appreciated>>
ROBERT M.
I was referring to the post (and DVD) below. As far as my serving on a boat (which I of course haven't done), not quite sure how that's relevant. I don't claim to qualify for submarines, any more than I assume you'd claim to have worked at Bletchley Park decrypting ULTRA transepts (forgive me if you did and I'm unaware of it) or been a Shetland Bus cutter pilot. Or written a book that involves some understanding of all three. I'm an author. That's my job. That's what I have done for thirty years. I'm now writing a book about someone who had a brain aneurysm at the age of 12 and recovered after a 30 day coma and yearlong stay in the hospital. Do I have to have had that experience to write about it? Do you have to be a police officer to write about police? A criminal to write about crime?
This is silliness, Bob. Rather than get confrontational for no sane reason, I certainly would rather we communicate from positions of mutual respect--and I don't think I've ever disrespected you. We aren't discussing ALL HANDS DOWN, and I'm not going to go tit for tat with you naming the lifelong friends I made in the submariner community--among them several men who actually served aboard Scorpion--versus as those outraged men you claim to have met.
If you have issues with ALL HANDS DOWN, fine, I can certainly accept it, it dealt with a highly controversial subject that encompassed many disparate points of view. That said, ALL HANDS DOWN and CODE NAME CAESAR are very different books. I'm not asking you to read (as opposed to buy) CAESAR, which you can pick up at the library and read for free. I'm only asking you to read it BEFORE you choose to comment on it--which you did here, publicly, for reasons I won't conjecture about--because it's the only basis anyone can have for a rational discussion. And because I think you might appreciate the book. It is straight up World War 2 history, and exciting material at that, that I was frankly surprised hadn't been documented before I got around to it. It was all there in the archival records of Germany, Great Britian, Norway and the United States. No one bothered to look, is all.
There's a lot of dumb stuff concerning U-864 that was promulgated by the media. It made its way into newspapers like the New York Times and others because lazy reporters just cribbed and cribbed from the articles that originally appeared in Der Spiegel to push its documentary. As a result history's been distorted. The only guys who took time to write about Venturer/U-864 in an informed way were a couple of journalists from the Norwegian daily newspaper Bergens Tidende. The rest, or most of the rest, were looking for Hitler himself to be hiding aboard the U-Boat (figuratively speaking). I gathered what was known or knowable to set the record straight.
FYI, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY gave the book a great review, and the NEW YORK POST named it one of the summer's top nonfiction reading picks.
Again, the post/DVD reference is below.
Jerome
<<Vidart:
Do you know how I can get a DVD of the History Channel's movie titled
"U-864: Hitler's Last Secret?"
I tried the History Channel's list of movies, but it is not listed.
Any help will be appreciated>>
ROBERT M.
