I'm goin' down
11-02-08, 01:32 PM
I have been playing SH4 for about a month. It is the first game I have played. (I swiped my son's CD when he left for college.) I started knowing nothing about it, and I do not have a understanding of nautical matters although naval warfare has intrgued me since I read a New York Times contemporaneous account of the encounter between three British warships and the Graf Spay in 1939 off the coast of Uraguay. I want to thank all of the gamers who make this Forum extraordinary. It is informative, displays depth of knowledge, interesting, funny at times, and technically amazing. I have been slowly improving my skills, and am ready to try auto targeting on my next mission. I would name the personnel whose help has demonstrated skill and commitment to SH4 and an indomitable spirit that reflects credit on themsleves and the Navy, but the list is too long. You know who they are and so do the rest of us. So, I will make a contribution to the Forum, as it is well deserved and earned. And, I leave you with the amazing story of demise of the Graf Spay, as recalled from an article in the New York Times and republished in the book containing the top 100 headlines from that paper.
The story of the battle off the coast Uraguay: The British believed the Graf Spay, a pocket battleship [smaller than a battleship with the speed of cruiser and armed with battleship caliber guns], was off the coast of Africa attacking British shipping. It had been credited with sinkingk eighteen British ships. British intelligence was wrong. The Graf Spaf appeared in the morning and confronted three British battleships, including the Exeter, that were escorting a French passenger liner off the coast of South America. The passenger liner dropped back and the British ships engaged the Graf Spay. The battle raged all day. Damage to the Exeter forced it to drop out of the battle, but not before it had scored several hits on the Graf Spay, forcing the Graf Spay to run southwards towards Montevideo, Uraguay, a neutral country which potetially afforded it safe harbor. The British ships pursued. Late in the day, when the sun was setting (in the west, last time I looked!), the commander of one of the British battleships steered his ship into shallow waters at a point of land near the mouth of the River Platte. The rays of the setting sun shone off the hull of the Graf Spay, illumitating it as darkness was falling. The glint from the sun off the Graf Spay lit it up, providing British gunners an hour of additional firing time, while the gunners on the Graf Spay could not locate the British ship nestled against the darkening shore, plus their targetng was impaired by the glare of the setting sun. (What a brilliant tactic! No wonder the British Navy ruled the seas for centuries!) The Graf Spay limped up the River Platte into Montevideo, capital of neutral Uraguay. Sixty of its crew had been killed or injured. The British government issued an ultimatum the Uraguayan government -- surrender the Graf Spay or the British Navy will sink it in the harbor. The Graf Spay tried to breach the British blockade at the mouth of the River Platte but was turned back by canon fire from British guns. It's captain ordered and sunk it in the harbor at Montevideo approximately three days after it arrived.
p.s. A Project Director on a job I worked on oveseas 25 years ago was a former sailor on an American destroyer in WWII. He served in the Atlantic and Mediteranean, and his ship was a rear guard at Normandy on DDay, searching for German subs. He was at sea for seven months after the war broke out. His ship chased a German sub for 3 days and captured it when it surfaced for air. His crew was rewarded with a tour of the east coast to raise War Bonds, where people paid to tour their boat (it may have been to tour the German sub., but I cannot remember.) He said they would give the girls a free pass for .... (you can figure out the rest.) He noted that the British captured a German sub that was highly publicized, but that the U.S. Navy had captured one as well, and it was his ship. His brother was a Marine. He remarked that American soldiers knew they could defeat the Japanese after the Marines caught a crack Japanese unit on the beach in Guadalcanal and decimated them. After that encounter the word was out amongst the soldiers that the best the Japenese could field could be defeated by the Marines. A morale booster, I am sure.
The story of the battle off the coast Uraguay: The British believed the Graf Spay, a pocket battleship [smaller than a battleship with the speed of cruiser and armed with battleship caliber guns], was off the coast of Africa attacking British shipping. It had been credited with sinkingk eighteen British ships. British intelligence was wrong. The Graf Spaf appeared in the morning and confronted three British battleships, including the Exeter, that were escorting a French passenger liner off the coast of South America. The passenger liner dropped back and the British ships engaged the Graf Spay. The battle raged all day. Damage to the Exeter forced it to drop out of the battle, but not before it had scored several hits on the Graf Spay, forcing the Graf Spay to run southwards towards Montevideo, Uraguay, a neutral country which potetially afforded it safe harbor. The British ships pursued. Late in the day, when the sun was setting (in the west, last time I looked!), the commander of one of the British battleships steered his ship into shallow waters at a point of land near the mouth of the River Platte. The rays of the setting sun shone off the hull of the Graf Spay, illumitating it as darkness was falling. The glint from the sun off the Graf Spay lit it up, providing British gunners an hour of additional firing time, while the gunners on the Graf Spay could not locate the British ship nestled against the darkening shore, plus their targetng was impaired by the glare of the setting sun. (What a brilliant tactic! No wonder the British Navy ruled the seas for centuries!) The Graf Spay limped up the River Platte into Montevideo, capital of neutral Uraguay. Sixty of its crew had been killed or injured. The British government issued an ultimatum the Uraguayan government -- surrender the Graf Spay or the British Navy will sink it in the harbor. The Graf Spay tried to breach the British blockade at the mouth of the River Platte but was turned back by canon fire from British guns. It's captain ordered and sunk it in the harbor at Montevideo approximately three days after it arrived.
p.s. A Project Director on a job I worked on oveseas 25 years ago was a former sailor on an American destroyer in WWII. He served in the Atlantic and Mediteranean, and his ship was a rear guard at Normandy on DDay, searching for German subs. He was at sea for seven months after the war broke out. His ship chased a German sub for 3 days and captured it when it surfaced for air. His crew was rewarded with a tour of the east coast to raise War Bonds, where people paid to tour their boat (it may have been to tour the German sub., but I cannot remember.) He said they would give the girls a free pass for .... (you can figure out the rest.) He noted that the British captured a German sub that was highly publicized, but that the U.S. Navy had captured one as well, and it was his ship. His brother was a Marine. He remarked that American soldiers knew they could defeat the Japanese after the Marines caught a crack Japanese unit on the beach in Guadalcanal and decimated them. After that encounter the word was out amongst the soldiers that the best the Japenese could field could be defeated by the Marines. A morale booster, I am sure.