What got you interested in WWII submarines?

[TorpX]

I've been interested in history, especially military history, since I was a kid, but mostly I liked books and movies about land warfare, and infantry combat. After I got a hand-me-down computer, I happened to come upon SHCE in the discount bin of the local computer big box store. To be honest, my decision to buy it was more due to the fact that the system requirements seemed to fall within my machine's limited capabilities, than any pre-existing interest in the subject. I didn't start playing right away, but when I finally got around to installing and playing, I was astounded at the level of detail and thought that went into it.

SHCE lead me to read O'Kane's books, and I've been pretty much hooked, since.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by TorpX

I've been interested in history, especially military history, since I was a kid, but mostly I liked books and movies about land warfare, and infantry combat. After I got a hand-me-down computer, I happened to come upon SHCE in the discount bin of the local computer big box store. To be honest, my decision to buy it was more due to the fact that the system requirements seemed to fall within my machine's limited capabilities, than any pre-existing interest in the subject. I didn't start playing right away, but when I finally got around to installing and playing, I was astounded at the level of detail and thought that went into it.

SHCE lead me to read O'Kane's books, and I've been pretty much hooked, since.

SH1 is a pretty good game. I like playing it every once in a while.

Give me my Gato or give me death!

*or even a Tench...if you have one

[TorpX]

I had a great deal of fun with it. I really enjoyed being on patrol in my S-boat, and at times, solving some interesting (at least to me) geometry problems.

I would probably play it some now, but I could never get it installed on Computus Vistamus.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by TorpX

I had a great deal of fun with it. I really enjoyed being on patrol in my S-boat, and at times, solving some interesting (at least to me) geometry problems.

I would probably play it some now, but I could never get it installed on Computus Vistamus.

I have it set up in DOSBox.

I also have Windows 7...

EDIT: PM me if you want help.

[TorpX]

Right now, I'm too busy to fool with it. Maybe I'll try it again when I finish my AFS project.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by TorpX

Right now, I'm too busy to fool with it. Maybe I'll try it again when I finish my AFS project.

Alright. Drop me a line (but not a depth charge) when you have time and I'll help you out if you need it.

[in_vino_vomitus]

My interest in Military History probably stems from my Father and Grandfather, who served in the RN during their respective World Wars. I bucked the trend by joining the Army. My main interest is the warfare in the Trenches of WW1 and my knowledge of submarine warfare in the pacific was sketchy to say the least. To my mind it paralleled our experience with Bomber Command, i.e. taking the fight to the enemy in the only way possible at the time. My Dad never talked about his time in the Navy much, and he died pretty young - about my age in fact. One thing he did say though was that it was hard to get girls if the Yanks were in port, because they had so many medal ribbons on their uniforms - the solution to this was to glue sweet wrappers to a strip of cardboard and attach it in the appropriate place. I have no idea if this is true or not, but I want it to be

Really it's playing this game that ramped up my interest, and by "This game" I mean TMO. The stock game was fun, but not anything special. I can't even remember how I came upon these forums. I think I was looking for a game patch. I heard people talking about a thing called TMO, and I took a look and I was pretty instantly hooked. From getting immersed in the game it was a natural progression to looking into the stories behind it. Some of which i'd heard before - I remember reading a book as a schoolboy, but not really comprehending. I had no idea about the extent of the torpedo problem for instance.

Anyway - for me it was the game that sparked an interest in the underlying story, rather than the other way round, which is hardly surprising. I imagine that for Americans, the submarine war in the Pacific is as significant as the battle of Britain is to us.

[BigWalleye]

The Silent Service TV show, especially the story of Mush Morton and the Wahoo. The original Silent Hunter game, incredibly immersive and well-done considering the puny technology of the time. All the books by all the US submariners - Beach, Calvert, Fluckey, Gallantin, O'Kane, Ruhe, Ruiz, Sterling - who told the story as they had lived it. And, of course, Clay Blair, the Samuel Morison of the US Submarine Service.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

I imagine that for Americans, the submarine war in the Pacific is as significant as the battle of Britain is to us.

Well, I actually never heard a peep about it until I joined Subsim. We teach the Battle of Britain more than the Sub War.

It's not in our school history books and it's just not a real big part of the war according to the teachers. I wish they'd change that. Not many people realize the significance of the Submarine War in the Pacific.

[Hinrich Schwab]

Originally Posted by DrewC

Hey everyone!
I'm 19 years old and would like to regard myself as a WWII history buff. Without a doubt the main thing that got me interested in WWII at a young age (9 or 10) was the constant watching all the old war movies with my dad and brothers- Run Silent Run Deep, The Enemy Below, The Great Escape, Stalag 17, The Desert Rats, Patton, Guadacanal Diaries, Kelly's Heroes, etc, etc. This led to discovering for myself a ton of great war books as well: Das Boot, multiple books by Ambrose, etc. My favorite has got to be Robert Sherrod's account of the Battle of Tarawa. However, the submarine scene has always captivated me the most, and I have to say that I can trace the roots of that back to when my father came home with a awesome surprise for me back in the day: Silent Hunter II.
I guess my question to the subsim community is this. What got you interested in WWII history, and submarines in particular?

I had always been interested in Military History. World War II was a natural focus for me since my grandfather was a WWII vet. He never really talked too much about it and after hearing his stories secondhand from my mother and uncle, I understood why. (For the record, he was on a militarized C2) Despite my own Army background, I found subs fascinating. I vaguely remember playing Silent Service on the NES back in the early 90's. Yep, back in the day, Subsims made it to the Nintendo. Fast forward about 15 years or so, I decided to go to college for Military History back in 2007. I am halfway to my Master's degree in Military History, now. I remember writing for my Bachelor's capstone, which was about subs of course, and my professor flat out told me he learned something in regards to America's submarine service during the war. I picked up SH III and SH4 on a good sale from Direct2Drive back in 2010 and I have been crash diving since. To make my own experiences even wilder, I joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary last year and recently completed the Coastal Navigation course. Playing subsims hard core helped with this dramatically Dead Reckoning? No problem. Fuel Management? No problem. Speed-Distance calcs? No problem.

[in_vino_vomitus]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

Well, I actually never heard a peep about it until I joined Subsim. We teach the Battle of Britain more than the Sub War.

It's not in our school history books and it's just not a real big part of the war according to the teachers. I wish they'd change that. Not many people realize the significance of the Submarine War in the Pacific.

Now that really does surprise me..........

[Boeing727fan]

I grew up in Erie, PA which is a port city on Lake Erie. I have always been interested in shipping and history, but what turned my interest toward submarines, was watching "Down Periscope" when I was 11 years old.

[GrafDodiko]

To keep it short: I don't know exactly. I come from southern bavaria in germany so I'm pretty close to the alps. But I always was fascinated with ships and navigating on sea. I even considered studying nautical science in hamburg (but then went with material science).

The intriguing thing about submarines/u-boats for me ist, that they are a little bit built like spaceships. Everything is built with redundancy for safty and its narrow and uncomfortable. This is what makes it interesting because it's a challange...

I could go on like this but you get the idea

[cdrsubron7]

Like a few other people have mentioned I started out with watching the Silent Service TV show from the 50s. In high school it was anything about the Pacific War that I could find to read.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

Now that really does surprise me..........

I know. There isn't a whole lot out there about it.

It's something that I believe should be included in the Pacific War chapters of the history books.

My last book didn't even hardly mention anything about the Battle of the Atlantic either! It just said "U-boats sank British Shipping in the Atlantic Ocean. The British used the Convoy System to protect it's ships" and that was the end of that.