What is your favorite real life sub and why?

[Camaero]

I'm not talking about class, rather which particular sub's stories or actions have made it your favorite?

So far mine would have to be Wahoo. Trigger and Tang are extremely close but damn, something about the Wahoo has held me ever since I first read about her. Mush Morton was a pretty amazing guy. So whats the rest of yalls favorite?

[Frenssen]

It has to be U-96 because of the book and the movie Das Boot. It also survived the war until it was bombed in April 45.

[AntEater]

Well, in WW2 either SM U.21 (Hersing) or austrian U.14 (Trapp)
Hersing was just the classical submarine hero, basically "saving" the dardanelles by sinking HMS Triumph and Majestic and even diving beneath sinking Triumph to escape destroyers.
Also, U.21 was the first ship to sink another ship by torpedo, when it sank HMS Pathfinder.
Unusually, Hersing, U.21 and most of the crew stayed together until August 1918. U.21 sank two Battleships, two cruisers and 36 merchantmen.
I hate "sound of music", but Trapp still was IMHO one of the best submarine skippers ever. U.14 was an interesting boat (french boat captured while trying to sneak into Pola) and Trapp surely made good use of it. U.14 (ex Curie) was the highest scoring french sub in WW1, and maybe the highest scoring french sub ever. Unfortunately after it was captured by the enemies of France :P

In WW2, of course U 48. It was apparently such a good crew that no matter what incompetent skipper (Rösing? Bleichrodt?) you put in command, he still produced results.
And of course U 123, on of the most successful IXs and the luckiest for sure, as it survived the war.
Regarding US boats, look at my signature...
Seriously, my US favorite is USS Silversides, as Creed Burlingame simply was a cool guy :arrgh!:

Apart from that, I like the second obscurest sub in WW2, the HRMS Delfinul, the only sub of the royal rumanian navy. Ten war patrols in the black sea, a single torpedo attack (which missed).
The most obscure are the Thai subs, I havent been able to find out anything about them.

Postwar, my favorite is Wilhelm Bauer, the R&D sub of the german navy, the only preserved type XXI.
And of course any of the new HDW fuel cell submarines.

[Sailor Steve]

USS Triton (SSN-586), 'cause she sailed around the world - underwater! And under the command of the legendary Captain Edward L. Beach!
http://www.answers.com/topic/uss-triton-ssrn-586
http://navysite.de/ssn/ssn586.htm

[Letum]

No suprise....
U-69
It is the most over looked u-boot!

It was the first VIIC boat and it story is fascinating and as well written as Das Boot.
But dont take it from me, hear it from her Klauen's words (http://www.amazon.com/Laughing-Cow-Story-U69-Fortunes/dp/1841450227).

[Polak]

For me, it is the WW2 version of "ORP Orze³"(ORP Eagle).
Incredible story from the begining to the end.
Everything started with "Operation Worek", which was followed up by the incredible escape from Tallin to England without seacharts. "ORP Orze³" also torpedoed the German transport ship Rio de Janeiro thus unfolding the invasion on Norway.
She was later lost with all hands, it's still unknow until today how and where she was lost.

If someone would like to know more about "ORP Eagle" I recommend this webpage: http://www.orzel.one.pl/viewpage.php?page_id=25

[Onkel Neal]

Good question!! So many great subs, it's very hard to choose.
Nautilus, Cavalla, U-99, Triton, Harder, Texas, Tang, U-552,...

I would have to join the herd and say Wahoo.

[lesrae]

Historically it'd be HMS Upholder (WWII version) - the most successful RN boat ever. In recent years HMS Splendid - the only one I've ever been to sea on, 2 very interesting and enjoyable weeks.

[Hitman]

Trigger and Tang are extremely close but damn, something about the Wahoo has held me ever since I first read about her. Mush Morton was a pretty amazing guy.

I would like to quote Edward Beach on this: "Wahoo lead the way when the clear way was not easy to see" :yep:

That's probably the reason Wahoo became legendary. She (Well under Morton's command, that is) showed to all the fleet that aggressive actions could be taken and that fleet subs -originally created as fleet scouting add-ons- could well be employed for the very different task of commerce-raiding and starving the enemy. Morton's Wahoo will thus always be remembered as the sub who influenced most the whole pacific campaign.:up:

But my favourit was, and always would be, WW1 U-35 under Lothar Von Arnauld de la Periere (My personal hero). That submarine got the sinking record and was long regarded by enemies as gallant, interprid and fair in the engagements. Her comamnder not only became a legend, but also was considered a gentleman by his enemies. May be I'm a romantic of times long ago gone, where gentlemanship and fair fight counted, but that¡s my choice and nothing could change it.:up:

[Sailor Steve]

WW1 U-35 under Lothar Von Arnauld de la Periere
D'OH! I was gonna say that one! Really I was! I just forgot.

Excellent choice. She (and he) really is a legend, and I'm glad you mentioned them, or they might not have gotten menioned at all.:rock:

[Chock]

Just to be different, I'll go for the WW1 boat UB-65, simply because of all the 'Haunted' tales surrounding it. Most of which seem like cobblers, but still fun to speculate on.

[Rilder]

The one that doesn't get detected. :p


Nah, I honestly don't have a favorite, there all pretty cool, the WWII ones look coolest though.

[kiwi_2005]

USS Triton (SSN-586), 'cause she sailed around the world - underwater! And under the command of the legendary Captain Edward L. Beach!
Yes mine too, i read the book "Around the world Submerged" The voyage of the Triton by Captain Edward L. Beach. Great read, funny part when they rasie the scope and a native fisherman in a canoe spots it and thinks its some type of sea monster. :lol: But yeah the first boat to go round the world submerged.

Anyone read "Blind Mans bluff" The untold story of the cold war, tells of some brave daring skippers of that era when they were assigned to lay recording devices over the russian ph cables right in russian waters! (cable tapping operations in Okhotsk) The Seawolf was one of them assigned to these missions, according to US Navy was one of the oldest and most broken subs in the fleet. She went back to collect data from the recording devices 3 or 4 times. Which is a feat in its own. A few times they got depth charged by russian navy.

Not long after the russian navy found one of these recording devices over their cables, Later on they found out that there was a spy in the US navy selling information to the russians even tho one of the skippers for years had tried to tell the navy brass they refused to believe it. The russians new straight away the device was american made cause when they opened it up in small words its says "Made in America" :) this device can be seen in a russian museum

[fatty]

Footlong turkey breast on whole wheat, extra olives and mayo.

EDIT: Because it's delicious and easy on the waist line.

[bradclark1]

728. The Florida because I helped build her when I took a break in service.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Thus far U-552. So far anyway.

Not an easy question.

RDP

[ASWnut101]

SSN-21 USS Seawolf

[Syxx_Killer]

There's mroe than one sub that comes to mind. If I had to choose just one I would probably choose U-20 (WWI) because of it's involvment with Lusitania. The captain of U-20 went on to sink 190,000 tons of shipping in WWI. Two months after receiving the highest award he was KIA.

[I-25]

HUmmm mabey the Japanese No. 71 only one built in 1937 and scrapped in 1940. to bad:down: but as a fairly small boat a bit bigger than a type II it fits my fancy:arrgh!: and 23 Kts underwater in 1937! beat that!

[bookworm_020]

The Argentine sub ARA San Luis is one of my favourates. Proof that even if you don't sink anything, you can still make the enemy worry.

The fact they survived is a good enough reward.

My second favourate is the E-9, Max Horton's sub. A man who could fight in subs as well as go after them with equal success.

The Sub that takes them all in my opion is U.S.S. Tang ( I have to exclude the Wahoo as I have read little about her, please don't hate me!) To be as successful as her, and to sink as much tonnage and show others how it was done.:up:

[Bort]

U-47. What Prien did still boggles the mind sixty-some years later.

[dean_acheson]

Prien wasn't a wart on O'Kane's rear end! Well, that is a bit overstated... (j/k) :cool:

To me, the Tang is fascinating, and O'Kane's writing was is so great and his patrols were so impressive, even given his tendency to overestimate some tonnage numbers.

I love Morton too, but to me, O'Kane is the greatest. Ed Beach is wonderful, and have enjoyed all the books on the Germans, espically Topp, but I am not as impressed with Prien as I am with O'Kane.

If Prien had survived and written a lovely bio., that might be a bit different, but I don't know that given Prien's Nazi attachments, that he would have been able to rehabilite himself like Galland or Topp.

I love this guy! He's the Aob king!

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h97000/h97859.jpg

[Tchocky]

Jeez..the driest man ever to stand watch on an SS!

[HunterICX]

U-9 from WW1

as it did one of the most amazing things

Uboat.net:


On 16 July, 1914 this boat performed for the first time in history the difficult job of reloading torpedoes while submerged. This exercise would pay off only a few months later for the boat. On 22 September, 1914 U 9 (Ltn. Otto Weddigen) sank no fewer than 3 British cruisers in less than an hour: the HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy, with the loss of almost 1400 men. This attack showed for the first time the capabilities of submarines in war. Otto Weddigen would perish with his U 29 later in the war.

pic:

she is a looker too :rock:

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/856/ubootu9ev8.jpg

[geetrue]

My three boats were the best ... of course.

USS Salmon SS-573 we won seven battle efficency E's in a row Admiral Nitmiz presented us with the fifth gold E in person at Mare Island naval shipyard. He grabbed my wife's hand, at the reception afterwards, and with both of his hands on my young 17 year old bride he says, "Well bring on the rest of the pretty girls"

He must have been in his early 80's and I think he lived somwhere nearby in San Francisco ... the date was August 1964. Plus we pulled a North Pac that will never be forgotten montoring Russian missile test with some spooks (CT's) on board.

USS Ethan Allen SSBN 608 blue crew first ship of her class, first FBM designed from the ground up to be a FBM (the other's before her were SSN's cut in half and missile decks added on) We fired seven A-2's in a row back in 1968, off the Canary Islands in the direction of Rossvelt Roads, P.R. We fired them one minute apart and all 7 hit within 50 yards of the down range (2,500 miles) targets. We were the first boat to ever do that.

The captain surfaced after the test, plus we had just pulled a 80 day patrol in the Med and we had an old fashioned picnic. We were flying a big 7/up flag too when an English ASW patrol plane caught us topside. We just waved and laughed at him as he circled us.

USS Sam Houston SSBN 609 blue crew for firing the first live warhead A-1 Polaris misslie wiping out Christmas Island in 1961, but I got on board 9 years later. Still one of the best crew's I served with for keeping it's sanity at sea. We had a ships newspaper and yours truly was the ships radio disc jockey for the latest news, sports and who cared about the weather at 200' and 4 kts. :lol:

I know ya'll believe me, right? I never doubted that, but just in case here's some picture proof.

http://www.theworldwideweather.com/archiv5.gif

USS Salmon SS-573 just fresh out of overhaul April 1965
Those three shark thingy's are PUFF's sonar for tri-angling a range.

350' long world's largest diesel boat (in service) and don't give me that
crap about the IJN's sea plane boat's, either.

http://www.theworldwideweather.com/archiv4.jpg

This is the USS Ethan Allen SSBN 608's blue crew on the mission
I described above. That's the picnic and the crew going home. We flew
back and forth from Groton, Conn to Rota, Spain to change crew's.

This was from the patrol book the ships personalman put together
for us ... That's me in the lower right hand side under the huge 7/Up flag.

http://www.theworldwideweather.com/archiv2.jpg

Want to see a real sonar gang in a real sonar room no less.
Here's seven of us ... That's Chief Ski in the middle I'm on his
left side (the white guy). Chief Ski died back in 76, but the rest
of us are still kicking. That was the sonar gear behind us, three
units, BQS-4, BQR-2B, BQR 7 and the BQQ-3 was in front of us.
By the way that black guy was so cool he use to press his dungree's.

[I-25]

350' long world's largest diesel boat (in service) and don't give me that
crap about the IJN's sea plane boat's, either.


i was just about to give you that crap of the IJN subs :lol: (which are 400 feet)

[kurtz]

If Prien had survived and written a lovely bio., that might be a bit different, but I don't know that given Prien's Nazi attachments, that he would have been able to rehabilite himself like Galland or Topp.



Prien does have a bio out covering school days 'till after Scapa Flow well worth a read very inspirational, rather short but the nothing curtails an autobiography like being killed. He does touch on Nazi party membership, but the way he describes between the wars Germany I don't think many would blame him.

(Tempus Publishing, Fortunes of war series, U-Boat Commander, Author Gunther Prien)

My favourite Sub Le Surcouf just for being Mega and strange and having a rather chequered career.

Mike

[ASWnut101]

I change my "vote"

1st choice: Kilo SSK
2nd choice: SSN-21 USS Seawolf

[fatty]

Footlong turkey breast on whole wheat, extra olives and mayo.

EDIT: Because it's delicious and easy on the waist line.

Man, this didn't even get so much as a chuckle!

[dean_acheson]

Tell the battle surface story Gee! The one with the Marines on the boat, that one was funny as all git-out!

My three boats were the best ... of course.

USS Salmon SS-573 we won seven battle efficency E's in a row Admiral Nitmiz presented us with the fifth gold E in person at Mare Island naval shipyard. He grabbed my wife's hand, at the reception afterwards, and with both of his hands on my young 17 year old bride he says, "Well bring on the rest of the pretty girls"

He must have been in his early 80's and I think he lived somwhere nearby in San Francisco ... the date was August 1964. Plus we pulled a North Pac that will never be forgotten montoring Russian missile test with some spooks (CT's) on board.

USS Ethan Allen SSBN 608 blue crew first ship of her class, first FBM designed from the ground up to be a FBM (the other's before her were SSN's cut in half and missile decks added on) We fired seven A-2's in a row back in 1968, off the Canary Islands in the direction of Rossvelt Roads, P.R. We fired them one minute apart and all 7 hit within 50 yards of the down range (2,500 miles) targets. We were the first boat to ever do that.

The captain surfaced after the test, plus we had just pulled a 80 day patrol in the Med and we had an old fashioned picnic. We were flying a big 7/up flag too when an English ASW patrol plane caught us topside. We just waved and laughed at him as he circled us.

USS Sam Houston SSBN 609 blue crew for firing the first live warhead A-1 Polaris misslie wiping out Christmas Island in 1961, but I got on board 9 years later. Still one of the best crew's I served with for keeping it's sanity at sea. We had a ships newspaper and yours truly was the ships radio disc jockey for the latest news, sports and who cared about the weather at 200' and 4 kts. :lol:

I know ya'll believe me, right? I never doubted that, but just in case here's some picture proof.

http://www.theworldwideweather.com/archiv5.gif

USS Salmon SS-573 just fresh out of overhaul April 1965
Those three shark thingy's are PUFF's sonar for tri-angling a range.

350' long world's largest diesel boat (in service) and don't give me that
crap about the IJN's sea plane boat's, either.

http://www.theworldwideweather.com/archiv4.jpg

This is the USS Ethan Allen SSBN 608's blue crew on the mission
I described above. That's the picnic and the crew going home. We flew
back and forth from Groton, Conn to Rota, Spain to change crew's.

This was from the patrol book the ships personalman put together
for us ... That's me in the lower right hand side under the huge 7/Up flag.

http://www.theworldwideweather.com/archiv2.jpg

Want to see a real sonar gang in a real sonar room no less.
Here's seven of us ... That's Chief Ski in the middle I'm on his
left side (the white guy). Chief Ski died back in 76, but the rest
of us are still kicking. That was the sonar gear behind us, three
units, BQS-4, BQR-2B, BQR 7 and the BQQ-3 was in front of us.
By the way that black guy was so cool he use to press his dungree's.

[Sailor Steve]

Footlong turkey breast on whole wheat, extra olives and mayo.

EDIT: Because it's delicious and easy on the waist line.

Man, this didn't even get so much as a chuckle!
I was too short of time to reply last time, but it does deserve at least that: it is funny.:lol:

[perisher]

Because I love trivia it has to be the British subs H-28 and X-1.

H-28 is the only submarine to have made war patrols in both World Wars.

X-1 (A U-Cruiser) is the only RN vessel to have been designed, built, commissioned, payed off and scraped entirely between the two World Wars.

[SmokinTep]

USS Triton (SSN-586), 'cause she sailed around the world - underwater! And under the command of the legendary Captain Edward L. Beach!
http://www.answers.com/topic/uss-triton-ssrn-586
http://navysite.de/ssn/ssn586.htm

Actually, she had to surface once to take off a crewman.

[plaice]

I made 5 patrols and came back alive. So I consider this mine as a favorite. Wouldn't you do the same?

[Iron Budokan]

Prien's attack on Scapa Flow. Eh, I'm easy to please....