View Full Version : Any real-life U-boat veterans see SH3?
maillemaker
06-13-07, 12:10 PM
I wonder if any real-life U-boat veterans survive that have been able to see SH3. I wonder what they think about it?
CapZap1970
06-13-07, 12:25 PM
My friend's grandfather saw it once, he was a u-boat navigaton officer. His eyes got all misty, then got interested in it, after that he narrated his experiences and memories for about 3 hours. I always remember the expression of his eyes. With every word he seemed to remeber even the last detail of the experience he was narrating. of course, he couldn't believe it. He said it was almost real looking at it in the screen.
CapZap
ronbrewer
06-13-07, 01:31 PM
Wow, what I would give to have been able to listen to his stories in person and watch his reaction to SH3.
I would have been most interested in his view on the TDC component of the simulation and how close it is to the real thing. I'm going to visit U505 in July and I hope to be able to spend some time looking over the TDC. From a picture of one a year or so ago it looked like SH3 is missing a dial that makes small gyro angle adjustments based on if you are using the attack periscope versus the observation periscope. Something to do with the observation periscope being closer to the bow tubes.
Germany had some remarkable engineering on these Uboats.
And let's not forget that Jurgen Oesten was a historical consultant for this game. I think you can still find some videos of him talking to the developers on the official SHIII website (I really loved his Malaya story, the way he told it).
maillemaker
06-13-07, 02:22 PM
I found the URL to his videos:
http://www.silent-hunteriii.com/uk/videos.php
maillemaker
06-13-07, 02:43 PM
I just watched all of his videos. It's chilling. I wonder if the guy is still alive.
I can't imagine having a conversation with someone that I torpedoed during the war. Even with all the years in between and the understanding of duty and all that how could you not think back to the terror and rage you felt during the war and not feel torn looking at your past enemy now across from you.
It is amazing listening to this guy talk. I wish there were hours more footage like that. I wish they had footage watching this guy watching the simulation play, or better yet, footage of him playing the actual simulation.
Can you imagine watching this guy set up and execute an attack?
Damn.
I just watched all of his videos. It's chilling. I wonder if the guy is still alive.
I can't imagine having a conversation with someone that I torpedoed during the war. Even with all the years in between and the understanding of duty and all that how could you not think back to the terror and rage you felt during the war and not feel torn looking at your past enemy now across from you.
It is amazing listening to this guy talk. I wish there were hours more footage like that. I wish they had footage watching this guy watching the simulation play, or better yet, footage of him playing the actual simulation.
Can you imagine watching this guy set up and execute an attack?
Damn.
Some more about Oesten here:
http://uboat.net/men/oesten.htm
It seems the man is still alive...what great stories he could tell by the fireplace...
I remember reading a dev interview where they talked about Oesten. The guy is amazing! He's well into the 10th decade of his life, but his health seems to be really good. He drives and travels all on his own, uses the PC and apparently even plays games (I think I need to bring back a quote into my signature where he talks about how a real mission of his modeled in a sim that he played was a lot harder in game than in real life), and still has very detailed memory of his war experiences. People like him are really a goldmine of human knowledge, I think - and he's definitely a testament to the U-boat men's cold toughness, too.
I was elated to see a picture just last month of the famous Reinhard Hardegen attending the commissioning of a new German sub which coincided with the 100th anniversary of the U-boat fleet. The guy also looked to be in top shape and was enjoying a drink with currently-serving officers (looking quite natural in the company)!
maillemaker
06-13-07, 03:02 PM
I wonder if it is possible to get in touch with Herr Oesten. Does anyone have any contact information? Google didn't turn up anything.
ReallyDedPoet
06-13-07, 03:06 PM
And let's not forget that Jurgen Oesten was a historical consultant for this game. I think you can still find some videos of him talking to the developers on the official SHIII website (I really loved his Malaya story, the way he told it).
Nice:up:, the Eric Topp interviews on the SH2 disc were one of the better things about that game.
RDP
FIREWALL
06-13-07, 03:14 PM
I checked out Rem's link WOW!!!
I don't care if he fought for the Axis. What an AMAZEING career.:yep:
tenakha
06-13-07, 03:16 PM
And let's not forget that Jurgen Oesten was a historical consultant for this game. I think you can still find some videos of him talking to the developers on the official SHIII website (I really loved his Malaya story, the way he told it).
Nice:up:, the Eric Topp interviews on the SH2 disc were one of the better things about that game.
RDP
i've lost my SH2 cd could anyone upload the videos?
In the Command Aces of the Deep CD there were fanstastic videos of interviews with many U-Boot commanders, even Otto Kretschmer:D , and of course Hardegen, Topp, ึsten....
Another good reason to get it if you haven't already:rock:
In the Command Aces of the Deep CD there were fanstastic videos of interviews with many U-Boot commanders, even Otto Kretschmer:D , and of course Hardegen, Topp, ึsten....
Another good reason to get it if you haven't already:rock:
Really? Gonna dust it off right now....
ReallyDedPoet
06-13-07, 03:43 PM
In the Command Aces of the Deep CD there were fanstastic videos of interviews with many U-Boot commanders, even Otto Kretschmer:D , and of course Hardegen, Topp, ึsten....
Another good reason to get it if you haven't already:rock:
Nice:up:
RDP
blackdog_kt
06-13-07, 10:07 PM
The most shocking thing i saw was Kretchmer interviewed in "The world at war" series of documentaries (the one narrated by Lawrence Olivier), talking about a certain torpedo attack against a merchant. Next thing i know, his interview is cut short and another interview mixed in, with one of the British sailors on the sunk ship. From that point on, it rolled like this...one answer by Kretchmer, one by the British sailor :rock:
GibsonSG
06-15-07, 03:53 PM
I know this doesn't count as a WWII U-Boat crew, but I Was on the very last diesel-electric submarine the U.S. had, SS-581 USS Blueback. I was a Radioman and it was quite an experience. I was lucky enough to never have seen actual combat, but we had plenty of wargames, and a few fires, minor floods, etc to keep it very interesting. We used to watch all the classic sub movies while out at sea...Das Boot and all those.
I think that what inspired me to volunteer, was partly my Grandfather's WWII stories(he was on Battleships, shooting the 16 inch guns), and partly the tours I used to take of the USS Lionfish in Fall River Mass. Although the Blueback was much larger than the Lionfish, it was still fairly crowded (only 219 feet long).
I really am enjoying SH3, but can't really compare actual U-boot combat to the tour I did. I will watch the video's you linked, I am sure they are captivating to watch.
maillemaker
06-16-07, 08:43 AM
For you, SS-581 man!
http://www.omsi.edu/visit/submarine/QTVRtour.cfm
Sailor Steve
06-16-07, 10:37 AM
GibsonSG, welcome aboard! I was also a radioman, though on a destroyer in the 1969-1970 period.
Feel free to post your bio (and pictures, if you like) on this thread.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=87423
Also you can use the main board there to post any stories you might want to share.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=175
Sailor Steve
06-16-07, 10:42 AM
I also have a question relative to this thread: SH2 had the Erich Topp interviews, SH3 had Jurgen Oesten and SH1 had Bud Gruner not only telling stories but also giving a tour of the boat.
My question is this: Does SH4 have an interview with anyone? Was there a technical consultant who also tells great war stories? Please say yes, as that was a big part of those earlier sims.
ReallyDedPoet
06-16-07, 10:55 AM
A big welcome:up: GibsonSG
RDP
Kpt. Lehmann
06-16-07, 01:17 PM
Crimeny, what I wouldn't give to talk to a real U-boatman...
I think I might even be overpowered by the experience. It would just be too cool.
GibsonSG
06-16-07, 02:16 PM
Thank you all for the warm welcome to subsim. And thanks Maillemaker for the link...I actually took my grandparents to tour the Blueback shortly after the museum had her ready for tours, in Portland Oregon. It was funny how it seemed even smaller when I toured it, than it did when I lived onboard. They had removed a bit of equipment to allow more room for the tours to get around.
I am downloading GWX right now, after playing stock SH3 for about 10 months...I can't wait to get rolling.
I am downloading GWX right now, after playing stock SH3 for about 10 months...I can't wait to get rolling.
You will love it!
Welcome and happy hunting GibsonSG!
MarkShot
06-16-07, 03:58 PM
In the Command Aces of the Deep CD there were fanstastic videos of interviews with many U-Boot commanders, even Otto Kretschmer:D , and of course Hardegen, Topp, ึsten....
Another good reason to get it if you haven't already:rock:
Re: Interviews ...
By now you know I am an AOD DOS player, but I have the CAOD CD. Is it in a form that I can just watch it off the CD or am I going to need to install VPC/98/CAOD to watch? If so, just how long are we talking about? Don't want to go to a lot of work in order to watch a 5 minute interview.
Also, what about SH2? I have that CD too, but never really looked at SH2, since I only played SH2/PA (no longer installed). Can I just watch them off the CD?
Thanks.
Sailor Steve
06-16-07, 04:37 PM
I don't know about CAOD, but I found it very easy to take the Topp and Oesten interviews off of SH2 and SH3 and put them in a desktop folder, so I can watch them any time.
MarkShot
06-17-07, 04:42 AM
I found the SH2 quicktime.
Where are the SH3 Oesten movies on the DVD? I don't see any media files on the DVD or in my stock SH3 directory?
Do I need to autoplay the SH3 DVD to access the movies? (I am scared to mess around with the DVD too much, since I don't want to infect my PC with Starforce.)
Thanks.
Re: Interviews ...
By now you know I am an AOD DOS player, but I have the CAOD CD. Is it in a form that I can just watch it off the CD or am I going to need to install VPC/98/CAOD to watch? If so, just how long are we talking about? Don't want to go to a lot of work in order to watch a 5 minute interview.
Mark,
the SH2 interviews are on the cd inside the game's folders, in the subfolder "Topp" and you can view them with Quicktime but AFAIK in the earliest releases of SH3 DVD (Which is the one I have) the interviews were not included. I downloaded them from UBI's page.
As for CAOD, you can also extract the interviews from it, but I have not been able to determine which program opens them. However, you can do an install of CAOD in XP, and even if the game won't run (Add "-s" to the shortcut path so it doesn't give you the soundcard error when loading) you can access thepart where the interviews are and watch them (And lots of cool stuff like maps of sinkings and very good reading about the U-Boat campaign).
Hope that helps
I've just watched Oesten movies, they were not on my DVD (without starforce).
This is interesting when he talks about meeting his former enemies and drinking a bottle of Scotch, being invited to British ports etc... "killing not a particular person... ships fighting ships" or Malayas midship man thanking for putting the ship into docks for so long!
I'm now in 2/3 of Alistair MacLean "HMS Ulisses" and I must say that this is quite shocking. Human struggle with cruel weather and the enemy constantly behind their back, just waiting for the right spot. And than it all end in few minutes of freezing cold or burning oil... hmm
MarkShot
06-17-07, 08:32 AM
Hitman,
I got the interviews for all three games (CAOD, SH2, and SH3) installed now.
For CAOD, I actually installed Win98SE and the game under MS VPC 2007. I also spent some time comparing the performance of the CAOD and another game under VPC versus DOSBOX. No comparison. DOSBOX is just so much smoother and more fluid than VPC. I don't see myself playing all these old games without DOSBOX; it's the difference between a frustrating struggle and an experience equal to or better than the games on the original hardware.
Thanks for your help.
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