Look! Me island!

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

Ah, I found Trinidad on the map in SH4. Thinking about creating a mission off the coast. Better get me history book out.

[Raptor1]

Nothing happened in Trinidad during WWII...

[mcf1]

Found a history book about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Trinidad_and_Tobago

[peabody]

Nothing happened in Trinidad during WWII...

Nuttin happin dere now either.:rotfl::rotfl:

Peabody

[Raptor1]

Nothing happened in Trinidad during WWII...
Nuttin happin dere now either.:rotfl::rotfl:

Peabody

Shh, Don't tell everyone...

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

You are so incorrect! The Royal Navy tangled with a couple of uboats and a u-boat ace was held captive here. They would've fed him to the sharks but sharks find europeans bland-tasting. We need salt!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Yeah Mon!

Read dis, nah mon: http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/1594.html

[akdavis]

Nothing happened in Trinidad during WWII...

So very wrong.

Most South American oil originated in two places: the rich fields under the shallow Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, adn the British West Indies island of Trinidad...

...Most of the Trinidad oil ws refined on that island. Strategically located close off the northeast coast of Venezuela, Trinidad was also a port of call for ships southbound to Latin American and African ports and for a fleet of shallow-draft ships that carried bauxite (the base mineral for aluminum) north from British Guiana and Dutch Guiana (Surinam) to Trinidad, where the bauxite was transferred to larger ships...

...Of the two U-boats at Trinidad, the enw U-161, commanded by the twenty-eight-year-old Albrecht Achilles making his first patrol as skipper, had the first successes. Cruising bravely into the shallow, confined Gulf of Paria, separating Trinidad from mainland Venezuela, Achilles approached Trinidad's well-lighted principal city, Port of Spain, as though U-161 were a cruise ship. Lying on the surface off Port of Spain just before midnight on February 18 in thirty-six feet of water, Achilles fired a bow salvo at two ships. Two of the four torpedoes failed or missed, but the other two hit a 7,000 ton British tanker and a 7,500 ton American freighter. Both ships settled to the shallow bottom, but both were later salvaged and returned to service.

Fully alive to the strategic importance of Trinidad, both as a source of oil and as a way station for shipping, Admiral Hoover was in the process of creating a powerful ASW base on the island, comparable to that on Iceland. But the work had only just begun and Achilles caught the Allied forces by surprise. Thus he was able to make the long run through shallow waters to open seas on the surface without countermeasures. Although the results were in now way comparable, his bold penetration of the Gulf of Paria was to be compared to Prien's feat at Scapa Flow.[emphasis added]

-Clay Blair, Hitler's U-boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942

[Raptor1]

Well, I never heard of THAT...

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

Thank you kind sir. Mr. Peabody and company will now walk the plank. Ignorance is no excuse!:yep::arrgh!:

[Raptor1]

Thank you kind sir. Mr. Peabody and company will now walk the plank. Ignorance is no excuse!:yep::arrgh!:

You'll never take me alive!

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

Oh, yeah!? Just you wait. Bwahahaaaa!

Anyway I'm learning some stuff about the u-boat war here at home. Geez, those Germans were far away from home. But I bet they prefer it there than freezing their butts off in some icy sea. There once was a story of a British Army Corporal who had to be dragged away kicking and screaming when the war ended. He was to be shipped off back home but he wanted to stay and finish his sun tan.:lol: As for modern day Germans- well they're taking over our sister isle of Tobago. We gotta stop them!:rotfl:

[peabody]

Thank you kind sir. Mr. Peabody and company will now walk the plank. Ignorance is no excuse!:yep::arrgh!:

I'm not smart enough to claim ignorance.:smug:

Peabody

[GerritJ9]

A lot happened in Trinidad when I lived there :)

[Raptor1]

A lot happened in Trinidad when I lived there :)

You're old enough to have been there at the 18th century?

[akdavis]

A lot happened in Trinidad when I lived there :)

You're old enough to have been there at the 18th century?

I know you jest, but you do realize that Trinidad is not uninhabited desert isle, don't you?

[GerritJ9]

Not THAT old, but young enough to to have been there in the 20th century!:D

[Raptor1]

A lot happened in Trinidad when I lived there :)
You're old enough to have been there at the 18th century?
I know you jest, but you do realize that Trinidad is not uninhabited desert isle, don't you?

Yes, I do, This joke just dragged on too long, sorry...:oops:

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

Gerritj9 you lived here? Serious? Cool! Hey. the old DJFL DO NOT live on a backward island! (or maybe not) For that I summon the ghost of Davy Jones to place a curse on your boats- may your bilges stop working and your cook be Richard Simmons!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[Schroeder]

Oh, yeah!? Just you wait. Bwahahaaaa!

Anyway I'm learning some stuff about the u-boat war here at home. Geez, those Germans were far away from home. But I bet they prefer it there than freezing their butts off in some icy sea.
Well, as far as I know German subs did not have air-conditioning units. Therefore they turned to ovens in hot areas. Not a nice place to be. You can always put more clothes on to protect you from cold but what are you going to to in a hot steel pipe?;):smug::know:

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

Broiled Kreigsmarine anyone, then?:rotfl:The u-boats would not have made a significant dent later in the war as the RN and the USN had a powerful base here. The aircraft were pretty good at ASW.

[GerritJ9]

DavyJonesFootlocker........ I lived at Orange Grove Estate, Tacarigua from early April 1955 to late October 1966.
The rest of you, there was a large US air base called Waller Field (no doubt used for antisubmarine air patrols) on Trinidad during WW2, one of the areas the US obtained from the UK in exchange for the 50 old Wickes/Clemson destroyers; when I lived in Trinidad it had been abandoned and the runways were part overgrown- probably totally overgrown now I would imagine.:D

[GerritJ9]

There was also a US naval base at Chaguaramas, near the Dragon's Mouth which was in use until the late 1950s at least- I remember going swimming there (beach at Stobles Bay) and to get there a pass was required.
There apparently was a third US base just south of Chaguanas-Longdenville, but I have absolutely no idea as to what kind of base it was :(

[DavyJonesFootlocker]

An update. Chaguaramas is used by our Coast Guard now. Wallerfield is used as racing strip for car competitions. I was born in 1965 so you left the year after. Strange enough I lived in Longdenville in the 80s where we had owned land. Orange Grove isn't far from my last place of residence- TrinCity. The area is upscale now. Trinidad has changed a lot since you were here, but it's nice to know you here.

[GerritJ9]

Mission/campaign builders now have some extra info on where the bases were located in Trinidad- but I'll try to put up a screenie later (where X marks the spots on the map :) ). I never checked T&T out in SH3 or SH4- suppose I'd better do that now.
I have a map of Trinidad dating from 1946 and it shows the areas of Chaguaramas and Waller Field marked as "U.S. Leased Area"; ditto for the third area near Longdenville but I have no info as to what use was made of that- if, indeed, it ever was used in the first place. Perhaps it was earmarked for use, but never actually used..........

Regarding Trincity, I saw the first few houses being built in late 1965 (I think). Previously the area had been part savannah, part sugar cane fields. Looked at the area in Google Earth a few months ago and was shocked:o at how densely built it has become. Still, managed to recognize the houses where I lived; the sugar factory where my father worked still stands, though it was closed down years ago. The machinery was sold in the early 80s so it's probably only an empty shell now.
Also found my old primary school in St. Augustine- well, the building's still there anyway.......... brings back memories.