Intersesting U-Boat Fact

[captainprid]

I really like the little facts that come up on the load screens of the game even though most are pretty much common knowledge or at least they are if you like u-boats. One fact that interested me was the number of skippers killed in combat, according to UBI, this was 538 from the 1156 who took part in the war. However I was led to believe that the number of boats sunk in the battle of the Atlantic alone was around 730ish with around 90% casualty rate. How does one square with the other? Even taking in to account promotion, movement etc. This would mean that approx 200 boats went down without captains..

Can anyone explain this anomoly??

[kylania]

Can anyone explain this anomoly??

That'll be part of Patch 1.3. :D

[Nisgeis]

The numbers make no sense whatsoever. There's one that details how many ships were destroyed, but if you add the numbers up, there are more than the total number it said there were. I can't remember which one it is - 600 or so destroyers?

[mookiemookie]

This would mean that approx 200 boats went down without captains..

Can anyone explain this anomoly??

Or 200 boats went down and the captain survived.

[captainprid]

Or 200 boats went down and the captain survived.


D'ya Reckon???;)

[sergei]

A quick check on U Boat Net gives the figure of 757 U Boats lost. This includes air attacks in harbours, training accidents, accidents at sea and 2 boats interned in neutral countries.

It also threw up an interesting one I've never heard before.

U-31 was sunk twice in 1940, March 11 and November 2.
Man, how unlucky is that?

As Mookiemookie has said, the discrepancy can be accounted for by boats being sunk, but the commander surviving.

EDIT: DISCLAIMER - I am assuming this is the cause of the discrepancy, I haven't actually checked the numbers. I'm sure someone will be along in a minute with the facts :DL

http://uboat.net/fates/losses/chart.htm

[Westbroek]

Sure, not all captains decide to go down with the ship...
Additionally, if they're on the bridge at the time of sinking, they may not have a chance to.

[Bilge_Rat]

here are the listings for U-Boat losses on U-Boat net which is probably more accurate:

http://www.uboat.net/fates/losses/cause.htm

as to the discrepancy, many U-Boats sunk had survivors who were rescued or captured, although a discrepancy of 200 seems a bit high. I will have to check what Blair says.

[captainprid]

So do you think the Devs sat around drinking Stoli and smoking weed and coming up with "interesting facts"??

Nice work if you can get it!!!

[captainprid]

A quick check on U Boat Net gives the figure of 757 U Boats lost. This includes air attacks in harbours, training accidents, accidents at sea and 2 boats interned in neutral countries.

It also threw up an interesting one I've never heard before.

U-31 was sunk twice in 1940, March 11 and November 2.
Man, how unlucky is that?

As Mookiemookie has said, the discrepancy can be accounted for by boats being sunk, but the commander surviving.

http://uboat.net/fates/losses/chart.htm



I love this story... U31 was sunk by bombs with the loss of all hands, then raised, repaired and recomissioned. What the hell did the new crew think??? Then she was sunk again by DC's near Ireland, fortunately most of the guys got out.......


The totally ironical thing is that, Germany have a spanking new boat currently in service called........You guessed it U31.



Brilliant!!!!!!

And people say the Germans have no idea of irony:up:

[Zedi]

There was one fact that got my interest, but the game loaded so fast that I had no time to read it all. Was about the only "dogfight" recorded in WW2 between 2 subs.. a german and a brit one. I had time only to read that the brit sub won by firing a salvo in the u-boat. Any1 here know more detail about this incident?

[kylania]

There was one fact that got my interest, but the game loaded so fast that I had no time to read it all. Was about the only "dogfight" recorded in WW2 between 2 subs.. a german and a brit one. I had time only to read that the brit sub won by firing a salvo in the u-boat. Any1 here know more detail about this incident?

The only successful "torpedo dogfight" ever recorded occurred in WWII was between the HMS Ventura and the U-864 in the North Sea, west of Bergen, Norway. The U-boat was finally sunk by a spread of four torpedoes at 17 second intervals and varying depths, after several hours of a cat-and-mouse hunt.http://uboat.net/boats/u864.htm

http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3585.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Venturer_%28P68%29

All the loading screen facts and be found, and fixed if you want, in:

C:\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter 5\data\Menu\Loading\knownfacts.tsr Open in Notepad or your favorite text editor.

[doomlordis]

Another interesting one is that Captain Hugo Forster of U-501 is the only man ever to board an enemy warship (moosejaw) from a uboat, Moosejaw had run in to ram U-501 , changed its mind at the last minute and turned causing it to run parallel to U-501.
At this point Captain Forster lept onto the deck of moosejaw without getting his feet wet!
He was captured and U-501 scuttled , Forster was going to be tried by Otto Krechmer for cowardice but the British got wind of this and moved him to a seperate camp.

[Zedi]

http://uboat.net/boats/u864.htm

http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3585.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Venturer_%28P68%29

All the loading screen facts and be found, and fixed if you want, in:

C:\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter 5\data\Menu\Loading\knownfacts.tsr Open in Notepad or your favorite text editor.

Nice, thank you. I see that the correct name was HMS Venturer, not HMS Ventura and she sunk U-771 too.. huh. A bit weird to spend torps on u-boats.

Anyway, interesting story .. I imagine that was a damn hard and tense fight ! Wonder how come they got into a dogfight ... very unusual :hmmm:

[severniae]

Just thought some of you may find this interesting.

Its the interrogation report following U-501's surrender.

http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-501INT.htm

[doomlordis]

thanks very interesting!

[captainprid]

Great report that, thanks for sharing

[kylania]

Here's a press release (http://www.mammoetsalvage.com/Default.aspx?tabid=724&S01_Det_1062=801&S01_Page_1062=1&S01_Return=%2fDefault.aspx%3ftabid%3d1256) about the planned salvage operation of U-864. It includes a pretty neat animation about how they expect to do it:

http://www.mammoet.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1656&language=nl-NL

[msxyz]

Interesting video. The giant claw reminds me of the one employed in the Glomar Explorer slavage attempt of K-129. Due to the depth of the russian submersible the claw wasn't attached with cable but with steel tubes like those employed in deep drilling operations.

One thing is not clear, though. Since the submarine was torpedoed and broke into two, chances are that whatever there was inside it is now scattered on the sea floor. Why disturb a war grave when you can probably salvage the mercury containers alone? :-?

[Bilge_Rat]

Why disturb a war grave ...


my feelings also.

[mookiemookie]

I believe the mercury containers were stored in the bilges as ballast. I know they had an idea a few years back to seal the entire wreck with concrete, but scrapped the idea.

[msxyz]

I believe the mercury containers were stored in the bilges as ballast. I know they had an idea a few years back to seal the entire wreck with concrete, but scrapped the idea.

Good point. I remember now that when U-534 was salvaged, people believed that the lead ingots used as ballast were substituted with others made of gold.

However, covering the wreck with concrete would seem to me more appropriate. Not that after 60 years underwater you will find bones or anything, but it has always been custom not to salvage or disturb ships where people died in.

Edit: I read a few articles about the discovery of U-864. It seems that the central portion of the sub (the command room) has been pulverized by the torpedo explosion and there are a few bottles of mercury scattered around. Water is also already contamined probably because a good deal of them broke due to the explosion.

[java`s revenge]

Very interesting, thanks for posting :salute: