OnePingOnly
08-02-11, 11:47 AM
U-864 was take to make a TOP SECRET voyage to Japan, bringing the Empire Parts and Mock ups, drawings and engineering schematic along with a hull full of mercury so that Japan could build the new Messerschmidt Jet Engine.
:salute:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-864
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari1/p/venturer864.htm
HMS Venturer and the development of Attack Submarines
During World War II submarines were typically hunted on the surface and only engaged underwater if contact was maintained when the submarine dived. There was no expectation of submarines tracking other submarines underwater and engaging in 'torpedo dogfights'. This type of anti-submarine action became a possibility after the duel between HMS Venturer and U864 in the North Sea, just off Kiel Harbour. The U864 was carrying secret German weapons technology intended to assist Japan against US bombing raids. An ULTRA intercept alerted the Royal Navy, who dispatched a submarine to intercept the cargo. The U864 was separated from its escort, and, recognising that it was being trailed by an enemy submarine, submerged and began to zig-zag. This was a course of action which would normally render it invulnerable, but Jimmy Launders, the captain of HMS Venturer (P68), submerged as well and tracked it using hydrophone signals. For several hours the cat-and-mouse hunt progressed, until Lander decided to perform the complex calculations necessary to obtain a firing solution in three dimensions. These were done manually, predicting the likely manoeveuers of the target, and a spread of four torpedoes at 17 second intervals and varying depths was fired. The U864 dived into the path of one of these, and was blown in half. This was the first attempt by one submarine to sink another while both were submerged, and the only successful one ever recorded up to the present day. It was a hugely influential action in the history of anti-submarine warfare, and modern attack submarine's tactics of attempting to track ballistic missile submarines from their bases underwater are directly derived from it. Modern computers provide the calculations which were originally done manually, and modern torpedoes are guided, but in all other respects the essentials of submerged anti-submarine warfare have remained the same.
:salute:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-864
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwari1/p/venturer864.htm
HMS Venturer and the development of Attack Submarines
During World War II submarines were typically hunted on the surface and only engaged underwater if contact was maintained when the submarine dived. There was no expectation of submarines tracking other submarines underwater and engaging in 'torpedo dogfights'. This type of anti-submarine action became a possibility after the duel between HMS Venturer and U864 in the North Sea, just off Kiel Harbour. The U864 was carrying secret German weapons technology intended to assist Japan against US bombing raids. An ULTRA intercept alerted the Royal Navy, who dispatched a submarine to intercept the cargo. The U864 was separated from its escort, and, recognising that it was being trailed by an enemy submarine, submerged and began to zig-zag. This was a course of action which would normally render it invulnerable, but Jimmy Launders, the captain of HMS Venturer (P68), submerged as well and tracked it using hydrophone signals. For several hours the cat-and-mouse hunt progressed, until Lander decided to perform the complex calculations necessary to obtain a firing solution in three dimensions. These were done manually, predicting the likely manoeveuers of the target, and a spread of four torpedoes at 17 second intervals and varying depths was fired. The U864 dived into the path of one of these, and was blown in half. This was the first attempt by one submarine to sink another while both were submerged, and the only successful one ever recorded up to the present day. It was a hugely influential action in the history of anti-submarine warfare, and modern attack submarine's tactics of attempting to track ballistic missile submarines from their bases underwater are directly derived from it. Modern computers provide the calculations which were originally done manually, and modern torpedoes are guided, but in all other respects the essentials of submerged anti-submarine warfare have remained the same.