What's the Fascination with U-boats?
 

I am sure some will take this the wrong way but I have a question, what’s the fascination with U-boats anyway. :hmmm: SH 2, SH 3 and SH 4 the U-boat add-on and now SH 5 all with U-boats. I know the U-boat was considered the best boat at the time by some, but really why does everyone like playing on the ‘Loosing Side’. By the end of 1943 the U-boats were nothing but an Iron Coffin with maybe a 20% chance of getting home again.

IMHO of course.

Apart from the fact that the German subs were the most famous ones, the German Atlantic campaign gives me the most variation and challenge.

/personal opinion

The German U-Boat fleet:

where to begin.

for starters it was the deadliest submarine warfare unit in the history of war, the Type VII u-boat has in fact been referred to as "the deadliest weapon of war ever devised" by more than one historian.

Safe-Keeper is right as well, the Atlantic theater of operations offers variation and great challenge.

The Atlantic theater was a target rich environment.

despite all of the successes and accomplishments of the U-boats, they were the most feared boats on the sea, yet, in a matter of about 4 years they went from the hunter to the hunted... yet through that course of becoming the hunted... they NEVER lost the respect of their adversaries.

A u-boat is a predator, even when she is being hunted by a DD, its like hunting a lion!

its a dynamic that makes the story much more interesting IMHO

As to why the German's in the Atlantic gained more fame or infamy than the American subs in the Pacific?

hype had a lot to do with it.

much of the Pacific boat operations were clandestine... and almost none of the public knew of their exploits... the u-boats on the other hand, not so much.

I was born right after the war ended, and grew up with movies like Run Silent, Run Deep, Destination Tokyo and Up Periscope. I played Silent Service and Silent Hunter, and loved playing with the submarines I knew and loved. Then I saw Das Boot. It didn't really change anything for me, but I became curious.

Then SH2 came along, and I got excited about a Silent Hunter for the other side. But of course it was a big disappointment, except for the multiply function.

Then I discovered the older Aces Of The Deep and fell in love.

SH3 was a new start, so it was natural that it would start at the beginning, and it's kind of hard to play the fleet boat war in 1939.

When SH4 was announced a lot of u-boat fanatics complained, but since there was already SH3 it seemed kind of silly to do the same game over again. But SH4 was an improvement in several areas, so it made sense to add the u-boats back into it.

SH5 is starting all over again, so again it only makes sense...

Me, I'm a fan of the genre and the machinery, so I love 'em all. I just wish SH4 had gotten the same treatment as SH3. The supermods so far are great, but where is the immersive eye candy - the harbors and ships? SH4 Commander so I can do the Ship Names properly?

Anyway, I hope that answers your question. It's not the fascination, it's the trying to get it right, one side at a time.

It is the same as fascination to participate as bad guy like Darth Vader or a Borg at a costume party :88)

The gaming market is just flooded with games where you will be sent as an American superhero over and over again into the same battles, and almost single leads these battles to success.

Also, from a game pespective: It start rather easy (1939-1940) and gets more and more difficult as time goes on. (new technology and tactics, air gap, etc....):yeah:

I know what you mean when you say that, but the thing is U-boats held a mystical fascination from the German side also. During WWII the Germans just loved their grey wolves. There's probably a deep psychological reason for this, maybe something to do with a few men doing much... kinda like the Brits and their Spitfire pilots. :hmmm:

edit: also notice how the Spitfire lines are more aesthetically pleasing than say the Hurricane. The U-boat (any type) is also very pleasing to look at, it just looks... predatory. So I'm guessing aesthetics also plays a factor in the fascination. Aesthetics backed up with performance.

I'm affraid it's just because you asked the question like that you will still not fully understand the reasons even after dosens of constructive replys. I really can not explain why I'm so into U-boats because it's something that does not fit into simple words to explain. Maybe in my past life I served in the U-boat myself :) That gives an echo feeling at the present one. Or maybe I was somehow related to Kriegsmarine who knows. It's just this attraction to U-Boats history, passion of interest gives this obsession. I can't speak for others but for me it works exactly like this :)

Did you by chance mean the "multiplayer" function?


:D



(sorry Steve, couldn't help myself):rotfl2:

The one reason we know so much about the U Boats is because Germany lost the war. All the information about U Boats was laid out before the Allies at wars end. Conversely, the US was on the winning side and so got to keep the secrets of the Fleet Boat secret. But also each person is different as to their particular reasons of interest. Personally I'm more interested in Fleet Boats. This can be directly attributed to my service in US submarines.

no, uboat were the first calculators :rotfl2:

I guess my fascination with submarines started when my dad took me to see museum submarine Vesikko. I was about eight years old then. Then I saw a movie called surprise surprise Das Boot. Later on I have visited Vesikko at least more than two dozen times. I even wanted to serve on a submarine during the mandatory military service, but thanks to Versailles treaty after the ww2, Finland can't have any.

Later came Silent Service and then Aces of the Deep, which still is IMHO better game than SH3, without the sugar coating of course;)

But the german submarines, the silent hunter. They are cool looking war machines and as before said deadly. I can't give any better description because my english is what it is.

To take a quote from the movie "The "Last Starfighter"

"I've always wanted to fight a desperate battle against incredible odds."

That's why I like U-Boats. :salute:

HA ! :DL Good one VonHesse :up:

I suspect there are any number of reasons.

One is the the Battle of the Atlantic played out in front of a much wider audiance than did the US submarine offensive against Japan. The theatre has relevance to all North Americans as well as Europeans and even into South America. In the Pacific it was essentially an America Only campaign that occured out of sight and far away. Even those with an interest in the IJN might prefer to forget it since they bungled their ASW so badly.

Also the historiography of the U-Boat war is far more extensive than the Pacific submarine war again because far more countries were involved. The U-Boat arm was one of the earliest to be de-nazified in print with the translation into English of Harald Busch's U-Boats at War in the mid 1950's. At this time many aspects of the USN's war were still classified (and remained so until the 1970's) so the story of the U-Boats gained currancy earlier and has been around for longer. A good comparison is the portrayal of the enemy in the Hollywood movies "Run Silent Run Deep" vs "The Enemy Below" both produced in the same era.

Das Boot the movie of course greatly personified the U-Boats as well and regularly scores high on lists of popular war movies rather than playing to a narrow submarine movie fan base.

New books dealing with U-Boats come out with a far greater frequency than the commerce war in the Pacific and internationally "The Battle of the Atlantic" probably sounds a more appealing topic than "The United States Submarine War against Japan".

The mythology of the U-Boat has also taken on a life of its own and a couple of interesting books dealing with this very topic are:

Count Not the Dead by Michael Hadley and Neither Sharks nor Wolves by Timothy Mulligan.

Good Hunting