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Originally Posted by Capt. Teach
But lets be honest too ... history, indeed even the present is rife with examples of so called "leaders" being ... hmmm ... shall we say "less than competent" so it wouldn't surprise me that panzers did have the comms and vertical antenna's (army) and the subs didn't (navy).
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Very true. Peter Padfield in his
War Beneath The Sea points out that the Royal Navy was chortling about Ultra and knowing the secrets of Enigma, but never seemed to believe that the Germans might also be reading
their mail.
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Ah ... the concept of honor ... always puzzled me ... like in this instance pointed out by Timmy41. For example, it was ok to deploy snipers in the woods sure ... but sniping with subs was dishonorable. Or, it was ok and common and accepted tactics to set up ambushes for infantry on the ground ... but ambush a ship on the ocean and you are dishonorable. Bah! 
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I think the big difference was that snipers were shooting at other soldiers, and submarines shot at civilians carrying food to feed the populace. Or at least that was the way it was presented.
In WW1 the u-boats originally would surface and demand to see papers, then allow the crew to abandon ship before boarding and sinking it with explosives. The British came up with the concept of the Q-ship, which was a merchantman with disguised guns on deck. They would not only stop when hailed, but began to carry a whole second crew who would go through the whole Abandon Ship drill - manning the lifeboats and rowing away. The gun crew would wait until the u-boat pulled alongside to come aboard, and then - KAPOW!
So the Germans started shooting from underwater, and of course the Brits cried "FOUL!" and raised a big stink.
Ain't love grand?
