Quote:
Originally Posted by AG124
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kipparikalle
Didn't the British sometimes hauled those half-sunken ships to the ports and put them as anti-submarine barricade?
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The case of the US tanker Esso Nashville was an interesting one in this respect - her stern stayed afloat and was indeed towed in. However, she was actually returned to sea after a new bow half was built for the salvaged stern. I know there are probably other stories of ship-halves being salvaged for this purpose, but I can't think of them right now. I could also probably find and post a link for the Esso Nashville story, but I don't really have time and most of the people here probably already know it anyway.
In regards to blockships, from what I have read, most of those used were empty, rusted hulls and obsolete and/or rusted drifters and barges that were already condemned in 1939. A few obsolete warships were used as blockships during the Normandy invasion as well, such as the British Centurion, the French Courbet, some UK D class light cruisers (Durban and Dragon I think), and the Dutch light cruiser Sumatra (sister ship of the Java). The latter case was for protection for the landing from the weather and not against submarines though.
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Almost all the ships either sunk or damaged on the Pearl Harbor attack were eventually brought up, righted, or otherwise raised to be repaired. Even though battleships were loosing ground to carriers in offensive capacity, the Navy still had the ships repaired/rebuilt. Only a couple still remain sunk in the harbor, of course the most famous one being the USS Arizona. Though battleships lost a lot of their punch in naval engagements, they did become very nice artillery platforms (albeit hella expensive ones) able to launch shells the size of a VW at a target 26 miles away.
Running into the ship barracades is a lot more pleasant than the usual alternatives, mines or sub nets that are harder to detect unless you're moving very slow at 1x speed.