Historically Speaking.... a Question!

[Kpt. Lehmann]

What is your favorite ACTUAL historic U-Boat?

Inquiring minds want to know.

U-977 (I think). I have Schaeffer's book, and it's a fun read. He took his type VII all the way to Argentina, and was later accused of smuggling Hitler out. Anyway, it's a good boat and he was a good captain.

[Crash Dive]

U-564 Reinhard "Teddy" Suhren he started off as the WO for the U48 (one of the most sucessful boats of the war) what a way to train for command. He went to sink a good amount of tonnage in his own right.

[ronbrewer]

Definitely U-571. The way the Americans commandeered that boot and quickly learned how to operate it to defeat that German DD with just one fish left, well... that was just simply amazing. Not to mention finally getting access to a German Enigma machine so that the Allies could turn the war in their favor.

He asked for favorite HISTORICAL boat. Do you know anything about the REAL U-571? If not, try here: www.uboat.net

[Kaleun]

U-203,

The only boat to have killed it's own commander whilst he was attempting to go swimming!

Kptlt. Rolf Mützelburg died on 11 September, 1942 in a freak accident. Taking the opportunity to go swimming in the Atlantic southwest of the Azores, he dived from the conning tower and struck the deck with his head and shoulder when the boat lurched suddenly in the swell. The doctor from the Milk Cow U-462 arrived the next day, but too late, and Rolf Mützelburg was buried at sea on 12 September, 1942 in position 36.14N, 31.21W.


Ok - and it was also pretty succesful:
21 ships sunk for a total of 94.296 GRT
3 ships damaged for a total of 17.052 GRT

It's emblem was the coat-of-arms of the city of Essen and it was one of a handful of Type VIIC boats that had no stern tube (U-203, U-331, U-351, U-401, U-431 and U-651)

kaleun

[Seeteufel]

SM U-35

Kptlt. Lothar Eugen Georg von Arnauld de la Perière sank 189 ships for a total of 446 708 BRT plus two gun-boats (brit. Primula and french Rigel á 2500t), while he commanded this boat.

Most succesful mission from 26.07.1916 to 20.08.1916, sinking 54 trading-ship at a total of 90 350 BRT.

[Happy Times]

Originally Posted by ronbrewer

Definitely U-571. The way the Americans commandeered that boot and quickly learned how to operate it to defeat that German DD with just one fish left, well... that was just simply amazing. Not to mention finally getting access to a German Enigma machine so that the Allies could turn the war in their favor.

If this wasnt a joke its shows how powerful Hollywood is.

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

If this wasnt a joke its shows how powerful Hollywood is.

Maybe he's young and doesn't know any better. Let us educate Mr. Brewer.

RonBrewer sir! Your assignment for the day is to research the REAL story of U-571 and report back here with your findings. We further suggest reading up on U-110 and U-505.

In all seriousness... I'm willing to bet that you will find facts to be far more interesting than fiction. We aren't giving you a hard time. It's just that when you find one diamond... you have to find another... and another. Next thing you know you are addicted and soak up everything about U-boats you can find, as fast as you can.
This forum is one place to learn quite a bit.

Check out these sites... you'll love'em.

http://uboat.net/
http://www.ubootwaffe.net/index.html

Happy Times... your assignment is to tell me which is your favorite historic U-Boat as well sir.

Happy Hunting!

[ronbrewer]

I tried uboat.net but I just find the Hollywood version sexier...

Just kidding, the original post was an attempt at poking fun at how the movies slant history toward the intended audience (in this case it was for American movie goers). I do enjoy the real thing better (Werner's "Iron Coffins" and the U-505 story). I also enjoyed learning how the Polish broke Enigma messages from poor German coding operations like "AAA" on the wheels. I didn't learn that in high school.

Hey, but you can't beat McConaughey's handling of that boot. Too bad Hollywood didn't have Prien there to take notes.

[pampanito]

Probably Hartenstein's U-156 for the efforts in saving people in the infamous LACONIA incident.

And if I could choose an Italian boat, Salvatore Todaro's CAPPELLINI for the extremes to which he went to assure the rescue of crews of sunken ships.

[Kobal2]

Same here, U156. In the middle of a dangerous warzone, he broadcasts his position (in clear) so that other ships in the area can help him rescue the crew from the Laconia, which he thought was a freighter, but really was a POW transport.

Taking such a risk (and time proved how dangerous that was - the US forces, having seen the convoy of U-boote wearing red crosses and with a hundred people on deck, tried to sink them anyway) to save the lives of the men he'd sunk, now *that's* honor.

[lafeeverted]

Using "the real thing" and Werner's Iron Coffin's in the same sentence is not always a good thing to do

[ronbrewer]

Really? Barnes & Noble had it in the non-fiction section. It must have been a placement error by one of their part-time employees.

[CCIP]

U-124 - the Edelweiss boat, commanded by remarkable commanders and knight's cross winners Georg-Wilhelm Schultz and later Johann Mohr; this is largely thanks to the book "Grey Wolf, Grey Sea" (highly recommended!).

She was the 4th most successful boat of the war (and behind the 3rd most successful, U-123, by a mere 748t).

It would seem that her loss on April 2nd, 1943, should largely be attributed to Mohr's tragic underestimation of allied radar technology (which, combined with his daring surface tactics, ended up in a grave miscalculation on his part...)