Attack of the invicible airship.

[maillemaker]

They were very vulnerable to return fire - I think there is an account by a 'blimp survivor' somewhere.

As I read it recently only one of them was shot down by a uboat.

In GWX the guys are safe as can be. I put enough deck gun fire into it to sink a merchant ship. Plus 20+ rounds of heavy AAA and hundreds of rounds of machine gun fire.

[Mike Abberton]

Originally Posted by maillemaker

As I read it recently only one of them was shot down by a uboat.

In GWX the guys are safe as can be. I put enough deck gun fire into it to sink a merchant ship. Plus 20+ rounds of heavy AAA and hundreds of rounds of machine gun fire.

From what I remember from Morisson's US Navy History, one blimp was shot down in the Caribbean. The story is the crew was aggressive and lowered the blimp's altitude to attack the sub, which allowed the sub to get enough hits in to shoot it down. Standard tactics were for the blimp to hold off at higher altitude and vector in the attack forces.

Mike

[KleineUboot]

According to the uboat.net the only blimp's attack on sub in WWII resulted in the destruction of the blimp...

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Mike Abberton

From what I remember from Morisson's US Navy History, one blimp was shot down in the Caribbean. The story is the crew was aggressive and lowered the blimp's altitude to attack the sub, which allowed the sub to get enough hits in to shoot it down. Standard tactics were for the blimp to hold off at higher altitude and vector in the attack forces.

Mike

Good call on that! http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/naval-aviation-centennial-blimp-vs-u-boat/ The K74 vs the VIIC U-134 7/13/1943. Only one crewman (9 total) was lost... to sharks! The u-boat was damaged by two depth charges and the blimp commander received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Crewman Stessel, who dropped the depth charges, was killed by a shark and the U-134, unable to dive and damaged, was sunk by British bombers while attempting to return to France a few days later.

[KleineUboot]

It seems that I've confused the only blimp attack on U-Boot with the only blimp shot down by the U-Boot