ASW Aircraft Apr-May43

[Marcello]

So Donitz was using the uboat crews as sacrificial lambs to keep the allied birds off Germany's doorstep.

Pretty much. Then again considered the losses in air raids it might have seemed worthwhile.

Sounds like the Nazi party to me.

Hence the Hitler Youth Dönitz nickname.
Though honestly I find the ramming order fishy, I recall terms like disregard of survival and such but not something that nutty . As I recall the only u-boat that managed to attack the invasion fleet carried out a conventional torpedo attack and evaded.

[gi_dan2987]

What about the Slapton Sands incident? Where U-boats got in and took out a couple troop transport ships off the coast of England while they were practicing the D-Day landings? I don't think the Allied high command let many people on to that until long after the war. Isn't it funny how we support war through blindness and complete and utter lies?

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by gi_dan2987

What about the Slapton Sands incident? Where U-boats got in and took out a couple troop transport ships off the coast of England while they were practicing the D-Day landings? I don't think the Allied high command let many people on to that until long after the war. Isn't it funny how we support war through blindness and complete and utter lies?

It wasn't U-Boats that hit the landing exercises at Slapton Sands but schnellboots, or S-Boats. Sometimes called E-Boats. Basically, German motor torpedo boats.

The incident was detailed in at least three books at the end of the war, including, Captain Harry C. Butcher 's My Three Years With Eisenhower.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Dread Knot

It wasn't U-Boats that hit the landing exercise at Slapton Sands but schnellboots, or S-Boats. Sometimes called E-Boats. Basically, German motor torpedo boats.

The incident was detailed in at least three books at the end of the war, including, Captain Harry C. Butcher 's My Three Years With Eisenhower.

Still used to this day by Royal Marine Commandos and surfers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_Tiger

[Dread Knot]

The reason Slapton Sands got buried in obscurity was probably due to security and because D-Day came not long after and captured all the attention of the media at the time. Much as the ugly meatgrinder that the US Army went through at Hurtgen Forest tends to get lost because of the much large Battle of the Bulge that followed. In the afterglow of victory, setbacks on the way there tend to be forgotten.

I've often thought that the negligent loss of the US heavy cruiser Indianapolis in the dying days of the war would have been largely forgotten had it not been a major plot point in the 1975 movie Jaws.

[gi_dan2987]

Isn't that sad though? People only notice things when it comes to them in the form of entertainment. I once heard a kid say "Wow! Fallout New Vegas has got AWESOME music!!" Little did he know that the music he was hearing debuted in the 1950's, but he thought the video game developers made it. I blame our education system honestly. What a joke, and what an ignorant, apathetic, aloof, and self-centered society we've become

Ok so I correct myself, Schnellboots launched the attack, I remember reading that now. Stephen Ambrose briefly covered Slapton Sands in his book D-Day the Normandy Invasion.

The Indianapolis was a tragic affair. I often wonder if their fate really was just happenstance. One major thing I've learned in my short life, nothing is as it seems. There are so many layers to this deception onion that I'm afraid it cannot all be peeled back. Layer upon layer of lies, deceit, misinformation, and disinformation have perverted history into some sick pseudo-version of the real thing. It almost seems like we only know the official story of history, and believing the taboo or unofficial story brings about accusations of being paranoid or crazy from the wholly brainwashed masses.

How free are we really? Think about it. Are we truly sure why WW2 went down and how?

"History is the lies that the victors agree upon." -Napoleon Bonaparte

History can be changed with the stroke of a pen. In one swipe of ink, the reputations of men can be either made or broken in an instant. Stories can be hidden or fabricated at will to exact some form of controlled response from the general public. So ask yourself, do we really have freedom of thought? Or are we merely lemmings marching to the tune of our masters music thinking we do?

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by gi_dan2987

One major thing I've learned in my short life, nothing is as it seems.

One major thing I've learned in a long life is never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Or a better (and more laconic) British English variation, coined by Bernard Ingham. "Many journalists have fallen for the conspiracy theory of government. I do assure you that they would produce more accurate work if they adhered to the cock-up theory."

After all, the attempt to cover-up common human traits like ineptitude, complacency , arrogance or stupidity is usually indistinguishable from covering up a conspiracy.

[gi_dan2987]

I wonder if it is just simply stupidity though. To say a man who commits suicide by stabbing himself 10 times in the back and throwing himself over a bridge was just lacking human intelligence causes a raised eyebrow for me.

I know an older gentleman who served 37 years in law enforcement, and the final 17 of those years as a detective investigating mysterious deaths. He told me once of a story where a local PD called upon him to investigate a severed head that was found by the banks of a river. To his astonishment, the local PD did not want to investigate it as a murder, but rather as a "terrible accident." Does Hot Fuzz come to mind?

It makes you wonder, is it really just stupidity, or simply the act of playing stupid?

I don't know about you, but heads don't just randomly fall off by accident and not get found until a week after the fact.

I suppose he was out hunting, got excited when he saw his deer, then "lost his head" so to speak...... Terrible accident, I must say.

The local cops took the head for evidence, marked it as an accident, and closed the case. Nothing about that seems in the least bit suspicious to you?

Originally Posted by Dread Knot

I've often thought that the negligent loss of the US heavy cruiser Indianapolis

It wasn't a negligent loss.
An enemy sub just happened to be in the area and sunk it.
What was regretable was not searching sooner.
But War, and all that means, has a way of causeing such things.

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by privateer

It wasn't a negligent loss.
An enemy sub just happened to be in the area and sunk it.
What was regretable was not searching sooner.
But War, and all that means, has a way of causeing such things.

When I use the term negligent I'm referring to a capital ship with no ASW capabilities of it's own, (other than zig-zagging and luck) sailing alone in the Western Pacific with no escort of any kind. Even a lowly minesweeper tagging along could have radioed in the sinking, pulled some survivors aboard and provided more life rafts and provisions for the rest. Ultimately, that's on the higher authorities that denied the escort than the captain.

[Leandros]

Originally Posted by gi_dan2987

I've changed some TC values in my .cfg files. Mostly I want it to snap to RT for unidentified and enemy planes and ships. All too often I've stumbled across a DD, my TC has went to 8 without me realizing it, then by the time I hit RT I'm already half sunk. The game should go to RT when any unidentified ship or plane is spotted anyhow.

I believe the SH3 Commander has an adjustment possibility for this - under tools.

Originally Posted by gi_dan2987

What I want to know is how do I change the keyboard commands? I want the Enter button in my keypad to be RT. That way I can hit it as my Oh #$%! button if I have any concerns about why I'm lagging at 1024, etc.

I have made a habit of hitting the observer scope ("O") button as soon as a detection is made.

Fred

[Eastwa]

Would the 4gb patch or the GWX 16km atmosphere have anything to do with the lack of ASW aircraft ?

[Leandros]

Originally Posted by gi_dan2987

The Indianapolis was a tragic affair. I often wonder if their fate really was just happenstance.

Do you know that the Japanese U-boat captain that sank the Indianapolis wrote a book where he also describes that incident?

Many years after the war this captain, on his own suggestion, witnessed in US court to exonerate the captain of Indianapolis - he had been court-martialled, and condemned, for not zig-zagging - and therefore loosing his ship and more than 300 men. The U-boat captain testified that it would have made no difference to the end result. He also had Kaitens onboard which he saw no need to use. Conventional torpedoes did the job.

Fred

[gi_dan2987]

Originally Posted by Dread Knot

that's on the higher authorities that denied the escort than the captain.

Now you understand my suspicions. Do you know what the Indianapolis's cargo was? The atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima! You don't think those guys might have known too much? Have you ever heard of the "Let it happen on purpose" theory? Know it's going to happen, let it, then play dumb and point the finger at the other guy? The Captain took the fall, and surprisingly offed himself with a pistol. How convenient. All loose ends tied up.....

[gi_dan2987]

Originally Posted by Leandros

he had been court-martialled, and condemned, for not zig-zagging

Yeah, something really seems fishy to me with the Indianapolis story.