"Iron Coffins" book: How many torps to sink freigh

[Maui]

I don't profess to be an expert on u-boats, but my SH3 let me to go out and purchase "Iron Coffins"-- a recount from a UBoat commander of the war.

Thus far I am about halfway through and his boat has sunk over a dozen... maybe 15 freighters. They have been decent size freighters by his account (5000-7000 tons), and only one did not sink with the first torpedo hit (which required 3). There were 2 they were not able know if sunk as they came under immediate attack by a destoyer, but even if they didn't go down, 12 of 15 freighters going down with 1 torp is a *lot* better luck than I have in SH3 with max realism.

Did this guy just get lucky? Are there statistics on the average # of torps needed to sink a freighter?

Also, I realy like the NYGM damage mod I have been using recently, but a number of the boats in this book have apparently sunk by flooding off of one torp hit (not a critical hit which explodes the boat or splits the boat in two). I have yet to see a decent size freighter or tanker sink by flooding off of one torpedo with NYGM and I sort of doubt it is possible. If this book is accurate, I wonder if Teddy and other modders should consider changes to allow boats to sink off of fewer torpedoes? Maybe keep the lower damage limit of a torpedo the same, but raise the upper limit significantly?

Was it specified if it was on Impact or Depth Magnetic pistol?

[Threadfin]

Here's what uboat.net says was sunk by U-230.

http://uboat.net/boats/u230.htm


Fact or fiction? You decide

[Maui]

Wow. I never would have suspected that large parts could have been fabricated and the book would remain in print, but after you pointed that out, I did a little research and it looks like that's the case? (I even saw there were threads in here about it that I never read)

I guess on the other hand, I was somewhat suspicious about the extraordinary number of close calls they had. I did think that some of those close calls may have been exaggerated since it seemed insane that he really could be barely getting out of all those situations he describes.

[Oleif]

Ive read this book twice since I got it earlier in the year. While doing research before reading it I came across more than one review by historians saying, in a nutshell, "factually terrible, visiually magnificent"

In my opinion even with the factual errors its an A+ read.

[Heibges]

Large parts of every WWII Memoir, including Winston Churchill's History of the Second World War, and Heinz Guderian's Panzer Leader have a great deal of embellishment.

It's part of the territory.

Use them for the flavor of the period, but not as the undisputed truth.

And the European, particulary the Eastern European, convention for memoirs has never been really concerned with the truth, but to tell a story that shows "truths".

Look at Herzen, Tolstoy, Gogol, and Kropotkin's memoirs for example.

[Tonnage_Ace]

A Million Little Submarines, by unknown Captain of WW2. Maybe he should have gone on Oprah and the truth could've been known...

[Maui]

I'm okay with embelishing, or outright making up stories for entertainment purposes. But in his introduction he included some statement about how he had crosschecked his memories with official U-Boat records and most events were reported with accuracy down to the nearest minute.

Either tell a story or tell the facts. But don't tell a story while claiming you are telling very accurate facts.

[zombiewolf]

Isn't that book really a bunch of different sub patrols rolled into one

[Heibges]

If you read Erich Topp's book, he kind of agrees with Werner of many large issues, meaning that they are anti-Doenitz.

If you read Peter Cremer's book, he kind of disagrees with Werner on major issues, and obvioulsy worshipped Doenitz.