Recent uboat pictures

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

That is so neat! ... I never knew. Are you a published author? If not, you should be!

M

[Von Hilde]

Today in 1943 the U 134 a VIIC, shot down the K74 Blimp, a few miles south west of here. The only blimp that was ever shot down during the war. Rather unusual in itself but the fact it was a year after the u boats were operating around here during "Drum beat". Most had been called back by oct 42. July in 42 was the worst month for ships sank by U boats near Key West. 6 were sunk in 4 days by u 571 a VII c within a few miles of my house. The other unusual fact that it was a VIIC, since most of the boats that made the long trip to Florida and the Gulf were type IXs in one form or another. Evidance of support vessels along the route such as the Milchkows. Most of those were sunk by late summer 43. As it is, the U 134 was sunk on the trip back to Germany after the K74 incident. The 134 managed to transfer the camera and film recovered from the blimp by the boats boarding party, to another U boat before they themselvs were attacked and sank. The pictures were taken from the blimp's gondola, of the attack on the u boat, by a crewman who abandoned the gondola and camera when it was sinking. Heres a painting of the incident. I had posted the pictures of the Blimp POV before but I happend to find this painting this morning and thought it was a nice rendering, and showed the artist took the time to research the details such as the timeline when the blimp had overtaken the boat and lost the transversity of the 50 cal aim, due to the fact it was loosing buoyancy aft from the holes shot in the bag, and the angle of attack increasing fast. Basiclly the .50 cal couldnt shoot past 90 degrese strait down and became ineffective and the 20cm flak had taken out the port motor of the blimp and it had caught fire. They only had a few seconds to abandon when it hit the water due to, the depth charges were armed and they would start poppin quick, as they were already set for shallow detonation. Germans were quick to respond by boarding, but soon realised the iminet danger and grabbed a few things and left.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Aman, pal......

[Von Hilde]

Dave, Hope, is a word that people use when they dont have any other option. Pray is what people do when they have no power to change. Do'ers is the only way to overcome a problem. Basiclly two kinds of people, You got your Talkers and Dewers.......I take my Dewers 2 fingers neet, please Sir

[greenman407]

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

All we have now of the place are memories. Most of 'em good. Oh, well.

Hope and Change. Well ... we got the change part, that's for sure. Hope he chokes.

M

[Von Hilde]

Shrimpers are almost all gone. Dockage takin over by Yachts. The old inner tube has gone hi tech. Its cars and busses with flotation for the poor people. The rich ones come by speedboat or as first class passengers with papers, on the jet. The queers are the ones that own all the real estate and business now. Im getting ready to toss an oar over my shoulder and head for the Catskills. When I get up around Overlook mountain and someone asks me what the hell is that thing on my shoulder. Ill stick it in the ground and put my mailbox on it.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Nite Op. Go get 'em!

Seems like Key West is now the exclusive domain of queer's, shrimper's and the occasional Cuban inner-tube rider. Oh, well. Sign of the times.

M

[Von Hilde]

That "Cutie" is a Mod O with the wood furniture. The guy at the Leageon hall was trying to tell me it was a short Japanese aircraft torpedo from pearl. His info got a bit twisted. The reason being, they got the torpedo from the Key West Lighthouse museum and it had been sitting next to the H19 Ko Hyoteki at the lighthouse along with several other Naval relics that had been aquired from the base when it closed. The city gave up the sub and all the artifacts when they renovated the lighthouse museum. The boat went to Texas to the WWII museum. Most of the big stuff that was outside was given to the Leageon and VFW. I wouldnt mind liberating the little bronze plaque with all the milspec info, off the fish. Its been painted over but its still stamped and legible. Being a veterin I should be able to rescue it from its impending doom. If you get my drift.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

That Mk-27 is out at the Stock Island American Legeon parking lot by the golf course, along with a 3"-50 single mount, a turrett from the Maine and a 5" gun and turrett from a WWII DE or PC, and a couple inert mines. Kind of a mini museum outdoor display. Stuff is periodiclly painted but nobody is doing any corrosion control.

Wow! One of America's first production acoustic weapons, out in the open. Better than a land-fill I guess. Man! You have been around!

[Von Hilde]

That Mk-27 is out at the Stock Island American Legeon parking lot by the golf course, along with a 3"-50 single mount, a turrett from the Maine and a 5" gun and turrett from a WWII DE or PC, and a couple inert mines. Kind of a mini museum outdoor display. Stuff is periodiclly painted but nobody is doing any corrosion control.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The UDT school was close to our barracks.

A few years after the base closed down, while on leave from the WEBSTER, I traveled to Key West for a few weeks. While there I broke into the property and roamed some of the buildings. Only time I was in the UDT school -- the floors were caving in, but I did note a rather deep, square, concrete 'tank' on the ground floor. No training-aids or anything neat, the place had been stripped. Same with my former barracks. Depressing. Stupid peacenics!

Down by the old coastal fort, in a deep casement, I found what appeared to be a MK-27 torpedo -- likely a training aid from the Annex. Just sitting there!

[Von Hilde]

city officials haven changed, but most arn't Conchs any more.ever go here? we were just down the street around the cornerhad to cross a few decks to get to the Truttboat from the tender once myself

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

We were doing an underwater navagation evolution in the harbor, back in the late 60s and one of the waypoints was under the Buschnell, while she was on the outer moll. The Gillmore had come to relieve her and the Bush was on the way to decom. There was a ton of stuff on the bottom. Lots of tools, mess trays, silveware, coffee cups, plates (with the little blue anchor and blue stripe) had to come from the Zero mess. A drill press,movie projector, typwriter, all kinds of good stuff. We figgured that most of the stuff was tossed because somebody didnt want to do the paperwork for DMRO or it was unauthorised inventory and un accountable. I dove there about ten years ago when the Navy gave up the property to the city. There still are some of those stainless steel mess trays down there.

My God! Small world, I was on the GILLMORE then, working in the steam-shop doing MK-14 after-body overhaul. Likely you were working out of the UDT school there at that time?

It was while at Key West I cross-decked to the TRUTTA. Key West City officials were complete idiots!

M

[Von Hilde]

We were doing an underwater navagation evolution in the harbor, back in the late 60s and one of the waypoints was under the Buschnell, while she was on the outer moll. The Gillmore had come to relieve her and the Bush was on the way to decom. There was a ton of stuff on the bottom. Lots of tools, mess trays, silveware, coffee cups, plates (with the little blue anchor and blue stripe) had to come from the Zero mess. A drill press,movie projector, typwriter, all kinds of good stuff. We figgured that most of the stuff was tossed because somebody didnt want to do the paperwork for DMRO or it was unauthorised inventory and un accountable. I dove there about ten years ago when the Navy gave up the property to the city. There still are some of those stainless steel mess trays down there.