Recent uboat pictures

[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

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Aman, pal......

[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]

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

M

[greenman407]

Hes our History Guy. He fills in the blanks.

[Von Hilde]

Not quit published yet. Im working on a couple books pertaining to U boats, and a semi autobio. Most likely will go E Book first to test the water with publishers. I think thats the norm these days. Too many irons in the fire right now. I have set aside my Navy adventures stories to be a chapter in a more encompasing book about post navy experiences. Focusing on U boats presently, particularly the Black sea boats that were scuttled at the end of the war. My friend Selcuk Kolay, director of the Turkish maratime museum in Istanbul, found 3 a couple miles off shore at different depths, ranging from 80m and beyond. Another Turkish friend Tanner Aksoy, Turkish Navy marine engineer and diver/photographer has surveyed and took pictures of U20. Those guys want me to fly to Istanbul and check out the wreck. I said I would like to go when the send an ROV to the U23 and help identify the boat. As it is I had already mentioned to Tanner that the some of the captions on the U20 pictures were incorrect. No fault of his, the translation from turkish to greek to english, by the time the pictures got published. But he assumed the two watertite ammo cans ahead of the magnetic housing was the Torpedo room access hatches. Mostly because the gun and mount were taken off before scuttling and nothing else was on the fordeck ahead of the tower. The visibility at the wreck is quite poor. It sits on a sandy bottom at the mouth of a river and its always murkey. It has been damaged over the years by fishing boat traffic. Sardeen nets all fowled in the periscopes and the top part of the tower gone. The 23 however is off the ledge and deep and apparently intact. The big problem is money of course. The Turkish Govt. is having financial problems just like everywhere, and raising an old wwii u boat just isnt on the platter at this time. I sugested an ROV recon, privately funded, would be cost effective. which gave me their attention. I found a guy in Sweeden who has an ROV already sitting in Turkey. I havent been able to contact him yet. Another friend of mine in the US State Dept, tells me now is not the time for me to go to Istanbul. My wife says that too, and she overrides the state department roun heah bubba!!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Sign me up!

M

[Von Hilde]

Dave, How hard would it be to build a small rover to penetrate the wreck and manuver without disturbing the silt. Taking in lighting and optics requirements as well as pressure? Just a thought. I dont know what kind of funding these guys have or even considered anything mini to peek around with. Dont want to tip my hand untill I find out about fesibility. If they start tossing Lira around, I want to be like the guys following around the money guy on the Gieco commercial with stickey stuff on my hands. Good thing I learned to speek Turkish when I was a kid, You never know when that kind of shat will come in handy some day.

[Von Hilde]

Today in 1942 there were two ships sunk near Key West. U84 sank the MV Baja California just 80 miles north west and the same time U 129sank the MV Port Antonio about 90 miles SE. The Key West Citizen publishes a segment "Tody in History" of significant news from their archives. These last few weeks have been full of U boat activity. The most sucessful of all of them in this area was Mohelman's U 571

[greenman407]

The results of todays search:

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

In these pictures I have included some small ones of U511 and the rocket program initiated starting with her.Theres that yellow stripe again.

[Von Hilde]

that yellow stripe just means it is being used as a training boat at the time of the picture. Since most of the pictures are in B&W the stripe was mistaken for white or light grey by many people begining with Alied inteligance during the war up to present day modelers. Every type boat was used in the training flotilla, altho the Type II's were primarily the brunt of the force. Most training boats were only temporaraly assigned to training command, and once the crew was proficient they were re assigned to "front boat" positions or wolfpacs from various flotillas area of operations, with their new boat. The stripe was sort of a warning as well as an identification that there are "Student Drivers" aboard "Watch our for suddon stops or turns" stay clear ect. In other words School Bus

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

The Laubie was the U766 taken up in French service after the war. Here is a link for some more info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_..._Laubie_(S610)