The Navy Thread

The Tale Of A World War II British Submarine That Shot Down An Enemy Plane With A Torpedo.

Filed under "so strange a claim, it'd be rejected by movie writers as too outlandish".

But apparently true, at least unconfirmed true. Torpedoing an enemy ship would cause a substantial eruption from the sea surface into the air and it wouldn't take much getting into a low flying aircraft from the era to extinguish its engines and cause it to crash. That of the three aerial escorts only two are verified leaving the area lends credibility to the story.

I mean I do know there have been numerous reports and incidents of aircraft being damaged or shot down by the very thing they were destroying as it was exploding or otherwise in the process of being destroyed dating back throughout World War One and Two and even into more modern conflicts.

Then again, I was expecting a silly story about them torpedoing a seaplane or summat.

I need to get back into watching Black Lagoon. I absolutely went wild for the torpedo thing in the pilot.

An damn entertaining series and the Manga is equally great.

Amen hallelujah peanut butter.

Speaking of military anime, I'm reminded of Jormungand, which features the all-time most badass portrayal of Navy SEAL in a work that isn't primarily about them.

Double post because I got a question.

You all heard of the Class that Stars Fell On, the West Point class with exceptional number of generals, with two of them even becoming five star generals.

Now, does US Naval Academy has any class anywhere close to that? Seems like the class of 1906 seem pretty darn impressive.

The JMSDF fucked up a submarine, collision while underway, the bridge has been fucked up and the sub is on its way back to port for emergency repairs.

Which submarine? I can't read Japanese except maybe 9 characters.

That one

Here you go a english article exists now

So Soryuu's latest incarnation is having an eventful career already. Perhaps not in the way that was wanted.

-looks at the picture-

Ouch. It's like looking at a Gunpla with a horn broken, only so, so, so much worse.

*bonk* go to Navy jail

_{Yes I know Japan doesn't have military courts}

That does make me wonder then what's the JSDF equivalent of military court is called.

MicroProse has a Cold War naval sim in development, THIS IS NOT A DRILL:

I saw that the other day. I was surprised they were still around.

Random musing.

Recently I've been working on a (somewhat alternate) historical fiction about an Asian American who becomes an officer in the US Navy and climbing up through the ranks, ultimately becoming an admiral.

One of the interesting things I learned while doing research is that back in late 19th and early 20th century, midshipmen have to graduate from the Annapolis and spend additional two years at the sea and take an exam before becoming an officer, while army cadets just have to graduate from the West Point.

This leads to a scene where the main character reunites with Henry H. Arnold, who kinda became his Worthy Opponent and a friend during their encounters in the Army-Navy game (and the latter's attempted kidnapping of Bill the Goat) in the Philippines in 1908 during his voyage in the Great White Fleet. The MC complains that despite him graduating Annapolis earlier than him he still had to salute Arnold ((MC is a class of 1906, while Arnold is 1907), to which the latter joke that maybe he should've joined the army instead.

Sad thing is, MC DID want to attend the West Point, but no appointments were available in his region in 1902. Amusingly enough, two of the fleet admirals, Leahy and Nimitz, also initially planned to go to the West Point as well.

A month late, but: Taiwan's Ministry of Justice announced that it's made some progress on returning the illegal kickbacks from its navy's La Fayette frigate scandal, all the way back in the early '90s. The procurement of the frigates (known locally as the Kang Ding class) apparently involved literal hundreds of millions of dollars of kickbacks paid by the main French contractor, Thomson CSF (now part of Thales), as well as a number of contractors and Taiwanese navy officials being found dead under suspicious circumstances.

And no, your eyes are not deceiving you: that is indeed a Chaparral launcher in the photo. Last I checked, Taiwan was in the process of replacing them with indigenously-developed, radar-guided TC-2N missiles. Not quite up to the standards of the La Fayette-derived Formidable class operated by the Singaporean Navy (which has late-mark Harpoons, Aster 15/30 SAMs and Israeli-made ECM), but it's something.

Not exactly navy-related, but this thread feels like the most appropriate one:

The cargo ship Ever Given has been stuck in the Suez Canal for almost a week by now.

Goddamn. Must've been some really big ass cargo ship.

The US Navy has offered to help get the ship Ever Given unstuck.

The problem was that Ever Given is both huge and heavy. She was hit with high winds - all them cargo containers were like a sail.

Shipping companies have alerted the US Navy over piracy risks. So many ships in one place or places.

SHE IS RISEN

Random trivia I learned as a part of my research for historical fiction, prominently featuring the US Navy and the main character who ultimately becomes a (fifth) fleet admiral:

So apparently U-864 was the only submarine in (documented) history to get attacked and sink by an enemy submarine while both submerged.

Huh. I thought that happened at least a couple dozens of times through the course of WWII.

There have been more istances of submerged subs crashing into one another by accident than sinking one another on purpose.

That I can totally believe.

Edited by dRoy on Apr 2nd 2021 at 6:40:14 PM