Picture of the day

We haven't much touched on navy stuff. Ever heard of U 2540?

Here she is back in the day:

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Scuttled at the end of the war, raised 12 years later, used by the Bundesmarine as a research vessel, retired in 1982 (!) and now comfortably resting in Bremerhaven and open for tours.

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More info here:

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

Not many wartime Unterseeboots left. She's one of four.

Beautiful boat. Conning tower looks like it is wrapped around a Lancaster.
 
Das BIG Boot!

Wow, that is one spiffy-looking U-boot. And I like the idea of a weatherproof bridge for the con. Better than running through heavy seas in "Das Boot"!
And surely she holds the world record for remaining submerged, then resurfacing after 12 YEARS!! What other sub can equal that record??
 
Neither a "before" nor an "after" picture. More kind of a "during"... Those poor nosepickin' bastards standing on the bow are in for a shock.

I'm assuming you lot have watched Clarkson's BBC thing on the St. Nazaire raid? Stuff like that makes me hate the history channel for not living up to its potential.
 
Neither a "before" nor an "after" picture. More kind of a "during"... Those poor nosepickin' bastards standing on the bow are in for a shock.

I'm assuming you lot have watched Clarkson's BBC thing on the St. Nazaire raid? Stuff like that makes me hate the history channel for not living up to its potential.


Yes and yes!
 
Don't be a simpleton. If you recognize the statement, you know the context. We are being counselled not to let the fact worry us.

Difficult to do when we are continuously bombarded with in-your-face news coverage of the current crop of wars and atrocities around the globe.

No simpleton here, I don't suffer fools and rather tend to ignore them. (unless they're intentionally misleading others) Happy Easter. :(
 
Wow, that is one spiffy-looking U-boot. And I like the idea of a weatherproof bridge for the con. Better than running through heavy seas in "Das Boot"!
And surely she holds the world record for remaining submerged, then resurfacing after 12 YEARS!! What other sub can equal that record??

The glassed in bridge was put in after she was raised and refurbished, then removed when she was restored to war time configuration with two twin 30mm AA gun turrets.

She was scuttled by flooding the ballast tanks rather than the internal crew spaces, otherwise it would have been impossible to restore.

Interesting that the forward hydroplanes are retractable, and that the forward torpedo tubes do not appear to be shuttered to reduce drag. Maybe the shutters are in the firing position in the photo.
 
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In case anyone's interested, here's the Clarkson thing on the St. Nazaire raid:

[youtube]nXusKM5uX0s[/youtube]

It is funny how they talk of today's Special Forces as having a set of brass ones. And I will admit that today's soldiers have all kinds of "the right stuff". But for some reason I get the feeling that if you were to put any of today's SF into a situation like that, there would be a lot of filled drawers and crying for mommy.

I wonder if it has something to do with the mindset of the entire nation at the time. Nowadays there is only a very small percentage who are involved, and at best it is a 30 sec. news story, whereas 70 years ago, for the British, it was a Total Way. Either Germany will be defeated or 'We' will.
 
It is funny how they talk of today's Special Forces as having a set of brass ones. And I will admit that today's soldiers have all kinds of "the right stuff". But for some reason I get the feeling that if you were to put any of today's SF into a situation like that, there would be a lot of filled drawers and crying for mommy.

I wonder if it has something to do with the mindset of the entire nation at the time. Nowadays there is only a very small percentage who are involved, and at best it is a 30 sec. news story, whereas 70 years ago, for the British, it was a Total Way. Either Germany will be defeated or 'We' will.

excellent point and tough to challenge ... but one factor that is easily forgotten (by all of us) is as we get older we get a lot more cautious! And forget the chances we happily took - and dangerous stunts we performed - as 18 YO's

There's a reason why the infantry likes to recruit 18-20 YO's ... they will do things the average 30 year old wouldnt even consider. And if you ask them why they did it - they will say "I dunno know - seemed like a good idea at the time!"

They are invincible then !
 
Yes, when International sold the Chilean Navy Rosses, each one was supposed to come with a letter affirming that it was a rifle from the Almirante Latorre, formerly HMS Canada.

Think I remember reading somewhere that she was the last Superdreadnought which fought at Jutland. Definitely one of only two 14-inch battleships in the RN. Her guns had the muzzle velocity of a .303, but with shells weighing 1586 pounds each.

She deserved so much better than her fate: scrapped in Japan, 1959. She should have come HERE.

At least her rifles -- a bit less than 250 -- did get here. I am proud to have DA 426, a very early example which shoots quite marvellously.

Such a BEAUTIFUL ship!
 
Yes, when International sold the Chilean Navy Rosses, each one was supposed to come with a letter affirming that it was a rifle from the Almirante Latorre, formerly HMS Canada.

Think I remember reading somewhere that she was the last Superdreadnought which fought at Jutland. Definitely one of only two 14-inch battleships in the RN. Her guns had the muzzle velocity of a .303, but with shells weighing 1586 pounds each.

She deserved so much better than her fate: scrapped in Japan, 1959. She should have come HERE.

At least her rifles -- a bit less than 250 -- did get here. I am proud to have DA 426, a very early example which shoots quite marvellously.

Such a BEAUTIFUL ship!

Sorry that is wrong. Four of the Queen Elizabeth class, which included the "Warspite", were at Jutland. They had eight 15" guns. The best ever built!

1w.jpg


Yes I know it is a model!
 
The Revenge-class battleships also carried 15" guns.

They were a coal fired semi-repeat of the Queen Elizabeth class.

The battle cruisers that followed the Queen Elizabeth class, such as HMS Hood also carried 15" guns,

except for the HMS Furious which was designed to carry two 18' guns..
 
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Sorry that is wrong. Four of the Queen Elizabeth class, which included the "Warspite", were at Jutland. They had eight 15" guns. The best ever built!

Sorry, it's not wrong. The Queen Elizabeth class had long since gone to the breakers when the Almirante Latorre was still in service.

And as for guns, the Vangaurd finished after WWII and the last RN battlesship, had guns built 25 or more years before for the Queen Elizabeth class.
 
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