Bridge Audio from USS Porter, collision

[kham]

Worse than that; its in the Straits of Hormuz; and the ships are opposite direction and crossing traffic, some of them 10 to 20 times your mass. And somehow they missed the one they collided with. A noisy bridge is something that shouldnt be tolerated. If the BM of the watch had just grated out an old school "SILENCE ON THE BRIDGE!!" at about 110 db it might have shocked these dumbasses into doing the right thing. But, cant have that, it might bruise some wittle feelings. One of these days, sooner than you think, this sort of bonehead move is gonna happen again. Only this time , with a 100,000 ton carrier.

[Nessie]

Queeg might have been a dickhead, but I was behind everything Jose Ferrer said in the last scene. Interesting that, I have seen it a couple times and have wondered if the producers of JAG used his character as the model for a certain other naval aviator injured and turned lawyer....

I've seen "The Caine Mutiny" several times and I really like the book.

Despite the fact that I have not a single military bone in my body, I could relate to it well since I'm a working woman. Remove that last speech and what you have left is a bad boss story.

Nessie

[General Woundwort]

Kham, a little off topic but you might appreciate this. From this site: http://www.hnsa.org/sound/ Of particular interest is this page with a sound file: http://www.hnsa.org/sound/sonobuoy2/record19.mp3

These are recordings of the real-life attack by American Avenger antisubmarine aircraft on the Japanese submarine I-52, in 1944. You can hear the propellers of the submarine on the sonobuoy as well as the explosion of FIDO which finishes off the submarine. I found these to be both fascinating and sobering...and a little sinister (the sonobuoys especially).

[kham]

It is probably still a well kept secret that in 1943-45 the use of sonobuoys and air-dropped homing torpedoes were one of the ASW weapons used to wipe out the U-Boat threat as well as hunt down Japanese submarines. Completely new technology, the Germans and Japanese had no defense against such a weapon system. The Germans also had acoustic homing torpedoes, good ones. But the idea of marrying that, to air dropped weapons, sonobuoys, and radar onboard carrier aircraft was so far beyond them.... well. There is a reason why the U-Boat service suffered over 75% casualties ....

[bbjohn]

Another thing that helped against the German U-boats was the Allies cracked the Ultra code used by the Kriegsmarine. It reached the point where the monitors at Blechley Park (I'm probably spelling that wrong) knew what orders were being sent out before the German commanders did. The German admirals were suspicious the code had been broken, but they were assured the Allies could never break the code. The cryptologists made the mistake of thinking their code was so perfect, it could never be broken. Even a mountain of circumstantial evidence the Allies knew every one of their moves did nothing to shake that belief.

This played into the capture of the U-505 submarine by the U.S. Navy. It was the first enemy warship to be captured by the U.S. Navy on the high seas since the War of 1812. However, very little was said about it at the time. It was feared that, if the German admirals learned a U-boat had been captured intact, they'd change the codes and code breakers would be right back at square one.

The last I heard, the U-505 was on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I visited it in 1975, when it was outdoors next to the Burlington Zephyr train. I marveled at how cramped the thing was. It was easy to see why crews became so close to each other. I understand American subs weren't much better. Even to this day, submarine service remains among the most hazardous duties in navies around the world.

Big Bad John

[kham]

Bletchley * Park

Poles in 39, and a host of others, HMS Bulldog in 41, and the Germans never really caught on.

The problem having an uber-secret unbreakable code, is that when the enemy breaks it and you dont think that's possible, well.... generally you are screwed 6 ways to Halifax

[PM2K]

Bletchley * Park

Poles in 39, and a host of others, HMS Bulldog in 41, and the Germans never really caught on.

The problem having an uber-secret unbreakable code, is that when the enemy breaks it and you dont think that's possible, well.... generally you are screwed 6 ways to Halifax

American code breakers did the same with the Japanese codes, which played a big role in confirming the Midway attack, and in tracking and shooting down Admiral Yamamoto's transport plane in 1943. Like the Germans, the Japanese believed their diplomatic and military cyphers were unbreakable, despite growing evidence to the contrary.

[bbjohn]

Bletchley * Park

Poles in 39, and a host of others, HMS Bulldog in 41, and the Germans never really caught on.

The problem having an uber-secret unbreakable code, is that when the enemy breaks it and you dont think that's possible, well.... generally you are screwed 6 ways to Halifax

Hey, I wasn't that far off!