Quicksand Fans

Commander Eugene Fluckey

4 Navy Crosses
The Medal of Honor
And not a boat named for him yet? Someone fix that , please

"Battle Stations, Rockets" That is just 3 kinds of awesome on its own.
And Admiral Lockwood's message on the last patrol

fluckey you come home x acknowledge x.

Never heard of this before. Interesting if dangerous way to use a sub, get in nice and close and then pop up and shoot stuff.

The Submarine Service gets short shrift on just about every aspect of the war; from movies to writing. Despite sinking over 6 Million Tons of Japanese shipping, and slaughtering a large percentage of the Imperial Navy. If it wasnt for submarine movies, no one would know a damn thing. Even now, you mention "Mk14 Torpedo Scandal" and you get a WUT look of empty-headed retardation. Aint Political coverups great??

Fluckey knew about other submariners, notably Otto Kretschmer and how he employed his U-Boat. And a US Fleet boat is far faster on the surface than a Type VIIC.

kham wrote:The Submarine Service gets short shrift on just about every aspect of the war; from movies to writing. Despite sinking over 6 Million Tons of Japanese shipping, and slaughtering a large percentage of the Imperial Navy. If it wasnt for submarine movies, no one would know a damn thing. Even now, you mention "Mk14 Torpedo Scandal" and you get a WUT look of empty-headed retardation. Aint Political coverups great??

Fluckey knew about other submariners, notably Otto Kretschmer and how he employed his U-Boat. And a US Fleet boat is far faster on the surface than a Type VIIC.

The Bliss-Leavitt Mark XIV were horrible in the early war. The Mark XIIIs (Aircraft launched) were just as bad... The Earlier versions required dropping from not more than 100 feet and not more than 120 kts. The TBD devastators excelled at this as their top speed wasn't really much more than that, but it was what got them killed at Midway. More often than not they either wound up running on the surface, or not running at all. Late war modifications (1944 and later) allowed drops from as high as 2400 feet and as fast as 410 knots...

It's a while back, but it's posted in the Shattered Sword stuff; the newer Jap carriers (Hiryu, Soryu) were faster than the fish, and literally outran them by turning end-on to them and steaming at flank speed.

kham wrote:It's a while back, but it's posted in the Shattered Sword stuff; the newer Jap carriers (Hiryu, Soryu) were faster than the fish, and literally outran them by turning end-on to them and steaming at flank speed.

I have Shattered Sword... I think it is THE most definitive book on the Battle of Midway. Not only were the Bliss-Leavitt Mk XIIIs so slow, but the planes delivering them were so slow that any maneuvering by the target often blew the run clean out the window.