Love this movie, but I can't watch the last five minutes of it.
Posted on 07/05/2018 10:56:27 AM PDT by Gamecock
Four months after the Pearl Harbor attacks, Kapitanleutnant Reinhard Hardegen decided that Americans should see for themselves what war with Adolf Hitler's Germany was going to look like.
He began with Florida sunbathers. On April 11, 1942, Hardegen's submarine, U-123, torpedoed the tanker SS Gulfamerica off Jacksonville. He maneuvered U-123 around the flaming wreck and surfaced between the SS Gulfamerica and the beach. He sank it with U-123's deck gun.
Hardegen later wrote in his log: "All the vacationers had seen an impressive special performance at [President Franklin D.] Roosevelt's expense. A burning tanker, artillery fire, the silhouette of a U-boat -- how often had that been seen in America?"
Hardegen was one of the few "Unterseeboot" commanders to survive the war. Most did not, as the U.S. turned to the convoy system and sonar to devastate the "wolfpacks" and keep open the supply lines to Britain.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
I wonder if the afterlife for him will be like that Twilight Zone episode?
My German grandfather was a civilian construction foreman and oversaw the construction of some of the fortifications on Normandy.
My dad came ashore a couple days after D-Day. I often wonder if Dad passed by my Grandfather’s work.
Prayers for his soul.
” Full circle my parents were kids during Musolini.
I am only 56 but can tell their stories of when the german soldiers came to their homes.... “
Love this movie, but I can't watch the last five minutes of it.
Had one neighbor that was in training when the war ended.
And, an in-law that was accepted for training just before the end of the war, having been in one island invasion on an LST.
It is the only movie where you do have some sympathy for the Germans.
“Hardegen later wrote in his log: “All the vacationers had seen an impressive special performance at [President Franklin D.] Roosevelt’s expense. A burning tanker, artillery fire, the silhouette of a U-boat — how often had that been seen in America?”
And how did that work out for you and your wolfpack compadres, skippy? How long before that smirk was wiped off your face?
When Mussolini was tossed out in 1943, the Nazis occupied much of Italy.
Is that the sub that surrendered at Germany’s surrender, carrying nuclear material for Japan? And two dead IJN officers that didn’t want to surrender?
He did 10 years in Spandau.
“On April 11, 1942, Hardegen’s submarine, U-123, torpedoed the tanker SS Gulfamerica off Jacksonville.”
My father was in Florida at that time and told of going down to the beach and watching the torpedoed tankers burn.
It’s hillarious that you basically had Bormann, Goebbels, Goering, and Himmler all vying to replace Hitler, and who does Hitler pick, Doenitz.
“Is that the sub that surrendered at Germany’s surrender, carrying nuclear material for Japan? And two dead IJN officers that didn’t want to surrender?”
I think that’s U-505, captured on the high seas by Adm. Daniel Gallery and crew.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-505
Goering had attempted his 'telegram coup' days before Hitler's suicide and he blew a gasket.
Himmler was seeking a separate peace and was also out.
Bormann and Goebbels were in the bunker and would barely outlive Hitler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-234
U-234 was carrying 1200lbs of Uranium that went to the Manhattan Project.
The Japanese officers committed suicide.
I sometimes wonder if Hitler had spent more money on submarines and less on ships like Bismarck, how that might have changed things. A couple of times early in the war more subs might have forced England out of the war. No matter how many subs Germany had sonar, air cover and other things would have caught up with them. But there were a couple of windows there to change things with enough subs.
78 years too late.
> “A proper use of U-Boats would have drastically changed the war by strangling Britain and choking American supplies.”
If Hitler had built more U-boats early instead of wasting time, money, and raw material on battleships and an aircraft carrier, he would have strangled Britain. That doesn’t automatically mean he would have won the war, but it sure would have increased his odds.
My father was in submarines in the Pacific during WWII.
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