Posted on 06/25/2004 7:12:51 PM PDT by BluegrassScholar
"Cowardly," "bitter enders," "a sure sign of weakness," "desperation tactics," "pathological," "aberrant." Terms that could be drawn from a Donald Rumsfeld briefing on terrorism in fact constitute some of the more printable characterizations of submariners and their tactics at the opening of the last century. That a weapons system invented to facilitate a guerre de course -- or "commerce war," a form of maritime insurgency that slithered over into piracy -- would elicit condemnation from more tradition-minded warriors was foreseen by Leonardo da Vinci, who refused to actualize his design for a submersible for the benefit "of men who practice assassination at the bottom of the sea."
A coroner's court in Kinsale, Ireland, agreed with Leonardo that assassination was indeed the business of submarines, when on May 10, 1915, it declared "the Emperor and the Government of Germany" guilty of murder in the sinking of the Lusitania. Any doubts that the chivalry of maritime combat had become one of the first casualties of submarine warfare had been laid to rest barely three weeks into World War I, when the U-9 singlehandedly sank the British 7th Cruiser Squadron off the Hook of Holland. And there was another, especially sinister feature to this encounter -- after having torpedoed the British cruiser Aboukir, the captain of the U-9 then lingered to pot the two British cruisers that rushed to rescue the Aboukir's drowning crew. The message was clear: Any captain who slowed to rescue shipwrecked sailors or loitered off an invasion beach offered his ship and crew to ambush by these heartless killers of the deep. "Underhand, unfair, and damned un-English" was the verdict of one British admiral.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Yet the only submarine campaign that every succeeded was the USN's campaign against Japan. Every other campaign, including the Germans in both wars was defeated. In that sense, it is a perfect metaphor for what normally happens in war. The enemy starts it. America perfects it.
Interestingly, though, sub technology was pioneered by Americans such as Holland, and the German Navy was the last major navy to start building submarines prior to WWI...
Somewhere tonight, Lieutenant George Dixon, of the 21st Alabama Volunteers, is smiling.
Thank you for posting this. I'm going to buy the book for my husband.
Long Range Patrol P-3 ASW Bump
Did you write this? If not, you should give the author in the space where you listed your own 'name' the second time.
Thanks! Gotta have this book. (see profile)
That's "Housatonic".
I would argue that the Boomers and attack subs were very successful during the Cold War.
I guess I'm just argumentative tonight ;-)
The serpent and its dinner are often both surprised.
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