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Long ago I had read “U-Boats Offshore”, the tale of the first six months on the Atlantic seaboard after the US entry into WWII. And from family here, I had heard the stories of IJN I Boats operating off the California coast in the early days after December 7. Of course that inspired me to read into those events. But I had never heard of U-Boats off the US east coast in WWI.
This is an interesting tale....
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-tiny-cape-cod-town-survived-world-war-is-only-attack-american-soil-180969691/
F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!
U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!
N is for NO SURVIVORS...
- Plankton
LSM
Thanks for posting. SMU-156 was more like a submersible light cruiser, the 5.9 L45 was a big gun.
Modeling is an excuse to buy books.
GMorrison Thanks for posting. SMU-156 was more like a submersible light cruiser, the 5.9 L45 was a big gun.
Certainly a bigger gun than the 8.8 cm or 10.5 cm deck guns of the WWII U-Boats. And yes a 5.9” gun puts it in the class of a light cruiser armament wise.
Even the famous Emden had 4.1 inch (105mm) L40 main armament.
IIRC, for the interwar Naval Treaties, the deciding factor for differentiating between light and heavy cruisers was not tonnage, but main armament. 6” guns and below were light cruisers, while 8” and above were heavies.
The IJN Mogami class were originally built with triple 6” gun turrets to fudge their way around one of the treaties.
If anyone wants to read a good book about U-boat operations on WWI check this one out.
U-boat war 1914-1918 by Edwyn Gray.
It was really quite a nasty affair with a lot going on on both sides
Speaking of WWI U Boat activity, the other day I cought the last 15-20 minutes of a special on the Lusitania sinking. The unmanned sub came up on thousands of rounds of .303 rifle ammo found in one of the torn open sections. Germany claimed she was carrying tons of military goods but Britain denied it. There's a long and detailed read on Wiki about the manifest listing such goods. I didn't know she had been classified as an auxilary cruiser by the Admiralty making her a military target.
Too many models to build, not enough time in a lifetime!!
At the time I think Germany declared any ship crossing the Atlantic to England was declared a military target and they would be sasiling at their own peril. Notices were posted at the harbors with the wraning.
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