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The success of such varied innovators as the US Navy's Admiral William J. Moffett (Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics 1921-33) and Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (responsible for the US Navy's nuclear propulsion throughout the Cold War), Japan's reforming Admiral Yamamoto Gombei, and, perhaps most outstandingly, the Soviet Navy's Commander-in-Chief from 1956 to 1985, Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, all attest to the value of a long-term vision of the navy's technological future, and the administrative authority to push it through. The more a navy's technological programme is chopped around by regime changes, the less successful it is likely to be. To cope, navies need a long-term institutional and cultural predisposition to adopt, adapt and exploit technological change pro-actively. # Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, was put in commission in September 1954, six months before the Killian report and nearly a year before Burke ...

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Rickover harboured a surprisingly sensitive side that few ever saw. One who did was Captain Tom Weschler. For some while in the late fifties, Rickover begged his CNO to come up to the Bettis factory in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, to familiarize himself with nuclear-power plants, their dimensions, what kind of ships they could be used in, and so on. At last Burke made the journey, and at the end of a long day he abruptly got in his limousine and was driven off to an affair in Pittsburgh, leaving just Weschler and Rickover alone. When Rickover discovered that Weschler had to get to the distant Pittsburgh airport he said, "I'll drive you." Speeding along, Weschler hesitantly began to query the admiral about his work and methods and got some surprisingly candid replies. Rickover explained his mania for safety: "I have a son. I love my son. I want everything ...

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The Amazing Life Onboard U-534

Looking for things to do on Merseyside? View the amazing life onboard a real German U-boat. With original film archive and interactive displays, you will witness all the dramatic action!

U-boat Story is a £5m attraction telling the story of World War II German submarine U-534. You will see into the cross-sectioned submarine and discover its amazing story through a highly interactive and exciting exhibition.

via Liverpool Days Out | The U-Boat Story of German Submarine U-534.

HMS/m E9 alongside at Reval, February 1915. Close-up of iced-up bridge with four crew members. Annotated and signed as follows: 'All good luck and with so many thanks "Scottie". Max K. Horton. 4/4/19'. The arctic conditions are well illustrated in this picture. Horton made the surprising discovery that E9 worked perfectly while submerged in winter. Only the icing up of the bridge was problematic when running on the surface.

 

The British fleet could not operate safely in the Baltic. The narrow, shallow seas were mined, and there were no nearby bases. Moreover, the German fleet could escape into the North Sea via the Kiel Canal. However, this area was ideal for submarine operations. An opportunity existed to send submarines into the Baltic area to interfere with German High Seas Fleet exercises and to interdict the iron ore trade with Sweden.

 

Consequently, in October 1914, the Admiralty sent ...

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U-boat resupply

U-Boat (Ship Type) German submarine. The word is a shortened form of Unterseeboot, which means “undersea boat” in German. Germany’s foremost naval weapon in both world wars was the submarine. Especially in World War I, it nearly cut the crucial ocean supply lines to Great Britain. From the beginning of World War I to the end of World War II, U-boats accounted for the sinking of almost 8,000 merchant ships and warships with the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. But they were vulnerable: 962 U-boats were lost by the end of World War II, taking some 33,000 seamen (half of all crewmen) to the bottom.

 

In World War I, Germany was the first nation to mount a combination of torpedo tubes and a deck gun on its boats and fit them with superior periscopes and wireless sets. The use of batteries combined with ...

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Jeremy Hart

In 1953, Joseph Stalin signed the plans for a top-secret nuclear submarine base that would become the operational home for the fearsome Soviet Black Sea Fleet.

Hidden inside the base of a mountain in the port town of Balaklava on Ukraine’s Crimean coast, the 153,000 square-foot facility took nine years to build and its entrance camouflaged from spy planes. It could survive a direct nuclear hit and at maximum capacity could hold 3,000 people with supplies to sustain them for a month. Best of all, the vast subs that slunk in and out of here between tours of duty could enter and leave underwater, keeping them from prying eyes at all times.

Once the most sensitive and secretive of Soviet Cold War hotspots, today it is preserved as a museum. I manage to get special permission to drive into the base during the 8,000-mile ...

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HIJMS I-47: 8 November 1944 at Otsu Island Naval Base

BY ZENJI ORITA with JOSEPH D. HARRINGTON

On July 2, the American submarine Barb used a new weapon for submarines—rockets—against targets in the Japanese homeland. Three days later, Gen. MacArthur announced that the Philippines had been formally liberated from Japan. On the next day, I-351 arrived at Singapore. This was Lt. Cdr. Noboru Okayama's second fuel run there. He took aboard 500 kiloliters of aviation gasoline, as before, and started for home on July 11. Three days later, I-351 and all her crew were scorched into eternity. Torpedoes from the American submarine Bluefish tore into her, and the transport-converted-to-tanker blew up. Next day a force of enemy surface ships shelled our northern island, Hokkaido. The net was closing.

 

On July 15 the 6th Fleet added six submarines to its roster, but only on paper. They were the ...

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By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

The sinking of the naval ship Cheonan last month has placed a renewed spotlight on North Korea's submarine capability, though whether or not the North was linked to the incident has yet to be confirmed.

If North Korea's involvement turns out to be true, the communist state is expected to conduct underwater operations against South Korea more frequently in the future as an effective way of provocation, according to military officials and experts.

``The ROK Navy is definitely dominant now over its North Korean counterpart in terms of surface warships and their radar systems but not sure about underwater competition,'' Park Chang-kwon, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), said in a phone interview with The Korea Times. ``That's because there is an inherent restriction on detecting targets underwater.''

High waves and strong currents in the eastern and ...

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Several North Korean submarines have disappeared after departing from bases on the eastern coast.

According to reports, three or four North Korean submarines recently departed from bases on the east coast and have since remained outside South Korean surveillance.

The submarines are thought to be 370-ton shark-class vessels. The North Korean submarine used in the attack on the Cheonan in March 2010 was a 130-ton salmon-class vessel. North Korea has between 70 and 80 submarines ranging from 1,500-ton vessels to 130-ton vessels. Of the total, 80 percent are said to be based in the East Sea, where the waters are deeper than the West Sea, providing better conditions for submarine operations.

“North Korea appears to be increasing submarine infiltration exercises with the weather getting warmer. However, the possibility that drills could hide provocations has not been ruled out and related activities are being closely monitored,” an unnamed military source ...

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Caught on the Surface by Robert Taylor

 

Situation: "The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril" ... Winston Churchill

 

In a strange quirk of fate, a Sunderland of 461 Sqn RAAF identification letter U, destroys submarine U-461, a type XIV tanker, one of three German submarines caught on the surface by Allied aircraft in the Bay of Biscay on July 30, 1943. At extreme low level, Sunderland 'U' braves a barrage of gunfire from all three encircling German submarines to deliver a successful depth charge attack, sinking U-461 in a single pass. In an act of grace, the Sunderland pilot returned to the scene to drop a dingy to the U-boat survivors.

 

Surviving crew members of Sunderland U-461 and U-Boat U-461, have signed the edition. In addition, the VICTORIA CROSS EDITION is signed by 3 highly decorated Catalina pilots.

 

The Victoria Cross Edition comes ...

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