Author Topic: Looking for those history buffs (Read 240 times)

moose · « **on:** January 22, 2002, 10:10:49 PM »

I once had a book that had an interesting story about a ship torpedeoed and sunk in WWII.

onboard were a ton of americans and this was before the us was in the war. the german uboat cmdr. took them aboard his sub and then transfered them to some other ship where they were ferried around for a month or so for some reason or another. I cant remember the details.

all i remember was that they were treated well and called themselves the 'wandering and wondering society'

if anyone has a link to a story on this, please speak up. i cant find the book and i want to brush up a little on my history.

Tac · « **Reply #1 on:** January 23, 2002, 10:26:14 AM »

I did see a documentary on a U-boat captain that spotted a lone freighter in the atlantic in the middle of winter. He torpedoed it and when he saw the sailors on the lifeboats and on the water, he knew they would not survive more than a few minutes. Since it was overcast and almost dark, his u-boat actually went to rescue the survivors.

Another U-boat captain used to prowl the florida waters, he would surface and use the deck gun to sink ships in plain daylight. Funny thing is, he would position his u-boat between the beach (full of people) and the target, so as to not have his deck gun miss and kill the people in the beach. FYI, putting your sub in shallow waters and between a landmass and a potentially hostile surface vessel is very stupid (very dangerous for the sub).

Charon · « **Reply #2 on:** January 23, 2002, 10:34:49 AM »

The German raider Atlantis sank the Eqyptian liner Zam-Zam in 1941 which started a similar passenger odyssey. I seem to remember a similar U-boat encounter but can't put a finger on the specifics.

Charon

midnight Target · « **Reply #3 on:** January 23, 2002, 11:24:25 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Tac
I did see a documentary on a U-boat captain that spotted a lone freighter in the atlantic in the middle of winter. He torpedoed it and when he saw the sailors on the lifeboats and on the water, he knew they would not survive more than a few minutes. Since it was overcast and almost dark, his u-boat actually went to rescue the survivors.

Another U-boat captain used to prowl the florida waters, he would surface and use the deck gun to sink ships in plain daylight. Funny thing is, he would position his u-boat between the beach (full of people) and the target, so as to not have his deck gun miss and kill the people in the beach. FYI, putting your sub in shallow waters and between a landmass and a potentially hostile surface vessel is very stupid (very dangerous for the sub).

It is possible that the second captain you mention might not have had the "people on the beach's" best interests in mind. He may have done the same manouver to discourage the gunners on the merchantman from firing back. (Many merchant ships were armed).

Just a thought.

moose · « **Reply #4 on:** January 23, 2002, 02:24:38 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Charon
The German raider Atlantis sank the Eqyptian liner Zam-Zam in 1941 which started a similar passenger odyssey. I seem to remember a similar U-boat encounter but can't put a finger on the specifics.

Charon

OOH!

that was it! wasnt a uboat at all!

more info anyone?

midnight Target · « **Reply #5 on:** January 23, 2002, 03:32:17 PM »

Atlantis

midnight Target · « **Reply #6 on:** January 23, 2002, 03:34:27 PM »

Seems there was a movie too.

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