Builds 1/72 Kriegsmarine WW2 German S Boat with Eduard PE set.

[Gun_Brickie]

As you all know, the RN wear a cap with the ship's name on, so you're correct. Imagine walking round with 'Gay Bombardier' or 'Gay Bruiser' written on your helmet (fnar fnar!)

The Flower Class corvette USS Courage, formerly HMS Heartsease, formerly HMS Pansy.

But it could be worse, here's HMS Morris Dance.

 

[Helm]

View attachment 625903

The Flower Class corvette USS Courage, formerly HMS Heartsease, formerly HMS Pansy.

But it could be worse, here's HMS Morris Dance.
View attachment 625904

I can't help thinking even back then, that was a naval posting to be dreaded

 

[Gun_Brickie]

I can't help thinking even back then, that was a naval posting to be dreaded

Courtesy of Prince Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh:

Morris dancing is the most fatuous, tenth-rate entertainment ever devised by man. Forty effeminate blacksmiths waving bits of cloth they've just wiped their noses on. How it's still going on in this day and age I'll never know.

 

[Blacula]

Re the Gay boats - there were 12 of them built by Vosper Thornycroft, Portsmouth and/or Southampton.

Gay-class patrol boat - Wikipedia​

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Gay-class_patrol_boat

did they appoint a Rear Admiral ?

 

[SPROCKET321]

I can't help thinking even back then, that was a naval posting to be dreaded

at least wartime cap tallies where only marked HMS, the ship name was left off for security,

 

[ericferret]

Disappointed with the illustrations. Very poor sizing and reproduction. Not much use to a modeller.
However the text is excellent and gives a good overview of E Boat operations in WW2.
Poignant that the last E Boat "success" was a blue on blue with a hospital/refugee ship being sunk in the Baltic.
Large loss of life.

Brave men fighting for a cause that was not worthy of them.

One illustration caught my eye. An E Boat with triple barreled flak gun amidships.
Not seen that elsewhere, pity the photo is so poor.

Finished the book. Really good read. Amazing how unreliable the German torpedos were.
Multiple failures being common.
Also of interest was the number of enemy survivors picked out of the water. Seems that went both ways with the British doing their bit as well..

 

[robinrocket111]

Also of interest was the number of enemy survivors picked out of the water. Seems that went both ways with the British doing their bit as well..

It was the law of the sea! The majority of the Kriegsmarine and RNPS Coastal Forces were professional seamen taken from their Merchant Marines
ie Ex Fishermen etc. So they’d never leave any man to drown if possible.

 

[NSP]

 

[Bodenplatte]

It was the law of the sea! The majority of the Kriegsmarine and RNPS Coastal Forces were professional seamen taken from their Merchant Marines
ie Ex Fishermen etc. So they’d never leave any man to drown if possible.

After the Laconia incident in September 1942 Dönitz issued orders to the U-Boat fleet that efforts should no longer be made to pick up or give assistance to enemy (Allied) survivors.

The German skipper of the U-Boat which sank Laconia plus another U-Boat surfaced in order to pick up survivors, and had hundreds inside the boats, standing on the casing, or being towed in lifeboats. The German skipper broadcast messages explaining his actions in the expectation that the Allies would assist, or at least not attack the U-Boats .
As it was, despite large Red Cross flags being displayed, an American Liberator attacked and the German boats had to submerge, resulting in several hundred deaths of men, women, children and Italian POWs.

There was another incident in WW1 (I would have to look up exact details - I can’t remember everything !) where a British armed trawler declined to rescue the crew of a Zeppelin which had come down in the North Sea and remained afloat for some hours. The incident caused outrage in Germany.

Edit: WWI Zeppelin Crew Left To Die In North Sea - 1916

 

[QRK2]

After the Laconia incident in September 1942 Dönitz issued orders to the U-Boat fleet that efforts should no longer be made to pick up or give assistance to enemy (Allied) survivors.

The German skipper of the U-Boat which sank Laconia plus another U-Boat surfaced in order to pick up survivors, and had hundreds inside the boats, standing on the casing, or being towed in lifeboats. The German skipper broadcast messages explaining his actions in the expectation that the Allies would assist, or at least not attack the U-Boats .
As it was, despite large Red Cross flags being displayed, an American Liberator attacked and the German boats had to submerge, resulting in several hundred deaths of men, women, children and Italian POWs.

There was another incident in WW1 (I would have to look up exact details - I can’t remember everything !) where a British armed trawler declined to rescue the crew of a Zeppelin which had come down in the North Sea and remained afloat for some hours. The incident caused outrage in Germany.

Edit: WWI Zeppelin Crew Left To Die In North Sea - 1916

In contrast one has Lieutenant Commander Anthony Miers, VC RN

War hero or war criminal?

WHEN Anthony Miers was a pupil at Wellington College, the school for “the sons of heroes”, a tutor predicted that he would either be courtmartialled or win the Victoria Cross. Anthony Miers achieved both.

www.express.co.uk

 

[OllieReeder]

It was the law of the sea! The majority of the Kriegsmarine and RNPS Coastal Forces were professional seamen taken from their Merchant Marines
ie Ex Fishermen etc. So they’d never leave any man to drown if possible.

Also, much more skilled at difficult evolutions such as retrieving chaps from the water, especially in challenging weather, than the average Hostilities Only crews.

In similar fashion, HM Ships Buttercup and Godetia were generally regarded as the best of the Atlantic escorts when it came to rescue work - they formed the Belgian Section of the Royal Navy, there not being enough Belgian matelots to warrant a proper Free Belgian Navy, and their crews were largely ferry and fishermen who had got away in 1940. They had no particular reputation for ASW work, but for ship handling in an Atlantic gale, they were the toast of the fleet; every single seaman officer in them held a full Master's certificate...

 

[OllieReeder]

Oh, might be worth mentioning that an often forgotten user of British built MTBs was the Royal Romanian Navy. We sold them three Vospers in February 1940 when engaged in the competition with the Germans to win them over to our side. Obviously that failed... Armed with two torpedo tubes and a quad .303 mount, which looks to me from a photo to have been four Vickers K. Two were lost to mines in 1941, but the third survived to be seized by the Soviets in 1944 when Romania capitulated, though she seems to have been to knackered by then for Ivan to make any use of her.

 

[Daz]

Some of these bits might come in handy @SPROCKET321

1-72 Scale Accessories | atlanticmodels.net

 

[SPROCKET321]

Some of these bits might come in handy

some very nice bits and pieces there, Thanks Daz.

 

[SPROCKET321]

One illustration caught my eye. An E Boat with triple barreled flak gun amidships.
Not seen that elsewhere, pity the photo is so poor.

Finished the book. Really good read. Amazing how unreliable the German torpedos were.
Multiple failures being common.
Also of interest was the number of enemy survivors picked out of the water. Seems that went both ways with the British doing their bit as well..

recently watched a documentary on HMS Belfast torpedoing the Scharnhorst in the Artic south west of Bear Island, they were ordered to rescue a "sample" took 37 and Motored off leaving men still struggling in the freezing waters, the threat from U boats lead the common practice at that stage. Not sure I could have slept soundly for a while having seen that myself.

 

[Rodney2q]

at least wartime cap tallies where only marked HMS, the ship name was left off for security,

My old man was on the HMS James E Hughes...

I don't think there was enough room on the cap tally to fit all that in...

 

[SPROCKET321]

My old man was on the HMS James E Hughes...

I don't think there was enough room on the cap tally to fit all that in...

I know peacetime white topped caps were exchanged for wartime black, the white one's floated, and could be used to trap air and act like a float, not sure about the black wartime caps, if they floated or not.

HMS HOOD cap tally - Google Search

 

[ericferret]

One illustration caught my eye. An E Boat with triple barreled flak gun amidships.
Not seen that elsewhere, pity the photo is so poor.

Finished the book. Really good read. Amazing how unreliable the German torpedos were.
Multiple failures being common.
Also of interest was the number of enemy survivors picked out of the water. Seems that went both ways with the British doing their bit as well..

I have also just bought this book.

Amazon product

Might be of interest. I will report back..

 

[Diko]

I vaguely, vaguely remember Revell, or maybe another American manufacturer, doing a Patrol Torpedo Boat with decals to finish it as PT-109, skippered by a Lieutenant John F Kennedy, and sunk under him.
The kit must have come out about the time of JFK’s presidency, but before his assassination, so ‘61 to ‘63. I considered myself to have grown out of model making by then, so I never bought it, but that didn’t stop me taking a look at new releases.

I made the Revell PT-109 way back in 1964 it was a 17/6d kit which was a bit pricey for a £3 a week engineering apprentice. It did come with a twin screw reduction gearbox, electric motor and battery mount but a bit big for our bath.

 

[SPROCKET321]

Ordered the PE set for the Revell recent S boat kit, it cost me £28 including shipping ect, if I'd been desperate I could have got one on e bay for over a £100 from Aus, I used paypal, first time I've used it outside e bay, 5 days to process and arrive on my door step, may well order direct from Eduard in future.
Take a look at this.

that'll keep me busy for a while,