TV show recommendation "Drain the Ocean"

[Beth]

I want to pass on a TV series recommendation, to anyone with cable.  National Geographic runs a series called "Drain the Ocean" and quite of few of the shows involve Naval battles and what happened to sink the ships.   It looks like one might be able to watch some of the episodes online. 


www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/drain-the-oceans/

[deadwoodgultch]

So tell me is that the flight lost off FL, I'll bet it is. I hope you can watch on line as I have given up Sat. and Cable.

Regards,
Tom

[Beth]

I haven't seen the lost flight episode yet. I'll have to make sure my DVR picks it up. If you can't watch it from NG, try utube

[yanmacca]

I saw one of those shows last year and it focused on the U Boat victims on the east coast of the USA.
It showed how the merchant ships were silhouetted against the lights on shore off the Carolina.

[quincannon]

Trying to figure out what lights Ian, maybe Wilmington?

Those were the days before there were a lot of beach resorts along the coast. In the case of North Carolina you have the Outer Banks which are barrier islands off the coast itself. One of them is Kitty Hawk, is where the Wright Brothers first flew. I don't know for sure but I would think those coasts for the most part deserted. at that time.  I will bet Duane knows though

It is well documented that U Boats used the lights of New York City, and Long Island as navigational aids, and I would think there might be a few places on the Florida east coast that would serve the same purpose.

What I can tell you and something I have seen for myself with these old eyes is that in the summer of 76 the battalion I was assigned to boarded two ships (Spartanburg County and Fairfax County) at Little Creek Virginia, and proceeded from that place to a position off the coast of North Carolina to spend the night, then back again the next day to conduct a landing at Fort Story (Cape Henry where English settlers first landed before going to Jamestown). When you looked off Spartanburg County, the ship I was on, to landward you could not see squat, black as the inside of a cat's ass, and we were only six or seven miles off shore. Perhaps is was a combination of the shore itself and moon back lighting. I must investigate the matter

[deadwoodgultch]

Savannah, Wilmington, the river leading to new Bern, and obviously VA Beach, Norfolk, and Hampton would have been brightest. The outer banks in the Summer, fishing villages.

[mac]

Very interesting show, I watch it on Netflicks.

Cheers

[quincannon]

Said I would check this out and I did, by referring to Morison's "Battle of the Atlantic" from his multi volume series.

Indeed lights on shore were a big problem, and it was not addressed in force until the Spring of 42. A shortage of escorts presented a good bit of the problem as well. Beth commented elsewhere that these communities along the coast had a hissy fit about extinguishing the lights, and were more concerned with an economic downturn during tourist season then they were about U Boats. Florida and the Gulf Coast seemed to be the hardest hit, judging from the plot of ships sunk in the first six months of 42, Next was the coast from Boston to Norfolk.

During that early period ships going north or south hugged the coast, and did not travel in convoys. They were easy pickings. Later that same area would be death ground for a U Boat, as it was saturated with escort vessels patrolling the inshore sea lanes. Not that many U Boat kills, but the presence of these patrol vessels was enough to keep these U Boats under, for if they showed themselves radar would vector in patrol bombers to give them a bad time.

More U Boats assigned to the Atlantic Coast in the winter and spring of 42, with longer loiter time and a greater load of torpedoes, and we would have been in very big trouble.

Building models as I do makes me more familiar with the various sizes of these submarines, and most of the U Boats were tiny compared to say a Gato/Balao. It is a wonder that they did as well as they did, and I think that must be attributed to the Captains and well trained crews rather than the attributes of the boats themselves. The first six sent to our Atlantic Coast were hand picked U Boat "Ace" Captains, the best they had, and make no mistake, all of the U Boat Captains were as good as they came in any man's Navy.

[yanmacca]

Thanks for that Chuck it knew that I heard about the coast line being lite up but I couldn't find any solid evidence to bring to the table.

[yanmacca]

Looks like the ocean does not need draining for this vessel.

link

[herosrest]

Iron Bottom Sound is littered with wreckage of the most vicious naval campaign in history.  Wasp transferred in from the Atlantic to plug holes in the Pacific Fleet.


www.pacificwrecks.com/provinces/solomons_iron_bottom_sound.html 


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_brothers


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMA-214#World_War_II

[deadwoodgultch]

www.msn.com/en-us/video/viral/wreck-of-wwii-aircraft-carrier-uss-wasp-discovered-in-the-coral-sea/vi-BBUMyWQ?ocid=U348DHP

[quincannon]

In the 1930's we built two carriers that were in fact obsolete before they were launched, Ranger and Wasp. The idea was, because of treaty limitations on total carrier tonnage, that we could squeeze one more carrier into commission, if we made them smaller, thus a ship of less tonnage. The result were two nice looking ships with glass jaws. Wasp and Ranger both proved valuable in the Atlantic, and Wasp helped reinforce Malta, delivering a deck load of Spitfires. Had they both stayed in the Atlantic, Wasp would have probably survived the war. In the Pacific, especially in the Solomons she was a loss waiting to happen. But when something not so good is all you have, you use what you have and be prepared to accept the inevitable loss of lives and material

[yanmacca]

Talking about Aircraft Carriers, here is a some pointless sabre rattling by the RN, I don’t know what this will achieve, one good missile strike by the Chinese and boom three billion down the swannie.

link

I would have preferred to send the HMS Queen Elizabeth to Gibraltar as a show of strength at the Spanish, who are currently sailing their gun boats into our waters with the guns uncovered and ready for action, they are threatening ships in Gibraltar harbor by shouting through loud speakers for them to leave.

[yanmacca]

I must admit this is out of order by the Chinese, but please watch it all the way through and see how the Chinese treat the US aircraft different to the Filipino planes. I just hope it plays to viewers in the USA.

link