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So there I am, sitting pretty, one Hunt I class destroyer about 4500 meters
away, its partner on the opposite end about 6500 meters away.
Water nice and deep, batteries fully charged, 0415. Sea state calm, and a
juicy, fat convoy spread out over the entire horizon, heading more or less
my way.
Wohlauf kameraden! (What does that mean, anyway?)
Turn left 90 degrees, flank speed, and dive hard and deep to about 125
meters. Nice, deeply buried under the layer, no ASDIC able to reach the boat
except for a little tickle at 90 meters. Lean over the hydrophone operator's
shoulder... yep, they're still coming toward me, DD's nice and slow,
apparently drifting for a listen.
Wait.
Wait.
Wait some more. 7 knots is slow when you know each breath you take may be
one of the last you ever can.
Convoy drifting closer, spreading around the scope, clearly I'm getting in
among them. It is virtually impossible to detect distance though.
Ok, so I wait until the sounds are spread around about 110 degrees of arc.
I've GOT to be in among them now.
BATTLESTATIONS!
Manning the torpedo room I come up to periscope depth, catching some nasty
ASDIC from 40 meters on up, destroyer coming up rapidly from astern, running
down the trace. Raise the scope... CRAP! I'm too close!
Big juicy C3 Cargo ship, but it is only 280 meters away. My G7a's won't arm
until they've done 300 odd meters.
Turn the scope, ahh! Another ship just behind it. Fire...
DAMN DAMN DAMN - I forgot to turn the entire SUBMARINE. ^@@^#@@##@$!@#!!!!!!
Another 45 minute approach crawl wasted.
Its quite wonderful just HOW good Silent Hunter III can be - and how well it
simulates the pressure of combat, and how ACCURATE it is... something as
simple as remembering you've got unguided torps that run in whatever
direction you point the nose, gets hard to remember when you've "feel" that
destroyer charging down your neck at about 60 km/h, everybody is shooting at
your periscope, and you frantically try to fire off your torps and go hide
in the cellar again.
And few things as bone-chilling as the fright of that first, quiet little
ASDIC "ping" hitting the boat in shallow water.
--
Stefan Viljoen
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Stefan Viljoen schrieb:
> Wohlauf kameraden! (What does that mean, anyway?)
Nothing much. "Wohlauf" is just some encouraging call, and "Kameraden"
(with uppercase "K"!) is the common term for fellow soldiers (singular
"Kamerad").
I guess "Wohlauf!" may have originated as a wakeup call, being obviously
related to the words "wohl" (an obsolete term for "good") and "auf" ("up").
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On 11/19/2009 9:06 PM, clipka wrote:
> Nothing much. "Wohlauf" is just some encouraging call, and "Kameraden"
> (with uppercase "K"!) is the common term for fellow soldiers (singular
> "Kamerad").
English: comrade.
Mike
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SharkD schrieb:
>> Nothing much. "Wohlauf" is just some encouraging call, and "Kameraden"
>> (with uppercase "K"!) is the common term for fellow soldiers (singular
>> "Kamerad").
>
> English: comrade.
>
> Mike
I was a bit worried that it might have a communist connotation in
English. Does it?
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clipka wrote:
>
> I was a bit worried that it might have a communist connotation in
> English. Does it?
Certainly not to me. In my youth the war comics were full of German
troops surrendering to the plucky British soldier and shouting 'Kamerad!
Kamerad!' - they were also full of German pilots yelling 'Achtung!
Spitfeuer!' but that's beside the point.
;-)
John
--
Cogito sum,|| wbu### [at] tznvy pbz (rot'ed) || GPG Key Fingerprint:
ergo sum, || || 0D9BCF4CF1B71CA2F5F7
cogito || || BFBBCBC34EDEAEFCE453
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clipka wrote:
> Stefan Viljoen schrieb:
>
>> Wohlauf kameraden! (What does that mean, anyway?)
>
> Nothing much. "Wohlauf" is just some encouraging call, and "Kameraden"
> (with uppercase "K"!) is the common term for fellow soldiers (singular
> "Kamerad").
>
> I guess "Wohlauf!" may have originated as a wakeup call, being obviously
> related to the words "wohl" (an obsolete term for "good") and "auf"
> ("up").
Ok, thanks, now I know.
My dad has several old LP's of German marching music, this is also the title
of one of them.
--
Stefan Viljoen
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Doctor John wrote:
> clipka wrote:
>>
>> I was a bit worried that it might have a communist connotation in
>> English. Does it?
>
> Certainly not to me. In my youth the war comics were full of German
> troops surrendering to the plucky British soldier and shouting 'Kamerad!
> Kamerad!' - they were also full of German pilots yelling 'Achtung!
> Spitfeuer!' but that's beside the point.
> ;-)
Well, in SA English it does have a communist connotation. Same in Afrikaans
(my native language) - calling someone "Kameraad" (Note the similarity to
German) can lead people to think you are a communist, and have something to
do with the government.
Though, in English here, it is usually only used by government ministers who
are in the Communist Party or the ruling ANC, usually when describing a
fellow Communist or ANC member. In common usage it is not much heard.
--
Stefan Viljoen
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clipka wrote:
> I was a bit worried that it might have a communist connotation in
> English. Does it?
It certainly does to me. I guess it varies.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Is God willing to prevent naglams, but unable?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing, to prevent naglams?
Then he is malevolent.
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