Hitlers Last Submarine (U-234) - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Aquaticedge · #1 05-28-2012, 03:57 PM

Hitler's Last Submarine - U 234 - 1 - YouTube Pt1

Hitler's Last Submarine - U 234 - 2 - YouTube Pt2

Hitler's Last Submarine - U 234 - 3 - YouTube Pt3

Hitler's Last Submarine - U 234 - 4 - YouTube Pt4

Hitler's Last Submarine - U 234 - 6 - YouTube Pt6

Hitler's Last Submarine - U 234 - 7 - YouTube Pt7

Hitler's Last Submarine - U 234 - 8 - YouTube Pt8

Part 5 Is unfortunately missing

The Clk Man · #2 05-28-2012, 05:01 PM

I heard that he named the submarine "Coward-one-nut."

kerry · #3 05-28-2012, 09:44 PM

I couldn't get #2 to play. Why did they head west across the Atlantic? Why not south around Africa and then to Asia? Did they intend to round Cape Horn to get to Asia? If so, why were they so close to Newfoundland? Why didn't they head south immediately?

Hatterasguy · #4 05-28-2012, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry

I couldn't get #2 to play. Why did they head west across the Atlantic? Why not south around Africa and then to Asia? Did they intend to round Cape Horn to get to Asia? If so, why were they so close to Newfoundland? Why didn't they head south immediately?

They headed west because the war was over and they thought that surrendering to the Americans would be the fastest way back to Germany.

If I remember correctly they headed to Newport News.

kerry · #5 05-28-2012, 09:58 PM

I got the impression they were headed west right from the start.

Hatterasguy · #6 05-28-2012, 10:10 PM

Probably to break out of the patrol areas around the UK. The fastest way to Japan would be to head smack down the center of the Atlantic, past the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian ocean.

Either way it was a crazy trip to even attempt in a U boat at that period.

She was a very interesting boat because she contained Germany's nuclear program. The jet technology no one really cared about, we had plenty of that sitting on the ground in Germany. Same with the skilled labor, they were all rushing to work for us instead of the Russians.

U234 had at least half a ton of Uranium, no one is even sure today how much it had on it, AFAIK. It was quietly offloaded, and disappeared.

The big question is just how close was Germany to an atomic bomb? IMHO I think they were 2-4 years away.

retmil46 · #7 05-28-2012, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

The big question is just how close was Germany to an atomic bomb? IMHO I think they were 2-4 years away.

If Luigi Romersa was correct, it was more like 2 to 4 WEEKS!!!

He was the subject of a documentary on the Military Channel, "Mission for Mussolini". I watched it about a year ago. Here's a link -

'Mission for Mussolini' Torrent Download :: OneBigTorrent.org

Basically, according to his notes, he witnessed the German's version of the "Trinity" test on Oct 12th, 1944. And the one thing keeping them from having a deployable bomb was that they didn't have a self-contained detonation system figured out.

According to the documentary, Heisenberg wasn't the only game in town - Himmler had set up another research group, led by a scientist that didn't have any moral qualms about it (ie, drank the Nazi kool-aid) - that not only succeeded in making a working fission reactor, but in detonating not only the device mentioned above, but in early 1945 also detonating a "dirty" test device in eastern Germany, in which hundreds of Soviet prisoners were used as guinea pigs to test it's effectiveness.

When I watched that documentary, it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck - my thoughts were "gawd almighty, by the skin of our teeth..."

t walgamuth · #8 05-29-2012, 05:40 AM

it is an interesting thought.

Germany was so devastated by that point even having the bomb process figured out might not have been enough to make a difference in the war.

kerry · #9 05-29-2012, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by retmil46

. And the one thing keeping them from having a deployable bomb was that they didn't have a self-contained detonation system figured out.

I personally knew the guy who figured that problem out for the US. He used to live just down the street from us until he died a couple of years ago. He had no moral qualms about the bomb either.

Txjake · #10 05-29-2012, 09:33 AM

Good videos. More dead Nazis, that's a very good thing....

retmil46 · #11 05-29-2012, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

it is an interesting thought.

Germany was so devastated by that point even having the bomb process figured out might not have been enough to make a difference in the war.

Agreed. Even Romersa reported to Mussollini that it was all too little too late - none of the projects would be ready in time or available in sufficient quantity to prevent, what was by then, inevitable. It would have just made the end game that much more costly, by several orders of magnitude.

Say they had had their act together a little better, and had a deployable atomic bomb by May 1944 (not unreasonable, given the detonation of the test device in Oct 1944). London disappearing in a mushroom cloud, or half the D-Day invasion fleet being annihilated.....

But then, he still had no reasonable means of striking the U.S., and from what I've read, a serious lack of fissile material for only a handful of bombs. And once our program had borne results by mid-1945 - untouched, with the capability to produce enough material for scores of bombs, long range bombers, etc - it would have been their turn to be devastated - same end result as far as the war, but far more ghastly in the toll of human life and destruction.

The Clk Man · #12 05-29-2012, 01:07 PM

Can anyone tell me why hitler had that stubby mustache?

pj67coll · #13 05-30-2012, 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by retmil46

If Luigi Romersa was correct, it was more like 2 to 4 WEEKS!!!

Maybe it's all true but frankly it sounds at bit like tabloid marketing of a frauds memoirs to me.

- Peter.

retmil46 · #14 05-30-2012, 02:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj67coll

Maybe it's all true but frankly it sounds at bit like tabloid marketing of a frauds memoirs to me.

- Peter.

If you watch the documentary, they actually found physical evidence and other eyewitnesses that corroborate his story.

At the supposed site of the Oct 1944 test, they found evidence that a huge blast had been set off, radioactive byproducts several times higher than normal background levels, and similar evidence in older trees surrounding the blast site.

They also found the site of the fission reactor constructed by the second research group recruited by Himmler, that supposedly achieved critical operation. Some cursory digging at the site found leftover pellets of graphite and uranium.

They interviewed a woman who's family owned an estate bordering the military area where the second test of the "dirty" device occurred in early 1945. She stated that one evening as night was falling, there was an incredibly bright flash that lit up the inside of the house as if it were high noon, and looking out the window they could see the iconic mushroom cloud rising over test area, and were immediately overwhelmed by a nauseating sensation. She reported that she and the other members of her family felt quite ill for several days afterwards, some of the symptoms she described bearing a striking resemblance to acute radiation exposure.

There was also documented testimony from German soldiers and former Soviet prisoners that went into the area a few days later to examine and clean up the bodies of the Soviet prisoners that had been used as human guinea pigs for the test.

Having watched the entire documentary and viewing the other evidence and testimony presented, IMHO this gent is not a fraud.

At that, look how many decades it was before the general public was allowed to learn anything about Enigma and the codebreaking at Bletchley Park, much less anything resembling a detailed account of it, or many of the other secrets relating to that war.

In the end, it left me feeling that WWII was a much more close-run thing than we'd previously imagined.

pj67coll · #15 05-30-2012, 10:05 AM

At the end of WWII the Brits captured most of the German atomic scientists including Heisenberg and holed them up in a country house that was thoroughly bugged with the specific intention of finding out exactly how far along the Germans were with their atomic research. When Hiroshima occurred their conversations indicated quite clearly that they had no clue how the Americans had done it. Heisenberg included. Eventually they concluded that the Americans must have spent at least a thousand times more money than they had (which as it turned out was an understatement).

- Peter.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode