Phil,
Your D-day story left me curious to know more; found this: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/midget_submarines_d_day.htm
Jim
Midget Submarines and D Day
X-boats – midget-submarines – were used at D-Day by the British to ensure that their landings went well. The crews of the X-boats were made up of commandos from the elite Combined Operations Pilotage and Reconnaissance Parties, formed on the orders of Lord Louis Mountbatten. After the disaster that befell the Allies at Dieppe, everything was done to ensure success on June 6th 1944.
Five days before June 5th – the original date for D-Day – two X-boats sailed from Hayling Island, Hampshire. Each midget submarine had a crew of five men on board. It would be their task to guide in the British landing craft at Sword Beach. The fear was that the landing craft might drift towards rocks that skirted the specific landing points at Sword and it was the task on the submarine crews to ensure the landing craft stayed on course.
The space in each of the X-boats was extremely limited. Each submarine was just 51 feet in length and a maximum of 6 feet in width. The crew could not stand up once inside the X-boats. The crews took it in turns to have a four-hour sleep in the battery compartment of the X-boats and their diet was mainly tea and baked beans.
Once the crews had sailed to the beaches they simply had to lay in wait and vitally, ensure that they were not spotted by the Germans. If one had been spotted, it is quite possible that the ‘game’ would have been up in terms of a surprise landing – even if Hitler was convinced that the Allies would land in the Pays de Calais. The expertise of the crews was such that they watched unnoticed via periscope German soldiers playing football on Sword Beach just one day before the planned landings.
However, both submarines had to surface at 22.00 to listen to the BBC news broadcast at that time. While they were submerged neither crew could hear the news. It was vital that they did as a secret message was going to be broadcast on one of the bulletins that would tell them that the landings were on and that they had to be ready to do what was required of them.
During one of these broadcasts, the crews learnt that the landings were going to be delayed by a day. This put them in a quandary as they did not know if they had enough oxygen on board to last them. When it was felt possible to do so, the crews would surface to allow the men to have a quick walk about on deck and to take in some fresh air.
The 22.00 BBC news on June 5th informed both crews via a secret message that D-Day was about to start. They now knew that they had to be on duty at 04.00 on June 6th. They first knew the landings had started when a huge fleet of bombers flew above them to bomb German positions along the coastline. The two crews knew that it would not be much longer before the landing crafts arrived and it would their task to ensure they sailed on the right course to Sword Beach. The landing craft homed in on the lights that came from the two X-boats. Casualties at Sword Beach were minimal when the sheer magnitude of the raid is taken into account.
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Nuytten <phil at philnuytten.com>
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
Sent: Thu, Jan 30, 2014 8:40 pm
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Underwater Intervention Convension
Jon . . ahem, ahem, (jes’ clearin’ ma throat) Nuytco has always been at the UI submersible track – year after year. This year we’ll be talking about our 2013 work surveying and videoing the WW2 Normandy Invasion fleet, most of which is still underwater. This was for History Channel and will air this year – the 70th anniversary of Juneau,Omaha, Sword, etc. The shots of the Sherman tanks laying higgeldy piggeldy (sp?) all over the bottom are incredible. Jeff Heaton, Nuytco’s senior ops manager had the unusual pleasure of using ‘Aquarius’ to take down a 92 year old – survivor of the invasion who was last there in 1944 aboard a small submarine, two days before the invasion - to set lighting on the bottom to guide in the troop carriers (the original schedule called for a night landing) – the story of he and his crew lying doggo on the bottom for nearly two days offshore of the landing site as weather changes kept re-arranging the schedule – specially as they had to surface at night to get communication on the changing plans – well, it’s quite a story!
Phil
From: Jon Wallace
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 1:13 PM
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Underwater Intervention Convension
I think others will agree, the majority of attendees are there for ROV related sessions. I have only ever attended the manned vehicle sessions and never experienced an issue of not having a seat. The convention center and session rooms are not small...we're not talking PSUBS size event here. The technical session rooms have seats for...I'm guessing...200 people? And there is plenty of "standing room" if all the seats were taken.
ABS reps usually attend because they have discussions about proposed rule changes...can't recall the gentleman's name at the moment. I don't think I've seen a sub manufacturer other than Will Kohnen (seamagine) whom is the coordinator of the manned vehicle sessions at the convention.
You'll have a good time there. It's worth the trip and no doubt there should be some psubbers in attendance as well.
Jon
On 1/30/2014 3:38 PM, Alan James wrote:
Hi,
I'm looking at going to the U.I. New Orleans convention in 10 days time, & in
particular attending the underwater vehicle technical sessions.
The registration fee entitles you to attend the technical sessions, so it seems the numbers
at each session aren't restricted. They had 2,450 attendees last year so I'm wondering whether
I run the risk of missing out through lack of seats in the session rooms. Any experience with this
from others who have attended these sessions? Also are ABS or submersible manufacturers
represented there?
Have tried calling U.I. a couple of times but haven't been lucky.
Thanks for the heads up on the conference Douglas.
Hank, from G.L. rules...The CO2 pressure needs to be kept below 0.01 bar
Alan
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