Page 91 - Historical Fiction.pdf

W h at
Nazi U-Boats brought terrors to
World Wars I and II
Imagine you?re out surf-
ing at the ocean. Your having so
much fun! You glide across the
waves as gracefully as a gazelle.
It seems like all of the fish are
swimming towards you. But
wait! They?re swimming past
you! Suddenly, you see a large
explosion coming from a boat
about 100 yards away from you.
Suddenly, you?re lifted up and
plunged underwater. You thrash
around, trying to find the sur-
face, but you can?t find a way
around the large metal body on
top of you. You finally find the
surface, and the boat is up in
flames, no visible survivors. You
realize what you just witnessed.
horses! What a pity, those
Submar ine
BY CASEY H U RR
You watched a U-Boat attack.
On second thought, where?s
your surfboard?
What Exactly are
U-Boats?
U-Boats, or known in
Germany as Unterseeboots(Ed-
itors of Encyclopedia Britan-
nica), literally meaning undersea
boat, are German submarines
that were heavily used by Nazis
in WWI and WWII. They are
very hard to spot because they
stay underwater most of the
time. They changed the inter-
face of war from WWI to
WWII. They used their sneaky
design to sometimes skirt by
decided to use the fight or flight
Lur k s
in a
Under
t h e Sea?
sonar and their periscopes to
aim their torpedoes to get
maximum damage. They
made people scared to even go
near the coast, in fear of being
attacked by a U-Boat. The U-
Boats terrorized docks, and
some even chose to self-destruct
to destroy a fleet around them.
U-Boats were very dan-
gerous underwater sea crafts
that the Germans used in com-
bat during World Wars I and II.
They could wreak havoc in
docks, out at sea, basically any-
where that they could get to,
they could cause massive dam-
age. The Germans used this to
their advantage, and used their
stealth to make a deadly impact
on the opposing boat.
A U-Boat slightly out of water
U in U-Boats Stands
for Unrestricted
The Germans realized
they could just sink the ship
itself instead of capture all
the people on board. They
decided to not take hostages,
but just kill the people on the
boat in general. The U-Boats
had an unfair advantage over
the British and American
ships. They could go under-
water. They had good arse-
nals, except for the side fact
that their torpedoes were only
accurate to about 3200
feet(Golson). They could easily
sneak up on ships and leave
devastating results in their
wake. They easily launched an
era of unrestricted warfare.
A Firsthand Expe-
rience of a U-Boat
A ttack
Adolf Spiegel was the
commander of a U-Boat in
WWI. He admired one of the
Allies? ships, noticed their
horses, and said ?Oh heavens,
lovely beasts!?(von Spiegel).
When they launched the tor-
pedo, Adolf watched in awe
mixed with pity until he
couldn?t take it anymore, then
said ?At that point I could not
bear the sight any longer, and I
lowered the periscope and
dived deep?(von Spiegel).
The chaos at Cape Cod, caused by a
U-Boat
The U-Boats?
Defeated?
Even through all the tac-
tics the Germans used to deploy
their U-Boats, the Allies still
managed to find a way
around it. They managed to
?sink? the U-Boats, even
though they were already
submerged. They started off
patrolling and looking for
periscopes, then attached
weighted bombs to their
own periscopes, even though
that did little damage(War-
A U-Boat being bombed by LTJG
fare History Network). They
tactic if a U-Boat periscope was
seen. Then, the big innovation
that did much damage to the U-
Boats came. The depth charge.
A depth charge is a bomb that
you drop into the water that can
damage anything within a 140-
foot radius(Warfare History
Network). Depth charges were
the way that the allies fought the
underwater U-Boats.
A Farewell Note
As you can see, U-Boats
are very dangerous. They
launched a new period of
war, and made everybody at
the beach or out at sea scared.
The U-Boats terrorized town
after town until they were
stopped. If you ever see a
periscope, chances are you?re
dead. Moral of the story: If
you ever see a U-Boat, swim like
your life depends on it, because
it does.
Vance Dawkins