Operation Caesar - Military History trivia

odyssey06

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Fascinating story, I was aware that towards the end of World War II, Germany sent a submarine U-boat with technical military experts to Japan with plans for advanced weaponry including jet fighters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Caesar

What's even more extraordinary is that the mission failed, because the U-boat was intercepted and sunk by a British submarine, the only known incidence of a submerged submarine deliberately sinking another submerged submarine. It required the "manual computation of a firing solution against a three-dimensionally manoeuvring target was the first occasion on which techniques were used and became the basis of modern computer-based torpedo targeting systems. Prior to this attack, no target had been sunk by torpedo where the firing ship had to consider the target's position in three-dimensional terms, where the depth of the target was variable and not a fixed value."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Venturer_(P68)

I find it remarkable that a U-boat on such a critical mission would be sunk in such a rare manner.
 
odyssey06 google defence of the realm that u boat had engine problems needed to snorkel periscope depth,so just under surface, ideal torpedo depth
site also states first sub v sub action occured not during ww2 as stated above but during ww1, german u27 versus british e3 ,e3 destroyed
 
Thanks for the info.

Actually in the u27 sinking of e3 it looks like e3 was on the surface? Wiki mentions lookouts in conning tower. But it is a fascinating encounter nonethless.
 
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