Topic: Balance of Terror

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

J. Carney's link about the USS Archerfish sinking the Shinano was an excellent read, and I though I'd share with you all that I recently rebuilt an old Pentium 200MMX system with Win95 & DOS so I could play some of my old DOS-based games....

In particular 'Silent Hunter', which is /Still/ thoroughly enjoyable almost 10 years later.  It definitely needs the patch, because without it aircraft will bomb you outta the water with impunity, while with the patch at least your AA guns make a 'rat-a-tat-tat' sound while you're being bombed outta the water!

I'm not sure I play fair any more, though, since I found that the subs can easily out-maneuver any destroyer....  I don't think dogfighting a handful of Japanese warships was a tactic that was ever used by real Sub Commanders....

Periscope depth, Ensign!

An interesting footnote...the large bolbus bow designed to increase fuel effecency was a Japanese invention and first appeared on a Japanese WWII super carrier built on the hull of a cancelled Yamato-class battleship.

from http://www.waffenhq.com/schiffe/shinano-bilder.htm


INJ Shinano, sunk by the U.S.S. Archerfish. She was credited as 59,000+ DWT. It remains the largest submarine kill in history.

The story: http://diodon349.com/Stories/story%20about%20archerfish%20vs%20shinano.htm

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
Wow.  Tough crowd.  What, nobody here ever play Silent Hunter?!?  All you Trekkies know that ST episode #9 'Balance of Terror' was basically a re-make of 'Run Silent, Run Deep' in space?  All you Starfleet Commanders know that Silent Hunter was the used as the basis for the first SFC?


{OK.... I made that last one up.}

[Clark Kent]

I've never seen Run Silent, Run Deep.  Is it a movie?  how old and who was in it?

[J. Carney]

Wow.  Tough crowd.  What, nobody here ever play Silent Hunter?!?  All you Trekkies know that ST episode #9 'Balance of Terror' was basically a re-make of 'Run Silent, Run Deep' in space?  All you Starfleet Commanders know that Silent Hunter was the used as the basis for the first SFC?


{OK.... I made that last one up.}

It wasn't 'Run Silent, Run Deep' Barabbas... it was 'The Enemy Below.' Both are favorite movies of mine.

Plot Summary for
Enemy Below, The (1957)
Summary written by Linda Adams {Garridon@aol.com}

Set during the Battle of Atlantic during the Second World War, "The Enemy Below" tells the story of the cat and mouse Destroyer escort/U-Boat hunt. For the Americans, a former Merchant Mariner who saw his wife killed when his freighter was torpedoed by the Germans. For the Germans, a veteran U-Boat commander who sees no honor in the German aims of the war. Both of these highly experienced men must now battle each other, knowing that only one will survive.

I LOVED Silent Hunter, and there was an even older game, Silent Service II (I have the ORIGINAL Silent Service on Nintendo) http://www.subsim.com/ssr/service2.html that I LOVED as a kid... though it was a little too easy- I was getting 8 or 9 MOH's every time I would play a career.

I have Silent Hunter, Silent Hunter II, Destroyer Command (the companion game to SHII), Aces of the Deep and Silent Service II  and would LOVE to find a way to get them on my current gaming rig. I also have Aces over Europe and Aces Over the Pacific, two favorite Win3.1 Flight Sims that I miss playing quite a bit.

[J. Carney]

I've never seen Run Silent, Run Deep.  Is it a movie?  how old and who was in it?

Run Silent Run Deep was a pretty good WWII Sum movie staring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster.

from Amazon.com In one of his best and final roles (he appeared in only four films after this), Clark Gable plays a submarine captain without a command, having been saddled with a desk job after his previous ship was destroyed due to his overzealous pursuit of the enemy in dangerous Japanese waters. He finally gets another boat--this time with a vigilant first officer (Burt Lancaster), who stands poised to assume command if Gable puts his crew in unnecessary danger. The tension and mutual respect between these two principled men is superbly written and directed (Robert Wise was just two years away from his triumph with West Side Story), and the crucial inclusion of a strong supporting cast (including Jack Warden and Don Rickles) enhances the movie's compelling authenticity. Based on a novel by former submarine commander Edward L. Beach, Run Silent, Run Deep is rousing entertainment with the added benefit of paying honorable tribute to the men who navigated through the most frightening and claustrophobic channels of the Pacific theater. --Jeff Shannon

It was based on the book by the late Capt. Edward L. Beach, USN (Ret). He was a submarine commander in WWII and wrote a semi-fictional novel based on his experiences in the war. The book is quite possible the best piece of WWII fiction I have ever seen. It gives DETAILED accounts of life at sea and the opperations of our subs in WWII in the way that only a firsthand view can.

IMHO, it is easily on par with Das Boot, the preeminant German U-boat novel.

[Dash Jones]

Is the Enemy Below available on DVD.  I've heard it mentioned before in relation to Balance of Terror...and I'm thinking It sounds like something I should watch.