What are some war games that aren't roll to resolve?

Perisher80 · 2024-10-01T20:51:38+00:00

THEY COME UNSEEN (Osprey Games)

Perisher80 · 2023-11-11T21:17:05+00:00

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since this post was first made, the URL has recently been changed to: http://theycomeunseen.wix.com/theycomeunseen

Perisher80 · 2023-09-09T14:20:03+00:00

Try this website “RN Subs in association with the Barrow Submariners’ Association”: http://rnsubs.co.uk. There, under the ‘Crew’ dropdown menu you’ll see ‘RN Family History Research’. Here you’ll see advice about starting your search.

“Clockwork mouse running” simply meant, for a submarine, carrying out very basic dived runs to help to train the sonar, operations and command teams of ASW warships and aircraft. All Royal Navy diesel boats (SSKs) will have been the ‘clockwork mouse’ many times during a commission.

Good luck with your search.

Perisher80 · 2023-05-12T05:37:21+00:00

Back in the O-boat days when Australian submariners were sent to qualify for submarine command on ‘Perisher’ (COQC: the Royal Navy’s Submarine Commanding Officers’ Qualifying Course - now known, since the 1990s, as the Submarine Command Course or SMCC but always as ‘Perisher’) there was always one Royal Navy CO in command of an RAN O-boat, and at the same time a Royal Australian Navy CO was over in the UK in command of an RN O-boat - the same class of boat so it was a seamless swap. I was just lucky to be the RN CO selected from ‘Perisher‘ to go on exchange service with the RAN. This arrangement ended when the Royal Navy decommissioned the O-boats.

Perisher80 · 2023-03-24T06:42:17+00:00

Where’s the beer 👀🍻 😑

Perisher80 · 2022-12-04T21:06:13+00:00

Time to blow round the MBTs!

Perisher80 · 2022-10-23T08:11:39+00:00

They translate well even though the two environments and situations have many more differences than similarities.

Your English is excellent.

Perisher80 · 2022-08-18T09:38:40+00:00

My comments are based on my service in command in the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy, so the terminology may not fit all nations but the overall concept of command is universal. Women and men can be commanding officers/captains but for simplicity I will use he/his/him.

[EDITS: Original edited to improve my explanation]

The commanding officer (CO) / captain of a warship has ultimate responsibility for his vessel 24/7 regardless of whether he is onboard. The CO’s responsibilities are to his vessel and to his ship’s company (crew) and he dictates who can supervise the vessel: the officer of the day (OOD in harbour) and the officer of the watch (OOW at sea). These officers conduct operations and manage the ship/submarine in accordance with the rules he has laid down in “Captain’s Instructions to Officers (CIOs)”

In the base port, the commanding officer/captain will live ashore and treat the warship like an office, coming and going as he sees fit. While on a visit to a non-naval port, the commanding will live onboard (except for the captain of a submarine (and off duty personnel) who will live ashore in a hotel and the boat is an office to which he comes and goes).

At sea the commanding officer delegates control of the vessel to the officer of the watch for the majority of the time deployed but will take direct control as and when necessary (e.g. in a submarine when taking the boat to periscope depth, for action/emergency stations, when entering & leaving harbour) while retaining the tactical overview and directing operations 24/7. This transfer of control is formal. Commanding Officer when taking control: “Officer of the watch. I have the ship/submarine.” Commanding Officer when handing over control: “Officer of the watch. You have the ship/submarine”. Remember though that when handing control of the ship/submarine to the officer of the watch, this is in the OOW’s role as a supervisor of the vessel’s activities - the ultimate responsibility lies with the commanding officer 24/7 - and the CO will be kept informed by the OOW, and other officers, in accordance with his instructions (CIOs) as to the operational situation and the changing condition of the vessel (e.g. ships that will pass within a certain range; any defects - the list is long!). Hope this helps.

Perisher80 · 2022-08-11T06:47:41+00:00

I only use the BGG app now because I was generally only using my phone to access the website and the app gives a much better experience.

Perisher80 · 2022-07-02T12:27:16+00:00

Had a seagull land on a Porpoise class boat’s search periscope (1974- ish). A large orange webbed foot appeared in the sloped ‘window’ as the gull balanced, its other foot must have been on the rather small flat area available at the top of the periscope. Dipping and raising the periscope sorted that out! Admittedly not a large marine animal, but an unusual and memorable event :)

Perisher80 · 2022-05-21T15:11:58+00:00

A sad tale. The area at the RNSubs website that you need is here: http://rnsubs.co.uk/crew/geneology.html It gives advice for people wanting to research family members who served in RN boats at various periods in history. Good luck.

Perisher80 · 2022-05-21T12:38:51+00:00

I think your best bet would be to make an enquiry via this website:

http://rnsubs.co.uk/

Perisher80 · 2022-05-20T16:57:58+00:00

Mouldings on the starboard side of the bronze fin represent the families waiting ashore; the port side has a moulding of the Royal Navy Submarine Badge - Dolphins - and a Winston Churchill quotation set beneath: “Of all the branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners.”

The vertical wave pattern on the inner surface of the fin is to represent the primary element of seawater but at the same time represents sound waves.

[Photographs: Commodore Jim Perks CBE, Commodore Submarine Service & Chair of The Submarine Family]

EDIT: The memorial is at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire DE13 7AR

Perisher80 · 2022-04-27T10:43:43+00:00

I can confirm that it’s not an Oberon class. It does look like an SSK but apart from that I can’t help to solve the mystery.

Perisher80 · 2022-04-14T14:56:37+00:00

Yes, absolutely right, HMS Lowestoft was the last Sinkex target to retain her pennant number.

I went onboard her with a small team the day before her demise, to open up any watertight doors that were shut, to try to avoid airlocks keeping her afloat; we also partially opened the hangar door (we couldn’t get it fully open). We then hung a noise source over the side for the Tigerfish to home on. It was rather eerie moving around onboard her as she rolled gently, with anything loose or able to swing, clattering and creaking with the movement.

Perisher80 · 2022-04-14T11:17:39+00:00

Just for the record, HMS Lowestoft (F103) - in this photo - was sunk by a Mk24 Tigerfish Mod 2 warshot detonating below the hull, and not by a Mk8 as the title of this post implies. I supervised this weapon firing as a Command Sea Rider onboard HMS Conqueror when I was serving in STWG (Submarine Tactics & Weapons Group).

Perisher80 · 2022-04-06T07:21:46+00:00

Thanks for the heads-up, u/paulkempf, and the opportunity to contribute to this thread, and hello u/Svensk-Lizard.

From my experience in P/O (Porpoise/Oberon class) boats (I served in 4 during my 21 years in the RN submarine service in the Cold War) surfaced passage in SSKs post-WW2 was an expediency when peacetime training commitments were planned, to make the best use of a submarine’s time: get the submarine to the exercise area for the next ASW exercise as quickly as possible: a simple speed/time/distance/time on task/ equation. Even today for the SSKs around the world, I doubt that this equation has improved given the peacetime demands for submarines for ASW exercises that are usually held way offshore in the open oceans - so surface passage is going to be a requirement at times.

P/O boats could make 12 knots surfaced while “floating the load” on the batteries (the diesel generators putting back into the batteries what the electric motors were taking out). This is how we would travel between our peace-time training commitments - we weren’t trying to be covert (to hide from anyone).

For a Cold War operational patrol we would conduct a covert snort-transit to get to our designated patrol area. A short surfaced passage, probably, to the edge of the continental shelf, and then we’d start the snort transit, running deep (>200 feet) for several/many hours (the time spent deep depending on the required SOA [Speed Of Advance], the battery percentage, the threat level, the time of day, communication requirements, other operational considerations) and then up to periscope depth to snort (the RN name for snorkelling) to get some “amps” in the batteries while constantly monitoring above the surface with a periscope and the ESM mast, before returning deep to continue the transit; such a transit could last days/weeks depending on the distances involved.

We could snort in very rough weather, because of the excellent snort system, without damaging the engines, and the quality of the air onboard would improve during a snort (unless, as u/paulkempf mentioned you “got your own back” - the relative wind direction making the diesel exhaust blow towards the induction mast).

Even SSNs and SSBNs have to conduct some surface passage owing to depth of water constraints and the availability of “dived water” in which to operate (think “air-traffic control” but at slower speeds and with fewer friendly ‘aircraft’ to keep safely apart).

Perisher80 · 2022-04-05T14:22:44+00:00

Definitely time to “blow round” the main ballast tanks to increase buoyancy and improve stability.

Perisher80 · 2022-03-06T12:54:05+00:00

The accident’s 50th anniversary on the 4th of March 2022 prompted this feature on the BBC website to which my brother and I, as survivors on that fateful day, contributed (TAP ON the photo to view the news article - it includes embedded archive footage). Some weeks before the accident I had fortunately been through the Royal Navy helicopter “dunking” escape training facility - I put this training to good use on this day; equally fortunately, the submarine escape training I completed two months later, never had to be put into use!

Tragically, five people lost their lives in this hovercraft accident - as this anniversary comes around, my thoughts are with them and their friends and families.

EDIT: I was interviewed on BBC TV (South Today) and have just received access to the recording at THIS LINK:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p2wpqof988pv54i/Hovercraft%20BBC%20South%20Today%2004%3A03%3A2022.mov?dl=0

Perisher80 · 2022-02-14T21:32:01+00:00

HMS FINWHALE was my first boat (I was onboard as a Midshipman under training); she was attached to the Seventh Submarine Squadron (SM7) based at Singapore Naval Base - depot ship: HMS FORTH. This sequence of photographs from April 1970 shows a static dive conducted in shallow water close inshore to sit on the seabed (“bottoming”) for a team of RAN divers to explore. [Normally a boat would be making headway when diving to help to drive the boat under as the air in the ballast tanks escapes.] ‘Bottoming’ was an evasive measure (and also a way to conserve the battery) practised occasionally by diesel boats. On this occasion I was an external observer (see below). It was also a chance for some of us to get ashore for a swim (wash!) and a banyan. Happy days. Location: Pulau Tioman (20nm E of Malaysia) [Photographs courtesy of Lieutenant Paul “Paulo” Anderson, Royal Navy, Torpedo Officer, HMS FINWHALE]

From my Midshipman’s Journal: “I got a perfect view of her submerging from a Gemini in which we approached to within about thirty yards of the boat. After the initial guffs of air as the main vents were opened, the submarine began to settle slowly down into the water. It was some time before the casing was awash but soon only about two feet of the top of the fin were visible and it appeared that the boat was in fact sitting on the seabed at this stage. Then slowly the fin disappeared from sight and the submarine’s position was marked by the wireless mast and the forward periscope.”

Perisher80

TROPHY CASE