Why Submarine Battle Is Extremely Tricky 

"The worst thing than seeing a submarine in your sonar is not seeing one" Captain Chandler from last ship

Let's be clear, this only applies to WWII submarine battles. Modern submarines engage targets VERY differently.

0:54 captain is being super-judged for missing

I must admit I have admiration for any nations submariners it takes a special kind of courage to do their job.

The U-boats crews of WW2 had some astonishing accomplishments even with the difficulties of sub warfare!

The smithsonian channel puts out smithsonian quality videos. So much history packed into a well produced and highly entertaining show.

On Eternal Patrol. RIP the sailors of the USS Wahoo.

I feel like modern torpedos have plenty of tracking technology to just be fired as a Hail Mary

I remember as a Canadian Royal Army Cadet, I once went on a trip where I got to tour inside of 2 commissioned submarines while they were docked and they showed us the giant torpedoes and said that each one costed like $1200 or more depending on what kind of torpedo it was

The patience of a submarine captain must have been tremendous.

How to sink a ship? Shout: the boat is sinking Grab a lifeboat

I wish we had more people like Mr oldmanswar, ua answers r very informative. Thank u sir.

This attack scene is also shown in 'Run Silent, Run Deep' with Clark Gable and Kirk Douglas. One correction, when the Captain ordered 'Fire 3', that meant fire the torpedo in tube #3.

The creation of depth charges and decreasing size of modern 'battleships' is also another factor.

WWII US Navy submarines used a sophisticated device called the torpedo tracking computer to set the trajectory of torpedo's to their target.

Imagine just chilling in a boat then three torpedoes hit the boat

I love this program and wish everyone in it happiness 🌹

00:00:38 'Vasily. Re-verify our range to target... one ping only.' - Captain Raimius

Finally a video from the smithsonian channel with an accurate, unexaggerated title

Modern boats use sound and wire guidance for their torpedoes. Those were not available in WW2 and the MK 14 were not reliable at first. Any change in the angle on the bow or speed of target makes a difference between a hit or miss. These folks in the old boats were brave and had to know what they were doing. DBF . . . . . Diesel Boats Forever. USS Clamagore SS 343

found my professor in this video lol

hope the complete episode gets uploaded on this channel, this looks interesting!

0:55 lol his face! 😂

RIP to the crew of the USS Wahoo

The only option left is an extremely risky shot Sailors call it *Down The Throat* ..... My Dad: That's what your mother said.

you mean other than being thousands of feet underwater, being inside a crowded place or the inevitable death of blowing up or sinking? ..... yeah, i can't think why.

If you guys haven't read the badass of the week article about Dudley "Mush" Morton, you should.

just one thing forgotten is that the destroyer may throw depth chargers at the sub and the sub being that close under the ship is in serious trouble if they decided to throw depth charges

Early in the War, the American torpedoes were unreliable and failures to detonate were common. Later torpedoes were corrected and reliable.

Captain:shoot A6 Sailor: the enemy sent a message it says “missed” Captain: write down thise coordinates Enemy:*shoots submarine once* *submarine goes into panic’* Captain *calmly*: tell the enemy...hit

They should have put all their men on deck, after having armed them with gas-pipes and any other sort of junk, RAISE A BLACK, PIRATE FLAG and announce through a megafone, they'll board the destroyer. That would certainly scare the enemy off.

For trying to show how it is accurately done, they sure do say "fire" a lot. The proper term is "shoot", due to "fire" being a casualty term.

the destroyer be like TORI KAJI IPPAI!!!!

>Sub starts attacking a ship minding it's own business. >Misses and fires again. >Misses and firs again. >Miss and now ship is getting mad. >Sees where the tornados are coming from so decides to ram it in self defense. >Sub fires again and hits ship. >Happy music. (Honestly they need to get rid of that or they'll have a meme to deal with. . . . Could you imagine 9/11?)

Smithsonian Channel THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR VIDEO (MILITARY MACHINES OF WAR) 🇺🇸THANKS AGAIN 🇺🇸🇺🇸

"we got a hit....." Acting 10/10

Amazing Videos!!

Very Nice 👍

Submarine battle needs sharp intuition. Cheers from Indonesia

There's a lot that has to be taken into account and a lot of precise calculations. You only have so many torpedoes.

In Silent Hunter 2 you lock the target and fire. Amusing game. But being there probably was a tough job.

Hope you miss each other and stay happy and peaceful

That was intense

The move down the thought is literally like a scene from Godzilla opening a monsters mouth and fires it’s bean into its throat but this time it’s ranged

Some of the new 774 boats should be named for some of these guys. O'Kane and Fluckey for sure.

I'd rather be on a War ship than a Sub, I don't care if the Ship got Torpedoed at least you got a chance of surviving, in a Submarine you got no where to go, and you might as well say it's your coffin Ha!!! :P] .v ..

It would be cool if they could create the opposite of a sub launched missile. A torpedo that fires from the bottom, sinks to a low depth then arcs back up under the belly of the targeted ship and blows it up that way.

What a Great short of torpedo .

Lol, this is like playing silent hunter 5 again, one shot "miss" 10,000 shots "miss"

Pretty bold to go under the ship even though you know it's going to sink

That's a lot of damage

A clear example of sometimes it's better to be lucky than good..

Thanks Smithsonian for showing the ending result and not stopping the video there.

Young aggressive Skippers had big Balls! The USA Submarine Service was a major asset to success in WW2 . And we did lose 52 Submarines and most of their crews! May they Rest in Peace!

As long as we're destroying each other we're happy campers.

Clutch moment irl

The ultimate battle ship game

Wow that Cool 😍👍

Modern torpedoes are wire guided like a tow missile.

Recommend me this 4 years later thanks I guess

I'm going to fire all my Torpedoes and make sure that I do it right every time I make a mistake if I have enough

Great book in this submarine

This is what a space battle would be like

Modern torpedoes are not straight running anymore. They usually are wake homing and will change course to hit the ship.

Give us the full videos I already pay for this channel on tv

You do not make a guess, my daughter's daycare had a family night with a high jar of jelly beans. I came closest to the correct number both years she was there by estimating not guessing. Hugh difference!

0:55 😂😂

Plunges deep. The brighter deep.

incredible bravery

This is what goes on hidden inside the battleship game dang

Mind you, this was WWII technology and tactics. Modern torpedo targeting and guidance are far more accurate, but so is anti-submarine warfare. In modern submarine tactics a single shot, while in theory can be done within a few minutes, may more likely take hours to prepare (patience is not just a virtue when you don't want to be seen, it is a life-or-death necessity, and you have to maneuver slowly to guarantee both the hit and your survival) and an engagement may even take days in outmaneuvering your opponent.

1:09 until they decide to activate sonar and sound the Wolf's call lol

Lol the destroyer didn’t react firing back, instead it only moved towards submarine.

The wahoo was sunk by a runaway torpedo from U507 aimed at the Battleship Goney Bird.

knowing when to flinch!

So pretty much you hit then dip!😂

Imagine a sub commander with degree in mathematics that could do the figuring in his head

Two famous ww2 sub skippers Mush Morton and Richard O'kane.

Incredible and double incredible!!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

You know what they would say when then sink a ship? Wahooooo!!!

The destroyer looked more like a fishing boat

I feel the same way playing battle ship

Though this is WWII stuff still, very interesting. First shots were taken from too far away from the destroyer. In the beginning of WWII, the battle in the Pacific was largely left to our submarine fleet. So many of those brave officers and men are still there on "eternal patrol." RIP.

After you hit the ship you're going to go under it and you going to hear the ship break up as you pass below it

Dude wastes All the torpedoes he ends up being blind from one eye

You sunk my battle ship

Good video

Hedy Lamar, the Jewish actress, actually designed a torpedo guidance system to counter the Germans during the U-boat crisis in the Atlantic. When the Germans learned how to jam the system she also designed a system to scramble the remote signal. There's a good documentary about it somewhere....

them: literally calculating just for 1 shot me. shoots ship with no miss but no calculation

I bet they all yelled "WAHOO" after the torpedo hit.

The only way you are almost guaranteed to sink a destroyer. What was left out was the turn 10 degress to avoid collision.

You sunk my battleship

Doesn't the ship diving right below the destroyer open it up to depth charge attack?

6 torpedoes for a single destroyer

There’s an excellent WWII submarine book that focuses on Wahoo and Morton, Unrestricted Warfare. The account isn’t exactly as portrayed here and the actual eyewitness accounts are much more interesting. They couldn’t dive deep because they were in a harbor.

Hitscan heroes just can't relate. Where my Lucios at?

When battle ship gets real

Nothing is invincible

Those shots were so close

Similar tactics in the old movie;'Run Silent, Run Deep'.