February 24, 2025 • 45 mins
We're hitting two favourites in one again with World Wars and boats that go under the sea. This week John takes us through the history of the humble Submarine, one of the coolest inventions in human history. From 'person breathing through long stick' to the modern day Nuclear Subs, learn along with the boys as they get surprisingly close to German translations.
Find the video version on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@CheekyTalesPod
Find us on social media:
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/cheekytalespod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cheekytalespod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheekytalespod/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In theyears of World War one and two.
One word
struck fear into any sailor
cruising the watersof the Atlantic Ocean.
U-Boat. Depending on what sideyou're on,
these were mechanical marvelsor underwater terrors.
Welcome to Cheeky Tales.
This week, as we dive into partone of a three part
trilogy of short stories.
(00:33):
Helloand welcome to Cheeky Tales.
Boats and World War two.
We're hitting it.I said World War one.
That's not one of our favorites.
I said to one.
Into a starting in WorldWar one.
Oh. Started waybefore World War one. Oh,
the first time some.
War boats and just and warboats in and shooting.
(00:54):
So yeah, early cavemenprobably first floated on.
A hot summer nightin ancient Greece.
But now, welcometo this week of Cheeky Tales.
This week I'm hosting I'm John.
With me is Aaron,and producer Sean is that way.
I'm over here.
Let me cut my dance.
(01:15):
Move out, tiny, tiny clip.
I just kind ofwent like this that.
I don't thinkthat one's going to stay down.
You made a joke.
That happens far too often.
This podcast, by the way.
I wonder if I saw the.
Footage of you doing it.
Yeah, I think so.
Anyway, so,what's been happening?
How's married lifetreating you, boy?
That's good.
(01:36):
Yeah, that's not different.
That's really
just got this nice ring,
I had a little bitof inspiration for this episode
because,
I was on a short holidayto Bundaberg where I went
scuba diving. Bandy buddy.
Did you catch you?But did you find out? Halt!
No, I did not. Oh.
(01:56):
But yeah, I went, I went scubadiving for the first time ever.
And that was really cool.
On the southerninto the Great Barrier Reef.
So it was something close to methat they allowed you to do it
with so little training.
Yeah.
So the training short, iswe had about a 5 to 10
minute brief of,
this is on the water.
Yeah.This is all your skills? Yep.
You're going to have to show usthese three skills,
(02:17):
which is one is to take
the respirator elementsand put it back in.
Two is when the respirators areand without looking around,
you have to find itand put it back in your mouth
and to clear your maskwith water. Okay.
Once we did that
we were ten meters downthe bottom of the, ocean reef.
Cool.
And those three skills weredemonstrated while underwater.
(02:37):
Yep. So that's about right.
It was just love to tourism.
Tourism operators abilityto teach you
the things that you need toteach
has been is coming to questionmore than once in my life.
Compared to let's say I'm goingto move my mic slightly.
Compared to, other institutionsand it's, it's pretty amazing.
Yeah.
So when, when I went
whitewater kayaking,we spent two days with the Army.
(03:00):
Like when I was in the armyswimming around,
we had to swim down a rapid
without kayak
so that anythingyou had to be able to do that
or you couldn'tget in the kayak.
I went whitewater rafting withmy wife and my brother in law,
and it was just like,I have this.
I paddle, offwe go. This is how you hold on.
Yeah.
My wife, well,my wife proceeded to fall out
of of the of the raftand fly down the river.
(03:22):
Some of the most heartwarmingfootage I've ever seen.
Shaun'sGoPro on his head. It's like
I wouldn't stop looking at it.
Yeah, it's really hot.
Well, I was with my elder son,and so, like, for the first
third of the scuba dive,I was like, swimming next to him
just to make sure he didn'tfreak out or whatever.
Because
if you ever been scuba diving,there's like a mental gymnastics
(03:42):
you have to overcomeof breathing underwater. Yep.
I think it's very similarto the first time I snorkel
where you like facing the water.And you. Yeah, yeah.
You breathe.It's like snorkeling.
But yeah scuba divingis a little bit different.
Your pressurizeyour eyes as you go down
like nearly every footyou're pressurizing your eyes.
I only went down ten meters.
And by the time I got to tenmeters already
he was killing meuntil I pressurized it.
(04:03):
Yeah, but yeah, that mentalgymnastics of because I.
When I first got in, I was like,
oh that's right, I can.
Oh yeah.You can actually breathe.
And so getting. Yourselfto breathe regulate yourself.
Yeah.
But once I started doing that
it was very relaxingand it was really amazing.
So some really cool stuff.
No, I fell asleep.
Yeah.
The other thing we didwhile in Bundaberg
(04:25):
was watch Turtle Touch,which is really amazing as well.
So Bondi Tourism,
if you want to give usa sponsorship,
we can hit you upbecause you've got some
really good things up there.
We got a better chanceof getting sponsored
by the bakery nextto the theater in Bundaberg.
They make good curry
chicken piesand they're pretty great coffee.
Well, I definitelywant to go back to hunting.
I'm going to have to check itout later. Highly recommend.
(04:47):
Pretty. Alright. Coffee?
Highly highlyrecommend. Wait one moment.
Will you look thatwhile you look that up, boy?
Do you want to?Do you want to kick things off?
No. I've got one more story.
Okay, a little bit more paint.
I want to tell you.
Tell you a story of something
that's been happening to merecently.
It's called, cruisethe bakehouse.
(05:07):
And I want to get your opinionon it.
Send it.
So, on my way to work,
I got the same wayto work every morning.
It's thisthe story told the other day?
You might already know.
Yeah,there's this elderly gentleman.
I'd say early 50s,
sitting at a busstop every morning. Yep.
(05:27):
Same position.
Like sitting down on a little,like,
brick wall and to hand-to-mouth,just watching traffic go by.
I don't assume he's homeless
because he looks fairlywell-dressed.
I'm assuming he'sjust there waiting for the bus
on his way to work.
Now, I've been
traveling this wayfor over 12 months.
Originally it was only Mondays.
Tuesdays I was doing it.
Eventually,it's five days a week. Now.
(05:49):
Couple weeksago, on a Monday morning,
I come around the corner.
You can see your matesitting there.
He then stands up and walksto the edge of the road
and I go, oh,the bus must be behind me.
It's strange.
I've never seen himstand up before.
Then all of a suddenhe starts dry humping the air
and giving me the double forks.
As I drive past.
(06:10):
Which is just a hilarious mentalpicture.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. And I'm like.
So what did you do to this guy?I've done.
I've had no interactionwith this man
apart from occasionally.Look at him as I drive past
and that's it.
I've not single to him.
I've not waved to him.
I've not swerved at himor anything.
Literally just driven past him
(06:31):
every morningfor quite a long time.
Okay.
So then the next morning I comeup to draw down that same road
and he's just sitting there.
I drive past, nothing happens.
So I'm like, what happened?
Wednesday morning, come round,I see him stand up again.
Okay.
This time he has likehe has a motion to imagine.
(06:53):
He has a tail and he's strikinghis tail, so he's bent over.
I like striking his tail
with his fingers on his noselike I stink at me.
It's a very odd thingsto be doing.
Yeah.
I wonder if he thinks issomeone else.
I don't know.
I think he thinks he'ssomeone else.
I'm in favor of that.
So at that time, I kind of gavehim a little wave as he did it.
(07:14):
I didn't retaliate.
It sounds like you needto give him your number.
The Thursday morning.
Yeah. Same thing.
He stood up, but this time I'lljust arrived as he was there.
He just gave me the forks.
As I drive past.
So then I'll tell you up.
A guy from work,he lives close by.
I said, can you just go?
Instead of going out this wayto the highway,
come my way to the highway.Yeah.
(07:35):
And he drove pastand he did nothing.
He has not done anythingsince that one week,
and it'sbeen about two and a half weeks.
Granted,
there was a week there
where I smashed the windowon my work,
kind of had a different work
cos I was driving pastin a different vehicle. Yep.
So you didn't recognizehim? Yep.
And then there wasthe couple of days
I had offand as we went in Bundaberg. So.
But last week when I come back,nothing I.
(07:56):
I think he just thinks he hassomeone else.
But why all of a sudden change.
I don't know, maybethe other person got a new you.
And didn't recognize. Yeah,I don't know.
And I pretty much got past atthe same time time every time.
So like sometimes,you know, paying attention.
Sometimes he's just
sometimes he maybejust isn't paying attention.
Sometimes the whole time.And you just haven't noticed.
Well, yeah,I'm going to keep you.
(08:17):
I'm going to keepthe cheeky voice updated.
Any more developmentsof this strange man?
John's crazy.
I feel like I feel like you needto get your phone ready.
Yeah.
I need a video of this guydry humping.
So the Thursday. Yeah,
I think it was.
I did have I finishedI was going to record this.
My phoneaudio focused on the windscreen.
(08:37):
That didn't actually cause I.
Cleanyour window. In your windscreen?
Yeah, that's the first.The first thing.
That's what happens.
I'm going to haveto get a dashcam or something.
But I also don't want to let himsee me, like holding my phone.
Those are not possible.
Escalate things.
Completely recording.
Well, he's sitting on a bunchof loose bricks.
It's quite easyfor him to pick up and just.
You want to break at meas I come back?
I don't think I could youI can break out.
(08:57):
Yeah. Okay.
I by the by your description,it's pretty hard.
You only can break that farand hit a moving car.
Yeah. Not fair enough, I think.
I think you're going to be safe.Okay.
Well, yeah, I do like thatway. Using the word yoink now.
Yeah, yeah, I'msick of yeet. It's not funny.
I don't know why you use it.
I'm losing
my ease. Anyway.
(09:18):
All right.
Let's get on. So before we.
Submerge into this story.
For this,I knew this was going to be
easy for youbecause already chucked in.
Haven't done that for months.
Dive into part one.I already said that.
All right, let's submergeourselves in this way.
Up periscope. Yeah,
so we can see the story.
So before we specificallytalk about U-boats,
(09:40):
let's talk submarines.
Okay.
Subs not only used for wartime,but they are very vital.
Some of you going gonna talk.
Don't talk about Ocean Guard.
Oh. Please tell me.
Going to talk about the Hunley.
This. That gets mentioned.
Excellent.
I think I rememberreading about lovely.
Yeah, yeah.
They're vital in exploration
(10:02):
and scientific discoveryof the ocean. The.
The idea of underwater travelhas been around for centuries.
One example is there are imagesin the temple of Thebes of men
using hollow sticks to breatheunderwater while hunting.
So that's like.
Yeah, thousands of years. Yeah.
It's thought the first militaryoperation was at the siege
(10:23):
of Syracuse in 14,
415 BC,
where divers were clearingobstructions.
There's also the legendsthat Alexander
the Great exploredthe depths in a submersible akin
a diving bell.
So I a glass
built that he went down,explored the bottom
of the ocean.
There wouldn'thave been much to see, I'm sure.
(10:45):
What do you think in general.
Yeah.
Everything I hear aboutAlexander the Great,
all of its crap.
Oh yes all of it's crap.
So that one we'll see.
Okay.
We'll see.
He's going to, he'sgoing to do some research.
But the inventionof the submarine as we know it
today may have its rootswith Leonardo da Vinci
of course, sketcheda simple design in 1515,
(11:08):
although it was never built.
One was a few decadeslater, in 1578.
It was his design.
No, it wasn't his design.
It was the brainchildof Englishman William born.
Shatner.
The William.
The William.
You got the William.
The vessel.
The vessel?
No vessel.
Was a wooden boatwith a waterproof leather cover,
(11:29):
but over.
A leather.
Yeah, it's like a football.
The inside was handturned cranks and that would.
It just plunges with waterin and out to decrease
and increase the buoyancy.
So they cranked it to get itto. Yep.
The cranks to adjustthe depths were possibly boxes
from sketches.
(11:50):
Operated from outside.
So this design for. Oh, no.
You mean like no roomfor passengers
or crew on the inside.So it's just like a.
So what's the point?It was a submersible.
It was a. Submarine.
This is what's the point.
To see if it could be done.
Right. Okay.
So it didn't do anything.
It just existed. Yes. Right.
(12:11):
The man creditedfor the first successful
submarine, though, is CorneliusVan Drabble.
Right now.
He successfully testedhis design a few times, but
once, notably in front of James,the first of England. All.
But he's popped up again.
He's always popped.
Yeah, him and Teddy Roosevelt,
they just pop up inevery story about anything.
(12:32):
This was in the River Thames.
Temps Thames that. The famous.
Names?
Yeah.
This was in England,in the River Thames,
where he remained underwaterand invisible to the king
and the Onlookingcrowd for three hours.
I have heard of that guy. Yes.
And speaking of the Thames, I'm
watching a series on YouTubeat the moment.
It's got a guy called Ed Prat.
(12:53):
He's doing sourceto see in the Thames.
So like the he can
he's got to be in the Thamesto get progress.
So like it's it's overlike 18 days or something.
He goes from
the like source of the Thamesall the way down to the ocean.
Oh yeah. It'spretty fun to watch.
So like followjust following the river. Yeah.
So starts like walking.
Yeah. And then waiting.
(13:13):
And thenhe gets in a canoe. Yes.
So the rumors
started beginningthat the man in the crew
in this submersiblehad perished on the water.
Right.
And then.
Yeah, like I said, around
three hours later,they reappeared on the surface,
having moved
a considerable distancefrom where they first dived.
You encounter it is like 3:00.
(13:36):
And what does that mean?
So, yeah,they three hours came back up.
So were they circulating airsomehow or. I'm glad you asked.
I'm sure you might need tolook this up. Yeah. All right.
I did a quick little raid.
I didn't write it down,but I, they used.
So I think it was saltpeterto refresh the.
Yeah, some sort ofchemical reaction by heating it.
It went into depth.
(13:56):
What would refresh the.
Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah.They used a chemical reaction.
They knew that at that pointwhat it was this.
1578.
And they knew about that. Yes.
Yeah I think sobecause there was hot
there was balloons at that pointwasn't there.
Yeah.
But like to knowlike to understand what.
I think they were.
Yeah I think they knew that
(14:16):
from doing it with balloons.It's like doing
a chemical reactionwith planes to expand them.
I think they then transferredthat to these to be.
Like they were okay.
They were thinking nowcreating new air possibly.
Yeah. Fixing the air.
Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah.
So after this,
the thought of using submarinesfor military purposes
was quickto arise. Yeah. Cause it was.
(14:38):
In 1776, American David Bushnell
designed and built the turtle,the first military submarine.
The idea was to covertly,conversely, covert.
The idea was to covertlyapproach enemy ships
and attachan explosive to the hull.
The idea was simple,
(14:59):
the execution of the ideanot so simple.
Yeah.
The first attemptwith the turtle failed.
Yeah, the submarine, poweredby a hand-cranked propeller,
failed to get anywhere nearits target.
The British ship.
Of course it does.Yeah. Did it go inside it?
Just cranking it to get out.One guy inside. Just.
Just cranking it.
Back.
I it.
(15:19):
Yeah.
So the British ship
that was meant to be the targetdidn't actually report of
any activityor anything like that, so they.
Didn't even know what was goingon. No.
However, in 1812,a similar design
sub to the turtlewas able to catch its prey
in attemptto attach explosives to the hull
(15:39):
by screwing itin with a large screw.
So it had like an appendagethat would then,
just like a large screw,drill into the hull
and then attach to that farright was the explosive.
Yeah.So they crank up to this boat?
Yep. Screw it. Yep.
Crank off. Yep. Cool. Yeah.
Which boat?
Which was this, the Hunley? No.
No. That's not.
(16:00):
Yeah.
However, this also failedas the screw dislodged
and the target survived.
And like, hey,did you find anything with this?
Oh, I couldn't.Find anything about that. No.
So catching the target difficulttouching the bomb.
Difficult, difficult.
Surely oncethese steps were mastered,
that the sinking shipseverywhere wrong.
(16:20):
Yeah, sure.
Well, no, the crew of the Hunleywould find the answer to that.
Lee, Lee and Lee,
this submarine is dope.
It was a sub used
by the Confederate Confederacyduring the American Civil War.
It used a long arm to placeand hold an explosive
charge to the hull of the USSHouston, to
(16:41):
which it didsuccessfully sinking it.
Great job.
Well done.
Excellent work.
Unfortunately for the H.L.
Hunley,it was also sunk by its own
explosion and its entire crewdied on 17th of February 1864.
Well, I think it was a bitlonger of an appendage
they used, but yeah, it's.Not just some bloke's arm like.
That. So yeah, they time
(17:03):
it iscredited for the first wartime.
First wartime submarine death.
Kill, kill and death.
And yet in the lateryears of the 1800s.
Submarines are an active one.
At this point. Yes.
But I think the firstone of the first submarines
also sank and killedeveryone inside of there.
(17:23):
Probably a negativeat the moment. Okay.
In the later years of the 1800s,advancements in steam
and dieselengines pushed submarine
technology ahead,allowing for longer underwater
times as well as non-humanpowered propulsion.
No more cranking.
It for crank at the turn ofthe century, when the Russell on
it took three attempts.
(17:48):
At the turn of the century,
when the Russo-Japanese War
was in full swing, sorry,but there were good.
Cited to the like.
I really hated that.
Around in the 1900sRusso-Japanese
War in full effect,because I know you like that.
Going to do an episodeon that by.
The Russo-JapaneseWar some point.
(18:10):
He just really likes.
We're so. Sad. So yeah.
I do love the.
Roos. Yes.
Five American built Holland.
Six submarines were soldto Japan and German base.
Close to WorldWar two. Yes, one.
But like obviouslyJapan was the aggressor.
Or to.
And German built for railsubs were sold to Russia.
(18:31):
For rail subs.
Yeah.
If I r e r really for real,for real, for real.
Whateverthey were sold to Russia
by the time they were built,shipped and reassembled
at the new homes, hostilitieswere coming to an end
and I didn't see any action.
Only after exporting somesubmarines to Russia, Norway
and Austria-Hungary, the Germancommander of the Navy,
(18:54):
Alfred von order, one submarine.
Yes, that is what the battleshipis named after.
The, yeah.
The MU1.
The smooth one.
Smelly one. Yeah.That's what it says. Yep.
It had a double hulland a single torpedo tube
and was commissionedon the 14th of December, 1906.
(19:15):
Okay.
The sequel, the SMU two.
S Mu2 Rho two, captainedby Bonner, commissioned for.
Yeah, yeah, it was gone, baby.
They're commissioned in 19 oh.
Sure, I'd love that.
Crappy jokes.
It was commissioned in 1908and was 50%
(19:36):
largerand had two torpedo tubes. Yep.
Between 1908 and 1910, 14more subs were ordered
and they had 14 torpedo tubeswith two reload tubes.
They werepowered by kerosene engines.
Unfortunately,the kerosene engine undermined
their strategy, though,as when you burn kerosene.
(19:57):
You get a lot of smoke.You get a lot of white smoke.
So it kind of gives away.The submarine got.
This big smokestackcoming up out of the ocean,
like, oh,I wonder where the submarine is.
So at that moment, like,
the engine would powerthe submarine on the surface
and they would use batterypower. Well, I so that was what.
They did with diesel ones.Right? Correct. Yeah.
After. Oh, not very subtle.
(20:18):
Not after a reliable dieselengine was developed
to be used in subs.
The U 19 was,class of 23 U-boats,
and they were the firstto use a diesel engine.
At the start of World War One,Germany had 48 submarines
through 13 different classesor models, either in service
(20:39):
or under construction.
That doesn't sound that many.
Doesn't. Yeah,but like World War One scale.
But you think this is what, 1916you've got?
I just I've only just worked outtanks as well.
Yeah.
You got 14 of these long cigarthings that can go underwater.
Yeah.They'd worked out submarines
well before they workedat tanks.
Yeah, yeah.
Which is crazy to think of,really, isn't it?
(21:00):
Yeah.
The SMU one was still in useand it was used for training.
But she was retired in 1919and remains on display
in the Duchess Museum in Munich.
That's pretty cool.
Speaking of Toyota, actually,he tells Pod on Facebook
and Instagram to seean image of the smooth one.
Oh, you.
(21:21):
I think it's.You'd have to be an image of it.
I haven't actually. Got to bean image if it's not there.
John couldn't find it.
But if you're cruising throughMunich listening to us
stopping at the museumand you'll say, this me one.
Got that?
If you do that, Sean,I'll make you a custom shirt.
Probably.
It's a quick little detour here.
Yeah. Why? You both?
(21:41):
Why is it calling you back?
Underwater boat.
Until Bolton. On to boot.
You're very close.
You boat is the English versionof the German word.
You boot. Right?
Which is short for underseaboot, German for undersea.
But I. Got that close. To boot.
And you're very close now.
Or to Sea Boot UTC boot,which is literally just German
(22:03):
for undersea boat.
Under the sea boot up.
So this is like like I saidin the in the preamble
is terrifyingword. U-boat. Yeah.
Which which is to sayunder Putin, what does he boot.
Oh I love it.
5th of September
the HMS Pathfinder was sunkby SMU 21
(22:23):
and was the first shipto have been sunk by a submarine
using its self-propelledtorpedo.
World WarOne would be the first conflict
to see submarines
make a significant impacton the conflict.
September 22nd United sankthe armored British cruisers
HMS obscure,the HMS Creasey and HMS Hogue
in less than one hour, sankthree ships and one hour.
(22:44):
As a result,the British fleet withdraw
to saferwaters in Northern Ireland,
so they're startingto make a name for themselves.
Yeah, three in an houris pretty cool. Yeah. Good.
I think it was.
They fired six torpedoes
and, yeah, two torpedoeseach day.
Wrong. Pretty crazy.
The U-boat fleet would then turnto attacking merchant ships
(23:06):
where they would observeprize rules.
If you had a prize,I have, yes. Yeah.
Which means I would stopand inspect the merchant ships,
allowing the crew to evacuateand then sink it.
That's surprisingly civil.
I think this is,Oh, we're about to sink you.
Yeah. I think this comes from,like, old admiralty laws.
From, like, the Spanishand English conflicts.
(23:27):
You 17 sunkthe first merchant ship, the SS,
the guilder, glue tra of Norway.
On the 20th of October, 1914.
Only ten merchantships were sunk
that way before the policywas changed in February of 1915.
Yeah. Then it was just sinking.As soon as you say.
Pretty much.
Why is because the, Germanforces
(23:48):
on the surface and the landwere in a stalemate.
So Germany optedunrestricted submarine warfare,
to break the supply chainsto the Allied land forces.
This new policy
or tactic gave instructionsto U-boat captains
that they would sinkany merchant ships
without warning,even neutral ones.
(24:09):
Oh. Okay.
For Swiss.
Landlocked country. Did
we having that done have boats?
Are we having this fucking.
I mean I guess that makes sense.
Yeah I. Thinkwhere like Canberra.
Is a landlocked state,but we have the HMAS Canberra.
Yes that's correct.
The ship I know I'm trying to goto this immediate fucking.
(24:30):
Are we gonna talk aboutJarvis Bay like, Holy shit.
You know what?
It's both so easily to.
What are you, stupid?
Apparently, you're the one
that's stupid.
Get him!
Well,
U-boats were responsiblefor torpedo
(24:51):
torpedoing three ocean liners
that have been usedas British transports.
They are.
I miss Hesperian,
the SS Arabic,and the most notably, the Miss.
Participant one was tiny close.
Lusitania. Lusitania.
Lusitania that come upin the Titanic episode.
(25:12):
I believe so.
I think it wasone of the ones that was like.
Predated.
Yeah,it was one of the fast ones
before the one of the fastor big ones before the.
Well, it was the fastest
and largest oceanliner of its time, and it.
Was from Canada. The Canadian.
It was a white star,I believe it was white star.
Was it? Yeah.
That's same company right there.
(25:34):
Yeah.
By the way, I went and saw the,the Titanic exhibit.
I was in Brisbane.It's pretty good.
The sinking of the Lusitaniais cited as one of the reasons
the U.S.
entered World War One,even though it was years later.
Becausethey were, I believe, U.S.
citizens on board.
By the end of the war,
373 German U-boatU boots had been built.
(25:58):
How many? Sorry. 373.
It still doesn't feel like thatmany.
But like,I guess that's a lot of U-boats.
Of that, 179 were operationaland 178 were lost to enemy
action. Right.
The fleet had sunkten dreadnought battleships,
18 cruisers,several smaller naval vessels,
and 5708merchant and fishing ships.
(26:22):
It's a lot of boats.
Ships which totaled 11.1 milliontons of goods and supplies.
Yeah. Bloody hell. That'sthat is an impact.
That is a very big impact.
As well as the livesof about 15,000 sailors.
Oh, yeah.
The top scoring U-boat of WorldWar One was you 35,
which had sunk 220 ships for atotal of half a million tonnage.
(26:45):
Wow. That's a k d.
At the end of World War one
and the signingof the Treaty of Sallies
for size.
Oh, what a silly.
What do they make it so long?
If it's just a facade?
No more gaffes with facilities.
Does you need thatin a submarine?
You generally get a leak at boththese facilities.
(27:07):
Yeah.
Germany was forbidden to haveand construct submarines.
The treaty also restricted themto six battleships,
six cruisers, 12 destroyersand 12 torpedo boats.
And I'm sure they never exceededthat.
No, they did not.
To circumvent circumnavigatethese rules,
a design officewas set up in Holland,
and in the yearsbetween the wars,
(27:28):
the design office would continuedeveloping and pushing
the and redefining the U-boattechnology.
The treaty was amended in 1930,which allowed Germany
to have submarines in paritywith Britain.
As World War Two approached,
Hitler would authorizeconstruction of U-boats
in secret.
Sorry, I don't think you sawwhat just happened, but sure
(27:51):
went through this whole.
Thing to, like, quietlymove his microphone
because he was worriedabout breathing in it
and then just went.
Oh, God.
Yeah. Look, yeah, I need towith my new microphone.
I'm still not used tothe levels required for it.
I probably should turn them up
a little bitif I'm going to sit back here.
(28:12):
Is this okay? From where I am.
It's a bit quiet.I'm not going to change it.
But you're not going to change.
I can fix itby changing the game
in the middle ofthe recording is
like the worst thing I could do.
So Hitler.
Yeah.
He's authorizedthe secret commencement
of submarine building.
Yeah.
(28:32):
And at the outbreak of World War
Two, Germany had 65 submarines,with 21 at sea.
Because of the aforementionedtreaty, the German
Navy was at a disadvantagein like service ship battles.
So I went back to what workedwell for them in World War One,
attacking merchant shipsand supply lines with U-boats.
And this wasthe battle of the Atlantic,
(28:55):
which was the longestrunning battle of the war.
They pretty much startedat the outbreak of World War
Two and finishedat the end of that was.
Like, how did they determine
like thatjust means that everything
that happened inthe Atlantic is part of it.
It's not one. Battle.Yeah, it's pretty much yeah.
That's yeah,that was an ongoing thing.
Okay. So it wins by default.
(29:15):
It's called Operation Atlantic.
Yeah.
Like it's.
Stuff happened in Atlantic.
Winston Churchill later. Right.
The only thing that
really frightened me duringthe war was the U-boat Powell.
The cross Atlanticand trade in war supplies
and food was crucialfor Britain's survival.
U-boats would employnew tactics of wolf packs.
(29:36):
Whereone submarine would find a ship.
Shadow would then communicatevia Enigma communication
and organize a group attack.
The allies would counter thisby putting the ships in convoys,
convoy
war convoys worked for a while.
U-boat captains adopted,and in 1940 was referred
(29:56):
by Germans submarinesas the brackish light Zeit.
Why would you even tryand pronounce that?
I think I did. You did.All right.
But you have
the have not a great historyof pronouncing difficult things.
So what was it?
The Glaucus type.
Did like a slight Zeit.
Or hawkish delight.
First happy time.
(30:20):
But that cannot be right.
But it's. Like Zeit. Right?
Yeah.
He's at first happy time. Yeah.
Crazy.
That just meansthat their Wolfpack tactics
were working really well.Let's talk.
And that was thinkinga lot of ships.
That feels like a Japaneseconversion of language.
Right. And the happy time.
Dig like Zeit.
(30:41):
Yeah. Originallyit was the happy time.
Spoiler. There's a happy Taurus.
Happy time after.A successful. Period.
Back to cranking it.
Nice.
But after this, Britishcountermeasures
British countermeasureswere developed.
(31:02):
Such as sonar.
Yes. One of the countermeasuresdeveloped to keep
counter submarines.
You ever heard a video?
Like, have you ever seena video of somebody diving
and they do a sonar blip?
No. This terrifying, like peopleunder the like, underwater,
and there'll be, like,a sonar blip come through
and it's just like,oh, yeah, Wroxham huffed off.
(31:25):
Oh, stuff.
Which is, I believe,
high frequency marketdistortion type of thing.
Radar was something elsedeveloped.
That was more for the sky.
But they also developed it,I think it was for pinging
surfacesubmarines. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Depth charges.
(31:46):
You know how a depth chargeworks?
Yeah.
It's like an explosion
that goes down to a set depthand then blows off. Right? Yeah.
And they use like the becausewater doesn't compress,
they use the shockwave of thewater to damage the submarine.
And you had anti-submarineweapons like the Hedgehog,
which was a series of mortarstowards the submarine.
And unlike depth charges,they were set to
(32:06):
that was set to a depth,
like you said, these mortarsbut only detonate
when they contacteda hard surface.
Right. So it's like a row of 24.
So it was like a mine.
Yeah. Like a four by six.
Yeah.
Like far I'm off in the waterand they would sink them
and it's like it's.
Almost like a net.
Yeah. Yeah. And they explode.
As well as the Fido torpedo
(32:28):
from a late night researchand not fully understanding
what it is.
It's a torpedothat once it enters the water,
after being droppedby an aircraft, chimes
in on a detected sam.
So I think it kind of uses,like, a sign
or some sort of sound detection.
So it just goes offto the latest thing, I think.
So, which soundskind of terrifying.
Yeah.
(32:48):
I be kicking your feeton the water.
Also, in 1941, Allied forcesbeing able to decode
axis communication allowed themto avoid U-boats better.
This was enabled
by the capture of the eveningmap from you 110.
Later on, in February of 1942,the codes were changed
and axis forcesregained their advantage
(33:10):
until October that same yearwhen you five, five,
nine was boarded before sinking,a new codebook was salvaged.
There wasa movie not too long ago with.
Yeah,Benedict, Benedict Cumberbatch.
Yeah, that kind ofwent into the decoding of the.
Yeah, Enigma.It was. Extremely good.
It was really good. Yeah.
Also that guy Alan Turing. Yes.
(33:32):
Reallybadly treated by his country.
Yes. We are hugely.
I think the story of the eveningis probably
pretty fascinating as well.
Yeah.
He was treated he was treatedbadly by literally everybody.
He got pardoned later in life,but I think he'd already
passed awaywhen he got pardoned of.
Yeah.
Yeah, well he was gay
and it was illegal to be gay,so he just got.
Yeah, a very intelligent man.
(33:54):
Service.But you kissed a dude, so. No.
Thank you.Yeah, it. Was really bad.
Yeah, yeah. But. So. Genius.Yeah.
Made a very importantbreakthrough in the war
decoding thing.
He couldn't decode everything.
And it spent ages becausethe code would change every day.
Until he worked out that atthe end of every single message,
let's say while Hitler. Yeah.
So he goes, I don't needto decode everything.
(34:15):
I just need to decodethe last sentence.
Yeah, boom, crack the code.
But then he was like,
but what do I do if I pass onevery single message?
Then the axis powersgo, no. Yeah.
And so he had to sit there
and listen to enemy shipsget to friendly
ships, get destroyed,friendly soldiers. Okay.
It was reallyit must have been really hard.
It was people in his teamthat had to listen to.
(34:36):
I had to decode messagesthat said that they're.
Their relatives, relatives.
Ships were going to be sunk.
And they couldn'tdo anything about it.
They just had to deal with it.
It's such a good movie. Yeah.
What was it called?I go to some movies like this.
If you do.
Only you were the researcher.Yeah.
And I'm trying to rememberwhat it is before.
Yeah. All right.
Store it for later because I gointo some movies later.
Chuck it in there.
(34:57):
The fact that I
mentioned you five, five,nine gives you an idea
of how many U-boatswere constructed.
Well, more than 550 on that.
As I mentioned earlier,there was a second happy time
when the U.S.
entered the war and submarineshunted the US ships around
the American, Canadianand Mexican coastlines.
But the Americans also quickly
adoptedeffective countermeasures.
(35:18):
So far, the British patriots
and those countermeasureswere so effective.
But by the end of 1943,when U-boat construction was at
its peak,
it was nullified by the factthat they were losing
so many submarines.
In March to July, 130U-boats were lost,
with 41 U-boats in lost inMay alone.
(35:41):
By the end of the war,almost 3000 Allied ships
had been sunk by U-boats, 175warships
and 2825 merchant shipson the submarine side,
1162 U-boats were built
and 785 were destroyed.
The human toll of the 40,000sailors in the U-boats
(36:02):
U-boat service, 28,070% died.
Jeez.
So there's not much you can.
Do in ships that really upset mebecause they're just people,
like they're notthey're not aggressors.
They're not.
Well, they're they're runningsupplies.
I think they might'vehad some people.
Yeah, I think
I've had some soldiers on therefor protection stuff as well.
(36:22):
But that was the,the strategy that needed to.
Yeah, yeah.
Not all U-boats werelost to enemy Heinz, though.
There is there is one.
You 1206 was sunk by something.
Unordinary.You know the old joke.
(36:43):
What did the Irish submarinesink? Why?
Because it had four screenson the windows.
Sure, I've never heard thatbefore, but.
Yeah.
Well, I would say this isn't to.
Irish.
Because it's likethe Irish dump.
It's likethe whole outside type of thing.
So the British thing. Yeah.
I wouldn't sayit was too dissimilar to that.
(37:04):
The U.
1206 was a late, latemodel U-boat.
It had been fittedwith some newer technology.
And at this point of the war,
things were lookingdesperate for the Germans.
So they were pretty muchjust using everything
and anything, anything.
They had just got heatedseats, Android auto. Yeah.
So even if it wasstill experimental.
Yeah. Are you right? Do youknow what this thing's got?
One of the new techs on
board was a deep water,high pressure toilet system.
(37:27):
Sick. Which allowed the.
Coops.
It allowed the load to be used
while the submarinewas running at depth.
Flushing the toiletwas extremely complicated,
and it requireda special technician
who was trying to use itto flush it correctly.
It just feels like
you don't need that.
Just anyway.
(37:47):
Yeah, it.
Was all aboutextending the time.
Range. Yeah.The submarine on the.
Yeah. Sorry.
April 14th, 1945, just 14 daysbefore the end of the war.
You won206 was cruising at a depth 61m,
15km off the coast of Scotland.
Now nowhere says exactly
(38:10):
who this was,but the speculation was that
it was a higher ranking officerthat had done his business
and didn't want some
technician to come inand say he's number two.
So he decided to it himself.
Right
at that time,the captain was in the engine
room helping repairone of the engines,
and he was informedthat the toilet was
(38:30):
malfunctioning and waterwas flooding into the submarine.
Oh. The leak floodedthe batteries,
and the salt watermixing with the batteries
caused them to generatechlorine gas.
Yeah.
With no other choice,
the captain was forcedto surface the submarine.
This then caused them to bediscovered by a British patrol.
And the bombing commenced.
(38:51):
To avoid the U-boatbeing captured,
the captain orderedthe submarine to be scuttled.
Three men. The brown flag.
Three men drowned in the highseas after ending the ship
and 46 were captured.
Imagine dying becausesome guy couldn't hold it.
Or didn't flush the toilet.
Yeah, wrong.
So that is that submarineis credited to being sunk due
(39:11):
to a toilet.
Poops. Oops.
Reasonfor loss. Number two. Yeah.
As for the top scoring U-boatin World War two, it was you.
48 A, type seven B, the mostcommon built in the war.
I think there's like 700 of thembuilt.
There's one surviving exampleand it is on display
at the LapoNaval Memorial in La Bow.
(39:32):
Jimmy.
It had a total tonnagesunk of 300,000,
with 200 ships sunk.
Go to at Cheeky Tales
part on Facebook and Instagramto see that.
Submarinesstill play a vital role
in defense today,as well as undersea exploration.
Yeah, like Ocean Gate. But,
(39:53):
oh, I said we agreed.
We work. Yeah.
Can I talk aboutwhat was that one? Cool.
Was it go to Titan?
Yeah, I say the Titan subdisaster of June in 2020.
Sorry.
And on the defenseside, Australia just paid
the US 800 million as a partpayment of a $3.6 billion
deal for some nuclear subsin the orcas deal.
(40:13):
Orcas. Orcas deal.
And we won't get themtill like 2030 or something.
2035 yeah.
Plus, over the years,the idea of stealthy underwater
combathas given us some classic movies
like The Hunt for Red October.
Great book.
I've never watched the music.
It's a good film.
It's a very good film.Sean Connery.
(40:35):
Russian, Russian, yeah, Russian.
Sean Connery.
Yeah. Das boot I was that a.
Submarine film, a.
Movie from 1981 which followsa German U-boat crew.
Okay, they got.
Right hand from 2020, starringTom Hanks
as he captained to destroyleading a convoy through U-boat
hunting groundsin the battle of the Atlantic.
If you like this episode,maybe go check out that movie.
(40:57):
And last but not least.
It was midway that you watchedon my Amazon Prime account.
Yeah.
And lastbut not least, a sci fi thriller
from the legendary avatardirector James Cameron.
James Cameron, the Abyss.
The greatest by any
time.
Ocean two. Deep no budget two.
Steve what was thewhat was the movie?
Sean. Oh, jeez.
(41:19):
Well he was he's pretty famous
for doing an underwaterexploration for a submarine,
isn't it? Yeah,he was the Mariana Trench bloke.
Yeah. There you go.
Raising the bar.
In 1989, the abyss.
Watched it in a long time.
Yeah. When they seen it once.
I it so does boot.
I think won six Academy Awards
when it come outand it's good job.
(41:39):
Regarded as one ofthe greatest movies of all time.
Yeah. Oh.
Or is the greatest German movieof all time.
Sorry, I might have tocheck that on my list. Yep.
What was the.
Oh, garbage.
Oh, it's called the ImitationGame.
That's it.
So if you want to. Yeah.
More submarine titles.
(41:59):
There's a couple moviesfor you to watch,
as well as the imitation Gamefrom the Deep.
Thanks for listening.I'll be back in four weeks.
After Ireland
in two weeks with parttwo of my series.
Do you want to give a hintas to what that's going to be?
Yeah, if people want to look upand spoil it.
So my idea forthis is I'm doing three titles
(42:19):
that are all self-contained.
They all lead into.
Can I hazard a guess?The next one.
Yeah. Go on. It's one of them.The Kursk.
No. Okay.
So I'll keep that one.
The it's not on the submarinetill the next one.
It is a World War two one.
It will be about OperationPostcard.
Okay. There you go. That's good.
(42:41):
And then from there,something else will.
Happen. Okay.
So thanks for listening.
Good story.
Back to the episode and seeUnder the Sea, the sea boot.
Undersea boot.
Yeah.
Good story.
We're gonna have to ask Sophieabout this,
right. She's German. He's.
(43:01):
Oh, really?
Yeah.
We have a German friend on us.
Yeah.
Returning to. Us. Yeah.
Asked the German friendabout the Nazi Germany.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,she comes from Hamburg.
It's like the most left place.Yeah.
So most left place in Germany.I don't. There's this.
I don't knowif you seen the clip.
There's like a German comedianand I think he's on the count.
Doesn't seem to be possible.
(43:23):
I think he's on the kind of
Brian show or somethinglike that.
You know, what's funny is whenyou're doing your taxes well.
But they're like.
You know, it's funny walls.I told.
So I was talking to Sophieabout her wedding.
Yeah. And I was like,oh, you know, we had a January.
Yeah. It would be nice to do it.
Like, not in summer,but it was so much cheaper.
And and I was like, oh,
you know,when's popular to have a wedding
in, in Germany, like,probably in the summer. Right.
(43:45):
And she's like, no December.
I'm like, oh, that's weird.
It's like winter.
It's all snowy and stuff.
She's like, yeah,
the tax seasonstarts in January,
so most people get marriedin December to get around it.
Yeah. No, it's like that'sthe most German thing I've ever.
Heard for this German comedian.
They asking the question,they're like, oh,
do you have a problemwith like, Germany being
the villains in every movie?
(44:06):
And he's like, no.Have you seen our history?
Yeah. He was.Yeah. It's pretty funny. Very.
All right.
Well.
That, good episode,
Damn. Periscope.
Good night. Tequila's good one.
Good night.
Thank you for listening. Bye.
You've been listeningto Cheeky Tales podcast.
(44:27):
If you'd like to seesupplemental images
related to our episodesor to interact
with us about our episodes,hit us up on at cheeky.
Tell us pod on Instagram,Facebook and YouTube.
You can watch our episodeson YouTube
or listen to them on Spotify,Apple Podcasts or whatever.
You get your podcasts.
In theyears of World War one and two.
One word
struck fear into any sailor
cruising the watersof the Atlantic Ocean.
U-Boat. Depending on what sideyou're on,
these were mechanical marvelsor underwater terrors.
Welcome to Cheeky Tales.
This week, as we dive into partone of a three part
trilogy of short stories.
(00:33):
Helloand welcome to Cheeky Tales.
Boats and World War two.
We're hitting it.I said World War one.
That's not one of our favorites.
I said to one.
Into a starting in WorldWar one.
Oh. Started waybefore World War one. Oh,
the first time some.
War boats and just and warboats in and shooting.
(00:54):
So yeah, early cavemenprobably first floated on.
A hot summer nightin ancient Greece.
But now, welcometo this week of Cheeky Tales.
This week I'm hosting I'm John.
With me is Aaron,and producer Sean is that way.
I'm over here.
Let me cut my dance.
(01:15):
Move out, tiny, tiny clip.
I just kind ofwent like this that.
I don't thinkthat one's going to stay down.
You made a joke.
That happens far too often.
This podcast, by the way.
I wonder if I saw the.
Footage of you doing it.
Yeah, I think so.
Anyway, so,what's been happening?
How's married lifetreating you, boy?
That's good.
(01:36):
Yeah, that's not different.
That's really
just got this nice ring,
I had a little bitof inspiration for this episode
because,
I was on a short holidayto Bundaberg where I went
scuba diving. Bandy buddy.
Did you catch you?But did you find out? Halt!
No, I did not. Oh.
(01:56):
But yeah, I went, I went scubadiving for the first time ever.
And that was really cool.
On the southerninto the Great Barrier Reef.
So it was something close to methat they allowed you to do it
with so little training.
Yeah.
So the training short, iswe had about a 5 to 10
minute brief of,
this is on the water.
Yeah.This is all your skills? Yep.
You're going to have to show usthese three skills,
(02:17):
which is one is to take
the respirator elementsand put it back in.
Two is when the respirators areand without looking around,
you have to find itand put it back in your mouth
and to clear your maskwith water. Okay.
Once we did that
we were ten meters downthe bottom of the, ocean reef.
Cool.
And those three skills weredemonstrated while underwater.
(02:37):
Yep. So that's about right.
It was just love to tourism.
Tourism operators abilityto teach you
the things that you need toteach
has been is coming to questionmore than once in my life.
Compared to let's say I'm goingto move my mic slightly.
Compared to, other institutionsand it's, it's pretty amazing.
Yeah.
So when, when I went
whitewater kayaking,we spent two days with the Army.
(03:00):
Like when I was in the armyswimming around,
we had to swim down a rapid
without kayak
so that anythingyou had to be able to do that
or you couldn'tget in the kayak.
I went whitewater rafting withmy wife and my brother in law,
and it was just like,I have this.
I paddle, offwe go. This is how you hold on.
Yeah.
My wife, well,my wife proceeded to fall out
of of the of the raftand fly down the river.
(03:22):
Some of the most heartwarmingfootage I've ever seen.
Shaun'sGoPro on his head. It's like
I wouldn't stop looking at it.
Yeah, it's really hot.
Well, I was with my elder son,and so, like, for the first
third of the scuba dive,I was like, swimming next to him
just to make sure he didn'tfreak out or whatever.
Because
if you ever been scuba diving,there's like a mental gymnastics
(03:42):
you have to overcomeof breathing underwater. Yep.
I think it's very similarto the first time I snorkel
where you like facing the water.And you. Yeah, yeah.
You breathe.It's like snorkeling.
But yeah scuba divingis a little bit different.
Your pressurizeyour eyes as you go down
like nearly every footyou're pressurizing your eyes.
I only went down ten meters.
And by the time I got to tenmeters already
he was killing meuntil I pressurized it.
(04:03):
Yeah, but yeah, that mentalgymnastics of because I.
When I first got in, I was like,
oh that's right, I can.
Oh yeah.You can actually breathe.
And so getting. Yourselfto breathe regulate yourself.
Yeah.
But once I started doing that
it was very relaxingand it was really amazing.
So some really cool stuff.
No, I fell asleep.
Yeah.
The other thing we didwhile in Bundaberg
(04:25):
was watch Turtle Touch,which is really amazing as well.
So Bondi Tourism,
if you want to give usa sponsorship,
we can hit you upbecause you've got some
really good things up there.
We got a better chanceof getting sponsored
by the bakery nextto the theater in Bundaberg.
They make good curry
chicken piesand they're pretty great coffee.
Well, I definitelywant to go back to hunting.
I'm going to have to check itout later. Highly recommend.
(04:47):
Pretty. Alright. Coffee?
Highly highlyrecommend. Wait one moment.
Will you look thatwhile you look that up, boy?
Do you want to?Do you want to kick things off?
No. I've got one more story.
Okay, a little bit more paint.
I want to tell you.
Tell you a story of something
that's been happening to merecently.
It's called, cruisethe bakehouse.
(05:07):
And I want to get your opinionon it.
Send it.
So, on my way to work,
I got the same wayto work every morning.
It's thisthe story told the other day?
You might already know.
Yeah,there's this elderly gentleman.
I'd say early 50s,
sitting at a busstop every morning. Yep.
(05:27):
Same position.
Like sitting down on a little,like,
brick wall and to hand-to-mouth,just watching traffic go by.
I don't assume he's homeless
because he looks fairlywell-dressed.
I'm assuming he'sjust there waiting for the bus
on his way to work.
Now, I've been
traveling this wayfor over 12 months.
Originally it was only Mondays.
Tuesdays I was doing it.
Eventually,it's five days a week. Now.
(05:49):
Couple weeksago, on a Monday morning,
I come around the corner.
You can see your matesitting there.
He then stands up and walksto the edge of the road
and I go, oh,the bus must be behind me.
It's strange.
I've never seen himstand up before.
Then all of a suddenhe starts dry humping the air
and giving me the double forks.
As I drive past.
(06:10):
Which is just a hilarious mentalpicture.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. And I'm like.
So what did you do to this guy?I've done.
I've had no interactionwith this man
apart from occasionally.Look at him as I drive past
and that's it.
I've not single to him.
I've not waved to him.
I've not swerved at himor anything.
Literally just driven past him
(06:31):
every morningfor quite a long time.
Okay.
So then the next morning I comeup to draw down that same road
and he's just sitting there.
I drive past, nothing happens.
So I'm like, what happened?
Wednesday morning, come round,I see him stand up again.
Okay.
This time he has likehe has a motion to imagine.
(06:53):
He has a tail and he's strikinghis tail, so he's bent over.
I like striking his tail
with his fingers on his noselike I stink at me.
It's a very odd thingsto be doing.
Yeah.
I wonder if he thinks issomeone else.
I don't know.
I think he thinks he'ssomeone else.
I'm in favor of that.
So at that time, I kind of gavehim a little wave as he did it.
(07:14):
I didn't retaliate.
It sounds like you needto give him your number.
The Thursday morning.
Yeah. Same thing.
He stood up, but this time I'lljust arrived as he was there.
He just gave me the forks.
As I drive past.
So then I'll tell you up.
A guy from work,he lives close by.
I said, can you just go?
Instead of going out this wayto the highway,
come my way to the highway.Yeah.
(07:35):
And he drove pastand he did nothing.
He has not done anythingsince that one week,
and it'sbeen about two and a half weeks.
Granted,
there was a week there
where I smashed the windowon my work,
kind of had a different work
cos I was driving pastin a different vehicle. Yep.
So you didn't recognizehim? Yep.
And then there wasthe couple of days
I had offand as we went in Bundaberg. So.
But last week when I come back,nothing I.
(07:56):
I think he just thinks he hassomeone else.
But why all of a sudden change.
I don't know, maybethe other person got a new you.
And didn't recognize. Yeah,I don't know.
And I pretty much got past atthe same time time every time.
So like sometimes,you know, paying attention.
Sometimes he's just
sometimes he maybejust isn't paying attention.
Sometimes the whole time.And you just haven't noticed.
Well, yeah,I'm going to keep you.
(08:17):
I'm going to keepthe cheeky voice updated.
Any more developmentsof this strange man?
John's crazy.
I feel like I feel like you needto get your phone ready.
Yeah.
I need a video of this guydry humping.
So the Thursday. Yeah,
I think it was.
I did have I finishedI was going to record this.
My phoneaudio focused on the windscreen.
(08:37):
That didn't actually cause I.
Cleanyour window. In your windscreen?
Yeah, that's the first.The first thing.
That's what happens.
I'm going to haveto get a dashcam or something.
But I also don't want to let himsee me, like holding my phone.
Those are not possible.
Escalate things.
Completely recording.
Well, he's sitting on a bunchof loose bricks.
It's quite easyfor him to pick up and just.
You want to break at meas I come back?
I don't think I could youI can break out.
(08:57):
Yeah. Okay.
I by the by your description,it's pretty hard.
You only can break that farand hit a moving car.
Yeah. Not fair enough, I think.
I think you're going to be safe.Okay.
Well, yeah, I do like thatway. Using the word yoink now.
Yeah, yeah, I'msick of yeet. It's not funny.
I don't know why you use it.
I'm losing
my ease. Anyway.
(09:18):
All right.
Let's get on. So before we.
Submerge into this story.
For this,I knew this was going to be
easy for youbecause already chucked in.
Haven't done that for months.
Dive into part one.I already said that.
All right, let's submergeourselves in this way.
Up periscope. Yeah,
so we can see the story.
So before we specificallytalk about U-boats,
(09:40):
let's talk submarines.
Okay.
Subs not only used for wartime,but they are very vital.
Some of you going gonna talk.
Don't talk about Ocean Guard.
Oh. Please tell me.
Going to talk about the Hunley.
This. That gets mentioned.
Excellent.
I think I rememberreading about lovely.
Yeah, yeah.
They're vital in exploration
(10:02):
and scientific discoveryof the ocean. The.
The idea of underwater travelhas been around for centuries.
One example is there are imagesin the temple of Thebes of men
using hollow sticks to breatheunderwater while hunting.
So that's like.
Yeah, thousands of years. Yeah.
It's thought the first militaryoperation was at the siege
(10:23):
of Syracuse in 14,
415 BC,
where divers were clearingobstructions.
There's also the legendsthat Alexander
the Great exploredthe depths in a submersible akin
a diving bell.
So I a glass
built that he went down,explored the bottom
of the ocean.
There wouldn'thave been much to see, I'm sure.
(10:45):
What do you think in general.
Yeah.
Everything I hear aboutAlexander the Great,
all of its crap.
Oh yes all of it's crap.
So that one we'll see.
Okay.
We'll see.
He's going to, he'sgoing to do some research.
But the inventionof the submarine as we know it
today may have its rootswith Leonardo da Vinci
of course, sketcheda simple design in 1515,
(11:08):
although it was never built.
One was a few decadeslater, in 1578.
It was his design.
No, it wasn't his design.
It was the brainchildof Englishman William born.
Shatner.
The William.
The William.
You got the William.
The vessel.
The vessel?
No vessel.
Was a wooden boatwith a waterproof leather cover,
(11:29):
but over.
A leather.
Yeah, it's like a football.
The inside was handturned cranks and that would.
It just plunges with waterin and out to decrease
and increase the buoyancy.
So they cranked it to get itto. Yep.
The cranks to adjustthe depths were possibly boxes
from sketches.
(11:50):
Operated from outside.
So this design for. Oh, no.
You mean like no roomfor passengers
or crew on the inside.So it's just like a.
So what's the point?It was a submersible.
It was a. Submarine.
This is what's the point.
To see if it could be done.
Right. Okay.
So it didn't do anything.
It just existed. Yes. Right.
(12:11):
The man creditedfor the first successful
submarine, though, is CorneliusVan Drabble.
Right now.
He successfully testedhis design a few times, but
once, notably in front of James,the first of England. All.
But he's popped up again.
He's always popped.
Yeah, him and Teddy Roosevelt,
they just pop up inevery story about anything.
(12:32):
This was in the River Thames.
Temps Thames that. The famous.
Names?
Yeah.
This was in England,in the River Thames,
where he remained underwaterand invisible to the king
and the Onlookingcrowd for three hours.
I have heard of that guy. Yes.
And speaking of the Thames, I'm
watching a series on YouTubeat the moment.
It's got a guy called Ed Prat.
(12:53):
He's doing sourceto see in the Thames.
So like the he can
he's got to be in the Thamesto get progress.
So like it's it's overlike 18 days or something.
He goes from
the like source of the Thamesall the way down to the ocean.
Oh yeah. It'spretty fun to watch.
So like followjust following the river. Yeah.
So starts like walking.
Yeah. And then waiting.
(13:13):
And thenhe gets in a canoe. Yes.
So the rumors
started beginningthat the man in the crew
in this submersiblehad perished on the water.
Right.
And then.
Yeah, like I said, around
three hours later,they reappeared on the surface,
having moved
a considerable distancefrom where they first dived.
You encounter it is like 3:00.
(13:36):
And what does that mean?
So, yeah,they three hours came back up.
So were they circulating airsomehow or. I'm glad you asked.
I'm sure you might need tolook this up. Yeah. All right.
I did a quick little raid.
I didn't write it down,but I, they used.
So I think it was saltpeterto refresh the.
Yeah, some sort ofchemical reaction by heating it.
It went into depth.
(13:56):
What would refresh the.
Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah.They used a chemical reaction.
They knew that at that pointwhat it was this.
1578.
And they knew about that. Yes.
Yeah I think sobecause there was hot
there was balloons at that pointwasn't there.
Yeah.
But like to knowlike to understand what.
I think they were.
Yeah I think they knew that
(14:16):
from doing it with balloons.It's like doing
a chemical reactionwith planes to expand them.
I think they then transferredthat to these to be.
Like they were okay.
They were thinking nowcreating new air possibly.
Yeah. Fixing the air.
Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah.
So after this,
the thought of using submarinesfor military purposes
was quickto arise. Yeah. Cause it was.
(14:38):
In 1776, American David Bushnell
designed and built the turtle,the first military submarine.
The idea was to covertly,conversely, covert.
The idea was to covertlyapproach enemy ships
and attachan explosive to the hull.
The idea was simple,
(14:59):
the execution of the ideanot so simple.
Yeah.
The first attemptwith the turtle failed.
Yeah, the submarine, poweredby a hand-cranked propeller,
failed to get anywhere nearits target.
The British ship.
Of course it does.Yeah. Did it go inside it?
Just cranking it to get out.One guy inside. Just.
Just cranking it.
Back.
I it.
(15:19):
Yeah.
So the British ship
that was meant to be the targetdidn't actually report of
any activityor anything like that, so they.
Didn't even know what was goingon. No.
However, in 1812,a similar design
sub to the turtlewas able to catch its prey
in attemptto attach explosives to the hull
(15:39):
by screwing itin with a large screw.
So it had like an appendagethat would then,
just like a large screw,drill into the hull
and then attach to that farright was the explosive.
Yeah.So they crank up to this boat?
Yep. Screw it. Yep.
Crank off. Yep. Cool. Yeah.
Which boat?
Which was this, the Hunley? No.
No. That's not.
(16:00):
Yeah.
However, this also failedas the screw dislodged
and the target survived.
And like, hey,did you find anything with this?
Oh, I couldn't.Find anything about that. No.
So catching the target difficulttouching the bomb.
Difficult, difficult.
Surely oncethese steps were mastered,
that the sinking shipseverywhere wrong.
(16:20):
Yeah, sure.
Well, no, the crew of the Hunleywould find the answer to that.
Lee, Lee and Lee,
this submarine is dope.
It was a sub used
by the Confederate Confederacyduring the American Civil War.
It used a long arm to placeand hold an explosive
charge to the hull of the USSHouston, to
(16:41):
which it didsuccessfully sinking it.
Great job.
Well done.
Excellent work.
Unfortunately for the H.L.
Hunley,it was also sunk by its own
explosion and its entire crewdied on 17th of February 1864.
Well, I think it was a bitlonger of an appendage
they used, but yeah, it's.Not just some bloke's arm like.
That. So yeah, they time
(17:03):
it iscredited for the first wartime.
First wartime submarine death.
Kill, kill and death.
And yet in the lateryears of the 1800s.
Submarines are an active one.
At this point. Yes.
But I think the firstone of the first submarines
also sank and killedeveryone inside of there.
(17:23):
Probably a negativeat the moment. Okay.
In the later years of the 1800s,advancements in steam
and dieselengines pushed submarine
technology ahead,allowing for longer underwater
times as well as non-humanpowered propulsion.
No more cranking.
It for crank at the turn ofthe century, when the Russell on
it took three attempts.
(17:48):
At the turn of the century,
when the Russo-Japanese War
was in full swing, sorry,but there were good.
Cited to the like.
I really hated that.
Around in the 1900sRusso-Japanese
War in full effect,because I know you like that.
Going to do an episodeon that by.
The Russo-JapaneseWar some point.
(18:10):
He just really likes.
We're so. Sad. So yeah.
I do love the.
Roos. Yes.
Five American built Holland.
Six submarines were soldto Japan and German base.
Close to WorldWar two. Yes, one.
But like obviouslyJapan was the aggressor.
Or to.
And German built for railsubs were sold to Russia.
(18:31):
For rail subs.
Yeah.
If I r e r really for real,for real, for real.
Whateverthey were sold to Russia
by the time they were built,shipped and reassembled
at the new homes, hostilitieswere coming to an end
and I didn't see any action.
Only after exporting somesubmarines to Russia, Norway
and Austria-Hungary, the Germancommander of the Navy,
(18:54):
Alfred von order, one submarine.
Yes, that is what the battleshipis named after.
The, yeah.
The MU1.
The smooth one.
Smelly one. Yeah.That's what it says. Yep.
It had a double hulland a single torpedo tube
and was commissionedon the 14th of December, 1906.
(19:15):
Okay.
The sequel, the SMU two.
S Mu2 Rho two, captainedby Bonner, commissioned for.
Yeah, yeah, it was gone, baby.
They're commissioned in 19 oh.
Sure, I'd love that.
Crappy jokes.
It was commissioned in 1908and was 50%
(19:36):
largerand had two torpedo tubes. Yep.
Between 1908 and 1910, 14more subs were ordered
and they had 14 torpedo tubeswith two reload tubes.
They werepowered by kerosene engines.
Unfortunately,the kerosene engine undermined
their strategy, though,as when you burn kerosene.
(19:57):
You get a lot of smoke.You get a lot of white smoke.
So it kind of gives away.The submarine got.
This big smokestackcoming up out of the ocean,
like, oh,I wonder where the submarine is.
So at that moment, like,
the engine would powerthe submarine on the surface
and they would use batterypower. Well, I so that was what.
They did with diesel ones.Right? Correct. Yeah.
After. Oh, not very subtle.
(20:18):
Not after a reliable dieselengine was developed
to be used in subs.
The U 19 was,class of 23 U-boats,
and they were the firstto use a diesel engine.
At the start of World War One,Germany had 48 submarines
through 13 different classesor models, either in service
(20:39):
or under construction.
That doesn't sound that many.
Doesn't. Yeah,but like World War One scale.
But you think this is what, 1916you've got?
I just I've only just worked outtanks as well.
Yeah.
You got 14 of these long cigarthings that can go underwater.
Yeah.They'd worked out submarines
well before they workedat tanks.
Yeah, yeah.
Which is crazy to think of,really, isn't it?
(21:00):
Yeah.
The SMU one was still in useand it was used for training.
But she was retired in 1919and remains on display
in the Duchess Museum in Munich.
That's pretty cool.
Speaking of Toyota, actually,he tells Pod on Facebook
and Instagram to seean image of the smooth one.
Oh, you.
(21:21):
I think it's.You'd have to be an image of it.
I haven't actually. Got to bean image if it's not there.
John couldn't find it.
But if you're cruising throughMunich listening to us
stopping at the museumand you'll say, this me one.
Got that?
If you do that, Sean,I'll make you a custom shirt.
Probably.
It's a quick little detour here.
Yeah. Why? You both?
(21:41):
Why is it calling you back?
Underwater boat.
Until Bolton. On to boot.
You're very close.
You boat is the English versionof the German word.
You boot. Right?
Which is short for underseaboot, German for undersea.
But I. Got that close. To boot.
And you're very close now.
Or to Sea Boot UTC boot,which is literally just German
(22:03):
for undersea boat.
Under the sea boot up.
So this is like like I saidin the in the preamble
is terrifyingword. U-boat. Yeah.
Which which is to sayunder Putin, what does he boot.
Oh I love it.
5th of September
the HMS Pathfinder was sunkby SMU 21
(22:23):
and was the first shipto have been sunk by a submarine
using its self-propelledtorpedo.
World WarOne would be the first conflict
to see submarines
make a significant impacton the conflict.
September 22nd United sankthe armored British cruisers
HMS obscure,the HMS Creasey and HMS Hogue
in less than one hour, sankthree ships and one hour.
(22:44):
As a result,the British fleet withdraw
to saferwaters in Northern Ireland,
so they're startingto make a name for themselves.
Yeah, three in an houris pretty cool. Yeah. Good.
I think it was.
They fired six torpedoes
and, yeah, two torpedoeseach day.
Wrong. Pretty crazy.
The U-boat fleet would then turnto attacking merchant ships
(23:06):
where they would observeprize rules.
If you had a prize,I have, yes. Yeah.
Which means I would stopand inspect the merchant ships,
allowing the crew to evacuateand then sink it.
That's surprisingly civil.
I think this is,Oh, we're about to sink you.
Yeah. I think this comes from,like, old admiralty laws.
From, like, the Spanishand English conflicts.
(23:27):
You 17 sunkthe first merchant ship, the SS,
the guilder, glue tra of Norway.
On the 20th of October, 1914.
Only ten merchantships were sunk
that way before the policywas changed in February of 1915.
Yeah. Then it was just sinking.As soon as you say.
Pretty much.
Why is because the, Germanforces
(23:48):
on the surface and the landwere in a stalemate.
So Germany optedunrestricted submarine warfare,
to break the supply chainsto the Allied land forces.
This new policy
or tactic gave instructionsto U-boat captains
that they would sinkany merchant ships
without warning,even neutral ones.
(24:09):
Oh. Okay.
For Swiss.
Landlocked country. Did
we having that done have boats?
Are we having this fucking.
I mean I guess that makes sense.
Yeah I. Thinkwhere like Canberra.
Is a landlocked state,but we have the HMAS Canberra.
Yes that's correct.
The ship I know I'm trying to goto this immediate fucking.
(24:30):
Are we gonna talk aboutJarvis Bay like, Holy shit.
You know what?
It's both so easily to.
What are you, stupid?
Apparently, you're the one
that's stupid.
Get him!
Well,
U-boats were responsiblefor torpedo
(24:51):
torpedoing three ocean liners
that have been usedas British transports.
They are.
I miss Hesperian,
the SS Arabic,and the most notably, the Miss.
Participant one was tiny close.
Lusitania. Lusitania.
Lusitania that come upin the Titanic episode.
(25:12):
I believe so.
I think it wasone of the ones that was like.
Predated.
Yeah,it was one of the fast ones
before the one of the fastor big ones before the.
Well, it was the fastest
and largest oceanliner of its time, and it.
Was from Canada. The Canadian.
It was a white star,I believe it was white star.
Was it? Yeah.
That's same company right there.
(25:34):
Yeah.
By the way, I went and saw the,the Titanic exhibit.
I was in Brisbane.It's pretty good.
The sinking of the Lusitaniais cited as one of the reasons
the U.S.
entered World War One,even though it was years later.
Becausethey were, I believe, U.S.
citizens on board.
By the end of the war,
373 German U-boatU boots had been built.
(25:58):
How many? Sorry. 373.
It still doesn't feel like thatmany.
But like,I guess that's a lot of U-boats.
Of that, 179 were operationaland 178 were lost to enemy
action. Right.
The fleet had sunkten dreadnought battleships,
18 cruisers,several smaller naval vessels,
and 5708merchant and fishing ships.
(26:22):
It's a lot of boats.
Ships which totaled 11.1 milliontons of goods and supplies.
Yeah. Bloody hell. That'sthat is an impact.
That is a very big impact.
As well as the livesof about 15,000 sailors.
Oh, yeah.
The top scoring U-boat of WorldWar One was you 35,
which had sunk 220 ships for atotal of half a million tonnage.
(26:45):
Wow. That's a k d.
At the end of World War one
and the signingof the Treaty of Sallies
for size.
Oh, what a silly.
What do they make it so long?
If it's just a facade?
No more gaffes with facilities.
Does you need thatin a submarine?
You generally get a leak at boththese facilities.
(27:07):
Yeah.
Germany was forbidden to haveand construct submarines.
The treaty also restricted themto six battleships,
six cruisers, 12 destroyersand 12 torpedo boats.
And I'm sure they never exceededthat.
No, they did not.
To circumvent circumnavigatethese rules,
a design officewas set up in Holland,
and in the yearsbetween the wars,
(27:28):
the design office would continuedeveloping and pushing
the and redefining the U-boattechnology.
The treaty was amended in 1930,which allowed Germany
to have submarines in paritywith Britain.
As World War Two approached,
Hitler would authorizeconstruction of U-boats
in secret.
Sorry, I don't think you sawwhat just happened, but sure
(27:51):
went through this whole.
Thing to, like, quietlymove his microphone
because he was worriedabout breathing in it
and then just went.
Oh, God.
Yeah. Look, yeah, I need towith my new microphone.
I'm still not used tothe levels required for it.
I probably should turn them up
a little bitif I'm going to sit back here.
(28:12):
Is this okay? From where I am.
It's a bit quiet.I'm not going to change it.
But you're not going to change.
I can fix itby changing the game
in the middle ofthe recording is
like the worst thing I could do.
So Hitler.
Yeah.
He's authorizedthe secret commencement
of submarine building.
Yeah.
(28:32):
And at the outbreak of World War
Two, Germany had 65 submarines,with 21 at sea.
Because of the aforementionedtreaty, the German
Navy was at a disadvantagein like service ship battles.
So I went back to what workedwell for them in World War One,
attacking merchant shipsand supply lines with U-boats.
And this wasthe battle of the Atlantic,
(28:55):
which was the longestrunning battle of the war.
They pretty much startedat the outbreak of World War
Two and finishedat the end of that was.
Like, how did they determine
like thatjust means that everything
that happened inthe Atlantic is part of it.
It's not one. Battle.Yeah, it's pretty much yeah.
That's yeah,that was an ongoing thing.
Okay. So it wins by default.
(29:15):
It's called Operation Atlantic.
Yeah.
Like it's.
Stuff happened in Atlantic.
Winston Churchill later. Right.
The only thing that
really frightened me duringthe war was the U-boat Powell.
The cross Atlanticand trade in war supplies
and food was crucialfor Britain's survival.
U-boats would employnew tactics of wolf packs.
(29:36):
Whereone submarine would find a ship.
Shadow would then communicatevia Enigma communication
and organize a group attack.
The allies would counter thisby putting the ships in convoys,
convoy
war convoys worked for a while.
U-boat captains adopted,and in 1940 was referred
(29:56):
by Germans submarinesas the brackish light Zeit.
Why would you even tryand pronounce that?
I think I did. You did.All right.
But you have
the have not a great historyof pronouncing difficult things.
So what was it?
The Glaucus type.
Did like a slight Zeit.
Or hawkish delight.
First happy time.
(30:20):
But that cannot be right.
But it's. Like Zeit. Right?
Yeah.
He's at first happy time. Yeah.
Crazy.
That just meansthat their Wolfpack tactics
were working really well.Let's talk.
And that was thinkinga lot of ships.
That feels like a Japaneseconversion of language.
Right. And the happy time.
Dig like Zeit.
(30:41):
Yeah. Originallyit was the happy time.
Spoiler. There's a happy Taurus.
Happy time after.A successful. Period.
Back to cranking it.
Nice.
But after this, Britishcountermeasures
British countermeasureswere developed.
(31:02):
Such as sonar.
Yes. One of the countermeasuresdeveloped to keep
counter submarines.
You ever heard a video?
Like, have you ever seena video of somebody diving
and they do a sonar blip?
No. This terrifying, like peopleunder the like, underwater,
and there'll be, like,a sonar blip come through
and it's just like,oh, yeah, Wroxham huffed off.
(31:25):
Oh, stuff.
Which is, I believe,
high frequency marketdistortion type of thing.
Radar was something elsedeveloped.
That was more for the sky.
But they also developed it,I think it was for pinging
surfacesubmarines. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Depth charges.
(31:46):
You know how a depth chargeworks?
Yeah.
It's like an explosion
that goes down to a set depthand then blows off. Right? Yeah.
And they use like the becausewater doesn't compress,
they use the shockwave of thewater to damage the submarine.
And you had anti-submarineweapons like the Hedgehog,
which was a series of mortarstowards the submarine.
And unlike depth charges,they were set to
(32:06):
that was set to a depth,
like you said, these mortarsbut only detonate
when they contacteda hard surface.
Right. So it's like a row of 24.
So it was like a mine.
Yeah. Like a four by six.
Yeah.
Like far I'm off in the waterand they would sink them
and it's like it's.
Almost like a net.
Yeah. Yeah. And they explode.
As well as the Fido torpedo
(32:28):
from a late night researchand not fully understanding
what it is.
It's a torpedothat once it enters the water,
after being droppedby an aircraft, chimes
in on a detected sam.
So I think it kind of uses,like, a sign
or some sort of sound detection.
So it just goes offto the latest thing, I think.
So, which soundskind of terrifying.
Yeah.
(32:48):
I be kicking your feeton the water.
Also, in 1941, Allied forcesbeing able to decode
axis communication allowed themto avoid U-boats better.
This was enabled
by the capture of the eveningmap from you 110.
Later on, in February of 1942,the codes were changed
and axis forcesregained their advantage
(33:10):
until October that same yearwhen you five, five,
nine was boarded before sinking,a new codebook was salvaged.
There wasa movie not too long ago with.
Yeah,Benedict, Benedict Cumberbatch.
Yeah, that kind ofwent into the decoding of the.
Yeah, Enigma.It was. Extremely good.
It was really good. Yeah.
Also that guy Alan Turing. Yes.
(33:32):
Reallybadly treated by his country.
Yes. We are hugely.
I think the story of the eveningis probably
pretty fascinating as well.
Yeah.
He was treated he was treatedbadly by literally everybody.
He got pardoned later in life,but I think he'd already
passed awaywhen he got pardoned of.
Yeah.
Yeah, well he was gay
and it was illegal to be gay,so he just got.
Yeah, a very intelligent man.
(33:54):
Service.But you kissed a dude, so. No.
Thank you.Yeah, it. Was really bad.
Yeah, yeah. But. So. Genius.Yeah.
Made a very importantbreakthrough in the war
decoding thing.
He couldn't decode everything.
And it spent ages becausethe code would change every day.
Until he worked out that atthe end of every single message,
let's say while Hitler. Yeah.
So he goes, I don't needto decode everything.
(34:15):
I just need to decodethe last sentence.
Yeah, boom, crack the code.
But then he was like,
but what do I do if I pass onevery single message?
Then the axis powersgo, no. Yeah.
And so he had to sit there
and listen to enemy shipsget to friendly
ships, get destroyed,friendly soldiers. Okay.
It was reallyit must have been really hard.
It was people in his teamthat had to listen to.
(34:36):
I had to decode messagesthat said that they're.
Their relatives, relatives.
Ships were going to be sunk.
And they couldn'tdo anything about it.
They just had to deal with it.
It's such a good movie. Yeah.
What was it called?I go to some movies like this.
If you do.
Only you were the researcher.Yeah.
And I'm trying to rememberwhat it is before.
Yeah. All right.
Store it for later because I gointo some movies later.
Chuck it in there.
(34:57):
The fact that I
mentioned you five, five,nine gives you an idea
of how many U-boatswere constructed.
Well, more than 550 on that.
As I mentioned earlier,there was a second happy time
when the U.S.
entered the war and submarineshunted the US ships around
the American, Canadianand Mexican coastlines.
But the Americans also quickly
adoptedeffective countermeasures.
(35:18):
So far, the British patriots
and those countermeasureswere so effective.
But by the end of 1943,when U-boat construction was at
its peak,
it was nullified by the factthat they were losing
so many submarines.
In March to July, 130U-boats were lost,
with 41 U-boats in lost inMay alone.
(35:41):
By the end of the war,almost 3000 Allied ships
had been sunk by U-boats, 175warships
and 2825 merchant shipson the submarine side,
1162 U-boats were built
and 785 were destroyed.
The human toll of the 40,000sailors in the U-boats
(36:02):
U-boat service, 28,070% died.
Jeez.
So there's not much you can.
Do in ships that really upset mebecause they're just people,
like they're notthey're not aggressors.
They're not.
Well, they're they're runningsupplies.
I think they might'vehad some people.
Yeah, I think
I've had some soldiers on therefor protection stuff as well.
(36:22):
But that was the,the strategy that needed to.
Yeah, yeah.
Not all U-boats werelost to enemy Heinz, though.
There is there is one.
You 1206 was sunk by something.
Unordinary.You know the old joke.
(36:43):
What did the Irish submarinesink? Why?
Because it had four screenson the windows.
Sure, I've never heard thatbefore, but.
Yeah.
Well, I would say this isn't to.
Irish.
Because it's likethe Irish dump.
It's likethe whole outside type of thing.
So the British thing. Yeah.
I wouldn't sayit was too dissimilar to that.
(37:04):
The U.
1206 was a late, latemodel U-boat.
It had been fittedwith some newer technology.
And at this point of the war,
things were lookingdesperate for the Germans.
So they were pretty muchjust using everything
and anything, anything.
They had just got heatedseats, Android auto. Yeah.
So even if it wasstill experimental.
Yeah. Are you right? Do youknow what this thing's got?
One of the new techs on
board was a deep water,high pressure toilet system.
(37:27):
Sick. Which allowed the.
Coops.
It allowed the load to be used
while the submarinewas running at depth.
Flushing the toiletwas extremely complicated,
and it requireda special technician
who was trying to use itto flush it correctly.
It just feels like
you don't need that.
Just anyway.
(37:47):
Yeah, it.
Was all aboutextending the time.
Range. Yeah.The submarine on the.
Yeah. Sorry.
April 14th, 1945, just 14 daysbefore the end of the war.
You won206 was cruising at a depth 61m,
15km off the coast of Scotland.
Now nowhere says exactly
(38:10):
who this was,but the speculation was that
it was a higher ranking officerthat had done his business
and didn't want some
technician to come inand say he's number two.
So he decided to it himself.
Right
at that time,the captain was in the engine
room helping repairone of the engines,
and he was informedthat the toilet was
(38:30):
malfunctioning and waterwas flooding into the submarine.
Oh. The leak floodedthe batteries,
and the salt watermixing with the batteries
caused them to generatechlorine gas.
Yeah.
With no other choice,
the captain was forcedto surface the submarine.
This then caused them to bediscovered by a British patrol.
And the bombing commenced.
(38:51):
To avoid the U-boatbeing captured,
the captain orderedthe submarine to be scuttled.
Three men. The brown flag.
Three men drowned in the highseas after ending the ship
and 46 were captured.
Imagine dying becausesome guy couldn't hold it.
Or didn't flush the toilet.
Yeah, wrong.
So that is that submarineis credited to being sunk due
(39:11):
to a toilet.
Poops. Oops.
Reasonfor loss. Number two. Yeah.
As for the top scoring U-boatin World War two, it was you.
48 A, type seven B, the mostcommon built in the war.
I think there's like 700 of thembuilt.
There's one surviving exampleand it is on display
at the LapoNaval Memorial in La Bow.
(39:32):
Jimmy.
It had a total tonnagesunk of 300,000,
with 200 ships sunk.
Go to at Cheeky Tales
part on Facebook and Instagramto see that.
Submarinesstill play a vital role
in defense today,as well as undersea exploration.
Yeah, like Ocean Gate. But,
(39:53):
oh, I said we agreed.
We work. Yeah.
Can I talk aboutwhat was that one? Cool.
Was it go to Titan?
Yeah, I say the Titan subdisaster of June in 2020.
Sorry.
And on the defenseside, Australia just paid
the US 800 million as a partpayment of a $3.6 billion
deal for some nuclear subsin the orcas deal.
(40:13):
Orcas. Orcas deal.
And we won't get themtill like 2030 or something.
2035 yeah.
Plus, over the years,the idea of stealthy underwater
combathas given us some classic movies
like The Hunt for Red October.
Great book.
I've never watched the music.
It's a good film.
It's a very good film.Sean Connery.
(40:35):
Russian, Russian, yeah, Russian.
Sean Connery.
Yeah. Das boot I was that a.
Submarine film, a.
Movie from 1981 which followsa German U-boat crew.
Okay, they got.
Right hand from 2020, starringTom Hanks
as he captained to destroyleading a convoy through U-boat
hunting groundsin the battle of the Atlantic.
If you like this episode,maybe go check out that movie.
(40:57):
And last but not least.
It was midway that you watchedon my Amazon Prime account.
Yeah.
And lastbut not least, a sci fi thriller
from the legendary avatardirector James Cameron.
James Cameron, the Abyss.
The greatest by any
time.
Ocean two. Deep no budget two.
Steve what was thewhat was the movie?
Sean. Oh, jeez.
(41:19):
Well he was he's pretty famous
for doing an underwaterexploration for a submarine,
isn't it? Yeah,he was the Mariana Trench bloke.
Yeah. There you go.
Raising the bar.
In 1989, the abyss.
Watched it in a long time.
Yeah. When they seen it once.
I it so does boot.
I think won six Academy Awards
when it come outand it's good job.
(41:39):
Regarded as one ofthe greatest movies of all time.
Yeah. Oh.
Or is the greatest German movieof all time.
Sorry, I might have tocheck that on my list. Yep.
What was the.
Oh, garbage.
Oh, it's called the ImitationGame.
That's it.
So if you want to. Yeah.
More submarine titles.
(41:59):
There's a couple moviesfor you to watch,
as well as the imitation Gamefrom the Deep.
Thanks for listening.I'll be back in four weeks.
After Ireland
in two weeks with parttwo of my series.
Do you want to give a hintas to what that's going to be?
Yeah, if people want to look upand spoil it.
So my idea forthis is I'm doing three titles
(42:19):
that are all self-contained.
They all lead into.
Can I hazard a guess?The next one.
Yeah. Go on. It's one of them.The Kursk.
No. Okay.
So I'll keep that one.
The it's not on the submarinetill the next one.
It is a World War two one.
It will be about OperationPostcard.
Okay. There you go. That's good.
(42:41):
And then from there,something else will.
Happen. Okay.
So thanks for listening.
Good story.
Back to the episode and seeUnder the Sea, the sea boot.
Undersea boot.
Yeah.
Good story.
We're gonna have to ask Sophieabout this,
right. She's German. He's.
(43:01):
Oh, really?
Yeah.
We have a German friend on us.
Yeah.
Returning to. Us. Yeah.
Asked the German friendabout the Nazi Germany.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,she comes from Hamburg.
It's like the most left place.Yeah.
So most left place in Germany.I don't. There's this.
I don't knowif you seen the clip.
There's like a German comedianand I think he's on the count.
Doesn't seem to be possible.
(43:23):
I think he's on the kind of
Brian show or somethinglike that.
You know, what's funny is whenyou're doing your taxes well.
But they're like.
You know, it's funny walls.I told.
So I was talking to Sophieabout her wedding.
Yeah. And I was like,oh, you know, we had a January.
Yeah. It would be nice to do it.
Like, not in summer,but it was so much cheaper.
And and I was like, oh,
you know,when's popular to have a wedding
in, in Germany, like,probably in the summer. Right.
(43:45):
And she's like, no December.
I'm like, oh, that's weird.
It's like winter.
It's all snowy and stuff.
She's like, yeah,
the tax seasonstarts in January,
so most people get marriedin December to get around it.
Yeah. No, it's like that'sthe most German thing I've ever.
Heard for this German comedian.
They asking the question,they're like, oh,
do you have a problemwith like, Germany being
the villains in every movie?
(44:06):
And he's like, no.Have you seen our history?
Yeah. He was.Yeah. It's pretty funny. Very.
All right.
Well.
That, good episode,
Damn. Periscope.
Good night. Tequila's good one.
Good night.
Thank you for listening. Bye.
You've been listeningto Cheeky Tales podcast.
(44:27):
If you'd like to seesupplemental images
related to our episodesor to interact
with us about our episodes,hit us up on at cheeky.
Tell us pod on Instagram,Facebook and YouTube.
You can watch our episodeson YouTube
or listen to them on Spotify,Apple Podcasts or whatever.
You get your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!