127-433: Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. (born February 19, 1943) is an American author, Vietnam War veteran , and a former NASA engineer who trained the first Japanese astronauts . His 1998 memoir Rocket Boys (also published as October Sky ) was a New York Times Best Seller and was the basis for the 1999 film October Sky . Hickam's body of written work also includes several additional best-selling memoirs and novels, including
254-591: A Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering . Hickam served six years in the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged at the rank of captain in 1970. He served in the Vietnam War in 1967 and 1968 as a first lieutenant and combat engineer with C Company, 704th Maintenance Battalion, 4th Infantry Division . He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal , Army Commendation Medal , and Army Meritorious Unit Commendation ribbon. Following his separation from
381-558: A zero tolerance policy at Bartow High School which resulted in the expulsion of a student whose science experiment had caused a small explosion. In 2013, Hickam was appointed to the Alabama Space Science Exhibition Commission (ASSEC) that oversees the activities of Space Camp and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center museum and other activities in Huntsville, Alabama. He served as chairman of the commission in 2019,
508-621: A German takeover. It was in these circumstances that Winston Churchill, who had become Prime Minister on 10 May 1940, first wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt to request the loan of fifty obsolescent US Navy destroyers. This eventually led to the " Destroyers for Bases Agreement " (effectively a sale but portrayed as a loan for political reasons), which operated in exchange for 99-year leases on certain British bases in Newfoundland , Bermuda and
635-419: A disaster within days. On 14 September 1939, Britain's most modern carrier, HMS Ark Royal , narrowly avoided being sunk when three torpedoes from U-39 exploded prematurely. U-39 was forced to surface and scuttle by the escorting destroyers, becoming the first U-boat loss of the war. Another carrier, HMS Courageous , was sunk three days later by U-29 . German success in sinking Courageous
762-618: A final sequel to 'Rocket Boys" titled Don't Blow Yourself Up: The Further Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky. The memoir covered the 40 years after the Rocket Boys era including building the iconic cannon at Virginia Tech while a student there, his military service including time as a Lieutenant in the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam, becoming a scuba instructor, diving on ship wrecks, his recovery efforts of drowned passengers on
889-1033: A flotilla of 27 Italian submarines operated from the BETASOM base in Bordeaux to attack Allied shipping in the Atlantic, initially under the command of Rear Admiral Angelo Parona , then of Rear Admiral Romolo Polacchini and finally of Ship-of-the-Line Captain Enzo Grossi . The Italian submarines had been designed to operate in a different way than U-boats, and they had a number of flaws that needed to be corrected (for example huge conning towers, slow speed when surfaced, lack of modern torpedo fire control), which meant that they were ill-suited for convoy attacks, and performed better when hunting down isolated merchantmen on distant seas, taking advantage of their superior range and living standards. While initial operation met with little success (only 65343 GRT sunk between August and December 1940),
1016-556: A force of approximately 48,000 men in the country. All troops were withdrawn in 1973. About 5,099 South Koreans were killed and 10,962 wounded during the war. Thailand sent nearly 40,000 volunteer soldiers to South Vietnam during the war and peaked at 11,600 by 1969. Units included the elite Queen's Cobras and the renowned Black Panther Division of the Royal Thai Army Volunteer Force. The Royal Thai Air Force provided personnel transport and supply runs in liaison with
1143-648: A hard time readjusting to society, primarily because of the uniquely divisive nature of the Vietnam War in the context of U.S. history . That social division has expressed itself by the lack both of public and institutional support for the former servicemen that would be expected by returning combatants of most conflicts in most nations. In a material sense also, veterans benefits for Vietnam-era veterans were dramatically less than those enjoyed after World War II . The Vietnam-Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended, 38 U.S.C. § 4212 ,
1270-401: A logical chronology, but also served to give these characters more depth, and explain their skills, e.g. MacGyver having served in a bomb disposal unit. China Beach , which aired in the late 1980s, was the only television program that featured women who were in Vietnam as military personnel or civilian volunteers. Thomas Magnum of Magnum, P.I. , Stringfellow Hawke of Airwolf , and
1397-702: A military medical team consisting of RNZAF, RNZN, and RNZAMC medical staff arrived and remained until 1971. (This team was additional but separate from the civilian medical team that had arrived in 1963 and left in 1975.) In 1968 an NZSAS troop arrived, serving 3 tours before their withdrawal. Most New Zealanders operated in Military Region 3 with 1 ATF, in Nui Dat in Phuoc Thuy Province , North East of Saigon . RNZAF flew troops and supplies, did helicopter missions (as part of RAAF), or worked as Forward Air Controllers in
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#17328550229441524-418: A much larger genre. The first appearance of a Vietnam veteran in a film seems to be The Born Losers (1967) featuring Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack . Bleaker in tone are such films as Hi, Mom! (1970) in which vet Robert De Niro films pornographic home movies before deciding to become an urban guerrilla , The Strangers in 7A where a team of former paratroopers blow up a bank and threaten to blow up
1651-617: A one-man war against society whilst he makes plans to assassinate a presidential candidate. This film inspired John W. Hinckley to make a similar attempt against President Ronald Reagan . In a similar vein is First Blood (1982), which stars Sylvester Stallone in the iconic role of John Rambo , a Vietnam vet who comes into conflict with a small-town police department. Such films as Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol (1972), and The Ninth Configuration (1979) were innovative in depicting veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder before this syndrome became widely known. In Born on
1778-462: A patrol line of U-boats searched for a convoy and when one was found all U-boats converged and attacked together at night on the surface. Neither aircraft nor early forms of Sonar , (called ASDIC by the British), were considered a serious threat at the time. ASDIC could not detect a surfaced submarine and its range was less than that of an electric torpedo , aircraft could not operate at night and, during
1905-625: A proclamation in honor of Hickam for his support of his home state and his distinguished career as both an engineer and author and declared an annual "Rocket Boys Day". In 2000, the Virginia Tech junior class selected Hickam as the namesake for the Virginia Tech class of 2002 ring collection, the Homer Hickam Collection . In 2007, Hickam was awarded an honorary doctorate in Literature from Marshall University . That same year, he received
2032-434: A raider hunting for independently sailing ships, and to avoid combat with superior forces. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 allowed Hitler to renounce the treaty of Versailles, and to build a fleet 35% the size of Britain's fleet. A building program for four battleships, two aircraft carriers, five heavy cruisers, destroyers and U-boats was immediately initiated. With the agreement, Hitler thought that conflict with
2159-509: A residential apartment building, The Hard Ride (1971) and Welcome Home, Soldier Boys (1972) in which returning vets are met with incomprehension and violence. In many films, like Gordon's War (1973) and Rolling Thunder (1977), the veteran uses his combat skills developed in Vietnam to wage war on evil-doers in America. This is also the theme of Taxi Driver (1976) in which Robert De Niro plays Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle who wages
2286-657: A river boat in the Tennessee River, his early writing career, working for NASA and training the first Japanese astronauts, being on the Hubble Space Telescope repair crew training team, negotiating with the Russians for the International Space Station, exploring and suffering decompression sickness on the remote Honduran island of Guanaja, writing 'Rocket Boys' and advising the director and producer on set of
2413-429: A security battalion, and a logistics and headquarters element. The team's strength peaked at 2068. Even though the role of PHILCAG-V was humanitarian, 9 personnel were killed and 64 wounded throughout their 40-month stay through sniper attacks, land mines, and booby traps. The team left Vietnam in 1969. The People's Republic of China deployed the most foreign troops to assist North Vietnam, with nearly 320,000 troops of
2540-479: A story closer to the one in his book. Hickam's first fiction novel was Back to the Moon (1999), which was released as a hardcover, audiobook, and eBook. It has also been translated into Chinese. It is a techno-thriller and a romantic novel, telling the story of a team of "spacejackers" who commandeer a space shuttle. The Coalwood Way , a memoir of Hickam's hometown, was published a year later by Delacorte Press and
2667-416: A theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The situation changed constantly, with one side or the other gaining advantage, as participating countries surrendered, joined and even changed sides in the war, and as new weapons, tactics, counter-measures and equipment were developed by both sides. The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface-raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating
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#17328550229442794-434: A tough, long mission were injected with steroids . However, pumping the soldiers with speed and heavy anti-psychotics like Thorazine ( chlorpromazine ) came with a price that veterans paid later. By alleviating the symptoms, the anti-psychotics and narcotics offered temporary relief. However, these serious drugs administered in the absence of professional psychiatric supervision and proper psychotherapy merely suppressed
2921-403: A variety of operational tasks at sea, ashore and in the air. The 1st Australian Task Force consisted of Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel and commanded all Australian operations from 1966 until 1972. 1st Australian Logistic Support Group (1 ALSG) was 1 ATF's ground support unit, composed of engineer, transport, ordnance, medical, and service corps units. Australian Army training teams followed
3048-469: A young-adult science-fiction thriller trilogy set on the moon, known as the Helium-3 series. It included the titles Crater , Crescent , and The Lunar Rescue Company . In 2015, Wm Morrow/HarperCollins published his best-selling Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator , which has since been published in 17 languages and won many awards. In May, 2013, Hickam opposed
3175-477: Is an anagram of "Rocket Boys"). In an interview, Hickam has said of the movie that it was "fine for what it is, a low-budget feel-good movie, but sadly missed the best parts of my memoir. Still, the world needs feel-good movies and it has done a good job of encouraging young people to go after their dreams." He has since co-written a musical play entitled Rocket Boys the Musical , which, according to Homer Hickam, tells
3302-518: Is referred to by Hickam as "not a sequel but an equal". His third Coalwood memoir, a true sequel, was published in October 2001. It is entitled Sky of Stone . One more book about Coalwood was published in 2002, a self-help/inspirational tome entitled We Are Not Afraid: Strength and Courage from the Town That Inspired the #1 Bestseller and Award-Winning Movie October Sky . In 2021, Hickam published
3429-764: The First World War , countries tried to limit or abolish submarines. The effort failed. Instead, the London Naval Treaty required submarines to abide by " cruiser rules ", which demanded they surface, search and place ship crews in "a place of safety" (for which lifeboats did not qualify, except under particular circumstances) before sinking them, unless the ship in question showed "persistent refusal to stop...or active resistance to visit or search". These regulations did not prohibit arming merchantmen, but doing so, or having them report contact with submarines (or raiders ), made them de facto naval auxiliaries and removed
3556-560: The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the National Organization for Victim Assistance. The organizations continue to study and/or certify post-traumatic stress disorder responders and clinicians. To find closure, thousands of former American soldiers have visited and some have decided to move permanently to Vietnam to confront the psychological and physical remnants of the Vietnam War. They participate in
3683-747: The Neutral Buoyancy Simulator as a diver where astronaut crews trained for numerous Spacelab and Space Shuttle missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope deployment, the first two Hubble repair missions, Spacelab-J (with the first Japanese astronauts), and the Solar Max repair mission. Prior to his retirement from NASA in 1998, Hickam was the payload training manager for the International Space Station program . Hickam began writing in 1969 after returning from serving in
3810-1028: The North Vietnamese , including the People's Army of Vietnam, the Viet Cong (National Liberation Front), the People's Liberation Army of China , and the Korean People's Army of North Korea . While the exact numbers are not entirely known, it is estimated that several million served in the South Vietnamese armed forces , the vast majority in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). From 1969 to 1971, there were around 22,000 ARVN combat deaths per year. The army reached its peak strength of about 1,000,000 soldiers in 1972. The official number of South Vietnamese personnel killed in action
3937-497: The People's Liberation Army . The logistical support provided by China allowed for continuous operations and guerrilla warfare tactics used by the North Vietnamese forces, regardless of American-led attempts to stop the flow of resources down the " Ho Chi Minh trail " to South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam). American forces were unable to retaliate against Chinese targets, as it was believed that by doing so, America would escalate
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4064-723: The Republic of Vietnam , from February 28, 1961, to May 7, 1975, as being eligible for such programs as the department's Readjustment Counseling Services program, also known as the Vet Centers. The Vietnam War was the last American war in which the U.S. government employed conscription . American servicemen who served between January 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975, are presumed to have been exposed to herbicides , such as Agent Orange . Many Vietnam veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in unprecedented numbers, with PTSD affecting as many as 15.2% of Vietnam veterans. Referred to as
4191-798: The Republic of Vietnam Air Force and the United States Air Force (USAF). The Royal Thai Navy also contributed personnel. The last of the Thai troops left Vietnam in April 1972, with 351 killed and 1,358 wounded. The Philippines sent the " Philippine Civic Action Group " (PHILCAG-V), which entered Vietnam in September 1966, to set up operations in a base camp in Tay Ninh Province northwest of Saigon. The non-combat force included an engineer construction battalion, medical and rural community development teams,
4318-681: The U.S. government officially refers to all as "Vietnam-era veterans." In the United States , the term "Vietnam veteran" is not typically used in relation to members of the People's Army of Vietnam or the Viet Cong (also known as the National Liberation Front) due to the United States' alliance with South Vietnamese forces. However, in many parts of east and southeast Asia , the term "Vietnam veteran" may also apply to allies of
4445-721: The West Indies , a financially advantageous bargain for the United States but militarily beneficial for Britain, since it effectively freed up British military assets to return to Europe. A significant percentage of the US population opposed entering the war, and some American politicians (including the US Ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy ) believed that Britain and its allies might actually lose. The first of these destroyers were only taken over by their British and Canadian crews in September, and all needed to be rearmed and fitted with ASDIC. It
4572-426: The metric bands , lacked target discrimination and range. Moreover, corvettes were too slow to catch a surfaced U-boat. Pack tactics were first used successfully in September and October 1940 to devastating effect, in a series of convoy battles. On September 21, convoy HX 72 of 42 merchantmen was attacked by a pack of four U-boats, which sank eleven ships and damaged two over the course of two nights. In October,
4699-446: The "Josh Thurlow" historical fiction novels, his 2015 best-selling Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, his Wife, and her Alligator and in 2021 the sequel to Rocket Boys titled Don't Blow Yourself Up: The Further Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky. His books have been translated into many languages. Homer H. Hickam Jr. is the second son of Homer Sr. and Elsie Gardener Hickam (née Lavender). He
4826-480: The 1960 National Science Fair and won a gold and silver medal in the area of propulsion. Hickam attended Virginia Tech in 1960 and joined the school's Corps of Cadets . In his junior year, he and a few classmates designed a cannon for football games and school functions. They named the cannon "Skipper" in honor of President John F. Kennedy . Skipper was cast out of brass collected from the cadets and has become an icon for Virginia Tech. Hickam graduated in 1964 with
4953-411: The 1980s and 1990s, service in Vietnam was part of the backstory of many TV characters, particularly in police or detective roles. The wartime experiences of some of these characters, such as MacGyver , Rick Simon of Simon & Simon , or Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice , were mentioned only occasionally and rarely became central to story lines. To a degree, writing in a Vietnam background provided
5080-459: The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. In 2016, Hickam sued Universal Studios for fraud and breach of contract over rights to his Rocket Boys sequels, including The Coalwood Way , Sky of Stone , We Are Not Afraid , and Carrying Albert Home . The lawsuit was settled in 2017 to Hickam's satisfaction. A lawsuit in federal court was initiated in 2017 for alleged copyright infringement by
5207-620: The Allied convoys singly, U-boats were directed to work in wolf packs ( Rudel ) coordinated by radio. The boats spread out into a long patrol line that bisected the path of the Allied convoy routes. Once in position, the crew studied the horizon through binoculars looking for masts or smoke, or used hydrophones to pick up propeller noises. When one boat sighted a convoy, it would report the sighting to U-boat headquarters , shadowing and continuing to report as needed until other boats arrived, typically at night. Instead of being faced by single submarines,
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5334-524: The Atlantic , the longest continuous military campaign in World War II , ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II . At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany , announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of
5461-761: The Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German Kriegsmarine (Navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (Air Force) against the Royal Navy , Royal Canadian Navy , United States Navy , and Allied merchant shipping. Convoys , coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union , were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of
5588-462: The Atlantic were Carlo Fecia di Cossato , commander of the submarine Enrico Tazzoli , and Gianfranco Gazzana-Priaroggia , commander of Archimede and then of Leonardo da Vinci . Despite their success, U-boats were still not recognised as the foremost threat to the North Atlantic convoys. With the exception of men like Dönitz, most naval officers on both sides regarded surface warships as
5715-562: The Atlantic", which he compared to the Battle of France , fought the previous summer. The first meeting of the Cabinet's "Battle of the Atlantic Committee" was on March 19. Churchill claimed to have coined the phrase "Battle of the Atlantic" shortly before Alexander's speech, but there are several examples of earlier usage. Following the use of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany in
5842-454: The Atlantic. The power of a raider against a convoy was demonstrated by the fate of convoy HX 84 , attacked by the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer on 5 November 1940. Admiral Scheer quickly sank five ships and damaged several others as the convoy scattered. Only the sacrifice of the escorting armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay (whose commander, Edward Fegen , was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross ) and failing light allowed
5969-646: The Battle of the Atlantic from 1941 onwards. These were primarily Fw 200 Condors. The Condors also bombed convoys that were beyond land-based fighter cover and thus defenceless. Initially, the Condors were very successful, claiming 365,000 tons of shipping in early 1941. These aircraft were few in number, however, and directly under Luftwaffe control; in addition, the pilots had little specialised training for anti-shipping warfare, limiting their effectiveness. The Germans received help from their allies. From August 1940,
6096-452: The Battle of the Atlantic involved a tonnage war ; the Allied struggle to supply Britain, and the Axis attempt to stem the flow of merchant shipping that enabled Britain to keep fighting. Rationing in the United Kingdom was also used with the aim of reducing demand, by reducing wastage and increasing domestic production and equality of distribution. From 1942 onward, the Axis also sought to prevent
6223-536: The British Naval Cypher No. 3, allowing the Germans to estimate where and when convoys could be expected. In response, the British applied the techniques of operations research to the problem and came up with some counter-intuitive solutions for protecting convoys. They realised that the area of a convoy increased by the square of its perimeter, meaning the same number of ships, using the same number of escorts,
6350-399: The British admiralty failed to appreciate the limitations of ASDIC: range was limited, ASDIC worked only well if the speed of the operating vessel was below eight knots, ASDIC was hampered by rough weather and it took a very skilled operator to distinguish echoes from thermoclines , whales, shoals of fish and wrecks. Also, early versions could not look directly down, so contact was lost during
6477-509: The British and French immediately began a blockade of Germany , although this had little immediate effect on German industry. The Royal Navy quickly introduced a convoy system for the protection of trade that gradually extended out from the British Isles, eventually reaching as far as Panama , Bombay and Singapore . Convoys allowed the Royal Navy to concentrate its escorts near the one place
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#17328550229446604-468: The British. According to his calculations, a fleet of 300 medium Type VII U-boats could sink a million tons of ships a month and within a year sink enough of the about 3,000 British merchant ships (comprising 17,5 million tons) to strangle the British economy. In the first world war, U-boats had been defeated mainly by the convoy system, but Dönitz thought this could be overcome with the Rudeltaktik :
6731-716: The Channel and along the east coast in defence of shipping lanes, and also offensive mine barrages on the German U-boat lanes toward the Atlantic Ocean. In 1939, the Kriegsmarine lacked the strength to challenge the combined British Royal Navy and French Navy ( Marine Nationale ) for command of the sea. Instead, German naval strategy relied on commerce raiding using capital ships , armed merchant cruisers , submarines and aircraft. Many German warships were already at sea when war
6858-906: The Distinguished Achievement Award from Virginia Tech . In 2010, Hickam received the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award at the Spirit of America Festival . In 2013, Hickam won the Clarence Cason Award from the University of Alabama for his non-fiction writing. In 2014, Hickam won the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award at Shepherd University . In 2023, Hickam was presented with the Vietnam Veterans of America's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2024, Hickam
6985-515: The Fourth of July (1989) Tom Cruise portrays disenchanted Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic who, wounded in action and requiring the use of a wheelchair, leads rallies against the war. A more recent example is Bruce Dern 's portrayal of a down-and-out veteran in the film Monster (2003). B-movies that feature Vietnam veterans with an emphasis on action, violence, and revenge, belong into the exploitation subgenre called " vetsploitation ." In television,
7112-457: The German U-boat torpedoes : both the impact pistol and the magnetic influence pistol (detonation mechanism) were defective, and the torpedoes did not run at the proper depth, often undershooting targets. Only one British warship was sunk by U-boats in more than 38 attacks. As the news spread through the U-boat fleet, it began to undermine morale . Since the effectiviness of the magnetic pistol
7239-521: The German tactics against the inadequate British anti-submarine methods. On 1 December, seven German and three Italian submarines caught HX 90 , sinking 10 ships and damaging three others. At the end of the year 1940, the Admiralty viewed the number of ships sunk with growing alarm. Damaged ships might survive but could be out of commission for long periods. Two million gross tons of merchant shipping—13% of
7366-464: The German war effort: Germany spent more money on producing naval vessels than it did every type of ground vehicle combined, including tanks. The Battle of the Atlantic has been called the "longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history. The campaign started immediately after the European war began, during the so-called " Phoney War ", and lasted more than five years, until the German surrender in May 1945. It involved thousands of ships in
7493-428: The Italian intervention was not favourably regarded by Dönitz, who characterised Italians as "inadequately disciplined" and "unable to remain calm in the face of the enemy". They were unable to co-operate in wolf pack tactics or even reliably report contacts or weather conditions, and their area of operation was moved away from those of the Germans. Amongst the more successful Italian submarine commanders who operated in
7620-413: The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Illinois , and its writers and composers of Rocket Boys the Musical , Hickam's musical play based on his memoir Rocket Boys . In February, 2018, Hickam was appointed by Vice President Mike Pence to serve as a member of the Users Advisory Group of the National Space Council , which had been re-established by President Donald Trump in June 2017. In 1984, Hickam
7747-504: The U-boats by mid-1943, though losses due to U-boats continued until the war's end. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later wrote "The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril. I was even more anxious about this battle than I had been about the glorious air fight called the ' Battle of Britain '." On 5 March 1941, the First Lord of the Admiralty , A. V. Alexander , asked Parliament for "many more ships and great numbers of men" to fight "the Battle of
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#17328550229447874-443: The U-boats were guaranteed to be found, the convoys. Each convoy consisted of between 30 and 70 mostly unarmed merchant ships. Some British naval officials, particularly the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill , sought a more 'offensive' strategy. The Royal Navy formed anti-submarine hunting groups based on aircraft carriers to patrol the shipping lanes in the Western Approaches and hunt for German U-boats. This strategy
8001-480: The U.S. Armed Forces. The Republic of China (Taiwan) , Spain, and the Philippines contributed assistance in non-combat roles. Australia deployed approximately three battalions of infantry , one regiment of Centurion tanks , three RAAF Squadrons (2SQN Canberra Bombers, 9SQN Iroquois Helicopters, and 35 SQN Caribou Transports), 2 batteries of Royal Australian Artillery and a Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) Squadron. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) performed
8128-412: The UK was very unlikely and hence the fleet was designed for commerce raiding against the French rather than to try to challenge command of the sea. The commander of the German U-boats, Karl Dönitz, had his own opinions. In contrast with Hitler and Raeder, the chief of the German Navy, he judged that war with the UK was inevitable and that not a large surface fleet was needed, but that U-boats could defeat
8255-647: The USAF. Other New Zealanders from various branches of service were stationed at 1 ALSG in Vung Tau and New Zealand V Force Headquarters in Saigon. At the height of New Zealand's involvement in 1968, the force was 580 men. Along with the United States and Australia, New Zealand contributed 2 combined-service training teams to train ARVN and Cambodian troops from 1971 until 1972. New Zealand and Australian combat forces were withdrawn in 1971. New Zealand's total contribution numbered nearly 4,000 personnel from 1964 until 1972. 37 were killed and 187 were wounded. As of 2010, no memorial has been erected to remember these casualties. Like
8382-479: The United States and Australia, the New Zealand veterans were rejected by the people and the government after returning and did not receive a welcome home parade until 2008. The Tribute also included a formal Crown Apology. Despite high mortality rates among New Zealand Vietnam veterans attributed to Agent Orange, the New Zealand Government has been accused of ignoring the issue until only recently. The New Zealand documentary "Jungle Rain: The NZ Story Of Agent Orange and
8509-404: The United States beginning September 13, 1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) after Germany's Axis ally Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940. As an island country, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to survive and fight. In essence,
8636-405: The United States, with 2.59 million of them being reported to have actually served "in-country." More than 58,000 U.S. military personnel died as a result of the conflict. That includes deaths from all categories including deaths while missing, captured, non-hostile deaths, homicides , and suicides . The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes veterans that served in the country, then known as
8763-422: The Vietnam War" (2006) discusses the Agent Orange issue in depth. South Korea deployed approximately two army divisions ( Capital Mechanized Infantry Division , 9th Infantry Division ), one Marine Corps Brigade ( 2nd Marine Brigade ) and other support units. Throughout the Vietnam War, South Korea sent approximately 320,000 servicemen to Vietnam. At the peak of their commitment, in 1968, South Korea maintained
8890-411: The Vietnam War. His first writings were magazine stories about scuba diving and his time as a scuba instructor. Then, having dived in many of the wrecks involved, he wrote about the battle against the U-boats along the American east coast during World War II . This resulted in his first book, Torpedo Junction , a military history published in 1989 by the Naval Institute Press . His second book,
9017-441: The Vietnam era, more than 30,000 Canadians served in the U.S. Armed Forces; 110 Canadians died in Vietnam, and seven are listed as missing in action . Fred Griffin, a military historian with the Canadian War Museum , estimated in Vietnam Magazine ( Perspectives ) that approximately 12,000 of these personnel served in Vietnam. Most of these were Canadians who lived in the United States . The military of Canada did not participate in
9144-566: The already strained effects of the Cold War , and believed it would invite retaliation by the Soviet Union . The Soviet Union deployed roughly 4,500 soldiers, technicians, and pilots to Vietnam, surreptitiously, to help turn the war in favor of the North. Whilst their presence was never acknowledged by the USSR or any of her successor nations, Soviet involvement was an open secret. The Soviet Union's policy on
9271-536: The armed forces of South Vietnam , the United States Armed Forces , and other South Vietnam–backed allies, whether or not they were stationed in Vietnam during their service. However, the more common usage distinguishes between those who served "in-country" and those who did not serve in Vietnam by referring to the "in-country" veterans as "Vietnam veterans" and the others as "Vietnam-era veterans." Regardless,
9398-622: The boats needed to return to harbour to refuel, re-arm, re-stock supplies, and refit. The harsh winter of 1939–40, which froze over many of the Baltic ports, seriously hampered the German offensive by trapping several new U-boats in the ice. Hitler's plans to invade Norway and Denmark in the spring of 1940 led to the withdrawal of the fleet's surface warships and most of the ocean-going U-boats for fleet operations in Operation Weserübung . The resulting Norwegian campaign revealed serious flaws in
9525-800: The build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the UK in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe . The defeat of the U-boat threat was a prerequisite for pushing back the Axis in Western Europe. The outcome of the battle was a strategic victory for the Allies—the German tonnage war failed—but at great cost: 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk in the Atlantic for the loss of 783 U-boats and 47 German surface warships, including 4 battleships ( Bismarck , Scharnhorst , Gneisenau , and Tirpitz ), 9 cruisers, 7 raiders, and 27 destroyers. This front ended up being highly significant for
9652-523: The characters of The A-Team were characters whose experiences in Vietnam were more frequently worked into plot lines. They were part of an early 1980s tendency to rehabilitate the image of the Vietnam vet in the public eye. The documentary In the Shadow of the Blade (released in 2004) reunited Vietnam veterans and families of the war dead with a restored UH-1 "Huey" helicopter in a cross-country journey to tell
9779-487: The convoy escorts then had to cope with groups of up to half a dozen U-boats attacking simultaneously. The most daring commanders, such as Kretschmer, penetrated the escort screen and attacked from within the columns of merchantmen. The escort vessels, which were too few in number and often lacking in endurance, had no answer to multiple submarines attacking on the surface at night, as their ASDIC worked well only against underwater targets. Early British marine radar, working in
9906-540: The country for Western countries including the United States and Australia , either by or through the Humanitarian Operation (HO). According to the U.S. Department of Labor , the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 ( VEVRAA ) states, "A Vietnam era veteran" is a person who: In 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau reported there were 8.2 million Vietnam-era veterans who were living in
10033-443: The day, an alert U-boat could dive before the aircraft attacked. Dönitz could not convince Raeder of his ideas, so each time the U-boat fleet was expanded, Raeder opted to build a mixture of coastal, medium and large submarines, even minelayers and U-cruisers. Even when in 1938 Hitler realised he would sooner or later have to oppose the UK and launched his Plan Z , only a minority of the planned 239 U-boats were medium U-boats. With
10160-475: The dose and frequency of administering the drug. In the period 1966–1969, the U.S. military provided 225 million tablets of stimulants, mostly dextroamphetamine, according to a 1971 report by the Select Committee on Crime of the U.S. House of Representatives . According to a member of a long-range reconnaissance platoon, the drugs "gave you a sense of bravado as well as keeping you awake. Every sight and sound
10287-443: The final stages of a depth charge attack. The basic set could detect range and bearing, but target depth could only be estimated from the range at which contact was lost. An escort swept its ASDIC beam in an arc from one side of its course to the other, stopping the transducer every few degrees to send out a signal. On detection of a submarine, the escort would close in at moderate speed and increase its speed to attack. The intention
10414-446: The first "pharmacological war" in history, the U.S. war in Vietnam was so called because of the unprecedented level of psychoactive drugs that U.S. servicemen used. The U.S. military had routinely provided heavy psychoactive drugs, including amphetamines , to American servicemen, which left them unable to process adequately their war traumas at the time. The U.S. armed forces readily distributed large amounts of "speed" ( stimulants ), in
10541-559: The first Vietnam veteran to be a regular character in a U.S. dramatic series was Lincoln Case on Route 66 . Case, played by Glenn Corbett, was introduced in 1963, long before the major U.S. buildup in Vietnam. "Linc" Case was initially portrayed as an angry, embittered man, not only because of his harrowing wartime experiences (which included being taken prisoner and escaping a POW camp) but also because of his grim childhood and continuing estrangement from much of his family. The show depicted his effort to make peace with himself and others. In
10668-456: The first local organizations by and for Vietnam veterans in 1981, now known as Veterans Village. Vets were also largely responsible for taking debriefing and treatment strategies into the larger community where they were adapted for use in conjunction with populations impacted by violent crime, abuse, and man-made and natural disasters and those in law enforcement and emergency response. Other notable organizations that were founded then included
10795-521: The first three months of war. The British and French formed a series of hunting groups including three battlecruisers , three aircraft carriers, and 15 cruisers to seek the raider and her sister Deutschland , which was operating in the North Atlantic. These hunting groups had no success until Admiral Graf Spee was caught off the mouth of the River Plate between Argentina and Uruguay by an inferior British force. After suffering damage in
10922-665: The fleet available to the British—were under repair and unavailable, which had the same effect in slowing down cross-Atlantic supplies. Nor were the U-boats the only threat. Following some early experience in support of the war at sea during Operation Weserübung, the Luftwaffe began to take a toll of merchant ships. Martin Harlinghausen and his recently established command— Fliegerführer Atlantik —contributed small numbers of aircraft to
11049-481: The form of Dexedrine ( dextroamphetamine ), an amphetamine twice as strong as Benzedrine, to American servicemen. Soldiers embarking on long-range reconnaissance missions or ambushes, according to standard military instruction, were supposed to be given 20 milligrams of dextroamphetamine for 48 hours of combat readiness. But this instruction for heavy drugs was rarely followed: the drug was issued, according to veterans, "like candies," with little or no attention paid to
11176-554: The introduction of ASDIC, the British Admiralty believed to have effectively neutralized the submarine threat. Hence the number of destroyers and convoy escorts was reduced and the anti-submarine branch was seen as third rate. Although destroyers were also equipped with ASDIC, it was expected that these ships would be used in fleet actions rather than anti-submarine warfare, so they were not extensively trained in their use. Trials with ASDIC were usually conducted in ideal conditions and
11303-509: The memoir Rocket Boys , started as an article "The Big Creek Missile Agency" in Air and Space magazine . In 1998 Delacorte Press published an expanded version of the memoir as a book, the story of his life as the son of a coal miner in Coalwood, West Virginia . Rocket Boys has since been translated into numerous languages and released as an audiobook and electronic book . Among its many honors, it
11430-541: The movie October Sky and his relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal and the other actors in the film. After his memoir series, Hickam began his popular "Josh Thurlow" series, set during World War II . The first of the series was The Keeper's Son (2003), set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina . The series continued with The Ambassador's Son (2005) and The Far Reaches (2007), both set in the South Pacific . His next novel
11557-543: The number of U-boats on patrol in the Atlantic began to increase, the number of escorts available for the convoys was greatly reduced. The only consolation for the British was that the large merchant fleets of occupied countries like Norway and the Netherlands came under British control. After the German occupation of Denmark and Norway, Britain occupied Iceland and the Faroe Islands , establishing bases there and preventing
11684-582: The other merchantmen to escape. The British now suspended North Atlantic convoys, and the Home Fleet put to sea to try to intercept Admiral Scheer . The search failed and Admiral Scheer disappeared into the South Atlantic. She reappeared in the Indian Ocean the following month. Other German surface raiders now began to make their presence felt. On Christmas Day 1940, the cruiser Admiral Hipper attacked
11811-609: The other navies of the world combined. Similarly the role of aircraft had been neglected; the Royal Air Force had organised a Coastal Command to support the Royal Navy, but it possessed insufficient aircraft, had no long range aircraft nor were aircraft crew trained in anti-submarine warfare. The only weapon against submarines was inadequate bombs. Finally, it was not forgotten that in World War I, mines had sunk more U-boats than any other weapon. Plans were drafted for mine fields in
11938-629: The problems and symptoms, but veterans years later often experienced those problems untreated and amplified. This is a large part of the reason why very few servicemen, compared to previous wars, required medical evacuation due to combat-stress breakdowns, but PTSD levels among veterans after the war are at unprecedented levels compared to previous wars. Nationals of other nations fought in the American-led anti-communist coalition, usually as armed forces of allied nations, such as Australia, New Zealand, Thailand , and South Korea , but sometimes as members of
12065-521: The protection of the cruiser rules. The Treaty of Versailles forbade the Germans to operate U-boats and reduced the German surface fleet to a few obsolete ships. When three of these obsolete ships had to be replaced, the Germans opted to construct the Deutschland-class of panzerschiffe (armoured ships) or "pocket battleships" as they were nicknamed by foreign navies. These ships were designed for commerce raiding on distant seas, to operate as
12192-658: The rapid conquest of the Low Countries and France in May and June, and the Italian entry into the war on the Axis side in June transformed the war at sea in general and the Atlantic campaign in particular in three main ways: The completion of Hitler's campaign in Western Europe meant U-boats withdrawn from the Atlantic for the Norwegian campaign now returned to the war on trade. So at the very time
12319-600: The removal of unexploded mines and bombs, help people affected by Agent Orange , teach English to the Vietnamese and conduct Vietnam War battlefield tours for tourists. The Vietnam veteran has been depicted in fiction and film of variable quality. A major theme is the difficulties of soldiers readjusting from combat to civilian life. This theme had occasionally been explored in the context of World War Two in such films as The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and The Men (1950). However, films featuring Vietnam veterans constitute
12446-712: The service, Hickam worked as an engineer for the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command from 1971 to 1978, assigned to Huntsville . Between 1978 and 1981, he was an engineer for the 7th Army Training Command in Germany. Hickam began employment with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1981 as an aerospace engineer. His specialties included training astronauts in regard to science payloads and extra-vehicular activities (EVA). Additionally, Hickam assisted at
12573-495: The situation improved gradually over time, and up to August 1943 the 32 Italian submarines that operated there sank 109 ships of 593,864 tons, for 17 subs lost in return, giving them a subs-lost-to-tonnage sunk ratio similar to Germany's in the same period, and higher overall. The Italians were also successful with their use of " human torpedo " chariots, disabling several British ships in Gibraltar. Despite these successes,
12700-419: The slow convoy SC 7 , with an escort of two sloops and two corvettes, was overwhelmed, losing 59% of its ships. The battle for HX 79 in the following days was in many ways worse for the escorts than for SC 7. The loss of a quarter of the convoy without any loss to the U-boats, despite a very strong escort (two destroyers, four corvettes, three trawlers, and a minesweeper) demonstrated the effectiveness of
12827-677: The stories of Americans affected by the war. An example in print is Marvel Comics ' the Punisher , also known as Frank Castle. Castle learned all of his combat techniques from his time as a Marine as well as from his three tours of combat during Vietnam. It is also where he acquired his urge to punish the guilty, which goes on to be a defining trait in Castles' character. Battle of the Atlantic 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups The Battle of
12954-429: The subsequent action, she took shelter in neutral Montevideo harbour and was scuttled on 17 December 1939. After this initial burst of activity, the Atlantic campaign quietened down. Admiral Karl Dönitz , commander of the U-boat fleet, had planned a maximum submarine effort for the first month of the war, with almost all the available U-boats out on patrol in September. That level of deployment could not be sustained;
13081-541: The threat of war became more clear it was realised that Britain could not rely on the London Naval Treaty that outlawed unrestricted submarine warfare. The organisational infrastructure for convoys had been maintained since World War I, with a thorough and systematic upgrade in the second half of the 1930s, but not enough escorts were available for convoy escorting, and a crash program for building Tree-class trawlers , Flower-class corvettes and Hunt-class destroyers
13208-475: The troop convoy WS 5A, but was driven off by the escorting cruisers. Admiral Hipper had more success two months later, on 12 February 1941, when she found the unescorted convoy SLS 64 of 19 ships and sank seven of them. In January 1941, the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau put to sea from Germany to raid the shipping lanes in Operation Berlin . With so many German raiders at large in
13335-516: The ultimate commerce destroyers. For the first half of 1940, there were no German surface raiders in the Atlantic because the German Fleet had been concentrated for the invasion of Norway. The sole pocket battleship raider, Admiral Graf Spee , had been stopped at the Battle of the River Plate by an inferior and outgunned British squadron. From the summer of 1940 a small but steady stream of warships and armed merchant raiders set sail from Germany for
13462-559: The units deployed was to label them "military consultants." This deployment resulted in the development of the North Vietnamese air force, then it was formed against the United States' involvement in the war. From 1975 to 2002, forty-four Soviet servicemen were killed in Vietnam, mainly in aviation accidents. The military collaboration at Cam Ranh Base was continued by the later government of Russia until 2002. There are persistent stereotypes about Vietnam veterans as psychologically devastated, bitter, homeless, drug-addicted people, who had
13589-505: The war effort. Initially, New Zealand provided a 25-man team of RNZE engineers from 1964 to 1965. In May 1965, New Zealand replaced the engineers with a 4-gun artillery battery (140 men) which served until 1971. 750 men served with the battery during this time. In 1967 the first of two rifle companies of infantry, designated Victor Company, arrived shortly thereafter followed by Whiskey company. Over 1,600 New Zealand soldiers saw action in these companies, over 5 years and 9 tours. Also in 1967
13716-691: The withdrawal of combat forces in 1971. According to the Australian Government Nominal Roll of Vietnam Veterans 13,600 members of the Royal Australian Navy, 41,720 members of the Australian Army, and 4,900 members of the Royal Australian Air Force served in Vietnam from 1962 to 1975. According to official statistics, 501 personnel died or went missing in action during the Vietnam War and 2,400 were wounded. During
13843-571: Was Red Helmet (2008), a love story set in the present-day Appalachian coalfields and dedicated to "Mine Rescue Teams Everywhere." In 2010, he co-authored My Dream of Stars (2010) with Anousheh Ansari , a multi-millionaire Iranian-American who became the world's first female commercial astronaut. Hickam, an avid amateur paleontologist , also wrote The Dinosaur Hunter , a novel set in Montana published by St. Martin's in November 2010. He also published
13970-461: Was 220,357. Following the North Vietnamese victory on April 30, 1975, South Vietnamese veterans were arrested and detained in labor camps in desolate areas. The veterans and their families were detained without trial for decades at a time. After being released, they faced significant discrimination from the Communist government . A significant proportion of the surviving South Vietnamese veterans left
14097-434: Was a converted civilian airliner—a stop-gap solution for Fliegerführer Atlantik . Due to ongoing friction between the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine , the primary source of convoy sightings was the U-boats themselves. Since a submarine's bridge was very close to the water, their range of visual detection was quite limited. The best source proved to be the codebreakers of B-Dienst who had succeeded in deciphering
14224-480: Was already reduced by the degaussing of Allied ships, Dönitz decided to use new contact pistols, which were copied from British torpedoes found in the captured British submarine HMS Seal . The depth setting mechanism was improved but only in January 1942 were the last complications with that mechanism discovered and fixed, making the torpedo a more reliable weapon. The German occupation of Norway in April 1940,
14351-443: Was better protected in one convoy than in two. A large convoy was as difficult to locate as a small one. Moreover, reduced frequency also reduced the chances of detection, as fewer large convoys could carry the same amount of cargo, while large convoys take longer to assemble. Therefore, a few large convoys with apparently few escorts were safer than many small convoys with a higher ratio of escorts to merchantmen. Instead of attacking
14478-522: Was born and raised in Coalwood, West Virginia , and graduated from Big Creek High School in 1960. He and friends Roy Lee Cooke (born December 25, 1941), Sherman Siers (June 15, 1942 – September 11, 1976), Jimmy O'Dell Carroll (born June 30, 1942), Willie "Billy" Rose, and Quentin Wilson (November 21, 1942 – August 30, 2019) became amateur rocket builders and called themselves The Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA). After many generations of designs, they qualified for
14605-468: Was declared in September 1939, including most of the available U-boats and the "pocket battleships" Deutschland and Admiral Graf Spee which had sortied into the Atlantic in August. These ships immediately attacked British and French shipping. U-30 sank the ocean liner SS Athenia within hours of the declaration of war—in breach of her orders not to sink passenger ships. The U-boat fleet, which
14732-435: Was deeply flawed because a U-boat, with its tiny silhouette, was always likely to spot the surface warships and submerge long before it was sighted. The carrier aircraft were little help; although they could spot submarines on the surface, at this stage of the war they had no adequate weapons to attack them, and any submarine found by an aircraft was long gone by the time surface warships arrived. The hunting group strategy proved
14859-470: Was heightened. You were wired into it all and at times you felt really invulnerable." Servicemen who participated in infiltrating Laos , a secret intervention by the United States in the Laotian Civil War , on four-day missions received 12 tablets of an opioid ( Darvon ), 24 tablets of codeine (an opioid analgesic ), and 6 pills of dextroamphetamine. Also, those serving in special units departing for
14986-463: Was initiated. Merchant ships that were either too fast or too slow for convoys, were to be equipped with a self-defence gun against surfaced submarine attacks, thus forcing an attacking U-boat to spend its precious torpedoes. This, however, removed these ships from the protection of the cruiser rules under the prize law . Nevertheless, despite this lack of readiness, in 1939 the Royal Navy probably had as many ASDIC equipped warships in service as all
15113-589: Was meant to try to help the veterans overcome the issues. In 1979, Public Law 96-22 established the first Vet Centers, after a decade of effort by combat vets and others who realized that Vietnam veterans in America and elsewhere (including Australia) were facing specific kinds of readjustment problems, later identified as post-traumatic stress (PTS). Veterans, particularly in Southern California , were responsible for many of those early lobbying and subsequent Vet Center treatment programs. They founded one of
15240-488: Was named the 2024 Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Distinguished Alumni, at a ceremony on March 28th at the Corps Leadership & Military Science Building on the Virginia Tech campus. Vietnam War veteran A Vietnam veteran is an individual who performed active military , naval , or air service in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War . The term has been used to describe veterans who served in
15367-586: Was presented with Alabama 's Distinguished Service Award for heroism shown during a rescue effort of the crew and passengers of a sunken paddleboat in the Tennessee River . Because of this award, Hickam was honored in 1996 by the United States Olympic Committee to carry the Olympic Torch through Huntsville, Alabama, on its way to Atlanta . In 1999, the governor of West Virginia issued
15494-505: Was referred to by U-boat crews as "the Happy Time" (" Die Glückliche Zeit "). Churchill would later write: "...the only thing that ever frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril". The biggest challenge for the U-boats was to find the convoys in the vastness of the ocean. The Germans had a handful of very long-range Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft based at Bordeaux and Stavanger , which were used for reconnaissance. The Condor
15621-654: Was selected by The New York Times as one of its "Great Books of 1998" and was an alternate "Book-of-the-Month" selection for both the Literary Guild and the Book of the Month Club . Rocket Boys was also nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as Best Biography of 1998. In February 1999, Universal Studios released its critically acclaimed film October Sky , based on Rocket Boys (The title "October Sky"
15748-470: Was surpassed a month later when Günther Prien in U-47 penetrated the British base at Scapa Flow and sank the old battleship HMS Royal Oak at anchor, immediately becoming a hero in Germany. In the South Atlantic, British forces were stretched by the cruise of Admiral Graf Spee , which sank nine merchant ships of 50,000 gross register tons (GRT) in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean during
15875-547: Was to be many months before these ships contributed to the campaign. The early U-boat operations from the French bases were spectacularly successful. This was the heyday of the great U-boat aces like Günther Prien of U-47 , Otto Kretschmer ( U-99 ), Joachim Schepke ( U-100 ), Engelbert Endrass ( U-46 ), Victor Oehrn ( U-37 ) and Heinrich Bleichrodt ( U-48 ). U-boat crews became heroes in Germany. From June until October 1940, over 270 Allied ships were sunk; this period
16002-403: Was to dominate so much of the Battle of the Atlantic, was small at the beginning of the war; many of the 57 available U-boats were the small and short-range Type IIs , useful primarily for minelaying and operations in British coastal waters. Much of the early German anti-shipping activity involved minelaying by destroyers , aircraft and U-boats off British ports. With the outbreak of war,
16129-416: Was to pass over the submarine, rolling depth charges from chutes at the stern, while throwers fired further charges to either side, laying a pattern of depth charges. To effectively disable a submarine, a depth charge had to explode within about 20 ft (6.1 m). Since early ASDIC equipment was poor at determining depth, it was usual to vary the depth settings on part of the pattern. When in spring 1939
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