HOW OUR SUBMARINES SHOWED UP AN ENTIRE US TASK FORCE

During a 2001 exercise in the Caribbean (JTFEX 01-2), the German Type 206 submarine U24 slipped through the screen around the US nuclear carrier Enterprise unnoticed, fired a simulated torpedo spread from a favorable angle, photographed the 75,000 ton ship through the attack periscope and then surfaced without warning right next to the giant. The US admiral is said to have been beside himself.“U24 could have rammed the carrier, that is how close the boat was,” says one submariner. In a real engagement a torpedo attack would have come from much further out. “We only wanted to show what our modern conventional submarines can do.”

In the Caribbean, another Type 206 A boat repeatedly passed a Los Angeles class US attack submarine at close range. The American boat had been sent out to hunt it, and its crew never detected the “enemy” right next to them. According to witnesses, American submarine officers on board the German boat followed the duel “with beads of sweat on their foreheads”.

The hunter became the hunted.

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