RESSURECTION

 Not this:

I've been a bit slow getting around to resurrecting some posts series that I promised. Mea Culpa but, I guess, Jesus promised to return and that's now more than 2000 years ago.

I identified a few dormant post series in this post which has been lying dormant itself: HERE

Now, as I'm doing bugger all else I thought that I'd make a start.

THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW WERE TRUE

You remember the first two in this series don't you?

You don't? Never mind, here are the links: PART ONE.    PART TWO

I trust that you enjoyed that recap. Here's Part three:

THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW WERE TRUE - PART THREE

The Titanic did not hit an iceberg - it was sunk by  torpedoes from a U-Boat.

In 1912 Germany was positioning itself for major conflict in Europe. While on the surface (see what I did there) much of this was political through strengthening existing and forging new alliances, behind the scenes the armed forces including the Imperial German Navy were building up and experimenting with new weaponry and exploring new strategies and tactics. 

Germany knew that it was behind in the naval arms race even with the support of the Austro-Hungary resources. 

Britain, along with France and Russia dominated by a factor of nearly 3 to one. Something smarter had to be done.

The 'smart' thing was to go underground or, in this case, underwater. Submarine technology was still in its infancy even though Germany had been experimenting since 1851. The first fully functioning German submarine didn't sink with out sinking until 1903 and then the manufacturers foolishly sold the designs and prototypes to Russia in 1904. Russia likely on-sold these to Britain since, at the time it was too cold in Russian waters to operate boats beneath the surface.

In 1906 the Imperial German Navy high command started to see the possibilities with submarines and developed the designs further,  initially  using double hulls and a single torpedo tube and then, in 1908 created a much larger submarine with multiple torpedo tubes. With the winds of war blowing it was time to do some training and experimentation.

The Titanic, launched in 1912 was being hailed as a triumph of engineering for peacetime civilian travel but was really a trumpeting of Britain's (and its allies) dominant maritime position. It was flag waving if you will and, to Germany which was a poor second in the naval arms race like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

The Imperial German Navy, in 1912 had a number of powerful and long-ranging submarines, code named U-boats that were undergoing trials in the North Atlantic. Apart from torpedoing the odd whale or machine-gunning some walrus, most of the trials were to do with depth, range, speed and communications. The High Command were keen to get their teeth into something more substantial.

When the Titanic was launched amidst a flurry of both government and civil public relations and marketing, several notable German dignitaries were booked to travel from UK to America. These included the German Ambassador to USA Ludvig Von Kuppenschurffer. It wasn't noticed until much later when lists of survivors and casualties were investigated that Von Kuppenschurffer and his entourage and other prominent German industrialists, politicians and civilians had cancelled their travel at a late stage. This went unnoticed at the time of travel because there was such excitement at the launch and tickets were oversubscribed.

Subsequently the Titanic was badly holed and sunk quickly and an iceberg was blamed however ....

A number of Titanic survivors reported to have noticed "an unidentified vessel approximately five to six miles away" from the sinking ship, which reportedly lingered until 2 a.m., according to Dr. Franklin Ruehl's piece in The Huffington Post. Ruehl speculated that the craft was possibly "a submarine that had surfaced to assess the damage it had caused, after which time it skulked off," and also cited survivor testimony about a number of explosions that seemed to go off deep with the ship.

 "The sub may have deliberately targeted the luxury liner or possibly accidentally collided with it," Ruehl wrote.

Yes, you've guessed it, The German High Command under instruction from the Kaiser instructed its U-Boats in the North Atlantic to 'have a go' at the Titanic. This was more than just target practice though as, although Germany joined in the witch hunt against icebergs, it knew that in the corridors of power on both sides of the Atlantic USA and Great Britain would strongly suspect German complicity. It was in effect sending a message, particularly to USA to keep out of any future conflict.

Later, Germany was more overtly connected to the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, when a U-boat torpedoed the British ocean liner off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people. This was no doubt another warning but in fact backfired on Germany since it had the effect of accelerating USA involvement in WW1.

Remember - you heard it here. Keep posted for further THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW WERE TRUE.