Author Topic: Simon Lake  (Read 6827 times)

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Simon Lake
« on: February 02, 2012, 10:47:04 AM »
 Now largely forgotten, Simon Lake once rivaled John Holland as a leader in Submarine design. But...suppose...the idea of a wheeled
 submarine had truly caught the imagination of the Admirals of the world? What would a Lake-influenced Deutschland or
 Surcouf have looked like? To take another tangent, take a look at Lake's last design, to be found here- ( along with all the rest of them. lake had some success designing boats for the US Navy. )

 http://www.simonlake.com/

 Remarkably similar to far more modern exploration vehicles, no?

 One last tangent- Suppose Lake's concept of diving chambers had been taken further. Whole platoons of aquatic infantry
 rising from the surf on the beaches of the unsuspecting enemy's beaches....

Offline Maverick

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Re: Simon Lake
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2012, 08:35:36 PM »
One last tangent- Suppose Lake's concept of diving chambers had been taken further. Whole platoons of aquatic infantry
 rising from the surf on the beaches of the unsuspecting enemy's beaches....

Whilst not 'whole platoons', Special forces have been doing just that since WW2.  I suspect that doing something like it en-masse would result in a bit of a shooting gallery as the groups of surfacing soldiers struggled out of the water into the enemy defences.  Perhaps they would be surprised at first, but I suspect most suspected coastlines would be considered targets for amphibious attack and contingency plans in place to repel them, unless there were diversionary situations like Normandy.

Regards,

John
Regards,

John

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: Simon Lake
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2012, 09:09:07 AM »
Quote
I suspect that doing something like it en-masse would result in a bit of a shooting gallery as the groups of surfacing soldiers struggled out of the water into the enemy defences.
wrote Maverick

Sort of like almost every other amphibious landing since Gallipoli? Yes I suppose so.  I was thinking of something more along the lines of a submersible LST,  which would have their own set of drawbacks. But I draw my inspiration more from Modern Mechanics and
Popular Science than Janes.

Offline Maverick

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Re: Simon Lake
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2012, 09:21:07 AM »
Not all amphibious landings have been debacles.  The British landings on Normandy were quite successful and Utah had the lightest casualties of the whole invasion.  In part good planning, in part luck to be sure.

Either way, your whiff so whatever works for you is great.

Regards,

John
Regards,

John

Offline jcf

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Re: Simon Lake
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2012, 02:36:15 PM »
... I draw my inspiration more from Modern Mechanics and Popular Science than Janes.

Huzzah!   ;D
“Conspiracy theory’s got to be simple.
Sense doesn’t come into it. People are
more scared of how complicated shit
actually is than they ever are about
whatever’s supposed to be behind the
conspiracy.”
-The Peripheral, William Gibson 2014

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: Simon Lake
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2012, 04:40:31 PM »
 :)
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline tigercat

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Re: Simon Lake
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2012, 05:07:32 PM »
http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/BORGWARD%20SEETEUFEL.htm

The Germans who can be relied to try out the weird and wonderful had a prototype tracked midget submarine.

Offline Geoff

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Re: Simon Lake
« Reply #7 on: August 18, 2012, 08:39:29 PM »
Didn't the Soviets launch spy subs that crawled on tracks on the seabed in the 80's? IIRC thats what was hunted around the Stockholm achipeligo?