Simon Lake

[Dr. YoKai]

 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....

[Maverick]

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

[Dr. YoKai]

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.

[Maverick]

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

[jcf]

... I draw my inspiration more from Modern Mechanics and Popular Science than Janes.

Huzzah!   

[GTX_Admin]

 :)

[tigercat]

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.

[Geoff]

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?