Chugalug,
Your:
...My motive for this post was simply to keep our thread on the Military Forum front page, where it always belongs. My concern is that Danny 42C has always seen to that as our MC. Please check-in Danny to confirm Ops-Normal...
Spare my blushes ! Seriously, I think that the best thing for this Thread is to let it do as Old Soldiers should do - not die, but only fade away....
Never did any "interdiction", but
AFAIK the idea was to cripple the loco and so to block that stretch of line until a second one could be sent out to tow out the first (when, with any luck, one of your mates could take
that out and so
ad infinitum............)
Yes, the "pom-poms" were more to be feared than the high-level 3.7-type AA guns. Thankfully, my only experience of the former was of the ones said to have been left behind (in full working order with ammo) at Akyab in the 1942 rout (sorry, planned withdrawal). Didn't take the Jap Gunners long to get the kit working.
Popping a boiler was a bit risky, I suppose (I was told that the best thing to do was to go for the cylinders, as they were the hardest to repair - don't know if it's true). But a flying bit of boiler plate could do quite a bit of damage:
...For tis the sport to haue the enginer / Hoist with his owne petar...
Even the True Blue had to find out the hard way....
...and all three [Skuas] dived to attack the submarine, which quickly dived to safety. Two of the Skuas were damaged by the blasts and had to ditch. U-30 returned to Germany with the crews of the two ditched Skuas [Wiki] ..
Never mind ! Danny.