History Underwater Acoustics: Brief Historical Overview Through WWII

[Astronuc]

Naval warfare and the threat it poses have been the greatest motivation for underwater acoustics, starting with World War I (WWI) and reaching remarkable levels of achievement during and after World War II (WWII). These efforts led to basic discoveries in oceanography and acoustic science and engineering, including sonar and geophysical exploration.

The history of underwater acoustics over the first half of the 20th century includes its initial development, followed by a myriad of accomplishments through two world wars. This is a very broad and voluminous topic, for which only highlights can be given in this brief sketch. The material covered is largely derived from three special sessions on the topic, chaired by the authors at the 169th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) held in Pittsburgh, PA. . . .

https://acousticstoday.org/wp-conte...rview-Through-World-War-II-Thomas-G.-Muir.pdf

This topic relates to a discussion about a fictitious narrative regarding a cook on a merchant ship who purportedly developed an 'acoustic dampening system'. The story appears to be 'historical fiction' generated by AI (LLM).

Ref: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/random-thoughts-7.1056780/post-7293577

Edit/update (original post about a merchant marine cook and an 'insane' idea about acoustical damping):

History Post in thread 'For WW2 buffs!'

Oct 21, 2025

An interesting story - How One Cook's "INSANE" Idea Stopped U-Boats From Acoustically Detecting Convoys



The story apparently involves "historical fiction" by combining historical facts interwoven into a fictional narrative. WWII Rising Stories appear to be mostly fictional.

How this content was made
Altered or synthetic content
Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated.

The disclaimer/caveat indicates the video is generated by AI.

Some of the persons mentioned in the video are actual people.

Vice-Admiral Sir Peter William Gretton...

• Astronuc

• 

 

[WWGD]

https://acousticstoday.org/wp-conte...rview-Through-World-War-II-Thomas-G.-Muir.pdf

This topic relates to a discussion about a fictitious narrative regarding a cook on a merchant ship who purportedly developed an 'acoustic dampening system'. The story appears to be 'historical fiction' generated by AI (LLM).

Ref: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/random-thoughts-7.1056780/post-7293577

And this is just one we noticed. Edit. How about the times they've been used for general, applied research?

 

[jedishrfu]

There's a great book on this called Blind Man's Bluff:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Man's_Bluff:_The_Untold_Story_of_American_Submarine_Espionage

Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage (ISBN 0-06-103004-X) by Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew, published in 1998 by PublicAffairs, is a non-fiction book about U.S. Navy submarine operations during the Cold War. Several operations are described in the book, such as the use of USS Parche to tap Soviet undersea communications cables and USS Halibut to do the same in Operation Ivy Bells.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind...Espionage?wprov=srpw1_6#cite_note-NYTreview-1"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a>

The book also contains an extensive list of collisions between Western and Soviet submarines and U.S. submarine awards.

 

[jedishrfu]

There one story in there about a Russian sub and American sub grazing one another. Somehow the Russian sub lost its propeller. The American sub waited around hoping the Russians would surface for a rescue but they never did. The American captain felt they had perished at sea and it bothered him until he died.

Many years after the incident when Russia opened up. The Russian captain went to visit the Smerican captain but sadly he had passed away believing he had killed fellow submariners in a shadow war that no one wanted to fight.

Check out the Wikipedia USS Taitog and K-108 collision circa 1970.