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Very good narration, and really I appreciate this video but the animation is terrible. I trust you will do better as time goes by. Try to make things in proportion to reality, at least to some extent. It was very disconcerting to follow the narrative but not be able to follow the animation
@@mynamejef7963 I liked both. They have their own styles and I like them both. Especially as there are things picked up by one that the other might've missed.
They found the wreck of Kirashima. She took some 16 to 17 hits from Washington's main 16 inch guns. Many of the hits were underwater on Kirashima. The 16 inch shells hit the water and continued on to penatrate the ships hull. Since the Kongo class were originally designed as World War 1 battle cruisers they had absolutely no protection from this kind of damage.
Also, the 16" shells were not regular 2200 pound armor piercing shells but the 2700 pound super heavy shells carried by North Carolina, South Dakota and Iowa class ships. Thus Kirishima was taking the equivalent of 17" shells. Incidentally, had Yamato and Musashi ever tangled with Lee's Task Force 34/54 in a surface battle, this combined with their radar fire control would likely have given Lee the upper hand. Though several of Lee's battleships might well have been badly mauled, or even sunk
My understanding was that the Washington claimed 8 16" hits after the battle. Later, a survey by the Bureau of Ordinance awarded another hit, stating that a shot that Washington thought was short probably struck the Kirishima under the waterline. After the war, it was found that the Kirishima's Damage Control officer survived the battle. When he returned to Japan, he produced a detailed drawing showing where the Kirishima was hit and by what size shell. Per his account the Washington hit the Kirishima with 20 16" shells. This was written off as not realistic by US naval historians. When the wreck of the Kirishima was found, it was upside down in the mud of the bottom, so damage to the upper part of the ship could not be seen, but it was noted there where 3 large holes below the waterline. When they checked the Kirishima's Damage Control officer's drawing, the holes were right where he said they would be. This provided some credence to his claim of 20 16" hits, but since the upper works of the ship will never be examined, the debate will never be truly brought to a close.
@baabo708 Admittedly at close range, and initially one sided because Kirishima had been engaging South Dakota, but they were also on oppose courses at combined 54 knot speed. All in all, spectacular shooting. Also, Massachusetts at Casablanca (at Jean Bart, a cruiser and two destroyers she pummeled) and West Virginia and California at Surigao had excellent shooting. All three had similar fire control
@@garyhooper1820 Not exactly. Washington secured approximately nine 16" hits and approximately 20 5" hits on Kirishima while firing from just short of point- blank range. An expedition sent to explore Kirishima's wreck to follow up on the report of Kirishima's damage control officer has established that many of the believed 16" hits are in fact 5" hits. Another expedition is being planned, as Kirishima's wreck is upside down. In any case, Washington did well enough, as did Admiral Lee.
My father was transferred from the Royal Navy to the South Dakota when she and her sister ship the Alabama served with our Home Fleet. The American crew told him of the Guadalcanal battle. I still have his souvenirs from the ship.
Vice Admiral Ching Kirishima I Don't See Her Lee Jr, the Man with nine 16" Sniper Rifles, 7 Olympic medals in shooting and a veteran of two World Wars. The man behind American Levels of anti-air defence on all ships in the US Navy. The victor of the last big-gun capital ship to ever sink another in battle. And apparently had too poor eye sight to serve. Dude earnt a Navy Cross. Enough said.
@@SRR-5657 Last time a capital ship sank another capital ship with guns alone. Yamashiro was finished off with torpedos from destroyers. Last Battleship battle. last duel, questionable, more like massacre of already wounded opponents.
Originally what observers thought were the first short salvo misses to Kirishima from Washington, A UAV recently found the Kirishima and everyone of those near misses had submarined and put a Hull hole into the ship. This stuff is All Good.
@@manilajohn0182 The experts who have explored Kurishima in the past 10-20 years have actually counted over 20 hits of 16in from Washington. As you stated, most hit the water. Even though they entered below the water line, they did penetrate the hull and in some cases they even punched clear through the other side. m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCyxpSVy7MYo&ved=2ahUKEwihxfulieKIAxX6KFkFHU5cJmYQwqsBegQIEhAE&usg=AOvVaw2lbSG9J_uUOKL6LMQOPkOV
@@JohntheLNERP2 Dude, no offense but Cailus is right. Gneisenau was bombed while at dock and the ship was decommissioned after extensive repair work was done on the ship. What could a video reveal?
@manilajohn0182 nothing new obviously but I still think it would look cool considering what House of History's channel is like when it comes to visuals
My family has roots in the US navy, my great-grandfather served on the USS Little Rock, my grandfather served on the USS Oklahoma City during the Korean War, and one of my uncles served on the USS Asheville, a nuclear submarine
Unfortunately, the sinking of Kirishima would spell grief to thousands of Filipinos in Manila two years later, as her last captain, Sanji Iwabuchi, would direct his force of sailors and naval landing force personnel into committing the atrocities that became known as the Manila Massacre.
The Kirishima was outgunned in this scenario. She never really was able to fire back at her main assailants, Washington and South Dakota. Two big bad pretty new American BBs that were better armed and armored than Kirishima. The only edge the Kirishima had was her speed. She was a 30 knot BB designed to keep up the with faster Japanese CV's of Kido Butai. The IJN's surface TFs in this scenario were made up of good strong surface ships that were quite capable of defending themselves and inflicting a lot of damage on our TF's. The fact that we had two big BB's in the USN TF's that we brought to bare among our surface ships against the IJN and they possessed surface, air and and in most cases, fire control radars at least for the main batteries on our capital ships gave us the edge. It was a good battle that was fought pretty well by both sides. No big glaring mistakes or lucky breaks to point out either. Thanks for the anaysis of the action!
USS South Dakota was probably the most severely damaged American battleship outside of Pearl Harbor. Her repair process was quite brief, proving that BB's could take a licking and keep on ticking.
I would love to see a video covering Admiral Mikawa's life and career. He strikes me as one of the few admirals Japan had that had a realistic outlook on Japan's naval capabilities, and even a high level overview of his career is impressive for his accomplishments.
The whole timeline here is off by an hour, its the incorrect version thats often reported due to many books repeating it, but if you read South Dakota's after action report and Washington's deck log you'll see the fighting didn't start till after midnight. I believe this is due to most accounts being added on Samuel E. Morrison's book, he visited USS Washington shortly after the battle to learn about it but the crew and especially Admiral Lee were not fond of him and didn't really like talking to him about it so I wonder if they gave him bad information on purpose, or perhaps it's just based on a random sailor's recollection instead of the official deck logs. Morrison's book was published in 1949 and because he is a well regarded naval historian I think people generally took him at his word. It's curious that Ivan Musicant's book Battleship at War uses Morrison's timeline given that Musicant knew many of the surviving crew members and was named an honorary member of the crew, I suppose it's possible that many crew members had read Morrison's book and assumed he was correct as the average sailor probably wasn't keeping minute by minute account of the battle. Ray Hunter's deck logs definitely disagrees with Morrison though, as does Hank Seely, the Spot 1 officer who has written a full detailed account of the battle in the book "USS Washington BB56". South Dakota's deck logs and gunnery summary also support the later timeline, that's why I believe this.
Kirishima was sunk in no small part due to failure of Japanese to do a proper damage control assessment and application. 16 inch shell from Washington hit her in the middle, right below waterline, where armor belt was pretty thin. Third deck where it happened , was empty, so nobody informed a bridge officers about true extent of the damage. They thought that was a torpedo hit, which was stopped by anti torpedo defense and and started counterflooding. which was wrong thing to do at that moment. Increasing water amounts on the middle decks caused a ship meta centrical height to change, which again was not understood by damage control officers. They did more counter flooding which just exacerbated situation, until it was to late to do anything except abandon ship... Very sad ending to proud battle career of the battleship.
Kirishima was basically dead the moment Washington fired her first salvo. Washington about ten minutes pummeling Kirishima before Lee disengaged. No amount of damage control could have saved her from the beating Washington inflicted. Kirishima ate roughly 20 super-heavy AP shells from Washington’s main battery at knife-fighting range. That doesn’t even include the damage inflicted by her secondary battery or the un-repaired damage from the night battle on the 13th. The USN’s 16” AP shells weighed 2700 pounds (only 500 pounds or so less than Yamato’s 18.1” AP shells.) Nobody’s walking away from a beating like that…
Sorry, but I would disagree with this. If you remember, Bismark got many more shells and still had to be sunk by torpedoes. Yes, Bismark was a ship of new generation and still battleships were tough sons of bitches. Unless you hit their magazines, like HMS HOOD, they could survive a lot. In Kirishima case only one hit caused multiple floodings and counter floodings, which led to abandoning ship. Most of other hits hit her superstructure, which could never sink a ship.
Olympic shooting medalists like Admiral W Lee (who was going blind) were smart enough to rely on radar directed naval artillery, once he knew who he was shooting at.
@@nancyclausen8454 Lee questioned his colleagues to memorize the eye charts in order to outwit the USN eye-doctors, so Lee's vision diagnosis remains in question.
Actually, Washington's gunnery was mediocre. The ship was firing from just short of point- blank range. So far, an expedition to Kirishima's wreck has established that many of the hits which the ship's damage control officer believed were 16" hits were in fact only 5" hits, and that only nine 16" hits have been discovered. It currently appears that Admiral Lee's estimate was correct, although another expedition is being planned. In any case, both Lee and Washington did well enough to secure a victory. That is what matters in the end.
Hearing the AI struggle to pronounce Japanese and American (“destroyer Walk-ë”) ship names ( 5:30 ) serves as a wonderful comic relief to the the pleasure of watching this otherwise well done presentation.
Its staggering how bad US torpedoes were in WW2, the 3 types - Air dropped MK13s, the Sub launched MK14s and the Destroyer/Cruiser MK15s had such a poor reputation with a 50-80% failure rate and the issues impacting them not fully resolved until 1943. When you consider that by May 1943 the US were also deploying the MK 24 FIDO 'MINE' acoustic homing torpedo (whose development between 1941 and 1943 was worlds apart from the Mk13/14/15) which sank or badly damaged 1 U-boat for every 4 torpedoes dropped in combat! So the USA in 1943 had the worlds worst and best torpedoes at the same time. Its interesting to note that the German Navy had exactly the same issues with their Submarine G7 type torpedoes from 1939 but they were faster to fix it. I do wonder how much shorter WW2 might have been if those torpedo issues had been fixed before Dec 1941?
Japanese shipping was pretty stretched out with all it's Pacific conquests. The US knew it too (they never had to fight at Midway, it was a purposeful gamble that paid off big. If Japan had taken it, they would have been at their shipping limits). If the subs had working torpedoes, then those islands could have been cut off early. Rabaul and Truk wouldn't have been useful bases without ammunition, parts, food, and water. Remember that Fletcher didn't like covering Guadalcanal with his carriers because it put them in a limited box? With working torpedoes, the Tokyo Express would have been in an even worse position. They had to make runs in narrow areas with subs and PT boats that could take them all down. Basically every Japanese garrison would have had that much less supplies and been starving earlier.
The war would have been just a bit less costly but probably not a day shorter. The development of the A-bomb ended the war. Better torpedoes would not have sped that development.
drachnifel in his video on the Mark XIV states that having reliable torpedoes would have probably shortened the war by about six months. Though, that would have thrown off the timetable for Operation Olympic, as it was very dependent on US Army divisions and air groups being redeployed from the ETO. And the nuclear weapons wouldn't be ready until August 1945.
Years ago I spoke with a Navy veteran who was a sailor on USS Washington. He told me of the battle, and was throwing life preservers to sailors from the deck when he soon found himself in the water. They managed to make it to the nearby island where they were picked up the following day. Can you imagine the horror?
Washington upheld the USNs honour... the other ships displayed the kind of leadership that one would expect of garden party officers... many of the men commented on the failure to train for night operations properly pre war... fortunately most of the bad officers were retired or removed through combat... rip to their blameless men
She was straight up obliterated by the raging monster. Her superstructure would be found in several pieces separate from what remained of the hull. Some parts of the superstructure that remain would be in better shape than the rest of the ship, but bore numerous claw marks. The hull itself looked as if it had been hit by Little Boy.
I have probably seen at least two videos about this and Savo Island. This, being the third, might actually allow me to understand at least a little of the story. Well done. About music, is it possible to use music composed to actually supplement the narration and graphics rather than being background? It would need to be subtle, but with changing tempo and key. Classical instrumentation?
the kirishima was originally a battlecruiser, after undergoing extensive upgrades including receiving additional armor she was reclassified as a battleship
I do believe that the silhouette of USS South Dakota shown at 2:30 is the battleship that was under construction in the early 1920s but cancelled under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. USS South Dakota in this battle was BB-57, completed in 1942. 🤓
Kirishima was sunk by the gunfire providing 16 inch45 armor piercing shells graciously provided by the Washington that definitely sank the Kirishima. She did not sink by being scuttled. This was proved by Robert Ballard's discovery of the wreck of the Kirishima and the analysis provided by Lundgrin.
Admiral Halsey sent all he had left to send to stop save Henderson Field. Halsey didn’t have much. Admiral Lee in command made it work. As normal American losses were horrible
@@FactCheckerGuy … The American aviators were rescued and recovered. American flyer losses were minimal compared to the Japanese. At Midway and Guadalcanal the Japanese Navy lost the cream of their naval aviators. Something they never recovered from
@@Rodero2443 I've been a fan of the channel for quite some time and I really like the Alte Fritz and Iron Chancellor videos, but these WWII naval vids have been top notch. The WWI ones were good too. Cheers
Out of all the Admirals of the USN that fought during WW2, only Admiral Ching Lee and Spruance got my full attention due to their sheer competence, skills and tactical foresight. Both should've been more widely known, rather than those who fell short but got more attention.
"Scuttled". That's a typical and hilarious account by the IJN. Kirishima had a WW1 era dreadnaught hull design that was more battle cruiser, than battleship, and took several salvos of 16" AP rounds broadside, including the first salvo which had several of those shells enter and explode inside it right below the waterline. That was already a death sentence for that ship. It was a slowly sinking wreck by morning that had no engine power. The Japanese thought they might be able to tow it to safety with the remaining cruiser, but there was no way that was remotely possible and it sank very much on it's own that morning. The only thing that saved it from being evaporated like the Hood during the shooting was none of the shells directly hit the ships magazine storages. But still, it was a dead ship after the hits it took. Just took several more hours to die instead.
The Japanese Navy launched at least 20 torpedo's at the Battleship Washington and South Dakota and none hit, the reason given was the torpedo fuses were set wrong and hitting a wake or a wave would cause them to detonate.
The US Navy took an absolute hammering at the hands of a superior - in many ways - Japanese force. Had the Japanese persisted the outcome for Guadal Canal could well have been different. Respect and reverence for all those US sailors lost in this battle.
It was South Dakota that fired on the cruisers early in the battle, not Washington. This set her float plan afire, and then put out the fire by blowing the planes overboard with subsequent salvos. The salvos were what initiated the electrical problem.
You asked for suggestions about topics: Sir James Corbett. India. 1910 thru 1940ish. Awesome stories. Sir Jim( carpett sahib) was a true hero, and one hell of a man.
Several direct hits let's see what were those 16 inch shells armor piercing shells and what was it almost 40 5 inch several this is where the Raging came in from the radar my second Salvo he was zeroed in meanwhile South Dakota turned on its Spotlight so it got itself well peppered old school
@BlindMansRevenge - You're probably right. Instead of the Japanese losing one battleship, they would have lost three battleships, all thanks to Admiral Willis "Ching" Lee. That's not a joke. If Lee could see (in daylight), he could hit anything he was shooting at, even without the fire control system. And at night, with SG radar, which provided both range and deflection accurately, there was no escape. Japanese radar was inferior or non-existent.
Keep in mind that Haruna and Kongo had nearly obliterated Henderson field a month earlier with 14 inch guns. On paper, Hiei and Kirishima should have finished the job. After all, Callahan traded two thirds of his fleet to take down Hiei.... there wasn't much left on the U.S. side, as to that point, Nimitz had not committed ANY capital ships to Guadalcanal. Yamato had just wasted half a year's worth of fuel chasing the imaginary Task Force 15 and Musashi was still months away from Guadalcanal... she was only commissioned in mid-August and didn't even leave Japanese waters until mid-January 1943.... by then, the Marines controlled the island and Henderson Field would have been a very dangerous place to approach.
@@Vito_Tuxedo fair enough point! However, Musashi and Yamato were developed and designed to go toe to toe with American fast battleships of the North Carolina and South Dakota class. Additionally, they did have sufficient armor protection that could theoretically protect the ship against the 16 inch 50 caliber guns of the Iowa class. In the end, we will never know how the battle would’ve turned out because it didn’t happen. Battleships were meant to fight against other battleships. The Yamato class wasn’t meant to be sent on suicide missions like the one Yamato is Sent on e with operation tango
Words can never fully describe every ounce of respect I have for Willis "Ching" Lee. He's truly one of those people whose presence can turn the tide of battle. However, I would like to talk about Battleships. For every time people mention the death of the BB in Taranto, Pearl Harbor, Force Z, etc, I always like to mention that the US likely couldn't have held on to Henderson Field w/o BBs. Despite becoming ever so redundant with the rise of carriers, BBs still provided useful in WW2 and I'd say that made the most of their final hurrah. P.S. Is there a video on the Naval Battle of Casablanca? I haven't seen too much coverage on it despite how action packed it was.
WWII was not kind to uparmored WWI battlecruisers. The Hood went down with one salvo, the Hiei was rendered useless from heavy cruiser fire, and the Krishima pretty much wrecked in less than 1/2 an hour. To be fair, the Bismarck was out of the fight in 30 minutes too, but that was taking fire from two battleships.
I don't know much about WWI or WWII but every time I read or watch anything regarding naval battles the poor old cruisers are the first to go down. UK historians consider Admiral Fisher a genius for amongst other things championing the cause of the cruiser in modern naval doctrine. I'm not so sure.
@@gordonwood1594 There is a real issue of being big enough to be misidentified as a battleship, powerful enough to be a threat, and not armored enough to slug it out.
@@recoil53 Many years ago I read about a RN officer who was on board the Hood during her sea trials. When the main guns were fired the ships plates warped and rippled so much that the frightened man immediately applied for transfer.
Nice videos mate! In them you ask us for battles or episodes we would like to see. Here two that I don't see in your list: operation cerberus and the battle of tsushima. Thx!
Could you cover the Naval Battles of Casablanca and the Komandorski Islands, before some premodern land history (like continuing the western front of the Seven Years' War)?
My question is what was the problem with South Dakota s power. I have never seen that report. I have seen the damage from this battle but not what caused the power outage.
A lot of ship to ship action in the Guadalcanal campaign. You don’t really see to much of that after the Battle of the Coral Sea. It’s mostly carrier action then on.
This called experience. The Americans were fighting in 15-20 minutes near their airbase and a day away of naval base. Japanese were unable to use fields planes, only aircraft’s. This means the longer fight takes, more chances for US Navy to get support from land or retreat to safety. That’s why Japanese tactics was to decisively win fast going engagements. It worked initially well while they had superiority in technology, numbers, and trainings. It shifted when it gone.
@valeriitiurin6206 well, that wouldn't have mattered in most of the Guadalcanal campaign major battles bc they were at night. Honestly due to the timid Nature bordering on stupidity of these japanese commanders, Had they not been like that and continued attacking after these idiotic US Commanders had let their fleets get completely destroyed because of their incompetence, This war probably would have lasted until at least 1946 minus the nuclear weapons... And had these stupid pieces of garbage crapé US torpedoes worked a single time before practically 1944, and had we had more than a single competent commander who was either halfway experienced or not a complete more on idiot, The war probably would've ended in that year too. I have no idea what was wrong with the US surface ships total lack of competence in this entire campaign. Thousands of casualties lost in a dozen battles, due to absolute mind boggling stupidity and incompetence
The Japanese didn't have the men or materiel to fight like the Americans. The US was launching a new ship almost every day at this point in the war. The Americans could spend extended time in the air and out to sea because fuel was cheap and plentiful. The Japanese were already at a massive disadvantage and playing riskily would only deepen the odds against them.
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Thanks For this ❤❤❤
Please be accurate, she was a battlecruiser, not a battleahip
Very good narration, and really I appreciate this video but the animation is terrible. I trust you will do better as time goes by. Try to make things in proportion to reality, at least to some extent. It was very disconcerting to follow the narrative but not be able to follow the animation
@@steveperreira5850 could you be more specific?
The battle of cape Matapan would be great to be talked about, many don't know about that naval battle
The Rear Admiral Willis Lee won 7 medals at the 1920 Olympics. That's wild.
And yet... Was too blind by Navy standards to be in the service. 🤦🏻♂️
The Fat Electrician's video on Willis Lee is fascinating.
@@danielseelye6005Ching Lee don't miss.
@@danielseelye6005 drachinifel better
@@mynamejef7963 I liked both. They have their own styles and I like them both. Especially as there are things picked up by one that the other might've missed.
Also played counter-sniper during a skirmish at Vera Cruz. It was not a good day for the other side.
'Step aside. I'm coming through.'
Immortal words of Adm. Lee.
Proceeds to get rekt
@@JuanRico-d1bhow 😐
They found the wreck of Kirashima. She took some 16 to 17 hits from Washington's main 16 inch guns. Many of the hits were underwater on Kirashima. The 16 inch shells hit the water and continued on to penatrate the ships hull. Since the Kongo class were originally designed as World War 1 battle cruisers they had absolutely no protection from this kind of damage.
Also, the 16" shells were not regular 2200 pound armor piercing shells but the 2700 pound super heavy shells carried by North Carolina, South Dakota and Iowa class ships. Thus Kirishima was taking the equivalent of 17" shells.
Incidentally, had Yamato and Musashi ever tangled with Lee's Task Force 34/54 in a surface battle, this combined with their radar fire control would likely have given Lee the upper hand. Though several of Lee's battleships might well have been badly mauled, or even sunk
Thank you for explaining the situation, it's not as though the Kirishima was contemporary to the two us battleships.
My understanding was that the Washington claimed 8 16" hits after the battle. Later, a survey by the Bureau of Ordinance awarded another hit, stating that a shot that Washington thought was short probably struck the Kirishima under the waterline. After the war, it was found that the Kirishima's Damage Control officer survived the battle. When he returned to Japan, he produced a detailed drawing showing where the Kirishima was hit and by what size shell. Per his account the Washington hit the Kirishima with 20 16" shells. This was written off as not realistic by US naval historians. When the wreck of the Kirishima was found, it was upside down in the mud of the bottom, so damage to the upper part of the ship could not be seen, but it was noted there where 3 large holes below the waterline. When they checked the Kirishima's Damage Control officer's drawing, the holes were right where he said they would be. This provided some credence to his claim of 20 16" hits, but since the upper works of the ship will never be examined, the debate will never be truly brought to a close.
@baabo708 Admittedly at close range, and initially one sided because Kirishima had been engaging South Dakota, but they were also on oppose courses at combined 54 knot speed. All in all, spectacular shooting.
Also, Massachusetts at Casablanca (at Jean Bart, a cruiser and two destroyers she pummeled) and West Virginia and California at Surigao had excellent shooting. All three had similar fire control
everyone is gangster until they heard "stand aside, I'm coming through, this is Ching Lee"
The Man with nine 16" sniper rifles . Admiral " Ching Lee " .
Yeah, he was a bad ass. One of my favorites.
That's a great line mate lol
@@garyhooper1820 Not exactly. Washington secured approximately nine 16" hits and approximately 20 5" hits on Kirishima while firing from just short of point- blank range. An expedition sent to explore Kirishima's wreck to follow up on the report of Kirishima's damage control officer has established that many of the believed 16" hits are in fact 5" hits. Another expedition is being planned, as Kirishima's wreck is upside down. In any case, Washington did well enough, as did Admiral Lee.
@@manilajohn0182 i believe its referring to the amount of 16" guns & how far they can hit and not the hits washington had on the enemy ships
Thank you for covering the battle ship action of Guadalcanal 😊
My father was transferred from the Royal Navy to the South Dakota when she and her sister ship the Alabama served with our Home Fleet. The American crew told him of the Guadalcanal battle. I still have his souvenirs from the ship.
Cool!
USS Washington, did you mean: Ching Lee's personal sniper rifle?
Excellent comment. 👍 And pretty much the truth. Chink Lee had made this business his life's work.
No since it had a whole crew
Sniper team.
Did you mean "floating sniper post"?
Those 9 16" inch sniper rifles.
Always a great watch on my Saturday afternoon👍
Vice Admiral Ching Kirishima I Don't See Her Lee Jr, the Man with nine 16" Sniper Rifles, 7 Olympic medals in shooting and a veteran of two World Wars. The man behind American Levels of anti-air defence on all ships in the US Navy. The victor of the last big-gun capital ship to ever sink another in battle. And apparently had too poor eye sight to serve. Dude earnt a Navy Cross. Enough said.
His story really is awesome and I wish they were more videos about him.
This wasn't the last big gun capital ship victory, Duke of York sank Scharnhorst in 1943, and 6 old American dreadnoughts sank Yamashiro in 1944.
@@SRR-5657 Last time a capital ship sank another capital ship with guns alone. Yamashiro was finished off with torpedos from destroyers. Last Battleship battle. last duel, questionable, more like massacre of already wounded opponents.
The Battle of
Surigao Strait was the last battleship on battleship battle where one battleship sank another.
@@asianbandit4054 Duke of York vs Scharnhorst then, although Scharnhorst is definitely on the low end of what's considered a battleship.
Another great production! Keep doing what you’re doing!
Thanks! Will do!
Originally what observers thought were the first short salvo misses to Kirishima from Washington, A UAV recently found the Kirishima and everyone of those near misses had submarined and put a Hull hole into the ship. This stuff is All Good.
That's actually not true. Many of the hits originally believed to be 16' have been established as 5" hits. So far, nine 16" hits have been confirmed.
@@manilajohn0182 The experts who have explored Kurishima in the past 10-20 years have actually counted over 20 hits of 16in from Washington. As you stated, most hit the water. Even though they entered below the water line, they did penetrate the hull and in some cases they even punched clear through the other side.
m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCyxpSVy7MYo&ved=2ahUKEwihxfulieKIAxX6KFkFHU5cJmYQwqsBegQIEhAE&usg=AOvVaw2lbSG9J_uUOKL6LMQOPkOV
Its actually UUV, unmanned underwater vehicle
@@cameronspence4977 so sorry
@@manilajohn0182Are there new sources to support that?
It was a terrible battle. RIP to all the sailors. Pray for peace.
I'd like to see you cover the destruction of Gneisenau mate
Good suggestion.
What's there to cover? It was bombed and decommissioned.
@@Cailus3542 why does it matter what you think?
@@JohntheLNERP2 Dude, no offense but Cailus is right. Gneisenau was bombed while at dock and the ship was decommissioned after extensive repair work was done on the ship. What could a video reveal?
@manilajohn0182 nothing new obviously but I still think it would look cool considering what House of History's channel is like when it comes to visuals
My family has roots in the US navy, my great-grandfather served on the USS Little Rock, my grandfather served on the USS Oklahoma City during the Korean War, and one of my uncles served on the USS Asheville, a nuclear submarine
Do you want a cookie ?
Very good representation of the Battle i never realized how close the Ships were by Standards of the time
@@Stormoak Yeah 8,000 yards is point blank range by battleship standards.
@@sillyone52062The engagement began at 8400 yards, not feet. 🙂
Unfortunately, the sinking of Kirishima would spell grief to thousands of Filipinos in Manila two years later, as her last captain, Sanji Iwabuchi, would direct his force of sailors and naval landing force personnel into committing the atrocities that became known as the Manila Massacre.
Been loving these naval videos! Keep up the good work 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
The Kirishima was outgunned in this scenario. She never really was able to fire back at her main assailants, Washington and South Dakota. Two big bad pretty new American BBs that were better armed and armored than Kirishima. The only edge the Kirishima had was her speed. She was a 30 knot BB designed to keep up the with faster Japanese CV's of Kido Butai. The IJN's surface TFs in this scenario were made up of good strong surface ships that were quite capable of defending themselves and inflicting a lot of damage on our TF's. The fact that we had two big BB's in the USN TF's that we brought to bare among our surface ships against the IJN and they possessed surface, air and and in most cases, fire control radars at least for the main batteries on our capital ships gave us the edge. It was a good battle that was fought pretty well by both sides. No big glaring mistakes or lucky breaks to point out either. Thanks for the anaysis of the action!
USS South Dakota was probably the most severely damaged American battleship outside of Pearl Harbor. Her repair process was quite brief, proving that BB's could take a licking and keep on ticking.
Excellent animation and voice commentary. Thanks, GB
I would love to see a video covering Admiral Mikawa's life and career. He strikes me as one of the few admirals Japan had that had a realistic outlook on Japan's naval capabilities, and even a high level overview of his career is impressive for his accomplishments.
The whole timeline here is off by an hour, its the incorrect version thats often reported due to many books repeating it, but if you read South Dakota's after action report and Washington's deck log you'll see the fighting didn't start till after midnight. I believe this is due to most accounts being added on Samuel E. Morrison's book, he visited USS Washington shortly after the battle to learn about it but the crew and especially Admiral Lee were not fond of him and didn't really like talking to him about it so I wonder if they gave him bad information on purpose, or perhaps it's just based on a random sailor's recollection instead of the official deck logs. Morrison's book was published in 1949 and because he is a well regarded naval historian I think people generally took him at his word. It's curious that Ivan Musicant's book Battleship at War uses Morrison's timeline given that Musicant knew many of the surviving crew members and was named an honorary member of the crew, I suppose it's possible that many crew members had read Morrison's book and assumed he was correct as the average sailor probably wasn't keeping minute by minute account of the battle. Ray Hunter's deck logs definitely disagrees with Morrison though, as does Hank Seely, the Spot 1 officer who has written a full detailed account of the battle in the book "USS Washington BB56". South Dakota's deck logs and gunnery summary also support the later timeline, that's why I believe this.
Such a nicely detailed account, especially the encounter of the light forces. Most focus only on the battleships
Kirishima was sunk in no small part due to failure of Japanese to do a proper damage control assessment and application. 16 inch shell from Washington hit her in the middle, right below waterline, where armor belt was pretty thin. Third deck where it happened , was empty, so nobody informed a bridge officers about true extent of the damage. They thought that was a torpedo hit, which was stopped by anti torpedo defense and and started counterflooding. which was wrong thing to do at that moment. Increasing water amounts on the middle decks caused a ship meta centrical height to change, which again was not understood by damage control officers. They did more counter flooding which just exacerbated situation, until it was to late to do anything except abandon ship... Very sad ending to proud battle career of the battleship.
Kirishima was basically dead the moment Washington fired her first salvo. Washington about ten minutes pummeling Kirishima before Lee disengaged. No amount of damage control could have saved her from the beating Washington inflicted. Kirishima ate roughly 20 super-heavy AP shells from Washington’s main battery at knife-fighting range. That doesn’t even include the damage inflicted by her secondary battery or the un-repaired damage from the night battle on the 13th.
The USN’s 16” AP shells weighed 2700 pounds (only 500 pounds or so less than Yamato’s 18.1” AP shells.) Nobody’s walking away from a beating like that…
Sorry, but I would disagree with this. If you remember, Bismark got many more shells and still had to be sunk by torpedoes. Yes, Bismark was a ship of new generation and still battleships were tough sons of bitches. Unless you hit their magazines, like HMS HOOD, they could survive a lot. In Kirishima case only one hit caused multiple floodings and counter floodings, which led to abandoning ship. Most of other hits hit her superstructure, which could never sink a ship.
What saved South Dakota was that the Japanese were firing Munitions that was meant for bombardment of airstrip not armor piercing
Remember this battle was also the first time that the use of electronic warfare gave one side a major Force multiplier radar
Olympic shooting medalists like Admiral W Lee (who was going blind) were smart enough to rely on radar directed naval artillery, once he knew who he was shooting at.
He wasn't going blind. He was nearsighted.
@@nancyclausen8454 Lee questioned his colleagues to memorize the eye charts in order to outwit the USN eye-doctors, so Lee's vision diagnosis remains in question.
Terrific work. As always! Thank you.
Kirishima was not scuttled. She sank due to battle damage.
The "Bow" of a ship ... is pronounced like "Cow".
Good video.
that's how you find AI. Subtle differences even foreign speakers would know of.
The video also gets Port and Starboard wrong.
But ships don’t have cows, that makes no sense.
@@DanielJamesEgan Well, if you don't get it then you're beyond help. Good luck Poindexter.
@@nosaltadded2530 there is nothing to get unless boats have cows.
Always remember: Ching Lee Doesn't Miss. 😁
To be fair, at that range, it was harder to miss than to hit the target, even at night.
Actually, Washington's gunnery was mediocre. The ship was firing from just short of point- blank range. So far, an expedition to Kirishima's wreck has established that many of the hits which the ship's damage control officer believed were 16" hits were in fact only 5" hits, and that only nine 16" hits have been discovered. It currently appears that Admiral Lee's estimate was correct, although another expedition is being planned. In any case, both Lee and Washington did well enough to secure a victory. That is what matters in the end.
He did… even initial salvo
Hearing the AI struggle to pronounce Japanese and American (“destroyer Walk-ë”) ship names ( 5:30 ) serves as a wonderful comic relief to the the pleasure of watching this otherwise well done presentation.
Its staggering how bad US torpedoes were in WW2, the 3 types - Air dropped MK13s, the Sub launched MK14s and the Destroyer/Cruiser MK15s had such a poor reputation with a 50-80% failure rate and the issues impacting them not fully resolved until 1943. When you consider that by May 1943 the US were also deploying the MK 24 FIDO 'MINE' acoustic homing torpedo (whose development between 1941 and 1943 was worlds apart from the Mk13/14/15) which sank or badly damaged 1 U-boat for every 4 torpedoes dropped in combat! So the USA in 1943 had the worlds worst and best torpedoes at the same time. Its interesting to note that the German Navy had exactly the same issues with their Submarine G7 type torpedoes from 1939 but they were faster to fix it. I do wonder how much shorter WW2 might have been if those torpedo issues had been fixed before Dec 1941?
Japanese shipping was pretty stretched out with all it's Pacific conquests. The US knew it too (they never had to fight at Midway, it was a purposeful gamble that paid off big. If Japan had taken it, they would have been at their shipping limits).
If the subs had working torpedoes, then those islands could have been cut off early. Rabaul and Truk wouldn't have been useful bases without ammunition, parts, food, and water. Remember that Fletcher didn't like covering Guadalcanal with his carriers because it put them in a limited box? With working torpedoes, the Tokyo Express would have been in an even worse position. They had to make runs in narrow areas with subs and PT boats that could take them all down.
Basically every Japanese garrison would have had that much less supplies and been starving earlier.
@KaboozeGlobalMedia Reading is not for everyone!
The war would have been just a bit less costly but probably not a day shorter. The development of the A-bomb ended the war. Better torpedoes would not have sped that development.
@@FactCheckerGuy It would have made the invasion of each island easier and shorter.
drachnifel in his video on the Mark XIV states that having reliable torpedoes would have probably shortened the war by about six months. Though, that would have thrown off the timetable for Operation Olympic, as it was very dependent on US Army divisions and air groups being redeployed from the ETO. And the nuclear weapons wouldn't be ready until August 1945.
the kiroshima was SUNK by the U.S.S. Washngton- at least according the JAPANESE. The Japanese also said it was hit by at least 16 16 inch sheels
Years ago I spoke with a Navy veteran who was a sailor on USS Washington. He told me of the battle, and was throwing life preservers to sailors from the deck when he soon found himself in the water. They managed to make it to the nearby island where they were picked up the following day.
Can you imagine the horror?
My fav naval battles:
Trafalgar, Tsushima and Jutland
"Sir, Weŕe a lone against massive Japanese ship formations!"
Admiral lee being "hold my radar"
Washington upheld the USNs honour... the other ships displayed the kind of leadership that one would expect of garden party officers... many of the men commented on the failure to train for night operations properly pre war... fortunately most of the bad officers were retired or removed through combat... rip to their blameless men
Love these short (but not little) history Lessons.
Too bad we didn't have ANY reliable torpedoes at this time, because of some fat arsed Admiral's ego.
Takao would be sunk post war fighting a mysterious 50m tall kaiju off Japan
She was straight up obliterated by the raging monster. Her superstructure would be found in several pieces separate from what remained of the hull. Some parts of the superstructure that remain would be in better shape than the rest of the ship, but bore numerous claw marks.
The hull itself looked as if it had been hit by Little Boy.
@@fighter5583cool story.
9 inold n9@@fighter5583
😁😁😁
I have probably seen at least two videos about this and Savo Island. This, being the third, might actually allow me to understand at least a little of the story. Well done.
About music, is it possible to use music composed to actually supplement the narration and graphics rather than being background? It would need to be subtle, but with changing tempo and key. Classical instrumentation?
the kirishima was originally a battlecruiser, after undergoing extensive upgrades including receiving additional armor she was reclassified as a battleship
Then Admiral Lee Downgraded it to a coral reef
Powerful ship as she was, her belt armour wasn’t upgraded so was always going to be vulnerable to large calibre shells
South Dakota is my favorite battleship. She takes hit after hit and never sinks.
No one referred to the Type 93 as the "long lance" during the war. The USN was ignorant of the torpedo's power for much of the war.
I would like to see and watch an animation of the battle of Casablanca 😊, that would be awesome to watch
I do believe that the silhouette of USS South Dakota shown at 2:30 is the battleship that was under construction in the early 1920s but cancelled under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. USS South Dakota in this battle was BB-57, completed in 1942. 🤓
@KaboozeGlobalMedia Am I a history teacher? 🤓 Are facts important?
Kirishima was sunk by the gunfire providing 16 inch45 armor piercing shells graciously provided by the Washington that definitely sank the Kirishima. She did not sink by being scuttled. This was proved by Robert Ballard's discovery of the wreck of the Kirishima and the analysis provided by Lundgrin.
Lundgrin is from the usa? Then its not credible
Seriously, Washington turned Kirishima into sieve. Nothing was going to save that thing after almost 20 direct hits from 16" AP.
I actually was an underwater paraxhutist during this battle...great job on this video i am a fan
Wow, House of History just keeps getting better! ⚔🔥😎
Admiral Halsey sent all he had left to send to stop save Henderson Field. Halsey didn’t have much. Admiral Lee in command made it work. As normal American losses were horrible
American and Japanese total ship losses were remarkably even for the Guadalcanal campaign. Aircraft losses were also fairly even, IIRC.
@@FactCheckerGuy … The American aviators were rescued and recovered. American flyer losses were minimal compared to the Japanese. At Midway and Guadalcanal the Japanese Navy lost the cream of their naval aviators. Something they never recovered from
Nemesis; a righteous infliction of punishment by a someone you don’t want to mess with, Admiral Willis Lee.
Ching Lee showing how to hold the CAP beeyatch😘
the Long Lance Torpedoes are an underrated weapon
2:48 I think USS South Dakota used a wrong image
Been really dig'n these naval videos. And may this comment be a sacrifice to the Algorithm. Cheers from Tennessee
Same i really like naval warfare, just warfare in general. FOR THE ALGORITHM 😜
@@Rodero2443 I've been a fan of the channel for quite some time and I really like the Alte Fritz and Iron Chancellor videos, but these WWII naval vids have been top notch. The WWI ones were good too. Cheers
@@Hillbilly001 Cheers my brother
12:15 Why did Washington need to wait til South Dakota gets out of range to engage the Japanese fleet?
Surprise and positing to cover her retreat
Get the book BATTLESHIP AT WAR. Dedicated to the USS WASHINGTON.
Out of all the Admirals of the USN that fought during WW2, only Admiral Ching Lee and Spruance got my full attention due to their sheer competence, skills and tactical foresight. Both should've been more widely known, rather than those who fell short but got more attention.
"Scuttled". That's a typical and hilarious account by the IJN. Kirishima had a WW1 era dreadnaught hull design that was more battle cruiser, than battleship, and took several salvos of 16" AP rounds broadside, including the first salvo which had several of those shells enter and explode inside it right below the waterline. That was already a death sentence for that ship. It was a slowly sinking wreck by morning that had no engine power. The Japanese thought they might be able to tow it to safety with the remaining cruiser, but there was no way that was remotely possible and it sank very much on it's own that morning. The only thing that saved it from being evaporated like the Hood during the shooting was none of the shells directly hit the ships magazine storages. But still, it was a dead ship after the hits it took. Just took several more hours to die instead.
The Japanese Navy launched at least 20 torpedo's at the Battleship Washington and South Dakota and none hit, the reason given was the torpedo fuses were set wrong and hitting a wake or a wave would cause them to detonate.
Amazing video as always!
Very Nice Video, Thanks for Sharing !😊
The US Navy took an absolute hammering at the hands of a superior - in many ways - Japanese force. Had the Japanese persisted the outcome for Guadal Canal could well have been different. Respect and reverence for all those US sailors lost in this battle.
Adm. Lee is to naval gunnery what Gandalf is to LOTR!
It was South Dakota that fired on the cruisers early in the battle, not Washington. This set her float plan afire, and then put out the fire by blowing the planes overboard with subsequent salvos. The salvos were what initiated the electrical problem.
Wow. You are special.
You asked for suggestions about topics:
Sir James Corbett. India. 1910 thru 1940ish.
Awesome stories.
Sir Jim( carpett sahib) was a true hero, and one hell of a man.
Several direct hits let's see what were those 16 inch shells armor piercing shells and what was it almost 40 5 inch several this is where the Raging came in from the radar my second Salvo he was zeroed in meanwhile South Dakota turned on its Spotlight so it got itself well peppered old school
my reccomendation has been listened to 😂❤
If the Japanese would not have been so stingy with Yamato and Musashi that night, battle may have gone in a different direction
They were cautious because a loss in one of these ships is great loss thier Navy.
@BlindMansRevenge - You're probably right. Instead of the Japanese losing one battleship, they would have lost three battleships, all thanks to Admiral Willis "Ching" Lee. That's not a joke. If Lee could see (in daylight), he could hit anything he was shooting at, even without the fire control system. And at night, with SG radar, which provided both range and deflection accurately, there was no escape. Japanese radar was inferior or non-existent.
Keep in mind that Haruna and Kongo had nearly obliterated Henderson field a month earlier with 14 inch guns. On paper, Hiei and Kirishima should have finished the job. After all, Callahan traded two thirds of his fleet to take down Hiei.... there wasn't much left on the U.S. side, as to that point, Nimitz had not committed ANY capital ships to Guadalcanal. Yamato had just wasted half a year's worth of fuel chasing the imaginary Task Force 15 and Musashi was still months away from Guadalcanal... she was only commissioned in mid-August and didn't even leave Japanese waters until mid-January 1943.... by then, the Marines controlled the island and Henderson Field would have been a very dangerous place to approach.
@@Vito_Tuxedo fair enough point! However, Musashi and Yamato were developed and designed to go toe to toe with American fast battleships of the North Carolina and South Dakota class. Additionally, they did have sufficient armor protection that could theoretically protect the ship against the 16 inch 50 caliber guns of the Iowa class. In the end, we will never know how the battle would’ve turned out because it didn’t happen. Battleships were meant to fight against other battleships. The Yamato class wasn’t meant to be sent on suicide missions like the one Yamato is Sent on e with operation tango
Words can never fully describe every ounce of respect I have for Willis "Ching" Lee. He's truly one of those people whose presence can turn the tide of battle.
However, I would like to talk about Battleships. For every time people mention the death of the BB in Taranto, Pearl Harbor, Force Z, etc, I always like to mention that the US likely couldn't have held on to Henderson Field w/o BBs. Despite becoming ever so redundant with the rise of carriers, BBs still provided useful in WW2 and I'd say that made the most of their final hurrah.
P.S. Is there a video on the Naval Battle of Casablanca? I haven't seen too much coverage on it despite how action packed it was.
Battle of midway please.
Im pretty sure Willis "Ching" Lee was born with the doom music playing in his head
Nice video
Very interesting
WWII was not kind to uparmored WWI battlecruisers. The Hood went down with one salvo, the Hiei was rendered useless from heavy cruiser fire, and the Krishima pretty much wrecked in less than 1/2 an hour.
To be fair, the Bismarck was out of the fight in 30 minutes too, but that was taking fire from two battleships.
I don't know much about WWI or WWII but every time I read or watch anything regarding naval battles the poor old cruisers are the first to go down. UK historians consider Admiral Fisher a genius for amongst other things championing the cause of the cruiser in modern naval doctrine. I'm not so sure.
@@gordonwood1594 There is a real issue of being big enough to be misidentified as a battleship, powerful enough to be a threat, and not armored enough to slug it out.
@@recoil53 Many years ago I read about a RN officer who was on board the Hood during her sea trials. When the main guns were fired the ships plates warped and rippled so much that the frightened man immediately applied for transfer.
@@gordonwood1594 Sounds doomed from the beginning.
Nice videos mate! In them you ask us for battles or episodes we would like to see. Here two that I don't see in your list: operation cerberus and the battle of tsushima. Thx!
Nice animation you made sir. Can you make battle of villers boocage too? It would be interesting 😁
Need to change the sound effects for the warships' guns. They sound like .22s.
Man deserves a movie made
Could you cover the Naval Battles of Casablanca and the Komandorski Islands, before some premodern land history (like continuing the western front of the Seven Years' War)?
Right as i start eating perfect!
Kirishima got Bismarcked
Could you please cover the battle of Elle? Much love from Greece!
My question is what was the problem with South Dakota s power. I have never seen that report. I have seen the damage from this battle but not what caused the power outage.
Admiral Lee was one of the very best!!
An old battlecruiser had no chance against a modern fast battleship
thank you.
Oh, okay.
A lot of ship to ship action in the Guadalcanal campaign. You don’t really see to much of that after the Battle of the Coral Sea. It’s mostly carrier action then on.
What is it with the Japanese admirals when they are on the verge of victory that they suddenly get cold feet and withdraw?
This called experience. The Americans were fighting in 15-20 minutes near their airbase and a day away of naval base. Japanese were unable to use fields planes, only aircraft’s. This means the longer fight takes, more chances for US Navy to get support from land or retreat to safety. That’s why Japanese tactics was to decisively win fast going engagements. It worked initially well while they had superiority in technology, numbers, and trainings. It shifted when it gone.
@valeriitiurin6206 well, that wouldn't have mattered in most of the Guadalcanal campaign major battles bc they were at night. Honestly due to the timid Nature bordering on stupidity of these japanese commanders, Had they not been like that and continued attacking after these idiotic US Commanders had let their fleets get completely destroyed because of their incompetence, This war probably would have lasted until at least 1946 minus the nuclear weapons... And had these stupid pieces of garbage crapé
US torpedoes worked a single time before practically 1944, and had we had more than a single competent commander who was either halfway experienced or not a complete more on idiot, The war probably would've ended in that year too. I have no idea what was wrong with the US surface ships total lack of competence in this entire campaign. Thousands of casualties lost in a dozen battles, due to absolute mind boggling stupidity and incompetence
The Japanese didn't have the men or materiel to fight like the Americans. The US was launching a new ship almost every day at this point in the war. The Americans could spend extended time in the air and out to sea because fuel was cheap and plentiful.
The Japanese were already at a massive disadvantage and playing riskily would only deepen the odds against them.
Aleutian Islands invasion and Battle of the Blips !
Bow ??????????
How do you even miss at 3 miles with battleship guns?
Admiral Ching Lee was The Man.
Why south Dakota didn't firing? Out of range?
How about making video about sinking of USS Indianapolis?
Info on Guy Gabaldon
Mate can you please make a Video about the Post-WW2 First Revolution in the Indonesian Theater