In Nelson to Vanguard D K Brown describes the Dido class as "well suited for the RN requirements - if only it had a better armament" and suggests x10 US 5in or x10 British 4.5 in. Do you think this change would have made a better ship over all? Also should the British focused there medium calibre gun work on the 4.5in instead of the 5.25in and 4.7in as the main gun for the Dido and its destroyers and the 2nd battery for larger ships? Edit: for reference chapter 12 page 190.
Thank you very much for this latest excellent video. I mentioned in a previous comment that my father served on Dido (tangentially he always referred to the ship as Dido, with an 'i' rather than 'Deedo'). From memory this was his first posting after completing training as an ERA at HMS Caledonia. Children never listen to stories and parents do not talk. As a result, my knowledge of my father's service is limited to half remembered anecdotes coupled with the excellent publication about the ship produced by the Dido Association. Nevertheless, I know that my father was part of the ship's company when she was on Malta Convoy duties, the evacuation of Crete - when she sustained considerable damage - , in the Italian campaign at the time of the Anzio and Salerno actions, convoys to Murmansk and so on. Following the damage sustained at Crete, she was sent, after temporary repair to New York. My father did not go to the USA and seems to have spent this time in South Africa. I have a photograph of him and some colleagues at that time. recently I scanned and enlarged it. I recognised my father (ages c 21), but he is gaunt and drawn. I do not know, but perhaps, after the horrific experience of the Crete evacuation, perhaps a group had been left in Johannesburg for some kind of PTSD recovery. Without looking up his record, my father left 'Dido' late 1944 (ish), being posted to HMS Seagull. Early in this posting the ship was involved in taking relief supplies and minesweeping duties on the River Scheldt to new liberated Rotterdam. Another story for another time. Thank you again for filling in a large number of blanks.
Alistair Goldsmith hi my Dad was a Chief Petty Officer on Dido. There are some photos online of her after action in the Med showing massive amounts of used shel cases lying on deck. Your pronunciation is correct. I would be interested in seeing the photo if possible
My father was also a Chief Petty Officer (Edward Smith) on HMS Dido through the Med and also to Murmansk and the surrender of Kms Prinz Eugen and Kms Nurnberg in Copenhagen.
My dad was also on HMS Naiad when it was sunk. I was reading the book 'Pursuit' by Ludovic Kennedy about the sinking of the Bismark and Naiad is mentioned as they sighted the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau near Greenland. I asked if he was onboard then and he said 'Yes, we gave chase - but we didn't catch them thank God'!
I did some research on a Dido Class which figured into my book BETWEEN THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED. She ends up, like any good warship, in a desperate fight with a German battleship. How she found herself in that situation and the obvious outcome was actually fun to write.
I did one commission on HMNZS Royalist in1963-64.My first ship.She was the HMS ULYSSES .in Mcleans book I wandered about the Ship,book in hand, Still have the book in 2019,And the cap tally.
@@locomotiveAlex1996 I noticed a while back they were planning on adding her to mobile but with the CV rework on PC it would have been the perfect time to introduce a mid teir British AA cruiser.
Short version: The pom-pom was shit and got replaced wherever possible (usually with the Bofors) as soon as possible after the first few attempts to use it in actual combat demonstrated its lack of effectiveness :P.
Great video Although rushed into service I love how you pointed out just how formidable these ships became after all the teething troubles were corrected.
Thankyou author for H.M.S Black Prince mention, on which my Dad served in WW2 Leading Telegraphist Chas Thomas and mentioned in dispatches. This year 2019 I also read a reprint report in The Daily Mail as part of Commemorations describing her in action 'pounding' the German shore defences on 6th June. Other tours included Arctic convoy escorting, goings on in the Med and Indian Ocean, en route to The South China Sea when Uncle Sam abruptly defeated Japan. The main armament as fitted were capable of deafening the old man in one ear to the tune of a Pension to the end of his days, God bless.
In WoWS, BB's are roughly ten times more accurate than in real life - in WoWS, it is quite easy to achieve a 30% to 50% hit rate with BB's - in real life, a 3% to 5% hit rate was considered to be doing quite well, if not excellent.
My grandfather served of the Bellona variant, HMS Black Prince and it wasn't till he passed how the ship went duering the war. This included the D-day landings through to operations in the pacific a well traveled ship and Grandfather.
“She was still doing forty knots, driving in under the guns of the enemy, guns at maximum depression, when "A" magazine blew up, blasted off the entire bows in one shattering detonations. For a second, the lightened fo'c'sle reared high into the air" then it plunged down, deep down, into the shoulder of a rolling sea. She plunged down and kept on going down, driving down to the black floor of the Arctic, driven down by the madly spinning screws. The still thundering engines her own executioners.”
@@stevenpilling5318 no. It was Dido, but with only eight 5,25 inch guns, I think idea came from His duty on HMS Royalist. After all its metionined in the book
I love your channel Drachinifel, you always manage to provide interesting information that I was not aware of. This chapter is another winner sir. Bravo Zulu.
Alistair Maclean's first novel, HMS Ulysses, was set on a Dido class cruiser escorting a Murmansk convoy. MacLean served aboard HMS Royalist during the war.
My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all the morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall it reminds me that it's not so bad it's not so bad
Hint: I always keep a notepad document off to the right of the screen, with the metric vs imperial calibres, and the weight in kg of an average shell. It helps to visualise the difference between the guns. I'm old, but think in metric (mostly, lol), so I imagine younger viewers will be even more so.
I absolutely love your vids can you help..... My dad was on an O class destroyer (HMS Orwell to be exact) during WW2 doing Atlantic and Arctic convoys, I was wondering if there would be any chance of you looking into this hard working class of destroyer.
w8w8w8 Dido is a classical fleet cruiser, as was their direct ancestor(Arethusa class). Their employment mostly mirroring just that. I know their history, but trade protection just doesn't work this way.
Great video, love your work. Could you do a profile on HMS Norfolk one day? I know you have done the County class in general. But HMS Norfolk’s roll in the sinking of two German battle ships is quite interesting.
@@gamewarrior010 I can't find any evidence he has when I search his videos. She is mentioned in several battles she was a part of but no separate profile.
My dad served in her. Dido could set up a wall of anti aircraft fire the length of the ship and as high as the ship and he said the Germans just as though seemingly impossible flew through that. He respect that they even as enemies were brave men and as a Christian prayed for them still.
Unrelated to this video but I would like to suggest a possible future video topic: "3/5/10/... most significant/underappreciated/subtle/... differences between WoWS/WT/... and reality". I feel like games like WoWS are quickly becoming the most significant sources of naval history enthusiasts these days, myself included. However all of them deviate from reality by quite a bit, either deliberately for balance or out of necessity to reduce complexity. Doing a crossover of a popular game vs reality would bring in many audiences, who up to this point are just gamers. And finally as a bonus, "top 3/5/10" represents one of the most attention-grabbing titles on TH-cam, so I think it will help your channel grow as well.
Wargames in which single similar ships square off are fun. For example, I often use Avalon Hill's old War at Sea and other (usually older) table top wargames to run single ship scenarios. Atlanta's vs. Dido's would be interesting.
Dido (/ˈdaɪdoʊ/ DY-doh; Ancient Greek: Δῑδώ, Latin pronunciation: [ˈdiːdoː]) was, according to ancient Greek and Roman sources, the founder and first queen of Carthage. Get it right!
Thanks to this Channel I would point out that the proliferation of AA mounts all over these ships is called bringing the cruisers up to American standards. Did I miss the actual rate of fire of those 4.25(?) inch cannons in the AA role? "Horrific" doesn't work on my computer conversion program.
I've always found it interesting that the US Navy considered the Atlantas bad for surface actions (largely due to Guadalcanal), while the RN seemed to love the Didos in that role.
Atlanta's British cousins. Her somewhat schizophrenic cousins who couldn't decide which caliber to mount and whether or not to keep that fifth turret. Everyone was quite worried for a bit. Fortunately said cousins proved to be made of stern stuff. And tea.
They could decide, problem was not the decision, problem was rate of manufacture of the guns..... Probably down to taking far to many tea breaks! More seriously though, the turrets turned out to be a pig to build, thus rates of manufacture simply could not keep up with the rate at which the guns were needed, hence the decision to downgun the last two hulls to 4.5's. We should probably have 'borrowed' a bunch of 5"38s from the States though.... Those guns would have turned the Dido's into AA monsters! True Mini Atlantas.
Years ago I made friends with a former crewman of Dido, he actually commissioned her and was aboard up to 1946. He was not impressed with the stability level of the ship, with a length to beam ratio of 9.7 : 1 (485 on the wl x 50 ft) she was too narrow and the top hamper of the 5 turrets caused fire control to be "sketchy" due to excessive rolling. The concept was good but the result was not especially so, which is probably why the RN ships did not remain in service that long. They looked pretty though, very handsome profiles.
My understanding was that the 5.25 in gun was not all that effective against aircraft until equipped with VT shells. (Note the low Japanese aircraft losses during the sinking of the Prince of Wales.)
The two Didos fitted with 4.5 inch guns, Scylla & Charybdis, were reputedly better AA ships. The Admiralty did not believe that a ship of the size of the Dido was acceptable without surface action capability, and the 5.25 was the smallest that they would tolerate.
interesting that the 4.5" gun was so successful. It seemed me that the a smaller AA gun would be preferable. Higher rate of fire, more shells carried, less turret weight.
The Didos were intended as multi-purpose light cruisers (sort of a follow on to the Aretheusa class) as well as AA ships, so they needed a main battery with enough range and firepower to be a credible threat to another light cruiser. The 5.25" was a compromise between that and being useful for the AAA role, so predictably it wasn't especially good at either but served well enough. The 4.5" was well known to be superior as a dedicated AAA weapon.
How the hell did Japan and Italy ever think they could win at sea in WW2. Japan had 22 light cruisers total and Italy 22 cruisers total while the UK built 16 Dido's in 6 1/2 years alone without the rest of the cruisers the UK had and the US who had even more.
Well they ran the Royal Navy West of Suez. Killed the Dutch. And mauled the Aussies, New Zealanders, American Navies for most the war. That is outstanding work by the IJN.
“Was still in service in 1985” So basically a way of saying no one knows what happened to her, just like HMS Radiant/Phra Ruang. Also Wikipedia claims one of Diadem’s 5.25-inch turrets is on display in Karachi but there’s no images or sources anywhere on the internet to corroborate the claim.
I seem to recall in Friedman's _British Cruisers_ that one issue with this class was some longitudinal compartments in the machinery spaces. If the class took torpedo/mine damage in this area where the compartment on one side flooded and the one on the other was not purposefully flooded the chance of the ship capsizing was much higher.
Might be interesting to expand on to some technical aspects .. engine types.. gun spotting I.E. K.M. stereoscopic. And or why didn't the I.J.N stick radar of any kind on more than a very few ships what were they thinking . Someone should of said .. hey hold on with all this dying for the emperor and start winning a few.
Pinned post for Q&A :)
Would it be fair to say that the Norway Campaign was a mistake for the German Navy given their losses especially in Destroyers
In Nelson to Vanguard D K Brown describes the Dido class as "well suited for the RN requirements - if only it had a better armament" and suggests x10 US 5in or x10 British 4.5 in. Do you think this change would have made a better ship over all? Also should the British focused there medium calibre gun work on the 4.5in instead of the 5.25in and 4.7in as the main gun for the Dido and its destroyers and the 2nd battery for larger ships?
Edit: for reference chapter 12 page 190.
Why? Litteraly why?
APDs of the US fleet were a good idea or just a dead end it the destoryer/Destoryer escort tech tree.
if the Pacific war go as the japaness plans, could they destory the whole us Pacific fleet?
"you expected this to be another Atlanta but its me,Dido!"
Good someone made a JoJo joke 😂
Will this inspire a similar ship with a all female crew called the Dildo?
spooky shadow hawk
Nope Brits in drag.
@@bearbuster157 Ah, Manly Men at sea doing Manly things to other Men. Those long sea voyages had negative effects.
spooky shadow hawk
Midshipmen willing to go fore or aft.
Atlanta, but fueled by tea.
And colonialism
Well, where do you think the tea comes from?
The 225677th Fragment of the Man-Emperor of Mankind don’t forget the 40mm crumpet launchers
And grog.
And biscuits
Thank you very much for this latest excellent video. I mentioned in a previous comment that my father served on Dido (tangentially he always referred to the ship as Dido, with an 'i' rather than 'Deedo'). From memory this was his first posting after completing training as an ERA at HMS Caledonia. Children never listen to stories and parents do not talk. As a result, my knowledge of my father's service is limited to half remembered anecdotes coupled with the excellent publication about the ship produced by the Dido Association. Nevertheless, I know that my father was part of the ship's company when she was on Malta Convoy duties, the evacuation of Crete - when she sustained considerable damage - , in the Italian campaign at the time of the Anzio and Salerno actions, convoys to Murmansk and so on. Following the damage sustained at Crete, she was sent, after temporary repair to New York. My father did not go to the USA and seems to have spent this time in South Africa. I have a photograph of him and some colleagues at that time. recently I scanned and enlarged it. I recognised my father (ages c 21), but he is gaunt and drawn. I do not know, but perhaps, after the horrific experience of the Crete evacuation, perhaps a group had been left in Johannesburg for some kind of PTSD recovery. Without looking up his record, my father left 'Dido' late 1944 (ish), being posted to HMS Seagull. Early in this posting the ship was involved in taking relief supplies and minesweeping duties on the River Scheldt to new liberated Rotterdam. Another story for another time. Thank you again for filling in a large number of blanks.
Alistair Goldsmith hi my Dad was a Chief Petty Officer on Dido. There are some photos online of her after action in the Med showing massive amounts of used shel cases lying on deck. Your pronunciation is correct. I would be interested in seeing the photo if possible
And I thought I was wrong for calling her "Dai Doh" instead of "Dee Doh". Same with Prinz Eugen "Oy Gun". Very nice!
My brother-in-law also served on Dido post-war. Great to hear of others that served too.
There were 3 men the photo my father showed me and I had no idea who they were. Well, one was my father.
I doubt if they were heavily stressed.
My father was also a Chief Petty Officer (Edward Smith) on HMS Dido through the Med and also to Murmansk and the surrender of Kms Prinz Eugen and Kms Nurnberg in Copenhagen.
My dad was on HMS Naiad when she was sunk. He was also on HMS Barham when it blew up. Very lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it.
My dad was also on HMS Naiad when it was sunk. I was reading the book 'Pursuit' by Ludovic Kennedy about the sinking of the Bismark and Naiad is mentioned as they sighted the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau near Greenland. I asked if he was onboard then and he said 'Yes, we gave chase - but we didn't catch them thank God'!
He survived two sinking, i'd say he was very lucky and happy for him.
@@stevewixom9311 For sure he survived one of the sinkings.
I did some research on a Dido Class which figured into my book BETWEEN THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED. She ends up, like any good warship, in a desperate fight with a German battleship. How she found herself in that situation and the obvious outcome was actually fun to write.
Did you like Alastair MacLean’s HMS ULYSSES?
Always been my favorite class. Mostly because of the novel HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean.
What a picture that novel creates! Tuberculosis and a Blucher class heavy cruiser to fight!
HMS ULYSSES was one of my favorite books. Douglas Reeman wrote some good ones as well.
The titular ship of Alistair MacLean's novel "HMS Ulysses" was a Dido class. It's a pretty good book.
Yep a good read.
I did one commission on HMNZS Royalist in1963-64.My first ship.She was the HMS ULYSSES .in Mcleans book I
wandered about the Ship,book in hand, Still have the book in 2019,And the cap tally.
My grandfather served on board HMS Diodem.
I didn't know these videos existed up until now!
A brilliant insight to these ships, thank you. X
This ship class is one of those i would love to see in WOWS at T6 or something it could be very fun to play with.
And also a great video as always.
its funny because she is in the mobile version of the game as a tier 6 premium, i cannot for the life of me work out why she isnt the PC version...
@@locomotiveAlex1996 I noticed a while back they were planning on adding her to mobile but with the CV rework on PC it would have been the perfect time to introduce a mid teir British AA cruiser.
The ship is in WT, if you are willing to feed the snail to get the ship.
Or T7? With 5 second reload on the guns it would be pretty fun :)
@@andreaspedersen3952 5 second reload would mean 12 shots per minute, this ship's guns never got to that rate of fire. 7-10 at best.
Could you do a comparison of the 40mm pom pom and the Bofers? Specifically the effectiveness, weight, and power requirements.
Or an AA gun spacial
Look in the description. He’s already doing an AA special.
@@nicjobro_4653 World of Warships channel has 2 good videos on the 40mm and 20mm guns.
Short version: The pom-pom was shit and got replaced wherever possible (usually with the Bofors) as soon as possible after the first few attempts to use it in actual combat demonstrated its lack of effectiveness :P.
From what I hear, the pompom was one of the better medium AA guns of the war. The Bofors 40 just was a world beater in its class.
Great video
Although rushed into service I love how you pointed out just how formidable these ships became after all the teething troubles were corrected.
Thankyou author for H.M.S Black Prince mention, on which my Dad served in WW2 Leading Telegraphist Chas Thomas and mentioned in dispatches.
This year 2019 I also read a reprint report in The Daily Mail as part of Commemorations describing her in action 'pounding' the German shore defences on 6th June.
Other tours included Arctic convoy escorting, goings on in the Med and Indian Ocean, en route to The South China Sea when Uncle Sam abruptly defeated Japan.
The main armament as fitted were capable of deafening the old man in one ear to the tune of a Pension to the end of his days, God bless.
A big thank you is owed to all who served. Keep.up the excellent work Drach! Highlight of my week mate.
I wanted to make a ship review of this in War Thunder. Gaijin has jet to fix the hoorendous dispersion that make BBs in WoWs look accurate
Well since it's not the first time they mess up in naval, I'm pretty sure they "cough" would look at it very soon
The WOWS BBs are actually a lot more accurate than actual BBs. Yes even the American ones.
Bk Jeong Montana is pretty accurate tho. Nothing like the [definitely not Russian bias tier X rail-gun boat], but still good.
In WoWS, BB's are roughly ten times more accurate than in real life - in WoWS, it is quite easy to achieve a 30% to 50% hit rate with BB's - in real life, a 3% to 5% hit rate was considered to be doing quite well, if not excellent.
Mr. Narwhal
That’s the problem. Even late-war American fire control never got anywhere near as accurate as WOWS BBs.
My grandfather served of the Bellona variant, HMS Black Prince and it wasn't till he passed how the ship went duering the war. This included the D-day landings through to operations in the pacific a well traveled ship and Grandfather.
"I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door"
Sorry I had to.
And I want to thank you.
Beat me to it...
Truly yours your biggest fan this is Stan.
“She was still doing forty knots, driving in under the guns of the enemy, guns at maximum depression, when "A" magazine blew up, blasted off the entire bows in one shattering detonations. For a second, the lightened fo'c'sle reared high into the air" then it plunged down, deep down, into the shoulder of a rolling sea. She plunged down and kept on going down, driving down to the black floor of the Arctic, driven down by the madly spinning screws. The still thundering engines her own executioners.”
@@abnurtharn2927 HMS Ulysses?
My Grandad was a gunner on HMS sirius ww2. thanks for this video. 👍
This is now a good time to read Alastair McLean's HMS Ulysses, set about a fictional modified Dido on a Murmansk trip.
Hoo boy. It's ben at lest two decades since I last read it. Time to dig it out for another trip across the North Atlantic with the Kapok Kid.
@@johngregory4801 Roger that! I still have my copy around here somewhere … need to find it.
I read it every few years. It's one of he best books I have ever read.
As I recall, the fictional HMS Ulysses was a Leander class light cruiser.
@@stevenpilling5318 no. It was Dido, but with only eight 5,25 inch guns, I think idea came from His duty on HMS Royalist. After all its metionined in the book
Funny. I'm right now trying to sink the Dido in Atlantic Fleet. How convinient
Drachinifel I absolutely love your channel!
Good morning, Drach!🌄
I love your channel Drachinifel, you always manage to provide interesting information that I was not aware of. This chapter is another winner sir. Bravo Zulu.
My dad jokingly called these 'the best destroyers ever'. Why are these not in World Of Warships?
Idk maybe because people would hate another Atlanta esk ship
@@lordredlead2336 Why? These fire a heavier shell.
@@benlaskowski357 yeah look at other cruisers with even heavily shells but I agree they should add it
@@lordredlead2336 Faster rate of fire, too, but it'd have glass turrets and almost no armor.
@@benlaskowski357 with a lower rate of fire and horrible turret traverse
Lovely lookers these cruisers!
Alistair Maclean's first novel, HMS Ulysses, was set on a Dido class cruiser escorting a Murmansk convoy. MacLean served aboard HMS Royalist during the war.
My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
the morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall
it reminds me that it's not so bad
it's not so bad
Huh ?
It's the start of a song by the singer Dido.
No Bae it's bad it's pretty bad go write another song....oh Opps sorry your careers gonna flaccid as your looks :p
i've be waiting for this ship to show up in one of your video and keep up the good work
Thanks Drach. Dido is my favorite class of WWII ship.
Probably my favourite RN cruisers.
Now that is a cool ship. Wish there was one still around. Great video as always. Thanks for such a great channel.
See also, "HMS Ulysses" by Alistair McLean. One of the classic war at sea novels.
HMS Ulysses ?
the inspiration for it anyway
I was wondering why he didn't mention Ullyses.
Been awhile since I read that one, may have to dig it out. See if it does seem to be a Dido!
Yeah, Ulysses was a four-turret Dido-class. Read it as a boy and loved it.
@@kendramalm8811 The author served on a Dido while on Arctic convoys. I think he was on Royalist, but in not 100%.
"Hellooo!!! mY nAme'S DIDO!!!"
"Dido please..."
Kitchen Nightmare 😂
Beautiful ships!
My favourite cruisers, thank you for the excellent and informative video.
Hint: I always keep a notepad document off to the right of the screen, with the metric vs imperial calibres, and the weight in kg of an average shell. It helps to visualise the difference between the guns. I'm old, but think in metric (mostly, lol), so I imagine younger viewers will be even more so.
I absolutely love your vids can you help..... My dad was on an O class destroyer (HMS Orwell to be exact) during WW2 doing Atlantic and Arctic convoys, I was wondering if there would be any chance of you looking into this hard working class of destroyer.
My uncle served on HMS Diadem, artic convoys and Normandy bombardment. Id love a 5 minute quide to her!
Idk why but i love this ship
My grandad served on HMS royalist, always said it was a great ship!
HMS DIDO USED MIMIC! ITS SUPER EFFECTIVE!
w8w8w8
Dido is a classical fleet cruiser, as was their direct ancestor(Arethusa class). Their employment mostly mirroring just that.
I know their history, but trade protection just doesn't work this way.
Great video, love your work. Could you do a profile on HMS Norfolk one day? I know you have done the County class in general. But HMS Norfolk’s roll in the sinking of two German battle ships is quite interesting.
Matthew Armstrong I think he already has
Trains, planes and automobiles have.
@@gamewarrior010 I can't find any evidence he has when I search his videos. She is mentioned in several battles she was a part of but no separate profile.
I got Norfolk confused with Sheffield
But also. Check the list
@@gamewarrior010 Yes, there's one for the Norfolk at th-cam.com/video/MG_aB1ym8Qc/w-d-xo.html
My dad served in her. Dido could set up a wall of anti aircraft fire the length of the ship and as high as the ship and he said the Germans just as though seemingly impossible flew through that. He respect that they even as enemies were brave men and as a Christian prayed for them still.
Very well done as always....Thanks..!
ALWAYS look forward to your videos!
3:08. War were declared
Charming and informative as ever.
The two didos that had 4.5inch guns should be in wows. If there the guns on the daring, I think they could make tier 6
Unrelated to this video but I would like to suggest a possible future video topic: "3/5/10/... most significant/underappreciated/subtle/... differences between WoWS/WT/... and reality". I feel like games like WoWS are quickly becoming the most significant sources of naval history enthusiasts these days, myself included. However all of them deviate from reality by quite a bit, either deliberately for balance or out of necessity to reduce complexity. Doing a crossover of a popular game vs reality would bring in many audiences, who up to this point are just gamers. And finally as a bonus, "top 3/5/10" represents one of the most attention-grabbing titles on TH-cam, so I think it will help your channel grow as well.
Black Prince (408), Sirius (371) with a BFS and Dido (107) with a BFS
Thank you Sir.
This needs to be in WOWS as a light AA cruiser.
"with a bit more colonialism thrown in" lol that's pretty funny
Wargames in which single similar ships square off are fun. For example, I often use Avalon Hill's old War at Sea and other (usually older) table top wargames to run single ship scenarios.
Atlanta's vs. Dido's would be interesting.
Sorry, I thought that said " HMS Dildo".
It is actually a town in Newfoundland, you know.
It's hell being dyslexic sometimes.
Dido (/ˈdaɪdoʊ/ DY-doh; Ancient Greek: Δῑδώ, Latin pronunciation: [ˈdiːdoː]) was, according to ancient Greek and Roman sources, the founder and first queen of Carthage. Get it right!
That was interesting, never heard of the Dido class.
came from azur lane.... Historical Warships are Interesting....
Why do I watch this? My country is completely landlocked and ships irrelevant and uniteresting to the defence. Can it be that its just good content?
Someone might build a long canal...
Navies are sexy; but, you'd never get me to serve in one(ex-Army).
Heh! My hometown is in the middle of the US, about as far from salt water as you can get. My Dad wanted me to join the USAF but … USN retired here.
I am from Japan to see our ships from the 1930s and 40's you have to be able to hold breath for quite some time
Drach: "...they proved terifying prospec to spit out shels at enormous unbelievable rate..."
WG: "our sikrit documents does not prove it"
I would certainly hate to be caught between the the two ships of this class that mounted the 4.5" gun.
1. Unlock a new ship in Warthunder.
2. Search for Drachi's guide on it.
3. Pray that he says it wasn't complete crap.
Q: How do you make pickle bread?
A: DILL DOUGH!
Thanks to this Channel I would point out that the proliferation of AA mounts all over these ships is called bringing the cruisers up to American standards.
Did I miss the actual rate of fire of those 4.25(?) inch cannons in the AA role? "Horrific" doesn't work on my computer conversion program.
I've always found it interesting that the US Navy considered the Atlantas bad for surface actions (largely due to Guadalcanal), while the RN seemed to love the Didos in that role.
Good post. Comment: with the advent of the proximity fuze, the US 5in/38 arguably became the world class AAA naval mount.
Atlanta's British cousins. Her somewhat schizophrenic cousins who couldn't decide which caliber to mount and whether or not to keep that fifth turret.
Everyone was quite worried for a bit. Fortunately said cousins proved to be made of stern stuff. And tea.
They could decide, problem was not the decision, problem was rate of manufacture of the guns..... Probably down to taking far to many tea breaks! More seriously though, the turrets turned out to be a pig to build, thus rates of manufacture simply could not keep up with the rate at which the guns were needed, hence the decision to downgun the last two hulls to 4.5's. We should probably have 'borrowed' a bunch of 5"38s from the States though.... Those guns would have turned the Dido's into AA monsters! True Mini Atlantas.
HMS Dido...or, Britain's attempt at *MOAR DAKKA!!!!!*
I like how you say "pom poms"
Dazzle ships something else.
Hello Drach! Any chance of a video on the Japanese Takao class. Handsome ships loaded, (or perhaps, OVER-loaded ) with firepower!
Years ago I made friends with a former crewman of Dido, he actually commissioned her and was aboard up to 1946. He was not impressed with the stability level of the ship, with a length to beam ratio of 9.7 : 1 (485 on the wl x 50 ft) she was too narrow and the top hamper of the 5 turrets caused fire control to be "sketchy" due to excessive rolling. The concept was good but the result was not especially so, which is probably why the RN ships did not remain in service that long. They looked pretty though, very handsome profiles.
At the 5:01 mark, you show a stern rack and a K gun...did these do anti sub as well? Or just no better pic available?
What if question. If there had been no interwar naval treaties, what would the RN cruiser fleet have looked like when WW2 started?
I'm enjoying your videos, have you covered the Black Swan Class?
Not yet :)
"super Duper" firing in the front
I love how he says 'pom pom'
Commissioned in Pakistan Navy as PNS Jahangir later renamed as PNS Babur.
there is no greater disrepect to war ship than the breakers yard
My understanding was that the 5.25 in gun was not all that effective against aircraft until equipped with VT shells. (Note the low Japanese aircraft losses during the sinking of the Prince of Wales.)
The two Didos fitted with 4.5 inch guns, Scylla & Charybdis, were reputedly better AA ships. The Admiralty did not believe that a ship of the size of the Dido was acceptable without surface action capability, and the 5.25 was the smallest that they would tolerate.
interesting that the 4.5" gun was so successful. It seemed me that the a smaller AA gun would be preferable. Higher rate of fire, more shells carried, less turret weight.
The Didos were intended as multi-purpose light cruisers (sort of a follow on to the Aretheusa class) as well as AA ships, so they needed a main battery with enough range and firepower to be a credible threat to another light cruiser. The 5.25" was a compromise between that and being useful for the AAA role, so predictably it wasn't especially good at either but served well enough. The 4.5" was well known to be superior as a dedicated AAA weapon.
Nice vid! Keep up the good work!
great stuff................IJN Yubari please :P
Look at my shipfu she is beautiful
How the hell did Japan and Italy ever think they could win at sea in WW2. Japan had 22 light cruisers total and Italy 22 cruisers total while the UK built 16 Dido's in 6 1/2 years alone without the rest of the cruisers the UK had and the US who had even more.
Well they ran the Royal Navy West of Suez. Killed the Dutch. And mauled the Aussies, New Zealanders, American Navies for most the war. That is outstanding work by the IJN.
They thought we would quit. Wrong answer
Can you please do a review of the Bathurst Class Corvette of the RAN.
Maybe a slight more detail into the “teeth issues” ship had would be appropriate? As in this class, you mention difficulty manufacturing turrets. Why?
“Was still in service in 1985”
So basically a way of saying no one knows what happened to her, just like HMS Radiant/Phra Ruang.
Also Wikipedia claims one of Diadem’s 5.25-inch turrets is on display in Karachi but there’s no images or sources anywhere on the internet to corroborate the claim.
She'd really make a nice tier 7 to 9 ship in World of Warships. AA and a potential hunter killer of DD's. Come on St.Petersburg, git 'er done!
Not going to lie I'm only here because I got an Isle of Man 50p with HMS Dido on it and plan to make it a pendant :D
I seem to recall in Friedman's _British Cruisers_ that one issue with this class was some longitudinal compartments in the machinery spaces. If the class took torpedo/mine damage in this area where the compartment on one side flooded and the one on the other was not purposefully flooded the chance of the ship capsizing was much higher.
didn't we had these in Empire Earth? :)
Is there a housing complex in that superstructure ? Some pictures make it look like someone said ..here pile this on it's a bowling alley
I see a perfect spot for an ASROC launcher here.
HMS sirius my waifu
Might be interesting to expand on to some technical aspects .. engine types.. gun spotting I.E. K.M. stereoscopic.
And or why didn't the I.J.N stick radar of any kind on more than a very few ships what were they thinking .
Someone should of said .. hey hold on with all this dying for the emperor and start winning a few.
This inspired me to fire up War Thunder again. I just took down 4 destroyers and a cargo ship with Dido.