03:02:46 - Over-penetration of shells in battle? 03:04:56 - Wood planking on dreadnoughts sides 03:07:49 - How effective was the U.S. Civil Air Patrol both to morale and combat effectivenes? 03:08:37 - Palliser conversion method for old guns 03:15:11 - Italian jet boats 03:17:44 - Why so many changing camo patterns in WW2? 03:20:38 - How did the four-stacker destroyers compare to their contemporaries? 03:23:14 - What did the Allies do when Engima wasn't broken? 03:26:38 - Intel and engineering contributions to the pre-WW1 naval arms race? 03:32:32 - Remote control torpedo bomber? 03:36:45 - Short notice harbour defence? 03:39:13 - Why did the Germans get the drop on the British at the Battle of Sept-Îles? 03:41:51 - How else could the Scharnhorsts be rearmed? 03:46:46 - In the Age of Sail, how did ships have a flame to light match cord, lanterns, and ovens? Did ships have a special perpetual flame lantern or did they just break out the flint and steel. 03:49:19 - Why was the USN the only nation to stick triple turrets on their treaty and ww2 heavy cruisers? Every other nation except japan seems to use 4 twin turrets. 03:54:44 - Why did late 19th century warships still carry solid shot? 03:59:48 - At it's height during the late American Civil War, how did the Union Navy compare to the traditional European naval powers? 04:07:33 - Late war dive vs torpedo bomber casualties? 04:12:34 - USS Montana and other cursed battleship names 04:17:13 - What was the first warship vs warship fight? 04:22:12 - What was the practical value of calling ships like South Dakota "code names" such as "Battleship X"? 04:24:58 - Which ship or ships have the biggest gulf between how effective/well designed they were and how much you like them? 04:28:52 - Do you believe that the minor refit and addition of the 40mm bofors to the USS Enterprise before the battle of Santa Cruz had any real effect in the battle or were they less effective due to being new systems and the crew still getting used to using them over the original Quad 1.1 inch mounts? 04:36:59 - Why were the Ironclads, well, Ironclads instead of Steelclads? 04:42:10 - Differences in US commanders at Guadalcanal? 04:47:13 - No IJN sailors picked up at Midway? 04:50:23 - Destroyer, Destroyer Escort, Frigate, Corvette, Sloop. Why were there so many different designations for WWII escort ships? What were the practical differences between ships of the different types and the roles they played? 04:54:01 - When is a battle not a battle? 04:56:32 - Depth charge shortages? 05:00:32 - Did navigational aids such as range markers and light houses remain active during the two world wars? 05:02:44 - Neutrality stripes in the late 1930's? 05:05:08 - Last Japanese carrier planned? 05:08:32 - What couldn't Japan build for itself in WW2? 05:10:51 - Were 'the guns of Malta' much of a threat? 05:12:35 - Tudor era 'great ships'? 05:18:17 - Fake debris from U-Boats? 05:21:20 - Would HMS Tiger would have made a better and cheaper "Alaska" than the Alaska? 05:25:41 - B5N's with converted AP shells at Santa Cruz? 05:27:37 - Are there any specific individuals in the various government or private design bureaus that stood out for their skill, influence, etc? 05:29:51 - Although the treaty system was obsolete by the time she was laid down, did HMS Vanguard technically comply with the escalator clause limit of the Second London Naval Treaty? 05:30:37 - What's the deal with the stories of sailors having to chip away paint from brand new ships because the paint was a firehazard. Why was the paint applied in the first place if its dangerous? 05:32:45 - In the Age of sail what were Iron canon treated with to preserve them? Were they blued, blacked, or just oiled daily or something else entirely? 05:34:42 - Common seaman and banking prize money 05:39:23 - Why did US ships of the line look different? 05:42:57 - Dangers of sailing against or into the wind? 05:48:31 - With the Mark 14 hampering American submariner efforts in the pacific, were there many British submarines in the area getting much greater success in the early parts of the pacific war with their non faulty torpedoes? 05:51:00 - What were the fastest warships that were commissioned, by class; Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship, Aircraft Carrier? 05:53:06 - Would you describe the army navy rivalry of Japan as a distinct phenomenon, above and beyond that in other countries, or is it more just a reflection on the particularly chaotic nature of the Japanese armed forces? 05:55:39 - What were the expansions to naval infrastructure for the USN from the Naval Act of 1916 and how much did they influence the USN ability to build up their fleet during the Second World War and in the pre war build up? 05:58:34 - Had displacement not been as restrictive in the interwar naval treaties, would the US navy continue to use and develop turbo-electric propulsion on large warships leading into World War II and beyond? 06:01:15 - How does the position of the sun affect long range naval gunnery, until the invent of radar based gunnery? 06:05:15 - Gyroscopes and fire control 06:10:49 - Were the admirals right that the US was over relying on the questionable B-36 for nuclear deterrence and that the Navy should have a role to play in it as well, or was it just a case of the Navy’s pride being injured due to ship cancellations, budget cuts and armed forces unification? 06:13:20 - Channel Admin
Given how poor the german between war modern light cruisers were.. would they not have been better simply building 4 or 5 cl emden follow ons .. just with the preferred dual 5.9s on the ends.. the only drawback would be the lack of a spotter aircraft unless one was incorporated... I wargamed this year's ago and even with single 5.9s they were massively more useful due to range and anti commerce capacity.. if they built more realistic destroyers with 4.1s this would free up tonnage and eqyipment for at least 2 more =maybe 7 and if coupled with other reductions could be even greater... thanks in advance
Suggestion: in the description, when you you run out of room for further bookmarks/chapter/questions put instead something along the lines of "See pinned comment for further comment" so when that section is up, it doesn't read as one really long question
Drach, Recently I commissioned as an officer into the RAN. On two different levels, I want to say thankyou. Firstly, your videos were a major source of inspiration for me to pursue a naval career, making me a much more suitable and knowledgeable candidate in the process. Secondly, your are an incredibly hardworking TH-camr who has without failure continued to deliver content that is well researched, articulated and interesting over the years. For both these things, I give you my most sincere thanks, and look forward to watching for many more years to come.
Anyone else think that this particular episode has wall-to-wall interesting and excellent questions? And how after all these years it's still dumbfounding how the stretch and depth of Drach's naval knowledge enables him to answer them all?
The relationship between the patreons who ask extremely good questions and Drach being able to answer them is one of the greatest accomplishments in all of youtube by far
Yes, I've noticed some annoyance lately that there where a lot of repeat questions, but this one has some really interesting one's. I suspect the increased variance in the Special's topics helps a bit.
Not at first. A lot of questions beginning "What if...". If I want naval fiction, I can find it elsewhere. "What if" questions are not history and speculation should not be in a historian's remit. But they get answered because they're paid for 🙄 Having listened further, it got better.
@@vonskyme9133 I need to come up with an appropriately similar name along the lines of “Belatedly battering bastard Beatty” when I'm in a financial position to join the Patron question horde.
These drydocks are the most entertaining/educational (naval history wise) content there is on youtube and is perfect to listen to especially when you have a few hours to kill. It's almost like a podcast!
I love that legions numbering tens of thousands of us Drachinites can spew out knowledge about French high explosive armor piercing ammunition that was okay but not great. Life is good 👍
K but thats what he says about all French stuff. Germany is always behind. The pasta boys r the underdog he roots for. And he don't talk bout after 1950 cause be cant say the brits are the best. Oh yeah Russians sit in port and drink vodka
I love I can now confidently talk for hours about the big players of20th Century’s first half. I have the USN Alabama just 500 miles away. Planning a second visit, now I understand better. Thanks Drach!
06:01:15 This was exactly what happened at Coronel. Cradock tried to engage the German squadron while he had the sun at his back, hoping to take advantage of the light blinding the German gunners. But Von Spee used his speed advantage to stay out of range until the sun set behind the British ships, which backlit the British perfectly while his ships became hidden in the growing dark. Von Spee then closed in for the kill.
Just when I get caught up with all the back-episodes of Drydocks, Drach lays down a 6+ hour. Also, I can confirm that the USN used light beacons in WWII (at least for the California coast) because a particular beach near me is named for its beacon. I've never found a photo of it, but I've met a few longtime locals that remember it.
I've listened to every single drydock at least once. Now I got this one to listen to. I'll either finish it tomorrow (it's 11:53pm here rn) or I'll listen to it all at once when I can't sleep. Then I need to wait another week for the next one (and use that week to listen to the others again)
@@jamesharding3459 I am doing accounting and cannot listen to something I really want to learn while working. It only ends up with me doing a bad job while missing most of Drach's show.
Drach, your videos are truly exquisite. They contain a simply unparalleled amount of pertinent content, knowledge, expertise, and humor. I'll continue to watch, like, comment, and further enjoy my subscription. Keep it up, you're doing a wonderful job!
I get the feeling that Sir Cowan would be the type of person who'd randomly fire a rifle or pistol out his bedroom window for giggles. Or maybe throw small explosive devices over his neighbors fence to wake everyone up. I bet when he attacked that Italian tank, it was like the scene of Lancelot charging the castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Absolutely fantastic video as always Drach.
FATHER: You only killed the bride's father, that's all! LANCELOT: Well, I really didn't mean to... FATHER: Didn't mean to?! You put your sword right through his head!
Started with the patreon release and it's Tuesday evening now. Some of us have to go outside and interact with the world for most of the day. All power to your elbow sir.
In reference to the Italian sabotage of the base at Massawa a good book describing the damage and the salvage operations, is Edward Ellsberg's "Under the Red Sea Sun". which is now available as an E-Book from Amazon.
It's a great book. And for anybody else interested the books also covers how the Italians sabotages the machine shops in the port to further delay and hamper salvage / clearance efforts. (Fortunately they weren't systematic enough about it it and didn't make sure to wreck the same parts on all identical machines; allowing bootstrapping via cannibalizing) Ellsberg also has a great book about the interwar raising of the sub S-51; "On the Bottom". Unfortunately I didn't find his other 2 WWII books ("No Bugles, No Banner" North African salvage and "The Far Shore" leadup to D-Day) quite as interesting as "Under the Red Sea Sun". No fault of his as a writer -- simply the situation the navy assigned him to there weren't as interesting to me as clearing Massawa.
On Secondo Campini' motorboat in Venice: I found several online Italian sources and as far as I can tell, it was a testbed for a Pump-jet design, Campini used an Airforce engine on a motorboat hull provided by the Regia Marina. The Airforce later went on to fund his jet aircraft project and the RM went on to commission a pair of hyrojet minisubs which weren't delivered in time before Italy's surrender. Note: sources are conflicting as hell, it took me a while to realize why some source said the Navy / Airforce funded Campini, turns out it was the hull/engine sourcing.
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I love how there are so many Timestamps in these 6 hr Videos, that youtube just gives up in the timeline of the Video halfway through :) Also beeing from Emden, It is nice to hear the Emden mentioned :)
Re: Naval lessons learned from WWI. The Germans figured out Wolfpack tactics due to their failures vs British convoys. But arguably the Japanese had the greatest learning curve. They had much difficulty deploying into the Mediterranean. Their fleet logistics was a seachange (pun intended) from pre-war practices. Without the experience from the Med in WWI, it seemed unlikely they would had their successes in WWII. This was a major doctrinal shift for them.
I say Japan would have some logistical issues operating in the Mediterranean during WW2, granted the Italians would have more issues deploying destroyers in the Pacific. But it would be fun if they tried :)
@@theacme3 Unless Drach was born at least 137.79 years ago, he was not a native to any degress of a Bolivia with a marine coast. He seems like an "old soul," but not that old. See, Treaty of Ancón, October 20, 1883.
Right around 4:46:00 I heard someone asked a question about Japanese not wanting to surrender & become POW's. I forget now exactly where it was but the British had about 1200 Japanese surrounded in a mangrove swamp & the swamp was infested with crocodiles. Lots of very large crocodiles, as in about 20 or 30 crocodile that were over 20 foot long. Plus hundreds of crocs that were smaller. The Japanese wouldn't come out & surrender but every night the Brits could hear them getting attacked. And they set up a loud speaker urging them to come out & surrender. I'm not sure how long this went on, 3 days to a week I guess. But when they FINALLY came out & surrendered there were only about 400 Japs left. I want to say it was in Burma but I'm not sure. Anyway, it's known for the largest loss of life due to crocodile attacks. Idk, the threat of being eaten by a crocodile, I think I'll be a POW instead, thank you very much. It makes you wonder how many went to take a crap but ended up as crocodile crap instead. P/s The Japanese considered surrender as dishonorable. All the ones that survived long enough to eventually surrender, I wonder if they finally realized that being eaten & digested by a crocodile wasn't very honorable either???? It's kinda horrible that the largest loss of human life due to crocodile attacks happened to the Japanese & the largest loss of human life due to shark attacks happened to the Americans both during WW2 while at war with each other.
Thanks for answering my question Drach so succinctly (as well as my previous one about Somerville at Mers El Kebir from one or two Drydocks ago as well, btw). I remember reading about that cruiser being equipped with solid shot and just being incredibly confused; your answer definitely makes a lot of sense. As usual, the simplest answer is the correct one, who'd have thought it haha? Keep up the good work, mate!
Regarding Japanese survivors at Midway, Walter Lord's Book Incredible Victory, in the chapter titled "Home Again," recounts 2 Mikuma (by name) and quite a few Hiryu engine room crew survivors that picked up by the USN. In the case of the Hiryu survivors, stopped watches affixed the Hiryu sinking time.
The compartment for even settling is interesting.. back in the cog and neff era ships had planks left out of the decking to help the ship weather storms better by settling... with the crew concentring on bailing out as required and simple survival..
@@ThePointblank He mentioned in an early drydock that a fair bit of it was off the cuff - list of questions, answered offhand unless they required extra research.
much better questions than in the past. A lot of the questions were getting very repetitive in recent months. Some really great ones so kudos to the folks asking them.
Repeating orders: on a warship with a crew that has some experience, hearing problems would be a thing. Today we are used to modern hearing protection, but that was not a thing even in WW2 for most parts. The noise artillery or even something like a pistol makes can ruin your hearing and give you life long tinnitus with 1 shot if you are unlucky. The noise of guns are incredible bad for your hearing. A Captain could probably not take for granted that every one heard him even in a quiet setting without without rasing his voice a bit. People repeating the orders was just common sense on so many levels.
Re ships moving sideways when the guns fire. The conserved property will be momentum, not energy, so mv rather than half mv squared. For an Iowa firing a full broadside perpendicular to the keel, that's about one half of a metre per second. Given the position of the guns relative to the centre of gravity, roughly half will go into roll, so that leaves a quarter of a metre per second of sideways - enough to feel the ship lurch, but drag will damp it out in a metre or two of travel. Firing the forward battery over the bow - only 6 guns, but very little momentum going into pitch, so about a quarter of a meter per second again, but backwards; less drag means that the ship might glide back several metres over some tens of seconds if she started out stationary. Change in the ship's orientation isn't so easy to guesstimate and depends on which guns fire at what angle and the ship's moment of angular inertia around the ship's vertical axis, but I've just done a bit of back of an envelope calculating and I get a maximum of a degree or so for a ship under way at 10 m/s, possibly two or three degrees for a stationary ship.
4:30:00 Regarding the last surviving quad 1.1" Chicago Piano on CV6, it was located at the bow, under the overhang of the flight deck. In the Oct. '43 refit it got replaced, initially by two single-mount 20mm's, then at some later date, a twin 40mm .
05:01 Lighthouses: At on least occasion a light house outside Shetland was turned on as a navigational aid for a Catalina from 333 Squadron, to pick up an agent flying from German forces. The intelligence or security service was the link between the squadron and the light house service in cases like this.
In reference to the question about Hermes in her anti piracy roles like modern day did civilian crewed vessels try to defend them selves from boarding by spraying them with water hoses to prevent the pirates from climbing up the sides of ships? Also when did navies go from shoot first ask questions later to firing shots over the bow with the "heave to we in tend to board you" warnings.
Thanks Drach! The sunlight blinding optical FCS reminds me of how dive bombers pilots would use the sun to blind AA gunners when they could. Also, the Fritz X use by Germany makes me wonder why the USN didn't push for radio-guided ordinance for the Helldivers.
Is radio guided ordinance really that usefull for a dive bomber? Not a lot of flight time if the dive bomber pilot is dropping as intended. Guided ordinance for the level bombers like a B-17 would imho be a more logical application, as it might benefit B-17 strategic bombing missions and especially could improve the intended anti-ship flat level bombing missions in the Pacific: e.g. the flat bombing doctrine failed horribly, whereby dive bombing proved to be very effective early on in the conflict, even before the US joined the war.
@@Tuning3434 Probably not, but I was mainly curious in response to his reply regarding why dive bombers didn't receive many improvements that allowed them more safety for their attack runs.
Actually, I might have an answer to you question about USN radio-guided bombs on dive bombers. From the Wikipedia page of the ASM-N-2 Bat: “The Privateer was the primary launch platform for the Bat, but other aircraft were also modified to launch the weapon, including the Vought F4U Corsair, Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, and Grumman TBF Avenger. The primary post-World War II aircraft to carry the weapon was the P-2 Neptune.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-N-2_Bat
@@ReganSmash33 I know about the Bat, but thank you. It is actually a radar-guided bomb instead of radio-guided, so not all models could use it, and did not see use on Helldivers until after the war.
@William Mulvaney At the start of the war they were safer, but improvements to the Mark 13 torpedo by the latter half of the war meant the Avengers were launching their torpedoes from higher altitudes, higher speeds, and further out from their targets than what was previously the norm at Midway. Meanwhile, the Helldivers still had to be basically over their targets.
Watching the portion on the converted smoothbores. You mention the state of British coastal defences. Did Britain ever consider a "super gun" battery to close the Dover Strait? And was there a time when the technology to do so coincides with giant static guns not getting pummeled by aircraft?
Hi Drach, Regarding the relationship between commanding officers (COs) and their medical officers (MOs): the way it (should) work in practice is that the former is ultimately responsible for everything that happens regarding their ship, including their crew's health. The MO's role is purely advisory: whatever 'command' authority is limited to providing orders to the staff assigned to them regarding the clinical treatment he/she provides to their patients. Preventive medicine measures (eg vaccinations, antimalarials etc) are instituted by MOs, as authorised by their CO. In practice, naval COs nearly always accept and respect the advice they get from their MOs: if he/she doesn't, it'll be for the operational reasons you've described (such as weather). The key mitigation is that if the CO gets it wrong and someone dies or is permanently disabled without a really good reason, it's unlikely to be good for them career-wise. As for removing COs from command for medical reasons: usually it's not quite as dramatic as it sounds. It generally entails the MO talking to their medical superior: if he/she concurs the next step is for the latter to talk to the COs superior. Once again, the advice provided is just that. The key to making this work is *trust* between COs and his/her MO.... and by the crew towards both. It therefore helps if shore-based MOs have the best possible understanding of the navy's seagoing environment (helps avoid providing inherently stupid advice)... which is a bit hard if they haven't actually been to sea themselves.
2:09:00 approximately, we'd also be referring the North Carolina's as battlecruisers since the South Dakota's have the same guns but are actually armored against them. Lol funny to think about.
I find the idea of the Royal Navy capturing the Scharnhorst or the Gneisenau and slapping the triple 15"/42's designed for the KGV class on it/them hilariously satisfying.
Martial honour... would have been interesting if we had reacted to the scapa flow scuttling by demanding the break up of Germany or the resumption of open warfare... I wonder what treatment the scuttlers would have had at the hands of their own people then...
5:37:00 Thank you for squashing this annoying misunderstanding. Its such a pervasive myth that I can't even blame the person who asked. People for whatever reason constantly think (and repeat) that everyone but the upper/upper-middle/clerical classes in the past were illiterate. Being able to write things down is *really* useful, do you think they'd just not learn because "Tormund Thunderfist had better things to do than make papers talk at him." I'm pretty sure Shadiversity did a video on the topic, people were literate in the past, pretty much everyone was (notable exceptions being slaves being kept illiterate intentionally in the USA) to some extent.
Sir Walter Cowan's biography alongside Jack Churchill's and Adrian Carton de Wiart's are one of those biographies that you can't even base a tabletop RPG campaign without being accused of pulling events out of thin air.
Dou you know why they kept a single mount requireing different spare parts, different amunition, different training and different fire sollutions than any other mount on the ship? I think the old phrase "They MUST have had their reasons..." applies here.
Funnily enough, like videodude26 I'm also reading The Rules of the Game and the quote about Captain Cowan had also caught my attention. This book is so good, it actually reads better than a lot of novels!
The IJN vs IJA rivalry was also fed by the centuries old clan rivalry with the Satsuma-clan dominating the Navy's higher ranks vs the Chōshū clan on the Army side. That's something all the other forces didn't have to deal with.
Ship camo schemes, the ms run, was also dependent on the over arching perceived threat. In 1943 it was subs, hence the dazzle types. Later in the war, the Kamikaze threat, dictated a change back to a more solid color scheme to better blend in the the ocean as seen from above.
On the 'Revolt of the Admirals', one needs to remember that Air Farce doctrine was based on strategic bombing uber alles with nothing in between. A more balanced military doctrine would be based on the idea that wars will range in intensity from low intensity conflicts to all out wars like WWII. The military has to be able to deploy the correct force package to the conflict without having to automatically escalate it to a nuclear war.
The Air Corps, Army Air Force, and Air Force all seemed to have an issue with that line of thinking until someone, and sometimes a war, beat it out of them.
4:17:18 The Egyptians fought against the "Sea Peoples" when they invaded the Nile Delta from the Mediterranean around 120 to 1175 B.C. where there was a definite plan to lure the Sea People into the Delta and fight them with archers and Egyptian ships. As this was a planned ambush against an attempted invasion, it's fair to say that both sides were using ships of war rather than merchants fighting pirates, for example.
On the question at 1:38:02. One reason, and this goes for pretty much any branch of service, the guys carrying out the orders are the enlisted guys. Combat is noise. enlisted men tend to learn to get used to responding to their direct superiors voice above all other noises. Once you've been mentally conditioned for it, his voice will pierce the sound under almost all conditions. This also helps, in closer quarters from a rattled enlisted taking orders from another officer that wasn't directed at him. he is mentally blocking out his voice and listening for his own commanders voice. There's also the need to ensure everyone in the chain of command understands what is going on at all times. If the captain walks over the helmsman and tells him to turn while, say, the Lt. who is actually the helms superior happens to be distracted, he might not know such an order was given and could either get in face of the helmsman thinking he screwed up, or even not notice they changed course and so his next order is not based on what is actually going on. By having the order go down the chain, even while the enlisted guy tasked with carrying it out is standing next the senior officer, it ensures everyone in the chain is fully situational aware of what is going on at the time. Military is all about mental conditioning. under most circumstances this is all over kill, especially in peacetime, but when the shit hits the fan you want everyone to mentally be on the ball and the only way to ensure everyone's brain is programed for it is to practice it 24/7, even when it's clearly not necessary.
As far as cursed names go, Amagi would seem to fit the bill. The battlecruiser was saved from scrapping under the Washington Naval Treaty by conversion to an aircraft carrier, except that the Great Kanto Earthquake broke her keel in half. And then another aircraft carrier Amagi was nominally completed on August 10, 1944, but never fully fitted out and never got an air wing, and capsized in port after being bombed on July 29, 1945. And while many Imperial Japanese Navy names have been reused by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, there's never been another Amagi.
As for lessons learned: - the Imperial Russian Navy put a lot of effort in gunnery training after Tsushima and the "Red Fleet" kept this up. The communists didn't execute all Tsarists officers straight away, many stayed in service for the early years at least (and were then executed after they spreaded their expertise). Not that any Russian Navy played a major role.
What are everyone's thoughts? If Admiral Scott and Admiral Willis Lee were swapped for their prominent Guadalcanal battles... How would have each fared?
How long would Lee have to train up his crews? His understanding and trust of radar should end in better results for the USN. Counter point, Lee had the results of earlier battles to help him understand what he was in for. IE, how good IJN torpedoes were.
@@CSSVirginia actually, even at Tassafaronga two weeks later the US had no idea just how good the Type 93 was. They specifically stated that the hits they took could not have come from torpedoes with speed and range characteristics similar to their own, and from there concluded that a submarine must have intervened. Lee's care to avoid torpedoes was a matter of general principal rather than awareness of how good Japanese torpedoes were. Lee probably would have used Helena as his flagship, as she had the superior SG radar. He certainly would have conducted some night firing practice as Scott did in the limited time he had to prepare. Scott wasn't brilliant out of the gate like Lee was, just good enough, and I'd be really concerned about the survival of Washington and South Dakota with anyone other than Lee in charge.
@2:11:01 you need to use the momentum equation here. KE going forwards won't necessarily be the same as that going backwards (indeed if their masses are different, they won't be the same).
1:44:00 British at Gibraltar: Hollow out the rock, stock supplies, build kill zones, introduce spainards to machine gun's effects. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi *furiously* taking notes
The inside of The Rock is amazing, in the middle there is huge theatre in there, also a hospital. To the north, facing towards Spain, there is a long tunnel a few metres behind the face of the rock with occasional portals for everything from rifles right up to huge guns. Now that Gib is an effectively semi-independent city state, the British military is nowhere to be seen and the inside of The Rock is over run with tourists.
it seem Cowan was a commando staff officer when he "attached himself" to the Indian 18th King Edward VII's Own Cavalry - of which he latter became honorary Colonel, and was captured after atacking an Italian tank with his Webley revolver. Exchanged, he returned to the Commandoes.
At 02:15:24 you mention the Fore River Shipyard. This is located just south of Boston, in the town of Quincy. The Fore river in Portland might be big enough to launch a small dinghy.
On the subject of the 1916 act and naval infrastructure, there was an incident in proof testing the 16"/45 Mark 1 where a teet shell landed on a civilian house in the summer of 1916. According to navweaps, "not long after this incident, Congress approved funding for what became the Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground".
On the question of older midshipman, is was very possible to pass the exam and be passed over promotion... there was a glut of junior officers. Those with no "influence" or who lacked the proper social graces often found themselves stuck
I was wondering if older midshipmen could be folks who join in their 20's after deciding to pursue glory on the seas instead of staying at home. Also, what about enlisted or junior NCO's having interest/talent in being officers?
Re: 01:08:48 - Power dynamic between a captain and the chief medical officer? When I was in the US Navy (in peacetime) I had an issue with the command's I was assigned to medical department. My department head (a Commander) told me that Line Officers run the Navy, not Medical Officers (MDs). Since the CO's decision stood after I went to a request Mast I believe my department head was correct.
Regarding fake debris (5:18:17) it may be worth noting that the 1943 film "We Dive at Dawn" had the use of fake debris, albeit by a British submarine, suggesting that if it wasn't done that didn't stop people thinking that it was a good idea.
Another hazard with 'tacking' as opposed to 'wearing' the ship is that if the ship was handled poorly and lost too much momentum as it came more into wind, it might fall back on to its original course instead of swinging through the into-wind position and taking up a new course on the opposite tack. I believe this was known as 'missing stays'.
01:17:47 - Franklin Roosevelt and the "Three Little Ships"? Send out a whaleboat with three men armed with Colt 1911A .45 calibre ACP pistols and find William Randolph Hearst!
The one thing about those guns at Gibraltar, both the coastal defense guns of the rock and the guns of Force H in the harbor, is the question of what kind of shells are available. The 15" guns at Singapore were useless against land invasion because they had few, if any, HE shells, being intended to repel attack from the sea by cruisers or battleships. An AP shell with a delay fuze of 0.02-0.05 seconds is effective tively going to dig its own grenade dump before going off well below ground, completely aside from having thicker walls producing fewer large fragments and a smaller bursting charge. If it came to that, the smaller coast defense and AA guns, and secondary and AA battery weapons on the ships, which would only have HE shells with point detonation fuses for use against destroyers or exposed superstructure, would be far more useful against infantry or tanks than comparatively small bursting charges from AP shells going off 20 feet under ground.
In regards the British Navy Midshipman rank, a significant number of officers in the age of sail were never midshipman - having gone from masters mate to Lieutenant. James Cook springs to mind (he was a merchant ship master’s mate before joining the navy).
3:44:00 You mention that it might've been possible to put a twin 16"/50 turret into a Scharnhorst barbette. In fact, a twin 16"/50 turret *was* designed historically, for the Lexington-class battlecruisers. Obviously that was a different 16"/50 gun, but since the turret design already existed and there's a few dozen 16"/50 Mark 2 barrels lying around without ships to put them into it would seem like a good choice. Unfortunately I haven't found any data on the barbette width of the Lexingtons, but it appears to be right around 10 meters. So that would probably have been a good fit for Scharnhorst's barbettes.
I listened to the live Saturday evening whilst busy in the workshop, but today I find myself listening again whilst doing my admin and filing: it's funny how i seem to be getting more out of the replay than the live, but, was it really six hours last night? Anyroad just wanted to say thanks, for the information and your dry humour, both of which i greater appreciate. Postscript: were these two different programmes?? There seems to be a whole lot i don't recall,, oh well passes the time between meetings of the Holy Order of the Blackburn Blackburn!
An excellent book on gunboat actions is. “GUNBOAT! Small Ships at War”, By Bryan Perrett. It describes some of the colonial actions of gunboats in the Caribbean, Africa and The South ChinaSea and Indonesia. If anyone has any other books on gunboat actions, I would be interested in hearing of them.
The RNZAF were also defending henderson field and I'm fairly sure that at least one faa artificer was present though I might be incorrect or this could have been a NZ chap... Therefore guadacanal was a US and Empire operation..
The southwest Pacific was always a US and Empire operation. Coral Sea included Crace with Australia and Hobart. Savo Island included Crutchley (of Narvik, sadly without Warspite) with Australia, Canberra, and Hobart. HMNZS Moa and Kiwi would sink a Japanese sub of Guadalcanal very late in the campaign. Imperial participation in the Pacific war would continue all the way through to the end, including such notables as HMAS Shropshire at Surigao Strait.
@@Colonel_Blimp largely, yes, which is part of the reason we don't hear much about Australian troops in the last few years of the war. At the same time, the battle force for Surigao Strait included HMAS Shropshire and Arunta, as one example.
Drach, would it have been more a case of Barratry than Mutiny for Souchon as he was placing the ship in danger against the wishes and will of the ship owners? Admiralty Law would suggest it is
The inefficiency of German WWII battleship turret design is fascinating, just another symptom of being out of the battleship building game for an extended period perhaps?
03:02:46 - Over-penetration of shells in battle?
03:04:56 - Wood planking on dreadnoughts sides
03:07:49 - How effective was the U.S. Civil Air Patrol both to morale and combat effectivenes?
03:08:37 - Palliser conversion method for old guns
03:15:11 - Italian jet boats
03:17:44 - Why so many changing camo patterns in WW2?
03:20:38 - How did the four-stacker destroyers compare to their contemporaries?
03:23:14 - What did the Allies do when Engima wasn't broken?
03:26:38 - Intel and engineering contributions to the pre-WW1 naval arms race?
03:32:32 - Remote control torpedo bomber?
03:36:45 - Short notice harbour defence?
03:39:13 - Why did the Germans get the drop on the British at the Battle of Sept-Îles?
03:41:51 - How else could the Scharnhorsts be rearmed?
03:46:46 - In the Age of Sail, how did ships have a flame to light match cord, lanterns, and ovens? Did ships have a special perpetual flame lantern or did they just break out the flint and steel.
03:49:19 - Why was the USN the only nation to stick triple turrets on their treaty and ww2 heavy cruisers? Every other nation except japan seems to use 4 twin turrets.
03:54:44 - Why did late 19th century warships still carry solid shot?
03:59:48 - At it's height during the late American Civil War, how did the Union Navy compare to the traditional European naval powers?
04:07:33 - Late war dive vs torpedo bomber casualties?
04:12:34 - USS Montana and other cursed battleship names
04:17:13 - What was the first warship vs warship fight?
04:22:12 - What was the practical value of calling ships like South Dakota "code names" such as "Battleship X"?
04:24:58 - Which ship or ships have the biggest gulf between how effective/well designed they were and how much you like them?
04:28:52 - Do you believe that the minor refit and addition of the 40mm bofors to the USS Enterprise before the battle of Santa Cruz had any real effect in the battle or were they less effective due to being new systems and the crew still getting used to using them over the original Quad 1.1 inch mounts?
04:36:59 - Why were the Ironclads, well, Ironclads instead of Steelclads?
04:42:10 - Differences in US commanders at Guadalcanal?
04:47:13 - No IJN sailors picked up at Midway?
04:50:23 - Destroyer, Destroyer Escort, Frigate, Corvette, Sloop. Why were there so many different designations for WWII escort ships? What were the practical differences between ships of the different types and the roles they played?
04:54:01 - When is a battle not a battle?
04:56:32 - Depth charge shortages?
05:00:32 - Did navigational aids such as range markers and light houses remain active during the two world wars?
05:02:44 - Neutrality stripes in the late 1930's?
05:05:08 - Last Japanese carrier planned?
05:08:32 - What couldn't Japan build for itself in WW2?
05:10:51 - Were 'the guns of Malta' much of a threat?
05:12:35 - Tudor era 'great ships'?
05:18:17 - Fake debris from U-Boats?
05:21:20 - Would HMS Tiger would have made a better and cheaper "Alaska" than the Alaska?
05:25:41 - B5N's with converted AP shells at Santa Cruz?
05:27:37 - Are there any specific individuals in the various government or private design bureaus that stood out for their skill, influence, etc?
05:29:51 - Although the treaty system was obsolete by the time she was laid down, did HMS Vanguard technically comply with the escalator clause limit of the Second London Naval Treaty?
05:30:37 - What's the deal with the stories of sailors having to chip away paint from brand new ships because the paint was a firehazard. Why was the paint applied in the first place if its dangerous?
05:32:45 - In the Age of sail what were Iron canon treated with to preserve them? Were they blued, blacked, or just oiled daily or something else entirely?
05:34:42 - Common seaman and banking prize money
05:39:23 - Why did US ships of the line look different?
05:42:57 - Dangers of sailing against or into the wind?
05:48:31 - With the Mark 14 hampering American submariner efforts in the pacific, were there many British submarines in the area getting much greater success in the early parts of the pacific war with their non faulty torpedoes?
05:51:00 - What were the fastest warships that were commissioned, by class; Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship, Aircraft Carrier?
05:53:06 - Would you describe the army navy rivalry of Japan as a distinct phenomenon, above and beyond that in other countries, or is it more just a reflection on the particularly chaotic nature of the Japanese armed forces?
05:55:39 - What were the expansions to naval infrastructure for the USN from the Naval Act of 1916 and how much did they influence the USN ability to build up their fleet during the Second World War and in the pre war build up?
05:58:34 - Had displacement not been as restrictive in the interwar naval treaties, would the US navy continue to use and develop turbo-electric propulsion on large warships leading into World War II and beyond?
06:01:15 - How does the position of the sun affect long range naval gunnery, until the invent of radar based gunnery?
06:05:15 - Gyroscopes and fire control
06:10:49 - Were the admirals right that the US was over relying on the questionable B-36 for nuclear deterrence and that the Navy should have a role to play in it as well, or was it just a case of the Navy’s pride being injured due to ship cancellations, budget cuts and armed forces unification?
06:13:20 - Channel Admin
Given how poor the german between war modern light cruisers were.. would they not have been better simply building 4 or 5 cl emden follow ons .. just with the preferred dual 5.9s on the ends.. the only drawback would be the lack of a spotter aircraft unless one was incorporated... I wargamed this year's ago and even with single 5.9s they were massively more useful due to range and anti commerce capacity.. if they built more realistic destroyers with 4.1s this would free up tonnage and eqyipment for at least 2 more =maybe 7 and if coupled with other reductions could be even greater... thanks in advance
Japanese tried to board a ship with gatlings in the Boshin war. It did not end well
If the Allied Fleet hadn't given up and gotten through the Dardanelles in 1915, how exactly could they have taken Constantinople anyway?
Yyh
Suggestion: in the description, when you you run out of room for further bookmarks/chapter/questions put instead something along the lines of "See pinned comment for further comment" so when that section is up, it doesn't read as one really long question
Drach,
Recently I commissioned as an officer into the RAN. On two different levels, I want to say thankyou. Firstly, your videos were a major source of inspiration for me to pursue a naval career, making me a much more suitable and knowledgeable candidate in the process. Secondly, your are an incredibly hardworking TH-camr who has without failure continued to deliver content that is well researched, articulated and interesting over the years. For both these things, I give you my most sincere thanks, and look forward to watching for many more years to come.
Fair winds and following seas, Jordan.
Best of British luck
Congratulations Ensign.👨✈️
L
WALTERBROADDUS its midshipman in the RAN.
Anyone else think that this particular episode has wall-to-wall interesting and excellent questions? And how after all these years it's still dumbfounding how the stretch and depth of Drach's naval knowledge enables him to answer them all?
The relationship between the patreons who ask extremely good questions and Drach being able to answer them is one of the greatest accomplishments in all of youtube by far
Yes, I've noticed some annoyance lately that there where a lot of repeat questions, but this one has some really interesting one's. I suspect the increased variance in the Special's topics helps a bit.
Not at first. A lot of questions beginning "What if...". If I want naval fiction, I can find it elsewhere. "What if" questions are not history and speculation should not be in a historian's remit. But they get answered because they're paid for 🙄
Having listened further, it got better.
@@lukedogwalker Some of them do get wild. Talking about this episode, though; most of the what if questions are in the Livestream.
@@lukedogwalker he use to have a What If series. To bad it was mostly Ship X vs Ship Y and he stopped it soon.
Every time the screen name of “Fisher Fishing Fresh Fishes...” comes up, you can just hear Drach thinking “I hate you *so* much.”
Still better than 'Schleswig-Holstein'. The Patron who selected that as his user name is my hero.
@@vonskyme9133 I need to come up with an appropriately similar name along the lines of “Belatedly battering bastard Beatty” when I'm in a financial position to join the Patron question horde.
@@vonskyme9133 from the next dry dock they shall be know as "that bloody ship's name"
@@jamesharding3459 no, 'The Infallible Beatty, Victor of Jutland'. I'd pay to hear him forced to say it (well, I already am. But I'd pay a bit more).
@@vonskyme9133 Oh, that would be hilarious!
Drach referred to my question at 3:59:48 as "quite interesting." No higher praise. :-D
a high praise indeed my friend.
" Lessons from Jutland, or how not to make your ships go boom." sounds like another possibility for a book.
Terrific aerial video at Chatham Dockyard. Excellent video, as always!
These drydocks are the most entertaining/educational (naval history wise) content there is on youtube and is perfect to listen to especially when you have a few hours to kill. It's almost like a podcast!
Agreed, they could be treated as such.
I love that legions numbering tens of thousands of us Drachinites can spew out knowledge about French high explosive armor piercing ammunition that was okay but not great. Life is good 👍
Or Italian shell quality.
Or the life and lies of the Kamchatka.
K but thats what he says about all French stuff. Germany is always behind. The pasta boys r the underdog he roots for. And he don't talk bout after 1950 cause be cant say the brits are the best. Oh yeah Russians sit in port and drink vodka
Draconians? Anyone?
I love I can now confidently talk for hours about the big players of20th Century’s first half. I have the USN Alabama just 500 miles away. Planning a second visit, now I understand better. Thanks Drach!
06:01:15 This was exactly what happened at Coronel. Cradock tried to engage the German squadron while he had the sun at his back, hoping to take advantage of the light blinding the German gunners. But Von Spee used his speed advantage to stay out of range until the sun set behind the British ships, which backlit the British perfectly while his ships became hidden in the growing dark. Von Spee then closed in for the kill.
Ah, another fan of Historiography, I see :)
@@MrNicoJac I am. But that's not where I learned this from.
One of the best descriptions of that is in Castles of Steel by Robert K.Massie.
Just when I get caught up with all the back-episodes of Drydocks, Drach lays down a 6+ hour. Also, I can confirm that the USN used light beacons in WWII (at least for the California coast) because a particular beach near me is named for its beacon. I've never found a photo of it, but I've met a few longtime locals that remember it.
So you actually manage to catch up with the dry dock? I have no chance at all to do that.
I've been working my way backwards through the list over the past year. I'm back to 32 but then I still have the livestreams parts of the drydocks.
I've listened to every single drydock at least once. Now I got this one to listen to. I'll either finish it tomorrow (it's 11:53pm here rn) or I'll listen to it all at once when I can't sleep. Then I need to wait another week for the next one (and use that week to listen to the others again)
@@erikgranqvist3680 I’m lucky, I can put it on while at work and let the knowledge flow over me. Perks of working in a warehouse over the summer.
@@jamesharding3459 I am doing accounting and cannot listen to something I really want to learn while working. It only ends up with me doing a bad job while missing most of Drach's show.
Drach, your videos are truly exquisite. They contain a simply unparalleled amount of pertinent content, knowledge, expertise, and humor. I'll continue to watch, like, comment, and further enjoy my subscription. Keep it up, you're doing a wonderful job!
Holy crap! I just got to this Drydock to find it's over six hours long! Now I need to schedule time over the next three days to listen to this one.
I get the feeling that Sir Cowan would be the type of person who'd randomly fire a rifle or pistol out his bedroom window for giggles. Or maybe throw small explosive devices over his neighbors fence to wake everyone up.
I bet when he attacked that Italian tank, it was like the scene of Lancelot charging the castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Absolutely fantastic video as always Drach.
You mean y'all don't do this???
:)
FATHER: You only killed the bride's father, that's all!
LANCELOT: Well, I really didn't mean to...
FATHER: Didn't mean to?! You put your sword right through his head!
Oh boy now I have to watch almost 11 hours of Drydock to catch up. What a day :)
Started with the patreon release and it's Tuesday evening now. Some of us have to go outside and interact with the world for most of the day. All power to your elbow sir.
In reference to the Italian sabotage of the base at Massawa a good book describing the damage and the salvage operations, is Edward Ellsberg's "Under the Red Sea Sun". which is now available as an E-Book from Amazon.
It's a great book. And for anybody else interested the books also covers how the Italians sabotages the machine shops in the port to further delay and hamper salvage / clearance efforts. (Fortunately they weren't systematic enough about it it and didn't make sure to wreck the same parts on all identical machines; allowing bootstrapping via cannibalizing)
Ellsberg also has a great book about the interwar raising of the sub S-51; "On the Bottom". Unfortunately I didn't find his other 2 WWII books ("No Bugles, No Banner" North African salvage and "The Far Shore" leadup to D-Day) quite as interesting as "Under the Red Sea Sun". No fault of his as a writer -- simply the situation the navy assigned him to there weren't as interesting to me as clearing Massawa.
There was a time I was falling asleep to his soothing voice. Now I fall asleep, wake up and he is still talking 🤣
On Secondo Campini' motorboat in Venice: I found several online Italian sources and as far as I can tell, it was a testbed for a Pump-jet design, Campini used an Airforce engine on a motorboat hull provided by the Regia Marina. The Airforce later went on to fund his jet aircraft project and the RM went on to commission a pair of hyrojet minisubs which weren't delivered in time before Italy's surrender.
Note: sources are conflicting as hell, it took me a while to realize why some source said the Navy / Airforce funded Campini, turns out it was the hull/engine sourcing.
I love how there are so many Timestamps in these 6 hr Videos, that youtube just gives up in the timeline of the Video halfway through :)
Also beeing from Emden, It is nice to hear the Emden mentioned :)
Re: Naval lessons learned from WWI. The Germans figured out Wolfpack tactics due to their failures vs British convoys.
But arguably the Japanese had the greatest learning curve. They had much difficulty deploying into the Mediterranean. Their fleet logistics was a seachange (pun intended) from pre-war practices. Without the experience from the Med in WWI, it seemed unlikely they would had their successes in WWII. This was a major doctrinal shift for them.
I say Japan would have some logistical issues operating in the Mediterranean during WW2, granted the Italians would have more issues deploying destroyers in the Pacific.
But it would be fun if they tried :)
"Being half Bolivian..."
Well, I guess that explains a few things, like why Drach gravitated towards Naval stuff.
Ah yes, the traditions of the Bolivian Navy 0___0
Bolivia vs Switzerland, a naval match-up for the ages.
And technically also actually feasible to do if you can get Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Germany to cooperate.
@@thomaslinton5765 if you check Bolivias history, they had coastline and therefore most probably a navi. It is Chile now.
@@theacme3 Unless Drach was born at least 137.79 years ago, he was not a native to any degress of a Bolivia with a marine coast. He seems like an "old soul," but not that old. See, Treaty of Ancón, October 20, 1883.
Right around 4:46:00 I heard someone asked a question about Japanese not wanting to surrender & become POW's. I forget now exactly where it was but the British had about 1200 Japanese surrounded in a mangrove swamp & the swamp was infested with crocodiles. Lots of very large crocodiles, as in about 20 or 30 crocodile that were over 20 foot long. Plus hundreds of crocs that were smaller. The Japanese wouldn't come out & surrender but every night the Brits could hear them getting attacked. And they set up a loud speaker urging them to come out & surrender. I'm not sure how long this went on, 3 days to a week I guess. But when they FINALLY came out & surrendered there were only about 400 Japs left. I want to say it was in Burma but I'm not sure. Anyway, it's known for the largest loss of life due to crocodile attacks. Idk, the threat of being eaten by a crocodile, I think I'll be a POW instead, thank you very much. It makes you wonder how many went to take a crap but ended up as crocodile crap instead.
P/s The Japanese considered surrender as dishonorable. All the ones that survived long enough to eventually surrender, I wonder if they finally realized that being eaten & digested by a crocodile wasn't very honorable either????
It's kinda horrible that the largest loss of human life due to crocodile attacks happened to the Japanese & the largest loss of human life due to shark attacks happened to the Americans both during WW2 while at war with each other.
2:51:20 I believe the man who saved the ship models was Peter Pett, commissioner of the dockyard, not Samuel Pepys. I could be wrong though...
Thanks for answering my question Drach so succinctly (as well as my previous one about Somerville at Mers El Kebir from one or two Drydocks ago as well, btw). I remember reading about that cruiser being equipped with solid shot and just being incredibly confused; your answer definitely makes a lot of sense. As usual, the simplest answer is the correct one, who'd have thought it haha? Keep up the good work, mate!
Regarding Japanese survivors at Midway, Walter Lord's Book Incredible Victory, in the chapter titled "Home Again," recounts 2 Mikuma (by name) and quite a few Hiryu engine room crew survivors that picked up by the USN. In the case of the Hiryu survivors, stopped watches
affixed the Hiryu sinking time.
The compartment for even settling is interesting.. back in the cog and neff era ships had planks left out of the decking to help the ship weather storms better by settling... with the crew concentring on bailing out as required and simple survival..
Not quite finished watching this one and Drydock 159 just dropped. Oy...
Keep up the great work! At this rate I'll never run out of things to watch!
We have had 10 hours Drach within two days..... “balls of steel, lovely boy, balls of steel”.
Close up for Action.
I think we owe him some Iron Brew
@@aj41926 hmm. Should we have a specific place to fund his Irn Bru intake?
@@PoulChrThomsen good question
Wow... another 6+ hour Drydock. No clue how you can manage this, Drach
Probably not recorded all at the same time. He is likely recording snippets at a time over a month's time, and editing them all together.
@@ThePointblank yeah that makes a lot of sense
@@ThePointblank He mentioned in an early drydock that a fair bit of it was off the cuff - list of questions, answered offhand unless they required extra research.
much better questions than in the past. A lot of the questions were getting very repetitive in recent months. Some really great ones so kudos to the folks asking them.
Repeating orders: on a warship with a crew that has some experience, hearing problems would be a thing. Today we are used to modern hearing protection, but that was not a thing even in WW2 for most parts. The noise artillery or even something like a pistol makes can ruin your hearing and give you life long tinnitus with 1 shot if you are unlucky. The noise of guns are incredible bad for your hearing. A Captain could probably not take for granted that every one heard him even in a quiet setting without without rasing his voice a bit. People repeating the orders was just common sense on so many levels.
Even today you would be surprised at the amount of background noise on a bridge. Squark boxes, sound powered phone talkers, interior ship phones
Six+ hours?! Dearie me! I'll spread watching this out so by the time I'm finished the next Drydock will be ready to watch!
11 hours of Drydock in the past 2 days.... mother of god.
2:15:21 - Missed opportunity for a "lesser of two weevils" reference. :(
Re ships moving sideways when the guns fire. The conserved property will be momentum, not energy, so mv rather than half mv squared. For an Iowa firing a full broadside perpendicular to the keel, that's about one half of a metre per second. Given the position of the guns relative to the centre of gravity, roughly half will go into roll, so that leaves a quarter of a metre per second of sideways - enough to feel the ship lurch, but drag will damp it out in a metre or two of travel. Firing the forward battery over the bow - only 6 guns, but very little momentum going into pitch, so about a quarter of a meter per second again, but backwards; less drag means that the ship might glide back several metres over some tens of seconds if she started out stationary. Change in the ship's orientation isn't so easy to guesstimate and depends on which guns fire at what angle and the ship's moment of angular inertia around the ship's vertical axis, but I've just done a bit of back of an envelope calculating and I get a maximum of a degree or so for a ship under way at 10 m/s, possibly two or three degrees for a stationary ship.
I put this on when I went to bed last night, and it was still going the next morning
Get more sleep lol
@@antonhengst8667 nah, too much drach to listen to
4:30:00 Regarding the last surviving quad 1.1" Chicago Piano on CV6, it was located at the bow, under the overhang of the flight deck. In the Oct. '43 refit it got replaced, initially by two single-mount 20mm's, then at some later date, a twin 40mm .
Thank you, Drachinifel.
Victory has indeed swapped over to the multiple hydraulic props (looks quite the complicated set up!)
Remains my #1 thing to listen to while editing photos :D
05:01 Lighthouses: At on least occasion a light house outside Shetland was turned on as a navigational aid for a Catalina from 333 Squadron, to pick up an agent flying from German forces. The intelligence or security service was the link between the squadron and the light house service in cases like this.
Loving the 9 hour format!
Thanks for this great video. You deserve a medal for work.
"SMS Emden's impact on the 'big picture'"
I have a four inch knife made out of the steel and a bit of brass salvaged from
"They weren't exactly front line units. Because if they were, they would be you know at the front line in Europe."
LOL
In reference to the question about Hermes in her anti piracy roles like modern day did civilian crewed vessels try to defend them selves from boarding by spraying them with water hoses to prevent the pirates from climbing up the sides of ships? Also when did navies go from shoot first ask questions later to firing shots over the bow with the "heave to we in tend to board you" warnings.
Thanks Drach! The sunlight blinding optical FCS reminds me of how dive bombers pilots would use the sun to blind AA gunners when they could. Also, the Fritz X use by Germany makes me wonder why the USN didn't push for radio-guided ordinance for the Helldivers.
Is radio guided ordinance really that usefull for a dive bomber? Not a lot of flight time if the dive bomber pilot is dropping as intended. Guided ordinance for the level bombers like a B-17 would imho be a more logical application, as it might benefit B-17 strategic bombing missions and especially could improve the intended anti-ship flat level bombing missions in the Pacific: e.g. the flat bombing doctrine failed horribly, whereby dive bombing proved to be very effective early on in the conflict, even before the US joined the war.
@@Tuning3434 Probably not, but I was mainly curious in response to his reply regarding why dive bombers didn't receive many improvements that allowed them more safety for their attack runs.
Actually, I might have an answer to you question about USN radio-guided bombs on dive bombers. From the Wikipedia page of the ASM-N-2 Bat:
“The Privateer was the primary launch platform for the Bat, but other aircraft were also modified to launch the weapon, including the Vought F4U Corsair, Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, and Grumman TBF Avenger. The primary post-World War II aircraft to carry the weapon was the P-2 Neptune.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-N-2_Bat
@@ReganSmash33 I know about the Bat, but thank you. It is actually a radar-guided bomb instead of radio-guided, so not all models could use it, and did not see use on Helldivers until after the war.
@William Mulvaney At the start of the war they were safer, but improvements to the Mark 13 torpedo by the latter half of the war meant the Avengers were launching their torpedoes from higher altitudes, higher speeds, and further out from their targets than what was previously the norm at Midway. Meanwhile, the Helldivers still had to be basically over their targets.
Epic work as always (epic effort, epic merit)
Watching the portion on the converted smoothbores. You mention the state of British coastal defences. Did Britain ever consider a "super gun" battery to close the Dover Strait? And was there a time when the technology to do so coincides with giant static guns not getting pummeled by aircraft?
Hi Drach,
Regarding the relationship between commanding officers (COs) and their medical officers (MOs): the way it (should) work in practice is that the former is ultimately responsible for everything that happens regarding their ship, including their crew's health. The MO's role is purely advisory: whatever 'command' authority is limited to providing orders to the staff assigned to them regarding the clinical treatment he/she provides to their patients. Preventive medicine measures (eg vaccinations, antimalarials etc) are instituted by MOs, as authorised by their CO.
In practice, naval COs nearly always accept and respect the advice they get from their MOs: if he/she doesn't, it'll be for the operational reasons you've described (such as weather). The key mitigation is that if the CO gets it wrong and someone dies or is permanently disabled without a really good reason, it's unlikely to be good for them career-wise.
As for removing COs from command for medical reasons: usually it's not quite as dramatic as it sounds. It generally entails the MO talking to their medical superior: if he/she concurs the next step is for the latter to talk to the COs superior. Once again, the advice provided is just that.
The key to making this work is *trust* between COs and his/her MO.... and by the crew towards both. It therefore helps if shore-based MOs have the best possible understanding of the navy's seagoing environment (helps avoid providing inherently stupid advice)... which is a bit hard if they haven't actually been to sea themselves.
@William Mulvaney Lol. Crusher I remember. But when did McCoy take command?
4:29:20 I remember a battle 360 video saying the bow gun under the flight deck was still a 1.1 in. I could be miss remembering though.
2:09:00 approximately, we'd also be referring the North Carolina's as battlecruisers since the South Dakota's have the same guns but are actually armored against them. Lol funny to think about.
So much to do yesterday I get to catch up with the dry dock today
I find the idea of the Royal Navy capturing the Scharnhorst or the Gneisenau and slapping the triple 15"/42's designed for the KGV class on it/them hilariously satisfying.
Martial honour... would have been interesting if we had reacted to the scapa flow scuttling by demanding the break up of Germany or the resumption of open warfare... I wonder what treatment the scuttlers would have had at the hands of their own people then...
Given the ongoing communist unrest. Probobly a shot to the head when the kaiser reich falls
Beautiful drone footage of HMS Gannet! Who was the pilot?
Me :)
@@Drachinifel Wooooooooot!
4 Hour live stream, now this behemoth. Drach have mercy.
5:37:00 Thank you for squashing this annoying misunderstanding. Its such a pervasive myth that I can't even blame the person who asked. People for whatever reason constantly think (and repeat) that everyone but the upper/upper-middle/clerical classes in the past were illiterate. Being able to write things down is *really* useful, do you think they'd just not learn because "Tormund Thunderfist had better things to do than make papers talk at him."
I'm pretty sure Shadiversity did a video on the topic, people were literate in the past, pretty much everyone was (notable exceptions being slaves being kept illiterate intentionally in the USA) to some extent.
Sir Walter Cowan's biography alongside Jack Churchill's and Adrian Carton de Wiart's are one of those biographies that you can't even base a tabletop RPG campaign without being accused of pulling events out of thin air.
Unless you have a bunch of history nerd friends like me.
The brief bit of his history that Drach covered about Sir Walter Cowan made me think he might be a Chaos Orc from Warhammer 40k.
Re: that 1913 naval annual with the ads in the back.
No Vickers 14-inch?
Re: 1.1 inch gun on Enterprise. After the refit, Enterprise maintained a single 1.1" gun on her bow.
Dou you know why they kept a single mount requireing different spare parts, different amunition, different training and different fire sollutions than any other mount on the ship?
I think the old phrase "They MUST have had their reasons..." applies here.
@@Bird_Dog00 it was a luck symbol I think? Or maybe as a saluting type gun
Funnily enough, like videodude26 I'm also reading The Rules of the Game and the quote about Captain Cowan had also caught my attention. This book is so good, it actually reads better than a lot of novels!
The IJN vs IJA rivalry was also fed by the centuries old clan rivalry with the Satsuma-clan dominating the Navy's higher ranks vs the Chōshū clan on the Army side. That's something all the other forces didn't have to deal with.
Ship camo schemes, the ms run, was also dependent on the over arching perceived threat. In 1943 it was subs, hence the dazzle types. Later in the war, the Kamikaze threat, dictated a change back to a more solid color scheme to better blend in the the ocean as seen from above.
When it comes to scuttling, the SUEZ Crisis and the egyptian scuttling of ships to block the cannal deserves a mention!
On the 'Revolt of the Admirals', one needs to remember that Air Farce doctrine was based on strategic bombing uber alles with nothing in between. A more balanced military doctrine would be based on the idea that wars will range in intensity from low intensity conflicts to all out wars like WWII. The military has to be able to deploy the correct force package to the conflict without having to automatically escalate it to a nuclear war.
The Air Corps, Army Air Force, and Air Force all seemed to have an issue with that line of thinking until someone, and sometimes a war, beat it out of them.
4:17:18 The Egyptians fought against the "Sea Peoples" when they invaded the Nile Delta from the Mediterranean around 120 to 1175 B.C. where there was a definite plan to lure the Sea People into the Delta and fight them with archers and Egyptian ships. As this was a planned ambush against an attempted invasion, it's fair to say that both sides were using ships of war rather than merchants fighting pirates, for example.
On the question at 1:38:02. One reason, and this goes for pretty much any branch of service, the guys carrying out the orders are the enlisted guys. Combat is noise. enlisted men tend to learn to get used to responding to their direct superiors voice above all other noises. Once you've been mentally conditioned for it, his voice will pierce the sound under almost all conditions. This also helps, in closer quarters from a rattled enlisted taking orders from another officer that wasn't directed at him. he is mentally blocking out his voice and listening for his own commanders voice.
There's also the need to ensure everyone in the chain of command understands what is going on at all times. If the captain walks over the helmsman and tells him to turn while, say, the Lt. who is actually the helms superior happens to be distracted, he might not know such an order was given and could either get in face of the helmsman thinking he screwed up, or even not notice they changed course and so his next order is not based on what is actually going on. By having the order go down the chain, even while the enlisted guy tasked with carrying it out is standing next the senior officer, it ensures everyone in the chain is fully situational aware of what is going on at the time.
Military is all about mental conditioning. under most circumstances this is all over kill, especially in peacetime, but when the shit hits the fan you want everyone to mentally be on the ball and the only way to ensure everyone's brain is programed for it is to practice it 24/7, even when it's clearly not necessary.
As far as cursed names go, Amagi would seem to fit the bill. The battlecruiser was saved from scrapping under the Washington Naval Treaty by conversion to an aircraft carrier, except that the Great Kanto Earthquake broke her keel in half. And then another aircraft carrier Amagi was nominally completed on August 10, 1944, but never fully fitted out and never got an air wing, and capsized in port after being bombed on July 29, 1945.
And while many Imperial Japanese Navy names have been reused by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, there's never been another Amagi.
With regards to Casco Bay, the Fore River Shipyard was located on the Weymouth Fore River in Braintree and Quincy Massachusetts.
wow!
a 6 minute dry dock episode!
,,,(cleans my glasses)
opps!
Brilliant video thank you 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👀😎❤️
As for lessons learned:
- the Imperial Russian Navy put a lot of effort in gunnery training after Tsushima and the "Red Fleet" kept this up. The communists didn't execute all Tsarists officers straight away, many stayed in service for the early years at least (and were then executed after they spreaded their expertise). Not that any Russian Navy played a major role.
love the channel! just got to the part about admiral sir walter cowan. where's the vid? 😀
North Carolinas are 14" BBs, upgunned to 16", so, strictly speaking, 55 and 56 were "lightly armored".
What are everyone's thoughts? If Admiral Scott and Admiral Willis Lee were swapped for their prominent Guadalcanal battles... How would have each fared?
How long would Lee have to train up his crews?
His understanding and trust of radar should end in better results for the USN. Counter point, Lee had the results of earlier battles to help him understand what he was in for. IE, how good IJN torpedoes were.
@@CSSVirginia actually, even at Tassafaronga two weeks later the US had no idea just how good the Type 93 was. They specifically stated that the hits they took could not have come from torpedoes with speed and range characteristics similar to their own, and from there concluded that a submarine must have intervened. Lee's care to avoid torpedoes was a matter of general principal rather than awareness of how good Japanese torpedoes were.
Lee probably would have used Helena as his flagship, as she had the superior SG radar. He certainly would have conducted some night firing practice as Scott did in the limited time he had to prepare. Scott wasn't brilliant out of the gate like Lee was, just good enough, and I'd be really concerned about the survival of Washington and South Dakota with anyone other than Lee in charge.
@@kemarisite Absolutely.
Sunday morning, and Drach has completed 6 hours of work before I'm fully awake.
@2:11:01 you need to use the momentum equation here. KE going forwards won't necessarily be the same as that going backwards (indeed if their masses are different, they won't be the same).
Sir Walter Cowan... Why am I only now hearing about this wonderful man??? You have been holding out on us Drachinifel
1:44:00 British at Gibraltar: Hollow out the rock, stock supplies, build kill zones, introduce spainards to machine gun's effects. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi *furiously* taking notes
The inside of The Rock is amazing, in the middle there is huge theatre in there, also a hospital. To the north, facing towards Spain, there is a long tunnel a few metres behind the face of the rock with occasional portals for everything from rifles right up to huge guns. Now that Gib is an effectively semi-independent city state, the British military is nowhere to be seen and the inside of The Rock is over run with tourists.
it seem Cowan was a commando staff officer when he "attached himself" to the Indian 18th King Edward VII's Own Cavalry - of which he latter became honorary Colonel, and was captured after atacking an Italian tank with his Webley revolver. Exchanged, he returned to the Commandoes.
At 02:15:24 you mention the Fore River Shipyard. This is located just south of Boston, in the town of Quincy. The Fore river in Portland might be big enough to launch a small dinghy.
Ah, Drydock was posted 5 hours ago. And... I'd still be watching it now if I hadn't been out.
On the subject of the 1916 act and naval infrastructure, there was an incident in proof testing the 16"/45 Mark 1 where a teet shell landed on a civilian house in the summer of 1916. According to navweaps, "not long after this incident, Congress approved funding for what became the Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground".
On the question of older midshipman, is was very possible to pass the exam and be passed over promotion... there was a glut of junior officers. Those with no "influence" or who lacked the proper social graces often found themselves stuck
I was wondering if older midshipmen could be folks who join in their 20's after deciding to pursue glory on the seas instead of staying at home. Also, what about enlisted or junior NCO's having interest/talent in being officers?
Seems to apply to Mr. Hollom. Jack tells him, you have the knowledge. But he didn't have any leadership ability or confidence.
Re: 01:08:48 - Power dynamic between a captain and the chief medical officer?
When I was in the US Navy (in peacetime) I had an issue with the command's I was assigned to medical department. My department head (a Commander) told me that Line Officers run the Navy, not Medical Officers (MDs). Since the CO's decision stood after I went to a request Mast I believe my department head was correct.
Regarding fake debris (5:18:17) it may be worth noting that the 1943 film "We Dive at Dawn" had the use of fake debris, albeit by a British submarine, suggesting that if it wasn't done that didn't stop people thinking that it was a good idea.
It became a cliche in sub warfare movies, and even in sci-fi when the attacker can't directly observe the target.
Another hazard with 'tacking' as opposed to 'wearing' the ship is that if the ship was handled poorly and lost too much momentum as it came more into wind, it might fall back on to its original course instead of swinging through the into-wind position and taking up a new course on the opposite tack. I believe this was known as 'missing stays'.
01:17:47 - Franklin Roosevelt and the "Three Little Ships"?
Send out a whaleboat with three men armed with Colt 1911A .45 calibre ACP pistols and find William Randolph Hearst!
The one thing about those guns at Gibraltar, both the coastal defense guns of the rock and the guns of Force H in the harbor, is the question of what kind of shells are available. The 15" guns at Singapore were useless against land invasion because they had few, if any, HE shells, being intended to repel attack from the sea by cruisers or battleships. An AP shell with a delay fuze of 0.02-0.05 seconds is effective tively going to dig its own grenade dump before going off well below ground, completely aside from having thicker walls producing fewer large fragments and a smaller bursting charge. If it came to that, the smaller coast defense and AA guns, and secondary and AA battery weapons on the ships, which would only have HE shells with point detonation fuses for use against destroyers or exposed superstructure, would be far more useful against infantry or tanks than comparatively small bursting charges from AP shells going off 20 feet under ground.
In regards the British Navy Midshipman rank, a significant number of officers in the age of sail were never midshipman - having gone from masters mate to Lieutenant. James Cook springs to mind (he was a merchant ship master’s mate before joining the navy).
3:44:00 You mention that it might've been possible to put a twin 16"/50 turret into a Scharnhorst barbette. In fact, a twin 16"/50 turret *was* designed historically, for the Lexington-class battlecruisers. Obviously that was a different 16"/50 gun, but since the turret design already existed and there's a few dozen 16"/50 Mark 2 barrels lying around without ships to put them into it would seem like a good choice. Unfortunately I haven't found any data on the barbette width of the Lexingtons, but it appears to be right around 10 meters. So that would probably have been a good fit for Scharnhorst's barbettes.
I listened to the live Saturday evening whilst busy in the workshop, but today I find myself listening again whilst doing my admin and filing: it's funny how i seem to be getting more out of the replay than the live, but, was it really six hours last night?
Anyroad just wanted to say thanks, for the information and your dry humour, both of which i greater appreciate.
Postscript: were these two different programmes?? There seems to be a whole lot i don't recall,, oh well passes the time between meetings of the Holy Order of the Blackburn Blackburn!
An excellent book on gunboat actions is. “GUNBOAT! Small Ships at War”, By Bryan Perrett.
It describes some of the colonial actions of gunboats in the Caribbean, Africa and The South ChinaSea and Indonesia.
If anyone has any other books on gunboat actions, I would be interested in hearing of them.
'Armed with Stings: Saga of a Gunboat Flotilla' by A Cecil Hampshire, an account of the Royal Navy's Insect Class.
@@martinwebb3017
Thanks, had not known of that book.
Looks good.
Hmm, “shell out” ... I see what you did there
Bloody hell. Six plus hours AGAIN. Waking up late was a severe mistake lol
The RNZAF were also defending henderson field and I'm fairly sure that at least one faa artificer was present though I might be incorrect or this could have been a NZ chap... Therefore guadacanal was a US and Empire operation..
The southwest Pacific was always a US and Empire operation. Coral Sea included Crace with Australia and Hobart. Savo Island included Crutchley (of Narvik, sadly without Warspite) with Australia, Canberra, and Hobart. HMNZS Moa and Kiwi would sink a Japanese sub of Guadalcanal very late in the campaign. Imperial participation in the Pacific war would continue all the way through to the end, including such notables as HMAS Shropshire at Surigao Strait.
@@kemarisite following the Canberra Pact of early 1944 the US kept ANZAC forces on the periphery of the Pacific war.
@@Colonel_Blimp largely, yes, which is part of the reason we don't hear much about Australian troops in the last few years of the war. At the same time, the battle force for Surigao Strait included HMAS Shropshire and Arunta, as one example.
Drach, would it have been more a case of Barratry than Mutiny for Souchon as he was placing the ship in danger against the wishes and will of the ship owners?
Admiralty Law would suggest it is
The inefficiency of German WWII battleship turret design is fascinating, just another symptom of being out of the battleship building game for an extended period perhaps?
3:17:00. Every time I think about having to paint a giant battleship I'm glad I wasn't in the WW2 Navy!!