Olympic Sniper Turned Battleship Commander - Willis "Ching" Lee
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Keep the recommendations coming
Taffy 3 and Desmond Doss!
was the mp5 real if so noice if not your a tease
Roy Benevitez, the green beret literally too angry to die. Saved 8/12 men in a platoon against around 1,000 VC in Vietnam. MOH recipient
Carlos hathcock! The marine who went to hell numerous times to help his buddies and let the corpman know he wasn't a corpse by spitting blood in his face while being half conscious.
Gary Plauche for Dad of the Year award
"Puts MP5 on couch" and now its a tax write off. I see you TFE. I see you.
🎯
We must bow down to his greatness!
i laughed as soon as it hit the couch
Literally the last video he said he did that hahahaha
I came here thinking the same thing, lol
Some attributes for a stellar military career:
Bad eyesight,
Bad at school,
Bad with authority,
Bad at following established rules,
Bad news for the enemy,
All in all a BAD A$$.
If that’s all it took I’d be Paton😅it also takes that unexplainable X factor and a big set of balls.
Don't forget "telling bureaucracy to fuck off there's shit to get done."
Yeah. Funny how common "bad with authority" is among *military personnel.*
I noticed a trend in the shawn ryan show. A lot of the high speed operators he's interviewed, most were to some degree a degenerate. That might attribute to their ability withstand the bullshit and stress of training, if you have the right kind of degenerate.
Sounds about right
Favourite quote: "Chin Lee downgraded [it] from a battleship to a coral reef in five minutes!" That made my Navy heart sing.
Is it true you guys use nails for milk ? That's what SpongeBob said loooooong ago
That should, at the very least, make any patriot's heart happy!
Thank you for your service.
“Abstinence isn’t even 100% reliable because Jesus exists.” Holy mackerel that line is so good. I’m laughing my ass off at work and everyone is giving me funny looks.
That mp5 is gonna be a hell of a tax write off! XD
Exactly my thought
Dudes playing 3d chess
We all saw that strategic tax write off couch placement...
only if its an hk original and not a cheap turkish one
😂😂😂😂😂 for real
I could not imagine being aboard the South Dakota and hearing “Stand aside, I’m coming through. This is Ching Lee” knowing full well shit is about to get the most real it ever has been and will ever be again. The resounding “awwww shit” from that bridge crew must’ve been absolutely deafening as they watched her steam past like Dad stepping in to the room, belt in hand.
Best description ever lol
“On your left” in real life.
either that or the bridge crew thought: "thank GOD, we might just survive this...Ching Lee IN THE HOWWWWWSE!!!".
i think SoDak was in the middle of a cascading power failure that more or less left her a sitting duck when Lee issued that order.
she got the sweet and sour shit shot out of her but tanked every round like a boss. imagine the building rage of the crew. You are getting shot up, but you can't respond in kind even though you are sitting in a BATTLESHIP. its a wonder the sailors didn't try to dismantle the turrets and try to beat the IJN to death with the Mark 6 gun barrels.
@@scooterdescooter4018 All because of a blown fuse.
I saw this a few weeks ago and was intrigued by how snipers do this. It turns out that snipers, athletes, artists, and other highly successful people have what is called "the quiet eye." They have the ability to focus to the point that distractions don't even exist to them. That's pretty cool.
Gamers also get this it's just different jargon like he's on fire or in the zone it's even sometimes called tunnel vision
27:27 “Stand aside I’m coming through this is Ching Lee” That was sent to American PT boats that were questioning the identity of Lee’s ships.
Kentucky: We got a rodent problem, we need to call Ching Lee.
1941 US: We got an axis powers problem, we really need to call Ching Lee.
Admiral King: We got a BuOrd Problem, We need to call Ching Lee
@@weldonwinbased
Same thing
Truly, the man genuinely makes me think if there were like a dozen clones of him spread through the Allied Command structure, the Axis powers would enter peace talks by lunch time. (Okay, that's quite the hyperbole, but the war would end a lot quicker).
The Axis Powers were just bigger pests.
"You won it; I'll wear it." That's some serious humility, right there. What a guy.
That’s one of my favorite parts about Lee. Another story of his humility is that he was perhaps the only guy in WW2 ever to *underreport* how many hits he scored. Lee only claimed that he scored like 6 hits on Kirishima becuase he only counted the ones he personally saw. It wasn’t until they found Kirishima’s wreck a few years ago that they confirmed he hit her at least 40 times, and that’s only on the intact half as the other half was blown up by a magazine detonation as she sank.
Yeah, but I'll bet what he wore was the Navy Cross, not the Distinguished Service Cross, since that is an Army decoration.
@@paulcroshier6708 Not the point; regardless of the decoration, it's a great quote. You know, non-Army personnel have received DSCs, right?
@@sirboomsalot4902The Kirishima's Damage Control log also showed up about that time too.
Real embodiment of a leader who understands that to lead the men you need to be one of them, not just lead by merit of rank
Not directly related to the video. But, I just saw your "I❤Communism" shirt on Bunker Branding only available in size Small, selling for $999.99. You're an absolute savage and a genius. God bless
Oh my gosh
It's going for $1,000,000 now lol
Fan-fucking-tastic
"got to be slow in a hury" "you must be accurate before you can be fast" "slow is smooth. smooth is fast"
I was not expecting that bit with Mrs. Electrician
Does that mean Mrs. Electrician is a tax write off?
I can see why TFE put a ring on her finger by the way she slapped that MP5
Gotta write off that mp-5 somehow 😂
I forgot she was there I was too busy drooling over the mp5
Nick is the luckiest dude I know of
A couple important parts of the USS Washington story at Guadalcanal that weren't covered:
1) Ching Lee reported 20-ish hits from the 16-inchers, because he confirmed 20 direct impact hits with _his own eyes from three miles away in pitch black night._ He didn't add speculated hits either under the waterline, or that simply were missed. Yeah, his eyes were fine.
2) IJN Kirishima thought there was only *ONE* US Battleship, whose ass she was kicking. Ching Lee _stealthed_ a Battleship. When he opened up at about three miles out, it was a _stealth critical hit._
Dude sucker punched mike Tyson and won🤙🏽
@@Slainte.Mactire No - he WAS Mike Tyson... in a NINJA SUIT.
All indications are that most of the hits he didn’t count because he didn’t see them were at or below the waterline that the Japanese believed were torpedoes.
I'm not sure it's fair to say Kirishima was kicking the South Dakota's ass... South Dakota suffered no major hull penetrations during the engagement, but did suffer from a massive electrical failure due to some pretty shite engineering work. The damage to South Dakota was not threatening to her ability to wage war except the electrical failure which put her in the predicament to begin with. Of the shells that impacted, the vast majority were superstructure hits. Those which hit the hull failed to make it through the hull armor. Part of the reason for this was because Kirishima's guns were loaded with HC rounds (high explosive) to bombard Henderson field.
The damage report which shows the location of the hits and the analysis of the damage done is available on Wikipedia. I believe it's entitled "USS South Dakota BB-57 US Navy War Damage Report No. 57" The entire report is available through the US Navy History and Heritage Command's webpage.
@@Whiskey11Gaming You're correct, but the key part here is "Kirishima *thought."* I'm not saying Kirishima was kicking South Dakota's ass, I'm saying Kirishima *believed* she was. From Kirishima's perspective, her main enemy was flailing around dead in the water, and she was shelling that enemy with ease... right up until _another_ enemy showed up out of nowhere and bitchslapped Kirishima.
The Bureau of Ordinance: "You can't use this ammunition until it's 100% reliable"
Also the Bureau of Ordinance: "The MK14 is 100% reliable!"
Hey, Bureau of Ordinance. Tell that to Ching Lee. Wait a minute...you did...and look what happened!
I do not understand why we don't have more movies about some of these less known heroes. Amazing. Thank you for creating and educating!!
I've said it several times, and I will continue to say it. He might not be American, but Adrian Carton De Wiart deserves a video. This man was shot seven times, twice in the head, lost his left eye and left hand, and kept fighting. He tore his own fingers off when a doctor refused to amputate them. He told the future dictator of communist china, MAO ZEDONG TO HIS FACE, IN FRONT OF A FULL ROOM OF PEOPLE, THAT HE WAS A COWARD. Having interrupted Maos speech to do so. He fought in both world wars, and the boer war, and was known as "The unkillable soldier." When asked what he thought about the war, he said "Frankly, I had quite enjoyed the war." This man is an absolute badass
He even has a sabaton song which is the true mark of a certified war hero bad ass
@@Einkesseln You know you are a badass if you have a Sabaton song written about you.
even if you deny him being a badass in a fight. there's something very badass about loosing an eye, a hand, part of your ear, part of your groin, multiple bullet wounds. being offered to retired multiple times and still going back to the front line, because like Samuel Whittemore and Cassius Marcellus Clay the man was just built different. he broke out of a pow camp with one arm and died finally of old age like clay because really what else was going to kill him.
TFE has done a video in Wiart I believe
@@Z_D3m0nno he hasn’t
i still think one of the most impressive parts about this man is that despite being a Battleship commander his entire career, a man who has almost perfected their use as a weapons platform..... he was also one of the most vocal advocates for the aircraft carrier in the US Navy. All he cared about was winning the war and protecting his sailors, and if that meant making the battleship obsolete, so be it.
You hear so many stories of careerists who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into a new way of warfare, but here's Lee only ever thinking about how to make the new stuff better because lives were on the line.
Carriers were destined to overtake the importance of all the other ship classes, but it is good that he advocated for keeping the US ahead of the curve. Air superiority is vastly stronger than pure weapon strength, and being able to operate a mobile air force base is the greatest showing of force you can make.
Yeah, that has to be among the top 5 things I respect about Lee (and there's a lot to respect), he doesn't allow his pride to blind his judgement. Even though Carriers were going to be the future, I'd still say the Battleships had a good last hurrah in WW2.
@@ShaggyRogers1 I can only imagine that Lee saw the 200+ mile reach of an air wing compared to the 20 mile reach of his guns, and said yep, that's a useable advantage
@@jswjr6001what sunk the Bismarck?
Planes identifying the location, disabling the ship
And a team bombardment
Planes are a key factor to air and sea superiority
The Mark 53 VT fuze is a work of engineering art.
Prior to it's introduction 2,000 Timed Fuze rounds were needed to shoot down one aircraft.
With the Mark 53 this came down to, at absolute worst, 500 rounds.
Semiconductors didn't exist yet, the radar was powered by sub-miniature valves of the type used in hearing aids.
The fuze needed to be able to survive acceleration of at least _ten thousand Gs_ and up to *_fifty thousand Gs_*
As for powering the electronics, the centrifugal force from the spin imparted by the rifling shattered a glass ampoule of electrolyte that would be channeled into a wet cell.
Absolute miracle of miniaturisation for 1943.
Prototypes and schematics were handed to the radlab at Berkeley from the British as part of the Tizard mission, which also included how to create atomic weapons.
The reason they wanted 100% reliability was so that it could never fall into enemy hands as they knew damn well how deadly the Mark 53 was.
They were eventually permitted to use it on ships though as duds couldn't ever be recovered.
Actually the VT fuse that actually entered mass production wasn't as close to the British prototype as you would think. The British design was larger, couldn't survive high accelerations and didn't really work in a spin. They handed it off to the USA to see if we could do anything with it. The US designers looked at it went "huh good idea" through away 90% of it and pretty much began again. I am overstating that a bit but not by much. The theory work was yes British so they invented it. But the actual fuse that entered production was not the same fuse the British supplied even when accounting for improvements that could be made.
The early British prototypes actually had to be mounted in rockets. Also semiconductors did in fact exist by then with some even being used in early commercial radio. As an aside one interesting bit is the British actually purchased parts for hearing aids for use in some proximity rockets and bombs while work was continuing on getting miniaturized fuses to work in the US, Canada and Britain itself.
I am already a huge fan of admiral Lee, but your depiction of his life is the most entertaining I've ever heard. As a kid on a US destroyer escort, I was a radarman, and worked with a 5" 54 cal. main gun, and can identify with Adm. Lee.
"You won it, I'll wear it." Is one of the most badass and endearing statements a leader could make. Goosebumps. Thank you for being such a great storyteller and for telling the stories of these unsung heroes!
It really is. 10/10 leadership
You said it better than could @memes - 100%
And that is why his men respected him, paid attention and became thr best Navy gunners in WW2
Really !! Epic leader. ❤
Ching Lee shows up to competition:
Wins rifle competition:
Joins pistol competition:
Blows up hand:
Wins:
Refuses to elaborate:
Leaves:
😳
True bad a** style
I would add a like, but the lights right now are 666...
The real secret to putting 16" battleship rounds on steel is to SQUEEZE the trigger on the exhale and never pull it or flich pretty simple stuff.
You're gonna want to brace yourself that thing kicks a little.
Cmon “The Fat Electrician”. Make more content ! Burned through all of your videos with my daughters in a little less than a week .
We have them in homeschool now and it’s the first time they were stoked to learn history. I even take on your dialog when teaching them history now. They absolutely love it !
Truly, I wish you the best of success and happiness in 2024 and beyond! You truly have a gift with this format. Unlike the old WW2 history channel episodes that could keep you interested and put you to sleep in the same 2 hour documentary.
They may like the book Woman Warriors if they're into military history. You'd have to dumb it down for them into like bedtime stories and stuff but if you want to raise aggressive military women that's a way to get things going : p
(Might wanna leave out the part about how a mob of angry mothers fought off some colonial troops to literally rip flesh off some dudes' bones, that's a little more aggressive than maybe anyone needs...)
Man sounds like he tryna raise valkyries so no. Keep it@@becominghero9754
Admiral Lee was _insanely_ humble. He turned down an opportunity for a major battle later on. At least *SIX* Battleships going in at night in a target-rich environment. Admiral Lee declined because the sailors weren't good enough in night battles, and it was too much risk to his men. This meant that the Carriers got sent in instead, later on, and got all the glory at (IIRC) the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
Yes, that's right, a "Big Gun" Battleship Admiral was offered the chance to win massive glory and write his name in the history books... and he turned it down and allowed the rival faction, the Carrier Admirals, to get massive glory instead. Thirty years of political in-fighting in the Navy over whether Battleships or Carriers were better, and Ching Lee didn't care about _any of that stuff._ In his opinion, the carriers were the superior option that would risk less lives, and fame was worth _much_ less than that.
That would have been an awesome battle to read about, wargame, or see a movie on. Still I'm glad it didn't happen. It's not worth losing ships and men on when the carriers could do it more efficiently.
@@donaldreynolds6857the battle in question is The Battle of the Philippine Sea, commonly known as The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
Truly great men cannot help being great.
he was pushing for carriers, so letting the carrier fleet take the headlines was a win
Very, very , good comment.
Stubby. A dog literally given plot armor to participate in 17 battles, four offenses, catching a spy, locating downed troops, warning troops of artillery and gas attacks. All while trying to keep morale high…
I would love to see Nic's take on Sgt Stubby, but there is already a whole animated film about Sgt Stubby... It's on Amazon and on here.
THIS, THIS NEEDS TO BE A VIDEO NOW
I'm purdy sure he already did a Sgt stubby video
@@TheMichaelk6969 i dont think he did but hell i could be wrong
He may not have done one specifically for him but I remember him talking alot about him in a video I just can't remember which video it was
10:07 we need a shirt with his face on it that says "And Lee Don't Miss"
Ching Lee is the walking embodiment of malicious compliance hahaha
"Spots IJN Kirishima"
USS Washington: *MAXIMUS DELETUS*
Omg maximus deletus translates to “the greatest destroyed”. Lmao
@@speedstick8981 That _is_ actually the correct Latin translation.
@@William_Bryant heh nice
That describes almost every single battleship that we have that has 16 inch guns
@@speedstick8981that was a great discovery today haha
Lee: 1,000 yard bullseye
Navy: Mmm, you no see too good
😂
Political incompetence being a thing since forever. Shocker.
This is one of the best videos on the youtubes I have seen in ages.
If you have an interest in Naval Gunslingers, look up a man named John "Jackie" Fisher. He was a British admiral in the WWI who had his dealings with bureaucracy and rival personalities in the Royal Navy. His contribution to great naval quotations was "Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery. All else is twaddle."
Thank you for making history “cool” to my son. He started watching your videos with me about 3 weeks ago and now asks to watch the newest videos when he is with me.
@28:29 "Just so we're on the same page, the Kiroshima's been reclassified twice: the Japanese upgraded it and reclassified it from a battlecruiser to a battleship and Ching Lee has now just downgraded it from a battleship to a fucking coral reef and he did it in five minutes."
Finest poetry on TH-cam.
I once told a friend that Washington's fire was so accurate and so intense that the only way Kiroshima was able to avoid it was by submerging... Which was less than optimal because Kiroshima wasn't actually a submarine.
Kirishima, not kiroshima, but yeah, it got it's shit entirely kicked in.
Check out Ivan Musicant "Battleship at war: the epic story of the USS Washington".
First 2 comments got me crying 🤣🤣🤣
Literally every great military person cheats on the eye examination. “If you aren’t cheating you aren’t trying hard enough” I love this guy 😂
Now adays it's impossible I tried
I did it several years ago when the nurse asked me to "Please read the smallest line that you can see" for my CDL renewal physical.
I read"P-R-I-N-T-E-D-I-N-C-I-N-C-I-N-N-A-T-I-O-H-U-S-A,whoops,there's one for the economy..."
She gave me a strange look but moved on to the color recognition part of the vision test.
A couple years later,the same nurse was giving me the vision test again & yes she remembered me.
"Mr Hesson.....PLease read the smallest line that you can read between lines 4 and 7 this time."
I figured that I'd better not smart ass this one.@@ethanpickmedia9979
My Dr. Dad’s buddy, got me through the eye exam into the Canadian Army in ‘81.
Now do Sgt. Léo Major. Liberated the Dutch city of Zwolle single handed.
@ethanpickmedia9979 nowadays its the hearing exam we "cheat".... just keep clicking till the voice tells you "only click when you hear the tone"
I have to say I just discovered your channel. You are an excellent, fast history teacher. Should be shown to kids for history lessons. Putting the shine on many great men of war.
Fantastic tale of the Old Sharpshooter! I knew pretty much all of this already, but your telling of it was pretty much the most badass I've ever heard. Even better than Drachinifel!
You just know that the eye docs are totally in on it when some guy fails a test and the next day passes. The eye docs are the unsung heroes.
Nah, he memorized the charts and got his friends who got their eyes checked earlier in the day to tell him what chart they were using that day.
Part of basic combat training should've be memorizing the eye test charts.
Nowadays, they use a damn screen that randomizes the letters. Makes it much harder to cheat.
@@jameskirk3I mean, he is the exception, not the rule. Readiness does require people who actually can't do things not do those things so your own guys don't get shot. You don't want to let in every cowboy who thinks he's hot sh it just to shoot his platoon sg's leg.
The problem is when people forget the point of Readiness (like--use in the field) and focus on minutae instead of results. Any dummy can see the guy just couldn't read letters well at certain distances. That is not the same as shooting. The overarching rule is, "guy who can't see to shoot should not shoot," the letter test is just a subset rule that should not replace the seminal rule when it fails.
Rules are good, but we just need to remember the point of them and not literally undermine their purpose by keeping them.
@@becominghero9754 This. It's important to not forget the reasons for rules, not just blindly follow them.
This guy is my hero. He not only did things his way, but he actually stood up to the military bureaucratic establishment and demanded change and wouldn't take no for an answer. It's one thing to be like Jake McNasty and refuse to play by the rules and do badass things , but no this guy was on a totally different level of being badass by actually fighting for change and to do what actually works and not give a shit because he was going to do it regardless. So it's one thing to fight the system, but to actually force and create positive change is truly amazing.
@@Hiking_chef I don't think so. Jake wanted to do one thing and one thing only, kicking ass and doing it his way. Demanding and FORCING change was not what he was about. Jake never cared about rank , but only kicking ass his way. Lee on the hand was a game changer and demanded things to get better. Jake only cared about kicking ass and his men, outside of that he didn't give a shit.
He had the biggest set of brass balls lol
I had a former boss give me similar advice and it's stuck with me.
"First get it right, and the speed will come with time."
Best military story teller I’ve ever heard. Enjoying it immensely
Small little inaccuracy the South Dakota was not the sistership of Washington, Washington was part of a separate class of battleship with the other member of that class being the battleship North Carolina. The South Dakota's sisterships were the Massachusetts, Indiana, and Alabama.
It doesn't take away from the story, but you are right, sir. Good catch.
I toured the Alabama in Mobile about 20 years ago. She's a beauty.
@@benn454I toured the Massachusetts twice. Once as a teenager and again as a father. I love those old ships.
My Grandfather was a Lt. Cdr (USNR) during WWII and captained 2 different DEs.
Big Mamie, Flagship of Operation Torch
Yup I just caught that too plus side he doesn't make that many mistakes. Another one he made was in his Iran vid he said the bombardier in the A6 was behind the pilot nope there are side by side.
Love the fact that Nicholas brought up not just a heroic war fighter, but someone who heroically fought the bureaucracy, as well.
Bureaucrats: "We're going to need you to sign this in quadruplicate, stamp this, sign these _different_ papers in triplicate, stand on your tippy-toes, spin in a circle, and take a number for the 3,000,000-man queue before we can be bothered to help you."
Ching Lee: "Fuck you."
Bureaucrats: "I... um... c-can he just say and do that?"
The other thing you have to admire about him is when he went the message, he just this is ching lee, not admiral lee, nor commander lee. And by that you, you can tell that's the way he always spoke.
The 16" Mk7 Super Heavy rounds that USS Washington fired were 2700 lbs. I absolutely loved this video, you knew some things even I had not known before. Much appreciated and keep with the great videos!
A correction and an addition:
1. South Dakota and Washington were not sister ships. South Dakota was the lead ship of its own, newer class of battleship. Washington was a North Carolina class battleship, the first class of fast battleships that the US Navy built.
2. Lee not only kited the remaining ships in that battle, but he also managed to dodge several torpedo salvos launched at the Washington by the Japanese forces. Dude did torpedobeats in real life.
Also, Lee apparently memorized the Japanese search patterns around Guadalcanal and evading scout aircraft on numerous occasions.
Another one: The APC shells fired by the Washington weighed 2700lbs each. The Mark 8 was a shell with about 90% the penetration of Yamato's 18" guns in a 16" diameter projectile. Pretty nuts.
South Dakota and Washington both had the 16"/45 Mark 6, and the Iowas' had the 16"/50 Mark 7. Both fired the super heavy (2700#) Mark 8 APCBC (armor piercing, capped, ballistic capped) shell. Washington's guns had a lower muzzle velocity (2300fps) vs the Iowas (2500fps) and thus slightly shorter range, not that it mattered during the night actions around Guadalcanal. Those were fought at knife fighting range. For a more in-depth discussion of those knife fights you should read "Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal" by James D. Hornfischer.
@@mikehodges6598also important to point out that the 45 cal guns had an advantage over the 50 cal guns in that their shells would be impacting a target at a higher angle, making it more likely that they would hit the thinner deck armor vs the armored belt.
@@mikehodges6598 A superb book! Really goes into the "you fight how you train" methodolgy to show how we weren't really ready for surface combat vs the Japanese (unlike our Carrier doctrine). But a combination of bravery, fortitude, (and a little luck) helped us "carry on" until we were ready by mid/late-1943.
That proximity fuse is something my dad talked about when I asked him one day to tell me everything that goes into calculating a single artillery shot (he was a tech sergeant in Vietnam from 1969-1970, and directed artillery). He told me they had to know if planes were in an area, so the shell wouldn't detonate prematurely. Another thing they needed to know was if the shell was going to pass over a body of water. If the shell was going over water, they had to put a special cap on the warhead, some sort of IR filter or something. The reason was because the water would bounce back and give a false positive, causing the proxy fuse to detonate prematurely. If everything went as planned, I think he said the shell would air burst at 100 feet off the ground, and the kill radius - as in the area where soft targets were pretty much guaranteed to be destroyed, was 60 yards.
I still have a piece of shrapnel he brought back, and it's way bigger, heavier, and sharper than I thought. He said typically the shells they fired weighed about 200 pounds, and they could shoot them as far as 21 miles with an accuracy of 10 yards of deviation from the given coordinates. Normally, they only shot a few miles, and part of his job was figuring out which batteries were in optimal range. He said from the time the guy in the field gave him the last part of the coordinates, his unit would have warheads on forehead in under 30 seconds. Meaning in less than 30 seconds, the calculations were made (using old-school computers), the firing solution would be relayed to the necessary artillery batteries, guns would be loaded, and ordinance screaming in at mach Jesus speed.
Anyway, people wonder why I never had a sports hero, and my answer is because I lived under the same roof as my hero. So that's what all went through my head when you mentioned proxy warheads.
There’s too many real heroes in the world for sports heroes to be a thing.
Loved it , my dad re wrote the British gunnery tables when he worked out Nelson’s could be improved on . Did it with a slide rule , I think it was 27 simultaneous equations to make a shot correct
The design of the original proximity fuses is really cool too. They were made before modern day integrated circuits, so they used the inherent properties of vacuum tubes instead of having any kind of onboard signal processing.
My brother was a Forward Observer in iraq. He called for it I think
@@Brandon-wc1luThis comment should be plastered on every front page and shouted from every corner!!
My great grandfather served on the USS Washington in WWII. An Annapolis graduate himself, he was assigned to be a gunnery officer. My family still has his diary from the war, and are in the process of transcribing it. Part of the transcription so far includes what I believe to be is the battle you describe at the end of the video; the Third Battle of Savo Island (originally designated the Battle of Guadalcanal, but was changed for obvious reasons.) Remember that this is from his diary, written from his perspective during the war.
Before heading off to the attack, the Washington and South Dakota picked up 4 other destroyers, as you mentioned (the USS Walke, Preston, Benham, and Givins.) When the attack began, the Japanese Navy along with their shore batteries began firing at the US ships. The Walke and Preston were the first destroyed, and he recalls hearing the screams of their survivors in the water as they passed by. The Washington would open fire and "[score] numerous hits on the Japanese ships and shore batteries." They were firing by radar due to the lack of illumination.
His account of the battle claims that the Washington fired 125x 16" shells and 526x 5" shells. His account also adds that they both fired star clusters ("star shells" in his diary) and destroyed the Japanese searchlights. The Washington would rejoin the South Dakota the next morning, as they had been separated during the fight (for the reasons you mention in the video.)
He states the US Navy had six ships in the battle; three were sunk, two badly damaged, and only the Washington escaped "unscathed" (it's entirely possible the one hit they took was so negligible it went unnoticed for some time.) The Washington would receive a communique from the Navy stating that, in total, the Japanese had suffered the sinking of one battleship, four heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, six destroyers, and twelve transports. Damaged were one battleship and six destroyers.
He states that there is no way to know how much of the damage the Washington inflicted, but having been the last ship in the fight it can be surmised that a reasonable amount of damage was the result of the Washington's firing. I also have not gone through the trouble of verifying the accuracy of his claims, as this diary is his perspective and does not necessarily need to reflect reality.
My uncle's father (just to prevent confusion, the man married my father's sister, hence me specifying his own father) was one of the Marines on the Washington when Lee commanded it. He described Lee as being the one Navy man that Marines truly love - that yes, every Marine cares for "Doc" and wants to protect him, but Lee was the only Navy man, especially an officer, that Marines had no qualms with taking combat orders from. As far as the man was concerned, Lee was a Marine who was stuck in the closest to the next-best thing to a Marine uniform.
Lee got screwed by Halsey at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The commander of Taffy 3 asked for Lee by name, but Halsey was convinced he knew better. By the time Nimitz sent his "world wonders" message, it was too late. Considering the damage a few destroyers like the USS Johnson had done, Lee likely would have had a field day
Shit, I was just thinking that it's a shame Lee wasn't at the Battle off Samar (the "sub-battle" Taffy 3 was in).
Lee would have turned the Yamato into a coral reef long before the carriers would.
Drachinifels has an excellent video hypothesizing what a Lee vs Center Force match-up would've looked like. Let's just say Lee and Washington got to add another one and a half Kongo-shaped kill markers, along with partial silhouettes of a Nagato and a Yamato.
@@jedimasterdraco6950 Those of us who rubbed MANY out while imagining the WHAT IF's of that fight waaaay back before the internet, have wargamed this scenario AD INFINITUM!!! It always seems to come out pretty much the same. Kurita loses pretty much EVERYTHING but TF-34 gets HURT and hurt badly. I really think that the best case scenario that COULD have happened... DID HAPPEN! WIth all those tin cans running around, the IJN was pretty much at a loss for what to do and how to do it.... effectively. Now, if LEE has been there, that is what Kurita and Center Force was expecting and I WHOLE HEARTEDLY believe the Japanese side would have been MUCH more coordinated and WAY more difficult to defeat in detail. Lee still would have won but his cruiser force would have been pummeled, just like Drachinifel postulates, and our Battleline would have been jerking it as those 16inchers WASTED the other Battleline, Yamato be damned! The WILDCARD is our DD force. At this point in the war, our Destroyer captains were pure, plasma gulping, FIRE EATERS! They were not the timid, destroyermen that were kept on a short leash as they were early in the war. Had Lee's command been there, there is a VERY good chance the Destroyer Divisions in the van of his fleet COULD have had shoals of torpedos in the water and wiped the sea clean before the rest of Lee could get into position to start gun laying. That is a POSSIBILITY of the many which COULD have happened.
@@Just_A_Dudegive johnston a run for there money
love the depth and enthusiasm...fantastic detail!
The most American rat trap I've heard of has a .22 revolver wired to the trigge plate.
Also, minor correction. The Mark 8 super-heavy AP round that the Mark 6 16"/45 fired weighs 2,800 pounds. The 1700 pound round was the HC (High Capacity) round - it had a larger internal cavity for the bursting charge, and was contact fuzed instead of delay fuzed like the Mark 8.
Navy: We are arming these ships with 16" rifles.
Lee: Did you say... Rifles?
A man after my own heart
Lee: Hmm... if it's a rifle, I can probably shoot it... Let's see what this thing can d- HOLY SHIT THAT HILLTOP IS GONE! YES!! THIS IS THE BEST DAMN RIFLE I'VE EVER SHOT!"
A no nonsence leader.
Reminds me of a family friend who came to my dads house, while I was shooting my brand new Ruger Mini 14. He told me, "Impressive ....Now try hitting something, like that rock"...I blasted away hitting nothing. He went and brought out an antient 1911, held it one handed, bent elbo, and hit the rock with one shot. I continued to miss. He said something I never forgot, 47 yrs later. "You are making a simple thing complicated".And showed me the basics. Years later, I would remember those words in my police acadamy. And was our "top gun" with a revolver, in a world of autos.. In speed, accuracy, and reloading It is a special teacher that can influence people like that. Lee was that type, and then some. ❤
12:37 I was taught by my senior aerospace instructor in high school that an effective leader does two things: equip their people to do their jobs; and letting their people do their jobs. Sounds like Lee knew what he was doing here.
As my lab. Professor always said, I need you to be able to not FUCK up, then I will stop fucking with you.
That Kentucky bulistics guy is the Mr. Rogers of the fire arm business for kids!! He's the best!
Such a good comparison lol
“You won it, I’ll wear it” is the most badass leadership quote I’ve ever heard!
YES! Been waiting for this one! Ching Lee was a certified badass.
Great video! It's always fun watching all these videos that guys like Drach did years ago, but now more people are doing and adding to. This is what the internet was made for.
Government: You can't bludgeon your way through red tape.
Lee: I don't know, I can bludgeon pretty hard.
Outgunning an IJN fleet in battleship-to-battleship gun fight is like beating a samurai in a sword fight.
Especially when it's a night battle
More importantly, he was wise enough to understand his limitations. He had a chance to engage Yamato with the BBs, but decided carriers would be more effective.
The universe took Lee before missiles become standardized as a balance patch.
Massive respect for the oblivion art in the background, i already knew you were another man of culture, but you just proved it again
Thank,you for telling the story of a man that didn’t let the bureaucrats get in his way. We were fortunate as a nation that he had leaders that recognized his talents and didn’t need him to be a kiss up, just needed him to do his job.
quick note, which im sure TFE realized afterward, USS South Dakota wasnt Washington's sister ship, Washington only had one sister ship and that was North Carolina
I just paused the video to make this very point...
As an aside, TFE, why you gotta hurt me like that with the Alaska class?
And lastly, BB-55 or CV-6 video when?😊
Enterprise vs Japan!
Neither the USS South Dakota and the USS Washington survived the Navy's downsizing after World War Two and were both scrapped. However, if you want to see the USS Washington's actual sister ship, the USS North Carolina, it became a museum ship and this beautiful vessel can still be seen in Wilmington, North Carolina. Additionally, the USS South Dakota's sister ship was the USS Alabama. The USS Alabama also became a museum ship and is permanently moored on the western shore of Mobile Bay, Alabama.
@@zoomerboomer6834 theres also USS Massachusetts that is still surviving from the four Sodak class ships
@zoomerboomer6834 I've been on that ship. It's a badass tribute to badass men. I think the placard said that thing had 130k HP. Absolutely barbaric.
- Frank -
Every time I watch your vids I think "The last one was so good, this guy cannot compete." I get 7 mins in, wipe the tears from my eyes from the laughter, and realize how much I needed this in my life.
I know, right! I'm always going crazy thinking, who is gonna top that?
He was a great leader, a technician with anything that could shoot, a man who made it possible for the people under him to succeed. Hopefully we have this type of leader working through our naval ranks now.
Great video, thanks for bringing light to a rough and tough sailor that has impacted the navy for decades, and possibly generations to follow.
Recommendation (I don't think that you've done this one yet): I remember a story about Carlos Hathcock crawling onto an enemy base during the Vietnam War, narrowly avoiding getting bit in the face by a viper, ultimately getting the kill and getting away. Several other good CH stories but that one I always remember.
I second that, Carlos Hathcock is a legend...
I can’t believe I didn’t realize he didn’t do hathcock j til you said that
Ask any Marine, there are many total badass Marines you learn about in recruit training. Hathcock is certainly one of them. Others that deserve Nic's skills at telling their story are John Basilone, Smedley Butler and Chesty Puller.
Damn good suggestion, sir!
Let's just have a whole CH series!
An impressive part of Washington's slug match with Kirishima was that her secondary guns weren't designed to hit things that far away, yet he trained his gunnery crews so well that they still managed to land so many hits despite the relatively great distance.
Washington vs. Kirishima started at 5800 yards, basically point blank, so I don't think that's the case.
@@durhamdavesbg4948 point blank for the 16" guns.... but still a bit of a reach for the 5"... notice when he said the SECONDARY BATTERY
@@Crazyfrog41 Those have quite a range too.
5800 yards is still a long way for those 5/38s to be hitting with that kind of accuracy.
@@durhamdavesbg4948 Maximum Range is not the same as Effective Range.
The farthest you can realistically hit wit a 5/38 is around 7000m.
The 5/38s of the WWII era are nowhere near as accurate as the 5/45s autocannon of today (137mmm/45cal)
That was an outstanding video!
I had never heard of Ching Lee and thus clearly had no idea about his contributions to our victory in WW2. Thanks so much for sharing this story!
1) You ain't fat. 2) Your videos are absolutely OUTSTANDING!
Never imagined you would do one on Admiral Lee! He's well known in naval history circles but I didn't figure he was famous enough to get the recognition, considering King, Nimitz, Halsey, Fisher etc get most of the attention for the Pacific campaign. But Lee had a massive impact on the Navy's success against the IJN, not least of which was because he insisted on extremely heavy short range anti-aircraft armament for all ships - which I'd argue changed the outcome of multiple battles!
Hell the proximity fuse has been credited as being more important than the atom bomb in ensuring the allies victory.... and without lee who knows if it wouldve ever made it to production
How could you forget Spruance?!?!
did the ever name a ship after him?
Admiral Ernest "Semper Iratus" King.
I have a learning disability; I have a hard time paying attention and comprehending but I can watch your videos all the way through without stopping and understand it.
Nick,
Your very well spoken and thank you for your videos.
Seems like what you have his ADHD because that’s what I have
And we share similar symptoms I could be wrong though
Could be a touch...
@@ArcticFuzz.Could be, or it could be Asperger's (which I have), which mimics ADHD.
Your story telling skills
are off the chart man
and because good stories never get old.
this is the 4th time Ive been completely enthralled with your descriptions of
Badassery. Inspirational as well.
As a South Dakotan, I'm always glad to hear anything about the USS SD.
FRANTIC rubber stamp, that is awesome. If you don't have a shirt already being printed...
I was just thinking the same thing. Put a FRANTIC stamp on a DD-214 on a shirt for us vets!
Wow! What a competent hero! Thank you for bringing him to the attention of history! You are doing better work than most historians Fat Electrician! And you're not even fat!
Great story, I now have a reason to brag on about, and remember this great Gunslinger. Thank You! Willis Lee ...
And Thank You! The Fat Electrician for a story of a man's life and a story so rich and memorable!
"Stand aside. I'm coming through. This is Ching Lee."
His message is like playing a video game and having the Pro on your team tell everyone: "I'll deal with the pre-teen tryhard on the enemy team. Everyone else stay out of our way and play the objective." And then you win with minimal casualties.
Absolutely beautiful.
The derivative of Lee's and Earp's quote is, "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast."
Wasn’t it slow is smooth, smooth is fast?
“Slow is Smooth And Smooth is Fast”
Yes.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
Corrected my error.
@@SethBeck Neat, I often would get it mixed up. Recently I've been working with shotguns and its come up more and more.
Love your videos! I have a few more kernels of that story for you. Lee was also commander of Task Force 58.7 at the Battle of Philipine Sea and one of his battleships was the USS Alabama. (When I was a child in the 1960's I helped raise funds to being the Alabama to its current anchorage in Mobile Alabama. I have visited that ship numerous times.) Alabama was the first ship to report that its radar detected approaching Japanese fighters which led to the Mariana Turkey Shoot.
A distant relative of his was on shore ... a Marine who got shot in the butt. We know him as the great American actor ... Lee Marvin. He, like Admiral Lee, was a distant cousin to Robert E Lee.
Admiral Lee died as he had lived ... of a heart attack just 10 days after Japan surrendered while on a launch transferring to his flagship in August of 1945 in the harbor of Portland Maine. Barely 4 months later General Patton would die as well.
Thank you for this informing and amazing story. I have never heard of this amazing hero before. Well done! This man is worthy of a major historical film about his life.
ive said it before but I'll say it again, the production quality has gone up so much in such a relatively short period of time, you love to see it
From TikTok green screen to a full studio in a matter of months, love to see it.
It's honestly amazing they got vacuum tubes to work for those proximity fuses. These guns created a force of 20k g's when firing, and standard tubes were FAR too fragile to handle that. It was a UK research project they passed on to us to see if we could figure it out and we were able to miniaturize the vacuum tube enough to have ~10x weight savings over a normal sized tube and it even had to use a special solder for the connections that was only made in the UK in order to handle the force from being fired. They also had multiple fail-safes within it that required the high rate of spin from the rifled barrels to activate like the ampule of acid that shattered and then evenly coated the battery to turn the battery inside on as well as the detonator being set in place requiring that same spin to properly align with the rest of the system. It even had a self-destruct mechanism to make sure it stayed out of enemy hands if it missed it's target and never detonated.
Really great video about it here: th-cam.com/video/N0SgC78YFPc/w-d-xo.html
I stopped watching this to see the posted link, and it did not disappoint! Thanks for sharing!
Man I was watchin you way back on the shorts an stuff when you made the full screen jump it was meant to be.. thank you for entertaining us… educating us on the stuff the education system doesn’t necessarily teach you.. happy 1 million subs keep it up❤️
Hey, TFE. Thank you! I'm a disabled vet and pretty much stuck at home alone and your show is a highlight!!
26:19 The Far Side cartoon did not go unnoticed.
You have my respect as a man of culture.
This man just screams and lives main character energy. Gets shot at, they miss, shoots back and hits, and when the dust settles he just says "Yeah I think I got a few"
The dopest part of the Mrs. Electrician cameo is that she’s rocking an Ice Cube t-shirt. My kind of Americans!
Drachinifel has a video on the Washington vs Kirishima battle called "Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 2" and a bio video on Adm. Lee as well for anyone who is interested.
Unauthorized History of the Pacific Podcast also has a great one called The Night the Giants Rode: The Night Battle of Guadalcanal Pt2. They have had Drach on a few times as well
I was thinking about mentioning it, but you beat me to it.
"Is that a real MP5?"
*"Come find out."*
Real John Wick energy tight there
he was actually given command of Bat Div 6 (USS Washington, USS South Dakota). As a reward for his actions off Guadalcanal, he was promoted to Commander, Battleship Forces Pacific
"Ching Lee don't miss." This guy is basically the real-life equivalent of Deadshot from DC comics!
Dude, i bet you would absolutely kill it as a military humor stand up comic. A lot people would love it, i think.
28:17 To be fair, Lee had closed the range to just 5,000 yards, which is basically point-blank range.
Which is still 4 miles lol
@@kamdenbarclay4862.85 miles, but still - holy shit.
"Parry this, you filthy casual."- Willis Lee
You are from the acquisition bureau aren't you?
@@cavalieroutdoors6036 I mean, yeah, it's still a really big distance, but honestly this guy could airmail a dealership worth of ammo from the next zip code, so I doubt he had much trouble.
"If this was current day, He'd watch anime" I mean he was in the navy.
Lee deserves a movie produced by mel gibson and directed by clint Eastwood.
OUTSTANDING!!! Will be bingeing your page, Sir!! Military history nerd here!
As a recommendation: Lauri Torni AKA Larry Thorne. Fought in the Finnish army against the Soviets. Became so feared by the Soviets that they put a higher bounty on his head then that of the White Death. Fought with the Germans against the Soviets. Got on a ship to the USA. Jumped overboard of the coast of Florida. Swam ashore, changed his name to Larry Thorne. Joined the USA Army as a private and eventually became one of the first green beret's. Fought in Vietnam against the Soviets. (a song was written about him by a Swedish band. song: Soldier of 3 armies, band: Sabaton) I know that he is not a OG American, and he is better known then most. But, with the way you present the stories of all these men and woman. I will be laughing my ass off, learning and/or shedding a tear. Greetings from the Netherlands, love your content and wish you the best for the future.
Yes! Dude really hated the Soviets so much he fought them every way he could.
One of the unsung American heroes of the Greatest Generation. The whole world owes these Admiral Lee and the men like he a great debt.