What is the worst warship CONCEPT you can think of? Not in the sense the design is bad but in the sense that the ship’s intended purpose makes no sense whatsoever.
What gave an Age of Sail ship (Specifically a fully rigged or maybe barque rigged ship) good sailing qualities? Also just wanted to add that you produce fantastic content, always enjoy your videos!
The English have such a way of putting these things. I'm reminded of the line from the report on the Flixborough disaster: "The best that can be said of [the improvised dog-leg pipe] is that it was dimensionally accurate and its fabrication was competent."
Somehow, I am imagining the launching of the Sovietsky Soyuz resembling a scene from a Harold Lloyd-era silent short film. The Party figure steps up after having harangued the workers for at least half an hour about the construction of the People’s latest weapon to defend the Rodina. He strikes the bow of the ship squarely with a bottle of vodka. The bottle shatters, the ship begins to slide backwards - then it stops dead, groans loudly, and the hull splits apart, the deck drops straight down on top of the machinery, and a huge cloud of dust hides the picture. The last thing you see is the Party figure holding the broken bottle with dust covering his face , glasses, and clothes. He wipes his glasses, replaces them on his face and says ‘I hear that Siberia is pretty this time of year”…
Louis de Funès did something like that at both the beginning and end of "Le Petit Baigneur". In the first scene, the bottle knocks a hole in the hull, in the second the boat sinks after hitting the water. th-cam.com/video/F1DvccBkD4k/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/S9cQr74vDSY/w-d-xo.html
Half an hour? Comrade, after half an hour, the Party chairman is still praising the glories of the glorious people of the gloried Motherland. It will be at least another 45 minutes before he turns his attention to the villainous cowardly warmongering imperialists. The ship itself? I hope you brought your dinner with you.
Drach would have been a major contributor to a list we used to keep at work of funny things we'd say (e.g. "doghouse prophylactic.")* that could also be a modern song title and/or band. "Impromptu Swimming Pool," from a recent Drydock would have definitely made it, IMHO. * It was Valentines Day and a newly wed coworker wasn't sure if he should get his bride flowers, I told him his best bet was to buy some as a 'doghouse prophylactic' just to be safe.
And to think that this channel used to use that AI voice. It's Drach's voice, delivery and humor that are pushing this channel towards 500k subscribers.
One advantage Wasp had over her Yorktown half-sisters (or cousins). She had an alternating boiler and engine room set up compared to the combined arrangement used on the larger carriers. I think I bought this up in a drydock before. But Wasp was laid down a week after the 2nd London Treaty was signed which for carriers got rid of the combined tonnage limits in favour of a 23,000 tonne individual ship limit. When the ink hit the paper, someone should have called Fore River and told them to stop construction temporarily. Bring up a copy of Yorktown's blueprints from Newport news and with adjustments to the slipways and possible modifications. She could be ready to be laid down in 1937 as Yorktown-Class (plus or minus modifications to keep the deck edge elevator). Without anyone complaining as she would fit within the treaty.
Wasp came up yesterday on the “Unauthorized History of the Pacific War” podcast. So I quoted Drach’s five-minute guide in the comments, regarding her known vulnerabilities, and asking if she could’ve been deployed differently to bring her air group to bear on the Solomon Islands, without sending the lamb to slaughter, keeping station at “Torpedo Junction” with no torpedo defenses. Wasp was a glass cannon stationed in the single patch of ocean where she was most likely to be shattered.
@@Briandnlo4 I saw that episode, and I agree that her being sent into the Pacific was a timebomb. How she ended up in the periscope of I-19 can be attributed to ignoring orders. Let me explain: The waters where she was sunk were called "Torpedo Junction" for a reason. That was where most of the IJN's subs would gather to interdict shipping. In a rare showing of backbone, Vice Admiral Robert Ghormley had ordered Task Force Commanders to try and change up their routes through the waters as much as possible. So that the subs would at least have a harder time looking for targets. Wasp's Task Force 18 Commander Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes had used the same route for his patrols. Which was against those orders. Plus, Neptune's inferno described him as unimaginative. Eventually, the IJN caught on, and the rest is history.
Drach: "no I don't cover modern warships, but if there's an opportunity to make fun of them (looking at you LCS) you're goddamned right I'm gonna make a veiled quip about them!"
I've never heard Drach curse much less use the name of the Lord in vein like that. I once talked like that as well but I learned better. And considering children may view this can you please refrain from such profanity, so we don't teach our younger generations to speak that way.
@@kennethdeanmiller7324 I'm sorry but I disagree with you. We are watching a (fantastic) historical retelling of what are essentially machines if war, designed to destroy other warships and impose a nation's will on another through naval supremacy. This would require the killing, maiming, drowning, burning and otherwise obliterating of another human being(s) to accomplish this. In short, if you're going to virtue signal about what the youth of today may be watching and reading, perhaps you ought to pick your goddamned battles
@@kennethdeanmiller7324 I am sorry that you take issue with my vocabulary Kenneth but your virtue signalling of what the youth read and watch today sounds a little hollow when the topic of this fantastic TH-camr is the creation and maintenance of what are ultimately machines of war, designed to destroy the enemy which includes gunfire, normal fire, maiming, drowning to name a few. In short, you should pick your goddamned battles.
@@kennethdeanmiller7324 You've got to be fucking kidding us? This channel describes, with fairly vivid verbal imagery, what happens when sailors are hit by shell shrapnel, and the deeds some of them did after losing limbs because of it... and you're worried that someone might say a "bad" word or not observe your personal religious restrictions?!?
Gotta admire the optimism in World of Warships description of Sovetsky Soyuz "Had she been built, she would have been the most powerful battleship in the world"
And at a time when even if she HAD been genuinely good, it wouldn’t really have mattered. Yamato and Iowa were legitimately very powerful and well-designed battleships and both of them ended up being complete and utter strategic disasters for the IJN and USN respectively in practice (with Iowa’s postwar career mostly being the result of her being seen as far more useful than she actually was), going nowhere in their design roles and being only able to serve as gigantic and ridiculously expensive AA destroyers.
Drach's commentary embodies literate British humor at its very best. In the description of post-Civil War Soviet blundering, perhaps the best example of the forced exile of Russian design talent is Vladimir Yourkevich, who after being forced to leave the Soviet Union went on to design the ocean liner SS NORMANDIE.
Possibly the most stunningly beautiful liner ever built, and efficient too. Queen Mary needed a lot more horsepower for a paltry increase in speed over her. Her fate was a true tragedy.
When, oh when, am I going to learn NOT to drink anything during a Drach video? Had to pause while I caught my breath, and keep it paused while I wiped all the water off the screen.
79 years and 2 days since my Uncle Burtons ship, the USS Drexler DD741 was hit by two kamikazes off the coast of Okinawa. He was lost along with 167 of his shipmates as the rear 5” turret magazine exploded and broke the ship in half after the second plane hit. Less than a minute the ship was gone. Please remember the sailors and soldiers and marines from all the countries whose names have been lost to history. My uncle was killed on my father’s 7th birthday.
The F-class strikes me as being emblematic of a kind of mindset common among German engineers in general in the WWII era. Everything must be the biggest, fastest, strongest, most heavily armoured, etc. The result was a lot of tanks, ships, planes and other equipment that had great stats on paper, but in practice were usually costly, inefficient, difficult to repair, and prone to spontaneous sudden existence failure. The designers often would have done better to realise where diminishing returns had set in, and to have toned back their ambitions somewhat. Of course, it was great for the Allies in the long run that they frequently did this sort of thing, so I'm ultimately appreciative of their philosophy in the context in which it appeared.
The largest issue was that after WW1 there really wasn't a navy to begin with, so the idea was to get a small amount of extremely capable ships which was meant to cut down on construction time and resources. As a result, cutting edge tech was crammed into everything (like ridiculous boilers...).
@32:20- All of this reminds me of a probably apocryphal anecdote from the Soviet period, where a traveler comes across a large group pulling a series of wagons with a gigantic iron nail. When asked by the traveler what such a fastener might be used for the reply was "I don't know, but it satisfies our factory quota of fifty tons of nails per month...."
And the complementary tale of a shoe factory that was ordeŕed to increase its production to a certain number of shoes annually, and so simply switched to making baby shoes.
The Knox class ASW frigates ran 1200 pound steam at over 900 degrees superheat. Pinhole leaks became an obsession with the BTs and MMs. There was always a broom handle in reach. Somewhat off topic, the employment of gas turbines has one major advantage over steam powerplants: they don't have to generate a head of steam. Their downside is the need for more highly refined fuel than naval crude or distillate. For an oil producing superpower that might not be as much of an issue.
When there's no war on it always seems so tempting to give warships a secondary utility role. But then during the war every warship is at a premium and your utility tasks suffer and your warships start running into un-swept mines. That's when you start to realize that by doing the long and boring jobs and keeping your warships in the fight even the humble minesweeper is not a cost but a force multiplier.
Crippling overspecialization is _also_ a thing. You can only afford so many ships in your navy, and you've got all these various jobs. Worse, you don't even know ahead of time how much of each you need. You don't get into real trouble until your various design goals start being in direct opposition; for an F-Class example, the deep draft for sea keeping versus the shallow draft for mine sweeping. Point is, it's not wrong to want your ships to be able to do multiple things well; a ship that sucks at the job (a ship that you have, now) is better than no ship with the capability.
To a degree it's even a good idea if there's synergy with the primary role of the ship - EG the extensive machine shops onboard USN aircraft carriers meant they were able to do almost all services for their air wings' engines, and support escorts need for spares/repair. The problem comes when you don't have that synergy.
F-Class test crew: "Well, we came to the assessment, that these ships are not immediately in danger of sinking in a calm on a good day." Naval inspector: "Good enough for government work. Let's build a flotilla of these."
Building and operating a 1200 psi marine steam plant is quite impressive for the 1930s. While that number was eventually surpassed within even the commercial maritime industry, it took many more years to get to that point.
6:50 see draca this is why I love your channel, your sarcastic British humor has me cracking up uncontrollably.... the image of a .22 ciws shooting at seagulls 😀.
Ahh Drach, you are in fine form in this Rum Ration! "A particular corpulent swan"😂😂😂. I literally spit my coffee out, lucky I was still standing at the sink.❤
This video is an eye-opener! The exploration of naval engineering failures is both intriguing and informative. I love how you present each case with clear explanations and engaging visuals. Great job highlighting the lessons learned from these incidents!
What would the naval version of the stig be? Some say he keeps his skin baby soft using No. 2 bunker oil, and that if you spin him around he always stops facing magnetic north. All we know is...
It would have hilarious for them to launch one of the Soyuz ships only for it to make a bunch of bangs and pops and promptly come all the way apart as it slid into the water.
While it may have been hilarious to outsiders to hear the bangs and pops of the ship coming apart, given Stalin's noted lack of tolerance for anything other than complete success, it probably would have been followed by a lot of bangs and pops as Stalin addressed the ship's shortfalls with the design, engineering, and construction teams
In terms of seagoing performance and engineering, One of my relatives served on the Midway after her final angled deck refit in the 70s, he met one of the Midway sailors who served on her in the 50s when she still had straight deck and her seagoing performance was pretty bad and they had rather quite dreadful seekeeping during her pre refit status. Not until these problems were fixed in the Forrestal class design and onwards where they would rather have better sea keeping ability than the Midways.
Many a time, while doing line swings off of Viet Nam, I saw a lot of the older carriers taking water up on the bows, Coral Sea included. But I never saw any of the Forrestal ships do that.
Another outstanding video! I started watching this channel because I have a fascination with pre-dreadnought battle ships but I have to admit Drachinifels dry wit and sardonic comments (e.g. corpulent swan) are the reasons I subscribed to his channel.
As the grandson of a Scotsman extremely familiar with the naval history of his homeland, I often heard his stories about the development of the first iron warships. I was told the Japanese would ask for proposals of major warship designs, study the resulting Scottish proposals, politely reject them and then build the ships. After realizing this progression, Scottish designers awaited the next requests, produced a design and somehow neglected to mention that the center of gravity of the design was inconspicuously placed well to one side of the keel. When the Japanese built this design, my grandfathers smile broadened greatly as he reported that, upon launching, the new ship promptly capsized. I’m wondering about how much truth there might be to this story because these stories were often fueled by a not-insignificant amount of whisky. Thank you for all your excellent presentations.
@@bkjeong4302Drach has expressed the opinion before, and I agree with it fully (along with, in the regards to U-boats, every U-boat captain who's writings I've read), that every ship that carried that 37 would have been better off with them removed. Not even replaced or with the spce/weight used elsewhere, but just removed. As at the very least it would have meant fewer men on board to die. And in the case of the U-boats, slightly better all around submerged performance.
Ah, the Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad. As the eminent Naval Historiographer Douglas Adams put it: “Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow.”
"they were howitzers, which meant that to hit anything with a shell, you'd first have to find yourself guessing how far above the tallest mast of the target you actually had to fire and then prey that the rolling of your ship and the delay in the charge going of between you lighting the fuse and the actual detonation didn't completely throw of an already quite sketchy firingsolution, since of course a round plunging down out of the sky had to be on target by a handful of degrees at worst, whereas the mostly horzinal firing Canon could be out of aim by as much as low double digits but they'd still hit something, assuming you aimed for roughly speaking a ships center of mass." That. Was. A. Single. Sentence. That skill! ❤️❤️❤️
@Raptorbeast7 asks a good question-- to cite feats of damage-control excellence. But it hinges on key info that may be hard to dig up. I.e. Scharnhorst hit a mine during the Channel Dash and went dead in the water. Their D.C. handled the damage well enough that in just 30 minutes the ship was under way making 25 knots. This drew high praise from the British. I'd like to know specifics about the damage. That's for someone with better sources than I have.
IDK exactly but mines tended to hit aft of the bow so maybe it took out a boiler room or two. If they seal the room & prop up the bulkheads and swap out that boiler for others remaining boilers?
F Class will always have a fun little part in my heart... The F2 is a wreck up in Scapa Flow, and it went on continuing being problematic after it sank! She was being salvaged by a rather inexperienced company when some bad weather sprang up. The entire salvage team rode off the boat for the night, leaving her anchored to the wreck. The next morning - no barge, and no sign of the twin AA guns sitting in its hold. And that's why the F2 is still connected to the sunken salvage barge. Phenomenal dive, the guns are still in the salvage barge, you can still see the cylinders used to charge torpedoes, and a significant amount of her power packs are no longer in the ship
Related to the Cyclops class, there's a Science Channel segment (I think in "Mysteries of the Abandoned") about HMVS Cerberus, a coastal defence ship completed in 1870, currently serving as part of a breakwater in Australia. The tone of the segment is that the ship had cutting-edge technology and may have overawed foreign powers to the extent that they never invaded Australia. The existence of more powerful ocean-going ships and the fact that Cerberus was soon rendered obsolescent by rapidly evolving naval developments are not mentioned.
Drach! sir, please cover the unsung heros of many age of sail battles.... the powder monkeys? how many guns did they serve each, how much powder did 5hey carry? and did the guns have a "ready supply of powder before battle? it seems that they were a muchly needed cog in the fine running of the guns!, so any other information about these kids would be welcome😅
I recommend you do a video on the Aconit (formerly HMS Aconite) was one of the nine Flower-class corvettes. And one on Canadas only aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent, the Magi
Have you covered the 1950's Dealey Class Destroyer Escorts? My dad was aboard one that hit a reef in the Pacific where its single screw design left it unable to do more than steerageway with what was left. Prior DE's with two screws would have been a bit better at navigating around the atoll they were charged with visiting when it happened. Saving money while enlarging the size of vessels in that class meant choosing that single large screw as I see it.
Great to see another instalment in the "5 _____ " series! Sometimes I groan, slightly, with what my fellow Patreons choose but was pleased to see this one led.
@@hanzzel6086 I has to be remembered this style of weapon in 37 mm wasn't just a German thing the french had the very similar 37 mm/50 Model 1925 and 37 mm/50 Model 33 both a semi auto falling breech block hand loaded gun so around 15 -20 shots per minute - if you are lucky.
@@SCjunk True, but just because someone else did it doesn't make it a food idea, especially if that someone else is the French! (glares at their early pre-dreadnoughts)
@@hanzzel6086 Fair enough, I'm not saying it was a good idea all I'm saying is it wasn't just the KM wasn't alone. but both countries were aware the actual old falling block (rather than bolt action joke) was a bust. But the reasoning for these weapons were on the same basis as the single shot rifle and then the manual action repeater were preferred, basically if you're unlikely to hit anything there is little point on going from 15 to 20 round per minute to 300 rounds per minute cyclic. However both France and Germany eventually realised that a full auto was needed, both C/30 and model 33 developed into 'something better'. for France it was straight to 37 mm/70 Model 1935 but few manufactured and fitted to service vessels. for Germany it was firstly an auto-loader add on for the C/30 then a new design the M/42
@hanzzel6086 semi-automatic in cannons refers to the breech action automatically ejecting the shell and being open to a new one loading, not to automatically loading a round after every pull of the trigger like a firearm.
I love these. I wish I could sway things. Oh my fox the opening to the dry dock is the best tune on TH-cam. Sorry I missed you. I tried to find the one pub but I went to six of em that were alright.
27:38 “Dance Dance Russian Revolution” Congratulations, you have succeeded in making me laugh like a lunatic at 2 in the morning. Eagerly looking forward to your vid on HMAS Diamantina (K377).
The Kriegsmarine really went out there and said *let's build a destroyer escort but faster that can also minesweep and on half the displacement of a US destroyer escort.* What could possibly go wrong.
The answer to that is: No problem. We can deliver in 40 years when material science, engine technology and manufacturing infrastructure has progressed to the point of meeting requirements. If this timeline is not satisfactory, please change the requirements.
@@TinBaneMines are bad news for all ships. Which is why the magnetic mines - unknown to the allies - were such a danger in the begin of WWII. Except that one plane laying them got scared by gunfire and dropped the mine … on a mudbank. Without arming it. Not even the self-destruct. On the first deployment of the mines. They could sit at the floor of the ocean up to a fairly large depth and explode the n’th time someone/something triggered them. Nasty buggers, and not found by ordinary mine sweeping.
I agree with all of the examples mentioned. To be fair to USS Wasp, the interwar naval treaties created many questionable ship designs. All you need to do is look at the cruiser classes from multiple nations.
I have now binged all of the videos in your naval engineering playlist after listening to your talks with Venom Geek Media. I am woefully ignorant about military history indeed I only learned the real life Enterprise was anything more than a publicity stunt because of these videos. I have now subscribed and am a fan
@@alexandermonro6768That can hardly be blamed on their design though, while their postal-code sized turning radius didn't help, the fact is that they shouldn't have been in that exercise (because the whole idea behind a fleet submarine was foolish, specifically because of potential catastrophes like this) and everyone knew it. The flagship not properly signaling its actions and the fog were the biggest reasons for that disaster.
Hi Drach, What would you think about a design and plotting video. This could include how designers are able to estimate design speed and weight etc. Love your work!
It's rather hard to fault Wasp and her designers considering that all of their problems stemmed from the US actually following the treaty. Everyone was aware that the strict tonnage limitations put them in a serious bind; they were trying to make the best of a bad situation. And in the end, Wasp was actually a fairly decent ship; she got really unlucky and got torpedoed by a Japanese submarine before she could show her capability.
Corpulent swan? You facility with concise yet vivid mental images rivals author Graham Greene. You have once again proved why you merit my subscription and likes. Thanks again.
What I think about this video is "how can someone produce such quality content and do all the research needed without bullshitting and even put in a some fine humour?".
What sort of software would later be used to balance all these factors? some sort of cost/benefit analysis? I'm familiar with PERT and Gantt, and did FMECA, but am a total blank with things naval. cheers!
Great video as usual. How about doing one on the German Marine Fahrprahme? My father spent time in the Mediterranean, and saw a lot of them. Some were strictly ferries, others had various armament load outs and some had 88MM and 20MM batteries, and were used as mobile artillery batteries.
I remember the World's Worst Club of Great Britain selected their Worst Naval Ship... I wish I could recall the name. It never worked right and ended it's career backing at speed into a stone jetty - her steering and engine controls having locked up (again) - so hard that this caused the only casualty for which she was ever responsible... a crewman standing in a hatchway was blown off the ship and onto the jetty by the concussion of air escaping from the ship suddenly becoming several meters shorter. She was towed back to the yard and scrapped.
Pinned post for Q&A :)
What is the worst warship CONCEPT you can think of? Not in the sense the design is bad but in the sense that the ship’s intended purpose makes no sense whatsoever.
Apparently, there is a full size replica of Santisima Trinidad at Alicante, what are your thoughts on it and do you plan to visit it?
What do you think is dumbest thing to put on a ship
Opposite of the previous reply, what innovation is the biggest leap forward for warships ?
What gave an Age of Sail ship (Specifically a fully rigged or maybe barque rigged ship) good sailing qualities? Also just wanted to add that you produce fantastic content, always enjoy your videos!
“…the ship with the sailing qualities of a barn…” One of the best descriptions of a ship ever….
lol, it was the FV4005's sister in the Navy 🤣
the "shit-barn"...
The English have such a way of putting these things. I'm reminded of the line from the report on the Flixborough disaster: "The best that can be said of [the improvised dog-leg pipe] is that it was dimensionally accurate and its fabrication was competent."
CSS Virginia: *"I resemble that remark."*
@@MM22966 I doubt Virginia had much issue with defying the wind
@@AgentTasmania If you don't leave a bay, you don't need to worry about the wind.
Because of his background, I absolutely love it when Drach does these kinds of episodes. They are most enjoyable.
Agreed
Agreed
How does his background impact the video? Unless you mean his knowledge of naval history
@EFFEZE he has an extensive education in engineering plus significant actual work experience in the field.
Because of his smooth voice, I like them
Somehow, I am imagining the launching of the Sovietsky Soyuz resembling a scene from a Harold Lloyd-era silent short film. The Party figure steps up after having harangued the workers for at least half an hour about the construction of the People’s latest weapon to defend the Rodina. He strikes the bow of the ship squarely with a bottle of vodka. The bottle shatters, the ship begins to slide backwards - then it stops dead, groans loudly, and the hull splits apart, the deck drops straight down on top of the machinery, and a huge cloud of dust hides the picture. The last thing you see is the Party figure holding the broken bottle with dust covering his face , glasses, and clothes. He wipes his glasses, replaces them on his face and says ‘I hear that Siberia is pretty this time of year”…
Had they been launched and accepted into service I’m pretty sure we would now have dejavu‘s hearing Admiral Kuznekhov‘s „adventures“.
Louis de Funès did something like that at both the beginning and end of "Le Petit Baigneur". In the first scene, the bottle knocks a hole in the hull, in the second the boat sinks after hitting the water.
th-cam.com/video/F1DvccBkD4k/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/S9cQr74vDSY/w-d-xo.html
Half an hour? Comrade, after half an hour, the Party chairman is still praising the glories of the glorious people of the gloried Motherland.
It will be at least another 45 minutes before he turns his attention to the villainous cowardly warmongering imperialists.
The ship itself? I hope you brought your dinner with you.
I was thinking more along the lines of "swings the bottle at the ship, the ship shatters while the bottle bounces off" but honestly that's better
I think you were inspired by Harold Lloyd holding the starting handle of a car that was just hit by a train. Well done!
I laughed out loud at the ‘corpulent swan’ gag. I’ve always enjoyed your tongue in cheek approach to naval silliness. Keep up the good work 😀
laughed out loud at 21:00
Drach would have been a major contributor to a list we used to keep at work of funny things we'd say (e.g. "doghouse prophylactic.")* that could also be a modern song title and/or band. "Impromptu Swimming Pool," from a recent Drydock would have definitely made it, IMHO.
* It was Valentines Day and a newly wed coworker wasn't sure if he should get his bride flowers, I told him his best bet was to buy some as a 'doghouse prophylactic' just to be safe.
And to think that this channel used to use that AI voice. It's Drach's voice, delivery and humor that are pushing this channel towards 500k subscribers.
@@williampotts4404 SAME!
One advantage Wasp had over her Yorktown half-sisters (or cousins). She had an alternating boiler and engine room set up compared to the combined arrangement used on the larger carriers.
I think I bought this up in a drydock before. But Wasp was laid down a week after the 2nd London Treaty was signed which for carriers got rid of the combined tonnage limits in favour of a 23,000 tonne individual ship limit. When the ink hit the paper, someone should have called Fore River and told them to stop construction temporarily. Bring up a copy of Yorktown's blueprints from Newport news and with adjustments to the slipways and possible modifications. She could be ready to be laid down in 1937 as Yorktown-Class (plus or minus modifications to keep the deck edge elevator). Without anyone complaining as she would fit within the treaty.
Wasp came up yesterday on the “Unauthorized History of the Pacific War” podcast. So I quoted Drach’s five-minute guide in the comments, regarding her known vulnerabilities, and asking if she could’ve been deployed differently to bring her air group to bear on the Solomon Islands, without sending the lamb to slaughter, keeping station at “Torpedo Junction” with no torpedo defenses. Wasp was a glass cannon stationed in the single patch of ocean where she was most likely to be shattered.
@@Briandnlo4 I saw that episode, and I agree that her being sent into the Pacific was a timebomb.
How she ended up in the periscope of I-19 can be attributed to ignoring orders. Let me explain: The waters where she was sunk were called "Torpedo Junction" for a reason.
That was where most of the IJN's subs would gather to interdict shipping. In a rare showing of backbone, Vice Admiral Robert Ghormley had ordered Task Force Commanders to try and change up their routes through the waters as much as possible. So that the subs would at least have a harder time looking for targets. Wasp's Task Force 18 Commander Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes had used the same route for his patrols. Which was against those orders. Plus, Neptune's inferno described him as unimaginative. Eventually, the IJN caught on, and the rest is history.
If I was going to put an aircraft carrier in the list it would have been USS Ranger.
I can't fault the early carriers, they were all test beds meant for just figuring things out
With bigger catapult, angled flight deck
Watch 42 minutes of drach on my 30 minute lunch break? Challenge accepted
Easy, 30 mins lunch break + 15 mins toilet break (3 mins for reading and leaving comments)
Play at 1.5x speed?
The laws of time are mine to command!
Let's be real, your boss should be willing to pay you to watch and learn from Drach.
@@MrDmitriRavenoff this is often an overlooked way to see videos quickly.
"unpatriotic behavior by the water."
Drach: "no I don't cover modern warships, but if there's an opportunity to make fun of them (looking at you LCS) you're goddamned right I'm gonna make a veiled quip about them!"
Veiled? That was a frontal axe swing in full daylight.
I've never heard Drach curse much less use the name of the Lord in vein like that. I once talked like that as well but I learned better. And considering children may view this can you please refrain from such profanity, so we don't teach our younger generations to speak that way.
@@kennethdeanmiller7324 I'm sorry but I disagree with you. We are watching a (fantastic) historical retelling of what are essentially machines if war, designed to destroy other warships and impose a nation's will on another through naval supremacy. This would require the killing, maiming, drowning, burning and otherwise obliterating of another human being(s) to accomplish this. In short, if you're going to virtue signal about what the youth of today may be watching and reading, perhaps you ought to pick your goddamned battles
@@kennethdeanmiller7324 I am sorry that you take issue with my vocabulary Kenneth but your virtue signalling of what the youth read and watch today sounds a little hollow when the topic of this fantastic TH-camr is the creation and maintenance of what are ultimately machines of war, designed to destroy the enemy which includes gunfire, normal fire, maiming, drowning to name a few. In short, you should pick your goddamned battles.
@@kennethdeanmiller7324 You've got to be fucking kidding us? This channel describes, with fairly vivid verbal imagery, what happens when sailors are hit by shell shrapnel, and the deeds some of them did after losing limbs because of it... and you're worried that someone might say a "bad" word or not observe your personal religious restrictions?!?
“At least this time we only have 5 ships”…
Drach’s way of saying without saying “Please, I implore you. I never want to do this again”
Which, naturally, his Patreon will take as a challenge. :D
@@rdfox76 🤣of course…Drach is at his best when hard pressed
"El Ponderoso?" Sounds like a real Bonanza of a ship!
Helmed and Commanded by the Cartwright family. 😂
If it moves like a cow...
Great, now I'm hungry
To steer, Hoss would have to get out and push in the desired direction.
@@TomFynn More like a pig, a _Maiale_ to be exact. Except far larger and not sinking a Valiant Queen duo.
Gotta admire the optimism in World of Warships description of Sovetsky Soyuz "Had she been built, she would have been the most powerful battleship in the world"
And at a time when even if she HAD been genuinely good, it wouldn’t really have mattered. Yamato and Iowa were legitimately very powerful and well-designed battleships and both of them ended up being complete and utter strategic disasters for the IJN and USN respectively in practice (with Iowa’s postwar career mostly being the result of her being seen as far more useful than she actually was), going nowhere in their design roles and being only able to serve as gigantic and ridiculously expensive AA destroyers.
Wargaming is a russian company, enough said.
@@bkjeong4302ok but, who asked?
@@issacfoster1113
He has a thing about battleships! Best not engage with him about it.
@@issacfoster1113well, his comment explains the flattering description of the ship in game
The guy who said, "A ship with the sailing qualities of a barn" must have been Drach's ancestor
The British are generally kinda like that, and have been for a really long time.
Drach's commentary embodies literate British humor at its very best. In the description of post-Civil War Soviet blundering, perhaps the best example of the forced exile of Russian design talent is Vladimir Yourkevich, who after being forced to leave the Soviet Union went on to design the ocean liner SS NORMANDIE.
Possibly the most stunningly beautiful liner ever built, and efficient too. Queen Mary needed a lot more horsepower for a paltry increase in speed over her.
Her fate was a true tragedy.
Well screw bourgeoise asshats that don't understand socialism and want special treatment
@@nerd1000ifyKilled by the hubris of the US Navy.
Crimean War Mark 2 Ironclad Boogaloo! We need an alternative history episode on that!
Featuring the circular Novgorods in action.
Also "Dance Dance Russian Revolution"
When, oh when, am I going to learn NOT to drink anything during a Drach video? Had to pause while I caught my breath, and keep it paused while I wiped all the water off the screen.
79 years and 2 days since my Uncle Burtons ship, the USS Drexler DD741 was hit by two kamikazes off the coast of Okinawa. He was lost along with 167 of his shipmates as the rear 5” turret magazine exploded and broke the ship in half after the second plane hit. Less than a minute the ship was gone. Please remember the sailors and soldiers and marines from all the countries whose names have been lost to history. My uncle was killed on my father’s 7th birthday.
The F-class strikes me as being emblematic of a kind of mindset common among German engineers in general in the WWII era. Everything must be the biggest, fastest, strongest, most heavily armoured, etc. The result was a lot of tanks, ships, planes and other equipment that had great stats on paper, but in practice were usually costly, inefficient, difficult to repair, and prone to spontaneous sudden existence failure. The designers often would have done better to realise where diminishing returns had set in, and to have toned back their ambitions somewhat. Of course, it was great for the Allies in the long run that they frequently did this sort of thing, so I'm ultimately appreciative of their philosophy in the context in which it appeared.
I suspect the F Class proponents were avid water skiers
See also their fleet destroyers.
The largest issue was that after WW1 there really wasn't a navy to begin with, so the idea was to get a small amount of extremely capable ships which was meant to cut down on construction time and resources.
As a result, cutting edge tech was crammed into everything (like ridiculous boilers...).
And over large guns
@@Kr0noZ The thing is, it wasn't just the navy - it was tanks, airplanes, and other machines too.
@32:20- All of this reminds me of a probably apocryphal anecdote from the Soviet period, where a traveler comes across a large group pulling a series of wagons with a gigantic iron nail. When asked by the traveler what such a fastener might be used for the reply was "I don't know, but it satisfies our factory quota of fifty tons of nails per month...."
And the complementary tale of a shoe factory that was ordeŕed to increase its production to a certain number of shoes annually, and so simply switched to making baby shoes.
24:25 That is it, if ever I play a historical naval battle game, my ship will be the HSwMS Corpulent Swan
The Knox class ASW frigates ran 1200 pound steam at over 900 degrees superheat. Pinhole leaks became an obsession with the BTs and MMs. There was always a broom handle in reach.
Somewhat off topic, the employment of gas turbines has one major advantage over steam powerplants: they don't have to generate a head of steam. Their downside is the need for more highly refined fuel than naval crude or distillate. For an oil producing superpower that might not be as much of an issue.
When there's no war on it always seems so tempting to give warships a secondary utility role. But then during the war every warship is at a premium and your utility tasks suffer and your warships start running into un-swept mines.
That's when you start to realize that by doing the long and boring jobs and keeping your warships in the fight even the humble minesweeper is not a cost but a force multiplier.
Crippling overspecialization is _also_ a thing. You can only afford so many ships in your navy, and you've got all these various jobs. Worse, you don't even know ahead of time how much of each you need. You don't get into real trouble until your various design goals start being in direct opposition; for an F-Class example, the deep draft for sea keeping versus the shallow draft for mine sweeping.
Point is, it's not wrong to want your ships to be able to do multiple things well; a ship that sucks at the job (a ship that you have, now) is better than no ship with the capability.
To a degree it's even a good idea if there's synergy with the primary role of the ship - EG the extensive machine shops onboard USN aircraft carriers meant they were able to do almost all services for their air wings' engines, and support escorts need for spares/repair. The problem comes when you don't have that synergy.
The US Navy saw the F Class and said... "I WANT THAT, BUT IN ALUMUNIUM"
I was going to try for an American English/British English joke, but 'alumunium' isn't quite either. Very disappointed.
I'll take two!
They ordered aluminum, I suppose, which turned out to be a bad choice of words.
F-Class test crew: "Well, we came to the assessment, that these ships are not immediately in danger of sinking in a calm on a good day."
Naval inspector: "Good enough for government work. Let's build a flotilla of these."
Building and operating a 1200 psi marine steam plant is quite impressive for the 1930s. While that number was eventually surpassed within even the commercial maritime industry, it took many more years to get to that point.
I think you misheard, most had 1600psi boilers, and a couple had 1000psi boilers (13:40).
So the F-class was basically a Kriegsmarine version of LCS. Glorious
At least the Germans didn't build two different versions because they couldn't decide which design sucked less.
6:50 see draca this is why I love your channel, your sarcastic British humor has me cracking up uncontrollably.... the image of a .22 ciws shooting at seagulls 😀.
Ahh Drach, you are in fine form in this Rum Ration! "A particular corpulent swan"😂😂😂. I literally spit my coffee out, lucky I was still standing at the sink.❤
This video is an eye-opener! The exploration of naval engineering failures is both intriguing and informative. I love how you present each case with clear explanations and engaging visuals. Great job highlighting the lessons learned from these incidents!
Timestamps:
1:02 Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad
10:56 F-class escort ships or Flottenbegleiter
19:55 Cyclops-class coast defense ships
27:05 Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleships
32:59 USS Wasp
It's mind-boggling how many warship designers forgot that you can't even get to the war part if it doesn't work as a ship.
19:56 "Well, new recruit, here is your ship"
"Oh. How did it sink, sir?"
“It is a submarine. We are still working on the ‘surfacing’ part, but that is not really needed, is it?”
"Crimean War 2 - Ironclad Boogaloo" Loved it!
Nobody does it better. I love the excellent storytelling with an experienced engineering eye.
Thanks for 5,000 posts, Drach!
I love videos like these. Your sense of humor is like if David Fletcher was on Top Gear.
Tonight!
Goto uses a flashlight,
Beatty looks at a flag,
and Halsey fights a cloud.
And Kamchatka does, well Kamchatka things.
What would the naval version of the stig be?
Some say he keeps his skin baby soft using No. 2 bunker oil, and that if you spin him around he always stops facing magnetic north. All we know is...
@@nerd1000ify He's called The Yi.
Hahahaha
Hi Drach, you seem to enjoy making these "infotainment" videos as they give full rein to your wicked sense of humour. Well done, mate.
“Particularly corpulent swan” made me spit-take!! Bravo sir! 😂
It would have hilarious for them to launch one of the Soyuz ships only for it to make a bunch of bangs and pops and promptly come all the way apart as it slid into the water.
Drach just explained in the video ships had quality testing and how one got cancelled because the quality of her rivets wasn't up to standards.
While it may have been hilarious to outsiders to hear the bangs and pops of the ship coming apart, given Stalin's noted lack of tolerance for anything other than complete success, it probably would have been followed by a lot of bangs and pops as Stalin addressed the ship's shortfalls with the design, engineering, and construction teams
'Crimean War 2:Ironclad Boogaloo' and 'Dance Dance Russian Revolution' were my two favorite Drachisms of the episode.
Best way to start the day hands down
In terms of seagoing performance and engineering, One of my relatives served on the Midway after her final angled deck refit in the 70s, he met one of the Midway sailors who served on her in the 50s when she still had straight deck and her seagoing performance was pretty bad and they had rather quite dreadful seekeeping during her pre refit status. Not until these problems were fixed in the Forrestal class design and onwards where they would rather have better sea keeping ability than the Midways.
Not sure what you are attempting to say.
Many a time, while doing line swings off of Viet Nam, I saw a lot of the older carriers taking water up on the bows, Coral Sea included. But I never saw any of the Forrestal ships do that.
Another outstanding video! I started watching this channel because I have a fascination with pre-dreadnought battle ships but I have to admit Drachinifels dry wit and sardonic comments (e.g. corpulent swan) are the reasons I subscribed to his channel.
As the grandson of a Scotsman extremely familiar with the naval history of his homeland, I often heard his stories about the development of the first iron warships. I was told the Japanese would ask for proposals of major warship designs, study the resulting Scottish proposals, politely reject them and then build the ships. After realizing this progression, Scottish designers awaited the next requests, produced a design and somehow neglected to mention that the center of gravity of the design was inconspicuously placed well to one side of the keel. When the Japanese built this design, my grandfathers smile broadened greatly as he reported that, upon launching, the new ship promptly capsized. I’m wondering about how much truth there might be to this story because these stories were often fueled by a not-insignificant amount of whisky.
Thank you for all your excellent presentations.
14:48 "If the enemy was, of course, kind enough to approach at walking pace so that you could hand-load each of your 37mm rounds."
Makes the Japanese 25mm look like the Bofors 40mm in comparison.
@@bkjeong4302Drach has expressed the opinion before, and I agree with it fully (along with, in the regards to U-boats, every U-boat captain who's writings I've read), that every ship that carried that 37 would have been better off with them removed. Not even replaced or with the spce/weight used elsewhere, but just removed. As at the very least it would have meant fewer men on board to die. And in the case of the U-boats, slightly better all around submerged performance.
"Dance Dance Russian Revolution" Oy gevault, Drach!
lol
Ah, the Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad. As the eminent Naval Historiographer Douglas Adams put it: “Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow.”
Ah, yes...the legendary maxim, "Beware the passage of particularly corpulent swans!" was evidently ignored in the design of Cerberus.
.22 firing gatling guns - sounds like we've solved drone defence😊
And you can eat chips unmolested!
Nah! Gatling 12 gauge buck shot then bird shot alternated
I have seen a .22 Gatling gun at a local gun show it's legal here in the States so long as it's not motorized.
@@nilo9456
Got to be electric for them pesky kamikaze
The minigun fires .308
The microgun fires 5.56
In .22LR we have…the Nanogun!
"they were howitzers, which meant that to hit anything with a shell, you'd first have to find yourself guessing how far above the tallest mast of the target you actually had to fire and then prey that the rolling of your ship and the delay in the charge going of between you lighting the fuse and the actual detonation didn't completely throw of an already quite sketchy firingsolution, since of course a round plunging down out of the sky had to be on target by a handful of degrees at worst, whereas the mostly horzinal firing Canon could be out of aim by as much as low double digits but they'd still hit something, assuming you aimed for roughly speaking a ships center of mass."
That.
Was.
A.
Single.
Sentence.
That skill! ❤️❤️❤️
New Drach first thing in the morning! Awesome!
@Raptorbeast7 asks a good question-- to cite feats of damage-control excellence. But it hinges on key info that may be hard to dig up. I.e. Scharnhorst hit a mine during the Channel Dash and went dead in the water. Their D.C. handled the damage well enough that in just 30 minutes the ship was under way making 25 knots. This drew high praise from the British. I'd like to know specifics about the damage. That's for someone with better sources than I have.
IDK exactly but mines tended to hit aft of the bow so maybe it took out a boiler room or two. If they seal the room & prop up the bulkheads and swap out that boiler for others remaining boilers?
Drach, your ability to relate information while dropping one-liners like Mitch Hedberg is awesome. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Love the video as always. Not the era you usually cover but the modern LCS’s belong in this category
F Class will always have a fun little part in my heart...
The F2 is a wreck up in Scapa Flow, and it went on continuing being problematic after it sank! She was being salvaged by a rather inexperienced company when some bad weather sprang up.
The entire salvage team rode off the boat for the night, leaving her anchored to the wreck. The next morning - no barge, and no sign of the twin AA guns sitting in its hold.
And that's why the F2 is still connected to the sunken salvage barge. Phenomenal dive, the guns are still in the salvage barge, you can still see the cylinders used to charge torpedoes, and a significant amount of her power packs are no longer in the ship
Love this format! Time for zooming in pics while listening to audio.
Related to the Cyclops class, there's a Science Channel segment (I think in "Mysteries of the Abandoned") about HMVS Cerberus, a coastal defence ship completed in 1870, currently serving as part of a breakwater in Australia. The tone of the segment is that the ship had cutting-edge technology and may have overawed foreign powers to the extent that they never invaded Australia. The existence of more powerful ocean-going ships and the fact that Cerberus was soon rendered obsolescent by rapidly evolving naval developments are not mentioned.
Thanks!
Drach! sir, please cover the unsung heros of many age of sail battles.... the powder monkeys? how many guns did they serve each, how much powder did 5hey carry? and did the guns have a "ready supply of powder before battle? it seems that they were a muchly needed cog in the fine running of the guns!, so any other information about these kids would be welcome😅
...dance, dance Russian Revolution... Thanks Drach for the coffee spray on the windshield!!!
We need a video on how naval minesweeper work
Hello Drach. I found you from Rex's hangar. You are awesome. I love learning in this manner.
So excited to see this episode today! Love your analysis on these.
Wait so the F-class is basically when the Kriegsmarine tried putting an oversized hot rod engine on a bicycle frame?
The _Defiant_ a couple centuries early
I recommend you do a video on the Aconit (formerly HMS Aconite) was one of the nine Flower-class corvettes. And one on Canadas only aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent, the Magi
Bless your giving heart Drach.
I never expected this channel to do fat-shaming on swans, but here we are ... 🙂
But using such a nice turn of phrase!
"Corpulent" truly describes the likelyhood of decks being awash.
I was sure that the battleship token from the MONOPOLY game would show up in here.🤔🤨😖🙄
Have you covered the 1950's Dealey Class Destroyer Escorts? My dad was aboard one that hit a reef in the Pacific where its single screw design left it unable to do more than steerageway with what was left. Prior DE's with two screws would have been a bit better at navigating around the atoll they were charged with visiting when it happened. Saving money while enlarging the size of vessels in that class meant choosing that single large screw as I see it.
Drach, thank you for another informative video, including your snide asides!
Great to see another instalment in the "5 _____ " series! Sometimes I groan, slightly, with what my fellow Patreons choose but was pleased to see this one led.
1:04 Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad
10:56 F-class Flottenbegleiter
19:55 Cyclops-class monitors
27:04 Sovetsky Soyuz
33:00 USS Wasp
I'm so impressed by your work ethic
14:43 I 🤍that description of a 3.7cm C 30 as a pair of "bolt action" A/A guns. 😂
It is a very apt description, even though they where _technically_ semi-automatic. Technically, not having a bloody magazine kinda defeats that idea.
@@hanzzel6086 I has to be remembered this style of weapon in 37 mm wasn't just a German thing the french had the very similar 37 mm/50 Model 1925 and 37 mm/50 Model 33 both a semi auto falling breech block hand loaded gun so around 15 -20 shots per minute - if you are lucky.
@@SCjunk True, but just because someone else did it doesn't make it a food idea, especially if that someone else is the French! (glares at their early pre-dreadnoughts)
@@hanzzel6086 Fair enough, I'm not saying it was a good idea all I'm saying is it wasn't just the KM wasn't alone. but both countries were aware the actual old falling block (rather than bolt action joke) was a bust. But the reasoning for these weapons were on the same basis as the single shot rifle and then the manual action repeater were preferred, basically if you're unlikely to hit anything there is little point on going from 15 to 20 round per minute to 300 rounds per minute cyclic. However both France and Germany eventually realised that a full auto was needed, both C/30 and model 33 developed into 'something better'. for France it was straight to 37 mm/70 Model 1935 but few manufactured and fitted to service vessels. for Germany it was firstly an auto-loader add on for the C/30 then a new design the M/42
@hanzzel6086 semi-automatic in cannons refers to the breech action automatically ejecting the shell and being open to a new one loading, not to automatically loading a round after every pull of the trigger like a firearm.
I know Drach was joking about "Dance Dance Russian Revolution", but I would 100% play that
Drach - I've taken a break from the channel, but when I saw this title, I had to come back and watch it!
I love these. I wish I could sway things. Oh my fox the opening to the dry dock is the best tune on TH-cam. Sorry I missed you. I tried to find the one pub but I went to six of em that were alright.
27:38 “Dance Dance Russian Revolution”
Congratulations, you have succeeded in making me laugh like a lunatic at 2 in the morning.
Eagerly looking forward to your vid on HMAS Diamantina (K377).
The Kriegsmarine really went out there and said *let's build a destroyer escort but faster that can also minesweep and on half the displacement of a US destroyer escort.* What could possibly go wrong.
The answer to that is: No problem. We can deliver in 40 years when material science, engine technology and manufacturing infrastructure has progressed to the point of meeting requirements. If this timeline is not satisfactory, please change the requirements.
@@andersjjensen Best answer. 😂
I wonder why they wanted it as a minesweeper, is that a big problem for panzerschiff?
@@TinBaneMines are bad news for all ships.
Which is why the magnetic mines - unknown to the allies - were such a danger in the begin of WWII. Except that one plane laying them got scared by gunfire and dropped the mine … on a mudbank. Without arming it. Not even the self-destruct. On the first deployment of the mines.
They could sit at the floor of the ocean up to a fairly large depth and explode the n’th time someone/something triggered them. Nasty buggers, and not found by ordinary mine sweeping.
I agree with all of the examples mentioned. To be fair to USS Wasp, the interwar naval treaties created many questionable ship designs. All you need to do is look at the cruiser classes from multiple nations.
I have now binged all of the videos in your naval engineering playlist after listening to your talks with Venom Geek Media. I am woefully ignorant about military history indeed I only learned the real life Enterprise was anything more than a publicity stunt because of these videos. I have now subscribed and am a fan
27:31 "Now, Soviet Russia..." Oh no. Oh nooooooooooo... (The Russians can't blame their incompetence on the Kamchatka this time!)
Do you see torpedo boats?
Oooooh this looks juicy, saving this for tonight!
My favourite are the steam powered submarines. Most sank in the Forth.
K class death traps
See Drach's "Lawn Darts of the Sea," if I recall the title correctly.
"The battle of May island". If I remember correctly, a total of 5 K class steam submarines were sunk, most of them with all hands.
@@alexandermonro6768 that rings a bell.
@@alexandermonro6768That can hardly be blamed on their design though, while their postal-code sized turning radius didn't help, the fact is that they shouldn't have been in that exercise (because the whole idea behind a fleet submarine was foolish, specifically because of potential catastrophes like this) and everyone knew it. The flagship not properly signaling its actions and the fog were the biggest reasons for that disaster.
Hi Drach, What would you think about a design and plotting video. This could include how designers are able to estimate design speed and weight etc.
Love your work!
At 23:51 : is that the crew’s washing hung out to dry ?
Drach's sense of humor is 90% of the reason i watch these videos. lol.. CWIS of 22 LR defending against.. seagulls.. LOL
It's 4am, and I woke up to a new drach drop. This is going to be a good day
It's rather hard to fault Wasp and her designers considering that all of their problems stemmed from the US actually following the treaty. Everyone was aware that the strict tonnage limitations put them in a serious bind; they were trying to make the best of a bad situation. And in the end, Wasp was actually a fairly decent ship; she got really unlucky and got torpedoed by a Japanese submarine before she could show her capability.
Corpulent swan? You facility with concise yet vivid mental images rivals author Graham Greene. You have once again proved why you merit my subscription and likes.
Thanks again.
"Dance Dance Russian Revolution" 🤣🤣 This is why I love Drach's videos, aside from his exceptionally well researched presentations.
I love your dry commentary style. Kudos!
The only carriers that needed to worry about shellfire were the CVEs of Taffy 3
What I think about this video is "how can someone produce such quality content and do all the research needed without bullshitting and even put in a some fine humour?".
What sort of software would later be used to balance all these factors? some sort of cost/benefit analysis?
I'm familiar with PERT and Gantt, and did FMECA, but am a total blank with things naval.
cheers!
I read that the Italian Freccia and Folgore class destroyers were horribly designed as well.
Excellent video, Drach! I love your humor!
32:55 "The skill on the enemy part will be on NOT HITTING a Weak Point" LOL
"Dance Dance Russian Revolution" has got to be the funniest thing I've heard all month.
Great video as usual. How about doing one on the German Marine Fahrprahme? My father spent time in the Mediterranean, and saw a lot of them. Some were strictly ferries, others had various armament load outs and some had 88MM and 20MM batteries, and were used as mobile artillery batteries.
I remember the World's Worst Club of Great Britain selected their Worst Naval Ship... I wish I could recall the name. It never worked right and ended it's career backing at speed into a stone jetty - her steering and engine controls having locked up (again) - so hard that this caused the only casualty for which she was ever responsible... a crewman standing in a hatchway was blown off the ship and onto the jetty by the concussion of air escaping from the ship suddenly becoming several meters shorter. She was towed back to the yard and scrapped.
"Awash from the wake of a corpulent swan".
Gotta love the turn of phrase!