Excuse me if I this has been asked and/or answered: but have you considered delivering your content in podcast form? I’m sure I’m not alone but I do enjoy your narration while running around doing outside work, and well unless you *pay* YT subscription I can’t minimize the app and do something else. But anyways, we are thankful for regular blessings 🙏🏻
Out of all the ships with animal names, which ship looks most like It's namesake? For ships not named after animals, in your judgement, which ship's aesthetic fits most closely to it's name?
I remember reading long ago about a Kriegsmarine fast attack boat of some kind that was a partial submersible, did I misremember something or what boat was it?
Here's my US Navy veteran story: When I was a young boy of 9, I got into WWII history in a big way. I got these easy-reader books about WWII battles from the library (there was a whole series of them) as a starter. One day my parents took me to a college football (American football, that is) game. I, having no interest in football, took my book along. We were seated in the bleachers next to a retired professor. He looked over and asked what I was reading. I showed him the book and said, "A book about the Battle of Leyte Gulf." He nodded thoughtfully. "I was there," he said. He went on to tell me he'd been in a signal detachment with the US Navy, responsible for setting up communications on the islands the Marines were taking over. So while he wasn't precisely in a front-line combat unit, he did get shot at. This particular anecdote concerned being on a coral island somewhere in the Pacific (he didn't say which one, or I've forgotten, sadly; this conversation was over 30 years ago). They were being bombed by Japanese aircraft rather frequently. They had no construction materials for building a bomb shelter, nor could they dig down into the coral, since they were only a couple feet above sea level and water would fill any hole they dug. What they had, being a signals unit, was paper. Lots and lots of mimeograph paper. So they built an igloo-like bomb shelter out of cases of paper, reasoning it was as dense as wood and would protect them from splinters. It worked! Not a man in his detachment was killed or wounded by bombs as they hunkered down in the only paper bomb-shelter I've ever heard of. This man's name was Dr. Baer. He was a professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He passed away many years ago; gone, but not forgotten.
I still remember Drydock 1 dropping, it was like a MG42 of questions being answered, the modern Drydock has evolved to a somewhat sniper rifle/longer form of explanations. Both are good, this episode with many longer answers just reminded me of the evolution.
I found the channel around Drydock 100, and went back and listened to the early ones. Drachinifel sounded so bemused that people were asking questions! LOL. He started a monster with that first Drydock.
Major shout-out to the snipes aboard USS Pennsylvania with that little freeboard and still at their stations belowdecks working to save the ship! Wow. Please do that video about the battle to save Pennsylvania! Thanks again, Drach, for all the work you're doing.
Also, I figure that those guys on the deck in the picture were seriously tired!! And since it was looking like you're going to save the ship, your strength quickly drains, and you almost have to force yourself to think or do anything that requires strength....
The turret of the USS Monitor was recovered. A few years ago I was in Newport News VA, USA and visited the Maritime Museum. The Turret is undergoing a very long term chemical process to stop the corrosion of the iron. It's a very long term chemical process to remove the effects of the immersion. It is in very rough shape. The museum has an extensive display about the recovery and preservation that is going on. Well worth a visit and look see. They have a full sized "model" of the turret and upper deck outside the museum.. Also there are some very skilled ship model builders at the museum. Lovely displays.
Hi Drach, I’m happy to hear you appreciated my great-grandfather’s story. I interviewed him in 2011 when I was writing my undergraduate thesis in college on the Naval Battles of Guadalcanal. I figured there was no better person to go to than him for a first person account. Thanks again.
Nah, it was the physical incarnation of Murphy's Law. So while it wouldn't be set off by plowing into an actual battleship, it'd go off perfectly well when some kid hit it with a rock. (Or so I assume.)
@@Drachinifel How about "Don't Give Up The Ship"? Shannon vs Chesapeake does show up both navies in a good light. There's a Roll of Honour up at Chesapeake Mill in Hampshire if you have ever been there.
The semi-submersible Monitor concept was actually built into a ship as a proof of concept. The US Revenue Cutter Naugatuck had ballast tanks that were designed to be used to reduce her freeboard by 2 feet to help protect from incoming shot in a battle.
Your explanation of decapping plates is pretty good. Bravo. One point, though: The 1.5" STS outer hull on the IOWA Class was thick enough to crack the solder on all projectiles except German L/4.4 APC shells (latest design used on all post-1930 Krupp naval gun designs -- older guns kept their old shells in German warships), which used a super-strong high-temperature solder (Krupp must have had some cap problems just prior to WWI when it developed its C/11 -- 1911 Model, most advanced German shells in WWI -- APC shells). These Krupp APC shells needed about 20% of the shell's diameter in thickness or more to knock them off, compared to only 8.05% for all regular-soldered naval APC shells used by everybody else. Krupp was the only naval shell maker to use such a solder when it changed its APC shell specs to require the C/11 shells to work at 30 degrees against half-caliber-thickness KC armor (the most stringent design requirement in WWI), since this hot solder can cause problems with the nose hardness/temper unless very carefully applied. Also, in some cases, the plate of this 1.5" thickness is marginal against YAMATO Class 18.1" APC shells and usually would work (80% of the time?), but obviously iffy -- if the shell hit near a hull plate edge where there were reinforcing doubler plates, then it would always work, period, but that would maybe be one hit in 4 or 5 or so. The gap in the IOWA hull between the 1.5" STS plate and the main inclined 12.2" Class "A" waterline belt plate was at least 3' (1 m) at the top edge and got wider as one descended downward on the 10' (3 m) height of this belt plate, so it was quite wide enough to allow a knocked-off cap to separate even with the YAMATO shell. Note that the SOUTH DAKOTA Class only had a spaced 1.25" STS hull plating, so only a doubler-plate hit would work against a YAMATO shell, ever. Decapping gives a 20% (sometimes), 30% (mostly), or even 40% (rarely) increase in the effective thickness of the armor plate at right-angles, but this increase slowly goes away to essentially zero at about 55 degrees oblique angle and actually helps penetration at higher angles, though in these cases the shell is usually in large pieces, though sometimes only the nose breaks apart and the middle body stays in one piece to work properly when the fuze goes off. The loss in improvement is simply due to the fact that with the nose and, usually, body in pieces, trying to force the shell to glance off at higher impact angles is strongly suppressed (nose pieces glancing off can no longer change the direction of the rest of the shell!). This is why face-hardened armor is not good for decks and turret roofs. French WWII BB turrets assumed AP bombs were the bigger threat and used KC armor for their turret roof plates, which was a problem when HOOD was shooting at DUNKERQUE and hit one of its turret roof plates, making a long, shell-body-shaped, 15"-wide shell hole in the roof with the lower half of the shell going into the turret, even though the broken nose glanced off. Bad guess...
When Drach said good officers that had spectacular misfortune I immediately thought of Husband Kimmel. I read somewhere that the entry in Nimitz's personal diary for taking command was 'there but for the grace of God go I or any other admiral unfortunate enough to be in command at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.'
There's an old US Army saying, "Son, the Army doesn't care if it was your fault. You were there, and it went wrong." True across all branches of the service.
Hi Drach, I think your idea of collating the stories handed down through families, regarding an ancestors experience in a naval context, is an excellent one. I am sure there would be many people who would like to have access to stories from another perspective on historical events that have not been heard before.
Drach, I would absolutely buy a hard cover of historic war stories, and I would dare say that if you made a couple of dollars off the book to put into your "save the pictures of ships" warchest that would be perfectly fine by me. It's not really a profit, just an investment in preserving history. Also, I would call your America trip "Mobile Drydock: Drach takes a Trip"
I had a great Uncle that was attached to HMS Hood for many years prior to WW2 and up until she sailed for battle with the Bismarck. The only reason he wasn’t on board during the Hood’s ultimate destruction is because had been thrown in a Navy prison on charges of desertion a day prior to Hood setting sail. However, he had been ashore for medical reasons and had been scheduled to return to the Hood. Once the authorities realised their error he was reassigned to HMS Rodney as a member of the ships torpedo compliment and saw out the rest of the war aboard her. He always took pride in being on the ship that got revenge for the Hood and her crew. We are unsure if he took part in that battle which sunk the Bismarck but either way it’s a story of incredible luck that he always told to keep the memory of his fallen comrades alive. Thank you Drach for all your content.
USN SOP for fired cases was to replace fired 5"/38 cases in powder tanks, then strike down, back to magazines, for storage. 20 and 40 mm cases were literally shoveled up, placed into ammo cans, and treated the same. All were "turned in", when next ammunitioning ship. Naturally, all were not recovered, mileage did vary, and settling did occur during shipment
@@scott2836 When the British Army first changed to caplocks, they actually added a "spent cap pouch", to the cartridge box crossbelt, for soldiers to save, and turn in, fired caps.
That is such a good idea Drach. I started watching military history for the technology and the fascination. I stayed for the stories, which even in the case of "heros" who survived usually are decidedly less than pleasant and can only lead to the statement "war is hell" . Peace, everyone !
Hi Drach, I live in Melbourne not far from the wreck of the Cerberus. There have been a number of campaigns over the years to raise the wreck, all to no avail. The wreck nowadays, situated in half moon bay, black rock, is composed more of holes than steel and pretty much beyond recovery. On top of that, the wreck was filled with concrete when scuttled so as to aid its role of a breakwater. Happy to take some pics and send to you if you like as the surrounding cliff gives a great vantage point - regards mark c
I was working in Lae in NewGuinea during the 1990's (sorry i can't remember the exact dates ) there was a torpedo on the one of the beachs near the city. I practically had a heart attack when one of the boys started pushing it around with a excavator bucket.
Depending on the definition of "Main Deck", I can think of quite a number of ships to fully submerge and survive to fight another day. They are called u-boats ;)
48:33 sounds like a minor plot point from a James bond film. ( Or like movie) Torpedo gets stolen ( claimed as salvage) by bad guys. ( Possibly more then one) The the villain uses said torpedo (s) to go after a very sensitive target. Fun times
Snaffling spent shell casings for miscellaneous uses is a time-honored tradition in the USN. Some of the ones I’ve seen have been for being cut down to use as a pencil cup and a small paper wastebasket, although the most creative was probably the one someone had cut down, cleaned out, and attached a broken-off mug handle to, creating the world's largest coffee cup, and also the most likely to burn your hand.
During the Great War, one of the things men in the trenches would do to pass the time between attacks was working on shell casings. With punches, hammers, and engraving chisels, they'd make all sorts of abstract designs, illustrations, unit rosters. I've seen some of these casings, they can get very elaborate.
I dont have much in the way of great detail for my great gramps service in ww2 as he apparently wasn't too fond of speaking of it but I can give a rambling synopsis :D He had both great and terrible luck early on as he was serving on Wee Vee as electrician/light aa gunner (roles he apparently maintained on any ship he found himself on) at the time of pearl harbor. I need not explain the *great fun* he got to have there. He would find himself on Yorktown in time to go to midway and being one of the earlier ones to be rescued and in turn ended up gaining experience in getting people and corpses alike out of the water. He would later find himself back at Pearl in time to take his Wee Vee back stateside for her rebuild. As it turns out she was in good enough shape by Christmas 1943 to have a dinner menu for the holiday......the fact that one of the items is a cigar or cigarette is still kinda funny to me. Which ship he was on after this is rather hazy, but I have been told he found himself on the new Yorktown more or less till wars end. He was on Missouri at the surrender but I'm currently trying to finally figure out exactly where he was. I think I've found him, but my grandmother says she has photos that do have him in it. Ill try to remember to get the image up with convenient arrow of convenientness pointing at him, or at least who I think is him later. Cheers :D
Drach in the USA (Born in the USA) HMS Splendid Shore Party Drachinifel's Merry Mob of Maritime Miscreants Drachinifel: (Professional Historian) (Historical Archiver) (History Enthusiast) (each once crossed out in Red) TH-camR (in bold red and looking like it was scrawled out) Drachinifel: Semi-trained quasi-professional Historian Drachinifel: Stretching the term '5 minute guide' since 2017 Drachinifel's (2020) (2021) (both crossed out) 2022 tour Drachinifel: I make "short" videos on Naval History (include youtube url below it) Drachinifel's On the Deck Tour
I only studied history at undergraduate level. But I write (non martime) histories anyway, some of them have even won awards. But I've been told you need a higher degree to call yourself a historian, so I use get around terms like 'writer of histories'. What I'm getting at is that if Drach calls himself a historian, quite a few people will get their knickers in a twist over him saying that.
@@Dave_Sisson Yes, which is why "professional historian" is crossed out in that submission, as well as "Historical Archiver" (though Drach could claim that title by virtue of his work in preserving and digitizing naval photos for public use) and only "TH-camr" is not struck through. The "Semi-trained quasi-professional" is another attempt at self depreciation, pointing out that while he's made a name for himself, it's not exactly what he got his degree in. An while I do somewhat agree with you that some terms like 'historian' should be preserved, especially in this time of revisionism and keyboard warriors, just keeping it in the grip of those with some expensive paper is rather demeaning to those who are heavily active in the historical community and run youtube channels. I'm not talking about those that regurgitate pop-history or others that just use common reference books, but the likes of Military History Visualized and Othias from C&Rsenal who deal with primary sources like memos and documentation from their respective time periods alongside other information sources.
Drac, I think the 'Sea stories' on the website would be a great start for sharing all these family history stories, but I also think the they should be printed and distributed as far and wide as possible. We don't want to see your site or even your channel disappear, but the internet is NOT 100% permanent. So to make sure they are preserved for the future hard copies are required. As for the printing a modest price to cover publication and any profits to go to a charity or foundation to help navel veterans or maybe to support navel history preservation. There are my thoughts on the subject for what they are worth.
As to the question of keeping naval weapons manufacturing facilities active so you don't lose the skill sets. The machinery you can mothballed and put into storage. It's the skilled workers you really need to keep. On that note maybe a video in the future on just how naval artillery, especially battleship main armament was manufactured. In my mind the machining of the interrupted threads on the breach is a work of mechanical art.
@@RodneyGraves That is more dependent on the ranks and stations that the officers are assigned to!!! (And with senior NCOs as well!!) I think Halsey was a great Tactician and had a fair, but not great, Strategical insight... Also, this is what a few of us called the issue aboard our ship in the early. 1990's.
@@timengineman2nd714 Three levels, Tactical (which is mostly at the JO level). Operational (Squadron Commanders / TF Commanders). Strategic is Fleet level. Grand Strategic is National Command Level.
I would highly suggest if you want to start collating these, to get a group of volunteers, maybe give them a discord channel so they can coordinate, and start from Drydock 1 and keep going until we've caught up. There are way too many videos and wonderful comments for you to do this alone Drach.
Don't forget to check the Guides and Wednesday videos, seems like there might be some tales there as well. I agree, get them published and maybe set a price of say 2 pounds above the costs of publication/shipping with the extra funds going into the operating costs of your operations.
@Drachinifel, i have a family story you might like, i asked you in the past about an part of it and now i'll tell you the full story. My grandfather Robert was a 15 years old errand boy in the Davie Naval Yard in Quebec Canada at the start of world war II. He was running messages, plans, welding rods and crates of parts around the shipyard and eventually became a professional naval hull welder when he turned 17 in 1942. He told me of several minor things, which have sadly left my memories now, but this one anecdote has stuck the best. As he was training under a journeyman to become a welder while dangling on a rope-held board on the side of a corvette, he saw a truck of large telephone poles entering the yard and wondered what was up. He asked the journeyman about them and got told that the cannons' industry was slacking and they could not have enough guns to fit the corvettes and destroyers. The journeyman they went on to tell him that they would paint them the afternoon a dark grey and black in one of the hangars and that other guys would fit them to turrets and mounts to make it look like the ships were armed. That way if spies would look from afar at the yard or from the shore at ships leaving, they would see mean armed warships while, in reality, the crew would hope to not run into anything. My grandfather would always tell this story with a big laugh at the end so i never knew if i could believe him because he was a joking man but he might as well have laughed at the idea that it might have worked too. There, these are only small anecdotes but they are, like you said, family stories that are probably not told in history books
That sounds entirely plausible. I'm reminded of the Doolittle Raiders fitting painted-black broomsticks in place of the machine guns they dumped from their B-25s to save weight.
Regarding the discussion of torpedoes on the beaches of Guadalcanal. I made the trek to Guadalcanal a few years back for the 75th anniversary of the landings. An awesome once in a lifetime experience, I might note. While there I spent a good deal of time down along the waterfront on the north coast of the island from east of Honiara out to west of the Tassafaronga area. Several areas have some small, but very nice touristy type beaches. Miami Beach it ain’t, but while there I didn’t see any signs of any torpedoes or other unexploded ordnance lying about. However, that doesn’t mean the island is clean. The detritus of war is ubiquitous. While on the island, I also had a chance to visit a United Nations site where the teams from an organization called “Golden West” are engaged in the dangerous business of recovering and disarming unexploded ordnance. We aren’t talking about the occasional dud bomb or shell fetching up in someone’s sweet potato patch, rather entire ordnance dumps still exist in various places on the island, giving estimates in the thousands of tons of explosives that were stored on the island during the war, and then simply abandoned in situ at its conclusion. The folks at Golden West also noted that Guadalcanal is considered one of the “cleaner” islands in the Solomon chain. During the long advance up the Solomon chain as the Japanese withdrew out of effective range of allied airpower, it was deemed a quicker and a much more efficient allocation of scarce shipping tonnage, that as each new island was captured, to bring in stores of ordnance direct from the United States and Australia rather than to pack up all the ordnance left on an island that was now effectively “out of the war” and bring it forward. Additionally, as the Japanese garrisons withdrew, they were less than thorough in destroying their various ammunition dumps prior to the retreat. So, all the way up the island chain are numerous dumps containing, by some estimates, 250,000 tons of ordnance. In most cases these dumps have been reclaimed by the jungle and are now hidden from view and beyond simple efforts to dispose of the explosives. Note: In Sept 2020 two ordnance disposal workers were killed in the accidental detonation of abandoned ordnance on Guadalcanal, and in May 2021 two local citizens of Guadalcanal were killed when they built a cook fire which detonated a 105 mm shell embedded in the ground beneath the spot on which they had chosen to build their fire. So sadly, the casualty list for the Battle of Guadalcanal continues to climb.
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The fire story reminds me of the story of a German ex POW in Normandy in I think 1948ish. He had stayed as POW on a farm and later as farm hand there. But then he got word that someone was searching for him in Germany. So he bought a train ticket to go to germany. Then went back to the farm to do one more job for the farmer. Which was to burn some wood/branches. Unfortunetly the same thing happend to him that happend to the peopel on Gudalcanal. His grave is on the german war cementery at La Cambe, Normandy.
Please archive the historically relevant comments that people have made, as TH-cam could just delete the comments, accidentally or deliberately, those people could delete their accounts, your channel could be shutdown, anything like that would result in the loss of all of those comments. So please, don't hesitate to do so.
I really don’t Iowa and North Carolina guide... Also, as an Australian, I would very much like that guide... When you have time, of course Also, you don’t need to fit everything into five minutes... they’re just called that at this point, not many are actually 5 minutes or less
The story you told at end reminds me of what Jingles use to do in Mingles with Jingles at the end of his videos. Re-telling military stories or some from his subscribers
re: temporary bows: I can't remember which reference, but there was apparently a Seabee (US Naval Construction Battalion) unit on Tulagi and they helped with the construction and installation of temporary bows and patches to some of the damaged ships that ended up in Tulagi harbor. Not a shipyard but a great resource to have available when you are finished playing "tag" with Type 93 torpedoes.
Regarding the possibilities of torpedoes at Guadalcanal: The British lost two entire mines somewhere around Messines ridge. One of them blew up in the 1960's killing a cow, but the other is still around somewhere. An entire mine, tens of thousands of pounds of explosives, tunnels, the works, and no one knows where the damned thing is! Given that, I would not be surprised if some poor tourist building sandcastles on a Guadalcanal beach accidentally uncovered a torpedo that had been buried for 80 odd years!!
I think the “stories” idea is great! There are books comprised entirely of famous people’s anecdotes during wartime. Why not one of not so famous people?
I'm playing a play though of Hearts of Iron 4 playing as Bulgaria. I'm interested in learning more about the various Balkan Navy's could you make a video explaining them and their roles during World War 2?
in talking about peacetime problems--which apply to all military services---the longer the time of "peace" lasts, the more that politicians will want to use the military as a social program. All social programs have one thing in common--they reward the least capable at the expense of the most capable. As governments use the military as a tool to attempt to elevate people from the lower classes to the middle class, they create within the military an administrative power bloc that has zero competence in military matters at all. With that power, they promote and champion those who support the growth of the admin weenies and demote the power of the war fighting enterprise. Which is why there are a million civilians to support so few war fighting units.
Something on an addendum to the question of ratio of good to bad officers. Its not just that in the Royal Navy the Captains and Admirals of the Second World War fought in the First World War, more importantly the institutional knowledge ran far deeper than that. Those aforementioned Captains and Admirals began their careers serving under and learning from officers whose careers dated back to the Crimean War, and those men, Jackie Fisher being the perfect example, began their careers under men who fought at Trafalgar.
I have a couple of stories. On my mother had a cousin on the California who survived Pearl Harbor. His story was not what I remember being told. What I was told was that it took several days/weeks for families to be notified unofficially or officially about their loved ones at Pearl Harbor. I think the family got a letter from him saying he was fine. Not quite a naval story; I have a grandfather who was in the US 2nd Infantry Division in WWI. This division was originally all Army until the units assigned to the 4th Brigade were replaced by USMC units. When the division went into the line to plug a hole in Allied line the divisional history recounts that the French generals wanted the division to attack 2 objectives: Belleau Wood and the village of Vaux. The divisional command to the French they would attack each in sequence; Belleau Wood first then Vaux not simultaneously as the French wanted. The 4th Brigade attacked first at Belleau Wood and got mentioned in the US press with the Army units involved being ignored (divisional support and artillery mainly, brigade commander was Army). When the 3rd Brigade (Army) successfully attacked Vaux (my grandfather was in this brigade). There was no extensive press coverage of this attack. The Army has been rather perturbed by the press the Marines got while their contributions were ignored and are often not mentioned by any histories even now. Also, the John Williams' 'Retreat, hell we just got here' may be an invention by Floyd Gibbons; a notoriously Marine worshipping 'journalist'. But the divisional history reports at least one incident were written orders were received from French officers to retreat by Marine units. Orders the history dryly notes were ignored.
Re good vs. bad officers, it is rumoured that there was a USN officer whose fitness report read ... "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of a morbid sense of curiosity."
Why do you shy away from taking a small cut for yourself at the end of the day your doing the work and a lot of these storys would be lossed for ever without your efforts.
4:07 I'm not sure you've seen Cerberus as she is in very shallow water and half of her is out of the water most of the time. What bits of her hull you can see is in quite good shape. USS Monitor is competely different not sure why you'd mention them in the same breathe, as USS Monitor isn't even the same shape, whereas Cerberus is a very different story. Although in it's current state is better left were it is as it's already a tourist attraction
Its more about the state of the iron, exposed to the sea after a certain amount of time it degrades a lot unless very specific conditions are met. It can still look mostly in the right shape but when you move it you find it's 90%+ loose layers of rust. Entire cannon that look like a good scrub will have them like new have fallen into dust the moment someone tried lifting them.
Until it was salvaged by an ocean going tug and taken to Guam, where the Pittsburg had gone. When she went back to the US, and the bow stayed, she got the nickname "The longest ship in the world".
@@hothoploink1509 Absolutely! Having known some Germans, and dealt with some German gear, I took for granted that everyone would already know that. When it works, it's fantastic, when it doesn't, oh God, what a pita.
Hello Drach. I have a somewhat urgent question. Who should we be interviewing? WW 2 is rapidly departing the realm of "living memory. These brave, fascinating men and women are now in their 90's or more. All the world leaders, the captains and admirals, ship and gun designers are gone. But, the courageous and determined youngsters are still around. Who's story's do you want to hear. The men and women working in the Liberty Ship yards. Ship and aircraft repairers. Fellows watching the Japanese surrender from three decks up. Medics and chaplain's assistants. Your many readers might be able to get you on the phone with their grand fathers and great grandfathers (mothers). We are running out or "really there" witnesses.
Heard about a USN sub XO who initiated a procedure with the nuclear propulsion system which was forbidden because it was known to result In a catastrophic outcome. The engineering officer saved the sub, but was sacked for using an unauthorized procedure, which was later made official policy, to do so. The XO was an Academy grad. The engineer was not. The Service Academy Protective Association covers for their own.
I don't know about any other ships, but, on the gun line in 1972, any expended 5 inch powder casings that managed to stay on deck, were chucked over the side when the fire mission ended. Any brass casings (rare) were picked up to be cut down into ashtrays.
Re: German heavy anti aircraft mountings... I do have to ask where you take your information from, since it gets repeatedly refuted by the combat reports written during the war. I know that pages like navweaps and wikipedia will cement the opinion that these guns would often break down and what not, but a glance at the people that evaluated them post-action will show that these guns well within parameters and effective in their role.
I cannot send links here, sine YT will nuke the comments, but I can send the archive entries in which a handful of combat reports can be found, and will send some roughly translated passages from some of the more notable AA engagements. RM 134/182; RM 134/197 RM 134/218, Eugen's war diary which includes her AA engagement report of Operation magic flute (Zauberflöte): Experience with the heavy AA: "No new experiences to be found. The remote control for elevation and tilt have paid of as usual. Especially the good mechanism for the fuze settes including the remote fuze setter are to be noted." (p388) RM 134/507, Scharnhorst's engagement report when she got attacked by British air forces while underway: "The defensive fire of the rapid firing heavy AA was so effective that the clearly intended grouped attack was repulsed. The attack had already been nullified by the portside fore group and forced a dispersion of the squadron. The starboard fore group then succeeded in forcing a portion of the group to rise above the clouds, and keep them there through severe fire. The failed attack was not repeated, only ~5 to 6 double bombs of smaller caliber aft and 2-3 bombs of heavy caliber fell way off the starboard side." (p27) "The system worked flawlessly except for some minor difficulties. [...] Following issues occured with the 10.5cm Flak: During the engagement at two occasions a switch for the traverse gear failed, so that the respective mount had to be operated manually for roughly 20 minutes. For one gun the breech block was unreliable, so that it didn't fully open during recoil operations. This issue was resolved after the engagement. Further smaller issues were of insignificant nature." (p37) "This encounter [with attacking aviation] resulted in a clear victory for the AA armament of the attacked ship over the attackers from the air. This is proof, that we with our controversial shipmounted AA systems are generally on the right path." (p43) None of the AA gunnery reports I have read showed even a fraction of this so claimed "breaks all the time". But maybe you know something the commanding officers and AA gunnery officers didn't...?
But using the term 'colony' creates a false impression to modern people as those Aust / NZ colonies were *effectively* indepedent with full control over their own affairs, budgets and administration, except for some aspects of foreign affairs.
42:04 just like the 18 inch would go through the 14 inch plate as well? Seen as it's immediate enemy was the French and British 15 inch why does it matter? 14 inch amour wouldn't work against an 18 inch shell. So at least this way you have better protection against current armourment and not gone for a comprise 14 inch which is worse against 15 inch shells and was never not going to stop 18 inch shells anyway. Also to add foamed concrete is less dense but if you look at the values from the worst to the best it would be an addition of 1-3 inches of armour so not really sure your critism works out that either equivalent to 18 inches of plate or a total failure. As we have a 14+inch equivalent or a 16+inch equivalent. Which would make it either way still one of the best armoured battleships of the era.
Re: Deutscher Ach Ach zur Zee. The navalized 12.8cmFlaK40 is a good start. Replace every darn 15cm SK in the KM with a FlaK40, The 5cmFlaK41 is an entirely ignored choice, but on a ship (with off mount fire control) its drawbacks (flash and smoke) would not be crucial. Its longer range and heavier bursting charge (compared to contemporary 3.7cm and 4cm weapons) would also be useful. Finally, the navalized 2cmFlaK38(v) is good enough for government work in the Point Defense role. Oh! And I'd put the Zeetakt RaDAR cables under armor as much as possible. As far as "What If" scenarios go . . . I'd trade out cruiser torpedo mounts for increased storage-and then I would build amidships vertical launch rails for the Ba349 Natter. In a similar fancy I had considered replacing IJN Yamato's float planes with multiple MXY7 mod 22 manned cruise missiles on a three for one basis. Launching and commissioning Graf Zeppelin as an escort carrier for the big ships (which was the original plan) might in part mitigate the overwhelming Allied airpower advantage, or, at least, reduce losses per Schlachtschiffe sortie. I'm no fan of the Me109T, but imperfect fighters are better than no fighters at all. Bismarck and Tirpitz, Graf Zeppelin, and FT Seydlitz would've made a formidable division. In a perfect "WIldWar '46" scenario I'd give all the Axis carriers the N1K2 with twin 13mm HMG and twin 20mm cannon. And a couple of C6N Scout/Torpedo bombers . . . and a few C6N1-s nightfighters. As long as we're talking fantasy, why not have a Vril officer on every bomber. He (more probably she) could create an atmospheric distortion ahead and above the plane so as to disrupt allied bomber "paulks". The British would respond with Crowley trained witches . . . I should write a book . . . wait! I did! Just finished "The Crowley Effect" last week. ;-)
If Drach makes it to number 666, just a random selection no other reason, what questions are likely to still be left? All the sensible ones should have been asked by then. Feel free to be creative in your recommendations.
Military is a method to segregate the ev-ill from civil society. Mentally ill humanoid surplus. War is a method to mutually decimate the mentally ill. Todays we know that we need to neuter the females to stop the bureaucracy. Let's do it.
My friend Joan's grandfather, David Webster (1858-1928) was the Chief Engineer (Lieutenant Engineer) of the Cerberus, flagship of the Royal Victorian Navy. With a care and interest in the seamen who worked under him, he had tried unsuccessfully for a long time to have improvements made in the engine room as many aspects were unsafe. He championed their cause and complained to the shipping company about this and their low wages and lost his position because of his stand. The owners responded by telling him: `If you think the men work too hard, you'd better go where you can't see them' and put him on a ship for Japan, without signing him on for a return position, so that he had to make his way back to Australia himself. After that incident, he left naval service and took a position on the merchant ship S.S. Monaro.
Gather stories! Love it. Library of Congress put out a general request for recording these individual stories. Its important work. I've tried multiple times to record stories from veterans that preferred to keep them private for one reason or another (often out of humility). So when they're being told publicly, I cherish them much more. Your idea is awesome 👌
Re possible tour nsmes, may I suggest: ▪ Drach in the saddle again ▪ Drach and thhe art of Battleship Maintenance ▪ Drach in Black and, my personal favourite ▪ Jumpin' Drach Flash (it's a gas, gas, gas)
I think the good/bad officer explanation is a very fabulous one. And it's not just confined to the navy, it spreads across branches. When I think of that, one officer historically stands out, almost as strong as Admiral Nelson, and that would be General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Most people are aware of his exploits during the American Civil War, and he had served with honor and distinction in the Mexican War over a decade prior. But in between was a rather mixed bag. He actually left US Army service directly and was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. And a hilariously awful one at that. His poor eyesight restricted his ability to study at night so he merely memorized the lectures that he delivered. And, if someone had a question, he simply went back to that section of the lecture and simply repeated it much as one would rewind a tape recorder. And, even the record during the Civil War was not without it's moments that leave a person rather perplexed. In the wake of the highly successful and acclaimed Shenandoah Valley campaign, he moved to join Robert E. Lee and the main Virginia army for the Seven Days campaign. Early in the battles, where there was a chance that a more energetic attack could have posed a serious threat to a portion of McClellan's Union Army, he was considerably more sluggish in action. Sleep deprivation from the hard campaign that had just ended and the march to this battle was a likely factor, at one point he was found sleeping underneath a tree. And, later on at dinner, fell asleep with a biscuit clenched in his mouth. Upon awakening he said "Now, gentlemen, let us at once to bed, and rise with the dawn, and see if tomorrow we can do something."
On the topic of temporary bows, I'd love to see the destroyer Amatsukaze get some attention on the channel eventually. She lost not only her bow, but the entire forward third of the ship, including the bridge, but made it home. She was then fitted with a replacement bow and bridge, though much cruder and shorter than the original, and served out the rest of the war until her sinking in this stubby configuration.
Drac - re Cerberus I have some direct knowledge of this historic building (yes it is or was a registered historic building). In the early 1990s when I regualrlly visited and dived the site, it was clearly not feasible to raise as the hull plates had significantly corroded. There were thoughts about the turrets and guns and upper works which I think would have been feasible but there wasn't a suitable conservation facility available to conserve large bits of metal. The cost of salvage were always seen as immense and there was a lack of driving vision for the conservation program within private enterprise and Government so all attempts at kick starting conservation fizzled.
If you want a name for your tour, how about "Drachinthestates"? I think it rolls off the tongue nicely. As for the book, I suspect that nobody would object if the proceeds were dedicated to some worthy naval charity - a museum ship, perhaps.
4:00 I thought the monitor was in a museum, at least what was left. the hull is gone but the turret, a gun, and I think the engine were recovered in the 1970s. Cerberus you could recover the top parts of the ship and display them since they're above water still
Re the Bismarck AA - we need a piece on the history and use of the VT prx fuse...it didn't have and in the end was pretty much everything for those who did the 5/38s had them but they hadn't brought it down to the Bofors yet eventually I think Love everything you do
i remember a large ship with the anchor or net? caught a torpedo and you see it in pics and videos. just imagine your the one bringing it up... like holly fuck man Lol
In response to the Italian battleships with spaced armor, while it would be more efficient to have one slab of armor plate, the "spaced" armor might be a way of trading the engineering efficiency for industrial feasibility. Italy did not have at the time a large industrial base to make large plates of armor to that size and thickness. It reflects the Monitor in the civil war having laminated armor because the north's industrial capacity was less that what was needed to make single layer armor. This raises the question: was importing the armor from a neutral country considered or an option like the KGV?
Tour Name: 'From Sea to Shining Sea', originally used in some English North American colonial charters, is often used in describing the USA and is even referenced in some songs.
How about Dracs museum fleet review? or perhaps mothball fleet review. Second one not quite as accurate but it strikes me as amusing. And if the USS cod is on your list please let us know I would love to revisit her and sit and have a chat with you good sir.
I think that putting together a website that tells war time stories as told by family members or the person themselves is a really great idea. And as far as having them all put together into a book, that is a great idea as well. Especially considering that if you have it published just on a small scale in the US, then you can supply a copy to the Library of Congress, which could also help preserve these stories for those interested in future generations.
Pinned post for Q&A :)
Difference between North Carolina Class guns and Iowa Class guns?
Excuse me if I this has been asked and/or answered: but have you considered delivering your content in podcast form? I’m sure I’m not alone but I do enjoy your narration while running around doing outside work, and well unless you *pay* YT subscription I can’t minimize the app and do something else.
But anyways, we are thankful for regular blessings 🙏🏻
Out of all the ships with animal names, which ship looks most like It's namesake?
For ships not named after animals, in your judgement, which ship's aesthetic fits most closely to it's name?
I remember reading long ago about a Kriegsmarine fast attack boat of some kind that was a partial submersible, did I misremember something or what boat was it?
Can you please make a video about the pros and cons of Allied and Axis submarines?
Here's my US Navy veteran story:
When I was a young boy of 9, I got into WWII history in a big way. I got these easy-reader books about WWII battles from the library (there was a whole series of them) as a starter. One day my parents took me to a college football (American football, that is) game. I, having no interest in football, took my book along. We were seated in the bleachers next to a retired professor. He looked over and asked what I was reading. I showed him the book and said, "A book about the Battle of Leyte Gulf." He nodded thoughtfully.
"I was there," he said.
He went on to tell me he'd been in a signal detachment with the US Navy, responsible for setting up communications on the islands the Marines were taking over. So while he wasn't precisely in a front-line combat unit, he did get shot at. This particular anecdote concerned being on a coral island somewhere in the Pacific (he didn't say which one, or I've forgotten, sadly; this conversation was over 30 years ago). They were being bombed by Japanese aircraft rather frequently. They had no construction materials for building a bomb shelter, nor could they dig down into the coral, since they were only a couple feet above sea level and water would fill any hole they dug.
What they had, being a signals unit, was paper. Lots and lots of mimeograph paper. So they built an igloo-like bomb shelter out of cases of paper, reasoning it was as dense as wood and would protect them from splinters. It worked! Not a man in his detachment was killed or wounded by bombs as they hunkered down in the only paper bomb-shelter I've ever heard of.
This man's name was Dr. Baer. He was a professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He passed away many years ago; gone, but not forgotten.
A wonderful story. I commend him for his service in the liberation of my country.
I still remember Drydock 1 dropping, it was like a MG42 of questions being answered, the modern Drydock has evolved to a somewhat sniper rifle/longer form of explanations. Both are good, this episode with many longer answers just reminded me of the evolution.
Matt Blom asks...
You have a good memory sir.
I found the channel around Drydock 100, and went back and listened to the early ones. Drachinifel sounded so bemused that people were asking questions! LOL. He started a monster with that first Drydock.
Barcelona?
@@duncani3095 Drach is one of the very few people that pronounces my last name correctly lol. It's one O people! Not "bloom"
Major shout-out to the snipes aboard USS Pennsylvania with that little freeboard and still at their stations belowdecks working to save the ship! Wow. Please do that video about the battle to save Pennsylvania!
Thanks again, Drach, for all the work you're doing.
Go 'Angry Sister'! I talked to a PA P.H. survivor.
Also, I figure that those guys on the deck in the picture were seriously tired!!
And since it was looking like you're going to save the ship, your strength quickly drains, and you almost have to force yourself to think or do anything that requires strength....
The turret of the USS Monitor was recovered. A few years ago I was in Newport News VA, USA and visited the Maritime Museum. The Turret is undergoing a very long term chemical process to stop the corrosion of the iron. It's a very long term chemical process to remove the effects of the immersion. It is in very rough shape. The museum has an extensive display about the recovery and preservation that is going on. Well worth a visit and look see. They have a full sized "model" of the turret and upper deck outside the museum.. Also there are some very skilled ship model builders at the museum. Lovely displays.
Hi Drach, I’m happy to hear you appreciated my great-grandfather’s story. I interviewed him in 2011 when I was writing my undergraduate thesis in college on the Naval Battles of Guadalcanal. I figured there was no better person to go to than him for a first person account. Thanks again.
Like a Mark 14 torpedo on a beach would actually pose a danger :D
I see what you did there.
Please do not forget that Mk 14 could be dangerous but not for the intended target.😣
The Mark 14's magnetic detonator likely could only be set off by Marvin the Martian.
Nah, it was the physical incarnation of Murphy's Law. So while it wouldn't be set off by plowing into an actual battleship, it'd go off perfectly well when some kid hit it with a rock. (Or so I assume.)
Some tour name suggestions:
Hit the Road, Drach
Drach in the New World
Endurance: Drachinifel's Incredible Voyage
I've been told "The Re-Colonisation" probably won't go down too well 😀
@@Drachinifel How about "Don't Give Up The Ship"? Shannon vs Chesapeake does show up both navies in a good light. There's a Roll of Honour up at Chesapeake Mill in Hampshire if you have ever been there.
"Keep On Drach'in In The Free World" a la Neil Young?
Circum-Drach-vigation
Drach’s Big Colonial Adventure (U.S. Edition)
The semi-submersible Monitor concept was actually built into a ship as a proof of concept. The US Revenue Cutter Naugatuck had ballast tanks that were designed to be used to reduce her freeboard by 2 feet to help protect from incoming shot in a battle.
I love it! A ship that can “crouch”.
Your explanation of decapping plates is pretty good. Bravo.
One point, though: The 1.5" STS outer hull on the IOWA Class was thick enough to crack the solder on all projectiles except German L/4.4 APC shells (latest design used on all post-1930 Krupp naval gun designs -- older guns kept their old shells in German warships), which used a super-strong high-temperature solder (Krupp must have had some cap problems just prior to WWI when it developed its C/11 -- 1911 Model, most advanced German shells in WWI -- APC shells). These Krupp APC shells needed about 20% of the shell's diameter in thickness or more to knock them off, compared to only 8.05% for all regular-soldered naval APC shells used by everybody else. Krupp was the only naval shell maker to use such a solder when it changed its APC shell specs to require the C/11 shells to work at 30 degrees against half-caliber-thickness KC armor (the most stringent design requirement in WWI), since this hot solder can cause problems with the nose hardness/temper unless very carefully applied.
Also, in some cases, the plate of this 1.5" thickness is marginal against YAMATO Class 18.1" APC shells and usually would work (80% of the time?), but obviously iffy -- if the shell hit near a hull plate edge where there were reinforcing doubler plates, then it would always work, period, but that would maybe be one hit in 4 or 5 or so. The gap in the IOWA hull between the 1.5" STS plate and the main inclined 12.2" Class "A" waterline belt plate was at least 3' (1 m) at the top edge and got wider as one descended downward on the 10' (3 m) height of this belt plate, so it was quite wide enough to allow a knocked-off cap to separate even with the YAMATO shell. Note that the SOUTH DAKOTA Class only had a spaced 1.25" STS hull plating, so only a doubler-plate hit would work against a YAMATO shell, ever.
Decapping gives a 20% (sometimes), 30% (mostly), or even 40% (rarely) increase in the effective thickness of the armor plate at right-angles, but this increase slowly goes away to essentially zero at about 55 degrees oblique angle and actually helps penetration at higher angles, though in these cases the shell is usually in large pieces, though sometimes only the nose breaks apart and the middle body stays in one piece to work properly when the fuze goes off. The loss in improvement is simply due to the fact that with the nose and, usually, body in pieces, trying to force the shell to glance off at higher impact angles is strongly suppressed (nose pieces glancing off can no longer change the direction of the rest of the shell!). This is why face-hardened armor is not good for decks and turret roofs. French WWII BB turrets assumed AP bombs were the bigger threat and used KC armor for their turret roof plates, which was a problem when HOOD was shooting at DUNKERQUE and hit one of its turret roof plates, making a long, shell-body-shaped, 15"-wide shell hole in the roof with the lower half of the shell going into the turret, even though the broken nose glanced off. Bad guess...
When Drach said good officers that had spectacular misfortune I immediately thought of Husband Kimmel. I read somewhere that the entry in Nimitz's personal diary for taking command was 'there but for the grace of God go I or any other admiral unfortunate enough to be in command at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.'
There's an old US Army saying, "Son, the Army doesn't care if it was your fault. You were there, and it went wrong." True across all branches of the service.
Hi Drach, I think your idea of collating the stories handed down through families, regarding an ancestors experience in a naval context, is an excellent one. I am sure there would be many people who would like to have access to stories from another perspective on historical events that have not been heard before.
Drach, I would absolutely buy a hard cover of historic war stories, and I would dare say that if you made a couple of dollars off the book to put into your "save the pictures of ships" warchest that would be perfectly fine by me. It's not really a profit, just an investment in preserving history.
Also, I would call your America trip "Mobile Drydock: Drach takes a Trip"
I agree with all you wrote, but especially want to highlight that "Mobile Drydock" has a ring to it.
I had a great Uncle that was attached to HMS Hood for many years prior to WW2 and up until she sailed for battle with the Bismarck. The only reason he wasn’t on board during the Hood’s ultimate destruction is because had been thrown in a Navy prison on charges of desertion a day prior to Hood setting sail. However, he had been ashore for medical reasons and had been scheduled to return to the Hood. Once the authorities realised their error he was reassigned to HMS Rodney as a member of the ships torpedo compliment and saw out the rest of the war aboard her. He always took pride in being on the ship that got revenge for the Hood and her crew. We are unsure if he took part in that battle which sunk the Bismarck but either way it’s a story of incredible luck that he always told to keep the memory of his fallen comrades alive.
Thank you Drach for all your content.
USN SOP for fired cases was to replace fired 5"/38 cases in powder tanks, then strike down, back to magazines, for storage. 20 and 40 mm cases were literally shoveled up, placed into ammo cans, and treated the same. All were "turned in", when next ammunitioning ship. Naturally, all were not recovered, mileage did vary, and settling did occur during shipment
Thus beginning the obsession of “minding your brass”…
@@scott2836 When the British Army first changed to caplocks, they actually added a "spent cap pouch", to the cartridge box crossbelt, for soldiers to save, and turn in, fired caps.
That is such a good idea Drach. I started watching military history for the technology and the fascination. I stayed for the stories, which even in the case of "heros" who survived usually are decidedly less than pleasant and can only lead to the statement "war is hell" . Peace, everyone !
Many US Navy destroyer sailors have an ashtray cut down from a 5 inch powder casing. One of my female colleagues uses hers as a potpourri container.
Hi Drach, I live in Melbourne not far from the wreck of the Cerberus. There have been a number of campaigns over the years to raise the wreck, all to no avail. The wreck nowadays, situated in half moon bay, black rock, is composed more of holes than steel and pretty much beyond recovery. On top of that, the wreck was filled with concrete when scuttled so as to aid its role of a breakwater. Happy to take some pics and send to you if you like as the surrounding cliff gives a great vantage point - regards mark c
I was working in Lae in NewGuinea during the 1990's (sorry i can't remember the exact dates ) there was a torpedo on the one of the beachs near the city. I practically had a heart attack when one of the boys started pushing it around with a excavator bucket.
Depending on the definition of "Main Deck", I can think of quite a number of ships to fully submerge and survive to fight another day. They are called u-boats ;)
48:33 sounds like a minor plot point from a James bond film. ( Or like movie)
Torpedo gets stolen ( claimed as salvage) by bad guys. ( Possibly more then one)
The the villain uses said torpedo (s) to go after a very sensitive target.
Fun times
Snaffling spent shell casings for miscellaneous uses is a time-honored tradition in the USN. Some of the ones I’ve seen have been for being cut down to use as a pencil cup and a small paper wastebasket, although the most creative was probably the one someone had cut down, cleaned out, and attached a broken-off mug handle to, creating the world's largest coffee cup, and also the most likely to burn your hand.
I've seen the same done with 105 shell casings. My brother had a couple (still might) he wanted to turn into lamps. A common use.
I have a 90mm shell casing which was given me by my great-uncle (I believe it was a WWII Tank Destroyer shell). Makes a great umbrella holder!
During the Great War, one of the things men in the trenches would do to pass the time between attacks was working on shell casings. With punches, hammers, and engraving chisels, they'd make all sorts of abstract designs, illustrations, unit rosters. I've seen some of these casings, they can get very elaborate.
I think your idea for collecting and preserving the stories you speak about is brilliant. Please do proceed.
Your U.S trip should be called: The great Drach fleet.
I dont have much in the way of great detail for my great gramps service in ww2 as he apparently wasn't too fond of speaking of it but I can give a rambling synopsis :D
He had both great and terrible luck early on as he was serving on Wee Vee as electrician/light aa gunner (roles he apparently maintained on any ship he found himself on) at the time of pearl harbor. I need not explain the *great fun* he got to have there.
He would find himself on Yorktown in time to go to midway and being one of the earlier ones to be rescued and in turn ended up gaining experience in getting people and corpses alike out of the water.
He would later find himself back at Pearl in time to take his Wee Vee back stateside for her rebuild. As it turns out she was in good enough shape by Christmas 1943 to have a dinner menu for the holiday......the fact that one of the items is a cigar or cigarette is still kinda funny to me.
Which ship he was on after this is rather hazy, but I have been told he found himself on the new Yorktown more or less till wars end.
He was on Missouri at the surrender but I'm currently trying to finally figure out exactly where he was. I think I've found him, but my grandmother says she has photos that do have him in it.
Ill try to remember to get the image up with convenient arrow of convenientness pointing at him, or at least who I think is him later. Cheers :D
Drachinifel’s Colonial Inspection Tour
That is both wonderfully English-arrogant and highly amusing to my American self in one breath. Bravo!
Drach in the USA (Born in the USA)
HMS Splendid Shore Party
Drachinifel's Merry Mob of Maritime Miscreants
Drachinifel: (Professional Historian) (Historical Archiver) (History Enthusiast) (each once crossed out in Red) TH-camR (in bold red and looking like it was scrawled out)
Drachinifel: Semi-trained quasi-professional Historian
Drachinifel: Stretching the term '5 minute guide' since 2017
Drachinifel's (2020) (2021) (both crossed out) 2022 tour
Drachinifel: I make "short" videos on Naval History (include youtube url below it)
Drachinifel's On the Deck Tour
I only studied history at undergraduate level. But I write (non martime) histories anyway, some of them have even won awards. But I've been told you need a higher degree to call yourself a historian, so I use get around terms like 'writer of histories'. What I'm getting at is that if Drach calls himself a historian, quite a few people will get their knickers in a twist over him saying that.
@@Dave_Sisson Yes, which is why "professional historian" is crossed out in that submission, as well as "Historical Archiver" (though Drach could claim that title by virtue of his work in preserving and digitizing naval photos for public use) and only "TH-camr" is not struck through. The "Semi-trained quasi-professional" is another attempt at self depreciation, pointing out that while he's made a name for himself, it's not exactly what he got his degree in.
An while I do somewhat agree with you that some terms like 'historian' should be preserved, especially in this time of revisionism and keyboard warriors, just keeping it in the grip of those with some expensive paper is rather demeaning to those who are heavily active in the historical community and run youtube channels. I'm not talking about those that regurgitate pop-history or others that just use common reference books, but the likes of Military History Visualized and Othias from C&Rsenal who deal with primary sources like memos and documentation from their respective time periods alongside other information sources.
Drac, I think the 'Sea stories' on the website would be a great start for sharing all these family history stories, but I also think the they should be printed and distributed as far and wide as possible. We don't want to see your site or even your channel disappear, but the internet is NOT 100% permanent. So to make sure they are preserved for the future hard copies are required.
As for the printing a modest price to cover publication and any profits to go to a charity or foundation to help navel veterans or maybe to support navel history preservation.
There are my thoughts on the subject for what they are worth.
I agree. An option for at-cost printing would be lovely.
I agree as well. Using any profits for historical preservation and other naval charities is certainly very reasonable.
I'd buy a copy for sure
As to the question of keeping naval weapons manufacturing facilities active so you don't lose the skill sets. The machinery you can mothballed and put into storage. It's the skilled workers you really need to keep.
On that note maybe a video in the future on just how naval artillery, especially battleship main armament was manufactured. In my mind the machining of the interrupted threads on the breach is a work of mechanical art.
Any military too long at peace develops too many master bureaucrats at the expense of fighting men. This is well known and a perpetual challenge.
Politicians .vs. Tacticians!
@@timengineman2nd714 Operational and Strategic level more then tactical. Politicians vs. Warriors.
@@RodneyGraves That is more dependent on the ranks and stations that the officers are assigned to!!! (And with senior NCOs as well!!)
I think Halsey was a great Tactician and had a fair, but not great, Strategical insight...
Also, this is what a few of us called the issue aboard our ship in the early. 1990's.
@@timengineman2nd714 Three levels, Tactical (which is mostly at the JO level). Operational (Squadron Commanders / TF Commanders). Strategic is Fleet level. Grand Strategic is National Command Level.
@N Fels Afghanistan is the wrecking yard of Empires. Alexander, the British, the Russians and the United States all conquered, but failed to keep it.
I would call your tour “Mrs. Drach’s vacation”.
I would highly suggest if you want to start collating these, to get a group of volunteers, maybe give them a discord channel so they can coordinate, and start from Drydock 1 and keep going until we've caught up. There are way too many videos and wonderful comments for you to do this alone Drach.
Don't forget to check the Guides and Wednesday videos, seems like there might be some tales there as well. I agree, get them published and maybe set a price of say 2 pounds above the costs of publication/shipping with the extra funds going into the operating costs of your operations.
@Drachinifel, i have a family story you might like, i asked you in the past about an part of it and now i'll tell you the full story.
My grandfather Robert was a 15 years old errand boy in the Davie Naval Yard in Quebec Canada at the start of world war II. He was running messages, plans, welding rods and crates of parts around the shipyard and eventually became a professional naval hull welder when he turned 17 in 1942. He told me of several minor things, which have sadly left my memories now, but this one anecdote has stuck the best.
As he was training under a journeyman to become a welder while dangling on a rope-held board on the side of a corvette, he saw a truck of large telephone poles entering the yard and wondered what was up. He asked the journeyman about them and got told that the cannons' industry was slacking and they could not have enough guns to fit the corvettes and destroyers. The journeyman they went on to tell him that they would paint them the afternoon a dark grey and black in one of the hangars and that other guys would fit them to turrets and mounts to make it look like the ships were armed. That way if spies would look from afar at the yard or from the shore at ships leaving, they would see mean armed warships while, in reality, the crew would hope to not run into anything. My grandfather would always tell this story with a big laugh at the end so i never knew if i could believe him because he was a joking man but he might as well have laughed at the idea that it might have worked too.
There, these are only small anecdotes but they are, like you said, family stories that are probably not told in history books
That sounds entirely plausible. I'm reminded of the Doolittle Raiders fitting painted-black broomsticks in place of the machine guns they dumped from their B-25s to save weight.
In the Navy, the teller of that story would insist that it was a no-shitter while the listeners would call it a sea story...
Regarding the discussion of torpedoes on the beaches of Guadalcanal. I made the trek to Guadalcanal a few years back for the 75th anniversary of the landings. An awesome once in a lifetime experience, I might note. While there I spent a good deal of time down along the waterfront on the north coast of the island from east of Honiara out to west of the Tassafaronga area. Several areas have some small, but very nice touristy type beaches. Miami Beach it ain’t, but while there I didn’t see any signs of any torpedoes or other unexploded ordnance lying about.
However, that doesn’t mean the island is clean. The detritus of war is ubiquitous. While on the island, I also had a chance to visit a United Nations site where the teams from an organization called “Golden West” are engaged in the dangerous business of recovering and disarming unexploded ordnance. We aren’t talking about the occasional dud bomb or shell fetching up in someone’s sweet potato patch, rather entire ordnance dumps still exist in various places on the island, giving estimates in the thousands of tons of explosives that were stored on the island during the war, and then simply abandoned in situ at its conclusion.
The folks at Golden West also noted that Guadalcanal is considered one of the “cleaner” islands in the Solomon chain. During the long advance up the Solomon chain as the Japanese withdrew out of effective range of allied airpower, it was deemed a quicker and a much more efficient allocation of scarce shipping tonnage, that as each new island was captured, to bring in stores of ordnance direct from the United States and Australia rather than to pack up all the ordnance left on an island that was now effectively “out of the war” and bring it forward. Additionally, as the Japanese garrisons withdrew, they were less than thorough in destroying their various ammunition dumps prior to the retreat. So, all the way up the island chain are numerous dumps containing, by some estimates, 250,000 tons of ordnance. In most cases these dumps have been reclaimed by the jungle and are now hidden from view and beyond simple efforts to dispose of the explosives.
Note: In Sept 2020 two ordnance disposal workers were killed in the accidental detonation of abandoned ordnance on Guadalcanal, and in May 2021 two local citizens of Guadalcanal were killed when they built a cook fire which detonated a 105 mm shell embedded in the ground beneath the spot on which they had chosen to build their fire. So sadly, the casualty list for the Battle of Guadalcanal continues to climb.
The fire story reminds me of the story of a German ex POW in Normandy in I think 1948ish. He had stayed as POW on a farm and later as farm hand there. But then he got word that someone was searching for him in Germany. So he bought a train ticket to go to germany. Then went back to the farm to do one more job for the farmer. Which was to burn some wood/branches. Unfortunetly the same thing happend to him that happend to the peopel on Gudalcanal. His grave is on the german war cementery at La Cambe, Normandy.
Please archive the historically relevant comments that people have made, as TH-cam could just delete the comments, accidentally or deliberately, those people could delete their accounts, your channel could be shutdown, anything like that would result in the loss of all of those comments.
So please, don't hesitate to do so.
I really don’t Iowa and North Carolina guide...
Also, as an Australian, I would very much like that guide... When you have time, of course
Also, you don’t need to fit everything into five minutes... they’re just called that at this point, not many are actually 5 minutes or less
The story you told at end reminds me of what Jingles use to do in Mingles with Jingles at the end of his videos.
Re-telling military stories or some from his subscribers
Trip name- "Drach In the U.S.A." (assuming no one has mentioned that option yet)
re: temporary bows: I can't remember which reference, but there was apparently a Seabee (US Naval Construction Battalion) unit on Tulagi and they helped with the construction and installation of temporary bows and patches to some of the damaged ships that ended up in Tulagi harbor. Not a shipyard but a great resource to have available when you are finished playing "tag" with Type 93 torpedoes.
The Seabees were everywhere and loved by everyone. The things they accomplished is truly amazing.
Type 93 tag was a full contact sport
The "Questionable Drachtivities Tour", or at the rate we're going, "The Banned Tour" after some other Englishmen...
Regarding the possibilities of torpedoes at Guadalcanal: The British lost two entire mines somewhere around Messines ridge. One of them blew up in the 1960's killing a cow, but the other is still around somewhere. An entire mine, tens of thousands of pounds of explosives, tunnels, the works, and no one knows where the damned thing is!
Given that, I would not be surprised if some poor tourist building sandcastles on a Guadalcanal beach accidentally uncovered a torpedo that had been buried for 80 odd years!!
I think the “stories” idea is great! There are books comprised entirely of famous people’s anecdotes during wartime. Why not one of not so famous people?
I'm playing a play though of Hearts of Iron 4 playing as Bulgaria.
I'm interested in learning more about the various Balkan Navy's could you make a video explaining them and their roles during World War 2?
Either 'Drachipalooza' or 'Covertly Taking Back America For The Queen 2022 Tour'
DEMIT
Dranchonfil
Engineering
Maritime
Investigation
Tour
Absolutely fantastic video as always Drach.
Thank you for everything you do.
in talking about peacetime problems--which apply to all military services---the longer the time of "peace" lasts, the more that politicians will want to use the military as a social program. All social programs have one thing in common--they reward the least capable at the expense of the most capable. As governments use the military as a tool to attempt to elevate people from the lower classes to the middle class, they create within the military an administrative power bloc that has zero competence in military matters at all. With that power, they promote and champion those who support the growth of the admin weenies and demote the power of the war fighting enterprise. Which is why there are a million civilians to support so few war fighting units.
How about you call the trip “Drach’s Barnstorming Tour of the USA” or something similar.
“Drach’s 2020 World Tour: 2022 Edition”
Dockstorming. ;)
Something on an addendum to the question of ratio of good to bad officers. Its not just that in the Royal Navy the Captains and Admirals of the Second World War fought in the First World War, more importantly the institutional knowledge ran far deeper than that. Those aforementioned Captains and Admirals began their careers serving under and learning from officers whose careers dated back to the Crimean War, and those men, Jackie Fisher being the perfect example, began their careers under men who fought at Trafalgar.
I have a couple of stories. On my mother had a cousin on the California who survived Pearl Harbor. His story was not what I remember being told. What I was told was that it took several days/weeks for families to be notified unofficially or officially about their loved ones at Pearl Harbor. I think the family got a letter from him saying he was fine.
Not quite a naval story; I have a grandfather who was in the US 2nd Infantry Division in WWI. This division was originally all Army until the units assigned to the 4th Brigade were replaced by USMC units. When the division went into the line to plug a hole in Allied line the divisional history recounts that the French generals wanted the division to attack 2 objectives: Belleau Wood and the village of Vaux. The divisional command to the French they would attack each in sequence; Belleau Wood first then Vaux not simultaneously as the French wanted. The 4th Brigade attacked first at Belleau Wood and got mentioned in the US press with the Army units involved being ignored (divisional support and artillery mainly, brigade commander was Army). When the 3rd Brigade (Army) successfully attacked Vaux (my grandfather was in this brigade). There was no extensive press coverage of this attack. The Army has been rather perturbed by the press the Marines got while their contributions were ignored and are often not mentioned by any histories even now.
Also, the John Williams' 'Retreat, hell we just got here' may be an invention by Floyd Gibbons; a notoriously Marine worshipping 'journalist'. But the divisional history reports at least one incident were written orders were received from French officers to retreat by Marine units. Orders the history dryly notes were ignored.
Re good vs. bad officers, it is rumoured that there was a USN officer whose fitness report read ...
"His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of a morbid sense of curiosity."
The Drachinfel 2022
U.S. CAPITAL SHIP TOUR
A title is fine, what about a logo too?
I really like the idea of "Tales From The TH-cam Comments" as a website and book...or a series of books.
Good prog again. As for you'r States trip I don't suppose, "Drac does Dallas", would be appropriate.......
Why do you shy away from taking a small cut for yourself at the end of the day your doing the work and a lot of these storys would be lossed for ever without your efforts.
How about "Drac in the Field- US Tour".
I like that one, although if the tour covers more than the US, then maybe just a "tour number" counting up as more area's (country) are visited?
4:07 I'm not sure you've seen Cerberus as she is in very shallow water and half of her is out of the water most of the time. What bits of her hull you can see is in quite good shape. USS Monitor is competely different not sure why you'd mention them in the same breathe, as USS Monitor isn't even the same shape, whereas Cerberus is a very different story. Although in it's current state is better left were it is as it's already a tourist attraction
Its more about the state of the iron, exposed to the sea after a certain amount of time it degrades a lot unless very specific conditions are met. It can still look mostly in the right shape but when you move it you find it's 90%+ loose layers of rust. Entire cannon that look like a good scrub will have them like new have fallen into dust the moment someone tried lifting them.
Drachinifel's Eastern Campaigns 2020 - 2022
Don't think you mentioned this one: Didn't the Pittsburgh lose her bow in a typhoon and the darned thing floated around as a navigational hazard?
Until it was salvaged by an ocean going tug and taken to Guam, where the Pittsburg had gone. When she went back to the US, and the bow stayed, she got the nickname "The longest ship in the world".
Suggesting an AA-mount 95% as capable but with much less complexity to the german military? The question wasn't "How to get yourself shot as a spy" :D
Hung for defeatism.
@@johndoe-so2ef More like suggesting something with lower complexity proves he isn't german ^^
@@hothoploink1509 Absolutely! Having known some Germans, and dealt with some German gear, I took for granted that everyone would already know that. When it works, it's fantastic, when it doesn't, oh God, what a pita.
As of the last minute re storied oh hell yes
19:15.
Those appear to be packing tubes for the ammunition, not cartridge cases.
Post-Covid 19 Freedom Tour with Drachinifel!
Finally!!
A few of the DDs & DEs on the Okinawa anti-kamikaze radar picket line were very severely damaged and were saved.
Suggestion for the USA Trip name:
The Great Warship Road Trip!
Have you covered Soviet capital ships ? If not, could you ? October Revolution, Marat, Sevestapol.....
10 q's....🚬😎
Hello Drach. I have a somewhat urgent question. Who should we be interviewing? WW 2 is rapidly departing the realm of "living memory. These brave, fascinating men and women are now in their 90's or more. All the world leaders, the captains and admirals, ship and gun designers are gone. But, the courageous and determined youngsters are still around. Who's story's do you want to hear. The men and women working in the Liberty Ship yards. Ship and aircraft repairers. Fellows watching the Japanese surrender from three decks up. Medics and chaplain's assistants. Your many readers might be able to get you on the phone with their grand fathers and great grandfathers (mothers). We are running out or "really there" witnesses.
Heard about a USN sub XO who initiated a procedure with the nuclear propulsion system which was forbidden because it was known to result In a catastrophic outcome. The engineering officer saved the sub, but was sacked for using an unauthorized procedure, which was later made official policy, to do so. The XO was an Academy grad. The engineer was not. The Service Academy Protective Association covers for their own.
I don't know about any other ships, but, on the gun line in 1972, any expended 5 inch powder casings that managed to stay on deck, were chucked over the side when the fire mission ended. Any brass casings (rare) were picked up to be cut down into ashtrays.
Steel cases?
@@mpetersen6 YES. I know everything you are going to read will say they were brass cases. Maybe, one in a 80 to a 100 spent casings were brass.
Titel for the tour Suggestion: "Over the pond and far away - Drach goes to the states on holiday"
Re: German heavy anti aircraft mountings...
I do have to ask where you take your information from, since it gets repeatedly refuted by the combat reports written during the war. I know that pages like navweaps and wikipedia will cement the opinion that these guns would often break down and what not, but a glance at the people that evaluated them post-action will show that these guns well within parameters and effective in their role.
I cannot send links here, sine YT will nuke the comments, but I can send the archive entries in which a handful of combat reports can be found, and will send some roughly translated passages from some of the more notable AA engagements.
RM 134/182; RM 134/197
RM 134/218, Eugen's war diary which includes her AA engagement report of Operation magic flute (Zauberflöte): Experience with the heavy AA: "No new experiences to be found. The remote control for elevation and tilt have paid of as usual. Especially the good mechanism for the fuze settes including the remote fuze setter are to be noted." (p388)
RM 134/507, Scharnhorst's engagement report when she got attacked by British air forces while underway:
"The defensive fire of the rapid firing heavy AA was so effective that the clearly intended grouped attack was repulsed. The attack had already been nullified by the portside fore group and forced a dispersion of the squadron. The starboard fore group then succeeded in forcing a portion of the group to rise above the clouds, and keep them there through severe fire. The failed attack was not repeated, only ~5 to 6 double bombs of smaller caliber aft and 2-3 bombs of heavy caliber fell way off the starboard side." (p27)
"The system worked flawlessly except for some minor difficulties. [...]
Following issues occured with the 10.5cm Flak: During the engagement at two occasions a switch for the traverse gear failed, so that the respective mount had to be operated manually for roughly 20 minutes. For one gun the breech block was unreliable, so that it didn't fully open during recoil operations. This issue was resolved after the engagement. Further smaller issues were of insignificant nature." (p37)
"This encounter [with attacking aviation] resulted in a clear victory for the AA armament of the attacked ship over the attackers from the air. This is proof, that we with our controversial shipmounted AA systems are generally on the right path." (p43)
None of the AA gunnery reports I have read showed even a fraction of this so claimed "breaks all the time". But maybe you know something the commanding officers and AA gunnery officers didn't...?
Thanks for answering my question drach please keep up the great work :)
In Australia, prior to federation they were colonies rather than states.
But using the term 'colony' creates a false impression to modern people as those Aust / NZ colonies were *effectively* indepedent with full control over their own affairs, budgets and administration, except for some aspects of foreign affairs.
"Drachs American Naval Discoveries"
Keeping up with the colonials. I propose this name
42:04 just like the 18 inch would go through the 14 inch plate as well? Seen as it's immediate enemy was the French and British 15 inch why does it matter? 14 inch amour wouldn't work against an 18 inch shell. So at least this way you have better protection against current armourment and not gone for a comprise 14 inch which is worse against 15 inch shells and was never not going to stop 18 inch shells anyway. Also to add foamed concrete is less dense but if you look at the values from the worst to the best it would be an addition of 1-3 inches of armour so not really sure your critism works out that either equivalent to 18 inches of plate or a total failure. As we have a 14+inch equivalent or a 16+inch equivalent. Which would make it either way still one of the best armoured battleships of the era.
Re: Deutscher Ach Ach zur Zee. The navalized 12.8cmFlaK40 is a good start. Replace every darn 15cm SK in the KM with a FlaK40,
The 5cmFlaK41 is an entirely ignored choice, but on a ship (with off mount fire control) its drawbacks (flash and smoke) would not be crucial. Its longer range and heavier bursting charge (compared to contemporary 3.7cm and 4cm weapons) would also be useful.
Finally, the navalized 2cmFlaK38(v) is good enough for government work in the Point Defense role.
Oh! And I'd put the Zeetakt RaDAR cables under armor as much as possible.
As far as "What If" scenarios go . . . I'd trade out cruiser torpedo mounts for increased storage-and then I would build amidships vertical launch rails for the Ba349 Natter. In a similar fancy I had considered replacing IJN Yamato's float planes with multiple MXY7 mod 22 manned cruise missiles on a three for one basis.
Launching and commissioning Graf Zeppelin as an escort carrier for the big ships (which was the original plan) might in part mitigate the overwhelming Allied airpower advantage, or, at least, reduce losses per Schlachtschiffe sortie. I'm no fan of the Me109T, but imperfect fighters are better than no fighters at all. Bismarck and Tirpitz, Graf Zeppelin, and FT Seydlitz would've made a formidable division. In a perfect "WIldWar '46" scenario I'd give all the Axis carriers the N1K2 with twin 13mm HMG and twin 20mm cannon. And a couple of C6N Scout/Torpedo bombers . . . and a few C6N1-s nightfighters.
As long as we're talking fantasy, why not have a Vril officer on every bomber. He (more probably she) could create an atmospheric distortion ahead and above the plane so as to disrupt allied bomber "paulks". The British would respond with Crowley trained witches . . . I should write a book . . . wait! I did! Just finished "The Crowley Effect" last week. ;-)
If Drach makes it to number 666, just a random selection no other reason, what questions are likely to still be left? All the sensible ones should have been asked by then.
Feel free to be creative in your recommendations.
Stories about possessed and/or haunted warships, obviously.
In a peacetime military, the bad kickout the good. I just couldn't handle the officer corps backstabbing and the paperwork.
Military is a method to segregate the ev-ill from civil society. Mentally ill humanoid surplus. War is a method to mutually decimate the mentally ill. Todays we know that we need to neuter the females to stop the bureaucracy. Let's do it.
@@808bigisland Either learn to troll properly or seek some counseling.
@@Archangelm127think first, then shape sentences.
@@808bigisland ?
A tour name 'The Limey Is Coming, The Limey Is Coming' (play on the movie 'The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming with an RN reference)
For the tour shirt: "The great gray fleet", 'cause you're gonna age a few decades from that one :P.
Subbed.
My friend Joan's grandfather, David Webster (1858-1928) was the Chief Engineer (Lieutenant Engineer) of the Cerberus, flagship of the Royal Victorian Navy. With a care and interest in the seamen who worked under him, he had tried unsuccessfully for a long time to have improvements made in the engine room as many aspects were unsafe. He championed their cause and complained to the shipping company about this and their low wages and lost his position because of his stand. The owners responded by telling him: `If you think the men work too hard, you'd better go where you can't see them' and put him on a ship for Japan, without signing him on for a return position, so that he had to make his way back to Australia himself. After that incident, he left naval service and took a position on the merchant ship S.S. Monaro.
Name for the USA tour.
"Drach sinks the USS Constitution tour"
Gather stories! Love it.
Library of Congress put out a general request for recording these individual stories. Its important work. I've tried multiple times to record stories from veterans that preferred to keep them private for one reason or another (often out of humility). So when they're being told publicly, I cherish them much more.
Your idea is awesome 👌
Re possible tour nsmes, may I suggest:
▪ Drach in the saddle again
▪ Drach and thhe art of Battleship Maintenance
▪ Drach in Black and, my personal favourite
▪ Jumpin' Drach Flash (it's a gas, gas, gas)
I think the good/bad officer explanation is a very fabulous one. And it's not just confined to the navy, it spreads across branches. When I think of that, one officer historically stands out, almost as strong as Admiral Nelson, and that would be General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Most people are aware of his exploits during the American Civil War, and he had served with honor and distinction in the Mexican War over a decade prior. But in between was a rather mixed bag. He actually left US Army service directly and was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. And a hilariously awful one at that. His poor eyesight restricted his ability to study at night so he merely memorized the lectures that he delivered. And, if someone had a question, he simply went back to that section of the lecture and simply repeated it much as one would rewind a tape recorder.
And, even the record during the Civil War was not without it's moments that leave a person rather perplexed. In the wake of the highly successful and acclaimed Shenandoah Valley campaign, he moved to join Robert E. Lee and the main Virginia army for the Seven Days campaign. Early in the battles, where there was a chance that a more energetic attack could have posed a serious threat to a portion of McClellan's Union Army, he was considerably more sluggish in action. Sleep deprivation from the hard campaign that had just ended and the march to this battle was a likely factor, at one point he was found sleeping underneath a tree. And, later on at dinner, fell asleep with a biscuit clenched in his mouth. Upon awakening he said "Now, gentlemen, let us at once to bed, and rise with the dawn, and see if tomorrow we can do something."
How about "Drachinifel's American Mostly Naval Tour" ie the "DAMN Tour"?
On the topic of temporary bows, I'd love to see the destroyer Amatsukaze get some attention on the channel eventually. She lost not only her bow, but the entire forward third of the ship, including the bridge, but made it home. She was then fitted with a replacement bow and bridge, though much cruder and shorter than the original, and served out the rest of the war until her sinking in this stubby configuration.
Drac - re Cerberus I have some direct knowledge of this historic building (yes it is or was a registered historic building). In the early 1990s when I regualrlly visited and dived the site, it was clearly not feasible to raise as the hull plates had significantly corroded. There were thoughts about the turrets and guns and upper works which I think would have been feasible but there wasn't a suitable conservation facility available to conserve large bits of metal. The cost of salvage were always seen as immense and there was a lack of driving vision for the conservation program within private enterprise and Government so all attempts at kick starting conservation fizzled.
If you want a name for your tour, how about "Drachinthestates"? I think it rolls off the tongue nicely.
As for the book, I suspect that nobody would object if the proceeds were dedicated to some worthy naval charity - a museum ship, perhaps.
4:00 I thought the monitor was in a museum, at least what was left. the hull is gone but the turret, a gun, and I think the engine were recovered in the 1970s. Cerberus you could recover the top parts of the ship and display them since they're above water still
Re the Bismarck AA - we need a piece on the history and use of the VT prx fuse...it didn't have and in the end was pretty much everything for those who did the 5/38s had them but they hadn't brought it down to the Bofors yet eventually I think
Love everything you do
i remember a large ship with the anchor or net? caught a torpedo and you see it in pics and videos. just imagine your the one bringing it up... like holly fuck man Lol
In response to the Italian battleships with spaced armor, while it would be more efficient to have one slab of armor plate, the "spaced" armor might be a way of trading the engineering efficiency for industrial feasibility. Italy did not have at the time a large industrial base to make large plates of armor to that size and thickness. It reflects the Monitor in the civil war having laminated armor because the north's industrial capacity was less that what was needed to make single layer armor. This raises the question: was importing the armor from a neutral country considered or an option like the KGV?
Tour Name: 'From Sea to Shining Sea', originally used in some English North American colonial charters, is often used in describing the USA and is even referenced in some songs.
2022 Tour: Drach Around The Clock
It's an American tour, so an American music reference is only fitting.
While it'd be completely inaccurate, "Drach Does Dallas" would have the benefit of ready-made parody T-shirt art out there...
How about Dracs museum fleet review? or perhaps mothball fleet review. Second one not quite as accurate but it strikes me as amusing. And if the USS cod is on your list please let us know I would love to revisit her and sit and have a chat with you good sir.
I think that putting together a website that tells war time stories as told by family members or the person themselves is a really great idea. And as far as having them all put together into a book, that is a great idea as well. Especially considering that if you have it published just on a small scale in the US, then you can supply a copy to the Library of Congress, which could also help preserve these stories for those interested in future generations.