Welcome to the world of astonished Drach subscribers. Drydocks are 7-8 hours per month. 5 minute Guides are half an hour per month. Rum Ration Wednesday Specials are 4 hours per month. Fun Fridays are 2-3 hours per month. Theres the occasional 3 hour Alternate History livestream on top. He’s a one man band and yet it’s all considered and original content, produced with discipline and consistency over years. I just don’t know how he does it, but long may it last. 🙏
He wanted to be a historian, however, when considering his major for college, he asked the very pertinent question "If I decide I do want to be a Historian, what are the odds of me getting a job in that field?" The answer he got was maybe a 10% chance. So he majored in Civil Engineering cuz he had much more of a chance to be employed. That is why Drach has so many "Engineering" videos when it comes to "warships" cuz after so many college classes these things seemed very relevant to him. And he understood these things so it's easier to talk about things you know & understand! And, btw, when Drach started the channel he had a job as a Civil Engineer, however, COVID along with the channel freed him from being in the office every day. But YES, Drach definitely has an amazing amount of content, however, I have seen each & every one at least once, but most of his videos I have seen 3-4 times just because I enjoy the content and sometimes I tend to fall asleep while watching at night.
My grandfather flew a B-26. He specifically noted that one of his training exercises was a torpedo run. He stated in his writing on the war he was very glad he never had to try.
On the topic of Greco-Roman mythological names - it can not be understated how incredibly fascinated Northern Europe was with classical antiquity during the enlightenment era. It influenced fashion, literature, art, culture, and thought for the upper classes. An educated man was expected to read (classical) Greek and Latin, and many classical texts were considered required reading for 'cultured' individuals. Positioning yourself as the intellectual inheritor of classical art, thought, and empire (In the Roman sense) transcended national boundaries.
Something to keep in mind is that the guns on many fighters ( incl the f6f- hellcat) although they are many feet apart- converge to a single point somewhere between 200 and 300 yard in front of the aircraft . This multiplies the punch immensely
Looking at the ship under attack - I'm fairly sure it's a Japanese minesweeper or minelayer. If the latter - the results of strafing could be spectacular!
Where convergence is set, and if it's set at all, is very much dpenedent /dependent on pilot and doctrine. Some doctrines had them at very short range, some at much further out, and some (pretty much exclusively cannon equipped aircraft) had no convergence set. It's also only a factor for aircraft with wing mounted guns. If they are nose mounted, there is no need.
Something to remember as far as strafing runs go, for every tracer you see there are 4 regular bullets in the standard belt. 50 caliber API, armor piercing incendiary, bullets, which was a standard load in fighters, can go through between a half to a full inch of armor plate. A plate steel superstructure would be riddled.
It absolutely bears remembering that there are "cannons," there are "rifle-caliber machineguns," and in between and in neither of those two categories is "the .50 cal."
@@saoirseewing4877 I've fired .50 ball at 1" standard steel plate (not AR500 or other armoured steel) from 300-500m. All penetrated. I love having friends over the Pond who have 'fun stuff'. 😁
King Christian's part in the battle of Kolberger Heide directly inspired the Danish Royal Anthem which in translation is literally called. "King Christian stood by the tall mast." Christian losing his eye in that battle is a good example of the dangers of a sea battle though it in overall terms was one of the less bloody ones fought between the Danish and Swedish navies. Christian IV was pretty naval minded for the time and would make quite a bit of use of the Vanish navy in the wars he was involved in.
When I visited the Chatham dockyards a few months ago I remember learning that the construction sheds were put to good use in the pose ww2 era constructing the Oberon class diesel electric subs. The advantage of having a relatively small sub build inside there is that all the construction could be done within the shed allowing round the clock construction and being done inside a dated looking building made the construction effort invisible from Soviet aerial surveillance. The subs were launched at night when they could not be seen and sent out under the cover of darkness to return days later in the night with no sign of where they had gone.
RE heavy bombers with torpedoes, its why the Lancaster had a HUGE and unified bomb bay, because originally there was a design requirement for them to be able to carry a pair of either 18 or 21 inch torpedoes.
@@Volunteer-per-order_OSullivan It did prove useful though, as that long, uninterrupted bomb bay, with no structural bulkheads getting in the way, was what allowed it to carry Tallboy and Grand Slam.
Air dropping sea mines was extensively done by the RAF in WWII. But not immediately in front of moving ships. Both Scharhorst and Gneisenau hit mines during their channel dash, but I don't know if those mines were air dropped or delivered by other means.
In reference Sea Lion and the Home Guard - if you think about it, the "old men" in the HG being WWI vets means that they would have been in their 40s or 50s, men who still would have been physically capable AND experienced. I think a certain British TV program from the 60s-70s has something to do with the image of "old men".
Another thing that links wealth to survivability in medieval land battles is the fact that most everyone would rather capture and ransom you or use you as a bargaining chip for peace. Rough seas tend to be difficult to negotiate with in that manner though.
Here's a fun fact for you: the whole "throwing golf and pingpong ball" thing Drach talks about at ~11 minutes in is the reason why you don't see any slingers in LARPs. You can sling a stone no problem, a tennis ball is at the edge of viability, but take anything that wouldn't hurt like hell if it hit someone in the face, and you are better off throwing the damned thing by hand - at least you'll have decent rate of fire that way.
I remember a group I was in allowed bows and crossbows, with draw limitations and big poofy heads on the arrows. At close range you had to go to half draw for safety - more yours than the target's, as the nock couldn't be padded and might come right back at you - and since you can't half-draw a crossbow they were limited to half the draw of bows. With the weight of the head on a 15 pound draw the effective range was about 10 feet, while you could just throw the arrow to considerably longer range.
@@kingleech16 Regarding the bows in my previous comment: there was a safety incident where arrows were incorrectly constructed and not tested prior to use. With a 30 pound bow, an arrow with a flat shaft end (pointed target head cut off), wrapped in duct tape to build it out to the diameter of a penny, covered in dense foam and then poofy foam to make about a 3 inch diameter head. What the builder failed to do was to actually glue the penny onto the build up shaft. Even with all the other padding, the blunted shaft went into and out of the target's shoulder. All the padding stopped but the shaft just kept going.
Thank you for the Sealion book recommendations. I read plenty of articles about it. Some alternate history threads. And listening to you and Dr. Clarke about it a lot. Never read a book about it, though.
The time zone thing was a big issue with the Titanic inquiries. But it was worse, because many of the times (both recorded in logs, and by reported by eyewitnesses) were local time, which was different even for ships in the same location (this is because the clocks were typically set once per day around midnight, based on where the ship expected to be at midday, which would be different for ships travelling in opposite directions!). If I remember correctly the estimates of the difference between local and New York time ranged between 93min and 110min, and it’s been argued more recently that the actual difference may have been 125min!
Ships clocks are not adjusted by the minute, they are adjusted forward or retarded in 30 min or 1 hour per day steps to the appropriate time zone. Individual clocks may be minutes out as they were mechanical.
Regarding 48:51 - damage that small arms strafing could cause to larger vessels: One knock-on effect would be the effect of the bullets, and shrapnel on fire fighting equipment. Fires are easy to put out when they're small. The sooner you notice, and address the fire, the easier it is to put out - it's localized, it hasn't spread behind anything, and the damage is greatly reduced. Not only can strafing affect the ability of the human crew to be able to react to fire through casualties, but fire hoses are surprisingly fragile. Worse, a 50 yard or meber length of hose is hard to adequately inspect for shrapnel damage in the stress of the moment. It takes time, a few minutes only, but still irrecoverable time, to flake out a hose before you can use it. If there are obvious holes, you'll go to one from outside the damage area - but shrapnel holes may not be obvious. So you've spent two minutes flaking out the hose, getting it connected to the nearest fire connection, and start charging it . . . and everyone is waiting for the hose to inflate and you only then see that the hose is making a progressive tear about 1/3 of the length down it's length. If the fire is still small, you may have enough water to put it out. You may not. I sure as Hell wouldn't care to enter any kind of space for fire fighting, nor allow any team I was in charge of to do so, with a hose that I couldn't trust. So, now you have to get the next nearest hose, and hope it's intact for use. In ten minutes that this process takes a small fire can become a larger fire. I'm not saying even a large deck fire could destroy a large combatant. But it could take it out of the fight for several hours, and possibly even require the ship to retire to a forward base for more extensive repairs. Even if the ship isn't disabled, a fire is going to be a huge distraction for everyone aboard.
Another thing to keep in mind regarding strafing runs on small ships like destroyers: a bullet fired from a fighter doing a strafing run's going to go considerably further than one of the same caliber fired at the same range from say an enemy ship, since the plane's forward speed adds a considerable boost to the bullet's kinetic energy. Especially considering that most WWII-era destroyers have _at most_ only splinter protection, and even some larger ships have very tasty bits with no real armor (like the turrets of Japanese cruisers, or _anywhere_ on early French heavy cruisers).
WW2 destroyer hull plating was generally from 10-20mm thick. .50 cal whether HE, AP, Tracer or Ball would have little difficulty in fully penetrating such plating.
Here on YT,USS Kidd is in dry dock with hull repairs a portion thereof. For much of the hull,you can see for yourself that even a rifle calibre machine gun burst would penetrate. The cross and longitudal frame reinforcing is closely spaced,but that would mean nothing to a multi gun two or five second burst. Upgun to 50 caliber and things get ugly fast. A strafing attack by several airplanes with experienced pilots would sure make a mess of crew and hull and internal ricochet damage added. I would suppose a cruiser would be sufficiently armoured,but anything lighter ,guaranteed highly vulnerable. That USS Kidd hull plating is thin. Scarily so.
By 1943/4 the Home Guard was a well trained, well armed, well motivated and capable field force. They just had nobody to fight. This is I think is the ideal military situation!
Yeah, I liked the part about "No, no, no, you don't set the beaches on fire to 'prevent' the Germans from landing, you let the Germans land & then set the beaches on fire along with the Germans. Well, yeah! Of course you do! If there is an enemy invading your homeland, you will be as ruthless as you can be without ruining your own lands. Although, that is true, I still wouldn't want to use any type of chemicals, such as mustard gas or similar stuff like that.
16:30 Of course, there is another major component to Royal Navy ship names that are associated with foreigners...... "Nice ship, I think I'll have that. And no, I'm not going to rename it. Because there's nothing you can do about it."
00:48:51 - What damage could a strafing run do to a destroyer? Something else to note is that the .50cal machineguns mounted on American aircraft were usually shooting armor-piercing ammunition because they needed to penetrate through the ever thickening structural metal of ever heavier airframes being developed. Aircraft also usually had some armor plate, anywhere from 5mm to 20mm of hardened steel, to further help keep splinters and bullets out of vital areas. As most ships, even warships, were primarily made up of 5mm to 20mm of softer structural steel plates, any exposed part of a ship's hull or superstructure not covered in actual armor was reasonably vulnerable to penetration by the .50cals, hence the Swiss-cheesing of ships like in the video. However, the .50cals would not be cutting very deep beyond the first plates of a ship, and since destroyers, contrary to many assumptions, do actually have some armor and multiple decks over their citadels (if mostly just to keep out splinters rather than shells), they shouldn't be exploding spectacularly from a few strafing runs. Most footage we have of ships exploding under American .50cals are merchantmen, not warships.
00:00:43 In order to float, the mine would have to contain non-explosive substances, and quite a bit of them. Which reduces their explosive potential for a given size. But in the early stages of the war at least, the various bomber commands seemed to be convinced of their accuracy against ground targets. As it turns out, they were not especially accurate even against stationary targets - presumably it took a while to convince people and come up with a solution - like the buoyancy bomb. 00:49:00 Strafing was also a part of skip-bombing and mast-height bombing (as well as the rockets mentioned), as used in the later parts of the war. Those required a very low-level and straight-in approach, so suppressing the AA gunners with gun or cannon fire would have been vital. There is also the unusual case of the Mosquito 'Tsetse' variant armed with autoloading 57mm gun. Those were mostly intended to put holes in surfaced U-boats, but I suspect a DD wouldn't particularly enjoy that calibre either. 1:09:00 I wonder if a rotary bomb-bay would have increased the number of torpedoes a medium bomber could carry. I know they fixed a similar length-to-weight issue for cruise missiles in some post-war bombers, but I suppose it might have been a bit complicated during WW2.
0;36:53 That's where you also use Wooden Plugs wrapped in cloth and sledgehammer do drive it home1. (or a mattress with wooden bring to plug a big hole. (Engineman 2nd Class; Repair 5 team member)
Re the shell question, term to be considered is Ballistic Coefficient, which is a measured value of a projectile's deceleration through its flight that takes into account both momentum and air resistance, and is easily studied through a variety of free online ballistics calculators for the curious. In reality it's an extremely complex and in fact continuously changing variable that was no doubt the subject of much study as related to the fire control computers at the time.
Re strafing ships. It's usually the result of accidental contact. In war when opposing forces meet, they fight, or one side runs away. A ship can't run away. The light AA of a small ship provides minor risk to a group of fighters, they have no reason to run away. What fighters have is guns, so they're going to shoot (after they radio the sighting). There's lots of fragile stuff they might smash, they've noting more interesting to do. I've read credible accounts in 'I wuz there books' of fighter gunfire penetrating the boiler room of a Japanese destroyer but, like HMS Highlander's pursuit of a flight of German aircraft, the outcome is not the one to bet on.
When I was in the US Navy from 1967 to 1993, we changed the time as we entered and exited time zones and noted it in the ships logs. While we were in the Persian gulf in 1980, we changed the ships time zone so our working hours were at night when the engineering spaces and outside decks were cooler. I don't remember what time zone we were working in, but we slept during the heat of the day. This was on the USS Briscoe DD-977.
What did that do to watchkeeping? I mean, heading eastwards would be good because you could knock-off an hour early; but heading westwards means extra duty and no overtime.
You just sucked it up and carried on. When you were only getting 4 hours of sleep in the engineering department anyway, I would catch a cat nap on the deck plates in the engineering spaces if there was no crisis going on.
I would imagine that another factor in kings not leading sea battles is the fact that a king who's at sea is a king who's incommunicado and can't receive messengers, etc
On the Greco/Roman names.... At that period a 'Classical' education as we would call it these days was more or less universal even among Scientists and Engineers, and was common around Europe. Not just in the UK. Having a good grounding in the Classics, and ideally being able to at least read Ancient Greek and/or Latin was the sign of a good education. So that could well be part of it. The Royal Navy had a lot of ships to name, and the people naming those ships were all a good deal more familiar with Greco/Roman mythology than they were with native British mythology. So thats where they took the names from. You see a similar thing in science as well, again all the early scientists were also classically trained and this is *exactly* the reason you see ancient Greek and Latin in so many scientific names. In a way if you consider Latin and Ancient Greek as the lingua franca's of Enlightenment era science and technology you would not really be too far wrong. Scientists from say Sweden, the UK, France or Spain would all be able to understand the meaning of arthropod, or decapod, or biped for example.
Was surprised by the apparent accuracy and potential damage inflicted by that strafing run. Nearly every tracer round seemed to hit the ship and, assuming tracer was only in a ‘normal’ 1:5 ratio of total ammo, hundreds and hundreds of rounds must have made contact in that single 7-second burst. 😮
Woo hoo! Drach recommended a book I own and have read: "We March Against England". Maybe I am not as uninformed as I usually feel. Oh who am I kidding, but I will take small victories....
Re heavy bombers at 50 feet... the lanc was surprisingly nimble for a big bird. It could be done over water fairly safely in decent weather. BUT- not one for novices, and training is going to involve casualties....
The main reason names like Orion, etc were popular, was most of the Navy brass / bureaucrats had been forced to learn learn Latin and Greek at Eton, Oxford, et al.
48:51 During the Japanese attempted landing on Wake Island in December 1941, the American F-4F Wildcats that were defending the island had a strafing run on the escorts. The Japanese destroyer Kisaragi was sunk by the Wildcats with 100 pound bombs and possible strafing but I'm not sure
In regards to time keeping on ships, in one of Jon Parshall's talks (either as a guest here or on another channel) he said that Japanese timekeeping was relatively straightforward as long as one keeps in mind that the logs of IJN vessels were recorded using Tokyo time regardless of where and in which timezone they were actually sailing. Iirc, this was said during his explanation of kodochoshos(sp?) and how those Japanese records from the carriers at Midway disprove the narrative that the decks were full of armed and fueled planes just about to take off when the American dive bombers attacked. Therefore in Japanese records, Midway took place on June 5th rather than June 4th.
Your analysis of the use of airborne mines is very interesting! But I think if there were a system that automatically deployed parachutes in real-time, this might be more effective instead of being easily avoided as you mentioned. #TheWeaponChroniclesX
Would it be interesting to make a video about the Norwegian Sleipner class destroyers? They were brand new when the second world war broke out, with the first two ships being commisioned in 1936. How did they stack up? "Sleipner" managed to escape to the UK after fighting in Norway and caused some alarm as she approached the Orkney islands (the Norwegian flag is really similar to the german naval pennant at the time) and she was clearly not a british destroyer. She spent the rest of the war escorting coastal convoys in the UK. "Æger" was destroyed by german bombers near Stavanger. "Gyller" and "Odin" were taken over by the germans as "Löwe" and "Panther" after limited fighting near Kristiansand and some wasted opportunities to torpedo german ships. "Löwe" was escorting "Wilhelm Gustloff" when the latter was sunk by a soviet submarine in January 1945. "Tor" and "Balder" were still fitting out in April 1940 and entered german service as "Tiger" and "Leopard". After the war they returned to the RNoN and were rebuilt as frigates.
Regarding British non-use of the B-bomb operationally ... I seem to recall that the Admiralty was very unhappy with the deployment of the bouncing bomb against enemy ships, on the logic that the RN had more ships to lose and once the concept had been demonstrated by the RAF, the Germans would copy the idea and the UK had more to lose as a consequence
11:00 You're looking for the term "sectional density" - a projectile with higher sectional density will retain velocity longer than one with a lower sectional density.
Referring to the strafing attacks against both war and merchant/transports I would note that in the Pacific the B-25 medium bombers were originally field modified to remove the plexiglas bomb aimers position and replace it with up to 12 additional .50 cal machine guns. Added to the 2 standard .50 cal in the dorsal turret would result in 14 heavy machine guns each capable of ROF of 500-600 rounds per minute...a true buzz saw at mast high altitudes....and then you add skip bombing with 500 pounders.
As a child, I once read a warrie (a small, cheap comic book produced in the UK) about a Blackburn Skua which managed to sink a german destroyer by strafing it. Admittedly, the destroyer was badly damaged at the time and was tied up dockside, being kept afloat with the aid of a flotation tank. The Skua shot up the tank, which sank and took the destroyer with it. A bit of a cheat really, but still an achievement when you only carry four .303 machine guns. 😉
1:08:56 On the topic of large torpedo bombers... Italy designed and built the Piaggio P108 bomber that could carry 3 (three!) 450mm torpedoes. Only a limited number was built (less than 40) but it was a real design that entered service. For those who don't know the P108 is a 4-engined design, akin to a B-17 in size. EDIT: They carried those torpedoes externally below the bomb bay.
The strafing run on the destroyer. From personal experience, you have to remember every 5th round is a tracer. You times that by 6 M2 .50 cal machine guns. The effect is mind boggling. I've seen first hand what that amount of lead is like. You can't describe it. Only experience it. (from the sending side preferably)
In relation to dropping mines. Why not parachute dropping circling torpedoes, with a b24/b17 being able to drop several, have several bombers dropping a dozen or so all over the fleet could really create some fun and games.
Is that what it was? I'm not great at IDing things and never did manage to figure it out. I'd always hoped we might be able to pester Drach to look at it one day.
The Redtails did sink a destroyer with machine gun fire, the gun footage exists. The Pilot was interviewed during a documentary where they show the footage. My Best Guess is the Germans were violating safety procedures while passing AA ammunition on deck and a lucky richochet went into the AA Magazine, and set off some ammunition, and the rest went off shortly afterwards. Even the pilot acknowledged that it wasn't a common event.
As to Kings leading fleets, it appears that it was more common in the Classical period. Notably, a number of the Diadochi kings led fleet actions against each other and third parties. Additionally, when the various “viking” kingdoms and petty kingdoms had naval battles it was common for their royals to make an appearance. Perhaps it became less common as ranged weaponry became a more dominant force in naval battles?
Ah yes, Sealion. Any invasion plan that could have all the troop transports sunk by a single destroyer that doesn't have to fire any weapons has issues.
The Avro Manchester twin-engined heavy bomber (from which the Lancaster was derived) was specifically designed with a long bomb bay in order to carry torpedoes, though as far as I know neither type was ever used in this role.
Wisely avoiding the question of what the Tuskegee airmen actually did or didn't do, to what, where, and how. As it appears to be more difficult than usual with air combat to figure out what the heck happened.
Question for Drachinifel regarding the strafing: The Yamato on her final voyage had all her anti-aircraft armament concentrated amidships because of the 18-inch blasts. The US attack waves commenced with strafing runs on these anti-aircraft positions to deplete them. I have heard somewhere that if the US aircraft had taken a few bombers armed with napalm (allegedly only available on the Jeep carriers) with them, they could have made short work of Yamatos anti-aircraft stations. Is there any truth to this or is it "just an internet fantasy"?
Are the actions from different flotillas and subs that were stationed at Malta a good subject for a special ? their dashes out of Valletta to sink Italo-/German supplyconvoys with info from Ultra were quite spectaculair and very usefull to the North-African front.
On the U.S. and French blockade question, the German High Seas Fleet and scouting Fleet might also be a problem. I think they might outnumber the US and France fleets
Would it have been effective for Germany to disregard the V-1 and V-2 projects and instead hasten development of guided anti- shipping munitions like the Fritz X to add a long- range air component to their submarine blockades? It seems like that compensates for their lack of aircraft carriers for long- range naval strikes and had a greater impact than the high-tech fires development they focused on IRL. Obviously it'd still be at risk of planes but there weren't many at the time in question and the range and precision mean you'd need fewer planes to launch farther away from danger to succeed compared to the maritime bombing the Germans were ALREADY doing. I'm also not suggesting an anti-ship V1 or V2 but a glide bomb completed earlier, with the R&D from those projects instead spent on making better developments of anti- shipping weapons.
Long range air for the Atlantic was gonna be a problem even if they're launching fritz X from outside naval AA range because by mid 43 every convoy had it's own carrier with wildcats on it. So they're still not realistically doing naval strikes. Naval reconnaissance to direct the U-boats, maybe but by mid 43 that's not happening either unless you're doing it with something that can run away from competitive carrier fighters. If fritz X and a heavier maritime strike/reconnaissance emphasis happens sooner, escort carriers and more highly centralized convoys probably happen sooner and more intensely also.
Not only Russia as being the third Rome, bur Romania was very consciously named as the heirs of the Roman Empire and to this day a number of Romanian cities have statues of Romulus & Remus (and the wolf) in prominent places in their main squares.
.50 BMG was originally intended as an anti tank round in WWI. API had the ability to penetrate Japanese destroyer hull plating (20 to 30 mm mild steel), which would not do the ship all that much good.
I think another reason why covered slipways came back into vogue is that they're just plain nicer to work in, especially in places that have cold winters, a rainy season, generally inclement weather, or some combination of the three. It's nice to be out of the wind rain and snow and it's also nice for the yard owner since it means your workers are more productive during the days that weather springs up.
28:21 I think another element is also how land battles and sea battles developed separately. On land the kings ancestors would have fought in these battles back possibly hundreds of years of various scales and sizes, with a continuous unbroken generations of fighting. When you look at naval engagements they are often ad hoc, they wax and wain. Navies can appear and then disappear within one persons lifetime. You have entire naval traditions starting from the merchant class rather than the feudal system. Sinking from storms etc. Means you are constantly losing advisors and experienced personnel.
In major and comprehensive refits of older battleships (the Standards post Pearl Harbor, some of the Revenges, etc) that took place in at least the beginning of the age of the fast battleship, the ships in general didn't have much power (usually around 40,000 shp) to begin with. Why wasn't swapping the plant with something more powerful more common? I'd love to have seen an LS swapped Ramillies or Warspite or New Mexico. Edit: this to be done on ships where the machinery was already well worn out, like Rodney. Also this has probably been answered somewhat with similar questions about the QEs, but thought I'd ask anyway.
I always assumed the RN's predilection for names from mythology was because the “ruling classes” nearly all attended public schools where Greek and Latin were the staple subjects. The way the some of these names get twisted by the sailors is wonderful. Just two examples: "Billy Ruffian" for Beleraphon and I head a Scottish tug skipper calling up “Cherrybus” in thick fog off the Forth (he wanted HMS Charybdis). During WW2 the British converted many older fleet destroyers for escort duties. These often retained a bank of torpedo tubes with the intention of using them to launch 1 ton depth charges. I have not yet found any evidence of the successful use of these, do you have any knowledge about their use and relative effectiveness compared to, say, a five or ten pattern of standard depth charges?
On level bombing, were small bombs ever used? A high number of small 50 pound HE might have a better chance of impact. Purely disruptive, anti-personnel or if hitting a aircraft carrier loaded with fuel and aircraft having a better chance of limiting air ops? Or, was it just 'we drop big bombs'?
meh destroyers tend to not have armor, and be constructed of approx 3/8" steel. very easily penetrated by a 50BMG. the tracers you see bounce are because tracers are lighter, and dont penetrate things as well as fmj, or api. heck 30cals tend to punch holes in 3/8 mild steel.
England was a Roman Province for centuries, 'Septimus' is even today a fine old English name. There is nothing at all "foreign" about the Latin language in the context of England.
Just discovered your channel and I have absolutely no clue how there could possibly be 300 HUNDRED of these podcast / episodes. Truly mind boggling
This is the short form. Once a month he does a longer version.
Welcome to the world of astonished Drach subscribers. Drydocks are 7-8 hours per month. 5 minute Guides are half an hour per month. Rum Ration Wednesday Specials are 4 hours per month. Fun Fridays are 2-3 hours per month. Theres the occasional 3 hour Alternate History livestream on top. He’s a one man band and yet it’s all considered and original content, produced with discipline and consistency over years. I just don’t know how he does it, but long may it last. 🙏
He wanted to be a historian, however, when considering his major for college, he asked the very pertinent question "If I decide I do want to be a Historian, what are the odds of me getting a job in that field?" The answer he got was maybe a 10% chance. So he majored in Civil Engineering cuz he had much more of a chance to be employed. That is why Drach has so many "Engineering" videos when it comes to "warships" cuz after so many college classes these things seemed very relevant to him. And he understood these things so it's easier to talk about things you know & understand! And, btw, when Drach started the channel he had a job as a Civil Engineer, however, COVID along with the channel freed him from being in the office every day. But YES, Drach definitely has an amazing amount of content, however, I have seen each & every one at least once, but most of his videos I have seen 3-4 times just because I enjoy the content and sometimes I tend to fall asleep while watching at night.
Welcome to the party.
I see binge watching in your future. I plug in Drach and start work on the homestead.
My grandfather flew a B-26. He specifically noted that one of his training exercises was a torpedo run. He stated in his writing on the war he was very glad he never had to try.
On the topic of Greco-Roman mythological names - it can not be understated how incredibly fascinated Northern Europe was with classical antiquity during the enlightenment era. It influenced fashion, literature, art, culture, and thought for the upper classes. An educated man was expected to read (classical) Greek and Latin, and many classical texts were considered required reading for 'cultured' individuals. Positioning yourself as the intellectual inheritor of classical art, thought, and empire (In the Roman sense) transcended national boundaries.
6:33 There’s no better feeling than when Drach answers one of my questions! Thank you so much Drach!
Something to keep in mind is that the guns on many fighters ( incl the f6f- hellcat) although they are many feet apart- converge to a single point somewhere between 200 and 300 yard in front of the aircraft . This multiplies the punch immensely
Looking at the ship under attack - I'm fairly sure it's a Japanese minesweeper or minelayer. If the latter - the results of strafing could be spectacular!
@@garycameron8167 Not so much fun for the poor sod IN the minesweeper....
Where convergence is set, and if it's set at all, is very much dpenedent /dependent on pilot and doctrine. Some doctrines had them at very short range, some at much further out, and some (pretty much exclusively cannon equipped aircraft) had no convergence set.
It's also only a factor for aircraft with wing mounted guns. If they are nose mounted, there is no need.
Something to remember as far as strafing runs go, for every tracer you see there are 4 regular bullets in the standard belt. 50 caliber API, armor piercing incendiary, bullets, which was a standard load in fighters, can go through between a half to a full inch of armor plate. A plate steel superstructure would be riddled.
It absolutely bears remembering that there are "cannons," there are "rifle-caliber machineguns," and in between and in neither of those two categories is "the .50 cal."
@@saoirseewing4877 I've fired .50 ball at 1" standard steel plate (not AR500 or other armoured steel) from 300-500m.
All penetrated.
I love having friends over the Pond who have 'fun stuff'. 😁
King Christian's part in the battle of Kolberger Heide directly inspired the Danish Royal Anthem which in translation is literally called. "King Christian stood by the tall mast."
Christian losing his eye in that battle is a good example of the dangers of a sea battle though it in overall terms was one of the less bloody ones fought between the Danish and Swedish navies.
Christian IV was pretty naval minded for the time and would make quite a bit of use of the Vanish navy in the wars he was involved in.
Yes, battles are less bloody in the Vanish Navy.
When I visited the Chatham dockyards a few months ago I remember learning that the construction sheds were put to good use in the pose ww2 era constructing the Oberon class diesel electric subs.
The advantage of having a relatively small sub build inside there is that all the construction could be done within the shed allowing round the clock construction and being done inside a dated looking building made the construction effort invisible from Soviet aerial surveillance.
The subs were launched at night when they could not be seen and sent out under the cover of darkness to return days later in the night with no sign of where they had gone.
RE heavy bombers with torpedoes, its why the Lancaster had a HUGE and unified bomb bay, because originally there was a design requirement for them to be able to carry a pair of either 18 or 21 inch torpedoes.
It was an inheritance from the Manchester, though neither type actually had the capacity as the torpedo requirement was cancelled on 26 August 1937.
@@Volunteer-per-order_OSullivan It did prove useful though, as that long, uninterrupted bomb bay, with no structural bulkheads getting in the way, was what allowed it to carry Tallboy and Grand Slam.
Air dropping sea mines was extensively done by the RAF in WWII. But not immediately in front of moving ships. Both Scharhorst and Gneisenau hit mines during their channel dash, but I don't know if those mines were air dropped or delivered by other means.
In reference Sea Lion and the Home Guard - if you think about it, the "old men" in the HG being WWI vets means that they would have been in their 40s or 50s, men who still would have been physically capable AND experienced. I think a certain British TV program from the 60s-70s has something to do with the image of "old men".
Who do you think you are kidding? :)
@@saoirseewing4877 Mr Hitler
Nevertheless, they don't like it up 'em, Sir.
You stupid boy.
Another thing that links wealth to survivability in medieval land battles is the fact that most everyone would rather capture and ransom you or use you as a bargaining chip for peace. Rough seas tend to be difficult to negotiate with in that manner though.
336 seems like a very good number.
Thanks Drach!
Here's a fun fact for you: the whole "throwing golf and pingpong ball" thing Drach talks about at ~11 minutes in is the reason why you don't see any slingers in LARPs. You can sling a stone no problem, a tennis ball is at the edge of viability, but take anything that wouldn't hurt like hell if it hit someone in the face, and you are better off throwing the damned thing by hand - at least you'll have decent rate of fire that way.
A tennis ball fired by a good slinger sounds like a very lousy day… 😵💫
I remember a group I was in allowed bows and crossbows, with draw limitations and big poofy heads on the arrows. At close range you had to go to half draw for safety - more yours than the target's, as the nock couldn't be padded and might come right back at you - and since you can't half-draw a crossbow they were limited to half the draw of bows. With the weight of the head on a 15 pound draw the effective range was about 10 feet, while you could just throw the arrow to considerably longer range.
@@kingleech16 Regarding the bows in my previous comment: there was a safety incident where arrows were incorrectly constructed and not tested prior to use. With a 30 pound bow, an arrow with a flat shaft end (pointed target head cut off), wrapped in duct tape to build it out to the diameter of a penny, covered in dense foam and then poofy foam to make about a 3 inch diameter head. What the builder failed to do was to actually glue the penny onto the build up shaft. Even with all the other padding, the blunted shaft went into and out of the target's shoulder. All the padding stopped but the shaft just kept going.
@ There’s always someone who wants to be an individual… Hope your mate was OK and got some free drinks out of the incident.
Thank you for the Sealion book recommendations. I read plenty of articles about it. Some alternate history threads. And listening to you and Dr. Clarke about it a lot. Never read a book about it, though.
Another great DD in the line of all of the great DDs. Thanks Drach
Just look at the body parts lost by Lord Nelson and you’ll understand why kings weren’t subjected to that.
The time zone thing was a big issue with the Titanic inquiries. But it was worse, because many of the times (both recorded in logs, and by reported by eyewitnesses) were local time, which was different even for ships in the same location (this is because the clocks were typically set once per day around midnight, based on where the ship expected to be at midday, which would be different for ships travelling in opposite directions!). If I remember correctly the estimates of the difference between local and New York time ranged between 93min and 110min, and it’s been argued more recently that the actual difference may have been 125min!
Ships clocks are not adjusted by the minute, they are adjusted forward or retarded in 30 min or 1 hour per day steps to the appropriate time zone. Individual clocks may be minutes out as they were mechanical.
Love hanging out with Drach on a Sunday morning.
Regarding 48:51 - damage that small arms strafing could cause to larger vessels: One knock-on effect would be the effect of the bullets, and shrapnel on fire fighting equipment. Fires are easy to put out when they're small. The sooner you notice, and address the fire, the easier it is to put out - it's localized, it hasn't spread behind anything, and the damage is greatly reduced.
Not only can strafing affect the ability of the human crew to be able to react to fire through casualties, but fire hoses are surprisingly fragile. Worse, a 50 yard or meber length of hose is hard to adequately inspect for shrapnel damage in the stress of the moment. It takes time, a few minutes only, but still irrecoverable time, to flake out a hose before you can use it. If there are obvious holes, you'll go to one from outside the damage area - but shrapnel holes may not be obvious. So you've spent two minutes flaking out the hose, getting it connected to the nearest fire connection, and start charging it . . . and everyone is waiting for the hose to inflate and you only then see that the hose is making a progressive tear about 1/3 of the length down it's length.
If the fire is still small, you may have enough water to put it out. You may not. I sure as Hell wouldn't care to enter any kind of space for fire fighting, nor allow any team I was in charge of to do so, with a hose that I couldn't trust.
So, now you have to get the next nearest hose, and hope it's intact for use.
In ten minutes that this process takes a small fire can become a larger fire.
I'm not saying even a large deck fire could destroy a large combatant. But it could take it out of the fight for several hours, and possibly even require the ship to retire to a forward base for more extensive repairs. Even if the ship isn't disabled, a fire is going to be a huge distraction for everyone aboard.
Another thing to keep in mind regarding strafing runs on small ships like destroyers: a bullet fired from a fighter doing a strafing run's going to go considerably further than one of the same caliber fired at the same range from say an enemy ship, since the plane's forward speed adds a considerable boost to the bullet's kinetic energy. Especially considering that most WWII-era destroyers have _at most_ only splinter protection, and even some larger ships have very tasty bits with no real armor (like the turrets of Japanese cruisers, or _anywhere_ on early French heavy cruisers).
WW2 destroyer hull plating was generally from 10-20mm thick.
.50 cal whether HE, AP, Tracer or Ball would have little difficulty in fully penetrating such plating.
Here on YT,USS Kidd is in dry dock with hull repairs a portion thereof. For much of the hull,you can see for yourself that even a rifle calibre machine gun burst would penetrate. The cross and longitudal frame reinforcing is closely spaced,but that would mean nothing to a multi gun two or five second burst. Upgun to 50 caliber and things get ugly fast. A strafing attack by several airplanes with experienced pilots would sure make a mess of crew and hull and internal ricochet damage added. I would suppose a cruiser would be sufficiently armoured,but anything lighter ,guaranteed highly vulnerable. That USS Kidd hull plating is thin. Scarily so.
By 1943/4 the Home Guard was a well trained, well armed, well motivated and capable field force. They just had nobody to fight. This is I think is the ideal military situation!
Yeah, I liked the part about "No, no, no, you don't set the beaches on fire to 'prevent' the Germans from landing, you let the Germans land & then set the beaches on fire along with the Germans. Well, yeah! Of course you do! If there is an enemy invading your homeland, you will be as ruthless as you can be without ruining your own lands.
Although, that is true, I still wouldn't want to use any type of chemicals, such as mustard gas or similar stuff like that.
16:30 Of course, there is another major component to Royal Navy ship names that are associated with foreigners......
"Nice ship, I think I'll have that. And no, I'm not going to rename it. Because there's nothing you can do about it."
00:48:51 - What damage could a strafing run do to a destroyer?
Something else to note is that the .50cal machineguns mounted on American aircraft were usually shooting armor-piercing ammunition because they needed to penetrate through the ever thickening structural metal of ever heavier airframes being developed. Aircraft also usually had some armor plate, anywhere from 5mm to 20mm of hardened steel, to further help keep splinters and bullets out of vital areas.
As most ships, even warships, were primarily made up of 5mm to 20mm of softer structural steel plates, any exposed part of a ship's hull or superstructure not covered in actual armor was reasonably vulnerable to penetration by the .50cals, hence the Swiss-cheesing of ships like in the video.
However, the .50cals would not be cutting very deep beyond the first plates of a ship, and since destroyers, contrary to many assumptions, do actually have some armor and multiple decks over their citadels (if mostly just to keep out splinters rather than shells), they shouldn't be exploding spectacularly from a few strafing runs. Most footage we have of ships exploding under American .50cals are merchantmen, not warships.
00:00:43 In order to float, the mine would have to contain non-explosive substances, and quite a bit of them. Which reduces their explosive potential for a given size. But in the early stages of the war at least, the various bomber commands seemed to be convinced of their accuracy against ground targets. As it turns out, they were not especially accurate even against stationary targets - presumably it took a while to convince people and come up with a solution - like the buoyancy bomb.
00:49:00 Strafing was also a part of skip-bombing and mast-height bombing (as well as the rockets mentioned), as used in the later parts of the war. Those required a very low-level and straight-in approach, so suppressing the AA gunners with gun or cannon fire would have been vital. There is also the unusual case of the Mosquito 'Tsetse' variant armed with autoloading 57mm gun. Those were mostly intended to put holes in surfaced U-boats, but I suspect a DD wouldn't particularly enjoy that calibre either.
1:09:00 I wonder if a rotary bomb-bay would have increased the number of torpedoes a medium bomber could carry. I know they fixed a similar length-to-weight issue for cruise missiles in some post-war bombers, but I suppose it might have been a bit complicated during WW2.
love the intro to these
Thanks for answering my question!
0;36:53 That's where you also use Wooden Plugs wrapped in cloth and sledgehammer do drive it home1. (or a mattress with wooden bring to plug a big hole. (Engineman 2nd Class; Repair 5 team member)
Re the shell question, term to be considered is Ballistic Coefficient, which is a measured value of a projectile's deceleration through its flight that takes into account both momentum and air resistance, and is easily studied through a variety of free online ballistics calculators for the curious. In reality it's an extremely complex and in fact continuously changing variable that was no doubt the subject of much study as related to the fire control computers at the time.
Re strafing ships. It's usually the result of accidental contact. In war when opposing forces meet, they fight, or one side runs away. A ship can't run away. The light AA of a small ship provides minor risk to a group of fighters, they have no reason to run away. What fighters have is guns, so they're going to shoot (after they radio the sighting). There's lots of fragile stuff they might smash, they've noting more interesting to do. I've read credible accounts in 'I wuz there books' of fighter gunfire penetrating the boiler room of a Japanese destroyer but, like HMS Highlander's pursuit of a flight of German aircraft, the outcome is not the one to bet on.
Your videos are always so colorful and fun! Thank you for your sincerity and talent in creating funny content!👏🏻🍄🛸
When I was in the US Navy from 1967 to 1993, we changed the time as we entered and exited time zones and noted it in the ships logs. While we were in the Persian gulf in 1980, we changed the ships time zone so our working hours were at night when the engineering spaces and outside decks were cooler. I don't remember what time zone we were working in, but we slept during the heat of the day. This was on the USS Briscoe DD-977.
What did that do to watchkeeping? I mean, heading eastwards would be good because you could knock-off an hour early; but heading westwards means extra duty and no overtime.
You just sucked it up and carried on. When you were only getting 4 hours of sleep in the engineering department anyway, I would catch a cat nap on the deck plates in the engineering spaces if there was no crisis going on.
Makes me wonder about the effect of golf ball like dimpling on shell flight…
I would imagine that another factor in kings not leading sea battles is the fact that a king who's at sea is a king who's incommunicado and can't receive messengers, etc
On the Greco/Roman names....
At that period a 'Classical' education as we would call it these days was more or less universal even among Scientists and Engineers, and was common around Europe. Not just in the UK. Having a good grounding in the Classics, and ideally being able to at least read Ancient Greek and/or Latin was the sign of a good education.
So that could well be part of it. The Royal Navy had a lot of ships to name, and the people naming those ships were all a good deal more familiar with Greco/Roman mythology than they were with native British mythology. So thats where they took the names from.
You see a similar thing in science as well, again all the early scientists were also classically trained and this is *exactly* the reason you see ancient Greek and Latin in so many scientific names.
In a way if you consider Latin and Ancient Greek as the lingua franca's of Enlightenment era science and technology you would not really be too far wrong. Scientists from say Sweden, the UK, France or Spain would all be able to understand the meaning of arthropod, or decapod, or biped for example.
Exactly, that is why Sir Isaac Newton (the bloke who invented physics) published his most important works in Latin, not English.
Was surprised by the apparent accuracy and potential damage inflicted by that strafing run. Nearly every tracer round seemed to hit the ship and, assuming tracer was only in a ‘normal’ 1:5 ratio of total ammo, hundreds and hundreds of rounds must have made contact in that single 7-second burst. 😮
Woo hoo! Drach recommended a book I own and have read: "We March Against England". Maybe I am not as uninformed as I usually feel. Oh who am I kidding, but I will take small victories....
Re heavy bombers at 50 feet...
the lanc was surprisingly nimble for a big bird. It could be done over water fairly safely in decent weather. BUT- not one for novices, and training is going to involve casualties....
The main reason names like Orion, etc were popular, was most of the Navy brass / bureaucrats had been forced to learn learn Latin and Greek at Eton, Oxford, et al.
48:51 During the Japanese attempted landing on Wake Island in December 1941, the American F-4F Wildcats that were defending the island had a strafing run on the escorts. The Japanese destroyer Kisaragi was sunk by the Wildcats with 100 pound bombs and possible strafing but I'm not sure
In regards to time keeping on ships, in one of Jon Parshall's talks (either as a guest here or on another channel) he said that Japanese timekeeping was relatively straightforward as long as one keeps in mind that the logs of IJN vessels were recorded using Tokyo time regardless of where and in which timezone they were actually sailing. Iirc, this was said during his explanation of kodochoshos(sp?) and how those Japanese records from the carriers at Midway disprove the narrative that the decks were full of armed and fueled planes just about to take off when the American dive bombers attacked. Therefore in Japanese records, Midway took place on June 5th rather than June 4th.
Your analysis of the use of airborne mines is very interesting! But I think if there were a system that automatically deployed parachutes in real-time, this might be more effective instead of being easily avoided as you mentioned. #TheWeaponChroniclesX
Would it be interesting to make a video about the Norwegian Sleipner class destroyers? They were brand new when the second world war broke out, with the first two ships being commisioned in 1936. How did they stack up? "Sleipner" managed to escape to the UK after fighting in Norway and caused some alarm as she approached the Orkney islands (the Norwegian flag is really similar to the german naval pennant at the time) and she was clearly not a british destroyer. She spent the rest of the war escorting coastal convoys in the UK. "Æger" was destroyed by german bombers near Stavanger. "Gyller" and "Odin" were taken over by the germans as "Löwe" and "Panther" after limited fighting near Kristiansand and some wasted opportunities to torpedo german ships. "Löwe" was escorting "Wilhelm Gustloff" when the latter was sunk by a soviet submarine in January 1945. "Tor" and "Balder" were still fitting out in April 1940 and entered german service as "Tiger" and "Leopard". After the war they returned to the RNoN and were rebuilt as frigates.
Regarding British non-use of the B-bomb operationally ... I seem to recall that the Admiralty was very unhappy with the deployment of the bouncing bomb against enemy ships, on the logic that the RN had more ships to lose and once the concept had been demonstrated by the RAF, the Germans would copy the idea and the UK had more to lose as a consequence
11:00 You're looking for the term "sectional density" - a projectile with higher sectional density will retain velocity longer than one with a lower sectional density.
ballistic coefficient is the term that came to mind
Referring to the strafing attacks against both war and merchant/transports I would note that in the Pacific the B-25 medium bombers were originally field modified to remove the plexiglas bomb aimers position and replace it with up to 12 additional .50 cal machine guns. Added to the 2 standard .50 cal in the dorsal turret would result in 14 heavy machine guns each capable of ROF of 500-600 rounds per minute...a true buzz saw at mast high altitudes....and then you add skip bombing with 500 pounders.
As a child, I once read a warrie (a small, cheap comic book produced in the UK) about a Blackburn Skua which managed to sink a german destroyer by strafing it. Admittedly, the destroyer was badly damaged at the time and was tied up dockside, being kept afloat with the aid of a flotation tank. The Skua shot up the tank, which sank and took the destroyer with it.
A bit of a cheat really, but still an achievement when you only carry four .303 machine guns. 😉
1:08:56 That question just gave me the nightmare thought of the Germans trying to use the He-177 as a torpedo bomber (on top of everything else)
1:08:56 On the topic of large torpedo bombers... Italy designed and built the Piaggio P108 bomber that could carry 3 (three!) 450mm torpedoes. Only a limited number was built (less than 40) but it was a real design that entered service. For those who don't know the P108 is a 4-engined design, akin to a B-17 in size.
EDIT: They carried those torpedoes externally below the bomb bay.
Thanks Drach.
The strafing run on the destroyer. From personal experience, you have to remember every 5th round is a tracer. You times that by 6 M2 .50 cal machine guns. The effect is mind boggling. I've seen first hand what that amount of lead is like. You can't describe it. Only experience it. (from the sending side preferably)
In relation to dropping mines. Why not parachute dropping circling torpedoes, with a b24/b17 being able to drop several, have several bombers dropping a dozen or so all over the fleet could really create some fun and games.
48:51
It's worth noting that in 'Red Tails' the ship being sunk is a Renown-class battlecruiser.
oh dear. strafed by thunderbolts or p51? i not actually got around to watching it- you just put me off a bit...
Is that what it was? I'm not great at IDing things and never did manage to figure it out. I'd always hoped we might be able to pester Drach to look at it one day.
Why couldn't they have sunk the Ark Royal like everybody else?
The Redtails did sink a destroyer with machine gun fire, the gun footage exists. The Pilot was interviewed during a documentary where they show the footage. My Best Guess is the Germans were violating safety procedures while passing AA ammunition on deck and a lucky richochet went into the AA Magazine, and set off some ammunition, and the rest went off shortly afterwards. Even the pilot acknowledged that it wasn't a common event.
As to Kings leading fleets, it appears that it was more common in the Classical period. Notably, a number of the Diadochi kings led fleet actions against each other and third parties. Additionally, when the various “viking” kingdoms and petty kingdoms had naval battles it was common for their royals to make an appearance. Perhaps it became less common as ranged weaponry became a more dominant force in naval battles?
Ah yes, Sealion. Any invasion plan that could have all the troop transports sunk by a single destroyer that doesn't have to fire any weapons has issues.
The Avro Manchester twin-engined heavy bomber (from which the Lancaster was derived) was specifically designed with a long bomb bay in order to carry torpedoes, though as far as I know neither type was ever used in this role.
People often forget that many of those who joined the Home Guard in 1940 could well be in his early 40s
Wisely avoiding the question of what the Tuskegee airmen actually did or didn't do, to what, where, and how. As it appears to be more difficult than usual with air combat to figure out what the heck happened.
As a King, better to watch the battle from a throne on a cliff like Xerxes did in Salamina.
Question for Drachinifel regarding the strafing: The Yamato on her final voyage had all her anti-aircraft armament concentrated amidships because of the 18-inch blasts. The US attack waves commenced with strafing runs on these anti-aircraft positions to deplete them. I have heard somewhere that if the US aircraft had taken a few bombers armed with napalm (allegedly only available on the Jeep carriers) with them, they could have made short work of Yamatos anti-aircraft stations. Is there any truth to this or is it "just an internet fantasy"?
At Wake, F4F's did sink a destroyer, albeit with 100 pound bombs. They exploded near the depth charges.
on Sealion I also heartilt recommend Peter Schank
Are the actions from different flotillas and subs that were stationed at Malta a good subject for a special ? their dashes out of Valletta to sink Italo-/German supplyconvoys with info from Ultra were quite spectaculair and very usefull to the North-African front.
Cool: the bot comments are being scrubbed.
On the U.S. and French blockade question, the German High Seas Fleet and scouting Fleet might also be a problem. I think they might outnumber the US and France fleets
Would it have been effective for Germany to disregard the V-1 and V-2 projects and instead hasten development of guided anti- shipping munitions like the Fritz X to add a long- range air component to their submarine blockades? It seems like that compensates for their lack of aircraft carriers for long- range naval strikes and had a greater impact than the high-tech fires development they focused on IRL.
Obviously it'd still be at risk of planes but there weren't many at the time in question and the range and precision mean you'd need fewer planes to launch farther away from danger to succeed compared to the maritime bombing the Germans were ALREADY doing. I'm also not suggesting an anti-ship V1 or V2 but a glide bomb completed earlier, with the R&D from those projects instead spent on making better developments of anti- shipping weapons.
Long range air for the Atlantic was gonna be a problem even if they're launching fritz X from outside naval AA range because by mid 43 every convoy had it's own carrier with wildcats on it. So they're still not realistically doing naval strikes. Naval reconnaissance to direct the U-boats, maybe but by mid 43 that's not happening either unless you're doing it with something that can run away from competitive carrier fighters. If fritz X and a heavier maritime strike/reconnaissance emphasis happens sooner, escort carriers and more highly centralized convoys probably happen sooner and more intensely also.
Not only Russia as being the third Rome, bur Romania was very consciously named as the heirs of the Roman Empire and to this day a number of Romanian cities have statues of Romulus & Remus (and the wolf) in prominent places in their main squares.
.50 BMG was originally intended as an anti tank round in WWI. API had the ability to penetrate Japanese destroyer hull plating (20 to 30 mm mild steel), which would not do the ship all that much good.
00:13:01 thanks
The Swedish king Gustaf III commanded his fleet at the battle of Svensksund in 1790. I believe he was the last European king to led a fleet in battle.
I think another reason why covered slipways came back into vogue is that they're just plain nicer to work in, especially in places that have cold winters, a rainy season, generally inclement weather, or some combination of the three. It's nice to be out of the wind rain and snow and it's also nice for the yard owner since it means your workers are more productive during the days that weather springs up.
Also, they're easier to keep secret - another thing countries tend to worry more about nowadays.
Where there any smoothebore navalguns?
Given that Britannia was a roman province you could argue that greco-roman mythology is not "foreign". Certainly there were roman temples in Britain.
28:21 I think another element is also how land battles and sea battles developed separately. On land the kings ancestors would have fought in these battles back possibly hundreds of years of various scales and sizes, with a continuous unbroken generations of fighting. When you look at naval engagements they are often ad hoc, they wax and wain. Navies can appear and then disappear within one persons lifetime. You have entire naval traditions starting from the merchant class rather than the feudal system. Sinking from storms etc. Means you are constantly losing advisors and experienced personnel.
In major and comprehensive refits of older battleships (the Standards post Pearl Harbor, some of the Revenges, etc) that took place in at least the beginning of the age of the fast battleship, the ships in general didn't have much power (usually around 40,000 shp) to begin with. Why wasn't swapping the plant with something more powerful more common? I'd love to have seen an LS swapped Ramillies or Warspite or New Mexico.
Edit: this to be done on ships where the machinery was already well worn out, like Rodney. Also this has probably been answered somewhat with similar questions about the QEs, but thought I'd ask anyway.
Ships are not built the same as a car.
I always assumed the RN's predilection for names from mythology was because the “ruling classes” nearly all attended public schools where Greek and Latin were the staple subjects. The way the some of these names get twisted by the sailors is wonderful. Just two examples: "Billy Ruffian" for Beleraphon and I head a Scottish tug skipper calling up “Cherrybus” in thick fog off the Forth (he wanted HMS Charybdis).
During WW2 the British converted many older fleet destroyers for escort duties. These often retained a bank of torpedo tubes with the intention of using them to launch 1 ton depth charges. I have not yet found any evidence of the successful use of these, do you have any knowledge about their use and relative effectiveness compared to, say, a five or ten pattern of standard depth charges?
23:38 Geneva Checklist!
Cathedrals everywhere
no pinned post in chat by drach.
Rushed or not I see no reason for the upped tempo of the intro. It wasn't broken.
On level bombing, were small bombs ever used? A high number of small 50 pound HE might have a better chance of impact. Purely disruptive, anti-personnel or if hitting a aircraft carrier loaded with fuel and aircraft having a better chance of limiting air ops? Or, was it just 'we drop big bombs'?
In ancient time Rome, Egyptom, had the time wher ruler leading the fleet.
Surely dropping _magnetic mines_ would be more effective.
meh destroyers tend to not have armor, and be constructed of approx 3/8" steel. very easily penetrated by a 50BMG. the tracers you see bounce are because tracers are lighter, and dont penetrate things as well as fmj, or api. heck 30cals tend to punch holes in 3/8 mild steel.
England was a Roman Province for centuries, 'Septimus' is even today a fine old English name. There is nothing at all "foreign" about the Latin language in the context of England.
England and Wales
LOL Red Tails and Tuskegee Airmen. The Tyrone Defies Physics power fantasy of movies.
32nd, 9 February 2025
Wheres episode 333