There is a minor video glitch when the battle begins (I accidentally cut a sentence which should have been part of the video), but it shouldn't detract from the overall experience. Apologies! 🧾This video is not sponsored. If you enjoy my videos and want early access to my content, consider supporting House of History at www.patreon.com/HouseofHistory!
A video on a Young Erwin Rommel in WW1 during the battles of isonzo would be pretty cool and a rarely explored topic. He apparently captured or killed 9000 men with no more than 500 at any given time.
@@HowlingWolf518 indeed. The commander of Admiral Graf Spee Hans Langsdorff was in command of a torpedo boat flotilla before. So he had a tendecy to close range to much and not use the superior range of his guns.
It did in facts. On paper the Regia Marina, if we don't consider the lack of aircraft carriers, was better than the British Mediterranean Fleet but the initial engagements at the start of the war saw the Italian fleet always defeated even when it outnumbered the British. That's why the Italian resorted to keep the fleet in port and attack British Battleships in Alexandria port with naval special forces called MAS! They managed to sink 2 Battleship which were saved by the shallow seabed! So even this was unfortunate for the Italians in the end.
A little fun fact for you: There is a town in Ontario, Canada named after the Ajax. I grew up there, on a street called Exeter Rd. My best friend lived on Admiral Rd. One of the major roads is named after Commodore Harwood, and the other is named after Pay Bayly who was in charge of Camp X (spy stuff).
@@anti-Russia-sigma This town was named after the ship after the Battle of the River Plate. The crew of Ajax, Exeter, and Achilles are also named in the streets and so on.
My late father, HHJ Gardiner, was abroad Ajax in this battle, also the River plate and Matapan. He was in many more, including convoys to Malta and Russia. I am so very proud of him.
We hear and read a lot about the US Greatest Generation but don't think that the UK and it's empire was the Greatest Generation from 1939 onward. The USN didn't have the large sea battles that the RN had. Pearl Harbor, ABDA, Coral Sea, Midway, Savo Island, and the kamikaze attacks+ the Battle of the Atlantic were our biggest and deadliest.
I always admired sailors and the bravery it took to engage the enemy at sea, I had a greater admiration for the men who manned the Merchant Navy ships despite having no armament's themselves they risked their lives to make sure that Britain had supplies of food and materials to make weapons, the people who were alive during two world wars were made of sterner stuff than I.
The Mediterranean Theater of WWII is often underrated and not talked about enough. So I commend the guy who runs this channel in his efforts to let us all know what happened in this very important theater of the war.
The med wasn't the picnic that history, which is written by the victors made it out to be. While the Italian Regia Marina is often maligned and had very bad results in pitched battles, they had the highest arrival and survival rate of cargos vs any other navy as far as the entire war goes. Obviously if you take the allies survival rate the last few years of the war it is ecplised by the terrible results the first 3-4 years until victory was won agains the uboats but considering the Italians were on the losing side that is an impressive statistic. And while the RN won basically all of its naval force vs naval forced pitched battles, they had their hands full supplying the African campaign and Malta. The disappointing results on the field of battle for the Italians don't tell the whole story of what a struggle the fight for the Med really was.@@nathanielbugg7355
There was an australian captain CPT Waller who servedin the med. then took over HMAS Perth where he ran into a japanese battle fleet with only himself and two other ships. despite heroic efforts the Perth was sunk and Waller chose to go down with is ship. in his honor one of our current submarines is named after him HMAS Waller. These were brave, brave men. I 07 all the men lost at sea from all nations in that terrible period. Lest we forget!!
Alberto Banfi recovered from his wounds and was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor, the Italian equivalent of the Victoria Cross. He was promoted to commander, given command of the cruiser Pompeo Magno in 1943. After the war, he became the honorary president of the Italian Sailors' Association and was promoted to captain in 1953. He died of natural causes in 1958, at the age of 55.
@@lorizoliit also creates an important underlying motive for the captain to never give up, helping increase the chances of survival over all. Compare this to a cowardly captain that may abandon ship before it is necessary (or more importantly if it was not necessary) because he fears for his life.
Good old Ajax. In Wollongong, just up from North Gong Pub (North Wollongong Hotel), there are three streets in a group, named for Ajax, Exeter, and Achilles.
my great grandfather served on the HMNZS Achilles and had his leg blown off in a attack near Guadalcanal, made it home survived a house fire in which he lost his life savings hidden in the walls then when he was 62 he was struck by lighting while herding sheep into a shed during a storm, he lived till 98 the man was a machine and the unluckiest lucky man alive.
Overall a good naval documentary. It was never boring. I would have appreciated a brief summing-up of the ramifications of this battle - how it was received in Britain, and how it influenced subsequent events in World War II.
The Leander and Arethusa class cruisers often get overlooked but they really showed their worth in the Med. The battleships, carriers and bigger cruisers like the Town's get a lot of air-time, but the destroyers and light cruisers fought ever bit as hard and made their own major impact and contributions.
Absolutely agree with you. HMS Aurora, for example, caused so much trouble for the Italians, Mussolini himself referred to her as “The Silver Phantom”.
@@edwardhuggins84 It's very easy to look at them and conclude that were, in effect, 'six-inch heavies' from the perspective of rating cruisers by size in the (less political) pre-treaty manner. The Arethusas in particular come across as being 1930s equivalent 'third-class' cruisers, with the Towns and Counties as very much 'first-class' vessels; big and hugely battle-worthy. A fine debate can be had over where the others stand, using those old Victorian metrics applied to the later period.
Great to find this, my father was on board Ajax at the time. He was 16, he joined at 14 from collage. Hard to believe that would happen today! He mentioned it briefly, but not in detail. Thanks again.
Sounds like the Italians failed to coordinate their attack (admittedly difficult in the dark), engaged the the Ajax piecemeal and was defeated in detail.
Honestly even coordinated the Ajax had the squadron basically outgunned. Sure they'd have divided her fire but those larger guns Ajax had were more than capable or landing fatal blows with single hits and the destroyers 120mm guns were atleast partially insufficient to penetrate much of Ajax's armour, so they would have been very reliant on torpedoes to do the job which had the risk of putting them directly under Ajax's guns.
@@cgi2002 The italians had some good torpedoes in ww2 that had a range of 8-12km. a coordinated torpedo attack would likely deal with Ajax. But attacking piecemeal, one at a time gave Ajax the advantage of focusing all of its firepower on 1 or 2 ships at a time negating the italian number advantage.
@@sjonnieplayfull5859 and they shot only 7 torpedoes out of 17. also it was 3 torpedo boats vs light cruiser. if the 3 destroyers attacked it would be a different scenario imo
@@thesayxx saving torpedoes for a second volley is a choice. So is attacking before your entire force is ready. Failing to plan is planning to fail. The Allies often did the same. They could have decided to decrease speed so the others would catch up before they were in firing range. They could have altered course so they could fall on the Ajax when it encountered the others. They could have broken radio silence the second the torpedoes hit the water, so all others could get together in one formation again. They could have fired their torpedoes and made a 180. Instead they decided to trade broadsides with a bloody cruiser. Had they all been together, I doubt they would have been able to coordinate their efforts much better. Please be aware I am not trying to talk down the bravery of these men. If anything, they were too brave
Thanks, I like this format a lot; there are lots of videos on various subjects that use WWII B&W footage that is often SO incongruent with what the narrator is saying... Your animation and the photos hit the mark for me wonderfully. Keep up the good work, preserving WW2 history. Greetings from Poland!
I grew up and still live in Dunedin, NZ. Not far from I spent much of my first couple of decades was an Ajax St, Achilles St, Churchill St and Crete St. Very WW2.
An old work colleague Johnny Cairns, was a sailor on the Ajax during WW2. I worked with him for over 10 years and he never mentioned this.. It was my old boss, a nautical cove in the 'Merch', that told me of Johnny' exploits, long after he had retired.
Hey guys, what an amazing video!! I am currently researching my fathers service history and he was onboard this magnificent "tech enhanced" cruiser during this particular battle, from what I understand. You ask at the end of the video what viewers would like to see, and I would love to see more of your fantastic analysis, featuring battles in which the Ajax participated in during the Meditteranean campaign. My father would never speak of his time on the Ajax to anyone, and I believe that was maybe out of respect for those that didn't make it back from this particular battle...
Here's a topic for you.. Swordfish successes in 1940, exceptional. including the sinking of the French battlecruiser 'Dunkerque'. Here's another: "Flying over the port of Bomba Bay, between Tobruk and Benghazi, a group of three Swordfish from 813 Sqdn achieved great things. Capt Oliver Patch led the three aircraft, and one torpedo hit a submarine amidships, causing an explosion, and sinking it. The two other aircraft spotted another submarine, a destroyer and a depot ship in harbour. Lt Cheesman dropped his torpedo from 350 yards, hitting the depot ship. It also exploded, and set fire to the neighbouring destroyer. A second torpedo struck the depot ship, whose magazine exploded, destroying the submarine, too. Back at base operations staff disbelieved the crews’ claim to have blitzed four ships with only three torpedoes. Although the available Swordfish strike force in Malta never exceeded 27 planes, it succeeded in sinking an average of 50,000 tonnes of shipping every month for a period of nine months, with 98,000 being the highest achieved in one month."
Honestly in the history of warfare unguided torpedoes have something like a 1% hit rate (probably even lower tbh) when fired at an aware and actively evading target. Same is true with most naval weapons before computers, achieving hit rates of above 2-3% was exceptionally uncommon.
@@cgi2002the reason the Japanese naval artillery had so many faults is their opponents never stayed afloat long enough after the initial torpedo exchange for the gunners to get any practice. 😛
The city of Ajax Ontario Canada was named after this ship . It was to honour her involvement in the Graf Spee Incident 1939 . Also many streets are named after the Admiral & men who were serving at that time .
Good video, thank you! Like some other of your viewers, I too live in her namesake town in Canada. While I have been generally aware of the history, your video adds knowledge and pride.
It is usually the IJN that gets all the night fighting honour because they had a couple of lucky nights vs a novice US Navy at Guadalcanal. But the real night fighting specialists were the RN who persistently showed this in the Med. Not just with surface forces but also with carrier based aircraft. Taranto was carried out at night and by early 42 the FAA had reliable airborne radar.
@@gregorturner9421 I'm not in doubt - the RN by far. The RN had been focussed on night operations since Jutland and had the fundamentals in place way before radar became reliable. A study into Mediterranean and North Atlantic operations will reveal the high efficiency of the RN at night. The real wolfpacks of WWII were RN surface ships operating at night! In the North Atlantic mainly on surface (lousy flying weather), but in the Med from the air as well. The IJN initially copied just about anything the RN did, incl night operations, but apparently never got far into night air operations, and when radar weighed in (41/42) the RN definately was way ahead. And yes, I know the RN didn't have the Long Lance torpedo, but that weapon IMHO was much overestimated and never got a chance to "shine" again 42. It had its day (or rather night) vs a rookie USN overconfident on early radar and in relatively confined waters. But the USN learned fast and never got caught again. At Surigao Strait in 1944 it was a "blind" IJN squadron being blown out of the water by radar guided gunfire from USN ships. In 1945 British destroyers sank a IJN heavy cruiser in a wolfpack like night action in the Mallaca Strait.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was because they learned from the RN after the attack on Taranto in the Med. Against the Italian navy, a devastating attack.
This loss was a significant blow to the Regia Marina. They did everything by the book and their men were among the best in the RM, but the book was not very good and they were just not very good fighting at night. They had 12 torpedoes but fired only 7, lacked coordination and attacked piecemeal, had poor torpedo boat tactics and poor air surveillance, further poor coordination with contacting larger ships, and Ajax was "knocking down ducks in a gallery". Ajax had radar yes, but they were only for aircraft detection, and she used good old star shells, searchlights, and incendiary shells.
This isn't accurate they were not among the best in the RM. The loss was not good, however it was not in any way a significant blow. The book was fine as presenting one at a time was not by the book. They were strung out not realising they were close to an engagement, because of the conditions and Ajax sprung a trap her captain had set. They didn't have poor air surveillance, they had the same air surveillance as any destroyer squadron would, which is none. Not to mention this was at night and the Royal Navy was the only Navy on earth with the capability to launch and recover at night from ships. Ajax had surface Radar, star shells were used at Matapan and the Battle of the North Cape both fights heavily used Radar. Star shells are useful for Radar engagements, you can see Shell splashes and Co-ordinate aim, and specifically at this point in the war you couldn't use Radar directed fire, you used Radar to get the jump on the enemy. The night fighting capability of the Royal Navy was the best in the world, they were also the best trained in day as well. The Rega Marina's frogmen were well ahead of the rest of the world and the crews on their ships were well trained just not to the level of the RN.
@@Alex-cw3rz Ajax carried the Type 279 radar which was only used as an air warning radar at that point in time (October 1940). Ajax received her surface warning radar during her July-September 1942 refit when she received the Type 272 radar. The Type 279 also does not control guns, which on Ajax during this battle were aimed visually. The claim that the Type 279 had any effect on the battle comes from a few post-war analyses e.g. Bragadin (1957) that came to the wrong conclusions using 1941+ use of the Type 279M to describe a 1940 action. With home advantage, there should have been air support from the RA (X. Fliegerkorps only arriving later in December 1940). There was no trap, Ajax was backlit by moonlight while the 1 TB flotilla were shrouded in darkness - Ajax did not even notice a 3rd TB coming for her as she engaged the first 2, and later broke engagement when she believed she saw 2 cruisers, a mistake she wouldn't have made if she had proper radar. Italian TBs and DDs were also trained in night actions, it was the larger vessels which did not have the sufficient training. TB and DD crews were also considered elite units in the RM (Lucky Lupo at the top of the list).
*British ship.sorry.this bugs me no end.i guarantee u there was brave Scottish&welsh men on the ship.founder of the SAS Scottish.men who fought the zulus in Michael caine film in real life were mostly welsh.hollywood great escape movie=entirely British.cracked enigma code=British.
My maternal grandfather HWP Gandy was Chief Petty Officer (Signals) on Ajax throughout this period having joined RN in 1915. He worked for Post Office telephones from age 50 after leaving RN and died aged 90. A lovely man... such a great sense of humour and a brilliant musician.❤😅
@@tigerland4328 the British could handle the Kriegsmarine and the Italian navy. Not the Japanese. The Japanese probably had the best navy in the world up until the disaster at midway. And even then, it wasn’t until the massive USN ship building program started churning out the Essex class carriers, some laid down pre-war, and the stop-gap CVL’s, that they were definitively overtaken.
@@randallturner9094 the Royal navy had a superior number of every ship type apart from aircraft carriers in 1939. Also the British and Japanese are considered the two best navies at night fighting in ww2. The Royal navy could absolutely defeat the imperial Japanese navy one on one it's just this never actually happened in ww2. Remember even after 5 years of constant fighting and considerable losses the Royal navy still managed to deploy a massive fleet to the Pacific in 1944/45. In contrast After two and a half years of fighting The Japanese fleet was largely a spent force by 1944
@@tigerland4328 well, it’s a shame that aircraft carriers, with their associated air wings, were the only class that mattered. And, no. If the RN ever met the Kido Butai they’d have been dispatched straight away. Sorry, but even in 1942 the RN wasn’t in the top two.
@@Colonel_Blimp Indeed!! The Battle of the River Plate was in deep water, some 50 miles East of there! Harwood's plan was simple - engage and do as much damage - or sink - the Graf Spee. He had the element of surprise and was aided by misidentification on the Graf Spee's part. Her captain had thought that was confronted was two destroyers and a heavy or light cruiser. Two light cruisers and a heavy cruiser. A fair force that could take on the Pocket Battleship. The Cumberland was at the Falklands having boilers checked and minor repairs done but her Captain immediately got her crew to get the ship sorted out and one day after recieving the news that the cruiser squadron was in action, set sail from the Falklands and made for the River Plate and Montedevideo! Her arrival was unexpected but welcome on the 15/16th December of 1939. On reply from HMS Ajax. She sent this! A N T I C I P A T I O N ! Plain language, but welcome plain language!
AJAX (ΑΙΑΝΤΑΣ) Ajax, in Greek legend, son of Telamon, king of Salamis, described in the Iliad as being of great stature and colossal frame, second only to the Greek hero Achilles in strength and bravery. In Italian Ajax means "enjoy the pizza it's your last one".
My Dad who was in the army was stationed Trieste after the war and we joined him there and I remember going on HMS Ajax to a children’s party they put on for all the service children in that area
Paddy Riley from Scotland Road Liverpool was on the Ajax as a teenage ABS , a gunner . Just kid really , was there at the River Plate . Amazing story . I'm proud of him and his mates 👏
Constructive feedback: The artificial 'noise' (white speckles) added to the still photos is very distracting. I think the images would be better without it entirely.
Wow ive watched a lot of naval battles but this one was just crazy. amazing she managed to dodge all those torpedos. it could have been just boatloads of inexperience though i guess. interesting video none the less.
Thank you, A very interesting piece of maritime history, As it happens my second cousin was aboard the Ajax at the time as a Royal Marine gunner. He missed out on the Battle of the River Plate only joining Ajax in March, 1940. However, he saw many scrap in the sea war in the Mediterranean. He is remembered in the Canadian town of Ajax by having a street named after him, although at the time it was meant for men serving at the time of the Battle of the River Plate. Some error occurred with the date of his joining Ajax.
Don't know if you want an opinion, but the sparkly white blobs you put over B&W photographs to make them look news-reelish are a distracting waste of time and effort. Fine otherwise.
HMS Ajax had another moment of glory on June 6th 1944, when a German pillbox singled Ajax out for several shots from it's large calibre gun. A duel ensued, with Ajax and the pillbox exchanging shots, until one salvo from Ajax landed a shot right through the opening on the pillbox, where the gun was. Luckily, this occurred while the Germans were using the hydraulic lift inside the pillbox, to bring more ammunition up from the store underneath the pillbox. The resulting explosion blew the 3 foot thick reinforced roof of the pillbox quite some distance away, and the breech of the gun was afterwards found to be like an exploding cigar.. No trace of the crew of the gun were ever found....
It's a great level detail and I really like it. What would make it way better is synchronization between audio and animation as it seems to be lagging about ten seconds behind.
Unfortunately something went wrong during my editing, and the battle isn't fully in sync. It's a frustrating mistake and the first time something like this happened in over 200 videos. I caught it too late, which is a shame because of the time and effort put in the video, but also the overall enjoyment. My apologies.
Reminds me of a tabletop wargame I played that was part of a 'what if?' scenario. Anyway, it was HMS Warspite, all alone, surrounded by 8 Japanese cruisers at night. The Japanese went with torpedoes for their attacks, which proved to be a big mistake. Not only did Warspite somehow rule with the die throws and avoid the waves of torpedoes but she managed to blow the cruisers out of the water one by one. Icing on the cake was that two of the crippled cruisers were finished off by their own side's torpedoes having missed Warspite just carrying on and hitting their own ships. Warspite's tabletop legend began that day.
"The Italians make good waiters, they love to wait and wait But now it seems they've got themselves a navy, sad to state So the captain of the Ajax left them tuppence on the plate" Wartime Music-Hall song "You Can't Take The Breed From The British"
It really is unbelievable how one light cruiser could inflict such losses and damage on a whole flotilla of enemy ships. Were the Italians so poorly trained they could not offer a coordinated attack on Ajax? Not to mention the shear bravery of Ajax.
Er, no, that is the point of a cruiser, it should always be able to destroy small ships. That they attacked is a good sign of Italian motivation, but it sounds like they were not trained and operated sufficiently well to let their numbers and speed have some effect. A cruiser with good leadership and training, and ammo, should have had little trouble dealing with smaller ships, but there are plenty of examples where that was not the case, and a cruiser was sunk - for example, the Graf Spee, did everything wrong and got sunk (damaged sufficiently) by three smaller cruisers.
Well in naval engagement tecnology and luck had always had an important role. But mainly the problem with italian navvy, an historical problem, is it's rampaging nepotism. So we could have great crews, coming from an hardy seamanship tradition, and some amazing capitans (like Fecia di Cossato or Valerio Borghese), but usually the case would be of promotion for seniority and connection, rather than merits or potential...
@@AndreaGiumetti yes, but that was a problem in the Church, the British aristocracy/army, and many other great organisations. I am preparing a book about the successes of the Italian armed forces, and the propaganda that erased them from history, so I will investigate Fecia and Valerio. Thanks for mentioning them. Please remember also the British disasters, caused by idiotic RN officers - I was just studying the sinking of HMS Glorious, a classic case of British idiocy. There doesn't even seem to be any question of nepotism, just stupidity. War is good at ridding the world of incompetence. Your name is almost Greek - another great seafaring nation.
@@helloxyz well yes, that is true endeed. We had great example of military, and human, valour, and it's really a shame that after-war propaganda worked to delete the memory of those incredibile man who gave their lives, in most cases, not for Mussolini but for Italy. But trust me, political leverage in Italy was, and is, truly a desastrous element... There are really multiple istances that could be reported as such, from the very foundation of the nation. B.t.w. if you are interested in great italian military figures erased, or put out the lights by the mainstream, you should also search for general Giovanni Messe defence in Tunis, and above all Amedeo Guillet anti-british guerrilla in Eritrea
@helloxyz thanks for a generally good comment, however the Graf Spee was well handled, but the British and New Zealand ships that fought her were handled even better. Also the British managed to fool the Germans into thinking a whole squadron of Battleship, aircraft carrier etc was waiting for them outside Montevideo. The gallant German captain scuttled Graf Spee rather than needlessly throw away the lives of his crew, a genuine hero. The British, New Zealand etc allies had practised fighting a pocket battleship prior to WW11 and their excellent seamanship, leadership along with tactics to play to their their advantages won the battle against Graf Spee.
You did such a great job with the Italian ship names that it hit me like a battering ram when you referred to the "Graf Spee" (rhyming with "she") instead of the correct German pronunciation of "Grahf Shpay".
The Japanese at Guadalcanal had a different take on it. Different night fighting doctrine and longer ranged torpedoes played a part together with some US naivety from the commanders.
Our Anglican minister used to fly Barracudas in the war. He was known to be a wild man when driving on the road. Takes a certain type of person. Rev. Kirkby NZ
Good story and video. Just one minor point to enhance the presentation further. I'm no language expert myself but I've found that if you go into Google Translate, pick the language (e.g., Italian), enter the word or name and then click on the loudspeaker icon, you find out how the name of the ship is pronounced (e.g., Alcione is "Al Choni."). Eliminates the guesswork for us English speakers. 🤓
Why the artificial splatter on the negatives and film. I spent part of my career eradicating scrapes and blots so why put them on. Use or refuse stock but please don’t deminish it!
My city is named after this ship and my street named after Admiral Woodhouse her commander during the battle of the river Plate - the first naval battle of the 2nd WW. 🙂
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about () naval battle between Italian navy and British naval forces...what was notable MHS Ajax minnuvoraity was too bravery and its aimed of projectiles was more accurate...thank you 🙏 ( house of history) channel for sharing
My Step father was in the merchant navy (he joined at 15 year's of age) & when in 1939 war broke out he half way across the world,he joined the royal navy And was part of the Battle of Tobruk he & another fellow had to blow up a huge petrol dump (note:this was in the film later made about the Siege of Tobruk) he told many stories of his time in the war...he was 97 when he passed 😢 still miss him
There is a minor video glitch when the battle begins (I accidentally cut a sentence which should have been part of the video), but it shouldn't detract from the overall experience. Apologies!
🧾This video is not sponsored. If you enjoy my videos and want early access to my content, consider supporting House of History at www.patreon.com/HouseofHistory!
Love your content! Keep up the good work
Like to see a video of the Naval Campaign of Guadalcanal.
A video on a Young Erwin Rommel in WW1 during the battles of isonzo would be pretty cool and a rarely explored topic. He apparently captured or killed 9000 men with no more than 500 at any given time.
Could you please lose the sparkly overlay on the old photos. That really does detract from the overall experience.
Why not reupload?
This is one of those 'I'm not locked here with you, you're locked here with me' moments. HMS Ajax has quite a history.
Crikey, Ajax went on a rampage there. She channelled her inner Warspite and unleashed hell.
I'd say she lived up to her name 🙂
She'd already survived a knife fight with Graf Spee - this was a cakewalk by comparison.
Italian Squadron: Surrender English ship we have you outnumbered
Ajax: come and have a go if you think you're hard enough old chap
@@HowlingWolf518 indeed. The commander of Admiral Graf Spee Hans Langsdorff was in command of a torpedo boat flotilla before.
So he had a tendecy to close range to much and not use the superior range of his guns.
or
Ajax : i likr those odds@@Lankygit01
Losing that many ships against a single opponent would have probably left lasting psychological impact.
Yep. So they organized series of events with HR department and deployed feedback culture.
It did in facts. On paper the Regia Marina, if we don't consider the lack of aircraft carriers, was better than the British Mediterranean Fleet but the initial engagements at the start of the war saw the Italian fleet always defeated even when it outnumbered the British. That's why the Italian resorted to keep the fleet in port and attack British Battleships in Alexandria port with naval special forces called MAS!
They managed to sink 2 Battleship which were saved by the shallow seabed! So even this was unfortunate for the Italians in the end.
Not on the Italian Navy. They were used to it. One forward speed and 5 reverse.
@@calogerosalvaggio1075wrong, the reason the Regia Marina kept most of their ships in ports is because they drastically lacked fuel
@@artful1967 We are trying to have an useful exchange here. Your joke is out of place and disrespectful to the fallen sailors.
A little fun fact for you:
There is a town in Ontario, Canada named after the Ajax. I grew up there, on a street called Exeter Rd. My best friend lived on Admiral Rd. One of the major roads is named after Commodore Harwood, and the other is named after Pay Bayly who was in charge of Camp X (spy stuff).
Hello from London!
I grew up and still live on Kings crescent
The town could’ve been named after a person.An Ancient Greek,if I’m right.
Know the Town well.
@@anti-Russia-sigma This town was named after the ship after the Battle of the River Plate. The crew of Ajax, Exeter, and Achilles are also named in the streets and so on.
My late father, HHJ Gardiner, was abroad Ajax in this battle, also the River plate and Matapan. He was in many more, including convoys to Malta and Russia. I am so very proud of him.
As you should be. Respect and thanks to your dad.
Your dad and those that fought the Nazis and their allies are heroes without them we would be enslaved, Respect to your father
We hear and read a lot about the US Greatest Generation but don't think that the UK and it's empire was the Greatest Generation from 1939 onward.
The USN didn't have the large sea battles that the RN had. Pearl Harbor, ABDA, Coral Sea, Midway, Savo Island, and the kamikaze attacks+ the Battle of the Atlantic were our biggest and deadliest.
I always admired sailors and the bravery it took to engage the enemy at sea, I had a greater admiration for the men who manned the Merchant Navy ships despite having no armament's themselves they risked their lives to make sure that Britain had supplies of food and materials to make weapons, the people who were alive during two world wars were made of sterner stuff than I.
My grandfather Albert Nichols also served on Ajax at the same time.
The Mediterranean Theater of WWII is often underrated and not talked about enough. So I commend the guy who runs this channel in his efforts to let us all know what happened in this very important theater of the war.
Definitely
My Grandfather served on the HMS Nelson in that theatre. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to express my pride in him.
@@metalmorgan---your welcome
Oh dear, another RUclips 'underrated' jockey. Will this lazy nonsense ever end? 🙁
The med wasn't the picnic that history, which is written by the victors made it out to be. While the Italian Regia Marina is often maligned and had very bad results in pitched battles, they had the highest arrival and survival rate of cargos vs any other navy as far as the entire war goes. Obviously if you take the allies survival rate the last few years of the war it is ecplised by the terrible results the first 3-4 years until victory was won agains the uboats but considering the Italians were on the losing side that is an impressive statistic. And while the RN won basically all of its naval force vs naval forced pitched battles, they had their hands full supplying the African campaign and Malta. The disappointing results on the field of battle for the Italians don't tell the whole story of what a struggle the fight for the Med really was.@@nathanielbugg7355
Great you've covered this battle, barely ever gets attention and Ajax's feat gets forgotten
Lt Banfi, you were brought back in spite of your sacrifice, the world still needed you. Solid job manning your post until the end.
There was an australian captain CPT Waller who servedin the med. then took over HMAS Perth where he ran into a japanese battle fleet with only himself and two other ships. despite heroic efforts the Perth was sunk and Waller chose to go down with is ship. in his honor one of our current submarines is named after him HMAS Waller. These were brave, brave men. I 07 all the men lost at sea from all nations in that terrible period. Lest we forget!!
Alberto Banfi recovered from his wounds and was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor, the Italian equivalent of the Victoria Cross. He was promoted to commander, given command of the cruiser Pompeo Magno in 1943. After the war, he became the honorary president of the Italian Sailors' Association and was promoted to captain in 1953. He died of natural causes in 1958, at the age of 55.
I don't really get who does such sacrifice help or serve. If it is hiding from shame then, it's downright dishonourable.
@@lorizolifrom what i understand, not everyone could be rescued from the ship so he chose to stay behind in solidarity
@@lorizoliit also creates an important underlying motive for the captain to never give up, helping increase the chances of survival over all.
Compare this to a cowardly captain that may abandon ship before it is necessary (or more importantly if it was not necessary) because he fears for his life.
Good old Ajax. In Wollongong, just up from North Gong Pub (North Wollongong Hotel), there are three streets in a group, named for Ajax, Exeter, and Achilles.
my great grandfather served on the HMNZS Achilles and had his leg blown off in a attack near Guadalcanal, made it home survived a house fire in which he lost his life savings hidden in the walls then when he was 62 he was struck by lighting while herding sheep into a shed during a storm, he lived till 98 the man was a machine and the unluckiest lucky man alive.
@@ITSaPendragon I would give you a like but you're at 13 likes, which I think is perfect under the circumstances.
Is there a Warspite street anywhere I wonder?
@@lynby6231 Not in the Illawarra, but there is a Warspite Ave. in Wellington, NZ.
Overall a good naval documentary. It was never boring. I would have appreciated a brief summing-up of the ramifications of this battle - how it was received in Britain, and how it influenced subsequent events in World War II.
The Leander and Arethusa class cruisers often get overlooked but they really showed their worth in the Med. The battleships, carriers and bigger cruisers like the Town's get a lot of air-time, but the destroyers and light cruisers fought ever bit as hard and made their own major impact and contributions.
The Town class where light cruisers, but I get what you are saying and fully agree.
Light crusers abd destroyers are the argubaly morebimportend surface ships simply because they had a ton of them
Absolutely agree with you. HMS Aurora, for example, caused so much trouble for the Italians, Mussolini himself referred to her as “The Silver Phantom”.
@@edwardhuggins84 It's very easy to look at them and conclude that were, in effect, 'six-inch heavies' from the perspective of rating cruisers by size in the (less political) pre-treaty manner. The Arethusas in particular come across as being 1930s equivalent 'third-class' cruisers, with the Towns and Counties as very much 'first-class' vessels; big and hugely battle-worthy. A fine debate can be had over where the others stand, using those old Victorian metrics applied to the later period.
Very very true. Battleships get the glory, but the cruiser and destroyer were the core of the Royal Navy.
Great to find this, my father was on board Ajax at the time. He was 16, he joined at 14 from collage. Hard to believe that would happen today! He mentioned it briefly, but not in detail. Thanks again.
My father also served on; the Ajax, he joined the merchant Navy at 13 then on to the RN
Another well made video. I like the fact that you select less well known battles and engagements and expand upon those. Thank you.
Sounds like the Italians failed to coordinate their attack (admittedly difficult in the dark), engaged the the Ajax piecemeal and was defeated in detail.
Honestly even coordinated the Ajax had the squadron basically outgunned. Sure they'd have divided her fire but those larger guns Ajax had were more than capable or landing fatal blows with single hits and the destroyers 120mm guns were atleast partially insufficient to penetrate much of Ajax's armour, so they would have been very reliant on torpedoes to do the job which had the risk of putting them directly under Ajax's guns.
@@cgi2002 The italians had some good torpedoes in ww2 that had a range of 8-12km. a coordinated torpedo attack would likely deal with Ajax. But attacking piecemeal, one at a time gave Ajax the advantage of focusing all of its firepower on 1 or 2 ships at a time negating the italian number advantage.
@@thesayxxwell, they did attack with three at one at the start, and one was not even noticed before firing their torpedoes
@@sjonnieplayfull5859 and they shot only 7 torpedoes out of 17. also it was 3 torpedo boats vs light cruiser. if the 3 destroyers attacked it would be a different scenario imo
@@thesayxx saving torpedoes for a second volley is a choice. So is attacking before your entire force is ready. Failing to plan is planning to fail. The Allies often did the same. They could have decided to decrease speed so the others would catch up before they were in firing range. They could have altered course so they could fall on the Ajax when it encountered the others. They could have broken radio silence the second the torpedoes hit the water, so all others could get together in one formation again. They could have fired their torpedoes and made a 180.
Instead they decided to trade broadsides with a bloody cruiser.
Had they all been together, I doubt they would have been able to coordinate their efforts much better.
Please be aware I am not trying to talk down the bravery of these men. If anything, they were too brave
0:59 The Fairey Barracuda is a Torpedobpmber from 1943.
In 1940, Fairey Swordfish and Albacore were in action in the Mediterranean.
Yes! Where’s the String Bag?
You know what they say, 'never let the facts get in the way.....'
Thanks, I like this format a lot; there are lots of videos on various subjects that use WWII B&W footage that is often SO incongruent with what the narrator is saying... Your animation and the photos hit the mark for me wonderfully. Keep up the good work, preserving WW2 history. Greetings from Poland!
Thank you!
"im not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me!" - Ajax CO... probably
I grew up and still live in Dunedin, NZ. Not far from I spent much of my first couple of decades was an Ajax St, Achilles St, Churchill St and Crete St. Very WW2.
An old work colleague Johnny Cairns, was a sailor on the Ajax during WW2. I worked with him for over 10 years and he never mentioned this.. It was my old boss, a nautical cove in the 'Merch', that told me of Johnny' exploits, long after he had retired.
As an Australian, the fight between light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni would be worth looking at…
I created a video about the battle of cape Spada 2 weeks ago! Let me know what you think.
Hey guys, what an amazing video!! I am currently researching my fathers service history and he was onboard this magnificent "tech enhanced" cruiser during this particular battle, from what I understand. You ask at the end of the video what viewers would like to see, and I would love to see more of your fantastic analysis, featuring battles in which the Ajax participated in during the Meditteranean campaign.
My father would never speak of his time on the Ajax to anyone, and I believe that was maybe out of respect for those that didn't make it back from this particular battle...
Here's a topic for you.. Swordfish successes in 1940, exceptional. including the sinking of the French battlecruiser 'Dunkerque'. Here's another:
"Flying over the port of Bomba Bay, between Tobruk and Benghazi, a group of three Swordfish from 813 Sqdn achieved great things. Capt Oliver Patch led the three aircraft, and one torpedo hit a submarine amidships, causing an explosion, and sinking it. The two other aircraft spotted another submarine, a destroyer and a depot ship in harbour. Lt Cheesman dropped his torpedo from 350 yards, hitting the depot ship. It also exploded, and set fire to the neighbouring destroyer. A second torpedo struck the depot ship, whose magazine exploded, destroying the submarine, too.
Back at base operations staff disbelieved the crews’ claim to have blitzed four ships with only three torpedoes. Although the available Swordfish strike force in Malta never exceeded 27 planes, it succeeded in sinking an average of 50,000 tonnes of shipping every month for a period of nine months, with 98,000 being the highest achieved in one month."
Second this, the swordfish was arguably one if the most useful planes of the war
Torpedo biplanes
@@colonelturmeric558 The swordfish while utterly outdated punched ridiculously above its weight.
When your main task is to do torpedo warfare, and you dont hit a thing.. stormtrooper mode!
Except that the Italians weren't told to miss and let Ajax escape.
😂
Honestly in the history of warfare unguided torpedoes have something like a 1% hit rate (probably even lower tbh) when fired at an aware and actively evading target. Same is true with most naval weapons before computers, achieving hit rates of above 2-3% was exceptionally uncommon.
@@cgi2002the reason the Japanese naval artillery had so many faults is their opponents never stayed afloat long enough after the initial torpedo exchange for the gunners to get any practice. 😛
The city of Ajax Ontario Canada was named after this ship . It was to honour her involvement in the Graf Spee Incident 1939 . Also many streets are named after the Admiral & men who were serving at that time .
Ajax, Ontario produced shells during WW2 in one of the largest munitions plants in the Commonwealth.
Nobody crossed the English channel unopposed in those days.
Britain should always be proud of our Royal Navy. It has a tremendous history,nothing to be ashamed of.
Good video, thank you!
Like some other of your viewers, I too live in her namesake town in Canada.
While I have been generally aware of the history, your video adds knowledge and pride.
Thanks for sharing!
Much awaited, much appreciated excellent insights as always from you.
It is usually the IJN that gets all the night fighting honour because they had a couple of lucky nights vs a novice US Navy at Guadalcanal. But the real night fighting specialists were the RN who persistently showed this in the Med. Not just with surface forces but also with carrier based aircraft. Taranto was carried out at night and by early 42 the FAA had reliable airborne radar.
many historians have drooled over who would have been better in a night fight the RN or the IJN which sadly never came to fruition.
@@gregorturner9421 I'm not in doubt - the RN by far. The RN had been focussed on night operations since Jutland and had the fundamentals in place way before radar became reliable. A study into Mediterranean and North Atlantic operations will reveal the high efficiency of the RN at night. The real wolfpacks of WWII were RN surface ships operating at night! In the North Atlantic mainly on surface (lousy flying weather), but in the Med from the air as well. The IJN initially copied just about anything the RN did, incl night operations, but apparently never got far into night air operations, and when radar weighed in (41/42) the RN definately was way ahead. And yes, I know the RN didn't have the Long Lance torpedo, but that weapon IMHO was much overestimated and never got a chance to "shine" again 42. It had its day (or rather night) vs a rookie USN overconfident on early radar and in relatively confined waters. But the USN learned fast and never got caught again. At Surigao Strait in 1944 it was a "blind" IJN squadron being blown out of the water by radar guided gunfire from USN ships. In 1945 British destroyers sank a IJN heavy cruiser in a wolfpack like night action in the Mallaca Strait.
@@gregorturner9421 fortunately for the RN. they missed the Kido Butai during their Indian Ocean raid. Long lances would have been deadly.
@@gregorturner9421 The answer is very explicitly the Royal Navy on account of the fact that they had widespread radar whilst the Japanese didn't
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was because they learned from the RN after the attack on Taranto in the Med. Against the Italian navy, a devastating attack.
This loss was a significant blow to the Regia Marina. They did everything by the book and their men were among the best in the RM, but the book was not very good and they were just not very good fighting at night. They had 12 torpedoes but fired only 7, lacked coordination and attacked piecemeal, had poor torpedo boat tactics and poor air surveillance, further poor coordination with contacting larger ships, and Ajax was "knocking down ducks in a gallery". Ajax had radar yes, but they were only for aircraft detection, and she used good old star shells, searchlights, and incendiary shells.
This isn't accurate they were not among the best in the RM. The loss was not good, however it was not in any way a significant blow. The book was fine as presenting one at a time was not by the book. They were strung out not realising they were close to an engagement, because of the conditions and Ajax sprung a trap her captain had set. They didn't have poor air surveillance, they had the same air surveillance as any destroyer squadron would, which is none. Not to mention this was at night and the Royal Navy was the only Navy on earth with the capability to launch and recover at night from ships. Ajax had surface Radar, star shells were used at Matapan and the Battle of the North Cape both fights heavily used Radar. Star shells are useful for Radar engagements, you can see Shell splashes and Co-ordinate aim, and specifically at this point in the war you couldn't use Radar directed fire, you used Radar to get the jump on the enemy. The night fighting capability of the Royal Navy was the best in the world, they were also the best trained in day as well. The Rega Marina's frogmen were well ahead of the rest of the world and the crews on their ships were well trained just not to the level of the RN.
@@Alex-cw3rz Ajax carried the Type 279 radar which was only used as an air warning radar at that point in time (October 1940). Ajax received her surface warning radar during her July-September 1942 refit when she received the Type 272 radar. The Type 279 also does not control guns, which on Ajax during this battle were aimed visually. The claim that the Type 279 had any effect on the battle comes from a few post-war analyses e.g. Bragadin (1957) that came to the wrong conclusions using 1941+ use of the Type 279M to describe a 1940 action.
With home advantage, there should have been air support from the RA (X. Fliegerkorps only arriving later in December 1940). There was no trap, Ajax was backlit by moonlight while the 1 TB flotilla were shrouded in darkness - Ajax did not even notice a 3rd TB coming for her as she engaged the first 2, and later broke engagement when she believed she saw 2 cruisers, a mistake she wouldn't have made if she had proper radar. Italian TBs and DDs were also trained in night actions, it was the larger vessels which did not have the sufficient training. TB and DD crews were also considered elite units in the RM (Lucky Lupo at the top of the list).
Italian Squadron: Surrender English ship we have you outnumbered
Ajax: come and have a go if you think you're hard enough old chap
*British ship.sorry.this bugs me no end.i guarantee u there was brave Scottish&welsh men on the ship.founder of the SAS Scottish.men who fought the zulus in Michael caine film in real life were mostly welsh.hollywood great escape movie=entirely British.cracked enigma code=British.
My maternal grandfather HWP Gandy was Chief Petty Officer (Signals) on Ajax throughout this period having joined RN in 1915. He worked for Post Office telephones from age 50 after leaving RN and died aged 90. A lovely man... such a great sense of humour and a brilliant musician.❤😅
Love this well done.
Tbe British empire were the largest contribution to ww2. Its good to see some more information about all they did.
Yes, we fought the Nazi's from day 1 to the end. At times, we were the only ones in the fight.
@@stephenclark9917Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and countless more: 😐
@@gloverfox9135 they were British.
@@Leftistsareevil tell a Canadian or Australian that and you’ll get a very different response.
I love the graphics and story, you bring the encounter into focus and I enjoyed it very much!
The Royal Navy wasn't really ready for war. But managed to deal with the Kraigsmarine, Marina militare and Vichy French Navies pretty well.
Which navy was ready for war then?
@@luisangelgonzalezmunoz7071 the IJN 🙂
@@tigerland4328 the British could handle the Kriegsmarine and the Italian navy. Not the Japanese. The Japanese probably had the best navy in the world up until the disaster at midway. And even then, it wasn’t until the massive USN ship building program started churning out the Essex class carriers, some laid down pre-war, and the stop-gap CVL’s, that they were definitively overtaken.
@@randallturner9094 the Royal navy had a superior number of every ship type apart from aircraft carriers in 1939. Also the British and Japanese are considered the two best navies at night fighting in ww2. The Royal navy could absolutely defeat the imperial Japanese navy one on one it's just this never actually happened in ww2. Remember even after 5 years of constant fighting and considerable losses the Royal navy still managed to deploy a massive fleet to the Pacific in 1944/45. In contrast After two and a half years of fighting The Japanese fleet was largely a spent force by 1944
@@tigerland4328 well, it’s a shame that aircraft carriers, with their associated air wings, were the only class that mattered. And, no. If the RN ever met the Kido Butai they’d have been dispatched straight away. Sorry, but even in 1942 the RN wasn’t in the top two.
You gotta hand it to the Italians they never gave up . Great work from the channel respecting such bravery on all sides
Forgot one other 8" Cruiser. HMS Cumberland. She replaced the Exeter after she was very badly damaged in the engagement.
You are thinking of the battle of River Plate.
@@Colonel_Blimp Indeed!! The Battle of the River Plate was in deep water, some 50 miles East of there! Harwood's plan was simple - engage and do as much damage - or sink - the Graf Spee. He had the element of surprise and was aided by misidentification on the Graf Spee's part. Her captain had thought that was confronted was two destroyers and a heavy or light cruiser. Two light cruisers and a heavy cruiser. A fair force that could take on the Pocket Battleship. The Cumberland was at the Falklands having boilers checked and minor repairs done but her Captain immediately got her crew to get the ship sorted out and one day after recieving the news that the cruiser squadron was in action, set sail from the Falklands and made for the River Plate and Montedevideo!
Her arrival was unexpected but welcome on the 15/16th December of 1939. On reply from HMS Ajax. She sent this!
A N T I C I P A T I O N ! Plain language, but welcome plain language!
I guess there is nothing but to make a video on the Battle of the River Plate now...
check out The Operations Room for that and many others
Informative video showing the risks of being defeated in detail.
This is the first expose of this battle I have seen.
"Shipmaster, they outnumber us 7 to 1!"
"Then it's an even fight."
AJAX (ΑΙΑΝΤΑΣ) Ajax, in Greek legend, son of Telamon, king of Salamis, described in the Iliad as being of great stature and colossal frame, second only to the Greek hero Achilles in strength and bravery. In Italian Ajax means "enjoy the pizza it's your last one".
I know this is old but the animations and script are excellent
Thank you! I appreciate it
what a feat for such ship for sure
My Dad who was in the army was stationed Trieste after the war and we joined him there and I remember going on HMS Ajax to a children’s party they put on for all the service children in that area
It was the Naval version of a Jakie Chan fight.
Each enemy taking the hero on .. One on One
Paddy Riley from Scotland Road Liverpool was on the Ajax as a teenage ABS , a gunner . Just kid really , was there at the River Plate . Amazing story . I'm proud of him and his mates 👏
What an incredible experience listening to this while watching trying to imagine the situation. An amazing experience IMO . Well worth a sub
Constructive feedback: The artificial 'noise' (white speckles) added to the still photos is very distracting. I think the images would be better without it entirely.
Wow ive watched a lot of naval battles but this one was just crazy. amazing she managed to dodge all those torpedos. it could have been just boatloads of inexperience though i guess. interesting video none the less.
The video works fine, enjoyed it, thank you.
Thank you!
Thank you, A very interesting piece of maritime history, As it happens my second cousin was aboard the Ajax at the time as a Royal Marine gunner. He missed out on the Battle of the River Plate only joining Ajax in March, 1940. However, he saw many scrap in the sea war in the Mediterranean. He is remembered in the Canadian town of Ajax by having a street named after him, although at the time it was meant for men serving at the time of the Battle of the River Plate. Some error occurred with the date of his joining Ajax.
Don't know if you want an opinion, but the sparkly white blobs you put over B&W photographs to make them look news-reelish are a distracting waste of time and effort. Fine otherwise.
Good to know, thanks!
I kinda dug it, I was thinking like copyrights original format releases and such but news reelish thing I guess I missed
@@HoH I think it's a cool effect, not distracting. Don't listen to lone dissent ers
Agreed. They add nothing, except to make me think of a Disney film denoting “magic” being used. Quite silly actually.
I believe I'll stick with how very good the content always is. Thank you H of H !!
Well done Sir!!!! Your story telling is outstanding!! Binge watched your posts. All the best to you.
Much appreciated!
HMS Ajax had another moment of glory on June 6th 1944, when a German pillbox singled Ajax out for several shots from it's large calibre gun. A duel ensued, with Ajax and the pillbox exchanging shots, until one salvo from Ajax landed a shot right through the opening on the pillbox, where the gun was. Luckily, this occurred while the Germans were using the hydraulic lift inside the pillbox, to bring more ammunition up from the store underneath the pillbox. The resulting explosion blew the 3 foot thick reinforced roof of the pillbox quite some distance away, and the breech of the gun was afterwards found to be like an exploding cigar.. No trace of the crew of the gun were ever found....
gun-crew vapor?... no retreating foot prints, that sort of thing?
That's wrong , they did find body parts not long after the explosion of the crew on the shore,
Of Costa Rica
An informative video . I’d like to see a similar documentary about the bravery of the Lancaster aircrews and the Augsburg mission ,
It's a great level detail and I really like it. What would make it way better is synchronization between audio and animation as it seems to be lagging about ten seconds behind.
Unfortunately something went wrong during my editing, and the battle isn't fully in sync. It's a frustrating mistake and the first time something like this happened in over 200 videos. I caught it too late, which is a shame because of the time and effort put in the video, but also the overall enjoyment. My apologies.
Reminds me of a tabletop wargame I played that was part of a 'what if?' scenario. Anyway, it was HMS Warspite, all alone, surrounded by 8 Japanese cruisers at night. The Japanese went with torpedoes for their attacks, which proved to be a big mistake. Not only did Warspite somehow rule with the die throws and avoid the waves of torpedoes but she managed to blow the cruisers out of the water one by one. Icing on the cake was that two of the crippled cruisers were finished off by their own side's torpedoes having missed Warspite just carrying on and hitting their own ships. Warspite's tabletop legend began that day.
Great video as always HOH!
Thanks very much for noticing the feedback. Good story telling
So Ajax cleaned everything up
Thanks, interesting video. It seems that technical preparation and coordination of AJAX was superior.
Another ship that should have been preserved after the war.
Absolutely. She was scrapped at Newport, South Wales after the war.
Great shame.
@@rogerjohnson7185 why the Belfast was chosen instead of Ajax or Sheffield I’ll never know.
What Swordfish and their Heroic crew accomplished in the early part of the War was Epic.
"The Italians make good waiters, they love to wait and wait
But now it seems they've got themselves a navy, sad to state
So the captain of the Ajax left them tuppence on the plate"
Wartime Music-Hall song "You Can't Take The Breed From The British"
This is like one of those movie fights where the bad guys line up to take one the hero one at a time…
It really is unbelievable how one light cruiser could inflict such losses and damage on a whole flotilla of enemy ships. Were the Italians so poorly trained they could not offer a coordinated attack on Ajax? Not to mention the shear bravery of Ajax.
Er, no, that is the point of a cruiser, it should always be able to destroy small ships. That they attacked is a good sign of Italian motivation, but it sounds like they were not trained and operated sufficiently well to let their numbers and speed have some effect. A cruiser with good leadership and training, and ammo, should have had little trouble dealing with smaller ships, but there are plenty of examples where that was not the case, and a cruiser was sunk - for example, the Graf Spee, did everything wrong and got sunk (damaged sufficiently) by three smaller cruisers.
Well in naval engagement tecnology and luck had always had an important role. But mainly the problem with italian navvy, an historical problem, is it's rampaging nepotism. So we could have great crews, coming from an hardy seamanship tradition, and some amazing capitans (like Fecia di Cossato or Valerio Borghese), but usually the case would be of promotion for seniority and connection, rather than merits or potential...
@@AndreaGiumetti yes, but that was a problem in the Church, the British aristocracy/army, and many other great organisations. I am preparing a book about the successes of the Italian armed forces, and the propaganda that erased them from history, so I will investigate Fecia and Valerio. Thanks for mentioning them. Please remember also the British disasters, caused by idiotic RN officers - I was just studying the sinking of HMS Glorious, a classic case of British idiocy. There doesn't even seem to be any question of nepotism, just stupidity. War is good at ridding the world of incompetence. Your name is almost Greek - another great seafaring nation.
@@helloxyz well yes, that is true endeed. We had great example of military, and human, valour, and it's really a shame that after-war propaganda worked to delete the memory of those incredibile man who gave their lives, in most cases, not for Mussolini but for Italy. But trust me, political leverage in Italy was, and is, truly a desastrous element... There are really multiple istances that could be reported as such, from the very foundation of the nation.
B.t.w. if you are interested in great italian military figures erased, or put out the lights by the mainstream, you should also search for general Giovanni Messe defence in Tunis, and above all Amedeo Guillet anti-british guerrilla in Eritrea
@helloxyz thanks for a generally good comment, however the Graf Spee was well handled, but the British and New Zealand ships that fought her were handled even better. Also the British managed to fool the Germans into thinking a whole squadron of Battleship, aircraft carrier etc was waiting for them outside Montevideo. The gallant German captain scuttled Graf Spee rather than needlessly throw away the lives of his crew, a genuine hero. The British, New Zealand etc allies had practised fighting a pocket battleship prior to WW11 and their excellent seamanship, leadership along with tactics to play to their their advantages won the battle against Graf Spee.
Really good animation and flow to the story of the battle. Well done!!
You're amazing man! These naval videos are truly incredible
I think AI
An excellent video, thank-you for posting.
Not sure about some of the pronunciation used in the narrative!
An excellent Video thank you.
Excellent video and a new channel to follow!
Welcome aboard!
I could live without the sparkles!
Thanks for the feedback. Other viewers have noted it as well, I'm taking them out next video.
Well presented, thank you.
Very well presented! Just the level of detail I prefer.
Excellent informative video
,
You did such a great job with the Italian ship names that it hit me like a battering ram when you referred to the "Graf Spee" (rhyming with "she") instead of the correct German pronunciation of "Grahf Shpay".
Thank you, you're absolutely right about Spee's pronunciation.
Usually english speakers are bad in german pronuntiations. Did you hear ever how they say Einstein???
One can blame the movie probably.
There is not one Italian ship name which is pronounced decently.
What about what He Did with TOBRUK!!!🙉🙉🙉
The fact Ajax was dubbed "Light Cruiser" even when their captain has massive balls will always surprise me
torpedo boat are only good against slower vessels, and cruisers are designed to kill destroyers and other smaller high speed craft so no suprise here.
The Japanese at Guadalcanal had a different take on it. Different night fighting doctrine and longer ranged torpedoes played a part together with some US naivety from the commanders.
I guess you can't do math, otherwise submarines can't ever take on a carrier.
Our Anglican minister used to fly Barracudas in the war. He was known to be a wild man when driving on the road. Takes a certain type of person. Rev. Kirkby NZ
So the Italian Navy lost the battle due to poor coordination and not poor technology. I see.
1:01 Incorrect. The Barracuda didn't enter service until 1943.
Good story and video. Just one minor point to enhance the presentation further. I'm no language expert myself but I've found that if you go into Google Translate, pick the language (e.g., Italian), enter the word or name and then click on the loudspeaker icon, you find out how the name of the ship is pronounced (e.g., Alcione is "Al Choni."). Eliminates the guesswork for us English speakers. 🤓
Thanks for the feedback!
Wellllll. this should be made into a film
yey i just found your channle and i like your battleship videos,...plz more of em
Well done; interesting and informative. Radar was developed just in time for the war by Robert Watson-Watt who was a direct descendant of James Watt.
As we shall rule the waves 🌊 🇬🇧
Great video.
Why the artificial splatter on the negatives and film. I spent part of my career eradicating scrapes and blots so why put them on. Use or refuse stock but please don’t deminish it!
My city is named after this ship and my street named after Admiral Woodhouse her commander during the battle of the river Plate - the first naval battle of the 2nd WW. 🙂
Interesting, but please don't add flicker and scratches to archive footage.
Duly noted!
that will be a copy of archive footage .... the originals will still be archived for you to research. So what you saw is a copy with the additions.
Boy howdy! That was one hell of a dogfight! And Ajax definitely lived up to her name!
HMS Ajax cleaned up .
Thanks IU have never read anything about this. How about the Scrap Iron Flotilla ?
It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about () naval battle between Italian navy and British naval forces...what was notable MHS Ajax minnuvoraity was too bravery and its aimed of projectiles was more accurate...thank you 🙏 ( house of history) channel for sharing
The skipper of the Ajax...I like these odds !!!
The Spee in Graf Spee is pronounced as 'Spay''
Tow brook???
My Step father was in the merchant navy (he joined at 15 year's of age) & when in 1939 war broke out he half way across the world,he joined the royal navy And was part of the Battle of Tobruk he & another fellow had to blow up a huge petrol dump (note:this was in the film later made about the Siege of Tobruk) he told many stories of his time in the war...he was 97 when he passed 😢 still miss him