Did the British and American navies have different requirements for the amount of aviation fuel that was on their carriers, and what tonnage or amount of ships displacement did that fuel amount to? Thanks!
How about an episode on the submarines of the Finnish navy and especially their background ? Another episode on the Estonian submarine Lembit ( still existing ) would be great: Impressive how Drach is able to post new material !
@@88porpoise Most fine powders are the same, powdered iron or steel are the same, even though you would not generally regard either as flammable. Pretty much any facility that has a potential for a large amount of dust, especially in a confined area, is at risk of explosive disassembly!
In university (chemical engineering) during plant design course our professor always said "Liquids burn, aerosols explode. Mess up petrol storage and you'll probably end up in jail, mess up powder processing and you'll end up in a shoebox"
@@johnnyscott3698 - Simon Whistler actually doesn't produce any of those videos, he's a paid and contracted actor/voice actor. All of those channels that he appears on are weird conglomerates, and a lot of them actually border on propaganda, too. It's weird.
You missed the fact that US battleships put the planes on the quarterdeck so they could use the guns as fire extinguishers! USS South Dakota extinguished a fire that was on the quarterdeck using the aft turret. To extinguish fires in the planes. (Admittedly that fire was also caused _by_ the aft turret...) Ref War Damage Report No. 57 Section 2, 9
One thing to bear in mind about Normandy is that the primary pre-invasion bombardment was to come from heavy bombers and medium bombers in the 20-30 minutes before the landing craft hit the beach. Unfortunately, the bombers didnt want to drop short and wound up dropping their loads a couple miles inland, leaving the beach defenses largely intact. Then there is the fact that, in addition to the normal troops manning the beach defenses, the 352nd Infantry Division was available to reinforce the defenses.
Drach, this Drydock makes almost eight hours of videos that I must watch this week. I realise that you're a beast when it somes to producing addictively watchable videos, but pray have mercy on us. Some of us need sleep. SLEEP! Mind you, hearing the description "Zap Branniganesque" makes it all worthwhile.
A 5'' Gun on wake island sank the Japanese destroyer Hayate with one shot during the first Japanese assault on Wake Island. The 3rd salvo hit the torpedo tubes and the ship blew up. Sailing within 4,000 yards of a 5'' gun is bad for the health of destroyers.
Sailing within range of any gun is a bad idea when your deck launcher is loaded with a Type 93 torpedo. Using compressed oxygen as an oxidizer wasn't the most brilliant idea when in battle. When the IJN first started to equip ships with this device, the oxygen tank was labeled as 'Auxiliary Fuel'. They knew. They tried to hide it from the sailors. Perhaps a question for Drach would be "How many IJN ships were victims of their own Type 93s?"
In regards your Napoleon answer. This is why I so love this channel. Wait long enough and the question you've wanted to ask, but never quite get around to, eventually will be answered.
I and five million other people live in a city founded by a topsail schooner named Enterprize (with a Z). So we have an especial fondness for ships with that name in Melbourne.
Don't forget we love it so much a replica still sails to this day ♥ If you've never seen a sailing ship irl it's amazing to watch, I wish I could have seen something truly magnificent tho, like the Victory actually going full pelt
The effectiveness of the DD tanks is shown by the impact on Utah and in Omaha beaches. At Utah,, the tanks landed in the correct places and at the right time. They were critical in getting paths open off he beach and the casualties were definitely lower. They also surprised the Germans who were not prepared for individual floating tanks. At Omaha, the tanks were landed further out and were caught by strong currents. Most were lost before they could reach the beach. Without the tanks, the troops suffered very high casualties trying to get through the fortifications. The few that did make it to land were critical in opening up paths off the beach. Omaha and Utah were similar beaches with similar fortifications though Omaha had more German troops due divisions changing positions. That said, the LST and LCT's were needed to deliver supplies and other equipment. Losing them early on the beaches also risked clogging the beaches and hurting re-supply. Once the Germans were pushed back, they could off load critical equipment and artillery. The lessons at Sicily and Italy made it clear they needed an alternative. Hence the DD tanks. The original idea was created for river forging and then taken to a new level by some very inventive Brits.
As to the USN and floatplanes, BuAer had advocated from the early 30s to place them on the fantail for safety reasons, according to Friedman. They pretty much won the fight with the Brooklyns with their cats at the rear, as well as a fairly capacious hangar in the stern. Yet there was still contention over it, as the Alaskas had their aviation amidships. Kind of a mystery...
US naval designer: it might be a good idea to put this aircraft catapult here. US Navy: does it give us MOAR DAKKA??? Designer: well, no but- Navy: Need MOAR DAKKA WAAAAAGH!
To be honest, it might have been a good idea for the US to remove the seaplanes from their cruisers and add an extra jeep carrier to their task forces. Cruisers get extra AA guns and more storage below decks...
Take a look at _Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea_ by Robert Massie. It's more of a look at overall command and control of the first world war war at sea rather than details on individual ships, but it's quite an interesting read nonetheless.
@@AdamMGTF Hi Adam. This is one time a good book is available cheap. Several sellers have the paperback version at $4.00 on ebay! Even the higher class bookstores have it for $15 or less, so buying one of these shouldn't be a problem. I'm still recovering from a nasty COPD flareup. Anyone that's not sure if they should quit smoking should look to my example. Quit now so you're not sick during your declining years.
There was 6th Band Beachhead on D-day, on the edge of Gold beach - just in case the British had problems on that flank. But since they did not, the troops were reinforced to Gold beach.
The ability of dust to spread a fire was demonstrated to me a number of years ago. I was at the newspaper and got a call that there was fire in a nearby cotton warehouse. The warehouse was used to store cottonseed. The pile in the middle of the warehouse was a small mountain of about 3,000 tons. The cottonseed had a great deal of lint, much of which had attached itself to the walls and ceiling over the years. A truck delivering cottonseed drove into the warehouse to deliver its load,, and being an old truck, it broke down. The driver, who was less than observant, tried to use a screwdriver on the solenoid to restart the truck; there was a spark, and I suspect you can guess the result. The fire spread rapidly, and great hunks of it fell onto the cottonseed and worked its way into the pile. It too about three weeks extinguish the burning mountain of cottonseed. . I can only imagine that coal dust would also work quite nicely to spread a fire. As for gas fumes, ask the survivors of the Lexington and various Japanese carriers.
I like the patreon drydocks but sometimes when I'm listening to it I swear I hear multiple instances of the same person asking questions. I know people naturally ask multiple and compound questions, but maybe when its a big one like that maybe only one part should get answered so you don't have to elaborate as long. Keep up the great work! I hope that somebody has the inclination to make a master list of these things so that we can cross reference and know if questions have been answered before.
there is a master list. go to www.drachinifel.co.uk/the-channel and there is a link for a spread sheet that has all the questions with the drydock number and time stamp.
*Edit: Welp... @silverfox575 beat me to it* Hearing Drachinifel say _"Swe-420-den"_ do give me quite the chuckle for some reason. As for the master list of Drydock questions, there is one in "The Channel" section of his website @ drachinifel.co.uk
Did I understand well? Drach can you do fire-breathing? Is there something you can't do? How did you learn? Why? When? Isn't beard a fire hazard during fire-breathing? Is there a video of you doing it? So many questions!
The Stern Mount of spotters was a correct decision for future improvement. It made the switchover to unmanned spotters much easier, since it gave them a pace for the net to catch the returning vehicle.
If I remember correctly, there were a few engagements between German Tanks/Tank destroyers and Soviet Destroyers during the Battles around Königsberg. Not sure about the outcome, but I imagine that a well disguised tank destroyer could do a number on an unarmoured ship, especially since some of the more insane German designs carried the same gun caliber as a destroyer.
Sometimes, dont want to get dependent. Which may have happened with my mother, said she was having problems sleeping, and I said "there is this channel called drachinifel....."
For the German navy, "The Ships of the German Fleets 1848-1945" by Hans Jürgen Hansen, Hamlyn, 1974. ISBN 0 600 38153 6 is good if you can find a copy.
Referring to shell hits igniting the fuel for catapult launched float planes, I believe that's what happed to the SMS Blucher during the Battle of Drøbak Sound, compounded by all the infantry equipment on board.
I was an RAN cadet at HMAS Lewin in Fremantle. The cadet age was 13 on. 10 year old boys were in an entirely different organisation, it was State based & local. There were the Boy Scouts, & the Sea Scouts, & for the girls, Brownies for the younger ones, & Girl Guides for the older ones. I never figured what they did. Moreover at 13 there were the Army Cadets, & the Air Cadets. These were school based, & compulsory, for I think 2 years? but one could stay on longer. Essentially you turned up to your school on Thursdays in uniform, & training was conducted after school. Air Cadets also had a dedicated localised training facility with rooms, a parade ground with a flag pole & a decrepit old aeroplane in residence. Army Cadets used various Army bases & were taken out to bivouac at Bindoon now & then. I was also an Army Cadet, & on Thursdays after school we drilled on the school"s sports ground, received instruction on weapons there, eg, Bren Gun etc. Naval Cadets were mustered on Friday nights at Fremantle Railway Station, & bused out to HMAS Lewin, received training & were worked on Saturdays, with the occasional shipboard weekend.
In answer to coal dust: not only is it flammable, it is rather highly explosive. Compare it to fine saw dust or flour, both of which can - under the right circumstances - explode with devastating results. If on the outside of a warship it wouldn't do too much harm, but if happening internally it would kill many crew members and may result in a catastrophic chain reaction. Thinking of the magazines for example.
French pre-dreadnoughts will now be keeping me up wondering how they could get away with such "interesting designs" thank you Drach for the always interesting and informative videos
Australia experienced a notable downturn in recruitment (especially for career officers) when the government of the time instructed the various military arms to stop actively supporting them (although they continued to do so off-the-books as far as they could). One of the big advantages was that the cadets were familiar with military discipline and the military lifestyle, which can come as a bit of a shock to your typical civilian recruit.
Drach, I'll have to disagree with you about how the mid-ship catapult arrangement was better for modernization. If you have a fixed hanger size, that limits the size of aircraft you can handle. In the US navy, since the catapults were on the stern, it didn't matter the size of the plane. Also, when ships transitioned to helicopters, removing the stern crane and catapult cleared a ready-made landing pad, reference Iowas. As you had shown in your Belfast tour, the mid-ships hanger and associated equipment had to be removed.
I was talking more about when radar began to replace aircraft on cruisers, being able to drop the hangar and catapult amidships suddenly gave you loads of space to play with when it came to adding guns and radar.
Random things I came up with: Destroyers can be light cruisers if they have heavier guns Light cruisers can be Heavy cruisers if they have a higher caliber gun Heavy cruisers can be Battleships if they have a higher caliber gun Battleships can be aircraft carriers if they have the the above deck part sheered off and the command center moved to a side.
World War 2 saw this Class cost change radically because of the huge scale. Even the Destroyers of the US WW1 fleet must have gotten into the truly bulk orger range. Good thing too since so many tried moving California, or were used by the British Navy as part of Lend- Lease
Napoleon's invasion threat was real enough to have actually landed troops, near Fishguard in Wales. It was a diversion from the invasion of Ireland, and went hilariously.
Good video Drac. Reference aircraft arrangements, both Hood and Valiant carried an aircraft and catapult on their quarter decks in the 1930s,not for long in Hoods case as it kept getting drenched.I believe Valiant retained hers until she paid off for reconstruction in 1936. as for warships being sunk by shore batteries, what about the Russian ships at Port Arthur?,i know they were shelled but what type of guns used by the Japanese I don't know.
"Oh I am the cook, and the captain bold, and the mate of the Nancy Brig, And the Boatswain tight, and the Midshipmite, and the crew of the Captain's gig." --J. C. Hutcheson And, as both a navy man in my youth and a lifelong musical entertainer since, I love all kinds of gigs . . . as long as I don't have to row them.
The Danube "boats" and other riverine monitors and patrol craft. Quite a bit of engagement going on between riverine craft and shore artillery in WW1, during the Russian Revolution, and, of course, the US Civil War. If you haven't gone over it already, the Lake Tanganyika "war" might make a worthy segment, too.
Does the sinking of the Russian fleet at Port Arthur by Japanese howitzers count as ships sunk by field artillery? I know these same kind of guns were used by Japan as shore defence at Tokyo so maybe it doesn’t fit the parameters of the question. Thanks for the video Drach
@@Drachinifel The pre-dreadnought Sevastopol did move out of range of the guns, to be attacked by the IJN (she repelled the attack sinking two torpedo destroyers, while a Japanese cruiser got sunk by protective mine barrage) but was later scuttled when the town surrendered.
US ships generally had two multi purpose cranes on the stern for handling aircraft. The both lifted the planes from the water and lifted the aircraft to the catapults. In terms of moderation the removal of the aircraft and cranes left a large area ideal for helicopters in the fifties and sixties
Regarding field artillery sinking warships, there's also all the Russian battleships sunk in Port Arthur by Japanese artillery fire, as well as the Ottoman field artillery that burned out HMS _Ben-my-Chree_ in 1917.
@field artillety vs. ships: I seem to remember, that during the Napoleonic Wars several ships were heavily damaged or even sunk by siege artillery during the Baltic campaign. IIRC these were small ships like bomb ketches and troop transports with shallow draft for in-shore work that inadvertently drifted into range. I cannot for the life of me remember a source though. Sailing ships will generally have a much more difficult time to disengage depending on the prevailing winds and currents, so damage can accumulate ;) Also, range measurements as well as stating your position was a lot more inaccurate so you could have a case of "suddenly shot everywhere" quite a bit easier than in later times.
WRT catapults, since the Alaska class "large cruisers" reverted to an amidships configuration, if there is any good primary source design documentation, it might shed some light on the issue.
0:12:00 - KMS Bismarck vs 10 Leanders - I would throw in at least one year of shakedown costs in fuel, crew pay and ammo, plus the outlook of such theoretical engagement the loss of - say - 2 blown up CLs and a further crew worth in dead on other, damaged ships. And you have to tell it to the govt and the press. Plus also there is the outlook of a fast BB turning tail and running and picking off more, than 2 cruisers before the rest can close in to 6" and later torpedo range.
The speed and time the Bismarck would have lost doing that turn would have put the Leanders well into range, the 6" had a 22km range, running would have left the ship with only it's aft turrets, and maybe the rearward 6" engaging a faster and more mobile force. I expect the Leander force would break off but the Bismarck would have been left with a super structure and set of funnels very well riddled and facing a fairly substantial repair. If the Bismarck produced more smoke and head into the wind then that may reduce the effective incoming fire enough to make the whole endevour a waste of ammo for all involved.
@@karlvongazenberg8398 And Radar, British Cruisers often had surface search and fire control Radar even by that stage of the war. Really its going to depend on who gets to choose the engagement. The Cruisers would almost certainly prefer to engage at night and from multiple vectors in multiple divisions, say two divisions of two and two of three coming from different directions. In a night engagement from multiple angles of attack I would give it to the Cruisers every time, multiple directions means multiple vectors of torpedo attack as well, meaning that, if well coordinated, no matter which direction the Battleship turned it would eat torpedos. Of course, if the Battleship forced the engagement during the day while the Cruisers are all together as a single group then that would maximise the Battleships advantages of greater firepower and range. But the cruisers would STILL be able to close, and likely pretty rapidly unless the Battleship ran, which would of course cut the Battleships available firepower by half. Far more critical for the battleship, as while the Cruisers have the same issue you are talking 4 15 inch guns vs 40 6 inch..... We also know that the blast from its own main battery took away Bismarks fire control Radar, a situation we can probably safely assume would remain true for this hypothetical engagement. Non Radar equipped Cruisers could make smoke, obscuring most of the cruiser force from the Bismarks gunnery, while Radar equipped cruisers could still engage albeit at reduced accuracy. But as you rightly said, the various circumstances would greatly affect such an engagement.....
@@alganhar1 FYI historically hte Bismarck also had a radar (which was knocked off by its own guns muzzle blast probably) but also had a hydrophone array, which picked up Hood and PoW well before visual contact and opening fire. So, encircling it would not be THAT easy.
I've twice seen flour mills burn. Very spectacular. btw - Monmouth invaded, there were invasions in the 1715 and 1745 rebellions, and please consider the Battle of Fishguard. They failed, but they did happen.
I think that the criterion (especially with regard to the Jacobite ones) was that it had to be a successful invasion. So William of Orange, OK. Monmouth, not so much.
03:45 Are we certain that the USN isn't officered and manned by orks, given their preference for "Moarr guns!" as an answer to nearly every warship design question?
The broadside of the Invincible class is 6 12 inch guns compared to 4 12 inch guns on the pre dreadnoughts. As Lord St. Vincent said, "My Lords I do not say he cannot come, I only say he cannot come BY SEA."
Regarding the Chieftan question, I understand that DD tanks worked well if properly used. However. The US examples were overwhelmingly launch much too far out in rough water.
In regard the D-Day question about LCT;s getting closer, I have a similar question, There was a lot of fire support of shore DD's, BB's, etc, was there any ship based funnies like the tanks, in a direct fire support , where monitors used to get close for direct fire or small ships with large guns mounted on them ?
There were the Landing Craft Gun, basically an LCT fitted with a couple of heavy-ish guns, either 25 pounders, or even, in the case of the LCG (large), 4.7".
I suspect the problem for the Axis light cruisers, and this would include the IJN, a light cruiser uses almost as much fuel as a heavy. And when you have limited fuel it's better to spend your fuel on a ship with the biggest punch.
@@fuuryuuSKK Good thank you I've been wondering what Drach was gonna do to the Elbonian navy. After hearing what Gun Jesus would have done to screw their army, I was curious.
I am contractually obligated as someone trained in organic chemistry whenever the subject comes up to say this: DON'T AEROSOLIZE ANYTHING ORGANIC! It's going explode eventually. It just will. Coal dust, sawdust, grain dust, alchohol fumes, mineral spirits, it doesn't matter. If it mixes with enough oxygen and any part of that mixture reaches activation energy, its all over. Also, points for the Futurama reference.
00:56:47 - Ships sunk/damages by field artillery? At Wake Island the US Marines on Peale islet sank the IJN destroyer Hayate with 5 inch guns during the aborted first amphibious assault on Dec 11. Incidentally, Wake Island is made up of three smaller islands, Peale, Wilkes and Wake. The three islets are arranged so that in 1941 you could start east walking on the western tip of Wilkes, cross over to Wake and go all the way to the southeastern tip, turn north and follow Wake's contouring around, cross over to Peale and walk all the way to the western tip of Peale and it would be like walking across a field and just crossing a couple of shallow creeks. Chieftans question - I had heard that somewhere north of 50% of the DDT's at Normandy were lost before hitting the beaches.
On Bismark vs multiple Leanders... You left out operating costs. In my experience crew costs are a dominant factor in Whole Life Costs for any military system, at which point you get in to how much 'life' to cost.
Normandy was never really in doubt as a whole though at one point Omar Bradley considered shifting troops slated for Omaha beach to Utah but as they were discussing the possibility the breakout was occurring.
Thanks for another Dry Dock I have read that another reason the British did not go for stern launched spotter places was concerns of having a large open space for the hanger right above the propellers and resulting echoing resulting from that. Is there any truth to that?
Regarding ships versus land artillery, does that include Germany's Atlantic Wall? During D-Day, there were some large caliber guns that could have engaged.
People confuse flammable with combustible all the time. A mixture of air and gas/petrol can be flammable or combustible depending on the percentage of the mixture. The same is true of coal, be it dust or otherwise. If you have the right combination of oxygen and coal then you leave the realm of flammable and enter the realm of combustible. The thing is, practically everything flammable if you put enough energy into it. But combustion only requires a tiny spark to go boom.
If the Great White Fleet had visited England and they put their ships alongside and the British press made a big deal of the size difference, imagine how that would have affected a young junior-officer (future Admiral) Ernest King?
During the Berlin Airlift 1948-1949 several aircraft were lost due to both coal and flour powder fires. Both products were shipped in permeable sacks that allowed the fines to sift out. The solution was to employ women with brooms to clean out the cabins of the aircraft.
It may not count given that Wake Island had 5” 51s from the USS Texas but the shore batteries there sank both a destroyer and a Patrol boat during the first invasion attempt.
With ref to risk of invasion of Britain. It is probably a bit of a toss-up between Sealion and Napoleon. Napoleon suffered from many of the same issues as Hitler. There was a shortage of ports and port space, which led to much construction which didn't completely correct this. there was also a lack of shipping of all sorts. This was offset by construction of large numbers of specialised small craft. These weren't that seaworthy, so that week would have to be a week of calm seas and even then there was big risk. The one time a large exercise with the landing vessels was tried the sea was choppy, it was a fiasco and casualties were significant despite the Emperor himself taking command of rescue efforts.
I would say the biggest difference was that the combined Franco-Spanish navy was large and powerful enough to challenge the Royal Navy in a fleet action. The Kreigsmarine could never hope of doing so.
@@88porpoise Good point. They still could not have come by sea[1] but, good point. [1] Look up Lord St Vincent if you don't recognise the mangled quote. :)
The Nelson and Rodney had all there main guns at the front,it must have certain advantages,the enemy can’t cross your T, The hood halfway through its turn towards Bismarck to bring all guns to bear etc,could you do a talk on this .
Would have loved to meet up with you in Stockholm, but I've been stuck at home with a cold for more than a month now, so I'll have to do with your excellent online content.
@50:30 Who needs plans - we will just do another Dunkirk style evac if needed. I can imagine at least the - let's say non-risk-averse - Churchill thinking like that
00:07:48 What about en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSwMS_Fylgia Fylgia did have a main battery of 4 15cm twin turrets (Layed down 1902, Launched in 1905, Operative 1907) Or we are splitting hair and Fylgia is "only" a armored cruiser and not a light cruiser. Then the next question are what is the diffrent on a smale armored cruiser like Fylgia and real light cruiser.
I was also thinking of the Dardanelles. Though it doesn't appear the field howitzers actually sunk any of the allied minesweepers; but having that mobile artillery hidden along both shores of the passage certainly contributed to the inability of the naval bombardment to sufficiently suppress the defensive fire. So that field artillery contributed to preventing the minesweepers from clearing the way for the pre-dreadnaughts to follow.
I was also thinking about Wake Island, where the coastal defense guns drove off the first invasion force, for awhile at least. Granted, the guns were fixed position naval guns employed by the 1st Defense Battalion and not actually "field artillery", but using six guns to drive off a naval force with many times that number of guns, some of larger caliber, including sinking one destroyer and damaging numerous other ships is a monumental achievement that should not be understated. Leave it to the Marines! Love the channel Drach! Keep up the great work!
if i remember correctly there was a plan that if Omaha beach was going to stay impossible to breach through, to re direct any further troops going there instead to the secure British beaches or even Utah, getting the troops left on Omaha out though well i can't remember any really. i fear it was just leave them or attempt some slap dash rescue attempt or hope troops from Utah could punch through to Omaha before they are all killed.
You mentioned that there was a very small number of ships sunk by field artillery. What about the IJN ships didn't he first attempt to invade Wake Island?
Pinned post for Q&A :)
what was the state of the chinese Navy on the onset of hostilities of the second Sino-Japanese war?
Did the British and American navies have different requirements for the amount of aviation fuel that was on their carriers, and what tonnage or amount of ships displacement did that fuel amount to? Thanks!
If the UK and by extension the Commonwealth were to be natural in WWII how would the war in the Pacific have played out.
How about an episode on the submarines of the Finnish navy and especially their background ? Another episode on the Estonian submarine Lembit ( still existing ) would be great: Impressive how Drach is able to post new material !
The things used to plug up the barrels during travle at see, how were they removed for combat?
I don't have a creative comment but thanks for your work.
Klasseh Khornate 30th like
Anything to help the algorithm along
Last time there was such a short Drydock, Kamchatka had not yet sighted torpedo boats
I work in a whisky distillery and despite the Giant tanks of ethanol sitting about the flour mill is by far the most dangerous part of the building.
Yep. Flour mills, along with grain silos and elevators, have long been prime candidates for rapid and violent disassembly.
@@88porpoise Most fine powders are the same, powdered iron or steel are the same, even though you would not generally regard either as flammable. Pretty much any facility that has a potential for a large amount of dust, especially in a confined area, is at risk of explosive disassembly!
USS Maine Havana 1898
I live in the ne of England. Coal dust and anhydride mines taught our elders much
In university (chemical engineering) during plant design course our professor always said "Liquids burn, aerosols explode. Mess up petrol storage and you'll probably end up in jail, mess up powder processing and you'll end up in a shoebox"
Dude you're the hardest working man on RUclips
A strong tie with Simon Whistler.... allegedly
@@johnnyscott3698 - Simon Whistler actually doesn't produce any of those videos, he's a paid and contracted actor/voice actor. All of those channels that he appears on are weird conglomerates, and a lot of them actually border on propaganda, too. It's weird.
C&Rsenal is up there. Othais hasn't quite worked himself to death yet, but he's given it a damn good try.
@@petlahk4119 propaganda is a loaded word.
You missed the fact that US battleships put the planes on the quarterdeck so they could use the guns as fire extinguishers!
USS South Dakota extinguished a fire that was on the quarterdeck using the aft turret. To extinguish fires in the planes.
(Admittedly that fire was also caused _by_ the aft turret...) Ref War Damage Report No. 57 Section 2, 9
Drach, You're a beast. How do you keep this pace up?! Your work is very, very impressive my youtube friend.
One thing to bear in mind about Normandy is that the primary pre-invasion bombardment was to come from heavy bombers and medium bombers in the 20-30 minutes before the landing craft hit the beach. Unfortunately, the bombers didnt want to drop short and wound up dropping their loads a couple miles inland, leaving the beach defenses largely intact. Then there is the fact that, in addition to the normal troops manning the beach defenses, the 352nd Infantry Division was available to reinforce the defenses.
Can you do guides for individual sailors? Sure we all love big ships, but we also love stories of men who went above and beyond the line of duty!
Your videos are the bright point in these times. Keep up the good work
'Fire breathing. That's actually one of the things I do'.
Interesting...
Ah yes, our Drach. Naval historian and... fire breather. Alright.
@@Admiral_Ellis Don't forget "Knight in Shining Armor" and artist (at least painting models)
That might explain the name
Drach, this Drydock makes almost eight hours of videos that I must watch this week. I realise that you're a beast when it somes to producing addictively watchable videos, but pray have mercy on us. Some of us need sleep. SLEEP!
Mind you, hearing the description "Zap Branniganesque" makes it all worthwhile.
A 5'' Gun on wake island sank the Japanese destroyer Hayate with one shot during the first Japanese assault on Wake Island. The 3rd salvo hit the torpedo tubes and the ship blew up. Sailing within 4,000 yards of a 5'' gun is bad for the health of destroyers.
Welp, somebody rolled a natural 20.
Twice
Sailing within range of any gun is a bad idea when your deck launcher is loaded with a Type 93 torpedo.
Using compressed oxygen as an oxidizer wasn't the most brilliant idea when in battle.
When the IJN first started to equip ships with this device, the oxygen tank was labeled as 'Auxiliary Fuel'.
They knew. They tried to hide it from the sailors.
Perhaps a question for Drach would be "How many IJN ships were victims of their own Type 93s?"
Was it a coastal defense gun?
@@VersusARCH Yes, the 6x5" guns on Wake Island were meant for coastal defense.
In regards your Napoleon answer.
This is why I so love this channel.
Wait long enough and the question you've wanted to ask, but never quite get around to, eventually will be answered.
Even in the relatively open-air environment of a heritage railway, I've seen hoses played over tenders & bunkers as locomotives are coaled.
"Don't do this at home, as I may or may not have done."
Yeah, I think we need to hear the backstory behind that particular comment... :)
Think he mentioned he does fire breathing in the same answer so probably some singed brows!
My only question. One eyebrow, or two?
@@Kevin_Kennelly Two, and my glasses
@@seafodder6129 I was talking about Drach, but I've had an accidental fuel-air bomb situation, it's scary. Don't play with petrol
A soothing voice in trying times.
I and five million other people live in a city founded by a topsail schooner named Enterprize (with a Z). So we have an especial fondness for ships with that name in Melbourne.
Don't forget we love it so much a replica still sails to this day ♥
If you've never seen a sailing ship irl it's amazing to watch, I wish I could have seen something truly magnificent tho, like the Victory actually going full pelt
Things that are mind blowing but obvious when you think about it- the fact that Drach breathes fire!
A mention should be on Lieutenant Mills men damaging the ARA Guerrico using an anti tank missile in South Georgia.
it wasnt a missile, it was an 84mm Charlie G
@@keithskelhorne3993 One round from a 84 mm Carl Gustav and two Law anti tank missiles.
A wonderful thing when You or Nick or Dr Clarke gives a nod.
The effectiveness of the DD tanks is shown by the impact on Utah and in Omaha beaches. At Utah,, the tanks landed in the correct places and at the right time. They were critical in getting paths open off he beach and the casualties were definitely lower. They also surprised the Germans who were not prepared for individual floating tanks. At Omaha, the tanks were landed further out and were caught by strong currents. Most were lost before they could reach the beach. Without the tanks, the troops suffered very high casualties trying to get through the fortifications. The few that did make it to land were critical in opening up paths off the beach. Omaha and Utah were similar beaches with similar fortifications though Omaha had more German troops due divisions changing positions.
That said, the LST and LCT's were needed to deliver supplies and other equipment. Losing them early on the beaches also risked clogging the beaches and hurting re-supply. Once the Germans were pushed back, they could off load critical equipment and artillery. The lessons at Sicily and Italy made it clear they needed an alternative. Hence the DD tanks. The original idea was created for river forging and then taken to a new level by some very inventive Brits.
I'm sorely tempted to call my Apocalypse class Battleship Drachinifel.
As to the USN and floatplanes, BuAer had advocated from the early 30s to place them on the fantail for safety reasons, according to Friedman. They pretty much won the fight with the Brooklyns with their cats at the rear, as well as a fairly capacious hangar in the stern. Yet there was still contention over it, as the Alaskas had their aviation amidships. Kind of a mystery...
Some pre-war U.S. BB's had their cats on top of the X turret...
They also wanted the Great White Fleet to return to US before Teddy Roosevelt left office.
An 'Inside the hatch' collaboration between Chief and Drach on an AMTANK LVT[A]-1 would be a great thing to watch!
US naval designer: it might be a good idea to put this aircraft catapult here.
US Navy: does it give us MOAR DAKKA???
Designer: well, no but-
Navy: Need MOAR DAKKA WAAAAAGH!
To be honest, it might have been a good idea for the US to remove the seaplanes from their cruisers and add an extra jeep carrier to their task forces. Cruisers get extra AA guns and more storage below decks...
Yeah sometimes I think the Great White Fleet shoudl ahve been the Great Red Fleet. After all, red ones go faster
Take a look at _Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea_ by Robert Massie. It's more of a look at overall command and control of the first world war war at sea rather than details on individual ships, but it's quite an interesting read nonetheless.
Massie's work is excellent in general, and Castles of Steel is especially good.
I'll have to look for that on Google, is it easy to source internationally?. Hope you and yours are well sarjim.
@@AdamMGTF Not aware of it being online anywhere, but here is the Wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castles_of_Steel
@@AdamMGTF Hi Adam. This is one time a good book is available cheap. Several sellers have the paperback version at $4.00 on ebay! Even the higher class bookstores have it for $15 or less, so buying one of these shouldn't be a problem. I'm still recovering from a nasty COPD flareup. Anyone that's not sure if they should quit smoking should look to my example. Quit now so you're not sick during your declining years.
For those looking it’s also in audiobook format on audible
Ah, a Dockyard that doesn't have to be watched in installments till Wednesday 🙂
You mean you don’t stay up until it’s finished
@@jameson1239 it does depend on whats going on, that damned adulting shit...
The allies belived failure at normandy was possible, Ike wrote a letter in preparation for a possible failed invasion.
There was 6th Band Beachhead on D-day, on the edge of Gold beach - just in case the British had problems on that flank. But since they did not, the troops were reinforced to Gold beach.
@@tommy-er6hh yea watched a mark felton vid on that, about a week ago, was rather interesting
If Hitler didn't like sleeping and Rommel wasn't at his wife's birthday, the Normandy landings could have been a bloodbath.
The ability of dust to spread a fire was demonstrated to me a number of years ago. I was at the newspaper and got a call that there was fire in a nearby cotton warehouse. The warehouse was used to store cottonseed. The pile in the middle of the warehouse was a small mountain of about 3,000 tons. The cottonseed had a great deal of lint, much of which had attached itself to the walls and ceiling over the years. A truck delivering cottonseed drove into the warehouse to deliver its load,, and being an old truck, it broke down. The driver, who was less than observant, tried to use a screwdriver on the solenoid to restart the truck; there was a spark, and I suspect you can guess the result. The fire spread rapidly, and great hunks of it fell onto the cottonseed and worked its way into the pile. It too about three weeks extinguish the burning mountain of cottonseed. . I can only imagine that coal dust would also work quite nicely to spread a fire. As for gas fumes, ask the survivors of the Lexington and various Japanese carriers.
I like the patreon drydocks but sometimes when I'm listening to it I swear I hear multiple instances of the same person asking questions. I know people naturally ask multiple and compound questions, but maybe when its a big one like that maybe only one part should get answered so you don't have to elaborate as long.
Keep up the great work! I hope that somebody has the inclination to make a master list of these things so that we can cross reference and know if questions have been answered before.
there is a master list. go to www.drachinifel.co.uk/the-channel and there is a link for a spread sheet that has all the questions with the drydock number and time stamp.
*Edit: Welp... @silverfox575 beat me to it*
Hearing Drachinifel say _"Swe-420-den"_ do give me quite the chuckle for some reason.
As for the master list of Drydock questions, there is one in "The Channel" section of his website @ drachinifel.co.uk
@@Lowkeh @silverfox575 thanks both for the tip.
Did I understand well? Drach can you do fire-breathing? Is there something you can't do? How did you learn?
Why? When? Isn't beard a fire hazard during fire-breathing? Is there a video of you doing it? So many questions!
The Stern Mount of spotters was a correct decision for future improvement. It made the switchover to unmanned spotters much easier, since it gave them a pace for the net to catch the returning vehicle.
If I remember correctly, there were a few engagements between German Tanks/Tank destroyers and Soviet Destroyers during the Battles around Königsberg. Not sure about the outcome, but I imagine that a well disguised tank destroyer could do a number on an unarmoured ship, especially since some of the more insane German designs carried the same gun caliber as a destroyer.
Jagtigers carried a long 12.8 x 55 cal. cm rifle, so a few of them working together could’ve really hurt a normally equipped DD.
My ability to fall asleep depends almost solely on listening to these videos at night.
Sometimes, dont want to get dependent. Which may have happened with my mother, said she was having problems sleeping, and I said "there is this channel called drachinifel....."
In re coal dust: "Beyond the Press" here on YT has some recent videos on burning dust - corn starch....and more spectacularly, magnesium powder.
I was about to go to sleep, but then this came out. Another great video drach!
For the German navy, "The Ships of the German Fleets 1848-1945" by Hans Jürgen Hansen, Hamlyn, 1974. ISBN 0 600 38153 6 is good if you can find a copy.
Referring to shell hits igniting the fuel for catapult launched float planes, I believe that's what happed to the SMS Blucher during the Battle of Drøbak Sound, compounded by all the infantry equipment on board.
I was an RAN cadet at HMAS Lewin in Fremantle. The cadet age was 13 on.
10 year old boys were in an entirely different organisation, it was State based & local. There were the Boy Scouts, & the Sea Scouts, & for the girls, Brownies for the younger ones, & Girl Guides for the older ones. I never figured what they did.
Moreover at 13 there were the Army Cadets, & the Air Cadets. These were school based, & compulsory, for I think 2 years? but one could stay on longer. Essentially you turned up to your school on Thursdays in uniform, & training was conducted after school. Air Cadets also had a dedicated localised training facility with rooms, a parade ground with a flag pole & a decrepit old aeroplane in residence. Army Cadets used various Army bases & were taken out to bivouac at Bindoon now & then. I was also an Army Cadet, & on Thursdays after school we drilled on the school"s sports ground, received instruction on weapons there, eg, Bren Gun etc.
Naval Cadets were mustered on Friday nights at Fremantle Railway Station, & bused out to HMAS Lewin, received training & were worked on Saturdays, with the occasional shipboard weekend.
In answer to coal dust: not only is it flammable, it is rather highly explosive. Compare it to fine saw dust or flour, both of which can - under the right circumstances - explode with devastating results. If on the outside of a warship it wouldn't do too much harm, but if happening internally it would kill many crew members and may result in a catastrophic chain reaction. Thinking of the magazines for example.
French pre-dreadnoughts will now be keeping me up wondering how they could get away with such "interesting designs" thank you Drach for the always interesting and informative videos
Committees and protracted design processes. And insufficient realistic testing.
Australia experienced a notable downturn in recruitment (especially for career officers) when the government of the time instructed the various military arms to stop actively supporting them (although they continued to do so off-the-books as far as they could). One of the big advantages was that the cadets were familiar with military discipline and the military lifestyle, which can come as a bit of a shock to your typical civilian recruit.
The Navy League of Canada has an intersting history. It's been around since 1895. That's 15 years older than the canadian navy.
Drach, I'll have to disagree with you about how the mid-ship catapult arrangement was better for modernization. If you have a fixed hanger size, that limits the size of aircraft you can handle. In the US navy, since the catapults were on the stern, it didn't matter the size of the plane. Also, when ships transitioned to helicopters, removing the stern crane and catapult cleared a ready-made landing pad, reference Iowas. As you had shown in your Belfast tour, the mid-ships hanger and associated equipment had to be removed.
I was talking more about when radar began to replace aircraft on cruisers, being able to drop the hangar and catapult amidships suddenly gave you loads of space to play with when it came to adding guns and radar.
Random things I came up with:
Destroyers can be light cruisers if they have heavier guns
Light cruisers can be Heavy cruisers if they have a higher caliber gun
Heavy cruisers can be Battleships if they have a higher caliber gun
Battleships can be aircraft carriers if they have the the above deck part sheered off and the command center moved to a side.
@25:28
Drachinifel “Light cruiser, heavy cruiser, this cruiser, country A cruiser...”
ORP Piorun, starring strongly in CL
World War 2 saw this Class cost change radically because of the huge scale. Even the Destroyers of the US WW1 fleet must have gotten into the truly bulk orger range. Good thing too since so many tried moving California, or were used by the British Navy as part of Lend- Lease
Napoleon's invasion threat was real enough to have actually landed troops, near Fishguard in Wales. It was a diversion from the invasion of Ireland, and went hilariously.
Good video Drac. Reference aircraft arrangements, both Hood and Valiant carried an aircraft and catapult on their quarter decks in the 1930s,not for long in Hoods case as it kept getting drenched.I believe Valiant retained hers until she paid off for reconstruction in 1936. as for warships being sunk by shore batteries, what about the Russian ships at Port Arthur?,i know they were shelled but what type of guns used by the Japanese I don't know.
"Oh I am the cook, and the captain bold, and the mate of the Nancy Brig,
And the Boatswain tight, and the Midshipmite, and the crew of the Captain's gig."
--J. C. Hutcheson
And, as both a navy man in my youth and a lifelong musical entertainer since, I love all kinds of gigs . . . as long as I don't have to row them.
The Danube "boats" and other riverine monitors and patrol craft. Quite a bit of engagement going on between riverine craft and shore artillery in WW1, during the Russian Revolution, and, of course, the US Civil War. If you haven't gone over it already, the Lake Tanganyika "war" might make a worthy segment, too.
Does the sinking of the Russian fleet at Port Arthur by Japanese howitzers count as ships sunk by field artillery? I know these same kind of guns were used by Japan as shore defence at Tokyo so maybe it doesn’t fit the parameters of the question. Thanks for the video Drach
Sort of, but they weren't moving and the artillery had plenty of time to dig in.
@@Drachinifel The pre-dreadnought Sevastopol did move out of range of the guns, to be attacked by the IJN (she repelled the attack sinking two torpedo destroyers, while a Japanese cruiser got sunk by protective mine barrage) but was later scuttled when the town surrendered.
@@Drachinifel Trying to stay alive till Kamchatka could come save them.
0:11:00 I guess the first ship named Enterprise sailed on Ferenginar.
The Osprey on “Austro-Hungarian Battleships 1914-18” is pretty good, easy to find, and affordable.
US ships generally had two multi purpose cranes on the stern for handling aircraft. The both lifted the planes from the water and lifted the aircraft to the catapults. In terms of moderation the removal of the aircraft and cranes left a large area ideal for helicopters in the fifties and sixties
Lol....'modernization '
37:00 Yes like exploding dust in grain elevators
Regarding field artillery sinking warships, there's also all the Russian battleships sunk in Port Arthur by Japanese artillery fire, as well as the Ottoman field artillery that burned out HMS _Ben-my-Chree_ in 1917.
@field artillety vs. ships: I seem to remember, that during the Napoleonic Wars several ships were heavily damaged or even sunk by siege artillery during the Baltic campaign. IIRC these were small ships like bomb ketches and troop transports with shallow draft for in-shore work that inadvertently drifted into range. I cannot for the life of me remember a source though.
Sailing ships will generally have a much more difficult time to disengage depending on the prevailing winds and currents, so damage can accumulate ;)
Also, range measurements as well as stating your position was a lot more inaccurate so you could have a case of "suddenly shot everywhere" quite a bit easier than in later times.
WRT catapults, since the Alaska class "large cruisers" reverted to an amidships configuration, if there is any good primary source design documentation, it might shed some light on the issue.
0:12:00 - KMS Bismarck vs 10 Leanders - I would throw in at least one year of shakedown costs in fuel, crew pay and ammo, plus the outlook of such theoretical engagement the loss of - say - 2 blown up CLs and a further crew worth in dead on other, damaged ships.
And you have to tell it to the govt and the press.
Plus also there is the outlook of a fast BB turning tail and running and picking off more, than 2 cruisers before the rest can close in to 6" and later torpedo range.
The speed and time the Bismarck would have lost doing that turn would have put the Leanders well into range, the 6" had a 22km range, running would have left the ship with only it's aft turrets, and maybe the rearward 6" engaging a faster and more mobile force. I expect the Leander force would break off but the Bismarck would have been left with a super structure and set of funnels very well riddled and facing a fairly substantial repair. If the Bismarck produced more smoke and head into the wind then that may reduce the effective incoming fire enough to make the whole endevour a waste of ammo for all involved.
@@godalmighty83 Depends on many circumscances, like initial vectors, detection by hydrophones, etc
@@karlvongazenberg8398 And Radar, British Cruisers often had surface search and fire control Radar even by that stage of the war. Really its going to depend on who gets to choose the engagement. The Cruisers would almost certainly prefer to engage at night and from multiple vectors in multiple divisions, say two divisions of two and two of three coming from different directions. In a night engagement from multiple angles of attack I would give it to the Cruisers every time, multiple directions means multiple vectors of torpedo attack as well, meaning that, if well coordinated, no matter which direction the Battleship turned it would eat torpedos.
Of course, if the Battleship forced the engagement during the day while the Cruisers are all together as a single group then that would maximise the Battleships advantages of greater firepower and range. But the cruisers would STILL be able to close, and likely pretty rapidly unless the Battleship ran, which would of course cut the Battleships available firepower by half. Far more critical for the battleship, as while the Cruisers have the same issue you are talking 4 15 inch guns vs 40 6 inch.....
We also know that the blast from its own main battery took away Bismarks fire control Radar, a situation we can probably safely assume would remain true for this hypothetical engagement. Non Radar equipped Cruisers could make smoke, obscuring most of the cruiser force from the Bismarks gunnery, while Radar equipped cruisers could still engage albeit at reduced accuracy.
But as you rightly said, the various circumstances would greatly affect such an engagement.....
@@alganhar1 FYI historically hte Bismarck also had a radar (which was knocked off by its own guns muzzle blast probably) but also had a hydrophone array, which picked up Hood and PoW well before visual contact and opening fire. So, encircling it would not be THAT easy.
I've twice seen flour mills burn. Very spectacular. btw - Monmouth invaded, there were invasions in the 1715 and 1745 rebellions, and please consider the Battle of Fishguard. They failed, but they did happen.
I think that the criterion (especially with regard to the Jacobite ones) was that it had to be a successful invasion. So William of Orange, OK. Monmouth, not so much.
03:45 Are we certain that the USN isn't officered and manned by orks, given their preference for "Moarr guns!" as an answer to nearly every warship design question?
Yes, we are. We send the orcs to the marines or army.
Think of it as a 2nd amendment item, every crew members should be able to shoot at the enemy.
The broadside of the Invincible class is 6 12 inch guns compared to 4 12 inch guns on the pre dreadnoughts. As Lord St. Vincent said, "My Lords I do not say he cannot come, I only say he cannot come BY SEA."
Regarding the Chieftan question, I understand that DD tanks worked well if properly used. However. The US examples were overwhelmingly launch much too far out in rough water.
In regard the D-Day question about LCT;s getting closer, I have a similar question, There was a lot of fire support of shore DD's, BB's, etc, was there any ship based funnies like the tanks, in a direct fire support , where monitors used to get close for direct fire or small ships with large guns mounted on them ?
There were the Landing Craft Gun, basically an LCT fitted with a couple of heavy-ish guns, either 25 pounders, or even, in the case of the LCG (large), 4.7".
I suspect the problem for the Axis light cruisers, and this would include the IJN, a light cruiser uses almost as much fuel as a heavy. And when you have limited fuel it's better to spend your fuel on a ship with the biggest punch.
I thought the Cheiften question was finally the Albonion Navy but alas no
Drach answered questions for the Elbonian Navy a while ago already
EDIT: specifically here: ruclips.net/video/ewUCA8iwFYE/видео.html
@@fuuryuuSKK Good thank you I've been wondering what Drach was gonna do to the Elbonian navy. After hearing what Gun Jesus would have done to screw their army, I was curious.
I am contractually obligated as someone trained in organic chemistry whenever the subject comes up to say this: DON'T AEROSOLIZE ANYTHING ORGANIC! It's going explode eventually. It just will. Coal dust, sawdust, grain dust, alchohol fumes, mineral spirits, it doesn't matter. If it mixes with enough oxygen and any part of that mixture reaches activation energy, its all over.
Also, points for the Futurama reference.
00:56:47 - Ships sunk/damages by field artillery?
At Wake Island the US Marines on Peale islet sank the IJN destroyer Hayate with 5 inch guns during the aborted first amphibious assault on Dec 11. Incidentally, Wake Island is made up of three smaller islands, Peale, Wilkes and Wake. The three islets are arranged so that in 1941 you could start east walking on the western tip of Wilkes, cross over to Wake and go all the way to the southeastern tip, turn north and follow Wake's contouring around, cross over to Peale and walk all the way to the western tip of Peale and it would be like walking across a field and just crossing a couple of shallow creeks.
Chieftans question - I had heard that somewhere north of 50% of the DDT's at Normandy were lost before hitting the beaches.
On Bismark vs multiple Leanders... You left out operating costs. In my experience crew costs are a dominant factor in Whole Life Costs for any military system, at which point you get in to how much 'life' to cost.
Normandy was never really in doubt as a whole though at one point Omar Bradley considered shifting troops slated for Omaha beach to Utah but as they were discussing the possibility the breakout was occurring.
Thanks for another Dry Dock
I have read that another reason the British did not go for stern launched spotter places was concerns of having a large open space for the hanger right above the propellers and resulting echoing resulting from that.
Is there any truth to that?
Regarding ships versus land artillery, does that include Germany's Atlantic Wall? During D-Day, there were some large caliber guns that could have engaged.
People confuse flammable with combustible all the time. A mixture of air and gas/petrol can be flammable or combustible depending on the percentage of the mixture. The same is true of coal, be it dust or otherwise. If you have the right combination of oxygen and coal then you leave the realm of flammable and enter the realm of combustible. The thing is, practically everything flammable if you put enough energy into it. But combustion only requires a tiny spark to go boom.
If the Great White Fleet had visited England and they put their ships alongside and the British press made a big deal of the size difference, imagine how that would have affected a young junior-officer (future Admiral) Ernest King?
There is a theory that the USS Maine was a spontaneous coal dust explosion rather than a Spanish mine in 1898.
Wasn't the second explosion in the Lusitania due to coal dust?
Only going to Stockholm or planning to visit Gothenburg with HSwMS Småland among their museum-ships?
Your little row boat would take my entire family extended to crew. Those are big boats.
During the Berlin Airlift 1948-1949 several aircraft were lost due to both coal and flour powder fires. Both products were shipped in permeable sacks that allowed the fines to sift out. The solution was to employ women with brooms to clean out the cabins of the aircraft.
It may not count given that Wake Island had 5” 51s from the USS Texas but the shore batteries there sank both a destroyer and a Patrol boat during the first invasion attempt.
With ref to risk of invasion of Britain. It is probably a bit of a toss-up between Sealion and Napoleon. Napoleon suffered from many of the same issues as Hitler. There was a shortage of ports and port space, which led to much construction which didn't completely correct this. there was also a lack of shipping of all sorts. This was offset by construction of large numbers of specialised small craft. These weren't that seaworthy, so that week would have to be a week of calm seas and even then there was big risk. The one time a large exercise with the landing vessels was tried the sea was choppy, it was a fiasco and casualties were significant despite the Emperor himself taking command of rescue efforts.
I would say the biggest difference was that the combined Franco-Spanish navy was large and powerful enough to challenge the Royal Navy in a fleet action. The Kreigsmarine could never hope of doing so.
@@88porpoise Good point. They still could not have come by sea[1] but, good point.
[1] Look up Lord St Vincent if you don't recognise the mangled quote. :)
Bedtime stories they help me sleep
...I do not say that they cannot come, I only say that they cannot come by sea...
For some reason the audio quality drops at the question starting at 11:55.
I noticed too
The Nelson and Rodney had all there main guns at the front,it must have certain advantages,the enemy can’t cross your T,
The hood halfway through its turn towards Bismarck to bring all guns to bear etc,could you do a talk on this
.
Would have loved to meet up with you in Stockholm, but I've been stuck at home with a cold for more than a month now, so I'll have to do with your excellent online content.
@50:30 Who needs plans - we will just do another Dunkirk style evac if needed.
I can imagine at least the - let's say non-risk-averse - Churchill thinking like that
Vapor pressure is key.
What would be an ideal heavy cruiser armor scheme in your opinion
00:07:48 What about en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSwMS_Fylgia Fylgia did have a main battery of 4 15cm twin turrets (Layed down 1902, Launched in 1905, Operative 1907) Or we are splitting hair and Fylgia is "only" a armored cruiser and not a light cruiser. Then the next question are what is the diffrent on a smale armored cruiser like Fylgia and real light cruiser.
56:47 What about the Dardanelles campaign, or the defence of wake island.
I was also thinking of the Dardanelles. Though it doesn't appear the field howitzers actually sunk any of the allied minesweepers; but having that mobile artillery hidden along both shores of the passage certainly contributed to the inability of the naval bombardment to sufficiently suppress the defensive fire. So that field artillery contributed to preventing the minesweepers from clearing the way for the pre-dreadnaughts to follow.
I was also thinking about Wake Island, where the coastal defense guns drove off the first invasion force, for awhile at least. Granted, the guns were fixed position naval guns employed by the 1st Defense Battalion and not actually "field artillery", but using six guns to drive off a naval force with many times that number of guns, some of larger caliber, including sinking one destroyer and damaging numerous other ships is a monumental achievement that should not be understated. Leave it to the Marines! Love the channel Drach! Keep up the great work!
if i remember correctly there was a plan that if Omaha beach was going to stay impossible to breach through, to re direct any further troops going there instead to the secure British beaches or even Utah, getting the troops left on Omaha out though well i can't remember any really. i fear it was just leave them or attempt some slap dash rescue attempt or hope troops from Utah could punch through to Omaha before they are all killed.
You mentioned that there was a very small number of ships sunk by field artillery. What about the IJN ships didn't he first attempt to invade Wake Island?
Hey Drach, thinking of your comments about the LCT, do you have a plan to cover the mulberry harbour?
That intro music feels very Cab Calloway
I strongly request a video on the USS Barb, SS-220.
Thanks in advance.
Would you be able to upload these to spotify or in a format where it is only audio to save data for me at work please?
Wasn't the Blucher (WWII) sunk by coastal artillery?
Tristan Jones converted a life boat to a cruising sailboat post ww2 wrote a book sailing around europe.