@@JunafaniFINhaha same (also from Finland), but I re-listen these long plays anyway once or twice while at work to actually learn as much as possible.
I get so caught up at looking at the French pre-dreadnoughts and imagining what it would be like to wander around one, I have to keep rewinding to pay attention to what drach has to say
1:45:06 regarding bilge pumps: from a medical perspective, am not quite as sanguine as Drach about how age-of-sail ships kept their bilges clear of sewage, even with the designated parts of the ship used to keep sailor's egests separate from their ingests. Let's start with where rat droppings and corpses ultimately ended up... but wait, it gets worse. Using the heads during the day in good weather is one thing: using them at night or in bad weather would have been another. Although this was partly addressed by ship's fire buckets having more than one use, one might like to think about where spills ended up, as did vomit from seasickness, and diarrhoea from those who didn't make it in time. Then we start thinking about embarked troops / passengers preferring to relieve themselves in nooks and crannies in the hold or orlop that were somewhat less al fresco than the 'seats of ease' up forrard. One might then also like to consider why moving the 'cook room' from the hold (per Mary Rose) to the upper deck (per Victory) had some medical merit. Bearing in mind how all this effluvia ended up in the spaces used to stow their food and water, it can be seen why effective bilge pumps were medically important quite aside from any other considerations. I think these issues form the basis for the British regarding French or Spanish ships as generally being 'dirty'... even without the latter burying their dead in the ship's ballast into the 17th century rather than burying them at sea for religious reasons. Lastly, it should be noted that UK dockyard mateys apparently relieved themselves in the bilges of the ships they were building into WWI: although they normally cleaned them out before handing the ship over to the Navy, this didn't happen for Tiger when she commissioned early, which probably didn't do any favours for a ship's company that wasn't too flash to begin with...
Regarding floatplanes on capital ships: there is a gentleman affiliated with USS Texas who does his own RUclips videos (Tom Scott The Older One). In a recent video he was exploring spaces deep in the ship, and came across the "bomb magazine" for the floatplanes, so apparently the USN was prepared for battleships to dispatch their aircraft for bombing in a pinch.
I witnessed a failure of a .5 inch soot blower drain line operating at 1200 psi . Sounded like a shotgun going off right next to you. It blew what ever was in that bilge pocket two level up and filled the boiler room with a fog before the guarding valve could be closed. This resulted in no injuries. We figured that if a main steam line failed one might get to the s of "Oh Sh*t " before it got you. There would be no time to evacuate 1200 psi steam at close to 1000 *F was a thing to fear and respect.
A few years ago I was involved in returning an old power plant to service. No one was aware how badly corroded the furnace tubes were. Boiler feed water at around 190°C and 65 bar burst out and flashed off around the boiler, unfortunately a worker 60m away and at least 30m up from the leak got quite a nasty steam burn to the leg
00:44:32 Side note on that matter: World of Warships has this little detail of lowering the guns after firing not implemented. I asked WarGaming on a live stream about this, and the reply was something like "Yeah, so what? We don't care". On the other hand Ultimate Admirals: Dreadnoughts did actually care to implement this. So, hats off to the UA:D developer
The Germans originally wanted to build a 56 caliber gun for the Bismarck-class battleships, but found it too heavy and settled for the historical 52 caliber lengths (actually 51,66 to be precise)
The Great Chain at West Point, New York in the photo used by @Drachinifel was iron, had links of ~ 114 pounds each, and total weight was ~ 35 tons. It was supported across the river by a series of rafts. The defenders also deployed a log boom south/downstream from the chain to slow ships trying to get through the chain. No obstacle is impenetrable and should be covered by fire, and Fort Arnold (initially)/Clinton (Eventually and self-explanatory)'s guns could engage any target trying to approach the chain.
The Americans not being terribly interested were a major part of the onerousness of Versailles. France knew that Germany would out-industrial it fast. Once the Americans were shaping to retreat, the French wanted to (a)hobble Germany's industrial capacity and (b) get a slice of the economic action (one of the reason for the whole Saar stuff)
But only with the rest as well (or just Avrora). I would very well imagine the words that would be said the most would be "Shut up". Maybe with an "the fuck" in the middle
00:28:57 There is a description of a major breach of a steam line due to battle damage in the book "Neptunes Inferno" or "Last Stand of the Tincan Sailors" (can't remember which one). Basically all machnists got boiled alive. Some survived down in the lower parts by laying down as deep as possible IIRC
the photos you have are just incredible. i often just pause the video just to take in the amazing photos. I would love a video of just incredible photos with your commentary at what i am looking at
That's a good point about buying WWII surplus ships. Some smaller ships were sold to individuals. In the 90's, one of our computer contractors (and her husband) were outfitting a WWII minesweeper as a houseboat. It could be done but it's very expensive. IIRC, that ship had been in the USN but was operated by Canada after the war.
Drac, one of the impetus events behind the implementation of a QA program similar to SUBSAFE in the surface Navy was the accident on USS Iwo Jima where black oxide coated brass fasteners were accidentally substituted for carbon steel in a turbine generator governor valve. The resulting bonnet liftoff killed several sailors. I am sure the accident report is available online somewhere. Not for the faint of heart. As someone who dealt regularly with high pressure steam and water systems (including reactors) this incident was part of our annual training.
On the subject of ships incarnated into people, your descriptions of what Warspite and Laffey would be like sound decently close to Azur Lane's versions of them. Warspite is a short older woman (though young looking because anime) who has seen and done it all and suffers no fools. She's a source of wisdom as a veteran and she hits like a truck in battle. Laffey is a younger girl, mid to late teens, and while she is usually just sleeping (and drinking) as much as she can, her skills in game turn her into a little terror when the shooting starts. She even essentially says in one of her lines that she'll happily 1v1 Hiei again if she has to. And I believe her.
The Kantai Collection version of Warspite honestly fits the Grand Old Lady more. She even gets shown in a sitting posture because of the damage she took at Jutland that led to steering issues for the rest of her existence.
@@idrilek Sometimes; there are other cases where AL does it well, and for some ships I don’t think either KC or AL do an adequate job with characterization.
I'd LOVE to hear Drach Interviewing the human manifestation of... THE KAMCHATKA!!! I can just imaging some wild-eyed crazed Russian looking about all the time shrieking "DO YOU SEE TORPEDO BOATS??? THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!" 😲
As an anthropomorphised ship, I would imagine Warspite as Helen Mirren. Venerable, still a beauty (with a damned fine set of pins); but don't you dare cross her. Victory and Constituton, by contrast, I picture as Statler and Waldorf, sitting in a balcony and raining contumely down upon unfortunate younger ships.
A set of baby carriers were scrapped right at the Richmond end - north side - of the Richmond San Rafael bridge across SF CA Bay. The Dirty Harry movie The Enforcer from 1973 had a chase sequence on them. They were there for several years as I recall - I was too young to drive myself so it required a cross to Marin drive- mainly SCUBA trips.
You know you’ve been watching for awhile when you can follow on the in advance with the same logic that Drach uses to choose HMS Renown. How about this for a fun Friday two-parter, the how well do you know your historian quiz. One episode with a few questions and possible answers about favorite/least favorite warships/officers/actions and some general channel trivia, and the answers and brief explanations the next week. No prizes, just some fun especially for the long term viewers.
27 min - what ship would you save HMS Renown.. Yes a thousand times yes I might of cheered when you said that, brownie points earned! My love for all things naval related started at High School reading a "biography" of the ship from the local library. Ultimately leading to me listening to thousands of hours of Drach
00:56:00 I imagine HMS Warspite looking a lot like Adrian Carton De Wiart, or Captian Fredrickson from the Sharpe series, quite calm and respectful usually while also covered in scares, but if she gets a wiff of a fight she's front and center fighting people like you see in the Kingsman films though with a smile and slight glee in her eyes.
I have some headcanons of mine as well, more in regards to characterization than appearance. - most if not all battleships built in WWII are a combination of permanently depressed and misanthropic. Why? Because their entire existence was strategically wasteful and pointless, so they hate the fact they exist and they hate humanity for creating them. And yes, this means that, among others, all five KGVs (save maybe DoY, who got to have her moment at North Cape), both of the Richelieus, all three Littorios, both Bismarcks (Tirpitz more so than her sister, due to how her crew morale plummeted during her days as a fleet in being), Vanguard (whose grounding could be interpreted here as her attempt at killing as many people as possible on her way out as some form of revenge), both Yamatos (Yamato herself especially, due to Ten-Go) and all four Iowas (Iowa herself especially, due to the turret explosion and how that was handled) would be misanthropic and consider humans in general and the Japanese, British, Italians, French, Germans, and Americans in particular as beings unworthy of existing. *Run.* - the Shokakus and Yorktowns are incredibly combat-experienced veterans (mostly because they spent an entire year trying to brutally murder each other), having far more war stories to tell than the vast majority of ships that were in service for much longer. Their vendetta against each other is such that, even after coming back, they will STILL try to kill each other on sight. Enterprise retains her historical hatred for the Iowas (because of Hailstone) and Saratoga (rivalry), the Shokakus retain their historical hatred for CarDiv1, and Zuikaku might just well hate the entire nation of Japan for sending her as bait on a mission that was never going to succeed even if absolutely everything went right (because the Japanese launched Sho-Go too late to actually do much about the American landings, with or without Taffy 3). Younger carriers very much wish they’d shut up and stop talking about their glory days, except that they know far more about carrier warfare (especially against other carriers) than any other ship does, so all the new kids on the block secretly want to live up to their legacies, especially the two nuclear Enterprises.
@@bkjeong4302 I wouldn't think Enterprise-Saratoga rivalry would manifest as hatred. Especially as they would have common ground and have sympathy for each other as both lost sisters and survived from start of the war till the end. Speaking of which, Sara might well be as angry as the battleships. All that service for US and they nuke her?
Another problem for IJN submarines from the Solomons on was that increasingly they were the only way to supply bypassed garrisons so they weren't even carrying torpedoes much of the time. As a result of code breaking, USN submarines were often positioned to attack IJN ships but without that much luck for the same reasons you mention.
@41:00 spotting distance: In the age of dreadnaughts (and on), the smoke trail from the funnels was often visible further than masts: It is black (especially while ships were primarily coal-fired) and broader than the masts. It CAN also - depending on weather - reach higher than those. This in turn meant, that you could often spot a ship before it could spot you. Note that you will usually not know if a sighting is enemy, friend or neutral unless you can see at least (part of) their super structure. In the age of sail, the top sails were usually the first thing to appear beyond the horizon. There are tales of skilled lookouts that were able to tell what nation any given ship belonged to by the cut and fastening of these sails - and tall tales of some being able to tell ship type (somewhat plausible) or even the INDIVIDUAL ship (not so plausible IMO)
Regarding the Anglo-German treaty, it did end the Versailles treaty itself, of which France was a very important part, without even asking them. I think by 1935 it was obvious to everyone, including the French, that Germany needed to be accomodated and Versailes had to go. But the problem for France was not so much this new treaty in itself but the terms that had been imposed on her by the Washington treaty in 1922. Both France and Italy had been given 33% of the RN tonnage. That was bad enough for France as they complained they always had a much bigger fleet than Italy and also a much bigger empire to defend (while Italy could keep all her fleet in the Mediterranean). Now Germany was given a fleet as big as France's too. So the French fleet would eventually be only half of the combined fleets of the two fascists dictatorships, both unfriendly neighbours, Italy and Germany. No wonder this was very upsetting and totally unacceptable for France, who felt betrayed, particularly because on top of this, the British government refused to give France any hard guarantee to come to her help at the moment of need.
There indeed a few mothballed CVEs that were still around in mothballs by the early '70s - check out the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry "Magnum Force" for the final sequence showing a few of these.
In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the first kill on the 22-ship Japanese convoy was scored by a B-17. A squadron led the first air attack, fairly immune to the Zeros that tried to get up to them, and dropped their bombs just like they were doing a pattern drop over Europe. Usually these all missed on moving naval targets, but here a single bomb scored a direct hit on a freighter/transport and it broke up and sank.
In the Battle of the Eastern Solomons the captain of the Mutsuki decided to continue evacuating crew from the stopped Ryujyo. B-17s were spotted, he was asked if they should get under way, and he allegedly said no, they can't hit anything anyway.
I've enjoyed this channel from the beginning. Also, the various off-shoots containing a bevy of knowledge. It greatly absorbed my time during the insane lock-down period and is still a treasure to this day, thanks Drach! That said, this episode has become just silly. Cartoon-esque animated ships, really obvious dumb questions (sorry folks, they are) and a sense of "why is this such a loooong session?" Kinda obvious to me. I would hope Drach can edit out such blather and get pertinent in future. This could shorten the program and maybe, just maybe, Drach would get to my question. The one I placed around episode 145. Some get to ask many, I haven't had mine answered yet. And yes, it was a good one. So there.
The live questions are where most of the silly stuff is, things like "what if this WWII ship was transported into the Space Treck TV show", absurd questions like that. So I just don't watch it. But people directly donate money in that segment, so Drach has to do it to make a living. I can handle the occasional dumb question in normal drydock with the knowledge that most of them are diverted to the live stream.
Some navies in the 1920 and 30s had the idea of using shipboard seaplane fighters. The Japanese (A6M2-N, N1K1 "Rex") were thinking of using them both from ships and ashore in their very extended offensive plans in the Pacific that could not always include aircraft carriers. The French and Italians (Loire 210, Bernard H110, Macchi M.41, Ro-44) wanted them to protect their naval forces if carriers were not available, particularly when far enough from the enemy coast as to be dealing only with land based bombers and torpedo bombers but not enemy land fighters. Actually this was the very scenario faced by Force Z on 10 December 1941. The British never shared this idea but they tested the concept of a floatplane Spitfire around the time of the Norwegian campaign (to use them from fjords, not from battleships) but development stopped once that campaign ended. They would re-start development later in 1941 and by 1942 had a superb very fast and agile floatplane Spitfire based on Mk.V (but never put it into production). Had they embraced the idea of floatplane fighters for the fleet (when carriers no available) it's very likely that floatplane Spitfires could have been in service by the time of the Japanese entry into the war. I always thought had Prince of Wales and Repulse carry floatplane Spitfire, these planes could have had an impact on the fate of Force Z. What do you think?
@@nigelmacbug6678 Humanized Kamchatka would be illiterate, mentally ill, addicted to both alcohol and opium, and be a giant paranoid singularity of various conspiracy theories onto herself.
About the 70 caliber naval gun: at the risk of piling on, let me add another point. The largest tank guns are 125 mm, or 5 inches. Scaling up the gun to 16 inches, the mass will increase by roughly the cube of the bore diameter. That's (16/5)^3 = 33. Mounting, supporting, aiming, all get 33 times harder.
The Hudson River chain (seen at Trophy Point, USMA) was positioned at a point in the river where the ships had to navigate an extreme bend in the river, therefore reducing their speed at the point where they would have to breach the chain. Also, bracketing gun batteries on both sides of the river.
Technically there was the guns used by the Scharnhorsts, which were 54.5-cal, granted it’s a 11.142” gun but still. Guns actually built and entered service in a warship 38 cm/52 SK C/34 (Bismarck-class battleships; officially designated as 47-cal but was actually 52-cal) 28.3 cm/54.5 SK C/34 (Scharnhorst-class battleships) 12"/52 Model 1907 (Gangut-class and Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleships) Designed for warship use and built but never mounted on a warship 40.6 cm/52 SK C/34 (H-Klasse battleships) 53 cm/52 Gerät 36 (unknown, probably experimental) 14"/52 (Borodino-class battlecruisers) 12"/62 SM-33 (Stalingrad-class battlecruisers) The American 16"/56 Mark 4 gun (18"/48 Mark 1 relined in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty, used as a test gun) Designed but never built 30.5 cm/56 SK C/39 (interwar battlecruiser designs), only one prototype was built 12"/55 B-50 (Kronstadt-class battlecruisers) 28 cm/54.5 (Design 1047 battlecruisers)
Especially with coal-powered propulsion, and even with oil, wasn't smoke production by a ship probably be what is spotted even while the ship itself might still be over the horizon? And thus providing a very broad hint that there were ships in a particular direction to be on the lookout for or be maneuvered towards or away from depending on your mission? (I get the impression that this is something often overlooked in questions and associated answers.)
Would love to see Piorun and Samuel B. Roberts at a party. Piorun would be trying to get Sammy B to play crazy DD drinking games, Sammy B politely declining while stifling a PTSD episode, and meanwhile Willie D is already in the corner, passed out drunk and drooling.
@@joshthomas-moore2656 - watch those two point at each other, scream in appreciation, and rush in for a welcome headbutt. Meanwhile, every last battleship in the room picks up its beer and leaves as quietly as possible.
the auction specifications for warships give you a firm time frame for the scrapping, and in many cases Armor plate has to be returned in specified slab sizes.
The Japanese picket line assigned relatively fixed positions to the submarines and by the middle of the war American code breakers were able to decode/interpret these positions. Hunter/killer groups were then dispatched to those positions.
Oh dear, jet lag did catch you, but once 😞 While discussing the application of variable-pitch screws to ships, particularly large ships you stated that in order to equip all the Iowa class battleships with said devices one would have to produce 12 such devices. But, one must remember there were 4 Iowa class battleships, with 4 screws apiece, thus one one need to produce sixteen very large variable-pitch screws to fully equip the class. Otherwise one would be faced with either an undesirable asymmetry, or one ship sulking - and who would ever want to see a sulking Iowa class battleship?
To German naval facilities in East Prussia: not exactly in East but West Prussia you had Schichau ship (and locomotive) works at Elbing. They already had built torpedo boats in WW1 and continued to do so in WW2 with the type 1935/37 and 1939 classes. Practically they weren't out of range for Allied bombers but they didn't receive much attention either. I assume smaller German surface units didn't cause major headaches within Allied strategy by 1943/44.
And I'd say one reason it worked well enough to simply rate ships by the number of guns they could carry, without respect to their weight of broadside is that nobody was trying the min/max just that stat -- unlike what players might try in a computer game (Say by designing a frigate pierced for a swarm of 6-pounders; just so you could _technically_ call it a 74, or what have you. Which depending on how the game was written might give you some exploitable advantage - like maybe the AI is fooled into avoiding fights with you due to your seemingly overwhelming number of "heavy" ships). Also even dropping to a lighter gun doesn't seem like it'd let you squeeze all that many more on -- after all, the gun itself doesn't get that much narrower as the weight of shot drops and you still need just about the same room around it for the crew to work it. Though I guess go light enough and you might be able to afford the weight of one extra gun deck.
While they don't say at what range they are showing the outlines of ships for the us armed forces are the Recognition manual that were distributed during WW2. I used to find them in used book store on Nassau street in NYC, I lived their most of my life, but that area called book alley no longer has book stores.
I will point out about heavy cruisers that San Francisco might have shit straight through Hiei’s belt. The range was so close, only a few thousand yards by the USN’s records, she would have been able to go easily through 8” of armor
Can you do a 5 min. on the Brave class patrol boats. Borderer P1011 & Swordsman P1012. How did they stack up to the USN PT boats or the German Schnelboots? Ty
50:00 I would assume another big difference goes to the use of blasting charges in warship AP shells. You might have been able to decrease the calibre and have a relatively longer barrel with equal penetration, but that would reduce the blasting charge size and its effectiveness when it does penetrate. Whereas tanks can do their job quite well with a simple metal slug (much like your frequent comments on the use of shaped charges)..
1:55:14 regarding why no 'Royal Army' cf the RN and RAF: It's my understanding that this reflects a couple of issues related to the English / British aversion to standing armies compared to other countries in Europe. The first pertains to the Interregium, when, having defeated the Cavaliers, the Parliamentary Army went rogue while the Navy stayed loyal. The second relates to the 1688 Glorious Revolution: having been largely disbanded in 1660, James II started developing another standing Army that would be loyal to him rather than Parliament: when he got the boot, Parliament sustained its aversion to standing armies for the next couple of centuries, while, again, the Navy (again) remained loyal to Parliament. I understand that even now, the legal basis for the British Army's continuing existence remains dependent on an Act of Parliament that requires annual renewal, unlike the other two services.
I rented a book from my little library in the early 70s about battleships, it was more of a booklet of black and white photos of pre- dreadnought and great war battleships, not a very big book but lots of photos one on every page and I was wondering if you have seen or read it, I'm so fascinated with pre-dreadnought dreadnought and thought maybe you could do more episodes on those, i bought a book from the Military Book Club in the 90s and it doesn't do that old book justice for photos but love the new one for all the specs,and so keep up the great work you put a lot of time and research into every video 💣💥☠✌
My picks for preservation at the end of world war 2 would be HMS Malaya as it's more of an original ww1 Queen Elizabeth rather than Warspite's half way house style modernization & a full scale Valiant style modernization & well Malaya really deserves a lot more love than she gets. My second pick would probably be a surviving County Class perhaps Shropshire specifically as she had a career both in the RAN & RN plus her records are exemplary and the ship gave a good accounting of itself in both navy's.
35:36 is that Walrus taking off from one of the Nelsons' aftmost 16" turret? I was unaware they had that capability at any point. I can't recall ever seeing a picture with a flying off platform (surely it wouldn't have been a catapult).
8:52 - The US Navy Office of Naval Intelligence published a series of manuals during WWII with drawings, silhouettes and some photos of naval vessels of the USN and foreign navies. For example ONI-222 was published on 1 Sep 1945 and covers US ships that existed at that date.
@ 1:15 Operation Starvation was claimed to have sunk or damaged 1.25 million tons of Japanese shipping by dropping aerial mines from B-29 bombers. The graph shows only ships sunk, so it may not reflect the full impact on the enemy. Those losses were in 1945, when Japan had a limited ability to repair damaged ships as their economy was collapsing.
"If you were able to save one British capital ship at the end of WWII that isn't Warspite." You said "Hood" in a most strange way... All right, saving it once it is on the ocean floor would be a bother...
RE: toroidal propellers. I seriously doubt if any amount of money could have created these in the WW2 time period. the computational power needed to drive 5-axis CNC milling machines was over 50 years away.
The NYC wooden battleship makes an appearance in the second book of John Dos Passos' USA trilogy "1919." You don't get a sense of how arge it was from the book.
Ummmmm,,, not trying to get anybody excited or anything but how would you feel about a 16" 90 caliber gun? It launched a 185 pound Martlet 111 miles above sea level. Yup,,, officially into space. Project HARP. Might make for a great Friday video for you Drach. Welding two 16" naval guns together, pointing it into the air, then cracking the walls and foundations of the locals homes in Barbados. All in the name of science don't ya know.🧐 Actually we did learn a lot about the stratosphere with HARP and cheaper than using rockets.
I can answer that. The Russo-Ukraine war lies outside the remit of this channel (too modern/ongoing conflict). Even if we bought him the worlds largest barge pole he still wouldn't touch that subject. ;-)
Hey Drach, with regard to your question about what would happen with a steam breach? A family friend used to tell the story of being assigned to USS Oriskany (or Kearsarge?) and flying out on the mail plane to meet the ship. Upon coming on board he was given the option of being assigned to launch our recovery and chose recovery. The next day the steam catapult exploded. He said they carried the guys who has been working in the catapult room out in buckets.
never truly understood why the RN did not use their floatplanes for fire control, several navies were apparently geared up for this with coloured dyes for individual battleships yet i can only bring to mind one occasion in the med where the seaplane/flying boat is mentioned in this role
I think Drach missed one HUGE consideration in large Artillery. Big guns before the hard coated IOWA guns wear out the barrel real fast. Jacking the speed up higher would make that even worse. Ships fire a lot of shots for one hit. Ships usually dont die to a single hit. Ships live longer than tanks in general. Changing a tank gun is a fairly harmless exercise. Summary result.....wearing a tank barrel out after a couple hundred shots is OK. Wearing a 16" gun out after 100 shots would be the crowning archievement in the art of nuisance......
What were the statistics for accidents aboard warships, in peacetime, pre-first world and pre-second world war? was there an increase in accidents when there were changes in technology?
Steam leak. Whats fun is after fixing a gasket leak you head out into 105F desert heat and feel cold. Like I should go toss on a jacket feeling. Lucky in this case it was a decent sized underground tunnel so the heat was fairly localised. I can't imagine a sealed ship space where you have to fix it now instead of swapping people every few minutes.
the Russian model 1907 12 inch 52 cal guns were beyond a sensible calibre when used by the Germans on Guernsey the Ex Imperator Aleksandr III guns had to be down rated as full power firing would destroy the cradle which one during tests did and Germans had to invade Russia to get a new one
man, now youve got me wondering what uss texas would look like if she were somehow to be refitted for desert storm, ww1 dreadnought with tomahawks on top :p
If Fisher cannot send the stuff he got scrapped, well he could lay up the stuff that getting to the end keep the stuff that is brand new but obsolete around find a use for them until he gets a chance to get them scrapped
Sometimes I don't even care about the questions I just like Drachinfel's cool ship photos
Don't forget his soothing voice
@@amandajones8841 I use drydock as a sleepaid. So soothing and long videos.
@@JunafaniFINhaha same (also from Finland), but I re-listen these long plays anyway once or twice while at work to actually learn as much as possible.
Sometimes?
I get so caught up at looking at the French pre-dreadnoughts and imagining what it would be like to wander around one, I have to keep rewinding to pay attention to what drach has to say
1:45:06 regarding bilge pumps: from a medical perspective, am not quite as sanguine as Drach about how age-of-sail ships kept their bilges clear of sewage, even with the designated parts of the ship used to keep sailor's egests separate from their ingests. Let's start with where rat droppings and corpses ultimately ended up... but wait, it gets worse.
Using the heads during the day in good weather is one thing: using them at night or in bad weather would have been another. Although this was partly addressed by ship's fire buckets having more than one use, one might like to think about where spills ended up, as did vomit from seasickness, and diarrhoea from those who didn't make it in time. Then we start thinking about embarked troops / passengers preferring to relieve themselves in nooks and crannies in the hold or orlop that were somewhat less al fresco than the 'seats of ease' up forrard. One might then also like to consider why moving the 'cook room' from the hold (per Mary Rose) to the upper deck (per Victory) had some medical merit. Bearing in mind how all this effluvia ended up in the spaces used to stow their food and water, it can be seen why effective bilge pumps were medically important quite aside from any other considerations.
I think these issues form the basis for the British regarding French or Spanish ships as generally being 'dirty'... even without the latter burying their dead in the ship's ballast into the 17th century rather than burying them at sea for religious reasons.
Lastly, it should be noted that UK dockyard mateys apparently relieved themselves in the bilges of the ships they were building into WWI: although they normally cleaned them out before handing the ship over to the Navy, this didn't happen for Tiger when she commissioned early, which probably didn't do any favours for a ship's company that wasn't too flash to begin with...
Regarding floatplanes on capital ships: there is a gentleman affiliated with USS Texas who does his own RUclips videos (Tom Scott The Older One). In a recent video he was exploring spaces deep in the ship, and came across the "bomb magazine" for the floatplanes, so apparently the USN was prepared for battleships to dispatch their aircraft for bombing in a pinch.
I witnessed a failure of a .5 inch soot blower drain line operating at 1200 psi . Sounded like a shotgun going off right next to you. It blew what ever was in that bilge pocket two level up and filled the boiler room with a fog before the guarding valve could be closed. This resulted in no injuries.
We figured that if a main steam line failed one might get to the s of "Oh Sh*t " before it got you. There would be no time to evacuate 1200 psi steam at close to 1000 *F was a thing to fear and respect.
A few years ago I was involved in returning an old power plant to service. No one was aware how badly corroded the furnace tubes were. Boiler feed water at around 190°C and 65 bar burst out and flashed off around the boiler, unfortunately a worker 60m away and at least 30m up from the leak got quite a nasty steam burn to the leg
00:44:32 Side note on that matter: World of Warships has this little detail of lowering the guns after firing not implemented. I asked WarGaming on a live stream about this, and the reply was something like "Yeah, so what? We don't care". On the other hand Ultimate Admirals: Dreadnoughts did actually care to implement this. So, hats off to the UA:D developer
The Germans originally wanted to build a 56 caliber gun for the Bismarck-class battleships, but found it too heavy and settled for the historical 52 caliber lengths (actually 51,66 to be precise)
And the designated them officially as a 47-cal lol
The Great Chain at West Point, New York in the photo used by @Drachinifel was iron, had links of ~ 114 pounds each, and total weight was ~ 35 tons. It was supported across the river by a series of rafts. The defenders also deployed a log boom south/downstream from the chain to slow ships trying to get through the chain. No obstacle is impenetrable and should be covered by fire, and Fort Arnold (initially)/Clinton (Eventually and self-explanatory)'s guns could engage any target trying to approach the chain.
The Americans not being terribly interested were a major part of the onerousness of Versailles. France knew that Germany would out-industrial it fast. Once the Americans were shaping to retreat, the French wanted to (a)hobble Germany's industrial capacity and (b) get a slice of the economic action (one of the reason for the whole Saar stuff)
00:54:38 for ship incarnations. I would love to see the Kamchatka become incarnated 😂
But only with the rest as well (or just Avrora). I would very well imagine the words that would be said the most would be "Shut up". Maybe with an "the fuck" in the middle
Mr. Bean (Russians refer to their ships as males)
Your wish has been fulfilled but it too expensive to provide suitable ammunition.
I need to see a Thomas the Tank Engine spinoff that uses British warships of the interwar period.
They also made a series called Tugs and Thomas has occasional guest appearances from Tugs characters in port scenes. That is the nearest you will get.
From Theodore tugboat to Theodore battle cruiser lol
Admiral Sir Topham Hat, has a certain ring to it. "Thomas the battleship, you have spread confusion and delay, well done!"
@@camenbert5837 Thomas would be a corvette, or a frigate at most. Gordon would be the battleship. But I do like the idea of "The Fat Admiral".
“The Flying Kipper”
00:28:57 There is a description of a major breach of a steam line due to battle damage in the book "Neptunes Inferno" or "Last Stand of the Tincan Sailors" (can't remember which one). Basically all machnists got boiled alive. Some survived down in the lower parts by laying down as deep as possible IIRC
the photos you have are just incredible. i often just pause the video just to take in the amazing photos. I would love a video of just incredible photos with your commentary at what i am looking at
That's a good point about buying WWII surplus ships. Some smaller ships were sold to individuals. In the 90's, one of our computer contractors (and her husband) were outfitting a WWII minesweeper as a houseboat. It could be done but it's very expensive. IIRC, that ship had been in the USN but was operated by Canada after the war.
Drac, one of the impetus events behind the implementation of a QA program similar to SUBSAFE in the surface Navy was the accident on USS Iwo Jima where black oxide coated brass fasteners were accidentally substituted for carbon steel in a turbine generator governor valve. The resulting bonnet liftoff killed several sailors. I am sure the accident report is available online somewhere. Not for the faint of heart.
As someone who dealt regularly with high pressure steam and water systems (including reactors) this incident was part of our annual training.
Some years back I worked with a man at a VA who'd lost his arm in a steam accident. Seems like scary stuff.
@@josepetersen7112 You definitely have to respect it.
On the subject of ships incarnated into people, your descriptions of what Warspite and Laffey would be like sound decently close to Azur Lane's versions of them.
Warspite is a short older woman (though young looking because anime) who has seen and done it all and suffers no fools. She's a source of wisdom as a veteran and she hits like a truck in battle.
Laffey is a younger girl, mid to late teens, and while she is usually just sleeping (and drinking) as much as she can, her skills in game turn her into a little terror when the shooting starts. She even essentially says in one of her lines that she'll happily 1v1 Hiei again if she has to. And I believe her.
The Kantai Collection version of Warspite honestly fits the Grand Old Lady more. She even gets shown in a sitting posture because of the damage she took at Jutland that led to steering issues for the rest of her existence.
KanColle is way better as portraying ships true to their irl character
@@idrilek
Sometimes; there are other cases where AL does it well, and for some ships I don’t think either KC or AL do an adequate job with characterization.
47:46: That is a crossover episode I was not expecting to see today....
🤣🤣🤣👍🏻👍🏻 epic
I'd LOVE to hear Drach Interviewing the human manifestation of... THE KAMCHATKA!!!
I can just imaging some wild-eyed crazed Russian looking about all the time shrieking "DO YOU SEE TORPEDO BOATS??? THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!" 😲
As an anthropomorphised ship, I would imagine Warspite as Helen Mirren. Venerable, still a beauty (with a damned fine set of pins); but don't you dare cross her.
Victory and Constituton, by contrast, I picture as Statler and Waldorf, sitting in a balcony and raining contumely down upon unfortunate younger ships.
A set of baby carriers were scrapped right at the Richmond end - north side - of the Richmond San Rafael bridge across SF CA Bay. The Dirty Harry movie The Enforcer from 1973 had a chase sequence on them. They were there for several years as I recall - I was too young to drive myself so it required a cross to Marin drive- mainly SCUBA trips.
Thank you for the comprehensive answer to my Question Drach.
You know you’ve been watching for awhile when you can follow on the in advance with the same logic that Drach uses to choose HMS Renown. How about this for a fun Friday two-parter, the how well do you know your historian quiz. One episode with a few questions and possible answers about favorite/least favorite warships/officers/actions and some general channel trivia, and the answers and brief explanations the next week. No prizes, just some fun especially for the long term viewers.
Yes, I also chose HMS Renown and was ridiculously pleased when Drach announced 'Renown.'
As soon as he started reading the question i said Warspite... Then sighed and picked Renown or Rodney
27 min - what ship would you save HMS Renown.. Yes a thousand times yes I might of cheered when you said that, brownie points earned! My love for all things naval related started at High School reading a "biography" of the ship from the local library. Ultimately leading to me listening to thousands of hours of Drach
47:44 that was a good laugh! 🤣Thanks Drach! 😊
Briljant, had me in stitches
00:56:00 I imagine HMS Warspite looking a lot like Adrian Carton De Wiart, or Captian Fredrickson from the Sharpe series, quite calm and respectful usually while also covered in scares, but if she gets a wiff of a fight she's front and center fighting people like you see in the Kingsman films though with a smile and slight glee in her eyes.
*"men are dirty sir. But rifles are clean"*
I would like to see art of Drach conversing with this humanised Warspite.
I have some headcanons of mine as well, more in regards to characterization than appearance.
- most if not all battleships built in WWII are a combination of permanently depressed and misanthropic. Why? Because their entire existence was strategically wasteful and pointless, so they hate the fact they exist and they hate humanity for creating them. And yes, this means that, among others, all five KGVs (save maybe DoY, who got to have her moment at North Cape), both of the Richelieus, all three Littorios, both Bismarcks (Tirpitz more so than her sister, due to how her crew morale plummeted during her days as a fleet in being), Vanguard (whose grounding could be interpreted here as her attempt at killing as many people as possible on her way out as some form of revenge), both Yamatos (Yamato herself especially, due to Ten-Go) and all four Iowas (Iowa herself especially, due to the turret explosion and how that was handled) would be misanthropic and consider humans in general and the Japanese, British, Italians, French, Germans, and Americans in particular as beings unworthy of existing. *Run.*
- the Shokakus and Yorktowns are incredibly combat-experienced veterans (mostly because they spent an entire year trying to brutally murder each other), having far more war stories to tell than the vast majority of ships that were in service for much longer. Their vendetta against each other is such that, even after coming back, they will STILL try to kill each other on sight. Enterprise retains her historical hatred for the Iowas (because of Hailstone) and Saratoga (rivalry), the Shokakus retain their historical hatred for CarDiv1, and Zuikaku might just well hate the entire nation of Japan for sending her as bait on a mission that was never going to succeed even if absolutely everything went right (because the Japanese launched Sho-Go too late to actually do much about the American landings, with or without Taffy 3). Younger carriers very much wish they’d shut up and stop talking about their glory days, except that they know far more about carrier warfare (especially against other carriers) than any other ship does, so all the new kids on the block secretly want to live up to their legacies, especially the two nuclear Enterprises.
Iowa and New Jersey I could see as two retired firemen, instinctively twitching when they hear a bell.
@@bkjeong4302 I wouldn't think Enterprise-Saratoga rivalry would manifest as hatred. Especially as they would have common ground and have sympathy for each other as both lost sisters and survived from start of the war till the end.
Speaking of which, Sara might well be as angry as the battleships. All that service for US and they nuke her?
00:54:38 There's only one face and name for the anthropomorphization of HMS Warspite. And that is Brian Blessed. Prove me wrong.
GORDON'S ALIVE!!!!
@@Tuning3434 An absolute legend.
Another problem for IJN submarines from the Solomons on was that increasingly they were the only way to supply bypassed garrisons so they weren't even carrying torpedoes much of the time. As a result of code breaking, USN submarines were often positioned to attack IJN ships but without that much luck for the same reasons you mention.
@41:00 spotting distance: In the age of dreadnaughts (and on), the smoke trail from the funnels was often visible further than masts: It is black (especially while ships were primarily coal-fired) and broader than the masts. It CAN also - depending on weather - reach higher than those. This in turn meant, that you could often spot a ship before it could spot you. Note that you will usually not know if a sighting is enemy, friend or neutral unless you can see at least (part of) their super structure.
In the age of sail, the top sails were usually the first thing to appear beyond the horizon. There are tales of skilled lookouts that were able to tell what nation any given ship belonged to by the cut and fastening of these sails - and tall tales of some being able to tell ship type (somewhat plausible) or even the INDIVIDUAL ship (not so plausible IMO)
Re 26:00 - You can make a small fortune with a museum ship, provided that you start with a large one.
Some of the mega corporations today may like tax writeoffs, but aren't exactly the most pro military of organizations.
Superb as usual, thanks Drach.
Regarding the Anglo-German treaty, it did end the Versailles treaty itself, of which France was a very important part, without even asking them. I think by 1935 it was obvious to everyone, including the French, that Germany needed to be accomodated and Versailes had to go. But the problem for France was not so much this new treaty in itself but the terms that had been imposed on her by the Washington treaty in 1922. Both France and Italy had been given 33% of the RN tonnage. That was bad enough for France as they complained they always had a much bigger fleet than Italy and also a much bigger empire to defend (while Italy could keep all her fleet in the Mediterranean). Now Germany was given a fleet as big as France's too. So the French fleet would eventually be only half of the combined fleets of the two fascists dictatorships, both unfriendly neighbours, Italy and Germany. No wonder this was very upsetting and totally unacceptable for France, who felt betrayed, particularly because on top of this, the British government refused to give France any hard guarantee to come to her help at the moment of need.
There indeed a few mothballed CVEs that were still around in mothballs by the early '70s - check out the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry "Magnum Force" for the final sequence showing a few of these.
I believe they were in the mothball facility in Suisun Bay. New Jersey was there as well at one point.
In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the first kill on the 22-ship Japanese convoy was scored by a B-17. A squadron led the first air attack, fairly immune to the Zeros that tried to get up to them, and dropped their bombs just like they were doing a pattern drop over Europe. Usually these all missed on moving naval targets, but here a single bomb scored a direct hit on a freighter/transport and it broke up and sank.
In the Battle of the Eastern Solomons the captain of the Mutsuki decided to continue evacuating crew from the stopped Ryujyo. B-17s were spotted, he was asked if they should get under way, and he allegedly said no, they can't hit anything anyway.
I've enjoyed this channel from the beginning. Also, the various off-shoots containing a bevy of knowledge. It greatly absorbed my time during the insane lock-down period and is still a treasure to this day, thanks Drach! That said, this episode has become just silly. Cartoon-esque animated ships, really obvious dumb questions (sorry folks, they are) and a sense of "why is this such a loooong session?" Kinda obvious to me. I would hope Drach can edit out such blather and get pertinent in future. This could shorten the program and maybe, just maybe, Drach would get to my question. The one I placed around episode 145. Some get to ask many, I haven't had mine answered yet. And yes, it was a good one. So there.
The live questions are where most of the silly stuff is, things like "what if this WWII ship was transported into the Space Treck TV show", absurd questions like that. So I just don't watch it. But people directly donate money in that segment, so Drach has to do it to make a living. I can handle the occasional dumb question in normal drydock with the knowledge that most of them are diverted to the live stream.
54:38 - Drach starts thinking of shipgirls from anime
ruclips.net/video/9pGzDAfOgU0/видео.html
Some navies in the 1920 and 30s had the idea of using shipboard seaplane fighters. The Japanese (A6M2-N, N1K1 "Rex") were thinking of using them both from ships and ashore in their very extended offensive plans in the Pacific that could not always include aircraft carriers. The French and Italians (Loire 210, Bernard H110, Macchi M.41, Ro-44) wanted them to protect their naval forces if carriers were not available, particularly when far enough from the enemy coast as to be dealing only with land based bombers and torpedo bombers but not enemy land fighters. Actually this was the very scenario faced by Force Z on 10 December 1941.
The British never shared this idea but they tested the concept of a floatplane Spitfire around the time of the Norwegian campaign (to use them from fjords, not from battleships) but development stopped once that campaign ended. They would re-start development later in 1941 and by 1942 had a superb very fast and agile floatplane Spitfire based on Mk.V (but never put it into production). Had they embraced the idea of floatplane fighters for the fleet (when carriers no available) it's very likely that floatplane Spitfires could have been in service by the time of the Japanese entry into the war. I always thought had Prince of Wales and Repulse carry floatplane Spitfire, these planes could have had an impact on the fate of Force Z. What do you think?
54:38 I love your imaginations for when these ships are incarnated as people
Kamchatka is a paranoid in a mental hospital, shouting "Do you see torpedo boats?"
@@nigelmacbug6678
Humanized Kamchatka would be illiterate, mentally ill, addicted to both alcohol and opium, and be a giant paranoid singularity of various conspiracy theories onto herself.
I wasn’t interested in looking at the booklet of general plans for Kriegsmarine ships, but now that I can. 😎 Thanks
54:38 Oh man, I can only imagine what the 2nd Pacific Squadron would be like as people. The Kamchatka would be an absolute delight to work with /s.
The Second Pacific Squadron would be that one little gang that even other failboats laugh at, because even they’re not THAT bad.
I could think of a free groups🤣
the Kamchatka: torpedo boats! Torpedo boats everywhere!
I imagine she would have glasses as thick as bottles and still have horrible eyesight
@@JoshuaC923Willie D. Porter would absolutely be the one that needs a lot of hugs because she would absolutely be a sad sack.
About the 70 caliber naval gun: at the risk of piling on, let me add another point. The largest tank guns are 125 mm, or 5 inches. Scaling up the gun to 16 inches, the mass will increase by roughly the cube of the bore diameter. That's (16/5)^3 = 33. Mounting, supporting, aiming, all get 33 times harder.
The Hudson River chain (seen at Trophy Point, USMA) was positioned at a point in the river where the ships had to navigate an extreme bend in the river, therefore reducing their speed at the point where they would have to breach the chain. Also, bracketing gun batteries on both sides of the river.
Drachinifel talking bilge. My happiness is complete.
Drach, I cannot believe you left out Kamchatka of you incarnation question! I think that would be equal parts interesting and maddening.
Technically there was the guns used by the Scharnhorsts, which were 54.5-cal, granted it’s a 11.142” gun but still.
Guns actually built and entered service in a warship
38 cm/52 SK C/34 (Bismarck-class battleships; officially designated as 47-cal but was actually 52-cal)
28.3 cm/54.5 SK C/34 (Scharnhorst-class battleships)
12"/52 Model 1907 (Gangut-class and Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleships)
Designed for warship use and built but never mounted on a warship
40.6 cm/52 SK C/34 (H-Klasse battleships)
53 cm/52 Gerät 36 (unknown, probably experimental)
14"/52 (Borodino-class battlecruisers)
12"/62 SM-33 (Stalingrad-class battlecruisers)
The American 16"/56 Mark 4 gun (18"/48 Mark 1 relined in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty, used as a test gun)
Designed but never built
30.5 cm/56 SK C/39 (interwar battlecruiser designs), only one prototype was built
12"/55 B-50 (Kronstadt-class battlecruisers)
28 cm/54.5 (Design 1047 battlecruisers)
26:24 Duke of York, of course. One of only two out of 29 WWII-gen battleships to do her job.
The only 2 BBs in WWII "that did there job" was Bismarck and Washington.
@@niclasjohansson4333
No, DoY and Washington.
Bismarck had no business even existing in the first place, even more so than other WWII-gen battleships.
@@bkjeong4302 Your opinion does not change the facts.
Regarding spotting range, it might be useful to know how far away the horizon is, when viewed from a ship's "crow's nest ".
The Fritz X sinking of the Roma: can it be classified as level bombing?
Especially with coal-powered propulsion, and even with oil, wasn't smoke production by a ship probably be what is spotted even while the ship itself might still be over the horizon? And thus providing a very broad hint that there were ships in a particular direction to be on the lookout for or be maneuvered towards or away from depending on your mission? (I get the impression that this is something often overlooked in questions and associated answers.)
Last time I was on time for a drydock, Bismarck still sailed the oceans
And _Kamchatka_ had yet to sight torpedo boats
I still do, Sir ! 😂
@ottovonbismarck2443 You sir, still bring terror to your enemies descendants.
I learn a lot every time I watch one of these. (is "whilst" actually a word?)🤔🤔😄😄👍👍
00:54:38 I want to see ORP Piorun, i think that would be hillarious.
Would love to see Piorun and Samuel B. Roberts at a party. Piorun would be trying to get Sammy B to play crazy DD drinking games, Sammy B politely declining while stifling a PTSD episode, and meanwhile Willie D is already in the corner, passed out drunk and drooling.
@@snupjeve Oh no have Piorun and Johnston in the same room together and then sit back and watch the fireworks.
@@joshthomas-moore2656 - watch those two point at each other, scream in appreciation, and rush in for a welcome headbutt. Meanwhile, every last battleship in the room picks up its beer and leaves as quietly as possible.
@@snupjeve Then HMS Glow worm mooches over with a drink and says "Roberts, you woss, why didn't you head butt the bugger"?
@@joshthomas-moore2656
Given that Johnston actually died doing that stunt would she be all that gung-ho?
the auction specifications for warships give you a firm time frame for the scrapping, and in many cases Armor plate has to be returned in specified slab sizes.
The Japanese picket line assigned relatively fixed positions to the submarines and by the middle of the war American code breakers were able to decode/interpret these positions. Hunter/killer groups were then dispatched to those positions.
Oh dear, jet lag did catch you, but once 😞
While discussing the application of variable-pitch screws to ships, particularly large ships you stated that in order to equip all the Iowa class battleships with said devices one would have to produce 12 such devices. But, one must remember there were 4 Iowa class battleships, with 4 screws apiece, thus one one need to produce sixteen very large variable-pitch screws to fully equip the class. Otherwise one would be faced with either an undesirable asymmetry, or one ship sulking - and who would ever want to see a sulking Iowa class battleship?
To German naval facilities in East Prussia: not exactly in East but West Prussia you had Schichau ship (and locomotive) works at Elbing. They already had built torpedo boats in WW1 and continued to do so in WW2 with the type 1935/37 and 1939 classes. Practically they weren't out of range for Allied bombers but they didn't receive much attention either. I assume smaller German surface units didn't cause major headaches within Allied strategy by 1943/44.
And I'd say one reason it worked well enough to simply rate ships by the number of guns they could carry, without respect to their weight of broadside is that nobody was trying the min/max just that stat -- unlike what players might try in a computer game (Say by designing a frigate pierced for a swarm of 6-pounders; just so you could _technically_ call it a 74, or what have you. Which depending on how the game was written might give you some exploitable advantage - like maybe the AI is fooled into avoiding fights with you due to your seemingly overwhelming number of "heavy" ships).
Also even dropping to a lighter gun doesn't seem like it'd let you squeeze all that many more on -- after all, the gun itself doesn't get that much narrower as the weight of shot drops and you still need just about the same room around it for the crew to work it. Though I guess go light enough and you might be able to afford the weight of one extra gun deck.
While they don't say at what range they are showing the outlines of ships for the us armed forces are the Recognition manual that were distributed during WW2. I used to find them in used book store on Nassau street in NYC, I lived their most of my life, but that area called book alley no longer has book stores.
I will point out about heavy cruisers that San Francisco might have shit straight through Hiei’s belt. The range was so close, only a few thousand yards by the USN’s records, she would have been able to go easily through 8” of armor
Can you do a 5 min. on the Brave class patrol boats. Borderer P1011 & Swordsman P1012. How did they stack up to the USN PT boats or the German Schnelboots? Ty
50:00 I would assume another big difference goes to the use of blasting charges in warship AP shells. You might have been able to decrease the calibre and have a relatively longer barrel with equal penetration, but that would reduce the blasting charge size and its effectiveness when it does penetrate. Whereas tanks can do their job quite well with a simple metal slug (much like your frequent comments on the use of shaped charges)..
1:55:14 regarding why no 'Royal Army' cf the RN and RAF: It's my understanding that this reflects a couple of issues related to the English / British aversion to standing armies compared to other countries in Europe.
The first pertains to the Interregium, when, having defeated the Cavaliers, the Parliamentary Army went rogue while the Navy stayed loyal. The second relates to the 1688 Glorious Revolution: having been largely disbanded in 1660, James II started developing another standing Army that would be loyal to him rather than Parliament: when he got the boot, Parliament sustained its aversion to standing armies for the next couple of centuries, while, again, the Navy (again) remained loyal to Parliament.
I understand that even now, the legal basis for the British Army's continuing existence remains dependent on an Act of Parliament that requires annual renewal, unlike the other two services.
I rented a book from my little library in the early 70s about battleships, it was more of a booklet of black and white photos of pre- dreadnought and great war battleships, not a very big book but lots of photos one on every page and I was wondering if you have seen or read it, I'm so fascinated with pre-dreadnought dreadnought and thought maybe you could do more episodes on those, i bought a book from the Military Book Club in the 90s and it doesn't do that old book justice for photos but love the new one for all the specs,and so keep up the great work you put a lot of time and research into every video 💣💥☠✌
"Drach Having Animarchy Flashbacks"
I'm Sydney Harbour, and I'm ANNOYED!!
My picks for preservation at the end of world war 2 would be HMS Malaya as it's more of an original ww1 Queen Elizabeth rather than Warspite's half way house style modernization & a full scale Valiant style modernization & well Malaya really deserves a lot more love than she gets. My second pick would probably be a surviving County Class perhaps Shropshire specifically as she had a career both in the RAN & RN plus her records are exemplary and the ship gave a good accounting of itself in both navy's.
35:36 is that Walrus taking off from one of the Nelsons' aftmost 16" turret?
I was unaware they had that capability at any point. I can't recall ever seeing a picture with a
flying off platform (surely it wouldn't have been a catapult).
1:32:10 yeah they had something already afloat without needing to waste resources to do exactly what the ships in the question did aka the HMS Hood
54:39 that's how the "Kantai collection" was invented.
When discussing the Magnus Effect, you said a shell could be too stable. Please explain.
1:10:40 If I recall my terminology correctly, it sounds like Italian fire was magnificently accurate but hopelessly imprecise.
I can imagine USS Constitution and HMS victory going out at each other in their power scooters.
8:52 - The US Navy Office of Naval Intelligence published a series of manuals during WWII with drawings, silhouettes and some photos of naval vessels of the USN and foreign navies. For example ONI-222 was published on 1 Sep 1945 and covers US ships that existed at that date.
Naval intelligence isn't that a complete contradiction
@ 1:15 Operation Starvation was claimed to have sunk or damaged 1.25 million tons of Japanese shipping by dropping aerial mines from B-29 bombers. The graph shows only ships sunk, so it may not reflect the full impact on the enemy. Those losses were in 1945, when Japan had a limited ability to repair damaged ships as their economy was collapsing.
"If you were able to save one British capital ship at the end of WWII that isn't Warspite."
You said "Hood" in a most strange way... All right, saving it once it is on the ocean floor would be a bother...
Are there any WWII damaged museum ships? (Ships left in the original damaged state?)
RE: toroidal propellers. I seriously doubt if any amount of money could have created these in the WW2 time period. the computational power needed to drive 5-axis CNC milling machines was over 50 years away.
"I'll buy that for a dollar" mandatory joke
The NYC wooden battleship makes an appearance in the second book of John Dos Passos' USA trilogy "1919." You don't get a sense of how arge it was from the book.
Thank you
Ummmmm,,, not trying to get anybody excited or anything but how would you feel about a 16" 90 caliber gun?
It launched a 185 pound Martlet 111 miles above sea level. Yup,,, officially into space. Project HARP. Might make for a great Friday video for you Drach. Welding two 16" naval guns together, pointing it into the air, then cracking the walls and foundations of the locals homes in Barbados. All in the name of science don't ya know.🧐 Actually we did learn a lot about the stratosphere with HARP and cheaper than using rockets.
If I understood things correctly, a 70 caliber 16" gun wouldn't gain anything, performance-wise, save armor penetration, at SHORTER range.
What is your opinion on the naval warfare in the Russo-Ukraine war?
I can answer that.
The Russo-Ukraine war lies outside the remit of this channel (too modern/ongoing conflict).
Even if we bought him the worlds largest barge pole he still wouldn't touch that subject. ;-)
Hey Drach, with regard to your question about what would happen with a steam breach? A family friend used to tell the story of being assigned to USS Oriskany (or Kearsarge?) and flying out on the mail plane to meet the ship. Upon coming on board he was given the option of being assigned to launch our recovery and chose recovery. The next day the steam catapult exploded. He said they carried the guys who has been working in the catapult room out in buckets.
never truly understood why the RN did not use their floatplanes for fire control, several navies were apparently geared up for this with coloured dyes for individual battleships yet i can only bring to mind one occasion in the med where the seaplane/flying boat is mentioned in this role
I think Drach missed one HUGE consideration in large Artillery. Big guns before the hard coated IOWA guns wear out the barrel real fast. Jacking the speed up higher would make that even worse. Ships fire a lot of shots for one hit. Ships usually dont die to a single hit. Ships live longer than tanks in general. Changing a tank gun is a fairly harmless exercise. Summary result.....wearing a tank barrel out after a couple hundred shots is OK. Wearing a 16" gun out after 100 shots would be the crowning archievement in the art of nuisance......
What were the statistics for accidents aboard warships, in peacetime, pre-first world and pre-second world war? was there an increase in accidents when there were changes in technology?
I remember when Drach transitioned from robovoice to live Drach.
Hi-luv ur channel - alnavco makes steel cast waterline models that were for recognition
Steam leak. Whats fun is after fixing a gasket leak you head out into 105F desert heat and feel cold. Like I should go toss on a jacket feeling. Lucky in this case it was a decent sized underground tunnel so the heat was fairly localised. I can't imagine a sealed ship space where you have to fix it now instead of swapping people every few minutes.
How did I fix my leaking tunaboat? I added a third and fourth bilgepump.
the Russian model 1907 12 inch 52 cal guns were beyond a sensible calibre when used by the Germans on Guernsey the Ex Imperator Aleksandr III guns had to be down rated as full power firing would destroy the cradle which one during tests did and Germans had to invade Russia to get a new one
Can you make a video about how destroyers made smoke screens
US 8" cruiser guns were 55-caliber, which is pretty freaking long.
at 52:04 is 244,000 NM and 370,000 normal units
In the counting if Japanese losses, don't forget losses by the IJA to the IJN, and vice versa.
Please do a home gard video with lazerpig
I wish you would explain your Math.. on the Iowa gun equation you did
man, now youve got me wondering what uss texas would look like if she were somehow to be refitted for desert storm, ww1 dreadnought with tomahawks on top :p
55:19 yeah I believe Azur Lane video game and oh by the way they just added the ship your family member served on in the latest update
Royal Oak. She seems smaller/younger than Revenge and Royal Sovereign in-game.
Yeah plus she has taken it badly as it has hurt her self-confidence
If Fisher cannot send the stuff he got scrapped, well he could lay up the stuff that getting to the end keep the stuff that is brand new but obsolete around find a use for them until he gets a chance to get them scrapped
I think the question implies mandatory budgeting to man and maintain obsolete ships instead of new construction.
Superheated steam cooks you like a lobster