Imagine being a survivor of this massacre. You’ve just gone through one of the most insane and hellish experiences of your life, witnessing your crew die around you, only to be told that you can never talk about it. And not only that, but you then have to watch silently for years as these machines which you know are faulty and dangerous are casually used to kill more of your fellow sailors just because the high command doesn’t want to admit it made a mistake.
And what do they do with these deathtraps instead of dismantling them immediately? They slap ridiculous modifications on them and continue their use. "Put a big fuckin gun on it" *sinks, entire crew dies* "Now put a plane on it." *sinks, entire crew dies*
I've made all of the animations you see in the video! The video had me doing research on each specific boat so I could represent them as accuratly as possible and lots of questions to Fred about if the movement I had just animated was correct. There is a wealth of WIP stuff and scrapped content which we might utilize for a future mistakes video. This video also was the first time I created a poster out of the Designs within the show(Will be on sale later). This video uses the most graphics and animations of any episode so far with 32 minutes and 48 seconds of animation over the entire 1 hour run time of this video. I really do hope you all enjoy the video; as usual Fred, Ryan and I worked hard on the video!
"A man aboard a ship who had seen M2 that morning casually asked if it was normal for submarines to dive backwards. He was told that it was not." Jesus Christ.
My great grandfather died in this tragedy. He was on k-17. His name was Thomas Jackson and his diary is in the Portsmouth naval museum. The part of the diary I have is mostly about his time in the Dardenelles. My grandfather, also called Thomas Jackson served in the navy (HMS Edinburgh WW2) and never found out what happened to his father apart from he died. Just wanted to say thank you for sharing this.
@@silentotaku8 I thank you but I have never served. I’m proud to come from a family that served their country for generations and it’s them and countless others that deserve our thanks.
The saddest part of this whole affair is that the men aboard these submarines and ships were very talented sailors. Their quick actions stopped what could have easily been a much greater loss of life. But they were sealed in death traps; ticking time bombs. They were sent to their death by their incompetent superior officers, plain and simple.
It's not just incompetence, it's pure hubris. Their higher ups refused to adapt to the changing times and the true methodology of warfare. Their refusal to break from their "one fleet" ideology, make death traps that were borderline impossible at the time and to an extent even today, and even after such a harrowing disaster, they refused to admit their defeat and would rather cover up their obvious mistakes then actually be punished for it. If I even heard about this at the time, I would make sure EVERYONE knows about this; these men should have been held accountable while they were alive, and those who died should have had their loved ones told about what happened.
Absolutely. Some of those maneuvers were intensely skilled, but there is only so much that skill can do for you in those conditions. There was no reason for such a horrific tragedy like this. None whatsoever.
I think that's basically the entire First World War, especially for the British (at least in our cultural memory). "Brave men sent to death by incompetent superiors."
Even though this is just 2D shapes and dots on a black background, I couldn't help but be absolutely horrified and aghast when the ships plowed straight through the men in the water, and seeing the other ship torn in half... the terror those poor men suffered, what a terrible way to die, and yet they weren't even properly honored because the higher ups were to proud to admit their fault.
The description of K6 finding no survivors in the water after K4 broke in half and sunk gave me chills. Imagine being the captain of K6, still reeling from the crash and processing what just happened, suddenly realizing that the whole crew is dead and he is responsible.
It wasn't even his fault, but I imagine he had an awful case of survivor's guilt after that and blamed himself for the accident. What an awful clusterfuck.
@@BigPuddin I dunno about that - obviously the poor visibility relieves him to some degree, but the lights on a ship are colour-coded by direction specifically so something like this usually wouldn't happen to a competent captain
Remember that the lights were pretty scheisse to begin with, being dim and shuttered, so maybe it took him a bit of time to realize what light it was. @@Nero_Karel
@@stevemc01Seconding this. The design of the lights was extremely subpar for emergencies due to their directional nature. This was essentially a Swiss cheese model disaster, too many holes lined up.
With all the eerie in this video, that line at 53:01 is somehow the most chilling. "Is it normal for submarines to dive backwards?", presumably asked innocently to an officer. I'm imagining the frightening pause and cold spike of realisation, that something horrible may have just happened.
😆that is exactly the right classification, a munsta CLUSTERFUCK.. great piece of history, me as an old signalman comms , dutch navy submarines, know what manouvring technics came after this.. NATO created some great uniformity
This is the naval equivalent of when you’re carrying a load of loose laundry and you drop a sock but when you bend down to pick it up three more articles fall and so on and so on until you’re forced to just drop the lot and throw everything back together again. Except people died.
"Except people died." Nearly as many as at the Pentagon in the September 11th attacks at that. (102 deaths in the May Island incident, 125 at the Pentagon in the September 11th attacks)
for those wondering why there aren't any new uploads, don't worry he's working on a video about EVE Online that's gonna be over five hours, which is why its taking so long to make. seeing how an hour long vid about an officially documented event like this one took him about 4 months to make, a five hour long one about an ongoing subject with a bunch of vague/untrustworthy info taking over a year is to be expected.
Its like a trainwreck spanning multiple tracks and dozens of trains... except depending on the severity of the crash the trains will sink into the earth killing literally everyone aboard.
Now that could be a YT channel. Just some dude who loves naval battles and is willing to go through them frame by frame with black/white visuals overlayed.
I’m really glad that you choose to cover topics and events that particularly interest you, as opposed to trending rabbit holes that hundreds of channels are already talking about or giving in to your fans’ requests. It makes these mini-documentaries all the more special, interesting and fun to watch, and full of great attention to detail.
Exactly. One of the dumbest comments I ever read was someone suggesting that he go down the Paul brothers rabbit hole. What is there left to say? Has nobody heard of them? Anyway,I love Fredrik going for stuff I know I've likely never heard of or had any interest in.
His interesting (if a little autistic) dives into things may bore and irritate some, but I find them (mostly) fascinating. The hurdy-gurdy was a stinker, but that's just like.. my opinion, man. Keep up the unpredictability, I say.
44:45 this to me has to be the worst part. One of the last ships barging through helpless overboard men and lifeboats, sucking some into its propellers. All because of bad visibility and communication. Tragic and absolutely horrific
The use of sound effects, animation, and music in this documentary is sublime. The information alone is an excellent detailing of a tragedy caused by foolish pride and stubbornness, combined with a variety of costly mistakes. But the audio backing to the video side just works so well to enhance the mood and tone of this.
my only criticism would be that he should have made the ships more distinguishable. i found it a bit hard to tell them apart at times and had to rewind to understand what was happening.
I head him on a podcast say how he has someone doing sound for him who literally goes through and will change volume of the backing track to match narration, etc. Knudsen was smart to get this persons help and this person is crazy good!!
Can anyone tell me why I should even care about EVE online? Id rather he did more historical ones like this or the wine poisoning. So many youtubers copycot but with this guy its always something I never knew about.
I never knew how important the Navaho Code Talkers where until watching this and seeing how hard communication really was. Speed and making sure your enemy couldn't understand you must have been a nightmare.
Imagine being cold in the water, stunned by the shock of the accident. The relief from seeing friendly ships, only to be sucked into propeller of your countrymen's ships. What a brutal way to go
During WW2, on more than one occasion, Allied ships not only ran over friendly sailors but also dropped depth charges into the water with them to try and sink enemy submarines.
And since the Admiralty decided to bury this incident and keep it a secret tells me they lied to the families of those who died in this incident about how they died. That's a lot of lying and that lying successfully added another fucked up kink in this story. Sorry for swearing but seriously there are no other words.
@@Wildstar40 The death reports given to families in the two World Wars very rarely reflected what actually happened to their loved ones. It was seen as being kinder to report that they died quickly and doing something brave. See for example the letters scene in _Memphis Belle_ . All of those letters are real.
I felt a bit of relief every time those animations showed the subs and ships narrowly missing each other... just for it to zoom back out and show MORE subs and ships racing directly towards each other. And it just kept happening.
I was on the dive team you mentioned at the start who discovered the final resting place of the wrecks after the Battle of May Island. From my back porch I can see the site from here. This was an engineering disaster, not a naval one. "Too many damn holes", as one account goes. Worth noting as you mention in the last few minutes - nuclear powered submarines, including the V-boats where I served in the Royal Navy, are also steam powered. They just don't need coal. Right idea, wrong time. Respect to those who served upon these widow makers.
This is why I always come back to vids I watch, even years later. Sometimes, the people involved, who are unknown or not popular, show up and share some extra/specific info. I LOVE knowing slightly more than others on various things. ^_^
The engineering wouldn't have been so disastrous if not for naval leaders demanding these ships be created to their exact specifications. Seemingly misunderstanding how these ships would work in practice, and regardless of the concerns many engineers raised. This is not how to spark competent innovation. Often they would simply replace concenered engineers with others who would do it, and were deterred from asking questions. Essentially telling engineers to just get it done, and figure it out somehow. They made these decisions without any understanding of how these ideas would be implemented, or their functionality at sea. Due to the nature of the war, wanting to gain an advantage quickly. These projects were rushed aswell, to a point where serious design flaws were not noticed until it was far too late. The ones that were noticed only had superficial fixes. They did not keep many well working ships from previous years British crews knew how to navigate well as back ups, preferring to scrap them in order to start a new. The technicalities weren't being considered heavily enough by naval leaders, and they were too stubborn to see how unreasonable their demands actually were. The navy also disregarded opinions of skilled sailors telling them these ships were unmanageable, and there were too many issues with the limitations of communication technology at that time. I'm not saying the engineering isn't at fault, but the navy also played a key role in how this tragedy came about. They are both responsible for what happened to those ships, and the crews aboard them. This was a disastrous blunder by the navy as naval leaders continuously made poor, ill informed decisions. Stuck by them despite the obvious, and severe problems. Then once something truly horrifying happened, costing the lives of many. They tried to cover it up rather than take any accountability, or confront the families of those who needlessly died. Their actions were not innocent in this. The navy had many many opportunities to prevent such an incident, but they opted to ignore them. Utterly cruel, and embarrassing behavior.
These subs weren't running on coal, they were running on heavy fuel oil. The problem was the preheaters needed to make it a liquid before it could be used. And the problems here weren't anything to do with engineering, they were to do with violations of proper procedure and driving a squadron of large vessels into an approaching fleet without any idea if it knew they were coming. Without that, this was a minor collision with two casualties.
@@EmoLozer500 ^This You can't fault an engineer if he's forced to design something against their judgement because someone higher on the command chain forced them to do so. As a Geological Engineer, the times I've heard stories of colleagues who had to leave good paying jobs in the Geotechnical/Civil engineering field because the one putting the cash tried to force them to build something against regulations/plain proven science facts that would go against the structure integrity and therefore the lives of the people using such structure is too damn high to not be concerning. Most of the times is exactly as you said, first you raise the issue to your boss and then they either ask for other options that can cut corners while still being legally "safe enough" or they just straight up force you to retire and then find someone willing to do the job/dirty their hands for a quick buck. It's actually sickening how some people play with other people's safety/lives just to save some money because they made a bad investment/didn't care from the start.
@@chonchjohnch No, what's being said is that the "steam" part isn't the problem, it's that the power source was boilers burning heavy fuel oil. That was what caused all the issues.
when those destroyers were encroaching on the survivors in the watermy mouth was agape in disbelief and anticipation of the horrifying event that was to come.
I am Enraged that it took over SEVENTY YEARS for a memorial to be created for them. Thank you for putting all of their names at the end, that means more than can be said in words.
@@Jay22222 Oh Jack, leave Kelsey alone- they are Enraged with a capital E about a naval mishap that happened over 70 years ago. Actaully it was a 103 years ago- but neverless... why would anyone have an emotional connection with this?
@@matthewharper7333 Heaven forbid that someone criticises an institution for sweeping a tragedy under the rug to save face, and heaven forbid similarly that anyone has an emotional reaction to aforesaid tragedy, which took over 100 lives through misfortune and the incompetence of those at the top of the chain.
@@matthewharper7333 "Why would anyone have an emotional connection with this?" Well, perhaps because it was due to mistakes and arrogance of people in command and, in case you haven't noticed, the ones in command today in most if not all places where decisions weigh on life or death of others are also people. It's almost as if documentary about human flaws leading to massive amounts of easily preventable deaths 100 years ago may have some significance to us. It might be a shocking revelation to you, but mankind has not dramatically changed in the span of such a massively long time. Sarcasm over.
@@MPSmaruj The majority of the mishaps were caused by poor military doctrine regarding new weapon platforms and fleet movement. The military is inherently dangerous. Even without enemy fire, men and equipment are pressed into unsafe situations that can, and will, cause death. In this case, 3 floatillas are moving close to one another at night and with limited visiablity due to fog. Communications, apperantly, are also limited. A strange equipment malfuntion, the steering jammed on one of the subs, began a series of accidents. Upper level brass are arrogent and closed minded- but they have to be because of the very nature of command. They hear so many ideas about how things should be run from so many people promoting their own agenda that a decision has to be made and the commander has to be resolute. Things may go well and the results are ignored (for example, we don't hear about the movements of southern fleet in the video. They were sailing in the same weather but arrived at point without an accident) or lauded as a hero. Things may go poorly, such as this event or countless others (like Gen Haig, a few years earlier who thought machine guns were ineffective and had 20,000 of 60,000 men killed in a few min's when he ordered a frontal attack on the German lines. He would go on to rack up a 260,000 deaths of his own troops before relieved of command). While it's easy to crap on these bad decisions- a poor decision is still better than an irresolute officer. For example, look at Gen Elphonstone, whose weak and irresolute character lead to the complete failure of the British army in Afganistan. Or, Gen McCellan who could have, arguably, ended the American Civil War in 1862 if he had counter-attacked Lee. My points are- the military is a very dangerous occupation. Even in peacetime or not under enemy fire. Those in command don't have a way to see the future and decisions are mostly made in the dark. There are always compeating ideas and there is really no way of telling which one is the best. Because the men who make these decisions are responsible for them, they tend to go with their own ideas. "Make you own mistakes- not someone else's." To be resolute is better than not to be. The Battle of May Island was a series of accidents caused by bad luck, bad communications, and bad doctrine.
What's wild to me is that despite how much ocean the submarines could have covered and how they all kept changing course, their paths *still* kept intersecting perfectly by sheer chance
I absolutely "loved" this, the research, script, animation and music all work so well together bringing us a haunting history dive into a disaster of arrogance, poor design, incompetence, communication problems, and a little bit of bad luck, all spilling into a cauldron of terrible weather conditions to bring about one the worst disasters in naval history. Great work! Truly amazing work to everyone involved.
I think the main takeaway I get from this is that night-time naval missions before radar were fucking suicidal. Even just going back and forth in the mist could result in death with no ability to know where other ships were. Something that just would never happen after this era.
My other takeaway from this is that most suffering of workers/soldiers come from the disconnected hubris of upper management. The unfortunate fact of war is that human lives are a resource to use and take away, but these admirals are so far removed from the war that they gamble away lives like a playboy just for the sake of proving they’re right. I’m not a war buff, but I think it’s also a huge mentality of the Great War, just throwing people at a barbed wall like a subtraction game, while the aristocrats of countries lie in comfort since “die” is a 3 letter word.
Even though the visual focus being mostly on the step-by-step event timeline might not seem as dramatic at first, it was absolutely crucial for the understanding of the chaotic series of events and its relative starkness, combined with the narration and haunting music, created a great, eery atmosphere. Amazing documentary, great work by everyone involved in the project. I'll be sure to watch this again and again. Seems downright cynical to call this a "Battle", but you described the nature of the military at that time in a way that makes this plausible enough.
this made me think about how no matter how comically, absurdly ridiculous something seems in fiction, something much more horrifying and insane has happened in real life (and almost always due to the negligence and arrogance of those in power). what a tragic loss of life in a surreal set of events that could have been avoided if their superiors cared about them at all.
I was just talking about exactly this recently, watching true crime stories a lot. The horrors in movies don't even compare to things that have really happened. Just another reminder for people why you never blindly follow "the experts". This is an accurate depiction of "the experts" in most cases - people who just sort of think they know what they're doing and probably don't, and if they mess up it doesn't effect them personally.
@@emeryltekutsu4357 I've met some "Experts" myself, just a bunch of overconfident, narcissistic assholes covering their backsides. Blind trust never leads you to the right path.
@sagekaley@ I know what you mean, Sage. Many Generals, Admirals and the like, haven't paid anywhere close to enough attention to the welfare of their troops and sailors. Yet, in this case, Fred remarks quite early on in the video that this particular Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher, was of a different stripe from that unfortunate norm. Fisher attempted to revolutionise the British Navy in the time of his power, 1904-1910 and then briefly from Oct. 1914 until May 1915. One example of his concern for his sailors, Sage, was to improve rations across the board. For instance, instead of their normal daily supply of "hardtack", he insisted that they be fed fresh bread, baked aboard the ship. Here's a description of hardtack; "And, as it had been for thousands of years, hardtack remained a staple. The British Royal Navy began mass-producing hardtack in the mid-17th century. The recipe was flour, salt, and water. To make it last on a long voyage, they removed all the moisture, sometimes baking it four times. Sailors referred to these unpalatable but sustaining sea biscuits as “molar breakers.” They soaked them in tea or brine to make a sort of mush. Accounts of life at sea describe sailors rapping their hardtack, a/k/a “worm castles” on the table or deck to knock the weevils out of it. The cook wasn’t a regular position, either. Instead, whatever injured crew member was unfit for regular duty was assigned to feed the hungry masses. Considering what their culinary skills might have been explains why shipmates coined the phrase, “God made the vittles, but the devil made the cook.” Apparently, hardtack was frequently infested by biscuit beetles (oh, yummy, my favourite)! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fisher,_1st_Baron_Fisher Wishing you all the best ... Dave
I have said "Are you FUCKING kidding me!" at least 16 times and I'm only like, halfway in. Holy shit what a trainwreck. I feel absolutely horrible for everyone who lost their lives in this disaster.
the screening destroyers sweeping over the men fleeing k-17 sounded terrifying, honestly. i cant imagine how any of those 9 men coped with living after that, the survivors guilt must have been intense
I think the thing that angers me the most about this series of blunders wasn't the invention of the deathtrap K-Class, nor the cluster that was May Island. It's that it was covered up for nearly 80 years, and only then revealed AFTER one of the wrecks was discovered led to "unsavory" questions. That amount of ass-covering is unbelievable.
During the attack on the main wagon bridge over the Marne at Château-Thierry, American machine gunners described a night attack on 1 June 1918 of massed German troops, who were singing gutturally as they made a suicidal charge, some linked arm in arm. The victims were soldiers of the French 10th Colonial division from Senegal, who had been trying to get back across the river. Although reports of the incident were suppressed, it was discussed by American and French soldiers. There are no German records of any attack on the wagon bridge. Another funny one from WW1 "involving" the French Colonial troops is => 8 May 1916 - During the Battle of Verdun, when the French outpost Fort Douaumont was occupied by German infantry, a careless cooking fire detonated grenades, flamethrower fuel and an ammunition cache. Hundreds of soldiers were killed instantly in the firestorm, including the entire 12th Grenadiers regimental staff. *Worse, some of the 1,800 wounded and soot blackened survivors attempting to escape the inferno were mistaken for attacking French Colonial African infantry and were fired upon by their comrades.* In all 679 German soldiers perished in this fire
It's a real shame this didn't perform as well as his videos about lolcows or videogame scams. I loved the visuals, and his enthusiasm about this event really sells it.
beautifully done. I work in commercial ships as a cadet engineer, and I can tell you how rough seas can get terrifying. Even when I was in a relatively new, Japanese engineered AHTS ship, machinery failures can still catch you off guard, even coming close to losing propulsion in the middle of a storm one time just off the coast of China. Hearing of how much more horrible the work conditions were in these vessels, how visibly incapable the top brass were, this video almost single-handedly convinced me that my own near-miss with my previous vessel was not even close to a horrifying experience as being one of the crew of these over-engineered coffins.
Give your music editor a raise. They're doing a great job! All of the ambient sounds and the way the music speeds up as the tension increases show someone who really knows what they're doing :D
If you're doing something wrong, just keep telling everyone you're doing the right thing. -Might as well be a quote by Matt Hancock, current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for the UK; still in government nearing 4 months after being declared to have acted unlawfully by a High Court judge in regard to contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds. EDIT: Deleted a duplicate post that somehow occurred.
The visual representation of the whole incident was very good. Much needed. There isn’t a single documentary on this channel that I haven’t enjoyed in its entirety. Thank you!
I got here via autoplay, and was in another screen, but I was riveted listening to the tale. I'll have to come back and watch the visuals. It'd be rough, but worth it.
I don't think I've ever felt sick when hearing how personnel -of any disaster- died. I think it feels so awful because of just how much of a perfect storm everything was. Imagine being on one of the boats that sailed through the survivors, and learning later that you mowed through a bunch of your own comrades. I almost hope they never learned of what happened since they didn't mean to harm anyone.
As someone who’s been watching your vids for 3+ years, it’s cool to see how much your writing has improved. This feels like listening to a good history audiobook. Well done!
Pretty much, had an old naval Leutenent Comander talk about CBDR ( we are on track to crash in layman) and he said the only thing you can do that is pretty much fool proof is slow down or stop.
I don't know why but now I want Fredrik Knudsen to just voice more war documentaries just cause his voice has that feeling of tension that is perfect for them.
@@d.aardent9382 it seems forever go down in history as one of those instantly recognisable bad ideas like the steam powered aircraft and the nuclear powered train Oh and that nuclear-powered bomber the Americans tried making that one time
I just imagine the German fleet watching this unfold from the distance and the observer deck guy going to his superior and saying: 'Günther, you're not going to believe this shit.'
As terrible as this clearly is, with all the errors made along the way, the helmsman of some of the submarines and boats did a really good job with all the narrow misses that went on at the same time.
That's sadly the nature of war. Lot of good, hardworking talented people getting talked into war by leaders, politicians or even their countrymen, often suffering either death by bungled test or death in open warfare.
@@AKSsasori It is really sad to be sent off by your government to die... worse, to be brutally killed by your own side due to severe failures in engineering and planning. I had no idea we used subs before the invention of sonar. I wonder what was told to their families. Probably just "KIA".
@@noaag I'm pretty sure they used subs in the American civil war.. that absolutely blows my mind. In fact lemme look that up to make sure I didn't just dream it, hang on
I'm 18 minutes in but I wanted to comment on the fact that the British Royal Navy probably advanced submarine development by showing exactly how *not* to build a submarine. Like they practically invented new ways for stuff to go wrong.
Yeah cuz see I had thought it would probably be good for subs to dive into the ground nose first but thanks to the British navy I now know that's not good
The thing is most of what's in the early part of the video not only isn't true but is the complete opposite of the truth. The British started the war with the largest submarine fleet in the world (76 compared to Germany's 28, including 16 long-range patrol subs), pioneered diesel submarines, and by the end of the war had the first hunter-killer submarines in service. Fischer was actually a proponent of submarines. The issue with the K Class was that they were literally the only solution to a demand for a surface speed of 21 knots: even at the end of the war the fastest subs with diesel engines (British J Class) could only manage 19.
It almost feels fake, the amount of times you had to report that a ship was steering away from another ship ONLY to put it on a crash course with the next ship behind it... 😬
It’s like if the power cut to a nightclub then from the darkness someone yells “FUCKIN RUN!”. Big lumbering drunks running in every which way and after time people crash there’s a long pause as their drunk brain tries to process what happened.
@@nooneinparticular3370 This definitely needs a movie adaptation IMO. It would pay respect to all those sailors that died that didn't get the respect they deserved from their country at the time.
This is one of the greatest roller coaster rides I've ever watched. Every time I'd be like "okay, that's the biggest fuck up of the whole story," Fred would be like "JUST BEHIND THEM WAS.." and I just could only think "oh no"
I was honestly expecting the oil on the surface of the water to be the precursor to a fire, thus adding even more chaos to the whole ordeal. All things considered, that would've been the least of their problems.
A-4 Incident Not really on the same scale, but I just feel like more people should be aware of the fact a nuclear warhead is currently at the bottom of the Philippine Sea...
I can only imagine all the messed up "top secret" shenanigans going on. The amount that gets leaked only to be covered up or thrown in the mud as a "conspiracy theory". I have no trust in the deep state or any government bureaucracy. Psychopaths will do anything for power. Shit dude. The world monitary system is built off of debt and death. Maybe I should learn how to become ignorant and optimistic again....
FK: "Steam powered submarine" Me: oh no Edit: I wasn't aware that modern subs are also steam powered. The main reason I panicked at Steam Powered Subs is cause, in the 1910s, they required fire. And fire needs oxygen. And there isn't oxygen underwater. As the video continued, I realized that there were a lot more problems than I thought.
@Muad'Dib what’s really interesting to me is just how many comments I’ve seen that specifically call this out. It’s a *bad* idea from step 1 and surely if RUclips commenters in 2021 saw this immediately, wartime engineers back then did too. But for some reason people in leadership positions sometimes feel as though it’s because they’re too smart and nobody understands them that nobody is agreeing with them. 🤦🏿♂️
@@LintSplinter That, and also that they think that their decisions reflect their leadership. Proud people being powerfull think that questioning their decisions means questioning their hability as leaders. So, they never rectify or change their course of action as they believe that would be the same as saying "Yeah, what I did before was wrong". It happened a lot during history. And we still do it. Technology may advance, but there is no cure against stupidity.
Honestly, it didn't go wrong in any way i expected it to go wrong considering they were steam engines... no crazy explosions or anything. There seemed to have been one technical malfunction (the rudder) and i don't know what that has to do with the propulsion system. This was all because communication was too primitive for the technology they were using, steam powered or not.
@@Panteni87 if the submarines were smaller, and could turn better, or reliably dive quickly, like the Germans that inspired the project. regardless of the rudder malfunction, this may not have been *as big* a disaster as it was.
Jesus Christ what a shitshow. Halfway through the video I was like "this *has* to be it, right? No more please!" and then Fred keeps talking and I die a little more inside.
I had honestly been expecting that after all this shit happened, they would finally be attacked by those two mystery boats from the beginning, making things worse. Truly, this was a "Battle" against the K-class, not the Germans... A worse fate than I had expected.
Zarathustra spake and he said “Gaze thee not into the abyss. Lest the abyss gaze into thee and ask “Is it normal for submarines to dive backwards?” And judge thee empty.”
@@SwitchTF2 I was hoping no-one would notice that the gaze ye not into the abyss wasn’t said by Zarathustra. Zarathustra is a character in Thus spake Zarathustra. But you’re right that the abyss quote is not from that book. I was only having some fun and hope you don’t find it to big a deal. Seeing as Zarathustra was a semi author insert character for the guy who said the abyss quote.
I can’t imagine being one of only 9 survivors from the last K class, seeing your fellow men being hit by, pulled under, or being ripped apart by the blades.
I don't think those people were ever okay again. Especially since people didn't know about ptsd then. They called it shell schock and it was seen as incurable.
Id be real goddamn mad that none of the destroyers tried to turn. Just plowing on through. Imagine being the guys on the deck of the destroyers hearing the screams of your comrades as they get torn apart like grass under a lawnmower.
hell imagine being one that got hit by a ship or sucked into the blades. a nightmare way to die. the dread you would feel trying to swim out of its way and realising you alone cannot out swim or dodge a ship of that size travelling at that speed. horrifying.
@@vamppanic not only a nightmarish way of dying, but imagine surviving the initial sinking and seeing that there’s lifeboats getting closer too you, to watch your friends get killed before losing your own life, whole thing is horrific. The survivors would’ve had some hardcore PTSD and survivors guilt after
That was straight up incredible. Unnerving, well-narrated, well scored, brilliantly scripted. More importantly, I had no idea about this forgotten bit of history. Those poor men-like hell on Earth. I discovered you on The Official Podcast. Bravo, liked and subbed. Thank you.
Operation tiger I think it was called. When the allies in ww2 were field dressing the d-day beach landing in the English southern coast. The flotilla of men cargo ships and men in Higgins landing boats were mistaken for an enemy landing force and shot at. Many numbers were killed and injured. It was buried because it was a week before June 6th and for secrecy.
This video is masterful in it's tone. The music, the delivery, the script, it all comes together to create a video that fills me with dread. It's like a car crash in slow motion that I COULD look away from, but my dread and anxiety keeps me fixated. This accident could have been construed as a slapstick comedic series of unfortunate events, but you've taken it in the complete opposite direction. This video is another entry into your best works. Good job Fred
My thoughts exactly. It really highlights the fact that human error on the part of the crew wasn't to blame (cough cough Costa Concordia) but rather poor design and stubbornness on the part of admiralty.
The series of events, and the music set behind it, was disturbing enough. But then the, I take it, original composition at the end, absolutely capped off the chills. Fantastic production.
"Want to hear about some RUclipsrs?" "Sure Fred." "Want to hear about the Deep Blue AI?" "Sure Fred." "Want to hear about the Battle of May Island?" "Anything goes, Fred."
This is honestly so depressing, these ships desperately trying to help each other but unable to maneuver because of the badly designed speed/defense until they pretty much all kill each other
You know, when I saw the title "Battle of May Island", I was expecting combat between enemies. Like an actual battle. I kept waiting for Germans to show up in the middle of the clusterfuck - at one point even considering that the events were so terrible, maybe even *they* would offer merciful aid to the K's. But no, the only battle was against the age-old enemies named Arrogance and Stupidity.
You think that's bad? When I saw the title "Battle of May Island", I was expecting the video to be about my sister in law May Anderson battling cancer in a private clinic in Long Island. Turns out it was about some kind of ships and whatnot.
The k12 plowed into k14 which was rapidly followed by sharks with bees in their mouths and the Martians landing their flying saucer on k22. After some time the meteor struck.
I can see the may island from my house. Not much is said about this accident, we weren’t taught about it at school. I know of a small plaque that commemorates this series of accidents but it has certainly been swept under the rug. Even though I’ve lived here (anstruther) my entire life, I didn’t know much about it other than lots of sailors died from an accident around may island. I had assumed that they collided with the island itself. This video has been enlightening and especially interesting for me.
Lol it would have been pathetic beyond measure if they collided with the island but at the same time, it would be less horrifying than what actually happened.
As an ex RN Submariner thank you for an excellent telling of this incredible piece of forgotten history, it wasn’t just the Lions in the trenches being led by donkeys the lads at sea were equally let down.....
jfc man, thank you for your service but damn, I hope the Royal Navy is no longer the horror show this video displayed it to be and you never had to do anything like this exercise.
There used to be a small book "The K Class". It also includes the Battle of May Island and some information about how an iron tube was made in K13's shipyard. Quite a bit more, but I thought it was well known. Having said that,I did buy it not far from the shipyard.
Hands down this is one of the best looks at the infamous disaster that was the K class submarines. The Battle of may Island even today is ill forgotten and not given enough recognition of the tragedy that occurred. Thank you so much for everyone involved in producing this magnificent look at the event. Much love from the 🇬🇧
And it's sad that RUclips demonitizes all war-related videos. As if historical accuracy doesn't mean crap compared to petty political correctness. The more things change the more they stay the same.
the fact that all these men lost their lives because their leaders refused to adapt to their circumstances and change to fit the new form of warfare their opposition was using is absolutely despicable. all these men did _not_ need to die, the fact that they did is sick. there were so many warning signs.
The worst thing is that things still haven't changed that much between then and now. People get recruited to join the military to basically become human shields while government officials just kick back and profit from their deaths.
Welcome to the wonderful world of doctrine where the words 'just change this and it'll work' requires several years of working out the butterfly effect changes it makes to the entire way your run your Its nowhere near as easy as it sounds. You remove the K-class and then what? Replace them? With what? How long will it take to develop? How much will it cost? How will it be supplied? If you don't replace it how do you reorganise the battle line? Will we need to redeploy ships from elsewhere to compensate? What are we going to do about the jobs those ships were already doing? Do we even have ships suitable for the role we need to use them in?
> because their leaders refused top adapt to their circumstances You can apply this to most of our problems nowadays. Arrogant greedy old men will be the end of our species.
@@steweygrrr The K class pretty much have no combat victories. Fred mentions within the video that the only time K class ever struck someone was with a dud torpedo. They were practically useless.
This was an Excellent mostly forgotten historical documentary. I have watched thousands of history documentaries & this is on of the best I’ve watched. Simple but very detailed & entertaining. I don’t know if you still make videos like this anymore but sure hope you do more.
This video does an amazing job of painting every bit of technical incompetence, bull-headed arrogance, and just plain bad luck snowballed into one of the most infamous disasters in submarine warfare. Amazingly done.
Few things strike as much fear into me as the thought of sailing on a WW1-era submarine. The claustrophobia, the helplessness in case anything goes wrong, the likelihood of dying in the most horrible ways. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
For me it would be being a fighter or bomber pilot, now I imagine that for both subs and planes it helps for the crews to be more cavalier than most anyone else on the planet but still, having to deal with rampant snobbish and bigoted bullshit from people over you throwing your lives away for their own sake of pride alongside the high risk of casualty
Well, that's how war works: The peons on the forefront pay for it all. Doesn't matter if the cause is justified or not, whether your side is attacker or defender, or anything else. The common soldier will take it in the shorts
Really miss you man. This channel is my favorite by far. I've watched every vid you've put out like 3 times now & I have yet to find another channel similar in content & quality. Hope the vid is still coming out relatively soon.
So when I first started watching this I was like "alright, they're gonna mistake the K classes for U boats and start shooting at them". I don't think I possibly could have predicted the true incompetence that took place that night
![Quando Rondo - Grow Up [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8zFnCg3BO4Q/mqdefault.jpg)
Imagine being a survivor of this massacre. You’ve just gone through one of the most insane and hellish experiences of your life, witnessing your crew die around you, only to be told that you can never talk about it. And not only that, but you then have to watch silently for years as these machines which you know are faulty and dangerous are casually used to kill more of your fellow sailors just because the high command doesn’t want to admit it made a mistake.
They say one of the few things that can match the size of human stupidity is human arrogance
unimaginable and eternal horror, back then you had no resources to heal from that
the nine survivors saw their crew mates get disintegrated into pools of bloody water. i think i'd go crazy after seeing something like that.
Sounds a lot like modern-day companies.
And what do they do with these deathtraps instead of dismantling them immediately? They slap ridiculous modifications on them and continue their use.
"Put a big fuckin gun on it"
*sinks, entire crew dies*
"Now put a plane on it."
*sinks, entire crew dies*
I've made all of the animations you see in the video! The video had me doing research on each specific boat so I could represent them as accuratly as possible and lots of questions to Fred about if the movement I had just animated was correct. There is a wealth of WIP stuff and scrapped content which we might utilize for a future mistakes video. This video also was the first time I created a poster out of the Designs within the show(Will be on sale later). This video uses the most graphics and animations of any episode so far with 32 minutes and 48 seconds of animation over the entire 1 hour run time of this video.
I really do hope you all enjoy the video; as usual Fred, Ryan and I worked hard on the video!
thanks for making the episode that much better!
Great job
Sweet profile Pic!
@UCTarQzfJsGBVYHIn8Tap0NQ it was probably private and made public. Or he is a witch
You’re a god
"A man aboard a ship who had seen M2 that morning casually asked if it was normal for submarines to dive backwards. He was told that it was not."
Jesus Christ.
This WWI Bruh moment brought to you by the letter K.
That’s one of the best parts of the whole movie.
@@Aaron-hf5or Genuine question, no secondary meaning behind it: are you Romanian?
@@MCdouchbagcount
My great grandfather died in this tragedy. He was on k-17. His name was Thomas Jackson and his diary is in the Portsmouth naval museum. The part of the diary I have is mostly about his time in the Dardenelles. My grandfather, also called Thomas Jackson served in the navy (HMS Edinburgh WW2) and never found out what happened to his father apart from he died. Just wanted to say thank you for sharing this.
My heart goes out to you and your family mate. I hope this video gave you some comfort.
I thank you and your family for their service and sacrifices. Cheers!
@@silentotaku8 I thank you but I have never served. I’m proud to come from a family that served their country for generations and it’s them and countless others that deserve our thanks.
@@thomasjackson4059 I respect your modesty friend! I raise a mug in your honor and wish you a wonderful rest of the year, skål! (Cheers!)
@@silentotaku8 Cheers all round.
The saddest part of this whole affair is that the men aboard these submarines and ships were very talented sailors. Their quick actions stopped what could have easily been a much greater loss of life. But they were sealed in death traps; ticking time bombs. They were sent to their death by their incompetent superior officers, plain and simple.
It's not just incompetence, it's pure hubris.
Their higher ups refused to adapt to the changing times and the true methodology of warfare. Their refusal to break from their "one fleet" ideology, make death traps that were borderline impossible at the time and to an extent even today, and even after such a harrowing disaster, they refused to admit their defeat and would rather cover up their obvious mistakes then actually be punished for it.
If I even heard about this at the time, I would make sure EVERYONE knows about this; these men should have been held accountable while they were alive, and those who died should have had their loved ones told about what happened.
Absolutely. Some of those maneuvers were intensely skilled, but there is only so much that skill can do for you in those conditions. There was no reason for such a horrific tragedy like this. None whatsoever.
"This could have been worse" is a haunting thought
That and that none of the surviving sailors shot their admirals.
I think that's basically the entire First World War, especially for the British (at least in our cultural memory). "Brave men sent to death by incompetent superiors."
Even though this is just 2D shapes and dots on a black background, I couldn't help but be absolutely horrified and aghast when the ships plowed straight through the men in the water, and seeing the other ship torn in half... the terror those poor men suffered, what a terrible way to die, and yet they weren't even properly honored because the higher ups were to proud to admit their fault.
Leaves more to the imagination, which in turn makes it scarier.
I know! I was groaning and saying "Oh my god!" throughout the entire video.
I literally kept yelling OH NO everytime one of them was about to hit the other lol
I got terrible chills
I know. Just knowing that the dots were people, even with such simple drawings it was horrific.
it took me a while to realise this wasn't a bunch of backstory leading up to the battle of may island, this WAS the battle
Yeah same XD Probably why the monument puts the biggest quotation marks around the word Battle.
I was kind of expecting the germans to show up during the mess and just kill everybody.
"Battle"
The British Navy decisively battled with the Stupidity Empire. Stupidity won.
Thought therebwas gonna be redemption but ended just depressed
The description of K6 finding no survivors in the water after K4 broke in half and sunk gave me chills. Imagine being the captain of K6, still reeling from the crash and processing what just happened, suddenly realizing that the whole crew is dead and he is responsible.
It wasn't even his fault, but I imagine he had an awful case of survivor's guilt after that and blamed himself for the accident. What an awful clusterfuck.
@@BigPuddin I dunno about that - obviously the poor visibility relieves him to some degree, but the lights on a ship are colour-coded by direction specifically so something like this usually wouldn't happen to a competent captain
Remember that the lights were pretty scheisse to begin with, being dim and shuttered, so maybe it took him a bit of time to realize what light it was.
@@Nero_Karel
@@stevemc01Seconding this. The design of the lights was extremely subpar for emergencies due to their directional nature. This was essentially a Swiss cheese model disaster, too many holes lined up.
@@Nero_Karel they were also shuttered so you would be able to see it from the impact angle.
With all the eerie in this video, that line at 53:01 is somehow the most chilling. "Is it normal for submarines to dive backwards?", presumably asked innocently to an officer. I'm imagining the frightening pause and cold spike of realisation, that something horrible may have just happened.
Yo wtf first
Wow, check mark and everything lol
Can we expect more Silent Hunter III streams coming soon after this?
Womble has good taste. The only other comment I've seen from him is on a Jim Can't Swim video.
If it was in a video game, Cyanide would somehow do it.
The scale of this clusterfuck is incredible, all happening in excruciating slow motion. Absolutely gripping.
Willie D much?
Lions led by donkeys.
😆that is exactly the right classification, a munsta CLUSTERFUCK.. great piece of history, me as an old signalman comms , dutch navy submarines, know what manouvring technics came after this.. NATO created some great uniformity
Can you imagine the ptsd from that
@@benwadley3163 I wouldn't even want to imagine the PTSD from this. It would be horrible.
This is the naval equivalent of when you’re carrying a load of loose laundry and you drop a sock but when you bend down to pick it up three more articles fall and so on and so on until you’re forced to just drop the lot and throw everything back together again. Except people died.
You dont know my laundry room. RIP Horatio from apartment 3C, you will be missed
"Except people died."
Nearly as many as at the Pentagon in the September 11th attacks at that.
(102 deaths in the May Island incident, 125 at the Pentagon in the September 11th attacks)
Life hack #833: Put a towel on top of the dryer and put laundry on top of that. Pick the towel up by it's corners. Button up shirts can work too.
Now the sock needs a giant gun or a plane.
for those wondering why there aren't any new uploads, don't worry he's working on a video about EVE Online that's gonna be over five hours, which is why its taking so long to make. seeing how an hour long vid about an officially documented event like this one took him about 4 months to make, a five hour long one about an ongoing subject with a bunch of vague/untrustworthy info taking over a year is to be expected.
Oh sweet! Looking forward to it.
thank you!
Thanks
I’ve never been so excited for a RUclips comeback. The Eve online rabbit hole will definitely take you on through the looking glass.
Excellent. I was worried.
The amount of anxiety this is giving me is horrid, when I think "oh okay, now it's gotta end right?" Another ship appears and it keeps getting worse
Knudson: HOWEVER...
"Oh man i sure got lucky that this Destroyer missed me and didn't cut me into ribbo...
wait is that 5 more of them?"
Its like a trainwreck spanning multiple tracks and dozens of trains... except depending on the severity of the crash the trains will sink into the earth killing literally everyone aboard.
I have never been so intensely enthralled by a couple of black and white lines slowly moving past each other. Amazing work!
Not funny shut up
Sometimes some abstract demonstrations and your imagination is more than enough to give a terryfying image.
Now that could be a YT channel. Just some dude who loves naval battles and is willing to go through them frame by frame with black/white visuals overlayed.
@@jacobstallard2678 try drachinifel
@@Arvidus89 Look up "the first metal of honor ever recorded" if you have never seen it before.
I’m really glad that you choose to cover topics and events that particularly interest you, as opposed to trending rabbit holes that hundreds of channels are already talking about or giving in to your fans’ requests. It makes these mini-documentaries all the more special, interesting and fun to watch, and full of great attention to detail.
It also means that for many of us, it's almost a sure guarantee to learn something new every time.
Plus who doesn't love a good history documentary
@@randomtinypotatocried Good history documentary read in good voice.
Exactly. One of the dumbest comments I ever read was someone suggesting that he go down the Paul brothers rabbit hole. What is there left to say? Has nobody heard of them? Anyway,I love Fredrik going for stuff I know I've likely never heard of or had any interest in.
His interesting (if a little autistic) dives into things may bore and irritate some, but I find them (mostly) fascinating.
The hurdy-gurdy was a stinker, but that's just like.. my opinion, man.
Keep up the unpredictability, I say.
44:45 this to me has to be the worst part. One of the last ships barging through helpless overboard men and lifeboats, sucking some into its propellers. All because of bad visibility and communication. Tragic and absolutely horrific
I absolutely love how the memorial places quotations around “Battle”
In a battle between Britain and Britain, britain lost
@@phoebe5 The history of Britain, in one sentence.
the battle of the Superiors ego and the sub mariners lives....
The use of sound effects, animation, and music in this documentary is sublime.
The information alone is an excellent detailing of a tragedy caused by foolish pride and stubbornness, combined with a variety of costly mistakes.
But the audio backing to the video side just works so well to enhance the mood and tone of this.
my only criticism would be that he should have made the ships more distinguishable. i found it a bit hard to tell them apart at times and had to rewind to understand what was happening.
Someone needs to get an award for the audio work, it's that good.
The music reminds me Jonny Greenwood’s composition for the movie, “There will be blood”, absolutely amazing audio work
I head him on a podcast say how he has someone doing sound for him who literally goes through and will change volume of the backing track to match narration, etc. Knudsen was smart to get this persons help and this person is crazy good!!
The soundtrack was great. Reminded me of a subdued Christopher Nolan movie soundtrack.
Few things inspire more dread than hearing Fredrick Knudsen say "however".
Good lord. You shits going down when he says that.
THE ILLUMINATI / CIA CREATE AN UNDETECTABLE MIND CONTROL SLAVE BOOK. (walk in the rain) on my channel :)
@@mysteriousknowledgetexts9809 Joke's on you, I can't read
@@ShermTank7272 Jokes on you, they probably can't even spell.
Its been 2 years since fredrik went insane studying eve online.
wut
he’s finally free from it
I haven't watched it yet but I intend to it's just a fucking beefy video
Can anyone tell me why I should even care about EVE online?
Id rather he did more historical ones like this or the wine poisoning.
So many youtubers copycot but with this guy its always something I never knew about.
"Desperately, he gave the order to turn to starboard..."
Me, having watched Cost of Concordia: "I know where this is headed"
Vada a bordo, cazzo!
I see my fellow culturemen
“He cocks up at the worst possible moment”
"Wait, I've seen this trick before!"
No Schetinos on board these boats/subs, thank God.
May I just say, Ryan Probert knocked the music absolutely out of the park. The music adds so much to the story telling of the video
UMMM no its intrusive
A deadly "battle" where not a single shot was fired and the enemy, hubris and poor choices, clearly won.
Not unheard of. during WW2 Germany lost to itself in an Aircraft/Ship engagement where both German sides confused each other for enemy.
depends if flares count
@Rafael Enriquez Thanks for the name of it. I only remembered the rough outline from Qxir's video on it.
It's almost like a real life Twilight zone episode.
@@arciks11 the royal navy also accidentally shot at each other during the chase of the Bismarck
I never knew how important the Navaho Code Talkers where until watching this and seeing how hard communication really was. Speed and making sure your enemy couldn't understand you must have been a nightmare.
"Ooof that was a close near-collision, I'm glad those guys made it through."
Fredrik Knudsen: "But wait, there's more!"
Your pfp describes the whole video perfectly.
*Pain.* Especially when K6 bisected K4. That was just....yeah...
Watchers: F**K!
"But this would not last"
Imagine being cold in the water, stunned by the shock of the accident. The relief from seeing friendly ships, only to be sucked into propeller of your countrymen's ships. What a brutal way to go
This was truly atrocious to hear
fuuuuk dude
During WW2, on more than one occasion, Allied ships not only ran over friendly sailors but also dropped depth charges into the water with them to try and sink enemy submarines.
And since the Admiralty decided to bury this incident and keep it a secret tells me they lied to the families of those who died in this incident about how they died. That's a lot of lying and that lying successfully added another fucked up kink in this story. Sorry for swearing but seriously there are no other words.
@@Wildstar40
The death reports given to families in the two World Wars very rarely reflected what actually happened to their loved ones. It was seen as being kinder to report that they died quickly and doing something brave. See for example the letters scene in _Memphis Belle_ . All of those letters are real.
The whole disaster is just one big, “but wait, it gets worse!”
It's like a massive highway pileup but in slow motion and more lives at stake.
For real. Two submarines sinking with no survivors, even way after the battle. This is fucked
I felt a bit of relief every time those animations showed the subs and ships narrowly missing each other... just for it to zoom back out and show MORE subs and ships racing directly towards each other. And it just kept happening.
The first part is a big
Fisher: But what if I do anywaaaay?
At least the Kamchatka wasn't present.
I was on the dive team you mentioned at the start who discovered the final resting place of the wrecks after the Battle of May Island. From my back porch I can see the site from here.
This was an engineering disaster, not a naval one. "Too many damn holes", as one account goes.
Worth noting as you mention in the last few minutes - nuclear powered submarines, including the V-boats where I served in the Royal Navy, are also steam powered. They just don't need coal.
Right idea, wrong time.
Respect to those who served upon these widow makers.
This is why I always come back to vids I watch, even years later. Sometimes, the people involved, who are unknown or not popular, show up and share some extra/specific info.
I LOVE knowing slightly more than others on various things. ^_^
The engineering wouldn't have been so disastrous if not for naval leaders demanding these ships be created to their exact specifications. Seemingly misunderstanding how these ships would work in practice, and regardless of the concerns many engineers raised. This is not how to spark competent innovation. Often they would simply replace concenered engineers with others who would do it, and were deterred from asking questions. Essentially telling engineers to just get it done, and figure it out somehow. They made these decisions without any understanding of how these ideas would be implemented, or their functionality at sea.
Due to the nature of the war, wanting to gain an advantage quickly. These projects were rushed aswell, to a point where serious design flaws were not noticed until it was far too late. The ones that were noticed only had superficial fixes. They did not keep many well working ships from previous years British crews knew how to navigate well as back ups, preferring to scrap them in order to start a new. The technicalities weren't being considered heavily enough by naval leaders, and they were too stubborn to see how unreasonable their demands actually were.
The navy also disregarded opinions of skilled sailors telling them these ships were unmanageable, and there were too many issues with the limitations of communication technology at that time. I'm not saying the engineering isn't at fault, but the navy also played a key role in how this tragedy came about. They are both responsible for what happened to those ships, and the crews aboard them.
This was a disastrous blunder by the navy as naval leaders continuously made poor, ill informed decisions. Stuck by them despite the obvious, and severe problems. Then once something truly horrifying happened, costing the lives of many. They tried to cover it up rather than take any accountability, or confront the families of those who needlessly died. Their actions were not innocent in this. The navy had many many opportunities to prevent such an incident, but they opted to ignore them. Utterly cruel, and embarrassing behavior.
These subs weren't running on coal, they were running on heavy fuel oil. The problem was the preheaters needed to make it a liquid before it could be used. And the problems here weren't anything to do with engineering, they were to do with violations of proper procedure and driving a squadron of large vessels into an approaching fleet without any idea if it knew they were coming. Without that, this was a minor collision with two casualties.
@@EmoLozer500 ^This
You can't fault an engineer if he's forced to design something against their judgement because someone higher on the command chain forced them to do so. As a Geological Engineer, the times I've heard stories of colleagues who had to leave good paying jobs in the Geotechnical/Civil engineering field because the one putting the cash tried to force them to build something against regulations/plain proven science facts that would go against the structure integrity and therefore the lives of the people using such structure is too damn high to not be concerning.
Most of the times is exactly as you said, first you raise the issue to your boss and then they either ask for other options that can cut corners while still being legally "safe enough" or they just straight up force you to retire and then find someone willing to do the job/dirty their hands for a quick buck. It's actually sickening how some people play with other people's safety/lives just to save some money because they made a bad investment/didn't care from the start.
@@chonchjohnch
No, what's being said is that the "steam" part isn't the problem, it's that the power source was boilers burning heavy fuel oil. That was what caused all the issues.
that play-by-play was one of the most stressful things i've ever listened to
The use of music and sound effects in this video elevates the tension of this seaborn tragedy so much.
when those destroyers were encroaching on the survivors in the watermy mouth was agape in disbelief and anticipation of the horrifying event that was to come.
THE KING HAS RETURNED
Indeed he has.
I LOVE YOU DAD
oh hey matt
Ryan from supermega?
Real
I am Enraged that it took over SEVENTY YEARS for a memorial to be created for them.
Thank you for putting all of their names at the end, that means more than can be said in words.
Except for perhaps.. The words at the end of the video.
You know, the words with their names.
@@Jay22222 Oh Jack, leave Kelsey alone- they are Enraged with a capital E about a naval mishap that happened over 70 years ago. Actaully it was a 103 years ago- but neverless... why would anyone have an emotional connection with this?
@@matthewharper7333 Heaven forbid that someone criticises an institution for sweeping a tragedy under the rug to save face, and heaven forbid similarly that anyone has an emotional reaction to aforesaid tragedy, which took over 100 lives through misfortune and the incompetence of those at the top of the chain.
@@matthewharper7333 "Why would anyone have an emotional connection with this?" Well, perhaps because it was due to mistakes and arrogance of people in command and, in case you haven't noticed, the ones in command today in most if not all places where decisions weigh on life or death of others are also people. It's almost as if documentary about human flaws leading to massive amounts of easily preventable deaths 100 years ago may have some significance to us. It might be a shocking revelation to you, but mankind has not dramatically changed in the span of such a massively long time.
Sarcasm over.
@@MPSmaruj The majority of the mishaps were caused by poor military doctrine regarding new weapon platforms and fleet movement. The military is inherently dangerous. Even without enemy fire, men and equipment are pressed into unsafe situations that can, and will, cause death. In this case, 3 floatillas are moving close to one another at night and with limited visiablity due to fog. Communications, apperantly, are also limited. A strange equipment malfuntion, the steering jammed on one of the subs, began a series of accidents.
Upper level brass are arrogent and closed minded- but they have to be because of the very nature of command. They hear so many ideas about how things should be run from so many people promoting their own agenda that a decision has to be made and the commander has to be resolute. Things may go well and the results are ignored (for example, we don't hear about the movements of southern fleet in the video. They were sailing in the same weather but arrived at point without an accident) or lauded as a hero. Things may go poorly, such as this event or countless others (like Gen Haig, a few years earlier who thought machine guns were ineffective and had 20,000 of 60,000 men killed in a few min's when he ordered a frontal attack on the German lines. He would go on to rack up a 260,000 deaths of his own troops before relieved of command). While it's easy to crap on these bad decisions- a poor decision is still better than an irresolute officer.
For example, look at Gen Elphonstone, whose weak and irresolute character lead to the complete failure of the British army in Afganistan. Or, Gen McCellan who could have, arguably, ended the American Civil War in 1862 if he had counter-attacked Lee.
My points are- the military is a very dangerous occupation. Even in peacetime or not under enemy fire. Those in command don't have a way to see the future and decisions are mostly made in the dark. There are always compeating ideas and there is really no way of telling which one is the best. Because the men who make these decisions are responsible for them, they tend to go with their own ideas. "Make you own mistakes- not someone else's." To be resolute is better than not to be. The Battle of May Island was a series of accidents caused by bad luck, bad communications, and bad doctrine.
What's wild to me is that despite how much ocean the submarines could have covered and how they all kept changing course, their paths *still* kept intersecting perfectly by sheer chance
That has to be some of the worst luck in the history of man.
K22: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"
The Inflexible: Read ✓
I call this "The very Inflexible"
Operation: Tiger
Back then “hell” was a much harsher swear, too
Vibin
Everyone's got that friend.
"Smashing the Periscope with a hammer"
What a wild time to be alive
Early air combat was pilots throwing bricks at each others propellers, and firing pistols and sawed of shootguns at each other.
Maybe the most ironic thing you can say about WW1.
It's such an absurdly British tactic, too. "I say old chap, submarines are unsporting!"
It was like Submarine Polo
WW1 truly was a GREAT War 😎
"It surely can't get any worse."
"Surely it can't get ANY worse."
"SURELY, IT CANNOT GET ANY WORSE."
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"
Perfect summary
"What's the worse that could-"
*after the massive pileup*
"You just had to say it..."
What a shitfest
Murphy's Law, my friend.
Holy clusterfuck that I had never even heard of before !
It was like watching 10 episodes of the Three Stooges all at once.
I absolutely "loved" this, the research, script, animation and music all work so well together bringing us a haunting history dive into a disaster of arrogance, poor design, incompetence, communication problems, and a little bit of bad luck, all spilling into a cauldron of terrible weather conditions to bring about one the worst disasters in naval history.
Great work! Truly amazing work to everyone involved.
I think the main takeaway I get from this is that night-time naval missions before radar were fucking suicidal. Even just going back and forth in the mist could result in death with no ability to know where other ships were. Something that just would never happen after this era.
My other takeaway from this is that most suffering of workers/soldiers come from the disconnected hubris of upper management. The unfortunate fact of war is that human lives are a resource to use and take away, but these admirals are so far removed from the war that they gamble away lives like a playboy just for the sake of proving they’re right. I’m not a war buff, but I think it’s also a huge mentality of the Great War, just throwing people at a barbed wall like a subtraction game, while the aristocrats of countries lie in comfort since “die” is a 3 letter word.
I've never been more stressed watching ovals narrowly miss each other.
And, horribly, NOT missing each other...
Watch Historia Civilis, and you can get emotionality attached to occasionally spinning squares and rectangles.
Ngl I almost cried watching the ovals plough straight through the dots
RIGHT IM SWEATING
I can't believe 104 dots were killed by THEIR OWN FLEET of ovals. Holy shit. I hope someone got fired for that blunder.
Even though the visual focus being mostly on the step-by-step event timeline might not seem as dramatic at first, it was absolutely crucial for the understanding of the chaotic series of events and its relative starkness, combined with the narration and haunting music, created a great, eery atmosphere.
Amazing documentary, great work by everyone involved in the project. I'll be sure to watch this again and again.
Seems downright cynical to call this a "Battle", but you described the nature of the military at that time in a way that makes this plausible enough.
Even though I can't think of an example off the top of my head, friendly fire incidents are very commonly referred to as battles.
It was genuinely suspenseful seeing the ships approach one another. Never has the overlapping of PNG images been so intense.
honestly the dark background and eerie music almost made you feel like you were in a dark ocean during a foggy night
scary stuff
this made me think about how no matter how comically, absurdly ridiculous something seems in fiction, something much more horrifying and insane has happened in real life (and almost always due to the negligence and arrogance of those in power). what a tragic loss of life in a surreal set of events that could have been avoided if their superiors cared about them at all.
I was just talking about exactly this recently, watching true crime stories a lot. The horrors in movies don't even compare to things that have really happened.
Just another reminder for people why you never blindly follow "the experts". This is an accurate depiction of "the experts" in most cases - people who just sort of think they know what they're doing and probably don't, and if they mess up it doesn't effect them personally.
@@emeryltekutsu4357 I've met some "Experts" myself, just a bunch of overconfident, narcissistic assholes covering their backsides. Blind trust never leads you to the right path.
Fiction has to be believable for it to be successful; reality doesn't.
@sagekaley@ I know what you mean, Sage. Many Generals, Admirals and the like, haven't paid anywhere close to enough attention to the welfare of their troops and sailors. Yet, in this case, Fred remarks quite early on in the video that this particular Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher, was of a different stripe from that unfortunate norm.
Fisher attempted to revolutionise the British Navy in the time of his power, 1904-1910 and then briefly from Oct. 1914 until May 1915. One example of his concern for his sailors, Sage, was to improve rations across the board. For instance, instead of their normal daily supply of "hardtack", he insisted that they be fed fresh bread, baked aboard the ship. Here's a description of hardtack;
"And, as it had been for thousands of years, hardtack remained a staple. The British Royal Navy began mass-producing hardtack in the mid-17th century. The recipe was flour, salt, and water. To make it last on a long voyage, they removed all the moisture, sometimes baking it four times. Sailors referred to these unpalatable but sustaining sea biscuits as “molar breakers.” They soaked them in tea or brine to make a sort of mush.
Accounts of life at sea describe sailors rapping their hardtack, a/k/a “worm castles” on the table or deck to knock the weevils out of it.
The cook wasn’t a regular position, either. Instead, whatever injured crew member was unfit for regular duty was assigned to feed the hungry masses. Considering what their culinary skills might have been explains why shipmates coined the phrase, “God made the vittles, but the devil made the cook.”
Apparently, hardtack was frequently infested by biscuit beetles (oh, yummy, my favourite)!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fisher,_1st_Baron_Fisher
Wishing you all the best ... Dave
"the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense" Tom Clancy
I love it when people with last names like "Fisher" end up with titles like "Sea lord".
It's a hypothesis called nominative determinism, that people's names influence their area of work to suit their names
@@cobalttj6356my ex-wife's surname should have been Harlot
I have said "Are you FUCKING kidding me!" at least 16 times and I'm only like, halfway in. Holy shit what a trainwreck. I feel absolutely horrible for everyone who lost their lives in this disaster.
What were your total?
Hey! Trains can't go in water. Only ships and subs do. More like a shipwreck.
I just keep saying “oh god no, oh god NO”
“Dude what the fuck?” Was mine.
How many times can a ship decide to steer port side to evade collision. Only to be met by chaos.
Knudsen’s docs are getting more and more cinematic. Amazing how his content has evolved.
the screening destroyers sweeping over the men fleeing k-17 sounded terrifying, honestly. i cant imagine how any of those 9 men coped with living after that, the survivors guilt must have been intense
If this wasn't kept secret for so long we could have asked them.
with names like "the fearless" and "the inflexible" this really sounds like some kind of ancient myth
The very definition of a clusterfuck, this was painful to listen to, can't even begin to imagine what it could have been to live it.
I would argue the only reason it's called a "battle" is to sound more dignified than the series of unfortunate events it truly was
@@vangobango7627 agreed
I think the thing that angers me the most about this series of blunders wasn't the invention of the deathtrap K-Class, nor the cluster that was May Island. It's that it was covered up for nearly 80 years, and only then revealed AFTER one of the wrecks was discovered led to "unsavory" questions. That amount of ass-covering is unbelievable.
20th century Britain seems to have had a firm policy of covering up any of its own disasters.
Now imagine how much of that (ass-covering) is going on right now, and will only be revealed in ~75 years. (cov!d)
During the attack on the main wagon bridge over the Marne at Château-Thierry, American machine gunners described a night attack on 1 June 1918 of massed German troops, who were singing gutturally as they made a suicidal charge, some linked arm in arm.
The victims were soldiers of the French 10th Colonial division from Senegal, who had been trying to get back across the river. Although reports of the incident were suppressed, it was discussed by American and French soldiers.
There are no German records of any attack on the wagon bridge.
Another funny one from WW1 "involving" the French Colonial troops is =>
8 May 1916 - During the Battle of Verdun, when the French outpost Fort Douaumont was occupied by German infantry, a careless cooking fire detonated grenades, flamethrower fuel and an ammunition cache.
Hundreds of soldiers were killed instantly in the firestorm, including the entire 12th Grenadiers regimental staff.
*Worse, some of the 1,800 wounded and soot blackened survivors attempting to escape the inferno were mistaken for attacking French Colonial African infantry and were fired upon by their comrades.*
In all 679 German soldiers perished in this fire
@Syark Yeah it is worth it
@Syark Also wdym by 1775, the revolution happened in 1776 and it was officially recognised by the British in 1783 via the treaty of paris
"What the hell are you doing?" Shouted the man who had just moments prior done PRECISELY the same thing
Just tag me next time bro
You know how road rage is fam
If you shouted that at me, then I would have no choice but to continue what I was doing *insouciantly*
Lol I thought that exact same thing
What the HELL are WE doing ?
Just does not have the same punch tbh
It's a real shame this didn't perform as well as his videos about lolcows or videogame scams. I loved the visuals, and his enthusiasm about this event really sells it.
Because videos about lolcows are better. Other people have covered this better and in less time
@@aydon1276 why are they better?
Not nearly as many people want to hear about awful horrible war attrocities
@@aydon1276 'They aren't
@@aydon1276 Thanks for your highly subjective opinion.
beautifully done. I work in commercial ships as a cadet engineer, and I can tell you how rough seas can get terrifying. Even when I was in a relatively new, Japanese engineered AHTS ship, machinery failures can still catch you off guard, even coming close to losing propulsion in the middle of a storm one time just off the coast of China. Hearing of how much more horrible the work conditions were in these vessels, how visibly incapable the top brass were, this video almost single-handedly convinced me that my own near-miss with my previous vessel was not even close to a horrifying experience as being one of the crew of these over-engineered coffins.
The sheer amount near misses gets overshadowed by just how bad the actual collisions were.
This takes “a series of unfortunate events” to a whole nother level
Lemony Snicket wrote this battle.
Give your music editor a raise. They're doing a great job! All of the ambient sounds and the way the music speeds up as the tension increases show someone who really knows what they're doing :D
The word "arrogance" seems to pop up a lot in The Great War.
It really was so critical. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series on WW1 goes into it in fantastic detail. Politics and arrogance abound.
@@eddedmonds5753 “just run at the machine gun nest, it’s going to work at some point”
The only thing to match human ingenuity is human arrogance, after all.
A lot of Europe's generals were around the end of rank and file combat and were members of the upper class
That's what's it was all about
The moral here is simple: if you’re going to make a mistake make sure it’s a huge one so you can keep your job
@T teg Egg Too big to fail.
If you're going to F something up, do it so badly they put your name in the history book.
Corollary: If you're high enough to make a huge mistake, there is none above you to fire you.
Ego >> Everything
If you're doing something wrong, just keep telling everyone you're doing the right thing.
-Might as well be a quote by Matt Hancock, current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for the UK; still in government nearing 4 months after being declared to have acted unlawfully by a High Court judge in regard to contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
EDIT: Deleted a duplicate post that somehow occurred.
The visual representation of the whole incident was very good. Much needed.
There isn’t a single documentary on this channel that I haven’t enjoyed in its entirety. Thank you!
I got here via autoplay, and was in another screen, but I was riveted listening to the tale. I'll have to come back and watch the visuals. It'd be rough, but worth it.
I don't think I've ever felt sick when hearing how personnel -of any disaster- died. I think it feels so awful because of just how much of a perfect storm everything was. Imagine being on one of the boats that sailed through the survivors, and learning later that you mowed through a bunch of your own comrades. I almost hope they never learned of what happened since they didn't mean to harm anyone.
As someone who’s been watching your vids for 3+ years, it’s cool to see how much your writing has improved. This feels like listening to a good history audiobook. Well done!
I'd recommend another channel to you that has shorter videos that document events like knudson's, Fascinating Horror. It's very good
My thoughts through the battle "Please, everybody, JUST STOP MOVING, PLEASE!"
especially at 41:21
Pretty much, had an old naval Leutenent Comander talk about CBDR ( we are on track to crash in layman) and he said the only thing you can do that is pretty much fool proof is slow down or stop.
@@Zombiewizard And then at 43:54 5th battle squadron arrived.
@@hiddenshadow2105 Insert Avatar narrator voice: "Everything was going to hell and then the 5th battle squadron showed up"
@@lyravain6304 Exactly.
"The Australia, The New Zealand, The Indomitable and The Inflexible"
This sounds like a bit in a comedy act, not a retelling of history.
An Australia, a New Zealand, an Indomitable, and an inflexible sail into fog...
New Zealand’s captain wore Maori war gear during the battle for good luck.
I don't know why but now I want Fredrik Knudsen to just voice more war documentaries just cause his voice has that feeling of tension that is perfect for them.
The instant he mentioned that the British thought steam engines would work for submarines I knew some next-level bullshit was about to go down.
“chugga chugga boom drown”
Ehhh im no engineer but that sounds pretty messed up idea.
@@d.aardent9382 it seems forever go down in history as one of those instantly recognisable bad ideas like the steam powered aircraft and the nuclear powered train
Oh and that nuclear-powered bomber the Americans tried making that one time
they woulda been better off ramming them like they did everyone else
Unreal
I just imagine the German fleet watching this unfold from the distance and the observer deck guy going to his superior and saying: 'Günther, you're not going to believe this shit.'
“Should we destroy them?”
“Nah they seem to be doing a pretty good job of it themselves.”
“I feel lazy we don’t even have to do anything!”
@@siennahartle9069 "we couldn't do it better ourselves"
"Never distract your enemy when hes making a mistake."
- Günther probably
“i wish we brought the lawn chairs and popcorn.”
Apparently, one of the main factors that led to the end of the First World War was the Imperial German Navy going on strike.
As terrible as this clearly is, with all the errors made along the way, the helmsman of some of the submarines and boats did a really good job with all the narrow misses that went on at the same time.
Good men with bad equipment and worse leadership.
That's sadly the nature of war. Lot of good, hardworking talented people getting talked into war by leaders, politicians or even their countrymen, often suffering either death by bungled test or death in open warfare.
@@AKSsasori Yep the men who start the wars never fight in them.
@@AKSsasori It is really sad to be sent off by your government to die... worse, to be brutally killed by your own side due to severe failures in engineering and planning.
I had no idea we used subs before the invention of sonar. I wonder what was told to their families. Probably just "KIA".
@@noaag I'm pretty sure they used subs in the American civil war.. that absolutely blows my mind. In fact lemme look that up to make sure I didn't just dream it, hang on
"He believed that if a ship could move and shoot fast enough, it wouldn't need defense."
manses was using video game logic.
Bro went for the glass cannon build
@@XXXTENTAClON227 da shin akuma ship
If the Battlecruisers hadnt been used as intended they could have been much more sucessful.
I'm 18 minutes in but I wanted to comment on the fact that the British Royal Navy probably advanced submarine development by showing exactly how *not* to build a submarine. Like they practically invented new ways for stuff to go wrong.
Its like Onision helping literature class since English teachers use his books as examples on how *not* to write a story.
Yeah cuz see I had thought it would probably be good for subs to dive into the ground nose first but thanks to the British navy I now know that's not good
@Astolfo Desu What makes you think British Submarines were any better than German ones?
The thing is most of what's in the early part of the video not only isn't true but is the complete opposite of the truth. The British started the war with the largest submarine fleet in the world (76 compared to Germany's 28, including 16 long-range patrol subs), pioneered diesel submarines, and by the end of the war had the first hunter-killer submarines in service. Fischer was actually a proponent of submarines. The issue with the K Class was that they were literally the only solution to a demand for a surface speed of 21 knots: even at the end of the war the fastest subs with diesel engines (British J Class) could only manage 19.
It almost feels fake, the amount of times you had to report that a ship was steering away from another ship ONLY to put it on a crash course with the next ship behind it... 😬
It’s like if the power cut to a nightclub then from the darkness someone yells “FUCKIN RUN!”.
Big lumbering drunks running in every which way and after time people crash there’s a long pause as their drunk brain tries to process what happened.
It's one of those things that, were you to see it in a movie, you'd think it's ridiculously exaggerated for cheap drama. And yet it happened...
@@nooneinparticular3370 This definitely needs a movie adaptation IMO. It would pay respect to all those sailors that died that didn't get the respect they deserved from their country at the time.
A chain reaction
This is one of the greatest roller coaster rides I've ever watched. Every time I'd be like "okay, that's the biggest fuck up of the whole story," Fred would be like "JUST BEHIND THEM WAS.." and I just could only think "oh no"
This is the biggest fustercluck I've ever seen. Then the video does a : "But wait there's more!"
I was honestly expecting the oil on the surface of the water to be the precursor to a fire, thus adding even more chaos to the whole ordeal. All things considered, that would've been the least of their problems.
Holy crap this needs a movie. Seriously, the suspense and the horror is insane.
Can't help but wonder how many other disasters like this haven't been disclosed yet.
Mutsu's 3rd Gun Battery is a Good Example
I would say, many. Probably many on a smaller scale, but still, many.
Many.
The more I write and look at the word 'many', the stranger it looks.
A-4 Incident
Not really on the same scale, but I just feel like more people should be aware of the fact a nuclear warhead is currently at the bottom of the Philippine Sea...
I can only imagine all the messed up "top secret" shenanigans going on. The amount that gets leaked only to be covered up or thrown in the mud as a "conspiracy theory".
I have no trust in the deep state or any government bureaucracy. Psychopaths will do anything for power.
Shit dude. The world monitary system is built off of debt and death.
Maybe I should learn how to become ignorant and optimistic again....
@@facepalm5134 once you have the burden of knowledge you cannot turn back
FK: "Steam powered submarine"
Me: oh no
Edit: I wasn't aware that modern subs are also steam powered. The main reason I panicked at Steam Powered Subs is cause, in the 1910s, they required fire. And fire needs oxygen. And there isn't oxygen underwater.
As the video continued, I realized that there were a lot more problems than I thought.
@Muad'Dib what’s really interesting to me is just how many comments I’ve seen that specifically call this out. It’s a *bad* idea from step 1 and surely if RUclips commenters in 2021 saw this immediately, wartime engineers back then did too. But for some reason people in leadership positions sometimes feel as though it’s because they’re too smart and nobody understands them that nobody is agreeing with them. 🤦🏿♂️
@@LintSplinter That, and also that they think that their decisions reflect their leadership. Proud people being powerfull think that questioning their decisions means questioning their hability as leaders. So, they never rectify or change their course of action as they believe that would be the same as saying "Yeah, what I did before was wrong". It happened a lot during history. And we still do it. Technology may advance, but there is no cure against stupidity.
Honestly, it didn't go wrong in any way i expected it to go wrong considering they were steam engines... no crazy explosions or anything. There seemed to have been one technical malfunction (the rudder) and i don't know what that has to do with the propulsion system. This was all because communication was too primitive for the technology they were using, steam powered or not.
@@Panteni87 if the submarines were smaller, and could turn better, or reliably dive quickly, like the Germans that inspired the project. regardless of the rudder malfunction, this may not have been *as big* a disaster as it was.
Better than Epic Store Powered submarine
"Dismantled for her metal" was the only good thing that happened in this story, jesus
Imagine having to be the guy to clean and salvage the turbines the men fell into..oh god..
@@asneakylawngnome5792 he probably had PTSD after looking at those turbines.
@@asneakylawngnome5792 Probably felt similar to the guys cleaning up tank crew remains out of the damaged tanks. Horrible.
We all miss you Fredrik Knudsen hopefully your hiatus comes to an end and we can get more rabbit hole videos!
Jesus Christ what a shitshow.
Halfway through the video I was like "this *has* to be it, right? No more please!" and then Fred keeps talking and I die a little more inside.
I had honestly been expecting that after all this shit happened, they would finally be attacked by those two mystery boats from the beginning, making things worse. Truly, this was a "Battle" against the K-class, not the Germans... A worse fate than I had expected.
Zarathustra spake and he said “Gaze thee not into the abyss. Lest the abyss gaze into thee and ask “Is it normal for submarines to dive backwards?” And judge thee empty.”
Well played there.
underrated comment
Absolutely splendid
What? Nietzsche for God's sake. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the name of the book. Why are so many people upvoting an embarrassing misquote?
@@SwitchTF2 I was hoping no-one would notice that the gaze ye not into the abyss wasn’t said by Zarathustra. Zarathustra is a character in Thus spake Zarathustra. But you’re right that the abyss quote is not from that book. I was only having some fun and hope you don’t find it to big a deal. Seeing as Zarathustra was a semi author insert character for the guy who said the abyss quote.
I can’t imagine being one of only 9 survivors from the last K class, seeing your fellow men being hit by, pulled under, or being ripped apart by the blades.
I don't think those people were ever okay again. Especially since people didn't know about ptsd then. They called it shell schock and it was seen as incurable.
A little slice of hell, bobbing in the dark, frigid ocean. I'd be shocked if any of them didn't have nightmares for the rest of their lives.
Id be real goddamn mad that none of the destroyers tried to turn. Just plowing on through. Imagine being the guys on the deck of the destroyers hearing the screams of your comrades as they get torn apart like grass under a lawnmower.
hell imagine being one that got hit by a ship or sucked into the blades. a nightmare way to die. the dread you would feel trying to swim out of its way and realising you alone cannot out swim or dodge a ship of that size travelling at that speed. horrifying.
@@vamppanic not only a nightmarish way of dying, but imagine surviving the initial sinking and seeing that there’s lifeboats getting closer too you, to watch your friends get killed before losing your own life, whole thing is horrific. The survivors would’ve had some hardcore PTSD and survivors guilt after
That was straight up incredible. Unnerving, well-narrated, well scored, brilliantly scripted. More importantly, I had no idea about this forgotten bit of history. Those poor men-like hell on Earth. I discovered you on The Official Podcast. Bravo, liked and subbed. Thank you.
Yet submarines are boats not ships
Man, it’s one thing to die in war, but dying in such a needless way is so depressing.
It’s really all needless
"dying in such a needless way"
WW1 In a nutshell
Operation tiger I think it was called. When the allies in ww2 were field dressing the d-day beach landing in the English southern coast. The flotilla of men cargo ships and men in Higgins landing boats were mistaken for an enemy landing force and shot at. Many numbers were killed and injured. It was buried because it was a week before June 6th and for secrecy.
The whole war was needless, the main leaders were all fucking cousins, since they all shared Victoria as their grandma.
dying in war is already pointless. you die for the politicians, who refuse to talk like normal people until thousands are needlessly killed
This video is masterful in it's tone. The music, the delivery, the script, it all comes together to create a video that fills me with dread. It's like a car crash in slow motion that I COULD look away from, but my dread and anxiety keeps me fixated. This accident could have been construed as a slapstick comedic series of unfortunate events, but you've taken it in the complete opposite direction. This video is another entry into your best works. Good job Fred
My thoughts exactly. It really highlights the fact that human error on the part of the crew wasn't to blame (cough cough Costa Concordia) but rather poor design and stubbornness on the part of admiralty.
The series of events, and the music set behind it, was disturbing enough. But then the, I take it, original composition at the end, absolutely capped off the chills. Fantastic production.
"Want to hear about some RUclipsrs?"
"Sure Fred."
"Want to hear about the Deep Blue AI?"
"Sure Fred."
"Want to hear about the Battle of May Island?"
"Anything goes, Fred."
"Yes, chef."
"Yes, chef."
Shitshow of any kind: **exists**
Fredrik: It's free real estate
Fred, the master of diverse topics
"Oh by the way, I play hurdy gurdy"
We love a well-learned king~
Never have I wailed "NO" so repeatedly
This is honestly so depressing, these ships desperately trying to help each other but unable to maneuver because of the badly designed speed/defense until they pretty much all kill each other
You know, when I saw the title "Battle of May Island", I was expecting combat between enemies. Like an actual battle. I kept waiting for Germans to show up in the middle of the clusterfuck - at one point even considering that the events were so terrible, maybe even *they* would offer merciful aid to the K's.
But no, the only battle was against the age-old enemies named Arrogance and Stupidity.
I'm surprised the RN at the time didn't have ships names the HMS Arrogance and the HMS Stupidity.
Those were the 2 mystery ships
I was honestly expecting two of the foltilas or the submarines to mistake eachother for enemies and start fighting amongst themselves
You think that's bad? When I saw the title "Battle of May Island", I was expecting the video to be about my sister in law May Anderson battling cancer in a private clinic in Long Island. Turns out it was about some kind of ships and whatnot.
@@ghostlightplays
one was literally called "inflexible", so not far off.
Someone: does something reasonable
Narrator: *However*
🤣🤣🤣
The k12 plowed into k14 which was rapidly followed by sharks with bees in their mouths and the Martians landing their flying saucer on k22. After some time the meteor struck.
@@informitas0117 🤣🤣🤣 sounds accurate
Narrator: "you have no power here I control how your story starts and ends."
@@informitas0117 And then, the fire nation attacked.
for anybody wondering: his next video will be about EVE Online, and (according to his twitter) it will be out in August
Tyvm. I don't use twitter and was about to ask what happened to his channel.
I can see the may island from my house. Not much is said about this accident, we weren’t taught about it at school. I know of a small plaque that commemorates this series of accidents but it has certainly been swept under the rug.
Even though I’ve lived here (anstruther) my entire life, I didn’t know much about it other than lots of sailors died from an accident around may island. I had assumed that they collided with the island itself. This video has been enlightening and especially interesting for me.
Heartbreaking.
Anstruther is the nicest place in Fife imo
Lol it would have been pathetic beyond measure if they collided with the island but at the same time, it would be less horrifying than what actually happened.
As an ex RN Submariner thank you for an excellent telling of this incredible piece of forgotten history, it wasn’t just the Lions in the trenches being led by donkeys the lads at sea were equally let down.....
jfc man, thank you for your service but damn, I hope the Royal Navy is no longer the horror show this video displayed it to be and you never had to do anything like this exercise.
There used to be a small book "The K Class".
It also includes the Battle of May Island and some information about how an iron tube was made in K13's shipyard.
Quite a bit more, but I thought it was well known. Having said that,I did buy it not far from the shipyard.
Hands down this is one of the best looks at the infamous disaster that was the K class submarines. The Battle of may Island even today is ill forgotten and not given enough recognition of the tragedy that occurred. Thank you so much for everyone involved in producing this magnificent look at the event. Much love from the 🇬🇧
And it's sad that RUclips demonitizes all war-related videos. As if historical accuracy doesn't mean crap compared to petty political correctness.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
@@8bitorgy couldn't agree more with that mate. Control the narrative control the people!
K17 "We're damaged, and sinking, but all crew have survived."
HMS Warspite "Not on my watch you don't."
*plows through men in water*
She really lived up to her name, didn’t she?
But it wasn't the Warspite but the destroyers screening her
the fact that all these men lost their lives because their leaders refused to adapt to their circumstances and change to fit the new form of warfare their opposition was using is absolutely despicable. all these men did _not_ need to die, the fact that they did is sick. there were so many warning signs.
The worst thing is that things still haven't changed that much between then and now. People get recruited to join the military to basically become human shields while government officials just kick back and profit from their deaths.
Welcome to the wonderful world of doctrine where the words 'just change this and it'll work' requires several years of working out the butterfly effect changes it makes to the entire way your run your Its nowhere near as easy as it sounds. You remove the K-class and then what? Replace them? With what? How long will it take to develop? How much will it cost? How will it be supplied? If you don't replace it how do you reorganise the battle line? Will we need to redeploy ships from elsewhere to compensate? What are we going to do about the jobs those ships were already doing? Do we even have ships suitable for the role we need to use them in?
@@steweygrrr Considering the actual combat record of the K class, removing them wouldn't have changed much.
> because their leaders refused top adapt to their circumstances
You can apply this to most of our problems nowadays. Arrogant greedy old men will be the end of our species.
@@steweygrrr The K class pretty much have no combat victories. Fred mentions within the video that the only time K class ever struck someone was with a dud torpedo. They were practically useless.
I started squirming in my seat when the destroyers started approaching the survivors, holy shit. This is horrifying.
This was an Excellent mostly forgotten historical documentary. I have watched thousands of history documentaries & this is on of the best I’ve watched. Simple but very detailed & entertaining. I don’t know if you still make videos like this anymore but sure hope you do more.
This video does an amazing job of painting every bit of technical incompetence, bull-headed arrogance, and just plain bad luck snowballed into one of the most infamous disasters in submarine warfare. Amazingly done.
The German U Boats just decided to make some popcorn and watch this shit show for their entertainment
"Hans?"
"Jawohl?"
"Double sauerkraut rations for the boys. We have a show tonight"
it was really fucking dangerous to get close anyway
It was Joseph Joestars submarine
I'm sure they were lol. Jesus Christ, Britain. What happened? Thought you guys were the masters of the sea?
@@TheDeadAlewives ya they are. On it. not under it.
Few things strike as much fear into me as the thought of sailing on a WW1-era submarine. The claustrophobia, the helplessness in case anything goes wrong, the likelihood of dying in the most horrible ways. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
I feel you but I'd much rather be one those than on a civil war submarine
Have you heard of cartel subs lol
Mining is possibly scarier to me.
For me it would be being a fighter or bomber pilot, now I imagine that for both subs and planes it helps for the crews to be more cavalier than most anyone else on the planet but still, having to deal with rampant snobbish and bigoted bullshit from people over you throwing your lives away for their own sake of pride alongside the high risk of casualty
Dude I'd be terrified of riding in a submarine now, I cant imagine the sheer dread
Ok pimp, time to post a new 3 hour video that I can listen to a dozen times while working.
He's working on a 6 hour long one
"Damn the K-class really sucks"
*But what if we added a big gun?*
Or a plane!?
It added a new feature lmao
Haha jk
*unless...*
Great idea! What else could possibly go wrong?
@@roberte2945 Crewman: What's the plane for?
Captain: So I can escape. I mean... search for u-boats. 😏
I'm watching ovals slowly slide around black screen and yet I feel like I'm gonna pass out.
This video is a masterpiece
Not since the WingsOfRedemption video have I so raptly watched a diagram
haha right?? how is it so fucking tense, they're just like lil toys fuckin around and i feel queasy
The little dots are my favorite part of the animation.
The horror of watching the ovals run over the little dots.... god.
"...the price of this self-assuredness would be paid, not by those in command, but by those serving..."
A great deal of British history in a nutshell.
More like "in a k-class submarine"
Well, that's how war works: The peons on the forefront pay for it all. Doesn't matter if the cause is justified or not, whether your side is attacker or defender, or anything else. The common soldier will take it in the shorts
That is the history of ALL war....
The really mind-blowing thing is that most of Britain's enemies were worse.
More like most history tbh
Really miss you man. This channel is my favorite by far. I've watched every vid you've put out like 3 times now & I have yet to find another channel similar in content & quality. Hope the vid is still coming out relatively soon.
So when I first started watching this I was like "alright, they're gonna mistake the K classes for U boats and start shooting at them". I don't think I possibly could have predicted the true incompetence that took place that night
Im right there with you bro.
Lol that's what I thought too.
Only problem being that the real incompetence took place not on that night, and hundreds of kilometers away - in headquarters
The fleet wasn't incompetent, the situation itself was a disaster while they were forced to follow orders from the real incompetent people
Name one mistake you wouldn't have made in this situation without the benefit of hindsight