Thanks for watching everyone! I hope the video is okay, I had some difficulty uploading it. The file corrupted twice, but third time is the charm I guess!
As a young leading hand in the Royal Navy, Hms Roberts was my accommodation ship at Devonport. Impressed with the big guns and the unusual submarine looking bulges at the waterline. I had seen the big guns before as I also did a bit of time on HMS Vanguard at Portsmouth.
I'm not gonna lie. When I first saw this ship I honestly thought that the British had done did lost their minds, and threw a Queen Elizabeth-class, and a Nelson-class at the wall, and whatever didn't fall off completely was what was going to be built. Still a amazing warship that survived surprisingly long, and has a great history along with it. Very well done on the video!
Super! Smashing! Marvellous! As you said it is a pity HMS Roberts was not preserved as a Museum ship. But I believe one of her 15" guns was kept as a museum piece outside the imperial war museum in London.
Love the reference to Rodney, Ramilles, and Texas for Operation Neptune. For what it's worth, USS Texas is currently in drydock to keep her intact as the last of the 1st generation dreadnoughts and a museum ship. Go Texas! Here's to her having an extended life.
My father served on the Roberts during the war, His job was to line up the turrets compass with the ships. Supply PO when not at action stations. Thanks for the information in the clip, I remember my father taking me to Devils point Devonport to look at the ship, when she was moored up.
My father served on HMS Roberts in WW2. Once while in Portsmouth my mother visited the ship as part of a school outing but didn't meet my father then who was serving on her at that time, they met 4 years later after the war in an office in London.
I’ll check his ‘autobiography’ to see if your Dad or Totty were mentioned.I have a feeling that Bob told a story about a torpedo passing under the hull.
My dad served in the Royal Marines on board the Roberts from when she was commissioned until the end of the war. I'm sure he told me the only other Scot in the marines aboard Roberts was their commanding officer. Seems only right there were a couple of Scots aboard as the ship was built at John Browns on the Clyde in Glasgow! Being a fairly small complement, I'm sure all those men mentioned in this thread knew each other to one degree or another. They may all be gone now - but not forgotten.
My great- uncle was on HMS Roberts on D-Day; his brother ( my granddad) was minesweeping the invasion approaches on the night of 5th-6th June. My dad missed it by just over a year, joining the RM commandos in time to just miss the war.
Remember seeing HMS Roberts in Devonport, tied to mooring buoys and quite visible from the Tamar Bridge which spanned the River Tamar that divides the counties of Devon and Cornwall. There were a few old cargo ships there that had raised gun platforms on them which obviously meant they were WW2 vintage. Nice video, thank you, just subbed the channel. 🙂
Another fascinating and thoroughly researched doco. When I was doing Naval Gun fire Support (NGS) training I was lucky enough to walk a lot of the ground around places including Villers Bocage. Nice to know at last which ship was doing the fires!
Firing at the top of the roll is a very wooden sailing navy thing to do but with modern guns it needs to be timed very exactly to make sure the point of impact isn't long or short.
My Great Grandfather served as a Marine on the Roberts from its start of service until the end of the war. All the marines he trained with bar a few were assigned to either the HMS Prince of Wales or the HMS Trinidad I believe. He wanted to be on the brand new battleship the Prince of Wales. The POW and the Trinidad didn't make it through the war. The Roberts was a lucky ship.
When I joined the RN in Jan 62 Roberts was laid up in Guzz dockyard just down from the old coaling jetty. She was still in Devonport when I joined Lion Feb 64. The last ship with big guns l think one of the guns is in front of the IPWM but I could be wrong. So antiquated with the Leanders about to make massive changes. Charles Davis 62-90
In an alternate universe, the USN decides not to re build the worst damaged Pearl Harbor ships. Instead, they pull the guns and turrets and install them on this style monitor.
HMS Roberts was small, absolutely hopelessly underpowered, and was pointless for the second world war when the Atlantic and the Western Approaches were the paramount defensive battlefields of naval engagement. The Royal Navy needed more escort ships for the convoys, not whatever this thing was designed for. Coastal defense against Germany was also on the minds of the naval staff, and while this ship was armed with large naval rifles, it had to have been cramped and miserable for her crew. Not to mention that she was ridiculously slow at 12.5 knots, so she could barely outrun a merchant ship, let alone a German u-boat...This was just another example of the Royal Navy reaching for ships of war during WWII. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see any real use for this vessel.
Looks like a poor man's way to mount a battleship gun, while useful IMHO a big waste of material and manpower. Two of her class's material could build a proper battleship.
Roberts role was NGS, if you built a full battleship instead of her? Said ship is 3 times her size, 3 times her crew & at least 3 times her draught, thus removing her ability to get close inshore & thereby reducing the range of her guns to hit targets inshore. How to tell the world you don't understand the purpose of the monitors & NGS, without telling the world you don't understand the purpose of monitors & NGS.
@@markmaher4548 I would add that today every ship filling the same role today is limited to the standard 5 inch gun. Why you might ask. Anything larger was found wasteful of men and material when rockets are around. By the Spanish American War Monitors were already found to be obsolete. The pre-dreadnoughts already replaced them in bombardment and smaller patrol craft on the close in roles. By WWII a wing of Cheap PT boats could take out battleships and Landing craft included some with larger guns. I stated they were useful but in a very limited way and either larger or smaller craft were much better suited for either role. The Britts also built what was called pocket battleships that often failed, including at Jutland and was the worse loss the British Navy ever saw.
@@charlesmaurer6214sorry, but I also believe you’re wrong on many point, Charles. Firstly, a 5 inch gun is simply about as big as most modern warships can cope with, bearing in mind they’re of similar tonnage to a WW2 Light Cruiser. There’s simply no budgets nowadays to build bigger ships for specific roles, it’s not like everyone thinks guns over 5” aren’t effective and would be preferable. Secondly, rockets were a highly inaccurate short-range coastal bombardment saturation weapon and genuine long-range gunnery wasn’t truly replaced until the ‘80s and the advent of advanced SSM’s like Harpoon SLAM. The Royal Navy was severely criticised after the Falkland War for its lack of ability to deliver weight-of-fire onto land targets from the 4.5” “popguns” carried by all RN vessels of the time. Thirdly, you’re confusing RN Battlecruisers developed in the 1910-1925 period with “Pocket Battleships” which were German Heavy Cruisers of the late 1930s. Yes, these Battlecruisers weren’t up to fighting head-on against full-fat German Battleships, but the Brits had more than enough Battleships in their fleet that it was unnecessary for the Battlecruisers to engage the way they did at Jutland - that was a rash tactical mistake on the day. Which leads to my fourth point - you’re looking at the resources issue with a modern viewpoint where every £/$ has to count and fleet sizes are tiny in historical terms. This was simply not the case in the Monitor era, budgets were nowhere near as tight and individual ships didn’t “have to do everything” enabling Navies to “have their cake and eat it” in terms of maintaining special-role vessels that were great at their designated task without being burdoned with the compromises of having to be multi-role.
When I was in High School, one of the books I enjoyed reading was HMS Saracen by Douglas Reeman en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Reeman which is available on Amazon. .
Thanks for watching everyone! I hope the video is okay, I had some difficulty uploading it. The file corrupted twice, but third time is the charm I guess!
Well in persevering with it for us all to enjoy and keep them coming please Sir. 📚🇬🇧
As a young leading hand in the Royal Navy, Hms Roberts was my accommodation ship at Devonport. Impressed with the big guns and the unusual submarine looking bulges at the waterline. I had seen the big guns before as I also did a bit of time on HMS Vanguard at Portsmouth.
Very nicely done! I appreciate you covering the oft-overlooked specialist ships.
I'm not gonna lie. When I first saw this ship I honestly thought that the British had done did lost their minds, and threw a Queen Elizabeth-class, and a Nelson-class at the wall, and whatever didn't fall off completely was what was going to be built. Still a amazing warship that survived surprisingly long, and has a great history along with it. Very well done on the video!
Super! Smashing! Marvellous! As you said it is a pity HMS Roberts was not preserved as a Museum ship. But I believe one of her 15" guns was kept as a museum piece outside the imperial war museum in London.
Love the reference to Rodney, Ramilles, and Texas for Operation Neptune. For what it's worth, USS Texas is currently in drydock to keep her intact as the last of the 1st generation dreadnoughts and a museum ship. Go Texas! Here's to her having an extended life.
It’s great the US has kept such an historic ship as USS Texas etc. I wish we had kept HMS Warspite. 🇺🇸🇬🇧
Great job once again nice choice had not heard of this ship before absolutely great presentation well done as all ways thank you
My father served on the Roberts during the war, His job was to line up the turrets compass with the ships. Supply PO when not at action stations. Thanks for the information in the clip, I remember my father taking me to Devils point Devonport to look at the ship, when she was moored up.
TY-Great use of rare footage, and well done research. Keep them coming please. ;)
Hear hear!
Superbly presented and worked, many thanks.
Nice video. I've always had a fascination with monitors ever since reading a novel by Douglas Reeman aka Alexander Kent titled HMS Saracen
Great Story, read it while in high school in the '60s.
well done
My father served on HMS Roberts in WW2. Once while in Portsmouth my mother visited the ship as part of a school outing but didn't meet my father then who was serving on her at that time, they met 4 years later after the war in an office in London.
My partners uncle, Bob Barnes served aboard HMS Roberts. I wander if they knew each other?
@@richardjones8303 His name was Alex Snowdon, known as Snowy, he was friends with a scouser known as Totty.
I’ll check his ‘autobiography’ to see if your Dad or Totty were mentioned.I have a feeling that Bob told a story about a torpedo passing under the hull.
My father served on her during WW2, Petty Officer station in the turret, lining the turret compass with the ships compass.
My dad served in the Royal Marines on board the Roberts from when she was commissioned until the end of the war. I'm sure he told me the only other Scot in the marines aboard Roberts was their commanding officer. Seems only right there were a couple of Scots aboard as the ship was built at John Browns on the Clyde in Glasgow!
Being a fairly small complement, I'm sure all those men mentioned in this thread knew each other to one degree or another. They may all be gone now - but not forgotten.
My great- uncle was on HMS Roberts on D-Day; his brother ( my granddad) was minesweeping the invasion approaches on the night of 5th-6th June.
My dad missed it by just over a year, joining the RM commandos in time to just miss the war.
Remember seeing HMS Roberts in Devonport, tied to mooring buoys and quite visible from the Tamar Bridge which spanned the River Tamar that divides the counties of Devon and Cornwall. There were a few old cargo ships there that had raised gun platforms on them which obviously meant they were WW2 vintage. Nice video, thank you, just subbed the channel. 🙂
Nice detail
Fun video. Cool little ship. It certainly had its fair share of damage over the years.
Another fascinating and thoroughly researched doco. When I was doing Naval Gun fire Support (NGS) training I was lucky enough to walk a lot of the ground around places including Villers Bocage. Nice to know at last which ship was doing the fires!
Firing at the top of the roll is a very wooden sailing navy thing to do but with modern guns it needs to be timed very exactly to make sure the point of impact isn't long or short.
Really interesting video this time! There are some paintings in the video illustrating Roberts, and it would be interesting to know who the artist is.
My Great Grandfather served as a Marine on the Roberts from its start of service until the end of the war. All the marines he trained with bar a few were assigned to either the HMS Prince of Wales or the HMS Trinidad I believe. He wanted to be on the brand new battleship the Prince of Wales. The POW and the Trinidad didn't make it through the war. The Roberts was a lucky ship.
One of her 15 inch guns is on display outside the Imperial war museum in London.
Been looking forward to this all weej!
Bedframes and concrete, the ultimate in repair technology. Seems the RN had a thing for using concrete for repairs.
saw her in 1964, Devonport Dockyard
When I joined the RN in Jan 62 Roberts was laid up in Guzz dockyard just down from the old coaling jetty. She was still in Devonport when I joined Lion Feb 64. The last ship with big guns l think one of the guns is in front of the IPWM but I could be wrong. So antiquated with the Leanders about to make massive changes. Charles Davis 62-90
Thank you for sharing, reading stories like this is one of the reasons why I make these videos!
I remember seeing her afloat in the River Tamar as we were crossing Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge in the early 1960's.
bizarre looking, particularly when out of the water.
but useful.
⚓️
In an alternate universe, the USN decides not to re build the worst damaged Pearl Harbor ships. Instead, they pull the guns and turrets and install them on this style monitor.
WG: Why didnt we think of that!?!
And to think my hometown shipyard built your CSA ALABAMA, how times change when we conquered North America…
Turrets installed as shore batteries on Oahu.
I wonder how many VLS cells could’ve fit on HMS Roberts… 🤔
HMS Roberts was small, absolutely hopelessly underpowered, and was pointless for the second world war when the Atlantic and the Western Approaches were the paramount defensive battlefields of naval engagement. The Royal Navy needed more escort ships for the convoys, not whatever this thing was designed for. Coastal defense against Germany was also on the minds of the naval staff, and while this ship was armed with large naval rifles, it had to have been cramped and miserable for her crew. Not to mention that she was ridiculously slow at 12.5 knots, so she could barely outrun a merchant ship, let alone a German u-boat...This was just another example of the Royal Navy reaching for ships of war during WWII. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see any real use for this vessel.
Another fan 😂😂 “..done did lost….”
You've misunderstood her purpose
Did you not watch the video
@@chrisdechristophe
RN Landscaping flotilla...😉
Looks like a poor man's way to mount a battleship gun, while useful IMHO a big waste of material and manpower. Two of her class's material could build a proper battleship.
That would be an 18.000t battleship... A very small one...most likely not very useful.
Roberts role was NGS, if you built a full battleship instead of her? Said ship is 3 times her size, 3 times her crew & at least 3 times her draught, thus removing her ability to get close inshore & thereby reducing the range of her guns to hit targets inshore. How to tell the world you don't understand the purpose of the monitors & NGS, without telling the world you don't understand the purpose of monitors & NGS.
@@markmaher4548 I would add that today every ship filling the same role today is limited to the standard 5 inch gun. Why you might ask. Anything larger was found wasteful of men and material when rockets are around. By the Spanish American War Monitors were already found to be obsolete. The pre-dreadnoughts already replaced them in bombardment and smaller patrol craft on the close in roles. By WWII a wing of Cheap PT boats could take out battleships and Landing craft included some with larger guns. I stated they were useful but in a very limited way and either larger or smaller craft were much better suited for either role. The Britts also built what was called pocket battleships that often failed, including at Jutland and was the worse loss the British Navy ever saw.
@@charlesmaurer6214sorry, but I also believe you’re wrong on many point, Charles. Firstly, a 5 inch gun is simply about as big as most modern warships can cope with, bearing in mind they’re of similar tonnage to a WW2 Light Cruiser. There’s simply no budgets nowadays to build bigger ships for specific roles, it’s not like everyone thinks guns over 5” aren’t effective and would be preferable. Secondly, rockets were a highly inaccurate short-range coastal bombardment saturation weapon and genuine long-range gunnery wasn’t truly replaced until the ‘80s and the advent of advanced SSM’s like Harpoon SLAM. The Royal Navy was severely criticised after the Falkland War for its lack of ability to deliver weight-of-fire onto land targets from the 4.5” “popguns” carried by all RN vessels of the time. Thirdly, you’re confusing RN Battlecruisers developed in the 1910-1925 period with “Pocket Battleships” which were German Heavy Cruisers of the late 1930s. Yes, these Battlecruisers weren’t up to fighting head-on against full-fat German Battleships, but the Brits had more than enough Battleships in their fleet that it was unnecessary for the Battlecruisers to engage the way they did at Jutland - that was a rash tactical mistake on the day. Which leads to my fourth point - you’re looking at the resources issue with a modern viewpoint where every £/$ has to count and fleet sizes are tiny in historical terms. This was simply not the case in the Monitor era, budgets were nowhere near as tight and individual ships didn’t “have to do everything” enabling Navies to “have their cake and eat it” in terms of maintaining special-role vessels that were great at their designated task without being burdoned with the compromises of having to be multi-role.
When I was in High School, one of the books I enjoyed reading was
HMS Saracen by Douglas Reeman
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Reeman
which is available on Amazon.
.