I've noticed many Royal Navy ships in ww2 were exceptionally good at avoiding Torpedoes, was there some sort of extra training that Royal Navy Personnel had to take, or is it just a few exceptionally skilled crews.
Drachinifel if the boffors gun is considered one of the best anti aircraft guns ever fitted to a warship. I consider the Pom Pom as one of the coolest what do you think the world Anti Aircraft gun ever fitted to a warship
My father was a marine on the Ajax when it fought the Graff Spee. He was the gunlayer for the marine turret and told mum that all his mates had been killed when an 11 inch shell from the Graff Spee hit the turret. He had a half brick sized splinter from that shell engraved in Montevideo to commemorate the battle and presented it to mum. I still have it here on my desk next to my keyboard and by gosh it is seriously heavy. I never got the opportunity to ask my father about it, as despite being one of the first to land ashore on D-Day and his jeep hitting a mine killing all but him, he finally got killed by a motorist after he left the marines for a 'safe job' when I was about 18 months old. So I have always felt very lucky to actually be here at all 🙂
Whether luck, skill, or a combination of the two, on D-Day the Ajax was able to put two six inch shells through the only slightly larger gun slits at the German battery at Longues, disabling them from firing at the landings on Gold Beach. Drach, this deserved a mention in your video!
It sort of is. The battery (consisting of four bunkers) was repeatedly repaired and attacked and was not captured until June 7. www.dday-overlord.com/en/d-day/atlantic-wall/batteries/longues-sur-mer
I'd not heard this story before, My Grandad was a gunner on the Ajax during D Day, he never liked to talk much about it though. In 2016 he received the Legion d’honneur for his actions during d day.
it doesn't matter how the Greeks pronounce it - it's a British ship and therefore subject to the great British tradition of mispronouncing foreign words. they pronounced it "Ajacks" in the film and so will i. i might change my mind when the French stop calling London Londres
Could be worse, could be from Deutschland and have to put up with the entire English speaking world calling you "German". At least the French got more than half the letters right.
One of Barrow's finest products. My dad did his apprenticeship at Vickers and he always called it Ajax. (As per the popular cleaning powder of the time) She certainly cleaned up the Graph Spee.
HMS Ajax was aslo the namesake of town of Ajax (hard J), Ontario in Canada. They picked the name in 1941 to honour the first major Imperial victory of the war. All the streets are named after her crew, and they keep this practice when building new ones.
Two Greeks screaming at each other ?? I hear this is a common way for them to establish dominance and settle disputes. They only stop screaming at each other when they catch the scent of a nearby Turk.
Well, darn. That is one heck of a combat record. Ajax survived being shot by Graf Spee, being attacked at close range by torpedo boats and being hit by a 1000lb bomb. Remarkable.
Hunts a crusier killer. Harries and defends various Convoys Survives multiple air attacks including one that near crippled the ship. Fights and destroys Torpedo boats (the bane of the Russian Navy) Makes it to the end of the war. Clearly needs to be scrapped instead of saved. Seriously WHAT DID IT A SHIP HAVE TO DO in world war 2 in Britian to be considered worth saving for history sake? Warspite had the excuse she needed more money to keep afloat being a full battleship: bur cruisers are significantly cheaper to maintain in floating condition.
The torpedo boat battle (Battle of Cape Passero if you're British and Battle of Cape Bon if you're Italian) had Ajax dodging at least 7 torpedoes from ranges as close as 750-2000 yards, with the TBs attacking her from both sides.
@@glenmcgillivray4707 to be fair by the end of the war Britain was utterly broke and owed so much debt to the US vast amounts of infrastructure to rebuild all while dismantling the remains of the empire. We had far too many ships we actually needed to keep in service we couldn't afford let alone wasting money on ships that were worn out from battle and becoming obsolete.
Just for the record my employer is Greek and two of our car yards' loan cars are named Sparticus and Ajax (both Volvo 240 sedans). So lets just take a moment to appreciate the irony of an Australian dealer that sells Korean cars with a Greek dealer principal that has a couple of old Swedish loan cars with Greek names for a moment. Anyway he pronounces Ajax as Ay-Jax just for the record as did British actor Anthony Quayle who played Commodore Harwood in the movie. Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. Edit: And it was actor John Gregson playing Captain Bell of the Exeter who reported after the engagement "Request permission to submit revised list of spare parts requirements."
@@Deevo037 Honestly if the Anzacs were allowed in their own command chain a lot of unpleasant things at Gallipoli wouldn't have happened. Mind you if we had been in charge of our own forces, we might have landed at the beaches we planned to which would have meant landing on beaches covered in pre-prepared defenses instead of the relatively unprotected Gallipoli cove which was left relatively undefended due to the notion that no one would be mad enough to land there, and if they did there was no way they could possibly hold the position. Enter Anzacs to take and HOLD the crazy beach-head in face of stiff opposition. There is a reason we both celebrate Anzac Day as our day of remembrance, as opposed to some great victory.
Sorry, Drach, but you can't win with this one. We all know it's pronounced Ay-Jacks because that's how the scouring powder of the same name is pronounced, and we heard TV ads for decades telling us the right pronunciation. We're not about to let go of all that conditioning for some Brit coming along telling us Ajax is really pronounced like some asthmatic wheeze!
My late Father in law was a Royal Marine Commando serving on board the AJAX. There is a town in Ontario province, Canada near Toronto named after the ship with streets named after crew members. My Father in laws best friend in the Marines emigrated and lived in AJAX until his passing. Thank you for sharing.
For what it's worth the film The Battle of the River Plate from 1956 uses A-Jacks rather than Eye-Axe. Films from that period tended to have plenty of people who knew what they were talking about working on them.
Pandering to the European way of saying "J" as "Y" lead to the Brits losing their favoured "Jif" (Hard J) for the European "C", giving the very popular cleaner the name "Cif" (Say "siff"), just to please the E.U. Market. Now we are leaving, can we have our JIF back please? (Oh, and it is AJAX, as in "A-Jacks", if you don't mind, thankyou).
@@lauriecroad3186 Trouble is, "Jif" is a yellow plastic dingbat of liquid almost, but not quite, totally unlike lemon juice. Doubt if the cleaner would go well on my Shrove Tuesday pancakes.
Great video - all info, and no padding.. Ajax/Eye-axe had almost as storied a history as HMS Warspite. Drach, this is an excellent channel - with you, Mark Felton and The History Guy, I'm never at a loss for something to watch. Keep it going, please.
I was going through my grandfathers books he gave me. Whilst I picked up the book a series of pictures of all these ships fell out. I searched for them and found your video. Great work. It really gave context to a bunch of really important images I will cherish forever.
@@geoffread2707 Before that I had the Eagle 1/1200 kits for her, KGV, Kashmir, Km 1934a class, Acheron and Saar, plus several u-boats. Right pain to build (just an exploded diagram).
Yes- Ajax was the cleaning product. Iyax was the foreign football team. As for the ship - I'm in the cleaning product camp. I grew up watching the Battle of the River Plate film.
In school there was a Liberian we called Ajax. We kids didn’t know why till the parents explained it was because of how nice and shiny his bald head was.
@@davidwright1605 "Victory At Sea" was where I first remember hearing the names of many of the ships involved, and Leonard Graves stood with us in the "Ay-jacks" camp. She was stronger than some pesky fascist dirt, we know damn well ;3
It's seriously weird. He doesn't look to rename other ships with Greek mythological names to the original Greek, why this one. Very odd choice of hill to die on.
There’s a city near Toronto named after this ship and was the home of Canada’s largest munitions factory. The city is in Durham Region between Pickering and Whitby. I live in Whitby, though I’m from Peterborough. Camp X where Ian Fleming was trained is here in Whitby. Peterborough has a major GE factory and also Quaker Oats who probably fed a lot of hungry sailors.
I'm going with the British pronunciation because Jack Gwillim (who played the role of Captain Parry of the Achilles in the film) was a Commander in the Royal Navy, so I'm sure that *he* knew the correct pronunciation and would have insisted on it during the film's production.
A light cruiser with a battleship 'heart' and whose people did the Royal Navy proud. If, as some old and traditional sailors believe ships have souls then the soul of Battleships Victory and Warspite would be proud of this 'little sister.'
My grandfather (REME) was evacuated from Crete by HMS Ajax. Then attached to The Eighth Army. Went through North Africa then up through Italy. Left the UK in 1939 and returned in 1945.Proud to be a descendant.
I think you're looking at the issue of pronunciation from the wrong perspective. While Ajax (or Aias) was a greek hero, the names used in ship naming (as well as planets) are not the greek names, but the roman names, hence why one of the sister ships is called "Neptune" and not "Poseidon" (see also "Hercules" instead of "Herakles" etc.)
Its argued however that the Romans derived the name Neptune from the Indian language so not as helpful as you might think. Meanewhile Ajax was the same spelling and pronunciation in both Roman and Greek. Meanwhile any of the officers in the Navy that went to Oxbridge would have been required to study the Trojan war (via the Iliad) in the original Greek as part of the Universities classics requirement (all students had to study the classics as part of their foundation).
@@watcherzero5256 Ita, magister, we never used the letter "J" in my time (just as we made no distinction between "U" and "V") thus "AIAX" not "AJAX" - just as "GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR" (normally written as C. IVLIVS CAESAR, "Caius" and "Gaius" were interchangable and abbreviated, conventionally, to "C".)
The township of Ajax in Onterio Canada is named after HMS Ajax; with most of the streets being named after its serving crew members that took part in the battle of the river plate, there is even one named after Captain Langsdorff .
TS Gamecock, a shadow of its former self sadly, used to have its own building with boat sheds and a helicopter we would pretend had crashed so we could use our fire engine to put out the fire! now they share a few portable buildings with the other cadet forces
Ajax, Ontario was named for HMS Ajax after the Battle of the River Plate (the city is pronounced ay-jax). The town was founded in 1941 as a massive munitions manufacturing centre, every building built at the same time (it had been apple orchards before). The entire city was heated from a central steam-heating plant to reduce the chance of a spark source setting off the explosives. My mother had a schoolmate whose mother moved there to work in one of the plants; she recalled the home had been built so quickly that the kitchen cabinets had no doors. Such was the exigencies of war.
Few of those war-era houses are still standing, and the steam-heating plant is no more, sadly. That idea apparently is very efficient environmentally as well.
My Old Man's uncle was part of the Ajax's ship's company in 1939. Upon his return to the UK, he gave my Old Man (then aged 6) a bunch of bananas. The next time he had a banana was VE-Day, they were given to his whole class at school. He was the only child who knew how to eat a banana.
Even though Ajax' faith is sad, well, if Britain would have conserved all the ships with a glorious career, there would not be any space left for today's ships to moore around the isle.
The only reason she wasn't sold to the Indian or Chilean Navies was because of Churchill's apparent disapproval and he felt that "such an important vessel would be better off broken up to preserve her history" which of course is nonesense. It's also funny you say that as we have managed to preserve five carriers, 9 battleships, and over a dozen destroyers yet we have no where near the naval history of the Royal Navy. Not every ships with a glorious history needs to be preserved but atleast some do. Belfast is the only WW2 ship of note I can think of in Britain as a museum. I mean, even the North Koreans manage to have a museum ship of note, the USS Pueblo.
Be nice to visit them all anchored off every beach round the country. Scrappage must have seemed the thing to do at the time.Just like it seems a terrible idea now. Remember someone, somewhere, some when, thought that concrete high rises were a good idea.
@@randomlyentertaining8287 Don't think you Americans can get away scot free Bar USS Texas (which is slowly dying in her berth ATM) Only the ships the US could use were saved Except Missouri, where are those that had actual historical value due to the battles they fought? Gone The BB's at Pearl Harbor? Surigao Strait? Guadelcanal? Car parts and food tins Saratoga? Bombed into an underwater night light And the fact CV-6 Enterprise was scrapped is a warcrime in itself
Thank you for intro sound balance in recent videos. It became much easier to pay attention to your excellent narrative without waking up entire house with first BB salvo.
My uncle Harry joined Ajax(A JACKS, as in JACK not YAK)after it got back from the River Plate and was on it until he was demobbed. He told me some mad stories about the actions in the med, it was like sieve in all the action she saw.
I'm willing to bet no sailor or member of the admiralty during the war ever called her 'Ayacks', she's a British ship and so we say Ajax ('Ajacks'), nevermind what some greek guy in 2020 says.
ironic, the Admiralty probably called her Ay-Jacks considering that's what she's referred to in documentaries and movies, nevermind what some RUclips commenter in 2020 says.
"If Britain would have conserved all the ships with a glorious career, there would not be any space left for today's ships to moore around the isle." Ringo Wunderlich, RUclips Comment Section, June 2020.
Drach is the only person I've ever heard call this ship anything but "Ay-jacks". "Eye-axe" may conform to Greek pronunciation, but the Anglicised pronunciation "Ay-jacks" is the one the Royal Navy and British people generally have always used. Like Paris, there is a universally accepted British pronunciation.
HMS Ajax did not bring the survivors of the the Graph Spee back to Germany, the Highland Monarch did. Departed Montevideo 16 Feb 1946, to Freetown, Lisbon, Bilbao and to Hamburg arriving 4 March 1946. She was escorted by HMS Ajax, she also brought the crew of the Tacoma which had been confiscated by the Uruguay Government on which some of the Graph Spee crew tried to escape on.. I image there was quite a party on the Ajax in Montevideo.
My Dad always said she enjoyed a good punch up and was regarded as a "lucky" ship by those who served on her and always had a good crew and captain........
I've noticed many Royal Navy ships in ww2 were exceptionally good at avoiding Torpedoes, was there some sort of extra training that Royal Navy Personnel had to take, or is it just a few exceptionally skilled crews.
You bring up an interesting point, would be interested in the answer too. Either torpedoes of the period were evaded often by all parties, British ship were good at it due to training or design or axis attacks weren't pressed as closely (if allied torps hit more than axis is true). How about it Drachinifel, any thoughts.
@@50Stone I do wonder what it is, it was just after hearing what HMS Ajax did, it just took me straight back to HMS Repulse dodging 19 torpedoes. If it is training I wonder how they did train too, was it done with dummy torpedoes maybe.
My Uncle who spent WW2 in the RN, and was aboard ships that were fighting alongside HMS AJAX a couple of times, also he mentioned he had mates aboard her during the River Plate. I can assure you that the crewmen aboard her would be horrified to hear her called EYE AX. Her name by her crew was A JACKS, and it's what a crew calls a ship that is her name.
My father in law was an engineer on the Ajax and told me of two events not mentioned in this short video. The first was the fact that in 1941 the Ajax escorted Australian soldiers back to Australia. The other was that Ajax took Churchill to Greece in around 1942/43.
The RN has always had fun with classical names (hence Dye-do, Mynotaur, & Ad-jax. (Pathe News call the ship Ad-jax in "The last voyage of the Ajax" (1949).
@@allaneriksen7171 I just watched that. They don't do anything of the sort. The first syllable is the one with the stress and it has the "A" pronounced as the "long-A" in English, the ah-ee dipthong. The consonant on the second syllable is the digraph dʒ. That is one sound and the second syllable is identical to the English "jacks". Going off of Forvo, the Dutch are peculiar in using the "y" consonant sound. French, Portuguese, and Danish all use a fricative that is something close to dʒ. The Danish IPA is "ɕ" which is somewhat between the English "dʒ" and "sh"
@@Markle2k Oops, sorry. Thanks I was trying to make the same point but omitted the first long "a" (ie I should've written Ay Jax or something like that). Your phonetic spelling is much more precise.
There is a Canadian Heritage Plaque in Ajax Ontario Canada that reads, "THE FOUNDING OF AJAX - In 1941, the Government of Canada established a shell-filling plant operated by Defence Industries Limited on this site. During its peak production, over 9,000 people from across the country lived and worked at the operation. The company town consisted of 600 houses and support facilities, and together with the factory, covered 2,846 acres (1,152 hectares) of land. The community was named after the British ship HMS Ajax, which, with two others, defeated the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate in 1939. After the Second World War, Ajax was the site of a temporary campus for a division of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Sciences and Engineering, for thousands of returning veterans, until 1948. Under the administration of the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the community continued to grow and attract new industries. Ajax was incorporated as a town in 1954.
HMS Ajax was "Ajacks". An older friend of mine was on the Ajax in WW2 and he called it the same way as axe is pronounced, he would have had no idea what you are talking about with HMS Ayax and neither would any of its crew.
I worked with a old guy who served as a stoker PO on her and his job during the “battle of the river plate” was to stand on the ladder after battening down the escape hatch from the engine room and with a large spanner in his hand to deter any attempts to leave your post during action stations unless the abandon ship order was given. A part of navy history not often reported in official records of these brave men going down fighting on both sides.
After WWII just how many fine contenders do you think had. That I think is part of the problem they had more contenders than places that could support them. Fr example the USS Saratoga? Or the one that I think was the real shame USS Enterprise.
From an ex gun Leander rating its HMS A with a "J" ax. Not A "Y" Jax. Matelots are spinning in their pots as you say AYJAX 😂🙈 AYAX, you can have that for the Dutch football team
Her naming and launch ceremony back in 1934 , ruclips.net/video/QTnbLpTpnHk/видео.html kinda ends the Aye-axe or Ay-jacks debate. Ex matelot also, type 12 & 21 frigates plus Hermes. 👍
HMS Coreopsis (K32) .. would be interesting to know a bit more about flower class corvettes and this famous one in particular.. should fit into 5mins (give or take)
On the one hand, in attic Greek, what in English is rendered “j” would have been written a Iota (ι), thus leading to the pronunciation “I-Yax”, we are talking about the same country that popular used the pronunciation of “veni vidi vici” as “Venī vīdī vīsī”. As for the original Greek, it seems that there were several variants of the name, I personally have seen it as “Aias” most commonly, but it appears the name “Aiantos” (Αιαντος) was a popular spelling on amphora.
Or as Sellar and Yeatman note, the ancient Britons heard Caesar say "veni vidi vici" they, still using the "old" prounciation, thought he was describing them as "weeny, weedy, weaky" and gave up (and yes I know that "VVV" is not from his Britannia campaign).
I was scrolling down to see if anyone had commented exactly this. There is no "I-yax" in greek, the name is either E-ass (E as in elEctric) or E-adass (that being the form of Eadoss you would use in greek when saying "Hi, my name is Eadass"). I-yax is how modern greeks pronounce Ajax the football team, and Azax is how we pronounce the cleaning liquid :P I think Ajax is by far the best way to pronounce it, simply on account of it being an English ship, no matter where the name originates from.
It honestly doesn't matter one wit how the Greeks would pronounce the name, either now or at any time in their entire history. The HMS Ajax was a British warship, and would've been pronounced the name the way they chose to see fit. Every record concerning the ship agrees with the name being pronounced ay-jaks.
My father served on Ajax during the second half of the war. My grandfather served on HMS Erin in WW1. She was at Jutland although saw little action. Nevertheless The ship has an interesting story. Perhaps you could do a review of her.
As you are going Homeric on us in the pronunciation of Ajax, wouldn't it be consistent to use a pronunciation of 'Plate' that is closer to the Spanish? Something like 'pla-teh'. What's sauce for the Greeks is sauce for the Uruguayans.
AllAhabNoMoby Yeah, the Dutch football team. The ship was a Leander Class cruiser; all of them were named after characters from Greek mythology. Ajax, who “killed” Hector during the Trojan War, is always pronounced Ay-jax. As is the computer programming language, the place in Canada, the cleaning product and anything else spelt Ajax. Guess why the Dutch football team is pronounced Ay-ax......it’s cos they are Dutch ffs
My father, a ship's writer who was new to the RN when AJAX was engaged off the coast of South America, and later a library scientist and officer in the RCN's Special Branch, always used the "eɪdʒæks" pronunciation. In Ajax, Ontario, a pop-up defence industry town named for the ship when she was still in commission, the locals say it the same way. As someone remarked below, you would seem to have taken the wrong Greek's advice.
Can I suggest the cruiser Algérie for a future video? Not the most fascinating active service, but it seems to be very interresting on the point of her very advanced Washington-friendly design
I could have sworn he had done this one. I know I have seen a firing arc and armor diagram in his videos. I do see Algerie is the last matchup (against Admiral Hipper) presented in this video: ruclips.net/video/CD0A9XvXSaQ/видео.html
As a person with a bachelor's degree in English, who has also studied ancient Greek and read Homer's Iliad in the original Greek, I believe I have some expertise on the subject. True, in Greek the pronunciation AI-AS would be correct, the ship is a British ship, and its name is in ENGLISH. In English the name is Ajax, and pronounced A-JACKS, simple enough.
Well, that's answered a question that has puzzled me for years, my Dad was evacuated from Crete, they were first put on a cruiser but moved to a destroyer as the Sargent said the cruiser was too big and would be a prime target. I always wondered which cruiser it was, now all I need to find out is which destroyer!
There are 3 streets in Christchurch New Zealand called Ajax , Achilles and Exeter. We were taught as children that at least one of these ships had a New Zealand crew .
Thanks for this! My maternal grandfather was an ensign on the Ajax, when she was involved in Palestine! He never spoke of it, and I’m hoping to learn more about that part of his and Hms Ajax history.
Whenever prompted, my father (he was Maltese, enlisted in the REME) would always tell the story of HMS Ajax - not Ayax - that acted as the troop transport that took him from Malta to Alexandria to join the 8th Army.
Pinned post for Q&A :)
I've noticed many Royal Navy ships in ww2 were exceptionally good at avoiding Torpedoes, was there some sort of extra training that Royal Navy Personnel had to take, or is it just a few exceptionally skilled crews.
Drachinifel if the boffors gun is considered one of the best anti aircraft guns ever fitted to a warship. I consider the Pom Pom as one of the coolest what do you think the world Anti Aircraft gun ever fitted to a warship
Could you please do a Video about The Warships in the Vietnam war , Engagements , losses and results
topguntopcat
Probably the German handcrnsked ones followed by the Japanese 25mm.
What if question:
What if the Germans had gotten the French navy intact, fighting on their side after spring 1940?
My father was a marine on the Ajax when it fought the Graff Spee. He was the gunlayer for the marine turret and told mum that all his mates had been killed when an 11 inch shell from the Graff Spee hit the turret. He had a half brick sized splinter from that shell engraved in Montevideo to commemorate the battle and presented it to mum. I still have it here on my desk next to my keyboard and by gosh it is seriously heavy. I never got the opportunity to ask my father about it, as despite being one of the first to land ashore on D-Day and his jeep hitting a mine killing all but him, he finally got killed by a motorist after he left the marines for a 'safe job' when I was about 18 months old. So I have always felt very lucky to actually be here at all 🙂
Thank you for sharing.
Ah.. so it wasn't just battleships that had one turret manned by Royal Marines...
Whether luck, skill, or a combination of the two, on D-Day the Ajax was able to put two six inch shells through the only slightly larger gun slits at the German battery at Longues, disabling them from firing at the landings on Gold Beach. Drach, this deserved a mention in your video!
Talk about threading the needle !
Good god, please tell me this is a true story! Because if it is that would make Bismarck's lucky hit on the HMS Hood look like Stormtrooper accuracy.
It sort of is. The battery (consisting of four bunkers) was repeatedly repaired and attacked and was not captured until June 7.
www.dday-overlord.com/en/d-day/atlantic-wall/batteries/longues-sur-mer
@@bradyelich2745 The Admiral congratulated Ajax for the accuracy of its firing on the battery. My father in law was there.
I'd not heard this story before, My Grandad was a gunner on the Ajax during D Day, he never liked to talk much about it though. In 2016 he received the Legion d’honneur for his actions during d day.
it doesn't matter how the Greeks pronounce it - it's a British ship and therefore subject to the great British tradition of mispronouncing foreign words.
they pronounced it "Ajacks" in the film and so will i.
i might change my mind when the French stop calling London Londres
raverdeath100 correct
The Royal Navy always said Ajacks. I'm amazed anyone thinks they said it differently.
Could be worse, could be from Deutschland and have to put up with the entire English speaking world calling you "German". At least the French got more than half the letters right.
French say Paree and the Germans say MUenchen. We say AjAcks, we have the marbles to prove that we are right.
@Chris George The topic is exonyms. Please do try to keep up with the rest of the class.
HMS Ajax is stronger than dirt and grease.
You're foaming at the mouth.
This doesn't make sense unless you've lived in the US... .🤣 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_(cleaning_product)
One of Barrow's finest products. My dad did his apprenticeship at Vickers and he always called it Ajax. (As per the popular cleaning powder of the time) She certainly cleaned up the Graph Spee.
Surprising there was never an Ajax Street in Barra
HMS Ajax was aslo the namesake of town of Ajax (hard J), Ontario in Canada. They picked the name in 1941 to honour the first major Imperial victory of the war. All the streets are named after her crew, and they keep this practice when building new ones.
Two Greeks screaming at each other ??
I hear this is a common way for them to establish dominance and settle disputes.
They only stop screaming at each other when they catch the scent of a nearby Turk.
Their presents can be viewed has “problematic” as well.......a great bunch of lads.
Damn straight. My boss says the Scottish are like the Greeks, too bust fighting each other to wage an effective war.
@@Deevo037 As a Greek I can confirm the accuracy of that comment.
Now have a vision of Ancient Greek philosophers having a knock down drag out fight about how to say the name of a mythical Greek hero
We don't scream at eachother. We just have rly, RLY loud conversations.
Well, darn. That is one heck of a combat record. Ajax survived being shot by Graf Spee, being attacked at close range by torpedo boats and being hit by a 1000lb bomb. Remarkable.
Then scrapped.
only bettered by Warspite
Hunts a crusier killer.
Harries and defends various Convoys
Survives multiple air attacks including one that near crippled the ship.
Fights and destroys Torpedo boats (the bane of the Russian Navy)
Makes it to the end of the war. Clearly needs to be scrapped instead of saved.
Seriously WHAT DID IT A SHIP HAVE TO DO in world war 2 in Britian to be considered worth saving for history sake?
Warspite had the excuse she needed more money to keep afloat being a full battleship: bur cruisers are significantly cheaper to maintain in floating condition.
The torpedo boat battle (Battle of Cape Passero if you're British and Battle of Cape Bon if you're Italian) had Ajax dodging at least 7 torpedoes from ranges as close as 750-2000 yards, with the TBs attacking her from both sides.
@@glenmcgillivray4707 to be fair by the end of the war Britain was utterly broke and owed so much debt to the US vast amounts of infrastructure to rebuild all while dismantling the remains of the empire. We had far too many ships we actually needed to keep in service we couldn't afford let alone wasting money on ships that were worn out from battle and becoming obsolete.
New game: drink every time Drach says "whilst"
You'll be drunk faster if you use "relatively" (liked the vid all the same)
Finish your glass whenever he says "somethingk" :p
I've only so much Glenmorangie left!
This is a fine game. I drank a lot of Tea.
🍺
Just for the record my employer is Greek and two of our car yards' loan cars are named Sparticus and Ajax (both Volvo 240 sedans). So lets just take a moment to appreciate the irony of an Australian dealer that sells Korean cars with a Greek dealer principal that has a couple of old Swedish loan cars with Greek names for a moment. Anyway he pronounces Ajax as Ay-Jax just for the record as did British actor Anthony Quayle who played Commodore Harwood in the movie.
Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.
Edit: And it was actor John Gregson playing Captain Bell of the Exeter who reported after the engagement "Request permission to submit revised list of spare parts requirements."
Thank you so much for your comment! I am a huge fan of that film!!!!
@joanne chon Nope, he was responsible for Gallipoli but that's a whole 'nuther story.
@@Deevo037 Honestly if the Anzacs were allowed in their own command chain a lot of unpleasant things at Gallipoli wouldn't have happened.
Mind you if we had been in charge of our own forces, we might have landed at the beaches we planned to which would have meant landing on beaches covered in pre-prepared defenses instead of the relatively unprotected Gallipoli cove which was left relatively undefended due to the notion that no one would be mad enough to land there, and if they did there was no way they could possibly hold the position.
Enter Anzacs to take and HOLD the crazy beach-head in face of stiff opposition.
There is a reason we both celebrate Anzac Day as our day of remembrance, as opposed to some great victory.
Ay-jax is not Greek....that's the Australian way to pronounce it not the Greek way. It's ah-yux...
@@Dilley_G45 True, but to be fair it was a British ship.
Sorry, Drach, but you can't win with this one. We all know it's pronounced Ay-Jacks because that's how the scouring powder of the same name is pronounced, and we heard TV ads for decades telling us the right pronunciation. We're not about to let go of all that conditioning for some Brit coming along telling us Ajax is really pronounced like some asthmatic wheeze!
Pronnounced I-Axe is a Duch football club and only a Duch football club. You were fooled by some supporter into pronouncing it completely wrong.
Oh no... It Prince Eugen all over again. At least Drach explain why he pronounced that way unlike world of warships.
the crew would have pronounced her as Sar Jim said above and not like a ruddy dutch football club... Ay-Jacks all the way.
Only way to solve this is for someone to hop into a time machine, go back to Ancient Greece, and ask Homer.
Its Frances lol
What I really like about your 'Five Minute Guides" is that they last much longer!
He spoke unusually fast in this video, if he had spoken at his normal pace it would have been several minutes longer.
My late Father in law was a Royal Marine Commando serving on board the AJAX. There is a town in Ontario province, Canada near Toronto named after the ship with streets named after crew members. My Father in laws best friend in the Marines emigrated and lived in AJAX until his passing. Thank you for sharing.
She is the literal definition of a workhorse
Don't talk about my mom like that
neigh
I think that applies to the whole Leander class.
More of a Warhorse...
Or as "game on " would say A double hard bastard!
0:35 Don't worry Drach, the debate's gonna continue in the comments section.
-Still calling her Ay-jacks-
Ay-jacks just flows off the tongue better anyways.
A -Jax is a cleaning product from my childhood, don't know if it still exists
Think I'll call her I-jax just to annoy everyone.
What really matters is 'What did the Royal Navy call her?" Any other pronunciation is fundamentally irrelevant.
I’m from Ajax, Canada. We say Ay-jacks, and I can’t imagine we’re different from what the RN called her at the time.
For what it's worth the film The Battle of the River Plate from 1956 uses A-Jacks rather than Eye-Axe. Films from that period tended to have plenty of people who knew what they were talking about working on them.
Pandering to the European way of saying "J" as "Y" lead to the Brits losing their favoured "Jif" (Hard J) for the European "C", giving the very popular cleaner the name "Cif" (Say "siff"), just to please the E.U. Market. Now we are leaving, can we have our JIF back please? (Oh, and it is AJAX, as in "A-Jacks", if you don't mind, thankyou).
@@lauriecroad3186 I want Jif and Marathon bars back and I'm not playing until I get them.
@@lauriecroad3186 Trouble is, "Jif" is a yellow plastic dingbat of liquid almost, but not quite, totally unlike lemon juice. Doubt if the cleaner would go well on my Shrove Tuesday pancakes.
@@LiamE69 Bloody right mate....Im with you on that!
She was pronounced A-Jacks at her christening in 1934 and that's there in the Newsreel footage so I think that's a cincher on the matter.
Great video - all info, and no padding.. Ajax/Eye-axe had almost as storied a history as HMS Warspite. Drach, this is an excellent channel - with you, Mark Felton and The History Guy, I'm never at a loss for something to watch. Keep it going, please.
I was going through my grandfathers books he gave me. Whilst I picked up the book a series of pictures of all these ships fell out. I searched for them and found your video. Great work. It really gave context to a bunch of really important images I will cherish forever.
I remember my Dad building the Airfix 1/700 scale model of the Ajax when I was a kid. It was that model that sparked my interest in naval history.
Geoff Read Yes. I had that kit. That and the film Battle Of The River Plate ensured that British cruisers are my fave.
1/600
bazwalk I believe you’re right. I stand corrected. It was 50 years ago though!
@@geoffread2707 Before that I had the Eagle 1/1200 kits for her, KGV, Kashmir, Km 1934a class, Acheron and Saar, plus several u-boats. Right pain to build (just an exploded diagram).
I'm honestly aghast at how you grew up pronouncing this Ajax that way, since we Brits had "Ajax" bleach powder, and the ads always said "a-J-ax"... :D
"It's Stronger Than Dirt"
I remember seeing a US ad for it, may have been slightly different, but I remember that bleach powder sure enough.
Yes- Ajax was the cleaning product. Iyax was the foreign football team. As for the ship - I'm in the cleaning product camp. I grew up watching the Battle of the River Plate film.
In school there was a Liberian we called Ajax. We kids didn’t know why till the parents explained it was because of how nice and shiny his bald head was.
@@davidwright1605 "Victory At Sea" was where I first remember hearing the names of many of the ships involved, and Leonard Graves stood with us in the "Ay-jacks" camp. She was stronger than some pesky fascist dirt, we know damn well ;3
It's seriously weird. He doesn't look to rename other ships with Greek mythological names to the original Greek, why this one. Very odd choice of hill to die on.
Re the name: My Dad served on Ajax in 1945/46. He always pronounced her name with the "j" as in "jack" so I assume that was how the crew said it.
There’s a city near Toronto named after this ship and was the home of Canada’s largest munitions factory. The city is in Durham Region between Pickering and Whitby. I live in Whitby, though I’m from Peterborough. Camp X where Ian Fleming was trained is here in Whitby. Peterborough has a major GE factory and also Quaker Oats who probably fed a lot of hungry sailors.
I'm going with the British pronunciation because Jack Gwillim (who played the role of Captain Parry of the Achilles in the film) was a Commander in the Royal Navy, so I'm sure that *he* knew the correct pronunciation and would have insisted on it during the film's production.
As a great fan of that film, thanks for your comment, Kevin. Yes, I'm sure that Jack would have insisted on the correct pronunciation.
A light cruiser with a battleship 'heart' and whose people did the Royal Navy proud. If, as some old and traditional sailors believe ships have souls then the soul of Battleships Victory and Warspite would be proud of this 'little sister.'
My grandfather (REME) was evacuated from Crete by HMS Ajax. Then attached to The Eighth Army. Went through North Africa then up through Italy. Left the UK in 1939 and returned in 1945.Proud to be a descendant.
I think you're looking at the issue of pronunciation from the wrong perspective. While Ajax (or Aias) was a greek hero, the names used in ship naming (as well as planets) are not the greek names, but the roman names, hence why one of the sister ships is called "Neptune" and not "Poseidon" (see also "Hercules" instead of "Herakles" etc.)
Its argued however that the Romans derived the name Neptune from the Indian language so not as helpful as you might think. Meanewhile Ajax was the same spelling and pronunciation in both Roman and Greek. Meanwhile any of the officers in the Navy that went to Oxbridge would have been required to study the Trojan war (via the Iliad) in the original Greek as part of the Universities classics requirement (all students had to study the classics as part of their foundation).
@@watcherzero5256 Ita, magister, we never used the letter "J" in my time (just as we made no distinction between "U" and "V") thus "AIAX" not "AJAX" - just as "GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR" (normally written as C. IVLIVS CAESAR, "Caius" and "Gaius" were interchangable and abbreviated, conventionally, to "C".)
@Karl Dubhe They mostly wrote on wax tablets though (tabula) with a stylus
@@watcherzero5256 Regardless of where the name 'Neptune' originates, it was still used for the roman equivalent of Poseidon.
That doesn't help much as the proper pronunciation of Latin can cause screaming matches at least on par with what Drach described. ;)
The township of Ajax in Onterio Canada is named after HMS Ajax; with most of the streets being named after its serving crew members that took part in the battle of the river plate, there is even one named after Captain Langsdorff .
or my main man Commodore Harwood !
@@briano9397 Even McGregor Drive 😁
What a splendid history for a ship! The Admiralty certainly got their money's worth with Ajax.
Yay HMS Ajax, my sea cadet unit is Swansea was(still is) called TS Ajax. So it had a special place in my heart.
Squid
Just for keks of course this comes from a air cadet lol
TS Newfoundland is the best
TS Steadfast o7
TS Gamecock, a shadow of its former self sadly, used to have its own building with boat sheds and a helicopter we would pretend had crashed so we could use our fire engine to put out the fire! now they share a few portable buildings with the other cadet forces
@@andreww2098 thats the best one! Sadly a lot of the sea cadets have gone down in stature.
Ajax, Ontario was named for HMS Ajax after the Battle of the River Plate (the city is pronounced ay-jax). The town was founded in 1941 as a massive munitions manufacturing centre, every building built at the same time (it had been apple orchards before). The entire city was heated from a central steam-heating plant to reduce the chance of a spark source setting off the explosives. My mother had a schoolmate whose mother moved there to work in one of the plants; she recalled the home had been built so quickly that the kitchen cabinets had no doors. Such was the exigencies of war.
Few of those war-era houses are still standing, and the steam-heating plant is no more, sadly. That idea apparently is very efficient environmentally as well.
What a fantastic service record! Utmost respect to the ship and her crew.
My stepfather served on the Ajax, NOT Ayax during the war. I don't know where you got Ayax from but it wasn't called that!
Mt father in law who served on it used the Ajax pronunciation we all know
My Old Man's uncle was part of the Ajax's ship's company in 1939. Upon his return to the UK, he gave my Old Man (then aged 6) a bunch of bananas.
The next time he had a banana was VE-Day, they were given to his whole class at school. He was the only child who knew how to eat a banana.
That was you're single best introduction to any of your ship videos ever,
Even though Ajax' faith is sad, well, if Britain would have conserved all the ships with a glorious career, there would not be any space left for today's ships to moore around the isle.
Still doesn't justify Warspite
A direct command from Jesus himself would not justify the Warspite’s fate! The wound is in our very souls, where no salve can reach!
The only reason she wasn't sold to the Indian or Chilean Navies was because of Churchill's apparent disapproval and he felt that "such an important vessel would be better off broken up to preserve her history" which of course is nonesense.
It's also funny you say that as we have managed to preserve five carriers, 9 battleships, and over a dozen destroyers yet we have no where near the naval history of the Royal Navy. Not every ships with a glorious history needs to be preserved but atleast some do. Belfast is the only WW2 ship of note I can think of in Britain as a museum. I mean, even the North Koreans manage to have a museum ship of note, the USS Pueblo.
Be nice to visit them all anchored off every beach round the country.
Scrappage must have seemed the thing to do at the time.Just like it seems a terrible idea now.
Remember someone, somewhere, some when, thought that concrete high rises were a good idea.
@@randomlyentertaining8287
Don't think you Americans can get away scot free
Bar USS Texas (which is slowly dying in her berth ATM)
Only the ships the US could use were saved
Except Missouri, where are those that had actual historical value due to the battles they fought?
Gone
The BB's at Pearl Harbor? Surigao Strait? Guadelcanal? Car parts and food tins
Saratoga? Bombed into an underwater night light
And the fact CV-6 Enterprise was scrapped is a warcrime in itself
There's a town I Ontario named after Ajax the streets are named after the crew and the ships bell is in city hall
Thank you for intro sound balance in recent videos. It became much easier to pay attention to your excellent narrative without waking up entire house with first BB salvo.
My uncle Harry joined Ajax(A JACKS, as in JACK not YAK)after it got back from the River Plate and was on it until he was demobbed. He told me some mad stories about the actions in the med, it was like sieve in all the action she saw.
Always thought Ajax was a super cool name and this warship had a gallant record.
I'm willing to bet no sailor or member of the admiralty during the war ever called her 'Ayacks', she's a British ship and so we say Ajax ('Ajacks'), nevermind what some greek guy in 2020 says.
@joanne chon It was A-Jax.....Nuffsaid!
ironic, the Admiralty probably called her Ay-Jacks considering that's what she's referred to in documentaries and movies, nevermind what some RUclips commenter in 2020 says.
Her sister ship Achilles as Delhi took part in Operation Vijay aka Goa liberation. My friends grandfather was sailor aboard it.
I love the thumbnail for this
Thanks for this.
By the way...Ajax, Ontario, Canada was named after the HMS Ajax.
yessir ! best city in canada
Video starts with description of two Greek academics in a screaming match...tea spayed all over keyboard. Thanks, Drach!
Could you a review of the Russian submarine tender kommuna. Its still in active service it was constructed over a hundred years ago.
I always feel a little sad when the last line in these videos are "and was sold for scraping in ".
"If Britain would have conserved all the ships with a glorious career, there would not be any space left for today's ships to moore around the isle." Ringo Wunderlich, RUclips Comment Section, June 2020.
It's certainly a better ending than "she sank at time/date, taking X of her crew with her."
@@Axterix13 While I agree from a humanitarian perspective the naval nerd inside me wants warships to be either preserved or "die a warriors death".
my great uncle died at the age of 17 serving this ship.
Drach is the only person I've ever heard call this ship anything but "Ay-jacks". "Eye-axe" may conform to Greek pronunciation, but the Anglicised pronunciation "Ay-jacks" is the one the Royal Navy and British people generally have always used. Like Paris, there is a universally accepted British pronunciation.
HMS Ajax did not bring the survivors of the the Graph Spee back to Germany, the Highland Monarch did. Departed Montevideo 16 Feb 1946, to Freetown, Lisbon, Bilbao and to Hamburg arriving 4 March 1946. She was escorted by HMS Ajax, she also brought the crew of the Tacoma which had been confiscated by the Uruguay Government on which some of the Graph Spee crew tried to escape on.. I image there was quite a party on the Ajax in Montevideo.
Certainly was - My father was CPO stores on the Ajax at the time.
Ajax is a cleaning product, love from Utrecht
My Dad always said she enjoyed a good punch up and was regarded as a "lucky" ship by those who served on her and always had a good crew and captain........
I've noticed many Royal Navy ships in ww2 were exceptionally good at avoiding Torpedoes, was there some sort of extra training that Royal Navy Personnel had to take, or is it just a few exceptionally skilled crews.
You bring up an interesting point, would be interested in the answer too. Either torpedoes of the period were evaded often by all parties, British ship were good at it due to training or design or axis attacks weren't pressed as closely (if allied torps hit more than axis is true). How about it Drachinifel, any thoughts.
@@50Stone I do wonder what it is, it was just after hearing what HMS Ajax did, it just took me straight back to HMS Repulse dodging 19 torpedoes. If it is training I wonder how they did train too, was it done with dummy torpedoes maybe.
They did have tactics for evading torpedoes so it would be logical that they practised them.
I could be down to not distinguishing between torpedoes that you actually dodged, and ones that were launched at you but would have missed anyway.
Could also be good anti-aircraft/secondary fire forcing launching craft to launch at poor angles or greater distances
My Uncle who spent WW2 in the RN, and was aboard ships that were fighting alongside HMS AJAX a couple of times, also he mentioned he had mates aboard her during the River Plate. I can assure you that the crewmen aboard her would be horrified to hear her called EYE AX. Her name by her crew was A JACKS, and it's what a crew calls a ship that is her name.
Hence HMS Pennyloap (normally spelt Penelope) and HMS Antellypee (Antelope).
The first time I have ever reacted negatively to something Drach said :D. I-Yaks is a football team, A-Jax is a British warship :p
My father in law was an engineer on the Ajax and told me of two events not mentioned in this short video. The first was the fact that in 1941 the Ajax escorted Australian soldiers back to Australia. The other was that Ajax took Churchill to Greece in around 1942/43.
The HMS **cringe** oh dear Lord it took a bit but I powered through watching the video anyway!
You listened to the wrong Greek!!!
That was the one who supports a certain Dutch football team
The RN has always had fun with classical names (hence Dye-do, Mynotaur, & Ad-jax. (Pathe News call the ship Ad-jax in "The last voyage of the Ajax" (1949).
@@allaneriksen7171 I just watched that. They don't do anything of the sort. The first syllable is the one with the stress and it has the "A" pronounced as the "long-A" in English, the ah-ee dipthong. The consonant on the second syllable is the digraph dʒ. That is one sound and the second syllable is identical to the English "jacks".
Going off of Forvo, the Dutch are peculiar in using the "y" consonant sound. French, Portuguese, and Danish all use a fricative that is something close to dʒ. The Danish IPA is "ɕ" which is somewhat between the English "dʒ" and "sh"
@@Markle2k Oops, sorry. Thanks I was trying to make the same point but omitted the first long "a" (ie I should've written Ay Jax or something like that). Your phonetic spelling is much more precise.
+SadWings Raging
That one time when being a Dutch viewer is a benefit for watching a Drach video.
It would be pronounced however the Brit's decided to pronounce it, and it seems during the war they pronounced it ay-jack's, like the cleaning agent.
3:45 Kamchatka: Do you see torpedo boats?
HMS Ajax: Arrives
Torpedo Boats: Nuts!
There is a Canadian Heritage Plaque in Ajax Ontario Canada that reads, "THE FOUNDING OF AJAX
-
In 1941, the Government of Canada established a shell-filling plant operated by Defence Industries Limited on this site. During its peak production, over 9,000 people from across the country lived and worked at the operation. The company town consisted of 600 houses and support facilities, and together with the factory, covered 2,846 acres (1,152 hectares) of land. The community was named after the British ship HMS Ajax, which, with two others, defeated the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate in 1939. After the Second World War, Ajax was the site of a temporary campus for a division of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Sciences and Engineering, for thousands of returning veterans, until 1948. Under the administration of the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the community continued to grow and attract new industries. Ajax was incorporated as a town in 1954.
HMS Ajax was "Ajacks". An older friend of mine was on the Ajax in WW2 and he called it the same way as axe is pronounced, he would have had no idea what you are talking about with HMS Ayax and neither would any of its crew.
During my service in the Royal Navy (1976\1989) the Leander class frigates HMS AJAX and HMS DIDO were universally pronounced "AJACKS and" DYDO"
I worked with a old guy who served as a stoker PO on her and his job during the “battle of the river plate” was to stand on the ladder after battening down the escape hatch from the engine room and with a large spanner in his hand to deter any attempts to leave your post during action stations unless the abandon ship order was given. A part of navy history not often reported in official records of these brave men going down fighting on both sides.
My Dad served on the Ajax.
"Drunkie" Lewin was flying a Fairey Seafox - not a Shagbat.
So how many refits do you need Ajax?
Ajax: Yes!
Quite the war service. Another fine contender for potential museum ship.
After WWII just how many fine contenders do you think had. That I think is part of the problem they had more contenders than places that could support them. Fr example the USS Saratoga? Or the one that I think was the real shame USS Enterprise.
From an ex gun Leander rating its HMS A with a "J" ax. Not A "Y" Jax. Matelots are spinning in their pots as you say AYJAX 😂🙈 AYAX, you can have that for the Dutch football team
When asking how to pronounce something in English, don't consult someone who's native language is Greek!
Totally agree. For the first time I am annoyed at Drachinfel's attitude. A...Jacks! My grandfather would rotate in his grave also.
Indeed, and that's how it's pronounced in the film, Battle of the River Plate.
@joe jitsu it is how they said it on board the ship and that is what's relevant.
Her naming and launch ceremony back in 1934 , ruclips.net/video/QTnbLpTpnHk/видео.html kinda ends the Aye-axe or Ay-jacks debate. Ex matelot also, type 12 & 21 frigates plus Hermes. 👍
HMS Coreopsis (K32) .. would be interesting to know a bit more about flower class corvettes and this famous one in particular.. should fit into 5mins (give or take)
Have you ever considered covering the ship hms troutbridge which is documented in the totally historically accurate records of the Navy Lark
Wouldn't that be something?
"Left hand down a bit it is, sir!"
Thank you for filling up the fighting history of this great warship. 😀
On the one hand, in attic Greek, what in English is rendered “j” would have been written a Iota (ι), thus leading to the pronunciation “I-Yax”, we are talking about the same country that popular used the pronunciation of “veni vidi vici” as “Venī vīdī vīsī”.
As for the original Greek, it seems that there were several variants of the name, I personally have seen it as “Aias” most commonly, but it appears the name “Aiantos” (Αιαντος) was a popular spelling on amphora.
Or as Sellar and Yeatman note, the ancient Britons heard Caesar say "veni vidi vici" they, still using the "old" prounciation, thought he was describing them as "weeny, weedy, weaky" and gave up (and yes I know that "VVV" is not from his Britannia campaign).
I was scrolling down to see if anyone had commented exactly this.
There is no "I-yax" in greek, the name is either E-ass (E as in elEctric) or E-adass (that being the form of Eadoss you would use in greek when saying "Hi, my name is Eadass").
I-yax is how modern greeks pronounce Ajax the football team, and Azax is how we pronounce the cleaning liquid :P
I think Ajax is by far the best way to pronounce it, simply on account of it being an English ship, no matter where the name originates from.
It honestly doesn't matter one wit how the Greeks would pronounce the name, either now or at any time in their entire history.
The HMS Ajax was a British warship, and would've been pronounced the name the way they chose to see fit.
Every record concerning the ship agrees with the name being pronounced ay-jaks.
My father served on Ajax during the second half of the war. My grandfather served on HMS Erin in WW1. She was at Jutland although saw little action. Nevertheless The ship has an interesting story. Perhaps you could do a review of her.
Your father probably new my father in law Jack Hawkins Engineer on the Ajax
As you are going Homeric on us in the pronunciation of Ajax, wouldn't it be consistent to use a pronunciation of 'Plate' that is closer to the Spanish? Something like 'pla-teh'. What's sauce for the Greeks is sauce for the Uruguayans.
Thanks, that irritated me way more than the "ajax aiax" debate.
It would also be consistent if he stopped calling the Battle Off Samar the Battle ‘of’ Samar
"sauce for the Uruguayans." No wonder they didn't sell the ship to Chile! Cannibals!
The Amsterdam football club after which this British cruiser was named is pronouced 'Ah-yax.'
*runs for the hills.
*hurls imaginary binoculars in the direction of the Netherlands
I assume this is a joke?
@@SA-qm3bp You my dear sir are an astute observer.
@@SA-qm3bp No. It actally IS pronounced like that. :D :D
AllAhabNoMoby Yeah, the Dutch football team. The ship was a Leander Class cruiser; all of them were named after characters from Greek mythology. Ajax, who “killed” Hector during the Trojan War, is always pronounced Ay-jax. As is the computer programming language, the place in Canada, the cleaning product and anything else spelt Ajax. Guess why the Dutch football team is pronounced Ay-ax......it’s cos they are Dutch ffs
My father, a ship's writer who was new to the RN when AJAX was engaged off the coast of South America, and later a library scientist and officer in the RCN's Special Branch, always used the "eɪdʒæks" pronunciation. In Ajax, Ontario, a pop-up defence industry town named for the ship when she was still in commission, the locals say it the same way. As someone remarked below, you would seem to have taken the wrong Greek's advice.
Drancnfield can you do a video on HMS Suffolk and Sheffield?
Oh yes - "Shiny Sheff" for sure.
Can I suggest the cruiser Algérie for a future video? Not the most fascinating active service, but it seems to be very interresting on the point of her very advanced Washington-friendly design
I could have sworn he had done this one. I know I have seen a firing arc and armor diagram in his videos. I do see Algerie is the last matchup (against Admiral Hipper) presented in this video: ruclips.net/video/CD0A9XvXSaQ/видео.html
As a person with a bachelor's degree in English, who has also studied ancient Greek and read Homer's Iliad in the original Greek, I believe I have some expertise on the subject. True, in Greek the pronunciation AI-AS would be correct, the ship is a British ship, and its name is in ENGLISH. In English the name is Ajax, and pronounced A-JACKS, simple enough.
Request permission; Revise list of spares.
That was Exeter.
Sorry, Sir. The list was the only casualty
@@Deevo037 Hooky Bell. If anyone can make it, he can. Proceed Falklands. Godspeed. (I love the cast of that film.)
I-ax legendary Greek war hero from Iliad. A-Jax Legendary English naval hero from WW2.
Oh your right thanx
pleas do a video on the gregorius averof
Ahhh, Ajax. She loves to tease the commander and spoil him lots, going so far as to step on him.
She only needs more "ara ara".
Yare, yare.
Shut it weeb. Don't bring your degeneracy here.
@@ironduke3780 bruh you have the default Google profile picture so YOU get out
@@b-chroniumproductions3177 kill me
Monomi Couldn’t be bothered changing it.
I grew up with 'Ageaxe' so there! :P What an amazing career, the R.N. certainly got their monies worth out of her!
If I'm not mistaken the ship's bell is in the possession of the town of Ajax, Ontario.
I believe The bell is from the later Leander class frigate, although maybe the later frigate inherited the cruiser's bell?
My grandad was Chief petty officer on HMS Ajax
My great grandfather served on the Ajax during WW2 - great to see.
[Insert standard joke about certain imperial russian naval vessel]
[Insert standard laughter]
[Throwing standard binoculars]
[insert standard friendly fire incident involving said imperial russian naval vessel]
(Insert puzzlement and then the exclamation 'Oh.' 'You mean __________.')
[Insert Kamchatka]
I actually have her original bell striker and a silver ships whistle....pretty cool!!
Hi. I would love to see more footage of the opening clips, an episode on this topic would be great. Thanks.
That's a pretty impressive combat record!
Thank you. I thouoght I knew a lot about her, haiving two (late) relatives who served o her. But as alway you give us a lot i a nice tidy package.
In the Naval Olympic Games, the UK definitely takes the gold in the torpedo dodge slalom
HMS "A-jacks" or "Eye-yax"?
Me: HMS Biggus-Dickus
Well, that's answered a question that has puzzled me for years, my Dad was evacuated from Crete, they were first put on a cruiser but moved to a destroyer as the Sargent said the cruiser was too big and would be a prime target. I always wondered which cruiser it was, now all I need to find out is which destroyer!
Greek university students are NOT in the RN. I don't go to Germany to ask how to pronounce the ENGLISH word 'king'.
There are 3 streets in Christchurch New Zealand called Ajax , Achilles and Exeter. We were taught as children that at least one of these ships had a New Zealand crew .
Yes - It was the Ajax.
@@malcolmcarter5541 Achilles
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMNZS_Achilles_(70)
Thanks for this! My maternal grandfather was an ensign on the Ajax, when she was involved in Palestine! He never spoke of it, and I’m hoping to learn more about that part of his and Hms Ajax history.
Whenever prompted, my father (he was Maltese, enlisted in the REME) would always tell the story of HMS Ajax - not Ayax - that acted as the troop transport that took him from Malta to Alexandria to join the 8th Army.
Back in the 80s I meet a Ajax crew member he definitely called it ajax not iaxe. Go with those that served on her, it's a good rule.