Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. Her AA Battery became so comprehensive it was almost . . . American. ;-)
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  2. "And now, the USS Monitor would like to speak on the use of such craft to control the open sea." "Glub glub."
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  3. Thanks for his service.
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  4. "Following the end of the war, with the inevitable Peruvian victory . . ." Made my day.
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  5. <Kido Butai in the fog> "I Hiryu, but I didn't Soryu."
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  6. "The ship wasn't meant to . . ." Anyone using that logic should consult their enemies first to make sure they're all on the same page. Like battlecruisers, who end up being misused by idiots that want more battleships in the line, any cruiser meant to avoid enemy ships is doomed to misuse by its nation's admirals. <Admiral Harakazi> Get in there, Oyodo! Kill that Baltimore! <Oyodo> But, sir! I'm not that kind of cruiser! <Admiral Harakazi> You're a cruiser. Get in there and ACT like one! <The sounds of battle wax loud in mad cacophony. A short pause follows and then . . .> <Davy Jones> It's raining Japanese men!
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  7. Tiny Tim. I talked with an Avenger pilot who told me about firing one at a dockside warehouse cluster. The missile MISSED the harbor, striking the hill behind it. The hill slid down and wrecked the backs of the warehouses.
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  8. "Two barrels good! Four barrels better!" After the war the Soviets went through a phase where they mounted quad 45mm and 57mm on their ships.
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  9. For the Luftwaffe, read Galland. He states that the OKL did, indeed, bring high scoring pilots home to a desk job. Where they promptly agitated for a return to action. My spin on it is that it was most likely the speed*. Back home, they weren't handing it out. At the front, however, everyone was speeding his head off. *Amphetamines. If you're a Speed Freak, you won't want to give it up. Believe me. I've dated two.
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  10. USN Carriers took a beating from Kamikazes in the closing stages of the war. It is universally misinterpreted that the Kamikaze effort was ineffectual. However, we lost or had extensive damage (requiring return to the states for major repairs) to 11 Aircraft carriers as a result of airborne kamikaze attack alone. Turns out it was a very effective plan of attritional warfare. We outlasted it, but at a price no other nation could have sustained. We should be proud that we beat Japan, rather than contemptuous of her effort.
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  11. Engine rooms were hot. Workspace temperatures of 130 degrees F were not uncommon in period warship boiler rooms. They lived on water and salt tablets. Imagine for a minute if you will how much worse it had been for coal fueled ships of the previous wars, stoking the boilers with a shovel, while a mate sprayed the pile with oil for an "extra kick".
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  12. The 5"/54 Rifle is a very good gun. Edit: We did NOT have one on our Knox class ASW Frigate (ours was the standard 5"/38. Sorry, my memory is starting to get old ;-) ).
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  13. A Snipe can best tell you what it means: Snipe: a rarely seen bird considered imaginary by most . . . just like the below decks navy* is perceived by everyone else. Moreover, a ship in the fleet on active duty has a crew that consists of four types of workers, three of them essential. These are Deck Apes, Snipes, Gunners, and superfluous types (you know-officers, specialists . . . all that). Without deck apes no ship sails. Without snipes no ship goes anywhere, unless yanked along by a tug . . . or mules. Without Gunners a ship is reclassified as a target. Without officers? Well, to be perfectly accurate, in WW2, several ships had their bridges blown away and almost all officers killed, while the ships, themselves, remained at least marginally functioned. Try that with Snipes or Deck Apes . . . or Gunners. *Boiler Techs/Stokers, Machinists' Mates, Hull Technicians/Welders.
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  14. "What do we want?" "Mutiny!" When do we want it?" "Now!" "Why do we want it?" "Our CHEESE is the wrong colour!" <Pink Fooyd's "Any Colour You Like" swells up and cut to commercial>
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  15. So the often confused nomenclature of assigning "So and so's ship" prefixes to IJN ships has been solved at long last! at 37:38 the Kashima's plate is identified as coming from HIJMS . . . His Imperial Japanese majesty's Ship. Thanks, Drach!
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  16. On a Knox class (early 1970s) we simply formed a bucket brigade from the shore to the magazine for 5"/38 shells and charges. Underway replenishment deposited flats of ammo on the deck and the sailors manhandled it below, again by bucket brigade.
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  17. For scale: Shipping 2000 extra tonnes of water in through your hull is the literal equivalent of dragging two Sumner class large Destroyers along with you. Any rough edges caused by the impact(s) that let all that water in would tend to help tear the hole(s) in your side wider, likely causing you to ship even more water. Examples are several, and Drachinifel has covered some of these already.
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  18. Takao is the most magical mountain in Japan. "Mount Takao is closely associated with the Shinto-Buddhist tengu, minor kami from Japanese folklore, and the daitengu Naigubu. The mountain is also renowned for Shugendō, the mountain asceticism focusing on strict discipline. A Buddhist temple, Takaosan Yakuōin Yūkiji, is located on the mountain, and attracts many visitors who pray to the tengu for good fortune. The temple belongs to the Shingon Buddhist sect. "
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  19. Sometimes I wonder if all these "minor powers arms races" are/were simply monstrous scams on the parts of the major constructors intended to drive the respective economies broke without providing any hardware (as in "The check is in the mail" scams). I mention this, because that's what seems to have happened, in the event.
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  20. From a public forum on topic: "I have a book on the Averoff that I bought at the Naval Museum in Piraeus. In it there's the account of her original captain running her aground off Spithead. This led to loss of confidence by the crew. The near mutiny came while the ship was being repaired and was due to the Captain's inability to organize all the logistical requirements of repair and the running of the ship while she was in port. He was replaced for the return voyage. The only connection with cheese during this time was the crew's belief that the cheese they were provisioned with in England was bad. This was because Greeks weren't used to yellow cheese and thought that it looked spoiled. No mutiny though, they just refused to eat it." From: Το θωρηκτό Αβέρωφ, FINATEC, A.E.
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  21. I thought exactly the same thing when I saw my first pics of the new Hyuga. It's a frigging carrier. The JSDF Naval blokes assured us it could "never" operate fixed wing . . . which it now magically can. Wow! Those kami are really tricky!
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  22.  @Colt45hatchback  Good enough for government work, as my mum used to say.
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  23. Unofficial USN Doctrine: "If it doesn't work, hit it with a hammer. If it still doesn't work, hit it with a bigger hammer. If it still doesn't work it's definitely (obviously) broken and the captain will okay replacing it."
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  24. "Emdens". Mucke der Emden. One of the greatest sagas of adventure ever. German raider Emden's story is a worthy one for any naval enthusiast.
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  25. Too late for the Swedish Trireme team . . . all right lads! Switch to bikinis!
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  26. It occurs to me that the Polaris armed Alaska variant closely mimics the '90s era Kirovs. Big missiles with lots of defensive weaponry.
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  27. The most effective torpedo spread of all time. Sank the Wasp, sank the Obrien, damaged the North Carolina. The spirits at Yasukuni are still buying the skipper's drinks.
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  28. Interesting that both Germany and Japan had access to 40mm guns for AA duty. The Kriegsmarine had a production line in place for the Bofors 40mm gun. Indeed, the Prinz Eugen's final outfit replaced the "37"s with 40mm Bofors guns. As for the IJN, it had access to both double and octuple Pom pom mounts, in the main captured from the British. These would've been superior to the silly little Hotchkiss type 25mm we all laugh at from the safety of an 80 year gap. Moving into a more specious fantasy scenario, the 5cm FlaK41/L65, which had problems of flash and vibration precluding its adoption as a general FlaK service weapon, would not have been out of place on the German capital ships. With Rates of Fire similar to the Bofors gun, but much harder hitting, and with longer effective range, this weapon might've been able to keep allied torpedo planes at bay. Powered mounts for shipboard use would solve its vibration troubles and centralized direction would eliminate the flash problems. Moreover, the excessive smoke obscuration would be solved by the simple fact that ships move, while ground mounts sit still, wreathed in the byproducts of their use.
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  29. There were some strange resonances, you bet. The Italian Zara class, too, suffered an oddly uniform fate . . . 3 of 4 sunk in a single action against Cunningham's battleships. I am also reminded of the Clemsons and their common demise: the Honda Point Disaster.
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  30. "When it comes to coke supply, I'm afraid that there's only enough for me." -Andrew Dice Clay
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  31. "I see torpedo boats everywhere! Wait- I'm a torpedo boat, too! Greetings, friends!"
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  32. The Japanese "copy ninja" designs, the J8 and Kikka, were essentially German looking airframes filled with Japanese guts. My understanding is that the submarines carrying German technology exchange hardcopy were sunk in transit. One (I-29) dropped off some paperwork in Saipan before heading toward the Home Islands . . . and was sunk en route. So the concepts of things like the Tiger tank, the Me-163 and 262, arrived in Japan as textual fragments and no hardcopy examples were delivered. The turbojet and rocket motors used for J8 and Kikka were Japanese. They (IJN designers) knew about the German designs, and, knowing they existed, reverse engineered the CONCEPTS, not the hardware. I very much appreciate the nod to Von Braun. After all, if you're accusing the Japanese kettle of being black, your American pot had better be rostfrei.
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  33. To return the Yamato to service (considering she'd survived the war), you'd need to attach Star-Drives, Tachyon HoloDAR, Deflector Field generators, life support . . . a Pepsi machine . . . and issue the women in the crew Spandex bodysuits*. *For those who don't live in a Sci-Fi world, let me tell you: Spandex clad women (and men) is a two-edged sword. It's sort of inversely proportional as physical appeal is greatest when professional power and influence levels are at their lowest. A Spandex clad recruit is one thing. A Spandex clad 65 year old admiral is quite another**. **Go figure.
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  34. USS Johnston Faster than a speeding sanshiki-dan, more powerful than a Type-400, able to leap tall citadels at a single bound. <IJN spotters aboard Yamato> "Look! Up in the sky! It's a nightmare! It's another beating by our officers! No! It's a broadside from USS Johnston! Run awayyyy!" Down in Davey Jones' locker there's a posh place that used to be an Officers' club. The old sign has been painted over with the following: "For USS Johnston Personnel!" Below it someone has scrawled: "Carriers with Escorts pay half price!"
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  35. Copied and linked around. Wonderful, revealing, detail in the otherwise chaotic tapestry of a world at war.
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  36. Disclaimer: it's been quite a while, so I might misremember Standing watch at sea (in the USN in the 1970s): You'd work an 8 hour day and then be free OR assigned one 4 hour watch during the remaining 16 hours. We called it P/S or Port/Starboard, one Watch Section being the "duty" watch every day. Regular meals were served to the crew at the usual times (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner), but anyone could stop in the galley in between for coffee, milk, or tea. If at GQ (General Quarters), no one went anywhere, other than Damage Control and the officers. The galley sent around sandwiches and beverages to the various spaces and DC stations. As a DC investigator (the most expendable man on the ship) I enjoyed a considerable amount of freedom, no matter the occasion.
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  37. Ship Printing Devices! We used up the entire world's supply of Mimeograph fluid. It smelled soooo good!
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  38. "Donitz to all U-Boote: Do Not Reply." That might've helped a bit. Just repeat the land broadcasts without requiring boats at sea to answer. That would put paid to Huff/Duff on the spot. A U-Boat transmitting when at sea is giving up its only protection: stealth. IMHO, Hubris and Germanic system worship, along with sloppy Enigma operator technique, killed the U-Waffe. Johnny Walker certainly helped, as did Hedy Lamarr (though she received little-if any-credit).
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  39. Ships are far more compartmentalized post 1940 than they were in the WW1 era. Increase of survivability mitigates against a cat stalking freely about the ship or through the hold. The advantage over dogs as mascots is simply based on the cat box. Dog boxes are NOT a thing. Also, socially speaking, having a stinky animal aboard ship was little bother in an age where men took one shower or bath a week. Nowadays, only officers smell that bad. ;-)
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  40. "RaDAR is fairly fragile." Several wartime Battleships want to know your location. Seriously, I read that Gufo was problematical because Italian planners had trouble finding ships on which to mount its large antennae.
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  41. Re: admirals for war or peace; Lee seems to have covered both paradigms admirably.
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  42. The US has recently made considerable effort to homogenize the uniforms of its military services. I dunno what purpose that would serve, other than to disrupt service rivalry. When I was in the USN we honored the marines serving aboard ships. We were warrior/technicians. Efficient team players using technology and well oiled habit to strike at unseen foes. They were warriors. Highly motivated shock troops. How can you not respect that? I would not want to trade jobs with a marine, but they were just as important to the overall picture as we gobs were.
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  43. <Looks at the time stamps> "If I'm gonna be in harness for four hours, I hope the galley is sending 'round sandwiches and tea."
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  44. I think that Marine Compass stand is called a "Binnacle".
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  45. Served. Killed in action, while in Port. Rezzed by ship healers, themselves fueled by fanatic outrage, she re-entered the fight and carried it right to the enemy's shores. If a ship could talk, what would she say?
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  46.  @trevor311264  Spoken like a true Vickers man. Bully!
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  47. Ki-43. Like the Churchill tank, it was the perfect answer for problems presented by the last war.
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  48. Re: GWB; untrained naval personnel are immediately put to peeling potatoes if they're enlisted, or shouting at potato peelers if they're officers. GWB was an ensign-an officer.
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  49. A point about working up a carrier force; Germany was paying close attention to the RN and USN all the while. You learn a lot by copying the older kids.
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  50. I was engineering in Aux 1, on a Knox class Frigate, where the ship's 3 SSTGs were. Cleaning out condenser pipes was a major ordeal, but a necessary evil. Seawater is dirty with metals and other contaminants. Any ship has a Main Circ Pump for circulating large volumes of seawater for cooling. The pipes and intake filters for this system cake up fairly quickly.
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