Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "The Drydock - Episode 062" video.

  1. Hehehe.
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  2. That's Weapon Alfa in the B position on the Fletcher class destroyer, DD 470, Bache II. Here it is on DD 465, Saufley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTvP2h1U2Bk Weapon Alfa was not a great success, despite its "modern" concept launch system. For one thing, the depth charge/timed charge warhead was a bad idea in ASW, for its detonations interfered with sound equipment, making SoNAR useless for 3-5 minutes afterward. An attacking ASW ship would have to relocate its quarry, losing critical time, every time the weapon fired. In fact, Hedgehog was a better idea, as its rockets did not detonate unless they hit something. You might notice that the wiki article on the Weapon Alfa refers to the standard depth charge pattern drops (ignoring side mounted launchers) and Soviet and Rossiayan RBU systems--both of which use depth charges, rather than mentioning Hedgehog, which sank far more submarines per attack than any other ASW weapons ever. That's some clever editing, to only applaud and never find fault. FIDO, the acoustic homing "mine", could not be deployed from a ship. It would sink it. Personally, in case of battle damage to my ASW Frigate/DD/De, I would rather a magazine of 30 pound Hedgehogs started going off, instead of a magazine of 250lb Weapon Alfas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RUR-4_Weapon_Alpha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog_(weapon) Sorry for the wiki links, instead of more credible source material, but it's certainly handy as a quick reference.
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  3. Weird science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Miscellaneous_Weapons_Development
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  4. 1970s USN DE vet here. Damage control investigators (including me) were issued corks and mallets. You bet we hammered corks into every leak we could resist. True facts.
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