Comments by "Frank DeMaris" (@kemarisite) on "The Drydock - Episode 238" video.

  1.  @sewing1243  I mention the speed because the British cruisers had an appreciable advantage over Graf Spee, giving them a lot more control over the range and shape of the engagement than they would have over an Alaska. However, the biggest advantage the Alaska would have over the Graf Spee is reliable fuses and a greater proportion of armor piercing shells in the magazines. Graf Spee had 200 nose-fused HE, 200 base-fused HE (which might provide some AP capability), and 200 AP. It fired 200 nose-fused HE, 184 base-fused HE, and 30 AP during the battle. German naval shells also had a notorious rate of failure for a variety of reasons.
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  2. My first reaction to Croydon Council going bankrupt 2-3 times was "Isn't that a municipal government or something similar, how can they go bankrupt?". Then I remembered Bell, California. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bell_scandal
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  3. I'm thinking not, because the RN cruisers had an appreciable speed advantage over Graf Spee.
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  4. ​ @Hierachy  outdated, yes, but still a very good and remarkably accurate gun. You can get an idea what to expect from a modernized gun by comparing the US 16"/45 Mark 1 of the Colorado-class with the 16"/45 Mark 6 used in the North Carolina and South Dakota classes. The two guns are very similar, but the modern gun is about 10% lighter. There was a 15"/45 Mark II gun developed in the 30s before the Second London Naval Treaty ratcheted gun size down to 14" maximum. This newer gun, despite the longer barrel, would have saved about 3 tons per gun.
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  5.  @thehuscarl4835  they absolutely did by rating. The stereotypical place for a black man to serve on a USN warship was in the galley as a mess attendant. At general quarters though, Blacks could be found working guns alongside white sailors.
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  6. Courageous and Glorious began conversion to aircraft carriers in 1924 under the conversion provisions of the treaty.
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  7. If the battle cruisers race forward to cross the German T while the Germans are trying to escape the Grand Fleet battle line, the Germans will happily plow right through the battlecruiser line. They may try to adjust their angle to pass toward the stern of the battle cruisers with their rear turrets unmasked, but the simple fact is that the battlecruiser force, even with 5th Battle Squadron attached, is noticeably outnumbered by the High Seas Fleet and First Scouting Group. The Germans may not hang around long enough to utterly destroy the Battlecruiser Force, but the latter is simply not powerful enough to force the Germans to evade in a way that will allow the Grand Fleet to catch them.
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  8. Probably because they're the only Japanese capital ships that actually do much in WW2. Yamato and Musashi are big and catch attention, but the other six get little notice because they did very little aside from, as the Yamatos, cruising in distant support of an active operation. Kongos were present as carrier escorts in battles throughout the war, and actually engaged in surface gunfire at a time when it could matter (unlike Samar). The people who actually play are always going to get more attention than the bench warmers.
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