Comments by "Gregory Wright" (@gregorywright4918) on "USS Franklin - Surviving a Comet Strike" video.

  1. One of the things they track about officers is the re-up rate of those under them. You and others not accepting gives him a black mark. Good job.
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  2. A single hit on a carrier with fueled and armed planes will do a lot more damage than one on a carrier with empty decks and secured gas lines. Take a look at the hit on Akagi for comparison.
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  3.  @purplespeckledappleeater8738  I don't think the Soviets were really interested in invading the Japanese main islands. They were very interested in taking as much of the resources of Manchuria as they could get their hands on (and turn over to the CCP), which was an all -land effort. The US loaned them some smaller landing craft so they could take the Kuriles, but there was nowhere near enough to support a full invasion of a main island, even Hokkaido. As to winter, winter in Japan is serious, with snow and bad weather. Roads would be difficult and air support would be spotty. Yes, we all fought through winters, but it was much harder and no one wanted to try an amphibious assault then. Japan had spent the last six months building anti-invasion defenses and pulling units back home. It would have been a bloodbath on both sides.
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  4.  @shawnmiller4781  USN experience of carrier fires goes back to the Lexington, but each age has added a new layer. So many things went wrong with BHR, starting with the reduced fire stations and equipment, but it was essentially a dockyard loss and not an at-sea loss.
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  5. ASW was much better at this point, along with fighter control. She was dead in the water for several hours and at least two air attacks.
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  6.  @gneisenau89  It was more than just "more fighters", because at that time (early/mid-30s, when the basic decision was made) fighters were not expected to be able to stop much of an attack. The US basic decision was maximum strike group to hit the enemy first, which is why they developed the deck park and deck strike. That was based on lessons learned at the Naval War College games and the Fleet Problems using the Lexingtons. Radar changed the picture for fighter defense, but that did not develop until '40-42. Suggested reading: - Agents of Innovation by John Kuehn - Learning War by Trent Hone - Military Innovation in the Interwar Period ed. by Murray and Millett - Playing War by John Lillard
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  7. Supposedly the Judy was shot down by CAP shortly afterward.
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  8. Most of the explosions went outward and upward, so the lower hull was unaffected. The hangar deck had some armor so was not pierced except for water. So the structure above the hangar deck level needed massive replacement, but the engines and lower hull were OK.
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  9. The General Board knew about the issues between armored and unarmored carriers, and made a deliberate decision for unarmored. Read Friedman's US Aircraft Carriers Design History. The Essexes were an upscaling of the Yorktowns, from 20,000 to 27,000 tons, with a wooden flight deck but an armored hangar deck (2.5 inches). The tradeoff was aircraft capacity - the Essexes could take up to 100, while the Illustriouses started out around 30 and went up to 50 with folding wings and outrigger storage. US planners were aiming for maximum flight groups, while British planners were aiming for maximum protection of the air group from bomb hits. When the US designed the next generation of aircraft carriers with an armored flight deck (3.5 inches), it grew to 45,000 tons and could not pass through the Panama Canal.
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  10. Did you catch the reference to the plane's name in Japanese?
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  11. Landed on other carriers.
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  12.  @mdhofstee  More "polishing" of his record?
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  13.  @TayBridgeDisaster  One of the authors of the books quoted got litiguous...
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  14. The old one was taken down and this is a replacement.
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  15. That was the Enterprise...
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  16. Yes, there are stores of timber and thin steel sheets below, just clear the debris, rig a few cross braces below the deck, then some steel sheets and lumber and they are back in business. The Yorktown took a couple bombs and was back in operation within two hours, so the next strike thought she was undamaged. As long as the hangar deck was not breached the engines were OK. The real problem was when planes were gassed and armed, like the IJN planes in the hangars at Midway. Also the Yorktowns and Essexes had open sides, so explosions would not wreck the supports for the flight deck.
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  17. Brit carriers were armored only up to the elevators. The idea of a deck-edge elevator had not been tried yet - it first was used as an economy measure on the Wasp. Brit carriers were designed to deal with larger, land-based planes carrying bigger bombs, where US carriers were designed to carry much larger air groups and deal with mostly naval air threats.
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  18. Drach has not done her or the Independence class CVL yet, but here is the story of the Birmingham: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJyDHnuCyQc
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  19. When loaded and ready to launch a strike, yes. But after the strike has launched the gas lines are shut down and filled with CO2, the magazines are closed up, and the ship is readied for defense. Part of the job of the air boss was to organize things to minimize the time that the ship is really vulnerable. The quick switch is what saved Enterprise at Santa Cruz.
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  20. That might be the casualty line...
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  21. It is a testament to USN discipline that that did not happen, even during the chaos of the strike.
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  22. The training and DC equipment was very different, and the Hiryu in particular was practically a "light" carrier. Akagi had only one bomb hit, but it was right in the middle of packed planes and wiped out the hangar deck DC crews.
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  23. Yes, there was a previous vid on the Franklin but it was taken down due to a source hassling about a quote.
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  24. Other carriers nearby.
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  25. Yes, they did "repurpose" some parts already prepared for other builds.
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  26. Not getting another ship was the best censure the Navy could come up with so as not to denigrate the rest of the crew of the Franklin.
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  27. Dick Best sank the Akagi with only one bomb...
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  28. And then there was Apollo 13...
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  29. Supposedly CAP shot it down shortly afterward.
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  30.  @randomnickify  I thought it was a quote from a book...
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  31. Yes.
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  32.  @gchoquette299  The Enterprise and Randolph were also part of TG 58.2, so they would be nearest (I think I read that Enterprise was in sight when she was hit), but the other elements of Task Force 58 were in the vicinity with about a dozen fleet carriers and another dozen light carriers. This was March, during the prep for the Battle of Okinawa, when TF 58 was raiding the Japanese homeland to distract and whittle down some of the planes that might be used against the invasion fleet, while looking for stragglers of the IJN like the Yamato.
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  33. One of the sources of a quote was hassling him, I think...
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  34.  @chris_hisss  Lucky hit, like the Hood.
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  35.  @aldenconsolver3428  The ones I listed are more about the planning process, especially as it developed in the 1930s, than specifically about damage control. Norman Friedman's books (the Illustrated Design Histories) are very good at getting into the features of each design and how they stood up to damage. There were also "lessons learned" during operations, such as increasing stocks of portable powered pumps and draining gas lines and filling them with CO2, that went a long way toward minimizing damage from hits. Then there was the extra level of damage control training that the USN inculcated into its recruits from basic training onward.
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  36. Pearl and the West Coast yards were filling up with ships needing second level repairs (that could not be done at Ulithi), so longer-term rebuilds were pushed on to East Coast where the Atlantic war was winding down.
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  37. He quotes what is stated in the sources he reads... Check his Q&A video.
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  38.  @ronm3245  It sounded like it had to do with the IFF interference, which would have been unique to the US.
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  39. BHR was around 40,000 tons, the Essexes were about 30,000. But the other point is that the ship was in the yard, so many systems shut down, including the fire suppression system, the yard work left trash and flammables around the ship, fire watches were reduced, some crew were ashore, and response was delayed. It was a serious bungling, but more of a yard loss than an at-sea loss.
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  40. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SWvew4ian8
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  41.  @issacfoster1113  It is actually a very good, balanced analysis of pros and cons. He points out that they were designed for different theaters, and in the end each adopted part of the strengths of the other. Worth rewatching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dHdGHP8hCg
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  42.  @ThumperE23  Franklin was the eighth Essex class laid down. After the Essex at Newport News, two were laid down at Fore River - the Lexington and the Bunker Hill. Then two more were laid down at Newport News, the Yorktown and Intrepid. Then the Wasp at Fore River, and then the Hornet at Newport News, in the same slipway just vacated by the Essex. The Franklin was in a new slipway, and was laid down the same month as the Bennington at Brooklyn. Newport News was the lead yard and drafted the detail plans, but then shared them with Fore River, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Norfolk. Essex was not commissioned till December of 42, same time Franklin was laid down. Many of the "kinks" were worked out between launch and then, but they were in such a rush that they had several nearby complete before Essex did sea trials. I think the first group of six was authorized by the naval act of 1940, while the second bigger group was authorized by the Two Ocean Navy act of 1941. Friedman's US Aircraft Carriers Design History has a good chapter on this, plus a lot on their postwar modernizations.
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  43.  @SCjunk  There was no "Department of Defense" before 1947. The Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the Norfolk Navy Yard, etc. were all run by the Department of the Navy, which goes back to 1798. The Army was run by the Department of War. And yes, the Navy Yards run by the Navy built many (but not all) Navy ships, from destroyers to battleships and carriers. Five Essex class were under construction in Navy Yards in 1943. The "lead yard" for Essex was Newport News, a "private" yard (with lots of government assistance for expansion), but the work was spread over five yards, two private and three Navy. Read Warship Builders by Thomas Heinrich.
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  44. Drach redid it.
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  45. They don't make that kind of movie anymore...
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  46.  @jamesfogel7998  They had no chance whatsoever after they pissed us off with Pearl Harbor.
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  47.  @mdhofstee  I thought the "club" was formed by the Chaplain during the transit from Pearl to Panama, and was named after the number of sailors still on the ship.
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  48. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SWvew4ian8
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