Comments by "Adam Bainbridge" (@AdamMGTF) on "The Drydock - Episode 175" video.

  1. Need to pop this in q&a or discord. Tho I'm sure he's answered the same question before.
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  2. Kind of. George Johnson's book and max Hastings work* discuss it. The simplest version is.... When there was an opportunity to use highball against Tirpitz** and it was ready to be used. The air ministry stopped its use untill upkeep could be used on the dams. So highball wasn't unused to keep it secret. But to keep upkeep secret. (What a sentence lol). The theory being that once Jeri knew about bouncing bombs, they would enact protection at key targets right away (which is what happened after chastise) *good book, called chastise and it really delves into the story ** May have been one of the pocket battleships. But I'm sure it was Tirpitz.
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  3. I've a feeling the CDL wasn't used more because it was never in the right place at the right time. Or that when it was the commanders stuck with the weapons they knew rather than something untested. I wonder if Fletcher or someone of his ilk have wrote anything about them?
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  4.  @ABrit-bt6ce  happy to help. If you have any other books you could recommend I'd love to know. I'm old before my time and enjoy a proper book over YouTube or the interweb
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  5.  @travispollett2120  I have seen think tank on chieftens channel but only remember the CDL vaugly. I'm gonna watch it again tonight (Its well worth another watch). Thanks!
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  6.  @nnoddy8161  it's not in a segment so to speak. It's been discussed in dry docks. If your new to the channel it would mean weeks of listening so I'll try and give you some thoughts, some are my own based on a lifetime wasted reading books on the war 😂. This is long winded but I believe covers your question :) Long term the prevailing theory would be recall back to the Mediterranean. They were sent as a deterrent to the loss of Singapore. With Singapore lost. They had no mission. It's been argued they could fulfilled that role in Australia if they magically got there unharmed. I can't agree there. Australia is huge. They could act as a deterrent in one port maybe. But not the whole country. And if the Japanese fancied sending the kido butai over, then force Z would face the same challenge as sharnhorst and genaisenau. Haressment and damage by air attack. Only I don't believe there was a drydock in Australia that could birth them for repair (unlike Saint nazair etc). As for india, the Japanese didn't have the ability to project an invasion force that far. Add to that the island and phillipines campaigns were keeping them busy at sea. It's unlikely the IJA could convince the IJN to conduct an invasion in the CBI theatre even if it were possible.......... So your answer... They would be sent where they were needed most. The Mediterranean is often overlooked. But it was touch and go and in 40/41/42 things were pretty bleak. The Italian navy were a real force. The Luftwaffe were no slouch. Only the Eastern front diverting them let the pressure off. The RN were bleeding capital ships and the USN obviously weren't in the fight yet. But I've gone off topic. As for pearl. Again, they were needed in the med. But also. The problem would be supplies. Singapore was a large RN base. They had ammunition and spare parts. Pearl obviously didn't. So the answer to your question specifically is they wouldn't have made an contribution. But they may well have tipped the balance much earlier in the med. And that's a very interesting 'what if'. If you read this far. Well done 🤓
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