Comments by "" (@VersusARCH) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. Russian navy was a very capable force at the time of Catherine the Great (Baltic fleet sailed around the Europe to the Mediterranean and devastated the Ottoman navy) and later during the Napoleonic Wars (Adm. Ushakov's brilliant campaign against the French alongside the British) and the Greek War of Independence (in alliance with the French and the British, again wrecking the Ottomans).
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  2.  @patricklenigan1650  I think you mean Pensylvania
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  3. Things designed for one purpose (in this case convoy escort duties), in wartime sooner or later end up fulfilling a different purpose (in this case fighting in a line of battle). This should be added to the Murphy's law of combat operations.
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  4. 4:17 Pug-li-ese
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  5.  @PeteOtton  They all had radios but they were next to useless due to static (caused by interference by Zero's engine ignition magnetos and the general magnetic conditions in the Pacific) as they were improperly shielded. Some pilots of Tainan Kokutai including Saburo Sakai went so far to remove the radio sets altogether considering it a dead weight. Whether there were such instances in the Zero carrier air groups I don't know (I think it's unlikely, due to tighter control of a ship environment and theoretical importance of radios to carrier operations).
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  6. Own goal was the Battle of Punta Gruesa. The Peruvians managed to lose their most powerful warship to shoaling while chasing a Chilean schooner. Another own goal was the disasterous French attempted expedition against the Dutch Curacao. Spanish armada disaster comes to mind and also the follow up equally disasterous English armada. Also the Battle of Cartagena des Indies.
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  7. 06:30 - It happened: Coast defense battleships of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Thailand...
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  8. 00:38 Ning Hai class cruisers. Vastly slower than a Fubuki, slightly stronger in artillery caliber-wise but with much worse in rate of fire, much weaker in torpedo armament and with an armor that cannot protect it against Fubuki's guns (only splinters). On a 50% greater displacement. A good example of why you don't hire your expansionist neighbor to design and build your warships... Also: the Katori class cruisers (although these were admittedly dedicated training ships). A contemporary Kagero 1/3 of the displacement of a Katori would have ripped one apart.
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  9.  @Drachinifel  I agree. I'd just like to add that treaties are only as strong as much as the balance of power in the world remains similar to the balance at the time of signing, (not necessarily only among the signatories). Turkey for any (in retrospect dumb) reasons decided to go with Central Powers, Italy gauged the wind direction better 😉
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  10. The most offensive-minded Japnese admiral was probably Shoji Nishimura. Bona-fide Tenno-Heika Banzai YOLO guy.
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  11. 1:38:99. Graf Spee. Fights honorably to death at sea around South America after causing significant damage.
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  12. 5:11 - Along the entire Sweden :)
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  13. Enter: admiral Ernest J King.
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  14. 👍 for the Black Sea
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  15. Oi
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  16. But in Samar you DID have a better combo than Yukikaze+Shigure (which eventually sank). You had Yukikaze + Nagato + Haruna.
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  17. Overclaim :P
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  18. If I were a pilot of one of the 2 Pearl Harbor Attacks' worth of USN aircraft that attacked the Japanese Center Force during the battle, sank a Battle of Savo Island's worth of Japanese heavy cruisers and were consequently the REAL reason the Japanese retreated, I'd feel a little ticked off being left out of the report...
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  19.  @tremedar  US entry to WW1 came an entire year after the sinking if the Lusitania which was a British-flagged ship smuggling a sizeable quantity of war material and on a register of Armed Merchant Cruisers and the Germans issued a warning that thUS citizens travelling on British ships do so at their own risk. US entry to WW1 had nothing to do with it, the fact that a number of Americans lost their lives in the sinking merely served as a propaganda rallying cry once the descision to go to war was made.
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  20.  @newhallgeorge1  Some didnt. Many did. Chokai, Suzuya and Chikuma's sinkings are a testament to that fact.
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  21. Pre dreadnought fight: in 1904, after the Japanese torpedo boats attack the Russian 1st Pacific squadron at Port Arthur, France honors its alliance with Russia and declares war on Japan, UK honors its alliance with Japan and declares war on France, Germany decides to ally with France (note that they did historically help the Russian 2nd Pacific squadron with coaling) to even the odds and bring down RN (and get some colonies). Austria Hungary and Italy honor the Triple Alliance with Germany and declare war on UK. Finally Teddy Roosevelt, ever the opportunist, sees a good opportunity to gang up with the allies to take down RN and expand. So: you have RN vs Russian 2nd Pacific squadron, the French fleet, the German fleet, portions of the US fleet (plausibly - US contigent sails to Brest) and Italian and Austro-Hungarian fleet. The French Brest fleet and the USN from one side, and the allied Mediterannean fleets sail to break the British Gibraltar station, while the 2nd Russian Paific squadron sails to Germany to break out to Brest if the main RN body sails to help Gibraltar. If the latter stays put and the allied Mediterannean fleets breaks out to Brest, two combined allied fleets, one from Brest the other from Wilhelmshaven sail to jointly (coordinated by wireless) challenge the RN in, a climactic pre-dreadnought battle of Jutland. RN, on the other hand, would naturally attempt to engage the allied fleets piecemeal. Japan meanwhile battles Russia's 1st Pacifific squadron and perhaps some US reinforcements based in Manila (which may, or may not decide to sail to Vladivostok). I think the historians may have missed the significance of France not intervening for Russia in 1904. (out of fear of the superior RN) on Austro-Hungarian decision to declare war on Serbia in 1914. (banking on Russia not intervening out of fear of strong Germany, or at least France not intervening for the same reason).
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  22. The French were neutral. The British had been at war with the Netherlands for years.
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  23. ... along for the ride
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  24. Against suspicious-looking merchant ships / possible merchant raiders (Italians had some in Somalia before it was captured, Germans also sent some to the Indian ocean and the Japanese had some too) yes as long as she kept her distance (out of the raiders' torpedo range and possibly gun range). Against light cruisers - she didn't have the speed to catch them unless they were already damaged or had broken down. Against heavy cruisers she had neither speed nor firepower (number of guns, range, penetration, rate of fire...)
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  25. 00:45:56 Apart from the RN campaign to destroy SMS Koenigsberg in the Rufiji river delta, and several battles in the Paraguay War, there was one river battle (estuary to be precise) at the mouth of the Pearl River during the 2nd Sino Japanese War: From Wiki article on Chao Ho: On 14 September 1937. Chao Ho and Hai Chow (formerly the Arabis-class sloop HMS Pentstemon) engaged the Japanese cruiser Yūbari and the destroyers Hayate and Oite. The Japanese ships were forced to retreat with the aide of the Bocca Tigris' forts land based artillery but both ships were damaged. From www.combinedfleet.com tabular record of movement for the light cruiser IJN Yubari: 14 September 1937: YUBARI is standing into the Pearl River estuary with HAYATE and OITE when they encounter two Chinese warships, the protected cruiser CHAO HO and the revenue cutter HAI CHOW (ex-HMS PENTSTEMON), leaving Humen (Bocca Tigris) Strait. The result is what might be the only surface action between the Chinese and Imperial Japanese Navy in the whole war. [2] The Japanese squadron engages the Chinese vessels and the shore batteries at the forts protecting the Humen Strait. Both Chinese ships are damaged; HAI CHOW is hit three times and loses steering control. This causes her for a short time to be heading directly at the Japanese fleet, as if on a charge. Just as it seems the cutter will be blown out of the water, HAI CHOU regains control. The more powerful CHAO HO inexplicably fights only intermittently, and her captain soon orders a retreat. HAI CHOW manages to escape upriver as well. Ironically, CHAO HO's leaving the battle does her little good: she runs aground short time thereafter. While returning to Taichang anchorage, the IJN squadron is attacked by CAF Northrop A-17 attack bombers, scoring several near misses. Five sailors from YUBARI are injured.
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  26. Russia followed the same tech tree. Borodinos were based on Jaureguiberry.
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  27. ​1:32:07 Best ship kill to loss from age of steam onward? Consider: 1) steam sloops of war. A lot of destroyed or taken ships, mostly unarmed or poorly armed sailing ships in the mid 19th century and I believe few losses. 2) German camouflaged armed merchant raiders are good candidates too. In WW2: only 9 deployed, 8 lost (of which 1 in an accident and 1 was repurposed as a gunnery training ship before being destroyed by the Red Air Force) and they sank or captured 142 Allied and neutral ships including HMAS Sydney and the RN armed merchand cruiser Voltaire. The total includes ships sunk in minefields they layed. https://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/hilfskreuzer_introduction.html 3) In WW1 they also deployed armed merchant raiders and I believe those had even better K/D ratio The most successful one was the Moewe (K/D 40:0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_M%C3%B6we_(1914) And the most dashing was the Seeadler (K/D 16:1 but not to enemy action): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Seeadler_(1888) There was also the Wolf (K/D 27:0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Wolf_(1913) SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm (K/D 16:1 - interned in then neutral USA, seized after US entered the war) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Kronprinz_Wilhelm SMS Cap Trafalgar (K/D 0:1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Cap_Trafalgar Total (K/D 99:3 or 33:1) but perhaps there are more German WW1 AMRs that I am not aware of. 4) Consider that German WW1 submarines had better K/D ratio than their WW2 counterparts and most probably also the Americans in WW2 but I doubt it amounted to 33:1. Technically a ship class that sank something but suffered no losses is even better.
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  28. 27:20 Names of purpose-built Japanese aircraft carriers translated, were all hardcore Tolkien stuff... "Great Phoenix"... "Happy Crane"... and a shitton of dragons in various colors of the female color chart... Completely changes the mood of the history of the early months of the Pacific War to read it with translated Japanese ship names...
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  29. 00:43:40 How about the pre-dreadnought Retvizan? Fought in Russo-Japanese war for Russia - got torpedoed in the opening torpedo boat attack, fought the Japanese at Port Arthur and Yellow Sea, Retreated to Port Arthur, got sunk by the land-based heavy artillery of the Japanese Army, then got captured by the Japanese, raised, repaired, served them in WW1 and then also served them in their intervention in Siberia ironically against the red variety of their former owners but alongside their white variety. If ships of that era other than pre-dreadnoughts themselves can be considered too - the Russian/Soviet armored cruiser Aurora.
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  30. German equivalent of the ships of the Revenge class. One is not quite a match for the contemporary Queen Elizabeth class ship due to lower speed (penalty for not using full oil firing).
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  31. 00:38 I seriously object to failing to mention the French Navy's contribution to supplying the Macedonian (AKA Salonika) Front. Galipoli Campaign, an abject failure that everybody likes to talk about lasted for several months. The Macedonian campaign lasted for more than 3 years and resulted in the first armistice with a Central Power (Bulgaria) and contributed significantly to Turkey's and Austria-Hungary's decision to ask for an armistice (the latter also broke apart). Allied armies had to be transported there. Serbian Army needed to be evacuated from Albania in late 1915. having retreated there in the aftermath of the joint Central Powers' invasion, later being transpotrted to Salonika to fight on the Macedonian front. Allied armies on the said front needed to be supplied and serviced by hospital ships... French and Italian navies with some British and Japanese contribution maintained the security of the sea lanes (although Central powers' submarines caused quite a few losses), and their merchant fleet did the hard work of supplying the allied armies there.
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  32.  @admiraltiberius1989  My good man, that was sarcasm on my part.
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  33.  @QuizmasterLaw  They used their floatplanes as scouts, air sea rescue, fighters, bombers, liaison aircraft...
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  34.  @QuizmasterLaw  If you knew that, just as the Americans did, the Japanese also positioned submarines near the islands they were about to attack with aircraft, also had float planes on hand and would send them to pick up survivors if possible you would not be repeating such prejudiced myths - just the kind this very video is trying to dispel, albeit concerning a different topic. Hell they even designed and produced cargo submarines to supply their cut off island garrisons (cut off due to US island hopping strategy, which was made possible in the latter part of the war, by US air and naval superiority, courtesy of US industrial might).
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  35.  @QuizmasterLaw  They did. That is why they considered the Zero's combat radius for carrier operations by a third less than for land based operations...
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  36.  @Edax_Royeaux  But the Wright Brothers ripped off Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's wing cross section idea xD
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  37.  @Cruiserczcz  Whom are you adressing?
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  38. German fleet was not the deterrent. The British fleet was. Geostrategically the British (and the rest of the Entente) got the Central Powers bottled up and cut off from foreign imports. Whether the High Seas fleet got itself sunk in a major engagement or stayed in port as a fleet in being only matters for the morale. In all other practical terms Germany is losing the war and the time is working against her. Unless of course they somehow manage to draw the USA to enter the war on their side which was not a realistic proposal due to economic ties between UK and US and UK essentially buying the US entry to the war by taking massive loans and buying out practically all US cargoes bound for Germany and neighboring neutral countries such as the Netherlands
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  39. How to sink Habakkuk? Wreck its propeller and rudder and tow it to warmer seas 😁
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  40. 24:24 Nowadays there is a bus line to the Hel peninsula which is numbered 666 . Google it :)
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  41. For a more comprehensive response to world's 30s and later capital gunships vs UK and Ger fleets at Jutland a study of shell probability hits at various ranges should be taken into account as well as the magazine capacities of both fleets. That way we could have an idea approx how many WW1 ships would be sunk before the WW2 ships ran out of ammo. WW1 ship guns can still hurt WW2 ship's unarmored or less armored parts potentially degrading their speed and/or accuracy or even command capability if the WW2 ships close too much, but if WW2 ships stay out of effective range of WW1 ships guns (QEs obviously excluded) they will score fewer hits before they run out of ammo. Also WW1 ships still have scores of escorting destroyers to mess up the WW2 ship's formation and cover the retreat with a smokescreen (still somewhat useful in spite of opposing side's radar). Also - where would the combined WW1 fleet be retreating to? RN ships to Portsmouth and HSF to Kiel? Would the WW2 fleet split to pursue them both, and if yes how?
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  42.  @Drachinifel   Drachinifel  I agree that the actual admirals in command of the Russian fleet in the Russo-Japanese War battles were not that bad (that is why I did not say Rozhestvensky, Makarov or Vitgeft). I was referring to pre-war admirals in charge of the fleet who certainly are at least in part to blame for the sorry state of the Russian navy crews. And it indeed was a system failure hence it would be difficult to pinpoint a single culprit, so yes exclusion of that bit I can agree on. Our disagreement seems to be a difference in emphasis on overall impact of their mistakes (favored by me) vs the level of personal failing they displayed in action against their training and experience (favored by you). Given the topic I guess you have merit in such reasoning, although, since they are all fairly famous admirals: their fame does come from the impact they had. I wonder how many less well known naval commanders who perhaps never even went to war were even worse - and replaced before they could do (more) serious damage (Honda point disaster-style)
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  43. Regia Marina in WW2 = Fleet-in-being that couldn't hit a broad side of a barn from inside + Decima Flotigla MAS + effective minelayers + some submarines + occasional badass destroyer (ish) ship + some transport ships. Change my mind 😁 .
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  44.  @voqiir3802  The spacetiming of USS Maine explosion is way too convenient for it to be trully unplanned... Especially if we consider that there were hawks at high positions in the USN, such as assistant secretary of the navy (who was the secretary in all but name), while there was also, at the time, considerable opposition within US to starting an imperialist war that the former needed to overcome, with help of their affiliated media magnates...
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  45. The Americans DID come to the Japanese under the perfect circumstances for the Japanese advantage insofar the strategic disposition can allow (USN having to protect a fleet of slow transport ships all within range of the Japanese land-based aircraft and the counterattack of the full available might of the IJN).. The result was the battle of the Philippine Sea. USA by that point, using its vast superiority in industrial production, has constructed a fleet far larger and significantly more advanced than the Japanese could field and the Japanese could not beat it no matter the doctrine. The only way for Japan to win was to make USN attacks against the Japanese holdings so costly and time consuming that the US would be forced to compromise lest it bankrupts itself. But the fact that Japan was facing a coalition of US, UK + satellites and was about to be attacked by the USSR too made that strategy impossible to implement. They stepped on too many toes and left themselves exposed to attack from too many sides. But that was not a failure of NAVAL OPERATIONAL DOCTRINE (discussed in this video) but rather of far broader and far reaching NATIONAL POLICY.
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  46.  @egoist920  Commander of the Austro-Hungarian 21th division Artur Przyborski fought rifle in hand in the front ranks during the first night of the Battle of Cer. His division got routed that night, but still, respect for the effort. Commander of the 28th regiment of that division died fighting that night. But on the Serbian side two regimental commanders were wounded too.
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  47.  @TheTutch  https://youtu.be/5pSiCjfhUUw
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  48.  @Philistine47  LOL you need to read more about all the battles you listed including the first day at Coral Sea... As for Kido Butai having radar at Midway... ROTFLMAOZEDONG, so where were radar sets on Shokaku and Zuikaku at Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz? They had periods in dock in the meantime... Finally as flawed as the Japanese fighter control was, USN's was bad as well, but the radar made all the difference and that is my point (read my first message again). It provided early warning, enabled all ships to prepare for attack (CO2 in avgas lines...) directed the fighters... Even with mistakes on USN side the difference in the number of carriers sunk in carrier battles tells (IJN submarines nearly equalled the 1942 tally though). Nagumo too learned from his mistakes, changing tactics at Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz (detatching light carrier baits). Nagumo retreated after PH, Fletcher retreated after landings at Guadalcanal, both had wins and losses, both got sacked...
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  49. That was the Takao.
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  50. That was the Takao.
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