Youtube hearted comments of (@VersusARCH).

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  5. 11:37 - Hm... I can think of at least one instance where it was kind of technically the case (with a stretch). In 1793, during the French Revolutionary war, when the town and naval base of Toulon rebelled against the republican government in Paris, and in support of the monarchy - they took control of the Toulon squadron which included the first rate ship of the line named Commerce de Marseille. The royalists sailed out of besieged Toulon with it (and some 3rd rates) to prevent their recapture by the republicans. From the perspective of the revolutionary government which was de facto rulling most of France they could be considered pirates. (and if one were to reject the legitimacy of the republican government and the subsequent 1st Empire then their entire navies could be considered pirates - including the 1st rate Orient and 2nd rate Tonnant at the Battle of the Nile and the 2nd rate Bucentaure at the Battle of Trafalgar :) ). Commerce de Marseille was later seized by the British navy. So yeah, while strictly speaking Drach gave a correct answer (those weren't really pirates, but rather a party in a civil war), when you add legal shenanigans about legitimacy, you could argue that for a short while they technically kind of did. Similar things happened during the English Civil War when the defeated royalists maintained a navy under Prince Rupert of the Rhine and preyed on parliamentary merchant ships. I am not sure about the sizes of ships they used, though, if anyone knows whether they had any ships of the line I'd like to know. It would be an interesting topic for a special - "When the entire Royal Navy was pirate" :)... (since the opposing parliamentary navy which represented the government that effectively controlled England definitely wasn't the ROYAL navy).
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  20.  @Drachinifel  Hey, thanks for the response. Btw I believe I was a bit stingy on praises in my comments on your videos thus far since I commented almost exclusively about the things I disagreed with you about, but I should say: whatever I did not comment about I either mostly agreed with or simply learned from :) So kudos, a great effort! (I've been a subscriber for a while) The reasoning in my comment above is based on the following historical examples: 1) Polish pilots: they trained extensively on their PZL fighters in the 30s expecting to face the Soviets sooner or later, but once the Germans attacked with more numerous and technologically superior aircraft and mostly rush-trained pilots (there weren't all that many Spanish Civil War veterans), they won. Sure the Poles proved elusive targets and shot down some planes but it was futile. But once the survivors got up-to date Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain - they shone. You may check the "Bloody Foreigners" - The Untold Story of The Battle of Britain (available on youtube) 17:59-18:37 the testimony of one of the Polish fighters from the RAF 303 Squadron (Polish) who fought both at home and in Britain about how easy it all was in a Hurricane vs the old PZL-11 2) The Soviets. They got massacred in the beginning although they had veterans as well as the Germans - from Spain, Finland and Khalhin Gol. They also had the numbers. But most of the aircraft were outdated (I-15, I-16) sub-par (LaGG-3) or poorly suited for the battle ahead (Mig-3). So by late 1942. the rookies held the line and the training was the most basic. But then they got Yak-9s, and La-5s which were a match for the German fighters in Eastern Front battle conditions. And by mid-1943. they turned the tide. 3) The Japanese vs US historically, mid 1943. Just watch Dogfights: Zero killer (available here on youtube) from 12:00 to 15:00 - how a US rookie in a new Hellcat easily killed a Japanese 9 kill ace in an A6M3 Zero in a 1:1 dogfight just thanks to the superiority of his aircraft. Sure there were accounts of skillful Japanese pilots being a headache to hit for the green Americans, notably the Japanese ace Saburo Sakai, blind in one eye by this point in the war, in an A6M5 Zero evading an attack of 15 green Hellcats in late 1944. off Iwo Jima, but one needs to hurt the enemy badly enough too in addition to surviving in order to win a war.
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