Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 172" video.

  1. ​ @TankerBricks  some time ago, I worked out a plan where PoW joins force H at Gibraltar, replacing Malaya. Malaya and Revenge replace QE and Valiant at Alexandria, and QE and Valiant form Force Z, along with Hermes. I found a site with activity logs for all these ships, and the timeline works out just about right.
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  2.  @arivael  Force Z had DD escorts. PoW had had two or three DDs escorting it all the way from the UK. Plan Steve has PoW, Express and Electra turning in at Gibraltar, instead of steaming past. Then Malaya, with the two DDs use the decoy convoys as cover to transit to Alexandria. This scenario has an extra benefit. Malaya had not had the late 30s rebuild that some others had, and was somewhat decrepit. Reportedly, Admiral Somerville was exceptionally displeased being stuck with an old tub for his flagship, so I suspect he would be delighted to raise his flag on PoW. Historically, Express and Electra made the entire trip with PoW, to the day she sank, and carried survivors back to Singapore.
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  3.  @arivael  actually, more were on the way, not that they would have made a difference. As the DDs, laden with survivors, steamed south after the battle, they passed four American DDs that Admiral Hart had dispatched to join Z.
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  4. ​ @arivael  somewhere along the line, I read that Churchill wanted to send a "new" battleship, to impress the natives, hence the long trip from the UK to Singapore, rather than using units that were closer. They knew that Repulse was not a front line ship as it had been relegated to the Indian Ocean by then, along with the Revenges, where it busied itself looking for commerce raiders. QE and Valiant, with their heavy rebuilds, could, at least, look like modern ships, and they would not be held back by Hermes. By some accounts, there was a suggestion that Hermes tag along with PoW as she rounded the Cape just as Hermes was coming out of refit at Simon's Town, but the idea was rejected because Hermes could not keep up with PoW. Other carriers? Ark Royal had been sunk in November. Illustrious had been in the US for refit, steamed to Jamaica in November, then collided with Formidable on the way back to the UK in December, and went back in the yard for repair. Formidable had also been in the US for repair, until the trip back to the UK, and the collision, then undergoing repair until early February. Victorious was patrolling the Denmark Strait looking for Tirpitz and Scheer. Indomitable ran aground in the West Indies in early November while working up. Eagle was in the UK for refit and repair, having suffered a fire in the hangar and serious powerplant problems. Hermes was the only carrier available.
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  5.  @arivael  you are correct, I did forget Furious. I checked. During October 41, Furious was carrying aircraft to Jamaica for ASW patrol. From November into March 42, Furious was undergoing refit in the Philadelphia. Navy yard. Returned to the UK in April. In the UK back to refit for completion of installation of radar. Joined the Home Fleet in July. I have heard that story about Indomitable too. She ran aground in the West Indies on November 3rd. By November 3rd, PoW was approaching Freetown, Sierra Leone, arriving there November 5th, and departing for Cape Town on the 7th. The log I have access to does not say where in the West Indies Indomitable grounded, but it's 4,440 miles from Jamaica to Freetown. If Indomitable had made for Freetown the day she grounded, she would have had a hard time catching up to PoW as that looks like about a 6 day trip. wrt carriers in the Med, I don't think Force H had a carrier between when Ark Royal sank in November and when Eagle joined H February 23rd. Meanwhile, Victorious was the only serviceable carrier with the Home Fleet. Hermes was the only option, but if she was sent with Z with her usual handful of Stringbags, she would have been nothing but another target. Two of the Kongos were off on the Pearl Harbor op at that time, though the Admiralty had no way of knowing that. As it was, the Japanese knew the Brits were sending battleships, so they reinforced the bomber groups in Indochina. I expect that, had QE and Valiant been sent instead, the Japanese would have dealt with them the same way.
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  6.  @jamesd3472  it would have made sense for the French and Italians to claim unfinished German ships as reparations. It crossed my mind that the Mackensens would be a better option than completing the Normandies, and the guns already built for the Normandies were the right size for the Mackensens. Of course, the Normandies were not completed either. France was broke. The US was pressing for war debt repayment, in cash. The UK was also pressing France for repayment of war debt, in cash, because it needed the cash to pay it's debts to the US. And France had a large war zone to rebuild. For the Italians, they could have easily finished Caracciolio, but they didn't want to go that way. They put their money into destroyers instead. France and Italy did claim several German and Austrian cruisers and destroyers, completed ones, as reparations. France and Italy each received a Tegetthoff as reparatons. France used it's one for target practice. Italy stripped the guns off it's Tegetthoff and installed them as shore batteries, then scrapped the hull.
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