Comments by "Not shaped for sportive tricks" (@notshapedforsportivetricks2912) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. As do we all. Its fun to say. Like schnapps.
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  2. That rescued ship was lucky that it was the Gotemborg that hove into view. It might just as easily have been the Queen Anne's Revenge. ☠️ Arrr!
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  3. Japan had numerous hot potatoes that they were trying to juggle. In addition to Prunce Konoye's somewhat mercurial approach to foreign policy and the ongoi g army/navy friction, there was the running sore of the war in China which the army knew that it couldn't win, but couldn'tbring itself to admit. (The old trope of generals valuing the sacrifice of dead soldiers more than the lives of the living ones.) Throw in the trucylent junior officers, the split in the leadershjp between the anglophiles and the germanophiles, a collapsing economy due to the China war and the friction between the uniformed and the civilian leaders, anx you have a devil's brew of conflicting priorities. Add to that the differences between the army (which wanted to expand the war northwards in China, against the navy which wanted a southward expansion into indochina, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies; and you have a problem that defies resolution. War came about as a result of the paralysis of the political will as much as anything else.
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  4. Don't be too hard on the media. Remember, gentle reader, that to anyone with a degree in journalism, anything in the water that is painted grey is automatically a battleship.
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  5. The torpedo boat chaser was a pretty useless type of vessel also, given their incapacity to perform their stated function; being usually slower than the things which they were supposed to catch.
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  6. I think that The Goodies did that in their Pirate Radio Station episode when Graeme towed the entire UK outside the five mile limit. He wasn't mad. He was a genius.
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  7. Wasn't it also used as a medication for people who were having heart attacks?
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  8. Were I going to preserve a french warship, I would choose the Bearn. That way, however bizarre, inappropriate or troublesome a ship I design in the future (I'm looking at you, Charles de Gaulle), I can then point at Bearn and say "We're getting better. See!"
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  9. Oh well, at least you'll have something to watch on your honeymoon.
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  10.  @bkjeong4302  Glad to hear it. We mustn't let these wonderful old traditions die out. 😁
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  11. Had the germans behaved like civilised people during Operation Barbarossa rather than like beasts by releasing the einsatzgruppen on the civil population and prisoners, it might well have been 1-1.
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  12. Actually an example of the Chilean class system. Something similar happened when the Admiralty purchased HMSs Triumph and Swiftsure from Chile in 1904. Their captains could enjoy the luxury of stepping into a marble bath in their quarters; a pleasure I'm sure rhat the lower decks didn't share.
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  13. Jack C Taylor: Why do these damned Mitsubishis keep crashing into my cars?
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  14. I understand that HMS Formidable was keen to give it a go at Matapan, but ABC put his foot down.
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  15. That is no way in which to refer to two young ladies; especially when escorting them.
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  16. The crew of the KuK warship Ferdinand Max would take exception to that statement, and you don't want to annoy the service that won both the Battle of Lissa and Maria von Trapp!
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  17. I realise that this isn't the etymology of her name, but Marblehead always made me think of a US navy insult; as in: "What are you lookin' at, marblehead?" A good thing that the US Navy does't' use cap tallies.
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  18. If you call a ship "Marblehead", are you insulting her? 😈
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  19. So given that she had two nanes, was Glorioso a type of agnomen?
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  20. On the other hand, it might have introduced the americans to decent coffee. Ice cream for espresso exchanges, pethsps.
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  21. @88porpoise  😏 True.
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  22. Well, if you're using different units within the imperual system, you just designate the units separately. So in your example, it would be 12 feet and half an inch, or more succinctly, 12' 1/2".
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  23. They're range clocks, designed to show other ships in a squadron the calculated range to a target in thousands and hundreds of yards. I'm sure that Drach has answered this one in an earlier Drydock.; just don't ask me which one.
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  24.  @MrAsh1100  You cam blame Lord Mountbatten. Apparently he considered it symbolic of servitude. I've known a few pussers who wouldn't object to a bit of servitude every now and again.
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  25. 2:46 HMS Terrible's captain just decided to go water skiing, that's all.
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  26. Another consideration regarding WWI RN ad.irals is that a lot of them would have been in command of squadrons within the Grand Fleet, meaning that there would have been very little opportunity to display creativity or personal initiative. No matter how good they might have been in an independent command, they were just part of a bigger machine.
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  27. That description of USS Albany requires a more detailed definition of the term "generally upright".
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  28. ... a nation that thought that doctors were bourgeoise and should be shot. Especially if they were jewish. No names mentioned, eh Comrade Stalin?
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  29. As the scots would day, "don't be such a baby"☺️
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  30. Please do not feed the Bismarck fanbois.
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  31. My father used to use television in the same way; only he used to claim that he was just resting his eyes. Any loud, snoring noises emanating from him were purely incidental to that process.
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  32.  @letoubib21  Not due in for another 20 years.
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  33. A minor point of pedantry, Drach re the pronunciation of Ikara. In the RAN it was pronounced "eye-kara", not "ee-kara". Not that it really matters. It's not exactly a word used conversationally.
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  34. Presumably Dorothy Lamour was the one taking the photo.
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  35.  @VersusARCH  It's a weird concept, innit? I came across it in a small book by a historian named Anthony Preston. He opined that the french, like the chinese, believed that opponents should be frightened before battle. Hence in naval design, huge funnels, built-up masts etc. I was reminded of this theory when I once saw a photo of the pre-dread Charlegmane and it took me several views to realise that it hadn't had its main battery fitted yet7. When you think about it, the concept of frightening the enemy by making yourself look fierce us quite an old one. Think of the war paint on primitive warriors, the decorated shields and the heraldic beasts on the helms of armoured knights etc. Even today, some fighter squadrons will paint shark's jaws and similar motifs on their aircraft. It's quite an atavistic drive, apparently.
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  36. Bounty would have been a great name for the star trek space ship; as well as providing some fun plot twists.
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  37. HMS Enterprise was a pretty little minx, wasn't she? I wonder if she ever met USS Enterprise? I know that during the Korean war, HMAS Bataan escorted the USS Bataan on a couple of occasions.
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  38. Too bloody cold, anyhow. The West Indies would be nice, though.
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  39. Camouflage in the age of sail seems a fairly pointless acriviry, given the close ranges at which actions were fought and the practical difficulties of disguising masts and sails. A better approach might be to actively discourage opponents from coming near you in the first place. For example, you could paint a pokemon on your sails. No sane captain would go near a ship so obviously full of nutcases. Alternatively, you could paint messages on your sails such as "Free tofu samples. Stop us and try one." or "Come aboard and raise your awareness of global warming". Solitude guaranteed.
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  40. Are you feeling well, Drach?
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  41. I believe that during the russian civil war, the RN took Askold into service in the White Sea (rather appropriately). They gave her the rather puzzling name Glory VI. Does anyone know the reason for the weird monniker?
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  42. Until one day ...
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  43. Hi Drach. Did you get the VIP treatment when you visited the ships on your US trip? Obviously you already knew Ryan on the New Jersey, but did they pipe you over the side & have a band waiting for you etc. etc, or was it just all business as usual?
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  44. Technical considerations aside, that HAS to be the best name for an armaments company ever. Unless monsieur de Bange had a rival named monsieur kaboom.
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  45. Wow! Talk about the long arm of coincidence. On Friday night I finally got around to watching your interview with Jon Parshall on Midway, and tonight I watched the second half of Nick Hodges' two part review of the movie Midway on his History Buffs Youtube channel. Lets just say that your views on the movie don't entirely coincide with his. While he did point out some historical inaccuracies in the movie, he was generally laudatory of it and even praised the director for at last attempting to make an "historically accurate" movie. I was wondering if you have seen either part of the review and, if so, what you thought of it. The second half of the review seemed to me, to be based on the received knowledge of Midway, and didn't address the common "myths" which Mr Parshall covered in his interview with you. I suspect that Nick hadn't read "Shattered Swòrd", relying instead on commonly accepted historical accounts. That said, I very much enjoy Nick's movie reviews, finding them to be a generally accurate historical critique of the film under review. I can especially reccomend his videos on Zulu, Waterloo, The Terror and Goodfellas. I hasten to add that I don't want to start a Youtube rumble between two channels whose work I very much appreciate and admire; I'd just like to hear your take on his summary. And for what its worth, your views and his on the movie Pearl Harbour gel precisely.
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  46. It might have been done to protect the crews of the 8" guns in open barbettes from the blast effect of the 6" guns on the deck above. Just a theory.
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  47. I think that Cossack might have snuck in thanks to somewhat "irregular" activities during the Russian Civil War.
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  48. 22 children! Lordy! No prizes for guessing what her parents did to while away the hours until Liberation Day.
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  49. Possibly he could share the motto "More speed" with Jeremy Clarkson.
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  50. I don't think that Admiral Nagumo gets enough credit for the victory at Midway. Yamamo's rather slapdash approach to planning the operation should also be acknowledged.
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