Comments by "Frank DeMaris" (@kemarisite) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. There is a lot of that. However, during WW2 new built and rebuilt US ships had remote power control (RPC) for main and secondary guns (maybe 40 mm, but 20 mm were hand operated) in both elevation and training. This means that the signal from the fire control system, rather than going to a pointer that the gun crew would try to match manually, would go to a massive electric motor that would elevate the gun(s) or rotate the mount/turret. Guns with RPC display a certain amount of what we think of as stabilization, not to the level of a Leopard 2 not spilling its beer meme, but quite a bit better than just waiting until the gyros say we're uptight and level before allowing the guns to fire.
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  2. I could see him saying, "Take that armor off, it's too slow for a large light cruiser."
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  3. What both expeditions found is that the Bismark was going down, it was just a question of time. The scuttling effort allowed the crew to get it's own licks in and accelerate the process a little. Even if the British had pulled out and the scuttling order wasn't given, Bismark was never going to make it to port.
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  4. "I was there back when we teased Drach about Doenitz envying his 200k subs."
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  5.  @AtomicBabel  from my reading it would appear they briefly considered the possibility but quickly concluded it would not be feasible or worthwhile.
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  6. Note that the round for the 5"/25 AA gun used on many US warships (and yes, there are records of US cruisers using their 5"/25 guns in the Guadalcanal night actions, because it's a gun and goes boom) is also a single-piece fixed round and weighs "about 80 pounds" according the navweaps. That would probably make it the largest diameter shell, but its a fairly wimpy shell (9.6 pounds of propellant for about 2,150 fps) compared to the 5"/38 (same shell, but about 16 pounds of propellant for 2,600 fps).
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  7.  @davebignell773  curiously, Darlan had already approved option c, which fact Gensoul chose to ignore. This just two weeks after France broke its promise to Britain to not seek a separate peace with Germany.
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  8. USS Princeton and Thomas Walker Gilmer have entered the chat.
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  9.  Raging S  a zig zag actually helps prevent a submarine from getting into position to launch torpedoes. The legs of the zig zag are 20-30 minutes in length, and a submerged submarine can only manage 5-6 knots or so, so a submerged submarine can't get into position for a torpedo launch. Hashimoto (I-58's captain) was very lucky and did not need to maneuver to get a good launch position. He also testified that from his position, it would not have mattered if Indianapolis had been zig zagging, because he was right along the ship's base course. Furthermore, Indianapolis's orders were to zig zag at the captain's discretion, weather permitting", so it is not so straightforward a matter as failing to obey standing orders.
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  10. Yes, that's one of my favorite anecdotes about him.
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  11.  @slome815  my local mad scientists are more focused on solid fuel rocket motors.
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  12. No, just the Indiana-class battleship.
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  13. Drach estimated a total additional aircrew requirement of 600-800 additional aircrew. For comparison, there were some 765 aircrew who participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
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  14.  @KPen3750  I think you're begging the question of Iowa being significantly outclassed by Yamato. First, the Iowa can make 33 knots while Yamato can only manage about 27, so Iowa will have a firm grip on the range the fight is conducted at. Iowa also has great radar and fire control, while Yamato has mediocre radar late in her career; Iowa actually straddled Nowaki at over 35,000 yards at Truk in February 1944, while Yamato's shooting at slow escort carriers in October was ... unimpressive. So the Iowa can hang out at long-ish range and still hit Yamato despite maneuvering to "chase salvos" from Yamato, while Yamato is going to have to get lucky to hit Iowa. Iowa doesn't have to close to try to penetrate the main belt until she's comfortable doing so, much like KGV and Rodney closed on Bismark once her fire was no longer much of a threat. Iowa Carrie's a 1.5" decapping plate, and an uncapped shell loses about a third of its penetrating power, so the 6" main deck should keep those shells out at these long ranges. Even if Yamato gets lucky and scores hits, it has to get lucky again to slow Iowa enough to close the range to where it can reasonably expect hits. Overall, I think it's a much more even fight than your question assumes.
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  15. Remember that the US Navy on Oahu has it's own long-range recon aircraft (total of 68 PBYs in two patrol wings). How about a surprise test of the range and extent of recon capability, specifically to include sectors to the north of the islands? As noted by other posters, the Japanese are counting on surprise so there's a good chance they simply bail if they're spotted. Even if they don't, they have been spotted and the defenses can be alert for an attack.
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  16. I have to suspect some kind of typo or error with the US 8"/55 gun, because navweaps openly says it was unusually heavy for reasons that are not apparent. Later marks of the same gun, used on later ships in the same classes such as Tuscaloosa, are listed as having a weight of 17 and a fraction tons just like the competing foreign guns. The source is absolutely clear that the data for the earlier marks says they're heavier, but there has to be a reason for it to be heavier and "no apparent reason" is not a credible reason.
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  17.  @miamijules2149  Shattered Sword explained that the Japanese were convinced that they'd have to lure out the American carriers and showing up with overwhelming force would be counterproductive. Note that Japanese carrier doctrine kept the escorts, except for a plane guard destroyer, several miles from the carriers they were escorting rather than the 800-1,000 yards or so (maybe half a nautical mile) of American doctrine. At that range, the escorts provide extra eyes for spotting but dont really contribute to the carrier's AA defense.
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  18.  @Wallyworld30  biggest buns? Heh. But yes, it is funny to listen to the Chieftain about developmental tanks in WW2 "and then Army Ground Forces got hold of one for testing and said, 'It sucks, we can't fight in this thing.'"
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  19. The 21" Mark II torpedo used by RN capital ships at this time had a range of about 10,000 yards at the slow speed setting for two capital ship squadrons firing guns at 15,000 yards and greater, torpedo launches would be a waste of munitions. Edit: and then I reached that point in the video and found the described hit was after the turn back to the north, invalidating my last sentence because the Germans were now closing some of the distance at launch, closing into the torpedoes maximum range.
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  20.  @antonymitchell3385  maybe he'll just give up and call it "the Austro-Hingarian battleship Saint Stephen".
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  21.  @genericpersonx333  that's consistent with what I was seeing. Especially with the fact that Australia took some kamikaze damage during the winter of 1944-45 and reached Cockatoo Island for repairs in January 1945, but headed to the UK for refit in May of that year.
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  22. In Boise's case at Cape Esperance, a third option was introduced with the shell blowing open the hull enough to flood the forward magazines and prevent her loss.
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  23. This ignores the same option that Gensoul ignored, the ability to remove the threat by relocating to French colonies in the Americas.
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  24. Yes, if you're flying in to San Diego the Midway is just a few miles south of the airport.
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  25. My attitude toward the closest range hit is similar to the stereotypical Hydran bumper sticker in Star Fleet Battles: in very tiny print "If you can read this you have made a grave tactical error." Similarly, if your battleship guns, which can reasonably score hits at 15-20,000 yards are being fired at zero elevation (or less) to contend for the shortest range hit, then you may have also made a grave tactical error (looking at you, Hiei and Abe).
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  26. As far as aircraft carrier standard displacement goes, there is also the fact that it doesn't make a huge difference overall. The Grumman Avenger had an empty weight of five tons of so, so even 80 of them would total about 400 tons, only about 1.5% of the displacement limit.
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  27.  @richardcupp454  primarily because Bode of Chicago shot himself before they could convene a court, the day after the first interview.
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  28. One of those famous early U-boats was U-9, which was a "paraffin" (kerosene?) powered boat and sank Cressy, Aboukir, and Hogue on September 22, 1914.
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  29. Could also have been interesting if she'd run into the USS Oregon around Cuba.
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  30. 3a) Exercise command of the sea, to your advantage.
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  31. The specification for the two different marks of 16"/50 are very similar, with the big difference being the lighter weight of the more modern gun, just like with the various marks of 16"/45s. The big differences in performance over that time come from improved shells, with shells growing longer (and therefore heavier) and more streamlined while also being made of improved and more durable materials (better metallurgy).
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  32.  @Raptorrat  relieved it's not anything from WW1. Both the British and French used picric acid as their explosive filler. That stuff has a nasty tendency to degrade and become incredibly unstable.
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  33. Does it say I'm cosmopolitan or pervy that I get that reference, from eight time zones away in California?
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  34. There are really only two organizations that tried to make full-sized cruisers with masses of 6" guns doing the work of 8" guns, the RN and USN. The Mogamis were converted to 8" guns, and the Italian CLs were mostly smaller ships like the Arethusas. Those two organizations used substantially different guns, which contributes to the difference in experience. The RN used the 6"/50 Mark XXIII, a reliable but somewhat obsolescent(despite being designed in 1930) weapon that was hand-rammed and separately loaded with bagged propellant charges. These features slowed the rate of fire somewhat, so a well-trained crew engaging surface targets at short range (minimizing time changing elevation) might manage eight rounds per minute. The USN used the 6"/47 Mark 16 designed in 1932, which took greater advantage of automation and mechanical assistance. The propellant charge was in a metal case allowing simultaneous ramming and a sliding breech block. These guns could get up to ten rounds per minute and maintain it longer because of the mechanical assistance helping prevent crew fatigue. They could also maintain the high rate of fire at longer ranges (between 16 and 20,000 yards) because the guns could be loaded at up to 20 degrees elevation, as opposed to the Mark XXIII which loaded at 5 degrees because of the hand ramming and would have to start lowering the guns to load and elevate them to fire starting at around 9-10,000 yards.
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  35.  @giauscaesar8047  would that he had explicitly and affirmatively detached 5th BS. As far as I've seen, it was more a matter of losing track of 5th BS and leaving Evans-Thomas to rely on intuituon for instructions.
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  36.  @crisdekker8223  if I understand your comment correctly, you're confusing the way a ship turns with the way a motorcycle turns. On a motorcycle, the rider leans into the turn to make the turn sharper than it would be just from the steering change. On a ship, the rudder swings over and the ship tries to continue travelling in the same direction it was going. This produces a "heel" in which the ship tilts toward the outside of the turn. A turn to port would conceal, not expose, the starboard hull while exposing more of the deck.
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  37.  @gregorywright4918  yeah, I've been flabbergasted at the notion of 155 mm rounds costing $800,000-1,000,000 when we could just pay $50/round (or whatever) for a NATO standard shell and screw a $10,000 precision guidance fuse into the nose.
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  38. By the mid-50s, the M-48 tank had a similar "iron idiot" ballistic computer that incorporated mechanical linkages to the "ears" of the coincidence rangefinder on the sides of the turret.
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  39. He has enough fun saying Schleswig-Holstein.
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  40. Interestingly, the Unauthorized History of the Pacific War Podcast covered this teo months ago in Episode 223. Small world.
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  41. I'm hard of hearing so I have captions on by default. For giggles, nothing beats the caption of some Sabaton songs, Attack of the Dead Men or Bismarck, saying "Epic solo". I mean, they are, but the honesty in the captioning is refreshing.
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  42. Hipper class cruiser actually displaces slightly more than a Baltimore class cruiser, and I don't think anyone has any real question about how large an advantage the Baltimore class would have held in a one-on-one fight.
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  43.  @lomis99  the age of sail frigate was a ship too small for the line of battle but with good firepower and long range for commerce raiding and protection. In the age of steam and steel, this became the "cruiser" type (in all their varieties). The word "frigate" was resurrected in WW2 as a dedicated convoy escort (a destroyer escort in US service) while being smaller and less expensive than fleet destroyers.
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  44. "Its a loan, you still have to pay it back." There are quite a few countries (Argentina comes to mind) that would disagree with you on that.
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  45. A correction: Spruance has a big hole in his command service in the middle of the war. He commanded cruisers early on, took command at Nidway, and then was promoted to Nimitz's staff (chief of staff and then Deputy). He didnt take command of 5th fleet until August 1943. Halsey was out at Midway in June, convalesced stateside, and then relieved Ghormley in the Southwest Pacific area in October 1942, so he better matches the description of having four continuous years of combat commands.
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  46. Somerville's force had two scout planes that spotted the Japanese carriers. It sounds like the CAP wasn't aloft or in position to intercept, but a rapid fighter launch shot one down and drove the other off. Unfortunately, the survivor took damage to the radio (IIRC) so Somerville never received a sighting report. As I recall there have been drydock questions about Operation C that have covered this.
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  47. From navweaps: Unlike most other navies before World War II, the Japanese spent much time improving their warhead pistols by conducting live-fire exercises. This led to a very reliable inertia pistol, although the USN reported that it was sensitive to disturbances in the water, such as when it passed through a ship's wake. This may have been caused by the torpedomen resetting the pistol contact force to a much lower level. See Type 93 torpedo. Magnetic pistols were developed and accepted into service in July 1944, but the results, if any, are unknown.
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  48.  @Metal_Auditor  mostly because the Marines wanted them. If they hadn't been in mothballs and available, no one would have built anything like them in the 80s to provide gunfire support. The two North Carolinas and four South Dakotas were more than adequate to meet America's need for modern battleships for WW2 (although I know BKJeong will continue to disagree that there was any need).
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  49. I believe Cape Matapan was around 3,500 yards. The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (11/13/42) saw even closer ranges, and supposedly lots of 14" bombardment munition hits, but that action was so confusing it's impossible to say just how close some of those 14" hits were from.
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  50. There is one big conceptual difference, though. A warrant officer only has a warrant to carry out their duties, while a Lieutenant or Sub-Lieutenant is a commissioned officer with a commission from the government. This can be a huge conceptual difference, and a commissioned officer has the potential to advance to the highest ranks, while a warrant officer has a hard cap on his ability to advance. In the US there are, as I recall, four grades of warrant officer, with pay the same as the first four grades of commissioned officer, but then commissioned officers have about five additional grades above that.
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