Comments by "Vikki McDonough" (@vikkimcdonough6153) on "French Interwar Cruisers - The Best of Ships, The Worst of Ships" video.
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1. Why did the German hexagonal dreadnoughts slow down so badly in turns? Given that the increase in the frontal area that a ship presents to the oncoming waterflow at a given sideslip angle is relatively lower for a fat, low-aspect-ratio ship like a Nassau than it is for a ship with a higher aspect ratio, one would've thought that the early German dreads would've been less affected by turn-induced increases in drag than most other dreadnoughts. Did their low aspect ratio allow them to yaw quickly enough to cause them, when turning, to reach a sideslip angle so much higher than that of a finer-lined ship as to outweigh the lesser increase in frontal area for a given sideslip angle?
2. Could one have trained an actual monkey to act as a powder monkey?
3. How much of a numerical disadvantage could the USN have been at Midway and still been willing to give battle? Historically, they were willing to give battle outnumbered four CVs to two (although they ultimately didn't have to), and may've been willing to give battle outnumbered five CVs to two, but that gap could've widened even further with some altered decision-making on the part of the Kido Butai; if the IJN'd kept their forces together whenever they possibly could, rather than splitting their forces again and again and giving the Americans the opportunity to defeat them in detail, then by the time of the Midway operation the numerical disparity could've been as large as seven CVs and three or four CVLs on the Japanese side (Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, Zuikaku, Jun'yō, Hōshō, Ryūjō, Zuihō, and possibly Shōhō), backed up by a powerful surface force including up to eleven battleships and battlecruisers, against just two or three CVs on the American side (Enterprise, Hornet, and hopefully Saratoga if it can get there in time) backed up by no escort meaner than a heavy cruiser (and the cruiser and destroyer force they did have still being outnumbered 2-to-2.5-to-one). Would the U.S. fleet still've accepted battle despite being outnumbered effectively 4.5-to-one in carriers (taking two CVLs as roughly equivalent to one CV) and at a grievous disadvantage in the surface department as well?
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