Comments by "" (@craigkdillon) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. The biggest impact of a navy is to control the sea -- pure and simple. Battles, decisive or otherwise, are not very important, IMO. Example --- WW1. Germany lost because of the long term naval blockade. Jutland helped. but even if England LOST Jutland, the Allis still would have blockaded Germany. Example --- France lost Canada because it could not get the items needed to give to their Indian allies to keep them fighting Example --- US beat Japan because control of the seas gave us the ability to take islands anywhere we wanted. Battles are tactical achievements, and don't decide wars. Rome lost at Cannae, but still won the war. In First Punic War, Rome lost big "decisive" sea battles, but still won. Mahan influenced thinking it seems because people were not thinking strategically.
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  2.  @bagel4944  I doubt Spain made mahogany ships. Nations use woods from their forests to build ships, not import wood from the Amazon forest. Spain has oak and maple in their northern forests. So, wouldn't her ships be made from that wood?
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  3.  CipiRipi00  I was being flippant. The Romans in the First Punic War made boarding the primary way to win sea battles. IMO, it was the English who made long range gunnery the next main weapon. Lepanto was interesting. I think it was close range gunnery that decided that battle. As I recall, Venice had four large galleasses, which outgunned the rest. Still, I think a lot of boarding and hand-to-hand fighting still occurred. I was trying to point out how odd it is for today's ships to use ramming.
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  4.  CipiRipi00  I am impressed. I read history, but, it seems you read the footnotes, too. Our discussion started with a Chinese warship ramming an American. Ironic that in this age of hypersonic anti-ship missiles, that China reverts to ramming. BTW, your detailed account of Lepanto was interesting. I had read a couple of accounts, and did not get the immobility of the galleasses. And, yes ramming was the epitome of naval warfare, until the English changed it with long range naval artillery. Once the ships were wood, and men of steel. Now the ships are of steel, and men of soft wood.
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  5. Isn't calling a ship "Vesuvius" tempting the Gods, when the purpose of the ship is to test artillery technology??? I mean, Vesuvius is a mountain that blew up. Was the ship meant to blow up?? Is that why that name was chosen?? Or, was it some person's idea of a joke???
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  6. Quantity has a quality all its own. Therefore, the Essex's were the best carriers.
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  7. What? No nuclear missile silos?? You cannot say Jersey has modern up to date defenses if it doesn't have your Grade A nuclear missiles.
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  8.  @colbeausabre8842  So, you are saying that they might have a secret nuclear missile?? Ooh, those channel islanders sure are sneaky.
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  9. could they have used the bouncing bomb used on the German dams?? Did it exist by 1942?
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  10. I feel oddly disappointed that the ship did not blow up, as it names suggests. But, lived to the ripe old age of getting scrapped.
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  11. That is like saying, "I cannot tolerate intolerant people."
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  12.  @Wild_Danimal  LOL Good one.
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  13. Maybe off topic a bit, but what I would like to know is how the DDG 1000 Zumwalt is classified as a destroyer?? It looks like its primary targets would be other surface ships, which should make it a battleship of some kind. I presume it does have anti-submarine capabilities, and maybe this justifies it as a destroyer. However, the Zumwalt appears to me that it would be the primary fighting vessel of a fleet, other than the CVN carriers. Therefore, a classification as a battleship or cruiser type makes more sense to me. So, why is it called a destroyer??
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  14. I wonder if there is a problem with the word "splinter". Most people's experience with splinters are these little wooden pieces that you get in your hands or fingers. They are small, and never life threatening. The splinters caused by a cannonball are large chunks of sharp shards of wood, possibly feet in length. They are not tiny. They are as big as knives, and just as sharp. They can shred a person's body. They can stab a person in many ways. I have heard that it is the splinters that caused most of the deaths and injuries during battles in the age of sail. I don't know, but it seems right to me.
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