Comments by "Geordiedog" (@geordiedog1749) on "How the SS Ohio Saved Malta" video.

  1. Minor mention in the Malta Story. I think if the crew had been American we’d have had a film (or three). I actually did a. Treatment for a film about it. Problem was a/ what to leave out and b/ what to do with it when I finished it! Don’t suppose you know any film producers, do you?
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  2. There was very little actual danger from the shore batteries. The main problem came when escorts started dropping random depth charges to ward off subs. The vibrations stated to cause OH10s plating to come apart.
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  3. I did my MA on WS21 and it’s pretty much always stated that it’s an American ship with a British crew. You’ll get a spikey response from any Brits with remarks like this as we”ve endured decades of misinformation about WWII from US sources. From ‘Objective Burma’ to ‘Masters of the Air’ it’s been the USA all the way. I’m sure you’re not like that but from our point of view it’s pretty bloody galling.
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  4. Lost more merchant mariners than RN.
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  5. And bendy steam pipes! Don’t forget the bendy steam pipes.
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  6. Crete kind of saved Malta. Operation Herkules was never given much impetus following the massive losses the falljaeger took in Crete. Oberkommando just didn’t fancy it and thought they’d let the RA and Luftwaffe do the job instead.
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  7. Bloody awful book! Don’t read it. Full of errors! Read C S Smiths book on it instead if you want a proper history book. I cannot stand Hastings. He’s an awful historian and his pedestal book proves it.
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  8. Hastings book is cobblers. Read Smith instead. Roger Hill, Ledburys captain had been on PQ17 and was never going to ‘abandon the merchant navy again”. His book Destroyer Captain is a good one. His crew called him ‘Phyllis’ owing to his hissy fits. Understandably really as he’d been on the go since the Abyssinian crisis.
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  9. Brisbane Star could have a film all to herself. Her story is amazing but gets (understandably) overshadowed by OH10.
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  10. It was armed and reinforced in Glasgow. Lessons learned by the fate of her sister ship.
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  11. Awful book. Gets so much plain wrong. There’s a great book by Smith on Pedestal. Much better source.
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  12. Pom-Poms. The Ledbury Pom Pom crew were ‘a particularly bloodthirsty lot’ (Roger Hill, Destroyer Captain). They wore football shirts and flat caps and were mental!
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  13. I did my MA on Pedestal. So, no pressure with this one:)
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  14. Oh Aytch Ten.
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  15. Amazing story. Her captain had to get the French coast guard officers drunk to avoid being interned.
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  16. They dropped the wrong type of bomb also. They used improvised oil bombs hoping to set the ship on fire. It didn’t work. Also, the stukas were often RA planes and not always Luftwaffe.
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  17. Seconded. (And Harpoon was a success - don’t let anyone tell you otherwise).
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