Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "HMS Exeter - Guide 247" video.

  1. No. That was the tune Walker's 2nd Support Group usually played when leaving Liverpool.
    2
  2. Read about HMS Achates and convoy JW51B. Still laying smoke to protect her convoy as she sank.
    2
  3.  @ottovonbismarck2443  The French certainly used coloured smoke to distinguish salvoes from Strasbourg & Dunkerque. The British didn't.
    2
  4. He commanded a Torpedo Boat Flotilla between 1927 & 1930. After that, he was shore based until 1936, when he was appointed to a Staff position aboard Graf Spee. On 1 January, 1937 he was promoted to captain, followed by command of Graf Spee from October, 1938.
    1
  5. The term 'Heavy Cruiser' relates to gun calibre, not displacement.
    1
  6. Langsdorff scuttled because his fuel purification plant had been destroyed, and he only had enough usable fuel for around 24 hours at sea. Additionally, he had used around two thirds of his ammunition in the first action.
    1
  7. Lutjens did at least have his reasons. Firstly, Bismarck had been damaged and her speed had been reduced to a level where she might have been unable to catch PoW. Secondly, he feared that other British capital ships might have been approaching, and he could have ended up in a similar position to Hipper at Jutland where, as Hipper pursued Beatty's battlecruisers, he ran into the Queen Elizabeths of the 5th Battle Squadron.
    1
  8. Yes. The terms related to gun calibre, not displacement. Exeter was a heavy cruiser displacing 8390 tons standard. Belfast was a light cruiser displacing 11550 tons.
    1
  9.  @kennethgarland4712  He was C-in-C Mediterranean Fleet between April, 1942 and February, 1943. In Feb. 1943 the Mediterranean Fleet was split, and he became C-in-C Levant. From late 1942, however, the main British commander in the Mediterranean was Andrew Cunningham, who was Naval Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force from 'Torch' onwards, before being re-titled C-in-C Mediterranean Fleet again in Feb. 1943. Cunningham had been C-in-C Mediterranean Fleet prior to Harwood. Unfortunately, a number of Harwood's judgements during his period of command have been questioned. Perhaps he suffered badly by comparison with his great predecessor/successor.
    1
  10.  @kennethgarland4712  Sturdee, before the First World War, became involved in a feud between Fisher and another Admiral, Sir Charles Beresford. Opposition to Fisher among a number of senior officers was referred to as the 'Syndicate of Discontent' by Fisher. When Sturdee became Beresford's Chief of Staff in the Mediterranean & later the Channel Fleet, Fisher asked him to send confidential reports about him. In other words, to spy on him. Sturdee refused, and Jackie Fisher, as a result, regarded him as an enemy thereafter. There is a book, 'Coronel & The Falklands' by Geoffrey Bennett, published as far back as 1962, which discusses the relationship between Fisher & Sturdee in some detail. Sturdee had been Fisher's Chief of War Staff from the outbreak of WW1, and probably bore some responsibility for the defeat at Coronel. Fisher, however, was eager to get rid of Sturdee, and appointed him to command of the Battlecruiser squadron which was sent to seek out Von Spee's ships. Ironically, it was probably the making of him!
    1