Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "History Buffs" channel.

  1.  @Buledoyanmotor  Isn't that rather like saying that, in land warfare, one army attacking another shouldn't attack without giving the defending army sufficient time to get ready? Good heavens, sir, it just isn't cricket!
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  2. Actually, in Britain, most of the MPs think that Greater London IS the UK!
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  3. I saw the film right through, but admit that I did laugh out loud at that particular scene. Up until that point, I had watched in increasing wonderment a film which achieved what I had always considered to be an impossibility, which was writing the Royal Navy out of Operation Dynamo. I look forward to the director's impending magnum opus, a remake of the Battle of Midway without aircraft carriers.
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  4.  @suityboi2126  'Key background role!' Hardly that. Just over 600 ships, almost all manned by RN & Merchant Navy crews, lifted some 338,000 men from the beaches and Mole. Had you just arrived from a distant planet and seen the film with no prior knowledge, you would have assumed that the troops were lifted almost entirely by the Little Ships. Indeed, there was an occasional glimpse of a larger ship, usually wallowing helplessly until rescued by a passing Spitfire, but their true importance was totally ignored. Indeed, the final scene, when the Little Ships arrive when all seems lost is quite astonishingly inaccurate. It totally distorts the actual role these ships actually played, and which they began playing from 30 May, which was to ferry troops from the open beaches to the larger vessels offshore, largely because, in this film, there didn't seem to be any larger vessels offshore! Why would you say that the role of the Royal Navy was boring, whilst seeming to assume that the (actually, intermittent & peripheral) role of the Spitfires was much more exciting?
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  5.  @suityboi2126  I know it was 'entertainment.' What perplexes me is the pretense that it was 'history.'
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  6. Hood was lost to a 15 inch shell which exploded in her magazine. Two RN destroyers were lost to torpedoes at Dunkirk.
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  7. Hardly a cheap copy. O'Brian's books use period language and, by all accounts, are truer to the period than Forester's.
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  8. He only recorded it after the war. In 1946 or 1947.
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  9. Bromhead didn't say that his father was at the Battle of Waterloo, just at Waterloo. Perhaps he was catching a train in the 1840s?
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  10. The fact that the film was turned into a Spitfirefest rather spoiled it for me. How in hell can you make a film about Dunkirk and more or less ignore the Royal Navy?
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  11. Furthermore, Burriss gave evidence to Cornelius Ryan, but doesn't seem to have remembered his encounter with Carrington until well after that. Hardly surprising really, as the commander of the British tank troop was a Sergeant Robinson. Carrington didn't arrive until later.
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  12.  @mako88sb  They seem to have done with some of the Shermans, but they couldn't manage a Cromwell.
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  13. Easy. Superb and convincing movie. Awful and unconvincing TV series.
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  14. The masts will be replaced. Considerable work in being carried out on Victory as her hull is in poor condition.
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  15. That would have been difficult. There were no Indian fighting troops at Dunkirk. There were four companies of Mule handlers (all Muslims, by the way) of which three companies were evacuated to Britain. The fourth company, serving on the Maginot LIne and detached from the BEF, was captured.
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  16. During DYNAMO Fighter Command lost 87 airmen and over 100 aircraft to enemy action over Dunkirk whilst the Luftwaffe lost 97 aircraft to the RAF, with others damaged but repairable, these included 28 Messerschmitt Me 109s and 13 Me 110s.
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  17. Nelson did at Cape St. Vincent.
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  18. Based upon what?
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  19.  @Constantine909  Which history?
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  20.  @Constantine909  Actually, mon brave, I have a First in Modern History, specialising in the Second World War. I rather suspected that your answer was based on prejudice rather than knowledge, and your unwillingness to present any arguments has rather confirmed this suspision.
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  21.  @Constantine909  I don't normally waste my time on people who use 'lol' in their posts. However, I know a considerable amount about the careers of both, and in particular about Montgomery. You say that he is 'over-rated' but you don't actually seem able to explain why.
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  22. Only two RN destroyers were lost to torpedo attack at Dunkirk, one to a U-Boat & one to an S Boat.
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  23. There weren't many of those, because the British sent their fighters in what were called 'Squadron Patrols' which meant that for long periods there was no RAF fighter cover at all.
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  24. 6th & 7th Australian Divisions were returned to Australia by convoy from Palestine late in January, 1942. 9th Australian remained with 8th Army until January, 1943, the Allies agreeing that until this happened additional US troops would go to Australia. The Darwin raid was on 19 February, 1942.
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  25. Probably because it was recorded by Churchill after the end of the war. Speeches in Parliament in 1940 were not recorded, but generally published in newspapers and, of course, in 'Hansard.'
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  26. It is possible almost to admire someone who can make a movie about Dunkirk and almost fail to mention the Royal & Merchant Navies. What next, a new Midway without aircraft carriers?
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  27.  @Cl0ckcl0ck  Of course it was. Admiral Ramsay was tasked with lifting 40,000 men, and actually lifted 338,000, including over 100,000 men. Belgium surrendered early on 28 May. Montgomery was forced to move his division overnight in order to block a large gap in the allied line left by the surrender. Hardly a betrayal by the British. Mers el Kebir wasn't murder, but a necessary action. The German navy, after Norway, was tiny & battered, but, with the support of the French fleet, an invasion attempt might just have been attempted. Admiral Gensoul was given a series of options in the ultimatum given to him, he simply chose not to pass these on to his political and military superiors. The British government was willing to do whatever was necessary to ensure survival, and acted accordingly. The pity was that Admiral Gensoul was not bright enough to grasp the seriousness of his situation.
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  28. There was an Airborne officer who many years later apparently remembered threatening Lord Carrington with his pistol. Apart from the fact that the Guards tanks which stormed the Nijmegen bridge (there were two bridges, by the way, something the movie chose to forget) were commanded by a Sergeant Robinson, and the second fact that Carrington did not arrive there until somewhat later, the account certainly convinces those who wish to believe it.
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  29. Correct. There should only be two stumps, by the way. I mentioned this to my wife when we saw it in the cinema, and was told to stop grumbling!
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  30. The 1958 version was made to be shown to people who knew what had actually happened. The recent one, which seemed largely unaware of the role of the Royal Navy, was made to be shown to people who had no idea.
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  31. The earliest recorded use of the word 'Yankee' was in 1758, when General James Wolfe used it in reference to soldiers from New England under his command.
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