Comments by "josh thomas-moore" (@joshthomas-moore2656) on "The Drydock - Episode 107" video.

  1. BK Jeong i would argue against that whole battleship were totally pointless during the Second World War. The Meditaranian and Atlantic had a good numbers of surface action between capital ships Cape Matapan as an example, and the Scharnhorsts proved what happens if a carrier gets suprised by battleships or battlecruisers. The Pacific is much larger and open by comparison so like all battlefeild terrain is important. Now the issue the Kongo's have is they are in the Pacific which is really a Carrier battleground being so open by comparison to the Med so they have that problem to begin with, then the Japanese appalling application of them which just exacerbated the problems. Now i'm not saying the Kongo's were perfect, far from it, personally i would really have up armoured the poor things and try and turn them into something like the Renown, but they were the only capital ships the Japanese had that could counter American Battleships (As bad an idea as that was) the Fuso's and Ise's were to slow and the Yamato's were far to big and expensive to risk at Guadalcanal (all that armour on the Yamato's would have really been useful on the Kongo's). But they could do a fair amount of damage if they got the chance USS South Dakota and as you said Henderson field as examples. For me if i was going to use them, i'd try and use them as a hit and run force, targeting cruiser forces and landing areas so like the British in the Atlantic force the US to put battleships to guard them and then use the light carriers to hit the US Battleships do damage and then the Kongo's can turn up and finish the job (Which i believe was the plan for them in the Kido Buti) i accept this is not perfect, but its a better use. Also if i was going with my plan i would have dropped the speed from over 30 to 29 knots and up the armour and i'd maybe upped the speed of either the Nagato's or Fuso's to try and get more use out of them. I will accpet i am slightly biased on the Kongo's as they we're orignially British design and i am British but i do genually feel they could have been useful if used smartly and not how they were actually used.
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  2. @Katyusha as i said the plan is not perfect its trying to use them better not win the war, also i was trying to off set the waves of US planes by that by using the light carriers again not perfect but the Kido Buti being gutted at Midway kind limits the number of Japanese carriers avaliable and using the Shokaku's i ruled out as they are the last big carrier units left to the Japanese and their needed for fighting the other carriers.
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  3.  @bkjeong4302  Well i was going off the historical situation they were in with my plan and i was trying eek out more use for them then anything and sinking something is more useful then sitting in a port for me at least. As for the carriers well the Kido Buti was gutted at Midway and the Shokaku's are needed to try and fight and the Essex's (Even if it is doomed). So you can't really raid with carriers if the carriers are either not there or tasked for other duties and i would argue if you got them there might as well try and get something out of them and using them to raid landing ships is better then charging into other battleships which they don't have the armour to fight.
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  4. @Katyusha which just goes back to the point that Japan didn't have the resources to fight the war they were in.
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  5.  @bkjeong4302  I think you miss understood i was not planing to try pull multiple Glorious incidents i was more going for a Scharnhorst raiding approch with my plan. As i said with the plan its not perfect and honestly i was just trying eek a tiny bit more out of them then what really happend to them while still keeping them Battlecruisers. If i had the chance i would have before the war done a conversion on them like Kaga and Akagi which would have been intresting to see ten carriers turning up for Pearl Harbour they wouldn't be the best carriers but they might have done better then what actually happened to them.
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  6. @Katyusha Well if i'm honest i've heard people suggest making them carrier conversions like Kaga or Akagi i wounder how that would have gone.
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  7.  @bkjeong4302  I believe that was an issue the Japanese had lost 4 of their large carriers and those that were left were tied down trying to hold down the US carriers and the Destroyers were busy escorting the carriers or were busy running the Tokyo express for Guadicanal. Yes they had cruisers and they did very well but they didn't have enough so in that case using the Kongo's makes sense they have the speed to keep up with the cruisers.
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  8. @John Doe It could be the picture is of the Hiei which for treaty reasons had one of its turrets and armour removed for a period of time
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