Comments by "Zetectic" (@zetectic7968) on "Historigraph" channel.

@jakobming4831 It is indeed. The metal is extra valuable as it is pre-atomic bombs
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Interesting but so much left out as it is a short video. Goose Green was a sideshow, a political decision to get headlines in newspapers. The yomping across the island proved that the army socks increased the chances of trench foot & the boots were not fit for purpose. In part due to the long voyage many soldiers were not fit for the march with heavy packs as the helicopters were lost. There really needs a follow up video to mention the cost of building a new airport & the fact that the islands have not long had the minefields cleared. The Falklands war was a costly mistake made under Thatcher who poor decisions & diplomacy lead to the invasion.
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Blame inter-service rivalry! they hated working with one-another. The RN brought a troop convoy to Singapore. The army knew quickly it was a lost cause. RN response "We were told to bring you here, nothing about taking you home again" So the ships sailed home empty & 60k troops were left to become Japanese prisoners of war, of which many didn't survive.
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It was acts of gross folly to put all the Chinooks on the Atlantic Conveyor & then use the ship as a decoy for the carrier. The Rapier units arrived in poor condition as some had been deck cargo & were damaged by the seawater spray. Others took up to 3 days to be configured for accurate fire as the electronics hadn't handle the journey well. Sea dart proved to be largely ineffective in part due to its age, compared to sea wolf which was in short supply. The aluminium construction of the ships meant they were very susceptible to fire and total loss.
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@jakobming4831 I wasn't justifying their actions mearly giving a reason. Sadly I don't think it is true the metal goes to general scrap. It is the corrupt and/or ineffective governments allowing it
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It was French hubris after the humiliation of WW2 they thought they could retain their colonies & prestige. To choose a place in a valley surround by hills & severely underestimate your enemy:foolhardy I heard a radio documentary about this many years ago. French soldiers were dropping dead because the stress & lack of sleep depleted their endocrine system.
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This needs a part 2 because it is not the whole story. Some years back a "swimming" Sherman that sank off the beach was recovered & is now a memorial at Torcross. What was worst was the US soldiers that landed on Slapton Sands were met by US soldiers acting as German defenders. These were using live ammunition & despite orders to fire over the heads of the "invaders" many hundreds were killed or wounded by their compatriots. This also was covered up for many decades
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Very good video. Jervis Bay never stood a chance but it did buy time for the convoy. The RN was still reluctant to provide convoy escorts. There is a film "San Demetrio London" (black & white) about the story of the ship's lucky escape. You can watch it on BFI Player
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A fairly good sprint through the early years of the Battle of the Atlantic but it meant there were serious omissions: 1. failed to mention how few U-boats were causing the large losses in the 1st year. 2. Outright hostility by RN to convoy system that had worked so well in WW1 as they wanted another Jutland or Trafalgar. Convoy protection was seen as a waste of resources. ( this error would be repeated when "Bomber" Harris blocked more aircraft from being allocated to Coastal Command) 3. No mention of the painful birth, rapid expansion & valuable contribution of the RCN (Royal Canadian Navy). 4. The 2nd "Happy Time"being the result of the refusal to implement the convoy system and a blackout on the East coast by the US ( see point 2) & the fact that Admiral King hated the English thus didn't want to help as he saw his priority as the Pacific. I know a lot of effort goes in to the videos & appreciate your time and effort however if too brief it can result in a less accurate story.
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@christianweibrecht6555 In short, inter-service rivalry. The RAF thought they could win the war on their own. Bomber Command stopped Coastal Command getting the aircraft it needed. The Navy hated convoy duty as they still thought there would be another Jutland & had to be forced to do it. The Army hated having to train all the recruits & due to the interwar years & pacificism were understrength & hadn't developed on many levels & still though the RAF was there for reconnaissance. During the 1920's & 30's the military promoted on seniority rather than ability, so you had a lot in the high ranks that were out-of-touch, incompetent, or just administrators who never thought they would have to go to war.
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There is no R in Scapa Flow!
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Thanks for this informative video. Given what we know about illegal logging & forest destruction for Palm Oil plantations in Indonesia it is not surprising that the government is unwilling more than unable to stop the illegal salvage. Corruption plays a big part no doubt. The quality and quantity of steel and other metals = easy money, compared to scrap from cars and other industrial sources. The World wants cheap goods from China and they are not picky how or where the get the raw materials from. There is a sad inevitability to this story(stories), after all we know about grave robbing from the time of the Pharaohs.
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I remember this like it was 40 years ago 😀 The Falklands War was ultimately successful but not without setbacks and blunders and the vast expense of upgrading Stanley airport. Also worth noting that is was only in recent years that they cleared the minefields.
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This disaster brought about by flawed French foreign policy that believed it could revive its empire & regain some status after the collapse of the French army in 1939-40. Without the rabid anti-communist support of the USA they would have lost sooner. 30 years of pointless war that achieved nothing except misery, death & destruction. The ultimate irony (sick joke?) is that now, in recent years, the US has used VietNam as a manufacture of cheap clothing.
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Classic RN mistake to put a man in command of an aircraft carrier who had a complete lack of understanding of naval air power & how to use it. His folly an desire to courts-martial a subordinate sealed the fate of far too many men. Ultimately the Norway campaign was another of Churchill's foolish adventures.
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@fhlostonparaphrase Yes it was. Read the history & look at it positioning closer to Argentina that any of the carriers. Its size gave a similar radar signature to the carriers. If it was being protected then it would have been to the East side of the task force.
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Excellent. Proves that radar made all the difference & closing with the enemy without being spotted.
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@DidMyGrandfatherMakeThis Not in the case of Scapa Flow the defences had been strengthen with block ships and the Churchill causeway. It was a daring attack by Prien and the lack of vigilance on Royal Oak as she was in harbour
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Martin Middlebrook wrote a very good book about this. Once again Churchill made the wrong military decision. Prince of Wales had been built for the North Atlantic & didn't have enough ventilation for tropical service. The Brewster Buffalo fighter were obsolete. The aircraft carrier that was supossed to be with them had run aground & needed repairs. The Far East defenses had been hollowed out during the 1930's. Money had been spent on Singapore without thought of ships to be stationed there. Both ships had inadequate AA & the RN still hadn't grasped how vulnerable their ships were to air attack. Their crews were killed by hubris of their leaders much as the 70,000 Army members who surrendered at Singapore.
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@GoSlash27 Wrong! There was the cost of the Task Force & all the supplies, the loss of warships & the Atlantic Conveyor, the hire of the other vessels including Canberra. Then the cost of building the new airport at Stanley & maintaining it and the increased garrison on the island. The subsequent sale of fishing licensing at discount prices (due to ignorance) & the inability to patrol the waters to enforce the fishing licenses (lost revenue). As mentioned it was a failure of diplomatic policy by Thatcher as she was warned that withdrawing the ice patrol ship Endurance from the S. Atlantic would send a signal to Argentina that we were no longer interested in the region plus the Thatcher government was in secret negotiations with Argentina to give them the islands if a deal was struck. So wrong! as you are ignorant of the circumstances of the war.
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@GoSlash27 Then you English comprehension is severely lacking & you can't recognise facts when presented to you. Opinions & beliefs about the war & Thatcher don't add any weight to your opinion. I can only conclude you are a troll or a fool..
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@Ronald98 Gen. Freyberg, worse than useless & never dismissed despite many mistakes throughout the war.
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Public Records Office @ Kew. Would help if you have his service number or the regiment he served in.
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@michaelhearn3052 The British government had been in talks with the Argentine about returning the islands to them & gave the green light by withdrawing the ice patrol ship Endurance from the South Atlantic. The Thatcher government was told this was a bad idea but they did it to save money, so the OP is correct.
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Lost your bet! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Beith
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Interesting. I think there was a Channel 4 documentary on this: said Capt. didn't understand Naval aviation use or benefits hence no reconnaissance. The RN had to learn painful lessons with the loss of many lives because of hubris, the obsession with the capital ship as the be all and end all of naval warfare. The Germans had a plan to up-gun both pocket-battleships to 15" but the war started 2 years to early. Like so many British operations the Norway campaign was poorly conceived and executed on the basis that action was better than delay. another Fiasco not mentioned in the comments is "The Dieppe Raid" a reconnaissance in force that was a disaster. A minor point not peculiar to you but why use US dates format when some of the video clearly indicates standard date format and you are based in UK?
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Very good animation! The raid coming so late in the war didn't have a great effect on the Flanders Flotilla whose U-Boats had a big impact on shipping losses in the Channel.
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Very interesting & highlights the lack of co-ordination. Bristish submarines,mostly just observing. Btw Tyrwhitt has a silent W.
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1 Admiral Phillips didn't believe there was a Japanese air threat. 2 the Brewster Buffalo fighter were obsolete & would most likely have been shot down anyway by the Japanese. They were useless against Japanese Army.
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@elizabethmiller7918 and you proof is? see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_F2A_Buffalo quote In December 1941, Buffalos operated by both British Commonwealth (B-339E) and Dutch (B-339C/D) air forces in South East Asia suffered severe losses in combat against the Japanese Navy's Mitsubishi A6M Zero and the Japanese Army's Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar". Appraisal by Royal Air Force acceptance personnel criticized it on numerous points including inadequate armament and lack of pilot armor, poor high-altitude performance, engine overheating, maintenance issues, and cockpit controls, while it was praised for its handling, roomy cockpit, and visibility.[11] With a top speed of about 323 mph (520 km/h) at 21,000 ft (6,400 m), but with fuel starvation issues over 15,000 ft (4,600 m), it was considered unfit for duty in western Europe.
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@elizabethmiller7918 I know that & I also know that the bombers that attacked PoW & Repulse had fighter escorts i.e. Zeros. So my point still stands that the Buffalos would have made no difference to Force Z as the plan was flawed from the start. You seem to think war is like a computer game - it is not. If you read that wiki you would see that the British pilots lacked training & experience & they would have been fighting very experience Japanese pilots with around 4 years of active combat. It is widely acknowledged that the Japanese had the best pilots at the start of the war. Anyway, if you are so convinced you are right I will not waste anymore time & go back to my cognitive dissonance because my years of study of military history have been wasted.
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@freelanceart1019 News to me. Hurricanes maybe. What is your source?
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@graytoby1 The task Force was put together very quickly & there were issues having the equipment & supplies were they were needed/with the right people.
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@Solidboat123 You are splitting hairs. Sea Dart could not do the job expected of it in the Falklands & it was going to be replaced with the more effective sea-wolf.
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@historigraph Isn't a case or Death or Dishonour? The latter wasn't an option as he went down with his ship.
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Excellent video & graphics. It compliments the one done by Plainly Difficult. A true nightmare scenario compounded by unauthorised changes to safety procedure plus using bombs that should never have been used due to age & deterioration ( another safety failure).
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Major design flaw that the satellite communications block the air defence radar. Plus a failure of Captain Salt not to appreciate the "chink in his armour" It also highlighted that the Sea Dart system was very poor in comparison to Sea Wolf
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And then your luck runs out...... You have be be cracked to be a submariner in the first place, at least in an aeroplane you might get a chance to use your parachute..
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