Comments by "David Elliott" (@davidelliott5843) on "War Stories" channel.

Naval Historian Drachinifel has a very cogent theory as to how Hood was destroyed. He says the range was too short for plunging shells. His theory is the fateful shell hit below her belt armour where the wake dipped exposing her hull below the waterline.
32
Dowding was right about “goodwill gestures” to the French especially as France had its own large airforce. But RAF learned a lot keeping the Luftwaffe away from Dunkirk.
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Britain lost a huge amount of equipment at Dunkirk. But it forced them to modernise. For example - 57mm Six Pounder anti tank gun was one of the new weapons that showed its worth in North Africa. It did excellent service throughout the war.
7
I worked with a man who flew FOUR tours of duty as flight engineer on Halifax bombers. He was a great guy but unsurprisingly not a bit strange at times. Sadly, I was too young to appreciate him.
5
Veterans signed secrecy contracts. Few know what remains secret and what could cause serious trouble, so they keep it all quiet. Hopefully some will have made voice recordings or even written memoirs.
5
P47 Thunderbolt Was capable of escorting bombers for much longer distances but Airforce generals refused to ship the necessary drop tanks from USA. When the Mustangs arrived complete with drop tanks, the supply of tanks also ramped up for P47s. Funny that.
4
Hurricane was a well developed design using a steel tube frame with fabric plywood and aluminium covering. It could get home with considerable damage yet be repaired and back flying the next day. Spitfire was faster (etc etc), but it’s stressed skin construction was more vulnerable to damage and if they did get home, repairs were more difficult.
3
The Russian submarine that got tangled in fishing nets might have been sabotaged. More likely it was Soviet incompetence. In Ukraine today, Russian officers never admit to mistakes of any sort. Everything is always going well. Soviets were no different.
2
Putting heavy lift Lancaster aside, Mosquito would have been a more effective area bomber than B17 and Halifax bombers. The B17 had a crew of about 11 to man it’s 50 cal guns. The weight of defensive equipment cut the long range bomb load to 4000 pounds or 6000 at shorter range. Mosquito could carry a single 4000 pound “cookie” to Berlin but less weight in smaller bombs. However TWO Mosquito could carry more weight than ONE B17 using the same number of engines and 1/3 of the crew. Not making proper use of the type was a huge error by Hap Arnold and Harris.
2
The RN would have obliterated any Sealion invasion fleet. Not to mention the RAF.
2
Damaged bombers could not turn back, because they would be colliding with aircraft following behind.
1
UK had the ships to equal Bismarck and large numbers of smaller ships that would nip and tuck her to death. The fact that a few STOL biplanes could cripple such a ship was testament to the faulty thinking of German navy buyers.
1
UK’s trade routes were dented but Unitas never came close to stopping the trans Atlantic convoys. Bismarck was a figurehead that had to be demolished.
1
Reagan’s strategy was correct. There was no working anti ballistic missile system. But he did have enough to scare Gorbachev with technology claims. Soviet hubris finished the USSR as a geopolitical power. The real mistakes came in the 1990s when Russia was left to its own devices and corruption, endemic in communist regimes, became the normal way of life. Putin trying to turn back the Soviet clock should be no surprise. But nobody wanted to know.
1
In recent years BBC has been hijacked by leftist activists. They do everything they can to besmirch British history especially the empire days. Good deeds are ignored, while incompetence and actual malice are exaggerated. Then there’s the “climate catastrophe” which simply doesn’t exist. They ignore the real evidence and denounce anyone not following their line as wanting to boil the grand children.
1