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

  1. The British actually planned to operate Mosquitos from carriers. The Pacific War ended before detailed plans were developed. Eric Brown was the first to land a twin engine aircraft on a carrier. He brought his Mossie in at full power with full flaps literally hanging it on the props. First attempt failed when his arrester hook broke. Second attempt actually worked.
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  2. Of following your Mrs around the dress shops. She finds one she likes and looks great in it. But, no it’s too expensive. So you drag around endless crap shops looking at endless lines of horrible dresses. Eventually go back to the original and it’s been sold. Obviously it’s your fault that she didn’t buy it hours ago.
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  3. First Sea Lord sounds trivial by comparison.
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  4.  @craigplatel813  British attacks on Tirpitz proved that bombers could keep a battleship boxed up. There was no need to sink it though 5 ton Tallboys landing at supersonic speeds did eventually do the job.
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  5. The whole list of claims about Bismarck’s hull damage is really irrelevant. The British turned the ship into floating scrapyard full of dead bodies. Sinking a wreck with zero offensive capability becomes an act of tidying up the mess.
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  6. Surely that makes it a U-Truck.
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  7. British Navy at Jutland developed a talent for allowing its ships to explode. If the only way to operate effectively means wedging blast doors open then it’s down to management for not putting in place systems that actually work.
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  8. I am for ever annoyed with myself for not getting my aunt on tape to talk about her nursing career on Malta from 1937 to 1942. In my defence, Alice died after a long illness in 1982. I was only 24.
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  9. Battleships are built to stay afloat despite huge damage. Bismarck was no different, but she was quickly reduced to a floating wreck with zero offensive capability. Scuttling by the crew was irrelevant to the outcome of the battle. Their failure to surrender was a far more heinous crime.
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  10. Comets/meteorites scattered into dust by the atmosphere don’t really “hit” anything solid. The dust eventually gets washed down with rainwater.
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  11. Kursk and Moskva come to mind is perfect candidates.
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  12. It hardly matters. A little 50 pounder will kill him just as dead.
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  13. From my days in heavy engineering on some large repair projects, I have an inkling of the tremendous amount of work and engineering nouse needed to salvage those ships. What they did in the time available was just stunning. They should have been officially recognised.
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  14.  @davidmichaels8934  It’s probably a good job that Vanguard was not sent to the Falklands. Her zero protection against Exocets would have not been a good look never mind the deaths that would result.
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  15. Water to steam has a 1000 to 1 expansion ratio. However, the specific heat capacity of water means that steam power can never be as efficient as internal combustion. A phenomenal amount of heat is used to simply turn water to steam. Even more heat has to be added to make a useful power source and that heat of evaporation is lost to the condenser. The practical efficiency limit is around 35%. Diesels can get to over 50% - a significant benefit in fuel consumption with far less technical complication.
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  16. Long and narrow to maximise speed = turning radius of a battleship.
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  17. They were also lucky their aircraft could (1) get home and (2) find an airfield before fuel ran dry. Many were lost when they strayed over known flak hot spots.
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  18. US approach was - Is that enemy or friendly? Who cares - Rat-tat-tat-tat
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  19. Treatment of Moskva crew suggests the directive has not changed.
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  20. With nobody particularly in mind, some people don’t talk to authors and documentary makers, because their (perceived) mistakes might get exposed.
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  21. I can’t give impact numbers, but my Mk1 muscles and a sledge hammer tell me that foamed (aka aerated) concrete does not shatter anything like as easily as solid concrete. The collapse of bubbles seems to absorb a lot of energy that would otherwise shatter solid concrete.
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  22. Lindybeige has a wonderful story about British 57mm Six Pounder Anti Tank Guns in North Africa. They were deadly accurate on mounts that were near invisible to boxed in tank crews.
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  23. Aircraft technology did similar things between 1914 and 1944. Going from sticks and string biplanes to jets like Meteor and Me262.
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  24. Torpedoes simply have to run straight at the correct depth. Something the US torpedoes failed to achieve for some years.
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  25. An old sailor said to me - the sea is not cruel or malevolent, it simply does not care.
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  26. HMS Conqueror used WW2 grade torpedoes to sink General Belgrano. The fancy blow the keel off type couldn’t be trusted.
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  27. Swordfish was a heavy lift (for it’s size) STOL aircraft capable of operating from carriers decks heaving about on Atlantic swells. Up to at least mid WW2, there was nothing else that could do the job. It’s metal frame design was similar to Gloster Gladiator and a direct forerunner of Hawker Hurricane.
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  28.  @alexanderlawson1649  A 1969 law case that exposed asbestos as a health risk forced a 1970 voluntary agreement in to ban the stuff. Blue Asbestos became a scapegoat but was was really just 3% of the total. Azzy was not fully stopped until the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974. It was not completely prohibited until 1999. https://bainbridgeelearning.co.uk/asbestos-law/
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  29. Shame they didn’t fit swing mounts as used by Germany’s Stuka dive bombers.
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  30. Russia is still upset with the British even today. They have incredibly dangerous fishing boats.
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  31. The Swordfish was slow but extremely capable and in use throughout WW2. They were often the only type that could operate in Atlantic swells. The torpedo which hit the Bismark's rudder was dropped by a pilot who flew on the Taranto raid against the Italian navy. He got in close and kept low. A side slip rudder turn rather than banking away gave a much smaller target.
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  32.  @iancormie9916  We should remember that Billy The Conqueror gave the British their name. He was king of Breton/Brittany. His new empire was to be called “Greater Brittany” and later “Great Britain”.eventually Greater Britain came to mean all of the British Isles plus most of Western France and the Channel ports.
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  33. Drachinifel tells us elsewhere, the loss of HMS Glorious was really down to her captain's incompetence.
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  34. Has anything really changed in the Russian navy of today. Two land-based cruise missiles caused it to sink without firing a shot.
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  35. The bows look too low. Crying out for an Atlantic bow.
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  36. Don’t be silly. Warspite was British so it would have to be Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
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  37.  @georgesoros6415  The Fairy Swordfish was not "ill prepared". At the time, it was the only type that could operate with useful stores from a ship heaving in Atlantic swells. It was also the plane which sank a huge chunk of the Italian navy at Taranto in a raid copied by Yamato for his attack on Pearl Harbor.
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  38. The shell proximity fuse was a major contributor. German and presumably Japanese victims had no idea how the Allies AA could be so accurate.
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  39.  @DavidMartin-ym2te  In 1939, the British Fleet Air Arm had nothing effective against the Japanese Zero. It’s likely the results would have been the same even if carriers had been sent to protect Burma and Singapore.
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  40. Gannet had two turbo props with contra rotating but unconnected propellers. It could cruise on one engine.
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  41.  @adenkyramud5005  Named after a breed of cows.
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  42. It’s (almost) the same with Ship Happens. Their first video documenting the restoration of a botched up and rotting HDML was posted in January 2021.
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  43. Joseph Whitworth developed his standardised thread for nuts and bolts in 1841. It became a British Standard that continues today in the standard metric threads we now use everywhere.
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  44. She’ll manufacture is a set of critical processes from end to end. Just one outset tolerance risks it not working as it should.
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  45.  @KatyushaLauncher  But is it correct to assume 7 planes were taken out by the explosion? It might be correct, but planes failed to return for many reasons - got lost - crashed later due to damage - ran out of fuel - etc.
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  46. JC is a truly great broadcaster who doesn’t put political correctness above historical fact.
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  47.  @basicpigeonbee  British Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers severely damaged the Italian navy at Taranto. Not bad for a plane that some say we’re obsolete. They were actually an effective STOL that could operate with a heavy ordnance load from carrier decks heaving over Atlantic swells. The Taranto raid was copied by Yamamoto at Pearl Harbor.
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  48. Stalin declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945 and 1 million Soviet soldiers stormed into Japanese-occupied Manchuria. It’s not like Russia was already busy in Eastern Europe. It certainly explains why Japan is so keen to support Ukraine and China wants return of iManchuria.
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  49. Britain getting directly involved in the WW1 land war was a major shift in policy if not a full blown aberration. Previously the British Empire left its competition to slug it out, then afterwards bought assets at bargain basement prices. If they had stayed out of WW1 there would have been no stalemate and at least the French overseas assets would have become available.
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  50.  @aristosachaion_  U.K.compounded it’s post-WW2 economic woes by nationalising every major industry and all utilities. That hard coded the old methods and seriously slowed if not actually preventing economic growth. That major mistake was only partially rectified in the 1980s.
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