Comments by "Colonel K" (@Paladin1873) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. We used to name our carriers after famous battles - Yorktown, Lexington, Bunker Hill, etc., or after earlier ships - Enterprise, Intrepid, Hornet, Wasp.
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  2. What does that term mean?
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  3.  @blackrabbit212  I just realized something; a long time ago I watched a movie titled "San Demetrio London", which recounted the adventure of one ship that survived the shelling of Convoy HX84 - the convoy that the Jervis Bay was guarding. I never realized until now that it was a true story. I am impressed.
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  4.  @blackrabbit212  The courage of the crew of the tanker Ohio was represented in the movie "The Malta Story", starring Alec Guinness (1953). It's a good movie, if you haven't seen it.
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  5. The admiral appears to have been a bit too complacent. War mustn't interfere with tea time, lads.
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  6. The popular late 50's TV show "Sea Hunt" produced an episode in 1959 titled "Nerve Gas" which is about an abandoned Japanese sub laden with nerve agent which is leaking out. The wreck is found near the California coastline, so salvage diver Mike Nelson (Lloyd Bridges) has to seal the leak while the Navy is preparing to deal with the sub. You can watch the show on YouTube. I'll be surprised if you don't recognize one of the guest stars.
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  7.  @ClissaT  I found the following description on Wikipedia. The survivors remained together until midday on 2 December, when one of the boats, with the commanding officer aboard, set out for Darwin in an effort to find rescuers.[14] At 10:15 on 5 December, they were spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft, and the 22 aboard were rescued by Kalgoorlie.[14] On learning that more men were still at sea, an air search was organised, and the auxiliary patrol boat Vigilant was to stand by off Melville Island.[14] That same day, the other boat, with 29 aboard, headed for Darwin, leaving the raft, with 49 aboard, behind.[14] At 16:00 on 8 December, a PBY Catalina flying boat sighted the raft, now with about 20 aboard, and the second boat.[14] The aircraft was unable to land to assist either group of survivors because of rough seas, but directed Kalgoorlie to the boat.[14] However, the raft could not be located again, and the search effort was called off on 13 December.[14] 40 personnel from Armidale and 60 embarked men of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army were killed.[3] Following this attack, the Royal Australian Navy changed policy to prevent minimally armed vessels like the Bathurst-class corvettes travelling into areas of heavy enemy presence while attempting to perform tasks similar to Armidale.[17]
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  8. The Suez Crisis took place between 29 Oct - 7 Nov 1956.
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  9.  @gwtpictgwtpict4214  My sentiments exactly.
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  10.  @jeffwalther3935  I saw the movie and liked it, but I detest Hemingway. He is remembered in military circles mostly as a romantic clown who loved playing at war and hanging out with real warriors. He was lucky the Germans didn't blow him and his retinue out of the water. If you want to hear a real and funny account of those early days of warrior yachtsmen, watch this snippet from an interview with Ernest Borgnine , was an enlisted sailor in the Navy before the war and got recalled right after Pearl Harbor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQzWyPhRqmk
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  11. Have fun visiting Old Ironsides. When I was stationed at Hanscom AFB I attended the retirement ceremony of one of our officers aboard the ship. It was quite an experience.
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  12.  @keefymckeefface8330  There is never a purely military solution to any conflict unless you do like the Romans and kill off or enslave most of the people, remove them from the land, and salt the earth. Otherwise there must also be psychological, political, and economic elements involved. The problem is we only have one branch of our government that is equipped to forward deploy into a war zone and operate effectively. All other departments are too small and ineffectual to have enough impact. They keep defaulting to DoD. This is not a right-left issue; it is a pragmatic one. We have not engaged effectively in nation building since the Korean War. But the only reason we continue to succeed in the Pacific Rim and Europe is because we still maintain a significant force presence and a commitment to defend our allies. This we failed to do in South Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
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  13.  @thepittman4g63  Thanks for the heads up.
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  14.  @justsoicanfingcomment5814  Much appreciated. Thanks!
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  15. The Alaska class look like diminutive Iowas class battleships. The first time I ever saw a picture of one was as a kid in the 1960s. I was reading a book about US Navy vessels. I don't recall when it was published, but it must have been either during WWII or not long after. I think the Alaska was referred to as a battle cruiser. Anyway, I always thought they were very cool looking ships.
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  16. It began its career at the end of the 1900s?
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  17.  @davidlewis5312  Ouch!
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  18.  @paulpeterson4216  I toured that boat with my Dad when I was a kid in 1967. What an experience! When we returned home to Florida, Dad mentioned it to an old family friend, Isaac Skadren, who had served as an officer on a hunter-killer task force in the Atlantic. Issac scoffed and said his own force had accomplished the same thing earlier, but sank the boat rather than waste time towing it stateside. He considered it grandstanding. "Our job was to sink subs, not capture them."
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  19.  @karlbrundage7472  Are Alpha males still allowed into the military?
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  20.  @fazole  I attended the retirement ceremony of one of our officers aboard the Constitution when I was stationed at Hanscom AFB. All the sailors wore period correct uniforms. As I recall, they take the ship out into the harbor once a year.
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  21. Good looking ship (not the missile variant).
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  22. ADM Towers comes across as a bit too ambitious.
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  23. Excellent review of the most famous commando raid in history. By sheer coincidence I just finished reading "Combined Operations" (1943), the first authorized book describing British commando raiding early in WWII. It ends with mention of the start of Operation Torch in North Africa. The chapters devoted to the St Nazaire raid closely match your story line, which is surprising, given wartime censorship. The main difference is the book describes the heroic acts of several men during the raid. No doubt this would have doubled the lenght of your video if such comments had been added.
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  24. My God, these ships deserve a better fate than the scrapyard.
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  25. I think Drach and his guest may have conflated range with combat radius when making comparisons between Zeros in the Pacific and Allied aircraft in Europe. A bomber or fighter flying 600 miles between England and Germany has a nominal range of 1200 miles. Their combat radius is 600 miles. Ferry ranges should not be included because any such aircraft are not configured for combat or necessarily flying at escort speeds. This does not mean the Zero lacked very long range capability, but it does mean its most common early competition (primarily F4F and P40 fighters), while shorter ranged, were not quite as short-legged as inferred. Of course this gap was continually shortened and was eventually eclipsed by later Allied fighters (P38, P47, P51, F6F, Corsair).
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  26.  @justinpyke1756  I quite agree.
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  27. This is a very confusing battle. I'd like to see a moving map that shows the timeline of events as ships maneuver, are hit, withdraw, are abandoned, and sink.
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  28. Now it's underwater pipelines from Russia that are blowing up - and balloons, can't forget the balloons.
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  29. As tempting as a tour of this storied ship may be, if ever again I find myself in California, the only sane thing I can do is leave.
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  30. Sad, ignoble end to one of the oldest and boldest US Navy fighting ships of WWII.
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  31. I haven't seen this much see-sawing back and forth on a playground.
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  32.  aerodog2  I agree. I never said aluminum was superior. I know it is not. It has a much lower melting point than steel.
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  33.  @blackrabbit212  True sea lions.
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  34.  @dungareenavy5970  I hope you've managed to overcome the migraines. My wife suffers from them and they can be extremely brutal.
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  35.  @dungareenavy5970  Thanks, I'll check out any local options.
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  36.  @dovetonsturdee7033  I just finished reading Hore's 22 page article and find it does not actually contradict the article by Barker I recommended. However, Hore does leave out some critical information. The 18 aircraft from Ark Royal that he mentions were part of an earlier plan. The ongoing evacuation at Dunkirk delayed and eventually scraped this plan. I could find no mention by Hore that long range tanks would not be required for the operation. In fact, he quoted Admiral Dudley Pound’s statement that 60 Swordfish were already configured with long range tanks. Pound, however, was incorrect. Only 18 aircraft aboard Glorious had the tanks and they were not presently installed (a process that took a day to complete). The Swordfish that had conducted the 510 mile round-trip mine-laying mission to Stavanger had used them, and it was the results of this test operation which showed one serious flaw in the plan. The aircraft lacked sufficient engine oil to ensure their safe return, two having been lost on the homeward flight from the raid when their oil tanks ran dry. Both articles (Hore and Barker) deal in a degree of conjecture because critical information is missing and won't be released until 100 years has elapsed (a unique and extraordinary secrecy requirement in itself). About the only thing I believe everyone agrees on is that Churchill very much wanted to mine Lulea, and damn the political consequences. It would all be overcome by events shortly as the Germans overran the French iron ore region and the country capitulated. Maybe we'll learn more in 2041 when the official records into the Glorious loss are finally released.
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  37. I remember reading the Laffey story as kid. It's amazing that ship survived so many hits.
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  38. Based upon their battleship appearance, 12" armament, and relatively light weight, why not create a new category and use the intimidating term "Dreadnought", or is that too British sounding? It's better than calling them "pocket battleships", which would confuse them with German ships of WWII. My next choice would be "Battle Cruiser", which is less clumsy sounding than "light battleship", "very heavy cruiser", or "armored cruiser".
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  39.  @johnbuchman4854  I don't follow you. Please clarify.
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  40. Bravo.
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  41. A book was later written condemning this fiasco. As I recall, one of the ships sunk was using Lewis light machine guns for air defense.
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  42.  @WALTERBROADDUS  The condemnation of the author was the decision to send defenseless and lightly defended ships in harm's way. Of course, the British sent two major warships to Singapore without air cover and they too were sunk. The late 1941 through 1942 was a period of indecisive military leadership and unpreparedness on the part of the USA. It took a while to weed out competent commanders from incompetent ones.
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  43.  @WALTERBROADDUS  It was a desperate gamble and it failed. At the time our ships were woefully unprepared for effective air defense. This was one of the lessons learned at Corral Sea and Midway. Improvements in CIC, gunnery, proximity fuses, radar, and damage control all helped to greatly improve our Navy's effectiveness throughout the rest of the war.
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  44.  @WALTERBROADDUS  That's part of the trouble with war; you don't always get to pick the start date. By 1942 the Japanese would have been even better prepared as well. We were not operating on a war footing or war economy in 1941 and would not have been doing so in 1942 if the Japanese had not attacked us in '41.
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  45. You think Fascists are the opposite of Communists? Both believe in strong centralized socialist forms of govenrment.
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  46. God bless the Second Amendment and the United States Navy!
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  47. In the 1980s my cousin in Georgia befriended a neighbor who had fought at the Battle of Midway. He even wrote a book about it and gave a copy to my cousin. While on leave, I spent a few days visiting my cousin and read the book. On the inside leaf was a personal note written to my cousin which was signed by the author, Ensign George Gay, the only survivor of the carrier born attack by Torpedo Squadron 8.
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  48. Sounds like the various crews all came from Gilligan's Island.
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  49. Is the Shinano the largest ship ever sunk?
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  50.  @bkjeong4302  I meant is it the largest ship ever sunk deliberately during wartime. The Yamato and Musashi may have been heavier, but I'm not sure.
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