Comments by "Kenneth Dean Miller" (@kennethdeanmiller7324) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. Wow. Well we will start by building 50. "What, only 50?" He must of been greatly disappointed. ☹️
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  2. Well, actually Halsey probably did make the connection which is probably why one of his staff told him to get ahold of himself. My older brother studied that in the 6th grade & taught it to me, 3rd grade. So... an Admiral as old as Halsey, imho, would probably know it by heart, & more than likely make the connection immediately!
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  3. That is so awesome & so hilarious!! I hope whoever thought up that idea got one helluva promotion!!! That's the kind of thinking that wins wars. A blunderbuss, was it? I thought it was horseflies. And also, with Adolf Hitler in power, the worries of the English being invaded was VERY REAL. Cuz when you are dealing with a crazy person and that crazy person gets upset about something... he very definitely could have ordered the invasion to begin & then his people are going to try to make it work. I would swear John Cleese had the idea for this stealth battleship attack, well, maybe his father. 😮
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  4. @EtuSunTzu  One of the very first Wednesday Specials or "Rum Ration" I guess is a better description that I got to see from Drach was the video "What to do when/if your ship has become disagreeable & you MUST abandon ship." It was the extreme detail & seriously well thought out narrative. AND another thing that Drach did that also won me over was the shortened biography of "Able Bodied Seaman 'Just Nuisance'." And not only the fact that he did a special about a dog. But another cool thing too was he had his wife do the introduction. Since she had grown up around the proud statue she did the introduction. And she was basically better & had a smoother voice than Drach. But that small little intro from her & then Drach takes over just makes it cool & unique and it kinda makes me feel as though she's more of a dog lover than him. But the video is very well done just like ALL of his stuff. And the other thing I like about Drach is he doesn't shy away from people that might have a difference of opinion as long as it is presented in a respectful & thoughtful manor. And if you CAN'T state your view in a intelligent & respectful way then, "please don't bother!"
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  5. Yeah, all in all you can't really blame the Canadian sailors for when given the chance on whether to go home or continue fighting against Japan for choosing to go home. Especially for the reasons you gave too. Yeah, the first people back are going to grab up the best jobs, they get to see their families for the first time in who knows how long AND if they go home, then they have survived the war! If they go into the Pacific to fight the Japanese there is no guarantee they will all survive. Where they can say they did their patriotic duty & fought in the war & since they survived long enough to win against Germany, SOME may not be so lucky against the Japanese. And if you had personally been at war for 4-5 years and all of a sudden given the choice to go home or stay & fight, I know I'm going to choose to go home!!! Without even having to think about it very long! Because you know that in a war there is ALWAYS a chance of getting killed or even worse, getting seriously maimed & living! And then being disabled the rest of your life! So most are going to choose home. I'm sure the other Allies were rather irritated by this, however the USA & UK pretty much had the Japanese defeated already. The Japanese just didn't want to admit it yet. And finally atomic weapons would change their minds about surrendering! Thank God!
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  6. Kinda like when I was a kid I caught a catfish that was as long as my arm. And after I grew up I still thought of that catfish being as long as my arm BUT my adult arms are now much longer than when I was a kid. So the catfish got bigger as I grew up. I never thought about that til now. But it made for a whopping good meal. We had caught 3 others but that one was about the same amount of food as the other 3. I never really talked about it but in my head that catfish was still as long as my arm. But I'd never thought about the fact my arm was shorter & smaller then. Funny how you don't think about things like that. The mind only sees what it wants to see. We didn't have any bait to go fishing. So we started turning over cross ties that were around the garden thinking to find some worms. No worms but we did manage to get some crickets. We caught one catfish and then 2 really small bream. And now all our crickets were gone. And I was like, well we could cut up the bream & use them for bait. And that was how I caught that catfish that was "long as my arm." Plus my brother caught a little King snake when we were turning over the cross ties. Hell, I went fishing so much back then it's difficult to remember any certain fishing trip unless something weird happened. Like, I caught an eel one time that was about 2-3 foot long. And my brother when we were really really young caught a gar. Or more commonly known as an alligator-gar. It had a long snout with spiny teeth. Scary looking thing. I've looked at pics of them on the net but none have teeth similar to the one he caught. The snout was about 6-7 inches long & there were LOTS of teeth! I'd compare them to nails that are about a half inch long real close together & way too many to count. Oh, another fishing trip we were in a boat. Had been fishing for hours & caught nothing. And we had been on a river in South Alabama Conecuh River. And had pulled into a place where the water was still, sorta like a pond on the bank & the water was clear enough that we noticed a couple of alligator-gars in there. And decided that with them in there other fish wouldn't be. And so we were just leaving & a bream came out of the water and landed in my brother lap. Scared the crap out of him. The only fish we caught all day jumped out of the water & landed in my brother's lap. True story! Swear on my mother's ashes! If I hadn't seen it I probably wouldn't believe it. I'm talking about a 16' fishing boat too. Crazy, but we figured one of those gars had gotten after him. We turned him loose. Can't make a meal out of one fish. He wasn't small for a bream but not that big either. Our neighbor down there him & his buddy would go fishing all weekend long. Seen them come home with an 8' stringer full of bream. He had a washing machine rigged with chicken wire in it. He'd put a bunch of them in it & hit spin & it would scale the fish. Redneck engenuity at it's finest! The guy he went fishing & hunting with had a farm and they had built a freezer house there. It was a big shack almost the size of a barn & he had about 8-10 freezers full of fish & deer & anything else that they had caught, trapped or killed. Wow, that was a whole lifetime ago. Seems like it was a totally different world now from then. We would go crabbing. On weekends we would all go in on about 20 lbs of shrimp or more. Bowl half & fry half. Fry a bunch of fish & boil crabs & make fries & hush puppies. And it would be like a whole neighborhood cookout. Some drinking beer some smoking weed. But everyone just having a good time together. Wow. That was over 40 almost 50 years ago. Ànd the thing about is, that's the first time I really remember being happy. My first 8 years my Dad was cheating on my Mom & they were always fighting & then they divorced but were still in the same house. And until My Mom married Billy & we moved there all I knew was violence. Or mostly. I had had a couple of girlfriends but knew little to nothing about sex. Then some of Billy's cousins started coming around trying to get him to help them do bad things. So he left & went to Atlanta where my Mom's sister lived & found a job there. Then we packed up everything and moved to Atlanta. I was at the top of my class in 4th & 5th grade. Captain of the defense on the football team. My girlfriend won Homecoming Queen for the 5th grade & we had our picture in the paper cuz I was her "escort" and then we move. And it wasn't really a long & drawn out thing. One night we packed all the stuff in a truck & was gone to Atlanta. My second day of school I go out to catch the bus & no one is out there. I had already noticed the day before that about 15 other kids caught the bus there. Mom & Billy are already gone to work & so I'm left trying to tell my Aunt something ain't right. "Just get out there and wait on the bus. Your just trying to not go to school!" And I'm like wtf!! So, like the only kid I know, I walk up to his apt & knock on the door. He comes to the door sleepy eyed & in his underwear "You didn't hear? The school burned down last night." So I go back to my Aunt's and she makes some calls & finds out that someone had burned half the school down. But us 5th graders got to spend the rest of the school year in the 2nd graders classes. While they tried to bring in trailers & do construction. And then we get our own apt & move from Smyrna to Stone Mountain. OK, now I gotta make some friends all over again. As a child in elementary school I went to five different elementary schools. But we moved nine times. We moved away from Stone Mountain & then moved back while I was in 6th grade. By this time I didn't even want to make friends anymore. Why bother? We will just have to move again. So I make it to Stone Mountain high school, in the 8th grade there you went to high school but didn't start getting points towards graduation until 9th grade. But then we move again & now I'm going to Lithonia HS. AND finally we stay there long enough for me to graduate. But I guess I did learn early in life that nothing is forever except change. No matter what, things are constantly in motion and constantly changing. Like when I married my wife, I thought I had it made. I had someone I loved & trusted. A partner til the end. And barely 8 years later she passes away. And when I first met her she was scared to get into a relationship cuz she was tired of being heart broken. And I'm talking about a woman so beautiful that at the time was very hard to find, especially one you could trust.
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  7. Yeah, also previously, the US had gotten 4 Battle Cruisers sunk & basically didn't do anything to the Japanese. Which NOW with Kirashima being sunk by an unseen foe in just a matter of minutes, it was a major blow to the "night time morale" of the Japanese. Cuz they had previously thought they could rule the nights off Guadal Canal, now that way of thinking had been blown away & sunk with the Kirashima along for company. Had the South Dakota not experienced such technical difficulties the Japanese may have been decimated on that night. HOWEVER, THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE STORIES OF WW2. If the US NAVY could of somehow cloned Admiral Lee, so that they had, idk, 10-20 officers that were similar in his way of getting things accomplished, I think the US NAVY would have had few, if any, defeats following the Pearl Harbor attack. All except /tfor the South Dakota having such technical difficulties & getting shot up because of it.
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  8.  @Sherwoody  Yeah, ya gotta be careful to NOT slip on or into the vomit! UGH!!! Or both. Everyone gets schooled about the safety orÿ⁶of
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  9. Idk why, but dummy torpedoes costing the US Navy a million dollars in repairs seems funny after knowing how many dud torpedoes would get used against the Japanese during the first 2 years of WW2. I wonder how much those dud Mark 14 torpedoes costed the Japanese? I mean, I'm sure some of their rusty old junks got holes poked in them. But the lack of an explosion I'm sure would give a lot of the Japanese a false sense of security during torpedo attacks.
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  10. Yeah, the person that asked about the "offset" turrets similar to the 40mm pompoms around 2:05:00, idk, doesn't seem like they realize or know that BIG GUNS are loaded first with the shell and then a very large amount of powder, which usually consists of about 6 ×(50 lbs) bags of gun powder propellant in order to make the shell travel the long distances they cover. Nor how much more a turret would weigh by trying to implement such a thing. And that the best case scenario for such a ship is represented in "The Des Moines" class 8" rapid fire auto loaders! IF ONLY the US had(them 6 years earlier) & rocked up at Guadal Canal with such ships, the Japanese surface units would have been terrified to go down the slot no matter if it was day or night! And the US wouldn't have lost so many ships & sailors defending Guadal Canal! With the very first Battle of Savo Island ending with 4 US Cruisers sunk & over a thousand dead sailors that was a very costly night for the USA that night!!
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  11. @bullnukeoldman3794  Wow. Earthquakes are scarry no matter where you are! I was living in South Carolina and there was one there of all places. It made the fireplace chimney move. And afterwards we could see daylight through the brick block from inside the house.
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  12.  @Aiwendill  Yeah, they were going to convert her to be an aircraft carrier due to the Washington Naval Treaty. But it got scrapped instead.
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  13. @bullnukeoldman3794  Idk, I imagine that it was pretty scary walking underneath to check everything & make sure all was right enough to leave it where it was & not have to reflood the drydock to be able to resituate the ship. And YEAH, I would imagine ya'll didn't spend much time down there! Especially considering that sometimes after a quake there are after shocks as well. Three quarters of a degree may not seem like much but very much more & it could have knocked it off the blocks. And if that happens there is always a chance that it could bend the frame enough that it becomes irreparable. Glad your ship made it.
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  14. At about 16:00 you are weighing the options of having more smaller primary battleship guns vs fewer larger battleship guns. In my opinion, although the larger battleship guns are fewer giving less chances for a hit, you also need to factor in that the larger gun will ALSO have longer range, giving you the opportunity to open fire at a range further away than the smaller gun. Comparatively speaking, Yamato with her 9 x 18" guns vs any two of the standards with 12 x 14" guns, Yamato ALSO having the speed advantage can dictate the range, staying out of range of the 14" weapons but still in range of her 18" weapons could snipe away & eventually kill the standards without ever being in danger of the 14" guns even touching her!
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  15. ​​​ @AdamMGTF  Evidently you know nothing about horses. A horse that can't walk dies very soon after not being able to walk. That is why when a horse breaks a leg they usually kill it to put it out of it's misery. And trying to compare a living breathing animal to a war ship isn't a decent comparison for either. Actually it kinda sounded stupid. But maybe that's just me. Oh, I mean you. But yeah, I kinda agree, I was VERY surprised that an aircraft carrier that could barely make 21 knots on a good day was useful enough to last until being scrapped in 1960. I would have thought it so useless & scrapped it immediately after WW1. Very surprised that the French & USA both found this ship just useful enough to not scrap it way sooner than 1960.
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  16. Footage of you DIVING ON A SHIPWRECK would be AWESOME imho!!! That would be very unique & great for the Chanel! I would guess you would also have to invest in a waterprooof camera too. I didn't know that you had been "previously" certified as a diver. But also you may want to see if flying to the US & then flying back & forth from the US to Bermuda would be less expensive. Meaning you could maybe spend time here in the US seeing something, fly to Bermuda & do stuff there & YOU & THE FAMILY could also take some extra time there for actual family vacation time too. All work & no play isn't good for the WHOLE FAMILY! But the US has a lot of nice beaches too & probably less expensive hotels too. But always try to spend time with the family! Your kid's youth is time you can NEVER replace!
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  17. Yeah, but when you see a problem, sometimes it's just quicker & easier to take care of it yourself rather than directing someone else to do it. The time saved by quickly doing it yourself could save the lives of a lot of your soldiers & cause the skirmish to go your way instead of the enemies way.
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  18.  @jonathanj8303 The report of torpedoes in the water actually came from Prince Eugene's hydrophone operator. The ship had a large array of hydrophones and one, the operator was the one that gave warning that the 2 English battleships were closing on their position cuz he could hear the engines. And then he heard the torpedoes in the water. And I don't think that the IJN told Germany about their type 93 long lance oxygen enriched torpedo. It was a closely guarded secret in the IJN cuz they didn't want enemies to know they had pure oxygen aboard their warships. Cuz simply machine gunning a torpedo launcher could cause a horrific explosion!!
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  19. The Invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. The Battle that EVERYONE was dreading was being planned on both sides. The Japanese had major defensive plans to defend their home islands & their ordinary people/citizens. And the USA 🇺🇸 was by no means eager to begin these operations which they had estimated would cost the lives of millions of US Soldiers & even more millions of Japanese soldiers not to mention millions of Japanese women & children as well. With all of that under consideration, the Truman administration made the most difficult & also the most easiest decision he probably ever had to make! And because of the destruction of Hiroshima & Nagasaki the Japanese FINALLY SURRENDERED!!! Making the Invasion of the Japanese Home Islands totally unnecessary to the vast relief of three nations as well as mothers and fathers all around the globe!
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  20. So the Emden shot down a pilot named Emden which crashed into the Emden causing the first casualties of the war to be the pilot and sailors aboard the Emden. Sometimes the truth can be stranger than fiction. Very ironic coincidence. Sort of like the USS Indianapolis delivering the components of the atomic weapons that destroyed Hiroshima & Nagasaki & then getting hit by 3 torpedoes & sinking in about 10-15 minutes. And although about 800-900 sailors survived the sinking of the ship only 316 would survive the shark infested waters long enough to be rescued. I've always thought that considering the popularity of the Bible verse JOHN 3:16 that there being 316 survivors wasn't a coincidence but God's way of saying that he is watching. And I've never been very religious either. I've always loved the saying that God wants righteous fruit NOT religious nuts.
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  21. I enjoyed how Drach points out right near the end about how yes it is "the military" but you also have to realize that people also have to be themselves, which also means having a good sense of humor. Cuz people live on their ships at times & you can't be constantly serious all the time. While yes, it is the Navy & everything needs to be done right but that doesn't mean you can't have fun & find ways to enjoy doing what you do!
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  22. ​@sundivxqqqqqqqqźer137 Yes, but that was after the pre-planned questions had been asked & answered. And the dialog was actually about how & why Fletcher got a bad rep cuz of Richmond Kelly Turner blaming everyone but himself for the annihilation of the cruiser force at Guadal Canal. IMHO he should have taken the Cruisers & all of the other ships out of harms way as well so everyone could get some rest. Being on high alert for 48 hours means that no one has gotten any rest in 2 days. And if they were going to be on the coast of Guadal Canal they definitely needed to be on high alert! Rabaul was NOT very far away and was considered too large of a stronghold for the USA to attack so early in the war. Although MacArthur wanted to go after Rebaul first thing Nimitz & King shot that down as too heavily defended. The Navy had better reconnaissance & Intel in the Pacific than the Army had. And Nimitz wanted to start off with something smaller & less heavily defended, in which Guadal Canal fit that role perfectly.
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  23. October 25, 1944 was a sad day for both Navy's. American & Japanese. A lot of the Taffy 3 ships would be sunk & a the entire "Southern Force" of the Japanese were sunk. Oh, & the 10 survivors from each battleship would be caught by Phillipine guerrilla fighters & I don't think they fared very well. Those of Taffy 3 would spend 2-3 days in the water and eventually the survivors would be rescued. Although numerous died of injuries and shark attacks.
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  24. Yeah, it's a shame that gun ships became obsolete especially when ships like the USS Des Moines & Salem had become so fast & accurate at firing. It is my opinion that the Des Moines were developed in order to see if the same technology would be viable for a similar but larger Battleship type of ship. Yet they decided Battleships were a thing of the past, so we never got to see Semi-automatic 16" guns.😢😢 Although it is a shame considering that I would have loved to see such a ship, yet building such a warship would have been incredibly expensive and with the extra weight of the auto-loading mechanisms a battleship might have to be extra hefty to carry three triple turrets & enough armor to arm against it's own guns and be able to travel at 28-30 knots. Probably end up weighing almost as much as Yamato.
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  25. USS Overcompensation!!! I like that!!!
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  26. Yep. That sounds about right. Let's face it, if you have the power to do such a thing, then you're going to do it. And at this point in his life the man is probably an alcoholic, a functional alcoholic but an alcoholic nonetheless & him going without the scotch would probably make him unfit for duty until fully detoxed. And although it is probably not good to have a "drunk" making decisions in the middle of a war where one bad decision could get a large number of men killed, that is also the reason the man needed to be able to drink & relax at the end of the day. Sending pilots & crew out to do battle in the middle of a war & seeing many of them not come back is usually not easy for any man, so half a bottle of scotch to help wash away the doubts of whatever decisions had been made that day. Yeah, in times of war those decisions have to be made. Halsey did flub up by not leaving those battleships behind. And, I'm fairly certain that with hindsight if he had the chance to do things over, he would leave the battleships behind. And to address him throwing a temper tantrum, he messed up & knew he had messed up & it cost the Navy some ships & cost some very good & brave men their lives. However, if it had not been for this error we cannot really say that less men would have died . And without this mistake, the "Naval Battle of Samar" & the tiny ships of Taffy 3 with the planes from Taffy 1, 2 & 3 could not have won a tactical victory over such an overwhelming force as was the Center Force of the Japanese. And to me, the "Naval Battle of Samar", the "Battle of Midway" & the 2nd(?)" Battle of Savo Island" ,where Admiral Lee used USS Washington to bludgeon IJN Kirishima, those 3 stories are my favorite stories of the Naval clashes in the Pacific war.
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  27. I'm not sure if the old ship is haunted but from your account it would seem so. I would guess that enough sailors died aboard the ship that it being haunted by some spirits that died aboard is not far fetched at all. Very interesting story. Thank you for that.
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  28. In your discussion of napalm you mentioned that "someone" also had the idea of also mixing "white phosphorus" with it. Now idk4 sure, BUT, would that "someone" happen to be Gen G Patton? Cuz I remember seeing a WW2 Documentary about Patton and he was known for knowing when his troops used white phosphorus against the Germans that he noticed "they couldn't surrender fast enough!" So with that being said, Patton not only knew that "white phosphorus" was a devastating weapon BUT the Germans had figured it out fairly quickly that white phosphorus was NOT something that they wanted to deal with!
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  29. In regards to Nelson being reckless, I would have to say that confidence in his tactics and the confidence he had in his men to outgun the enemy may have seemed reckless but the thing about it is ALL THE MEN THAT HE WAS COMMANDING SEEN HIM PUT HIMSELF IN HARMS WAY TO QUICKLY & DECISIVELY DESTROY THE ENEMY and that in itself is going to grant him followers that would have followed him into hell itself because they believed in his guidance and judgement to deliver quick & decisive blows to the enemy that would result in them winning the battle & living to enjoy the victory celebration. CONFIDENCE can seem reckless but any officer that has the task of leading men into battle must show confidence in order to get the men to follow him. If an officer acts timid & afraid his troops will act the same. And you don't win a battle by being timid & afraid. You have to have the power to lead in order to be followed. My thoughts on it is that Nelson knew all of this very well. And as far as his social life goes he had a woman he enjoyed being with her & didn't give a damn what anyone else thought about it. I don't blame him! Like "they say" you only live once and if you find someone you love, why not spend as much time with them as you can? My wife died 8 years ago and I've been damn close to miserable ever since. I had always been a happy person but once I found her I never wanted to be apart from her. We had about 11 years together. Met in October 2003. Married October 2007 & she passed Christmas Eve 2015 after 3 years of severe COPD. I still try to be happy & mostly succeed but I still miss her so much that I've never been with anyone since cuz I don't think it would be fair for another woman to be in her shadow. I don't think I could love someone as much as I loved her so any other woman I could be with wouldn't have all of me. Of course, I could still maybe fall for the right woman but it took most of my life to find her, I don't suppose to find another that could come close but.. I'm not giving up or holding my breath either.
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  30. @teddywoo83  Yeah, Rodney made the same mistake against Bismark. When they closed the range they made it harder for themselves against Bismark. Bismark & Tirpitz were both designed against close range gunnery but not against plunging fire of 16" shells. And the seas weren't so rough to keep Washington from fighting. And Washington has much bigger teeth with her 16" guns compared to DoY's 14" guns. And Admiral Lee had Washington's gunnery accuracy in tip top shape. DoY may have the armor for a slugging match with Tirpitz but it's guns are a bit on the weaker side. I'm not much a fan of DoY but HMS Rodney??? Big fan of Rodney! 16" guns all forward!!! She could be closing on a target & all the enemy has to fire at is her front profile. But with that all forward layout she could be firing all her guns BUT WITHOUT presenting a broadside target to her enemy. It is a shame battleships became obsolete, cuz imho HMS Anson & Rodney, if that design had been improved by a generation or two those ships would have been BEASTS!!!
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  31. How many people today know anything about "Gilligan's Island" I wonder? Just sit right back & you'll hear a tell, A tell of a faithful ship
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  32. My wife was drinking one night and we got into an argument. I had just gotten home from work. Anyway long story short, if I hadn't turned & looked when I did she was about to clock me in the head with an iron. It was then I realized alcohol makes you do things you normally wouldn't do. So the next day I told her if you quit drinking alcohol, I'll quit too. That was in 2006. About a year later we were at my favorite Mexican Restaurant "Anita's" & she asked if we could share a frozen margarita & so we did. That was 2007. That was the last time either of us drank alcohol. She passed away 2015 on Christmas Eve. But I still haven't touched any alcohol. And btw, we rarely EVER even had an argument after that. Maybe we would disagree about something but never a heated argument. Damn I miss her! She was not only beautiful but fun to be around too. She was a good cook but didn't like doing it. She was OCD too. All the pots & pans had to be washed before she could sit down to eat. That was the biggest thing that bothered me about her. And the only reason was cuz when I went for seconds the food was in Tupperware and already gotten cold. And if there were dirty dishes in the sink, she couldn't walk past without stopping to wash them. And how can a man actually complain about something like that. And if she was washing clothes & I came in from work, I had to strip so she could wash those too. And so I'd have to get a shower cuz you don't put on clean clothes without a shower. I do miss those days but her especially.
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  33. 5 years ago I had become curious about WW2 & had started trying to find out what all happened during the war. Because of that YouTube recommended a video by a guy named Drachinifel. Since then, I've not only learned a lot more about WW2 but a lot more about Naval History in general & the people that helped make that history.
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  34. If the Kamchatka had been in the US Navy, she would have probably been used for target practice, possibly even with Captain & crew still aboard. And the paranoia of seeing "torpedo boats" makes me seriously wonder how much cocaine the Captain & other crew members had on board! Either that or they had a look out that was beginning to have symptoms of schizophrenia. And the gunner on the Kamchatka said, "By the time the enemy vessel realized we were attacking them, I had run out of ammunition. But it turned out to NOT be an enemy vessel at all.
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  35. Hi Drach. Thanks for the video. As always, you can take what would seem a rather boring subject and with trial and error & more & more evolution explain how all of these different people would try this & that & finally make something that works. And you do it with great spin that makes the mundane & slow process that it was not only interesting but fun to learn. And now I anxiously await the next chapter of the torpedo.
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  36.  @captainvladmir7535  This is just my "2 cents" worth & I have no idea if I'm right or wrong. But back then they were known for eating bread that might be a bit "moldy". And one thing that they discovered is that sometimes these breads that had started to mold could contain a substance known as ergot and eating it could cause symptoms such as someone taking LSD, peyote or mushrooms. Now, this particular case I have not a clue if that is what happened. And, hopefully maybe his actual problem is documented so Drach would maybe be able to look it up. I think I remember him saying that the guy was having some sort of nervous breakdown, if my memory serves me correctly. And if he had ingested some ergot that could definitely cause such behavior. But at the same time it could be something completely different.
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  37.  @ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg  Give it up. Drach has apologized enough in the past about his butchering of other languages. He's NOT a linguist but he does work pretty hard to find out things for people concerning warships & related weaponry. And if it weren't for his shows, I would probably have gone mad over the holidays. His voice seems to have a soothing & calming affect on me. Without him & tobacco there is the possibility that I may have hurt someone or myself. I actually thought that it was really funny the thought of someone getting hit with a lump of fat! And depending upon the size and speed of said lump of fat it could be fatal. I live here in the US & obesity is definitely a problem. The size of some people I see... scares me for their sake.
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  38.  @shadowwolf2608  It has to do with NOT having magazines fore & aft. The all forward layout means they can have the main magazines in one place and that is how it shortens the citadel space. If they only have one main magazine instead of 2 then they need less armor to cover the magazines thereby making the ship weigh less. And also, most ships when aiming at an opposing ship seem to aim for & hit the superstructure. With the superstructure in the back of the ship, imho there is more of chance those ships will miss to the aft. Or just less chance the ship will take accurate fire.
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  39. @mitchellhawkes22  I truly feel that it was. Cuz if he didn't remove Akagi from the equation, that very first strike against Yorktown is more than likely going to either sink Yorktown or totally put her out of commission. Either way, the Japanese don't make the mistake of going after her during the second wave. And who knows what happens after that. Roll the dice and the Japanese wins, and roll the dice again and the Americans win. And another thing too is if Hornets pilots don't go on the "infamous flight to nowhere" then they could have sank or damaged Hiryu enough that Yorktown doesn't even have to deal with a strike at all!
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  40. Yeah, it was highly remarkable how Admiral Lee learned how to use radar & how to use his guns from the information he was receiving from that radar. And as soon as he was sure "the Kirishima" was the target he was tracking & not the South Dakota then the sailors aboard the Kirishima found out what happens when 16" shells begin raining down on your ship. 😮
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  41. ​@Swrdfshtrmbns It was designed in order to keep the fire control systems from being taken out of service in case of a shell hit during action. But in reality they were too flimsy & one of them collapsed, I think, on USS Michigan during a storm & caused some casualties. So they were eventually replaced with the sturdier tripod masts. That question has been asked & answered in several "Drydocks" already.
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  42. Thanks Drach. I'm sure you had fun flying your "little toy" around Battleship New Jersey! If I had a car I would have so been there! I've been to Philly several times. And it's not far from DC at all. I had a friend that once lived between Baltimore & Philly. Back when I was still young.
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  43. And all these years I thought George Harrison was the guitarist for "The Beatles".
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  44. I would agree that if the Japanese had actually used there large battleships to help protect their carriers with anti-aircraft fire that it would have helped preserve their carriers. But the part about US Pilots bombing or torpedoing the battleships INSTEAD of the carriers I seriously doubt that would happen. MAYBE if it was land-base aircraft but US pilots flying off of a carrier is going to see the Japanese Carriers as more of a threat to their own carrier and unless all the carriers are already a fireball, I don't see pilots going after the battleships unless they maybe fly past & rake it with machine gun fire in an effort to take out some of the anti-aircraft gunners. But whatever, that's just one person's opinion & it just happens to be mine. Gotta go do stuff.
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  45. Yeah, considering that I had always thought of the UK in WW2 as General Montgomery & was not impressed by the way he handled himself. Looking at Admiral Cunningham and even Somerville for that matter gives you a much better idea of what the Brits were up to during WW2. Plus the Battle of Britain with the RAF putting a stop to Operation Sea Lion was a crucial part of the war too. Because of the failure of the Battle of Britain, Hitler decided to attack Russia. Which once Germany had the USA & Russia poised against it and the UK as well... Germany was in for a major sh!t storm!!! Talking about biting off more than you can chew? Hitler must have gotten it in his head that he couldn't lose no matter what. When the Battle of Britain should have taught him the exact opposite. You can't take on the whole world all at once! No country is THAT strong. Not the USA, UK, Russia, or China. War sucks. People have to fight & kill & die. I don't like the idea of having to kill or be killed! Even though I would do so to protect our way of life. It doesn't mean that it's something I would enjoy. However, I do have a deep admiration and appreciation for those that have!
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  46. Right around 4:46:00 I heard someone asked a question about Japanese not wanting to surrender & become POW's. I forget now exactly where it was but the British had about 1200 Japanese surrounded in a mangrove swamp & the swamp was infested with crocodiles. Lots of very large crocodiles, as in about 20 or 30 crocodile that were over 20 foot long. Plus hundreds of crocs that were smaller. The Japanese wouldn't come out & surrender but every night the Brits could hear them getting attacked. And they set up a loud speaker urging them to come out & surrender. I'm not sure how long this went on, 3 days to a week I guess. But when they FINALLY came out & surrendered there were only about 400 Japs left. I want to say it was in Burma but I'm not sure. Anyway, it's known for the largest loss of life due to crocodile attacks. Idk, the threat of being eaten by a crocodile, I think I'll be a POW instead, thank you very much. It makes you wonder how many went to take a crap but ended up as crocodile crap instead. P/s The Japanese considered surrender as dishonorable. All the ones that survived long enough to eventually surrender, I wonder if they finally realized that being eaten & digested by a crocodile wasn't very honorable either???? It's kinda horrible that the largest loss of human life due to crocodile attacks happened to the Japanese & the largest loss of human life due to shark attacks happened to the Americans both during WW2 while at war with each other.
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  47. ​@kingleech16 Yeah, I totally agree with you about Bradley! But I also feel like Patton was a victim of bad press as well. While Bradley got good press by trying to give Patton bad press & Bradley also having his nose so far up Eisenhower's arse that Eisenhower had to ask him to step aside when he wanted to sit down. And furthermore, I firmly believe that the Battle of the Bulge made all of that very visible to all of those in Europe at the time. And like Market Garden showed Monty's problems with over complicating a plan to the point that it would never work. The Battle of the Bulge showed that Patton would listen to the men on the front lines & plan accordingly while Bradley was content to listen to "Military Intelligence" which in a lot of ways became an oxymoron! And a large part of the Germans success during the Battle of the Bulge was Bradley refusing to listen to the men stationed at the front of the German spear. They had been claiming for weeks about hearing the building up of forces on the German side. And Bradley chose to believe Military Intelligence rather than service men that were actually there. I believe that at one time Bradley was good at what he was doing. But he got promoted too far too fast to the point that he became too cautious & too indecisive. Both can be beneficial at times. But most times when a battle is raging, decisions have to be made quickly & decisively cuz men's lives are hanging in the balance. To not make a quick decision to either retreat, hold ground or charge the enemy can cause countless deaths with nothing gained except for those deaths! And that was where Bradley was lacking & Patton was on the ball. Cuz Patton wasn't afraid to go to the front to see what his men were facing & suggest alternatives to his subordinates & figure out the least deadly way for his men to proceed! And that kind of respect made his men respect him in return!!@
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  48. And yes, I am ulultimately convinced that if the Japanese hadn't retreated Captain Evans would have led a boarding party and would have taken many Japanese scalps before it was over. For those unaware Evans was of Cherokee Indian desent. I can almost see Evans climbing aboard the enemy warship with his knife in his mouth & a crowd of sailors behind him. The Yamato, largest battleship ever made was impotent in the shadow of Taffy 3.
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  49.  @albertcamerato7673  No freebies. Good grief it's been a long time since I've heard that reference!
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  50. Yeah, a counter boarding action from a submarine, although it would seem unlikely to happen, & even more unlikely to succeed, it was, however, about the only action left for the crew to attempt! And when that failed, evidently,, the Captain decided to beach the sub in order to save the crew men that were left.
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