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

  1. Your reply to the question about the Tillman 4-2 being constructed in 1920 right around the 14:49 min marker is frickin hilarious! Yes, I had always maintained that I didn't think that Great Britain & the US would have gone to war against each other after WW1. However, had the US actually done such a thing, I think war would have been inevitable! Although, after having the Washington Naval Treaty, I don't see how Congress could have justified funding such a thing. It would have been political suicide for every Congress person & senator that voted for such a thing, unless there was some huge glaring reason to do so. And it would have had to been one of those reasons that made every country taking part in the Treaty to understand the breaking of the Treaty. Like undisputable evidence that Japan is building the Yamato's earlier than historical or something similar. But anyway, I absolutely loved your response! You know your people that's for sure!
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  2. Yeah, but if you have anything else to do, I'd say do that instead! Definitely NOT an exciting thing to be doing! At least 50 shades of grey.
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  3. By the number of ships that the Japanese had at hand it was probably much better that Somerville was unable to carry out a night time strike. Especially considering how many carriers the Japanese had & the fact it's difficult to identify what ships are what during the night. It could have been very possible that Somerville's force's could have ended up with planes from 3 or 4 Japanese carriers bearing down on them right after sunrise. Which would have been a major disaster for the Royal Navy. Plus Warspite being attacked by numerous Japanese aircraft does not bare thinking about. Now, just maybe with those forces meeting up with the R-class battleships on the way out would have made for a much more difficult force for strike planes to contend with. It's still a "what if" scenario & I still don't understand why people always want to play "what ifs" when there are literally lots of battles that were just smaller actions that we don't know anything about. "What if" there are some smaller actions that I've never heard of happening? What if, you told us about some of them.
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  4.  @robertyoung3992  Thanks for the heads up. '43 was a mistype, evidently I hadn't proofread.
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  5. Yeah, I liked the part about "No, no, no, you don't set the beaches on fire to 'prevent' the Germans from landing, you let the Germans land & then set the beaches on fire along with the Germans. Well, yeah! Of course you do! If there is an enemy invading your homeland, you will be as ruthless as you can be without ruining your own lands. Although, that is true, I still wouldn't want to use any type of chemicals, such as mustard gas or similar stuff like that.
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  6. Wow, that's a cool piece of info. They bombed Enterprise 2x & lived & Enterprise never sank either so, I guess it was a win, win ,win situation. Except, of course, for the men that were killed or severely mangled by their bombs!!! It makes me wonder if they ever researched & found out the names & origin of the people they killed & wounded in those 2 bombings. Or if they decided they didn't really want to know. Idk, just like our pilots, they were fighting for their country but also trying not to get killed in the process. I'm sure the pilots that sunk the 4 carriers at Midway probably never wanted to know of all the sailors that died that day either. It was a war. You did what you could do & what you were expected to do. Attack & kill the enemy, as many as possible. But then after the war, we are all still human & can't help but wonder what hardships were caused by our actions.
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  7. ​ @darrenblake2362 I'm not sure which Drydock but I'm fairly certain that somewhere between Drydock 300 & 306 he addresses the question of U-530. He tells what is known & then says "I doubt we will ever find out anymore than that."
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  8. Best wishes & I hope you feel better. After you feel better you can maybe look back on this & laugh, but of course, that is not going to happen UNTIL you are feeling better. Thank you for all your hard work. And btw, try cranberry juice, it's good for helping your body detoxify itself.
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  9. I don't think so. The Yamato may have thought it sank the Johnston, however the Johnston was still afloat & taking action after Yamato turned & ran from US torpedoes in the water & never returned to the battle. It was Japanese destroyers that finally sank the Johnston cuz they were making a run on the escort carriers & Johnston cut them off from doing so. And then all of the Japanese destroyers just pummeled the Johnston until it sank. Or so I heard. It's not like I was there but from the narrative I've heard, that's what I believe to be true. Thank you & have a good day, sir. And, I believe Johnston did take a hit from Yamato & soon after entered a rain squal. And because of that Yamato recorded sinking an enemy "cruiser." What Drach says here is it "helped sink" the Gambia Bay & the Johnston. But I think it was the Kongo that scored a main battery hit on the Johnston. And I think that the Kongo was still firing Armor Piercing rounds too.
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  10. Yeah, I actually had no idea that there had been so many ships involved until recently. When I just happened to "stumble" on some stuff about Bikini Atoll & started reading about it on Wikipedia. But the footage he showed was great and still I'm amazed at how many ships they used and the poor little piggies getting cooked alive. Wonder if anyone brought some Barbecue sauce? 😢 And that was how they got the idea for the microwave oven. 😂 Joking.
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  11. I'm going to have to watch it a couple more times to be "able" to absorb it all.
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  12. Yeah, I would have loved to be able to visit HMS Rodney, even virtually!!! The ship that mainly sank Bismarck with a little help from her friends! And that "All Forward" design imho was a great design too! I liked the fact that they could steam straight at the target & be firing all 9 guns! Especially cuz they are NOT presenting a complete broadside target too, making it more difficult for the enemy ship to get a hit.
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  13. No matter how many times I listen to this story I still cry at the end! We also had a black lab named Chevis that you could talk to like a person & he understood. My step-dad Billy had deer heads on the wall. And he'd say "Chevis, that deer is gonna get you." Which made him bark at the deer head in question.
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  14. ​ @Neithan02  Not a war crime. Just a simple act of dropping a bomb on a city of a nation that refused to surrender even though they were beaten, knew they were beaten & still kept sending young men to their deaths as kamikaze pilots. When all they had to do is basically say "Uncle"!
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  15. ​ @BleedingUranium  Idk, don't see how someone could or would get upset by a ship being named to honor 5 brothers that died serving together on the same ship. But I guess in this world there are all kinds.
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  16. Heck, I'd be happy with just one of the 16" guns &, of course, the hardware & ammunition to be able to fire it too. I've always had a huge love for guns. My favorite American Admiral was "Ching" Lee because of his love for gunnery & the fact that he made sure every ship under his command could fire very accurately. Just like in football, it's NOT practice makes perfect it's "Perfect practice makes perfect!" It was really a shame that Admiral Lee passed away as early as he did. He really could have done so much more for the USN!! However, the USN was so much better during WW2 thanks to the way Lee got things accomplished! That being said he probably saved a lot of American lives due to some of his more simple accomplishments.
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  17. ​​ @Cbabilon675 Arrogance? Or do you mean "ignorance?" Especially considering that information SHOULD HAVE been given to the Captain immediately! Considering the Captain is ultimately responsible for the safety of his ship & crew it was highly negligible to NOT furnish the Captain with this critical information! Admiral should have been flogged in front of Captain and crew!
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  18. I just wish I had the $$ to go see her!! If I had a car then the chance of going would be feasible. But considering that I'm homeless & unemployed atm, I don't expect being able to go any time soon. Back in 2008 I was living in Pensacola, FL & working in Mobile, AL & got to see the USS Alabama otw to work & then otw home every day but cuz I was riding with the crew I never got to tour the great battleship. I'm very proud that lthe state of Alabama was able to keep her out of the scrap yard. However, the old girl looked awful lonely there in the bay. I think that a lot of schools should bring classes to tour some of these ships. When young & studying history sometimes it seems boring. But getting to see & go inside even one of these ships makes the history more real & interesting.
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  19. Johnny Walker Blue if they have any old enough to be "Blue". Idk, Jack Daniel's may have been more fitting but Russians drink Vodka & Japanese drink saki.
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  20. Speaking of furniture, yes, you'd be surprised things that can be made into furniture. My Stepdad, worked for a while at a place that built furniture out of whiskey barrels.
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  21. It's not necessarily the guns being more powerful as it is the shells being fired. Just like the shells being made in a very uniform manner as well as the propellant charges being the same is going to make accuracy much better as well. But I definitely like the way the ship looks as well. The way they have the 3 turrets up front they resemble the Hood. And idk, for some reason I have always thought that if you have a main battery turret aft then you are planning at some point to have to fire on a ship while running away. And although it does make sense considering you may need to turn around during a battle in order to NOT open the range too much. But, idk, it's like having a turret aft is like planning to fail.
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  22. Been there, done that. Never did I think being hungry for an Arby's roast beef sandwich would be hazardous to my health! But it was. There it was on the other side of the road. It was December 17, 2020 and I had several friends give me Christmas presents & I had two large paper bags, one in each arm. I pressed the button to cross the road & waited for the light to change. The light changed and I checked the turn lane behind me for cars. No one in the turn lane so I started crossing. I never saw it coming. But I realized, I'm flying thru the air. "Why am I flying thru the air?" I thought to myself. Well, my common sense kicked in and told me= you just got hit by a car & chances are you have broken legs. Not sure how long I was in the air & didn't feel it when I hit pavement. I was lying in the middle of the road. 3 lanes one way 3 lanes the other. I did inventory. My right leg was OK. My left wasn't. Evidently I was in mid-stride & when the car hit me & it hit my left ankle while it was in the air. My ankle was broken badly! Actually the only thing that still kept my foot attached to me was my Achilles tendon. I pulled my phone out & dialed 911. After I spoke to the operator I called the lady I stay with & told her where I was & what had happened. She didn't believe me at first. Then she was like "OMG!" Although the ambulance crew got all my stuff & took it to the hospital all my stuff was stolen at the hospital after they took me to surgery. Including my phone which I had under my butt & my wallet with $320 cash. Why none of the nurses had security get my stuff idk. Maybe they did but decided that they wanted it. I'll never know for sure. But I was discharged 4-5 days later with no belongings. Not even my coat was still with me. Needless to say it was a very rotten Christmas. Not as bad as 2015 when my wife passed away but still not good! The only friends I had tried calling the hospital but I hadn't updated any of my emergency contacts since my wife had died. So the hospital wouldn't tell them anything. And wouldn't tell me people were trying to call me either. Now I'm homeless living in & around Washington DC. But I listen to Drach on my phone for entertainment. A reminder that there is still intelligent people living in this world.
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  23. Number 1) Wright actually should have never been in charge of this action. They should have promoted one of the Captain's from one of the many Cruisers they had already lost to be in charge of this action. At least they had seen & been in action with the Japanese and was fully aware of their capabilities. Number 2) The order to "Not fire without permission should have NEVER been given!" Number 3) The destroyers should have fired their torpedoes and then just simply told Admiral Wright they had done so. That in itself would have saved countless American lives & ships as well. Number 4) When torpedoes start hitting other ships in your column, you would think that the Captain's of other ships would make evasive maneuvers to ensure their own ship was not also hit. It's like Tweedle Deedee & Tweedle Deedum were leading the Three Stooges in a Night Action against the Imperial Japanese Navy. And it pisses me off at the lack of intelligence and the sheer stupidity of the Cruiser Captains at this part of the war. Number 5) The fact that Admiral Wright received a "Navy Cross" for this action is completely & utterly absurd. He should have been demoted & given station on one of the less populated Aleutian Islands. Where hopefully he couldn't get more young Americans killed by his lack of using the brain God gifted to him! Number 6) The Japanese should have put Tanaka in charge of the Center Force during the Battle of Leyte Gulf! BUT, I'm VERY, VERY GLAD they didn't!!! Cuz all of Taffy 3 would have been torn apart. And Tanaka would have had Battleship Yamato firing on the troops ashore at Leyte Gulf. Idk, it may have even taken out MacArthur, which wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing except for all the other soldiers that would have been killed in the process. Number 7) If Wright had been briefed about the previous battles surrounding Guadal Canal then he should have known to NOT give the order to ask permission before firing. In the darkness surrounding Guadal Canal the previous battles had shown that waiting for permission to fire DOES NOT WORK! The US Destroyers should have just unleashed their torpedoes, told Wright they had done so, & told him to open fire once the first torpedo finds it's mark or if the enemy changes course.
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  24. THAT is a video so technical I'm going to have to rewatch it. When I saw it & started it I had just woke up. And it took a bit for my brain to get acquainted with what I was listening to. It makes me wonder if we have video of these systems actually being used in the past. And I am constantly amazed at how much intelligence goes into making these systems long before actual computer systems were developed. And thought it rather hilarious that modern computers couldn't withstand the shock of the 16" guns being fired. But the fact that they were able to build a machine that could make these calculations and arrive at where the target is going to be when the shells arrive down range almost a minute after they are fired has always been impressive to me. And although the target ship can change course when they see a muzzle flash of the guns firing, if they do so, they will be throwing away their current fire control data & starting over. And considering the spread you get with 9 battleship guns firing, even a small change in course may not throw off the gunnery of the opposing ship. Let's face it, HMS Hood not only did this but did it in a way that would open a firing angle for its aft turret. But in doing so suffered a hit detonating her aft 15" magazine. However, that being said we are not sure if the turn had started and/or how far into the turn Hood was when she exploded. Although Prince of Wales was right behind her POW had to turn to avoid the wreckage of Hood.
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  25. I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! Pure gold! Thank you Drach! It is these kinds of stories that reinvigorate my love for this channel! Thanks for all that you do! You are the Best!
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  26. I once saw a guy wearing a cap that SAID "USS Samuel B Roberts". Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to meet him. I was on the sidewalk & he was the passenger in a car.
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  27. Nah, "Mini-Drach" is really "his & her" kid. The clone thing is totally separate. He actually has 2 clones & keeps them locked in separate basements. One he has working on all the research & writing all the scripts. The other clone has to learn the scripts & record them after "Original Drach" gives his approval of the final drafts. And while the clones are doing all the work, Original Drach gets to travel around & gather film footage & play with his little drone toys. And also spend time with the wife & child. And make his "appearance" at certain places too! And don't think that Drach is going to let his child be subjected to working for his channel. Yeah his wife might do the voice of the mine, but he isn't going to make his loved ones work for him! Why, you ask? Cuz he's a mean & cruel boss. He's even harder on himself than he is on the clones of himself. Why you ask? Cuz he knows himself very well. And if he over works his clones they will revolt. So he makes each clone think that he is doing more than twice the work! And cuz of that each clone is happy.
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  28. Yeah, I would have to totally agree with that. And I don't understand why he was NOT. Was there anything else that disqualified him of commanding one of the new Essex's? If it weren't for him & his crew doing such a great job of patching up Yorktown, Enterprise or Hornet may have taken damage instead of Yorktown. Edit: But also The US Navy did have a habit of after a man had commanded a ship at sea for so long of giving that person a land based commission for a while before giving them another ship. You never can tell, he may have met a woman & asked to be stationed somewhere specific or anything like that. I seriously doubt they dissed him on purpose but idk, you never can tell about these things. He could have just stepped on Kings toes or something.
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  29. Thanks again! Just when I REALLY NEED a good laugh. Sometimes you are much better than stand up comedy.
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  30. @john_in_phoenix  Anyone that has kept up with all the Drach videos for the past 4-5 years can probably tell you a lot about naval history.
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  31. My point about the Iowa vs Yamato. On a one on one fight the Yamato has 18" guns so if the Iowa's are not using a super heavy shell then then the Yamato can start hitting the Iowa before the Iowa can answer. And if those first hits take out something vital it could be over. But, in my opinion, the Japanese Yamato's is the USA's version of the Montana's. Soo, if we are going to play all of these "what if" scenarios(that basically gets on my nerves btw) then how about both Yamato ships squaring off with 2 of the Montana's??? Hey if ya gonna do it, either do it BIG or go home!
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  32. ​​​ @davidmcintyre8145 Actually from what I've heard most engineers in the USN were fairly good at making & camouflaging miniature stills in the bowels of the ships. As long as certain people looked the other way Stills capable of making numerous gallons of moonshine and a good deal of beer after the liquor. Not to mention home-made wines as well considering most gallies could requisition extra yeast & fruits. While the ice cream makers definitely came in handy in the heat of the Pacific. And during WW2 the USN had an entire barge dedicated to making ice cream for the fleet just to keep morale high.😊
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  33. You know the moment you said that Callahan was new to the area & just barely Scott's senior, I got that feeling that everything was going to go horribly wrong. An Admiral should NEVER tell underlings to seek permission to open fire. That would give them a major disadvantage in the face of the enemy.
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  34. HATE, is a terrible thing. You shouldn't do that to yourself. Hating anything can make you evil. And then you find yourself hating more & more. And it gives those things power over your thoughts & feelings. If you just mearly dislike something then it gives you the freedom to rule yourself. I was playing guitar for tips outside a Metro station near DC & a person remarked to me "Don't you just hate people that DON'T give?" I replied "Over 99% of those that go past do not give. That is way too much for me to try to hate!"
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  35. So 3 years ago you had 5k viewers. NOW, this video has been up for about 3 hours and already has over 10k viewers. That is really awesome. I happened to tell a friend about your Channel and he said, "I had no idea that that was something would interest you." And, of course, I had to say that I didn't either until I started checking it out. It is history, and it was because of my interest in WW2 that led me to find the channel, but within a lot of these ships were life & death struggles & how they were built had influence on those struggles. Plus, idk, you give all the stories an extra flair too. It's like I'm hearing Monty Python do a serious lecture about warships & stories related to warships. If that makes any sense? Hope it does.
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  36. Never under- estimate an "angry tea kettle"!!! Especially one with 12" guns & a ram bow!Once it starts whistling steam, best look out & get out of it's way! Or as Monty Python put it: "RUN AWAY!!!"
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  37. I know 2 years may seem like a long time from asking & then FINALLY receiving. However, I'm sure that he "added it to the list." And by then he already had a VERY long list! But still very interesting submarines. If these types had been built during peace time & allowed time to fix any issues before war broke out, then a large quantity of these subs would have been a bitch to have to deal with. But given the advances in sub hunting and the Hedgehogs and all the different new types of depth charges & sonar. It may have only meant that an extra 2k or so German submarine sailors perish beneath the ocean waves. Although war in most ways advances different technologies rather rapidly, it also hampers certain advances as well. And while you can't really say whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, it just is what it is.
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  38. While manufacturing separate components & latching them all together into a finished product isn't exactly unheard of at the time, for one it seems that it does pose certain difficulties but at the same time poses easier solutions to some problems too. What a strange & difficult process it must have been. But at the same time, also you'd think they would have thought about how to get all the needed machinery inside the thing before it all latches together!
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  39. Yeah, Germany too.
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  40. @Drachinifel I would be more than happy to hear about other exercises that the Royal Navy carried out in the early 1900's. Up until now I'd listened to the USN fleet problem exercises but because you hadn't mentioned the Royal Navy exercises, I wasn't sure if you had access to their results, especially cuz, idk, I would think cuz you're in the UK that it would be easier to get RN results than USN results. I also think that it's really awesome that you actually have film footage of a lot of these vessels. Considering the time period I'm sure that is rare.
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  41. Yeah, the question about building a large modular type of battleship & refitting it with bigger guns ever so often also runs into another problem. After about 20 years the boilers are going to need replacing. And any hull that has been encountering even semi-rough seas will also either need to be THOROUGHLY checked for stressed places that could result in catastrophic fractures. And, to be honest, not exactly sure how old HMS Hood's hull was but I think that may have been why Hood went up like it did. Is that because of were & tear on the ship that there was a soft spot above the 15" magazine that that shell just happened to find & exploit. And for a few moments it was almost like a Roman candle but then it was just too much & it blew the ship in half. Such a terrible & quick loss of a lot of lives! At least they were at sea & in a battle. The Arizona being blown apart in port, makes you wonder why no one thought to flood the magazines, cuz when bombs are falling that is the biggest danger. And other ships had flooded their magazines.
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  42. Wow. The part about the fate of the all the different Admirals was a very good point. While on the American side Fletcher imho had done a better job than most. And Admiral Lee's untimely demise was very sad. However, of the Japanese Admirals it seems that the ones that were the best were given shore duty & easily survived the war. While I would agree that Kurita made some poor decisions in the Naval Battle of Samar in his defense he had suffered a head wound & had also witnessed Musashi being sunk the day before & he probably didn't want to see the same thing happen to Yamato.
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  43. I would have to agree with you on that point. Especially considering that the DesMoines design with the autoloader 8" guns was such a success. That a larger version of the autoloaders would make for a very nice escort to those carriers. But at the same time I don't agree with sinking that much money into a single carrier either. If a war does take place & carriers are getting damaged and/or sunk that's a lot of money being sunk. When they could build smaller but more carriers and so not to place so many eggs in one basket so to speak. And another thing too is a ship built with larger autoloader guns could in theory take out sea skimming missiles by shooting HE rounds in front of the missiles causing them to run into the large splashes that result. Also making it good to have around these multi-billion $ carriers. However, if these billion dollar warships deter any & all nations from starting a major war with the US, UK or any other NATO countries then I believe that to be money well spent. And if we do somehow engage in some major war with likes of China or Russia, then we are going to need all the help we can get. And warships take a long time to build, so any war that happens will have to happen with the ships we already have. That's a major reason I wish they had a fleet of large autoloaders similar to the DesMoines. Cuz I believe that they could be built to have speed & firepower with less crew. And there are sometimes areas in which you don't want to risk sending a 13 billion $ carrier. But a fast moving battleship can support landings in many more ways than a carrier can.
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  44. I think some of the Japanese Admirals used that same ploy in WW2, by clearly LOSING a battle, but then they come home and claim VICTORY. But in the case of the Japanese the Gov't didn't want the civilians to know the war was going badly. So the Admiral was reassigned but not killed or reprimanded.
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  45. What gets me about the Hood, is that it was GONE IN 3 MINUTES!!!(GONE IN 180 SECONDS!!!) For a ship that big to go completely beneath the surface of the water in 3 minutes is truly incredible & VERY VERY SCARY!!! Taking 1415 lives with it & only leaving behind 3 men. It boggles the mind! With that being said, I myself having no idea of the layout of the ship, AND I thought it was obvious as ti what had happened. They were in a battle, firing these huge shells at the Bismarck with Bismarck firing back. Bismarck just happened to hit the most vulnerable part of the ship AND it blew up & sank in a matter of minutes. It being the flag ship of the British Navy & undoubtedly THE most famous warship in the world, the British, of course, want to know exactly what happened, so that maybe if it's some error in the design, then we can learn from it & make sure it NEVER happens again. Very understandable, you never want to lose a ship that is worth millions plus over 1400 lives of our countrymen. Like I said, in war, bad things are going to happen.
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  46. Yeah the Atlanta getting shot up by San Francisco on one side & the IJN on the other side. Plus the Atlanta & Juneau is made more for anti-aircraft rather than anti-surface fire. And taking a long lance is even major for a battleship much less a small cruiser! Poor guys.
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  47. Reading comments from 5 years ago, about French ships that were designed & built over a century ago. And weren't obsolete when they were launched. They were obsolete when they were designed. Or redesigned. Experiments? I guess that would explain their reason for existing! Were any actually "commissioned" into the French Navy? Must have been a very embarrassing day for all the French people to see such a monstrous waste of their tax money. "The boilers & guns don't work but we have a wonderful store of wine & fine cheeses so we have plenty while sitting anchored in port. We can just pretend that the Brits have us in a blockade like a century ago!" Well, that's my 2 cents worth! Do what you will with it!
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  48. Yeah, the US wasn't even putting torpedoes on their cruisers anymore because they felt that they were more of a hazard than a useful weapon. Factor in the range of the long Lance but the DANGER of the liquid oxygen & who's to say what decisions would be made? While I can see it being useful at first, once the enemy gets wise to the range of those torpedoes they become more dangerous than useful. Because the enemy will eventually figure out that those torpedoes have such a range because of the liquid oxygen & will take advantage of it's vulnerability! Most wars are a learning experience. Knowing what the enemy can do to hurt you most & and knowing how to avoid it while also using your own capabilities to injure the enemy as much as possible!
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  49. ​ @mitchm4992 Reason being that when planes need to abort their landing they have a tendency to pull the stick to the left. So they put the islands on the right side of the carrier to prevent pilots from crashing into the island on aborted landings. That way pilots & bridge crew are safer. Except for left handed pilots😮.
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  50. At 31:10 you are asked about the success of the design of the Essex's, the Fletcher's & the Iowa's. And one thing that you didn't think about was the fact that the USA also incorporated CIC's. And that way all the ships involved in an action know more about everything that is going on and can act accordingly better with all ships involved!
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