Comments by "John Fisher" (@johnfisher9692) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. Another weakness of Japanese carriers is that only one ventilation system was used whereas British carrier used a separate system for the hanger and another for the ship. This is what spread the fumes around the entirety of Japanese ships and why they were so vulnerable to battle damage. British precautions for the aviation fuel stowage were also very strict and although it meant they carried less fuel, no British carrier suffered from a bulk fuel fire like the Japanese carriers.
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  2. Great video and corrects many misconceptions about the Russian 2nd Pacific squadron. Because of the defeat some authors describe them and the commanding Admiral as totally incompetent when in fact they were brave and skilled people who fought as well as they could given the disadvantages of their circumstances. The Japanese fleet fought just as well but had every advantage possible with the exception of sheer numbers, and in this case quantity was NOT a quality all of its own.
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  3. Thanks Drach If I'm going back to the 1930's to rebuild my Dreadnoughts I'm going to want to grab all my reference books but my preference is to actually grab Drach to come back with me. I can only imagine the fun he would have when turned loose with full knowledge, authority and hopefully finance's to refit to his hearts content. Maybe I'd better bring Lady Drach too, otherwise Drach would be sad. Yes Drach, just step into the big blue Police box, nothing to worry about, Honest!
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  4. Great video The biggest flaw of the Z plan was it required the British and French to do absolutely nothing about expanding and modernizing their Navies. It bears frightening similarity to Tirpitz's Risk-flotte theory which ultimately proved a failure and a disaster for Germany. Strangely teh H-39's had even thinner belt armour than Bismarck and the inclusion of underwater torpedo tubes is strange considering all the problems encountered with them in WW1. It also weakens the hull and reduces watertight integrity. The 'fantasy' H-44 design was to have 20 inch guns and considering all the problems Yamato had with blast effect from her guns, I shudder to think what the effects of these monsters would have. Not to mention the very slow firing rate. With your redesigned German ships Drach, another thing to get rid of is the German obsession with the Triple screw propulsion system. It has been proved that either a twin or quad screw is better as the quad allows steering with the engines in case of rudder damage cough Bismarck cough Navies prefer a quad for larger ships as it provides redundency, which the military loves.
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  5. The Japanese use of submarines was very different to the German. The concentration on attacking warships made the task of guarding convoys in the Pacific much easier for the US Navy. I shudder to think of the havoc of German U-boats using wolf pack attacks against the less experienced US escorts in the Pacific The large size of the Japanese subs worked against them in evading an attacking warship.
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  6. Thanks Drach It is strange just how similar the fates of Craddock and Von Spee are. Both faced opponents with vastly superior ships and numbers and displayed outstanding courage and determination to do their duty. This battle also proved that Jackie Fishers "Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers" were excellent ships when used for the role they were designed for, not against the fast Battleships that was Hipper's 1stSG. Wonder how faster the battle would have been if the British ships had fully working AP shells? A flaw Jellicoe noted when he was 3rd Sea Lord but sadly did not pursue the matter after he left that position.
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  7. Love the Essex class. They were excellent carriers at war and the large number of uses they eventually filled proved the versatility of their basic design and the amount of growth built into them.
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  8. I can't imagine a twelve year old today doing what Nelson did. How times change
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  9. I can remember when you first started doing the Drydock and wondered that if there was enough interest you'd do more. As we approach episode 300, have you decided whether or not there is enough interest from your adoring public?😆
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  10. Thanks Drach. Nice to hear the correct music again. Someone in the US Bureau of Ordnance had a flash of brilliance, pity they never had the same for the torpedoes.
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  11. I can understand your heart break at the decision of scrapping the beautiful HMS Hood as one of the five choices but Hood was a hurried redesign to partially incorporate the lessons of Jutland. Scrapping her, Renown and Repulse in favour of building properly redesigned Admiral class ships does make sence, even if it's a cold blooded decision.
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  12. Great video The KGV's are the most under rated BB's of WW2. Too many concentrate on their 14inch guns and use this as a basis for their attack on the class but don't do the research to find out just how effective these guns were. In many ways better than their opponents 15inch weapons. As you stated, their armour was the heaviest in the world until the Yamato class came along and the only ship to be lost was sunk by a combination of a very heavy air attack (which would have sunk any capital ship at the time) and some bad luck in just where the torpedo hit. In battle the class did everything that was asked of them and did it well. With hindsight it's clear 9x14inch guns in 3 turrets would have been a better choice as well as a raked bow and more spacious turrets for the secondary guns. But hindsight is 20/20 after all. I could fix all this if I could get my TARDIS working. lol.
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  13. Liked the new start to the video One major problem with the US Treaty cruisers is that in order to save weight all the guns were mounted in single sleeve and could only elevate or depress as a complete unit whereas other Navies mounted the guns individually. As no two guns ae aver identical this was a weakness in the design which was also shared by some US BB's
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  14. Love the new intro. It shows just how much work went into building a ship and how physical it was at the start of the 20th century. And dangerous given there was no such thing as OH&S then. I read someone stating that the Washington Treaty didn't prevent WW2, but it probably prevented the Anglo-American war of the mid 1920's. Your point about if the UK-Japanese treaty continued brings this to mind. Q&A Would it have been useful if some of the light carriers had forgone strike aircraft and been pure fighter carriers designated to protect the fleet from enemy air attack. Given the smaller size of fighters you could carry much more of them and I think they would be a potent defence. Given the size of an Independence class air group of 24 fighters, 12 Db's and 9 Tb's I coud see an all fighter group of perhaps 55-60 aircraft. Later fighters were also powerful enough to carry a significant bomb or rocket load and could be used as attack aircraft in the absence of enemy aircraft.
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  15. Poor Langley The USN just couldn't make up their mind on what to do with the hull. Does she hold the record for the more roles she was rebuilt for? Or the Weight Watchers record for the most weight lost?
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  16. Well WoWs is a game with only a tenuous contact with reality. Their world view is very simple 1. Russian ships are godly 2. German and Japanese ships are demi-gods 3. Most others are...acceptable 4. British ships are punching bags and jokes to be nerfed They really seem to hate anything British. Jealousy probably.
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  17. Thanks for another informative video I had read about the half charge used by Monitor's guns. Thanks for clearing up the misconception.
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  18. The last Drydock for 2019 (sigh) Thanks for all your hard work in giving we naval history buffs our weekly reason to live :) And we'll be here in 2020 for more educational video on one of our favorite subjects The 10 ugliest non french ships was amusing. Poor French ships do nave a reputation before the beautiful shi[s bruilt just before WW2.
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  19. It just goes to show that no matter how strong we build ships or how arrogantly we think they are unsinkable, the power of nature leaves us humbled and in awe of her fury,
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  20. Excellent video I loved how you pointed out both the strengths and falws of these huge ships. All too many comment on just how powerful their guns were and how thick their armour was but ignore the lesser quality of that armour. Thick armour is nice, but if it is too brittle it will shatter and cause damage to the ship rather than protecting it. Another point against these ships is the massive cost of building up the infrastructure required to just construct them. Building slips had to be strengthened as did the cranes. A special ship built just to transport the huge gun turrets from the builders to the construction dock. The list goes on and should be added to the cost of the class. Another "weak" point of the class was the massive muzzle blast of those huge guns. The reason all the AA guns had shields was not to protect the crew from strafing aircraft but to protect them from the blast of the main guns, which could easily concuss anyone on the deck. And just imagine the horrific shock and blast damage,20inch guns would do to the ship and crew. Sometimes bigger isn't better and a British RN saying comes to mind "A lot of good ships are better than a few outstanding one's"
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  21. The ships cancelled by the Washington Treaty and their successors are truly fascinating and will forever be considered for many "What If" scenarios. The drawing of the Number 13 with the guns of B turret do seem to have an extremely high elevation.
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  22.  @Kyudaimonia  Well said. Germanophiles rave about the awesomeness of the WW2 ships, but history shows them to be poor value for money given the massive flaws in their design. I do wonder what the British design teams could have produced with the money and tonnage restrictions removed.
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  23. Excellent video Drachinifel All too many people rave about eh strengths of the Bismarck class yet ignore their weaknesses, yours is one of the few that point out the bad points of their armouring, especially the decks. While the Scharnhorst class had thicker belt armour than Bismarck, their decks were only 50mm, making them VERY vulnerable to long range fire and as you pointed out, the main power and communication lines were above the deck armour, therefore any hits could cause massive problems. Another point I have to bring up isn't a problem with the ships, but their ammunition. Few people comment on the very poor quality of heavy German naval shells in WW2. German naval shells had a high rate of failure, many only partially detonating or failing to go off at all. This would significantly affect the battle but it's something no game would actually program in as the players wouldn't think it fair if they played the Germans. Examination of PoW when to returned to harbour showed how little damage was caused by the poor quality of German ammunition. The most devastating hit was when a shell went through the bridge without exploding but killed most of the bridge crew. I think they found a dud shell from Bismarck and carefully removed it.
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  24. Always informative and entertaining Drach. The 43knot Hood, Wow, That'd give the chills to any foe trying to fight it. "Admiral, we cannot target the Hood" "Why Not?" "We can't depress the guns fast enough given its closure rate"
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  25. Thanks Drach A great ship bravely handled with a gutsy crew. Watching about USS Johnston's last fight it brought to mind an image of the skinny Steve Rogers from Captain America wavering on his feet saying "I can do this all day"
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  26. An ironclad returned as a wooded ship as the armour was worse than useless Not an 'honor' you want
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  27. And I don't blame Rodney being so upset at having a nice vacation being endangered. Who wouldn't get pissy.
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  28. Excellent video As you stated, there was nothing wrong with the original concept of the BC, it only went bad when the British used them for a role they were never designed for. And the loss of the three at Jutland was more due to very poor ammunition and cordite handling than a flawed design. The same almost happened to Seydlitz at Dogger bank but thanks to the courage and skill of the crew who flooded her magazines the ship was saved and the HSF learned a valuable lesson, something the British would have to wait for Jutland to learn.
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  29. Thanks for another video Despite their flaws the Nelson class were very powerful ships and not to be ignored. Yours is the first I've seen which actually mention the highly effective method of using water as additional armour. This is usually ignored by so others due to limited research. In defense of the so called "cheating" by the British with the water displacement armour scheme I say it was perfectly legal and NOT cheating as ANY other Navy could have done the exact same thing IF they had thought of it. This is far, far different compared to the total lies and treaty violations done by the Japanese, Germans and Italians as their ships did exceed the Standard Displacement as defined by the Washington Treaty or the case of the Germans, The Anglo-German Naval Treaty.
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  30. Poor Drach, running on fumes, it seems you need to put into dock for a refueling. Isn't coffee the fuel of we organic beings? Or seeing you're British. Tea? Have a great holiday. I've read a great deal about both Nelson and Jackie Fisher and both Admirals left an indelible mark of the Royal Navy. Would love to see a special on Admiral Fisher as there is far less written about him than Nelson. Jackie is a very...colourful person. A life time Naval officer who hated war but if it came he would throw himself whole heartedly into winning the war. He said "Humanize War, you may as well try to humanize HELL!" Nelson's contribution can best be summed up as "It takes the Navy two years to build a Battleship, it takes two hundred years to build a tradition" I had a thought about the question of the RN in the 1920's if Britain remained Neutral in WW1. A lot of the expansion of US industry was made possible due to the near unbelievably vast amounts of British money given to the US for supplies during WW1. Without that, could the US find the funds to expand its industrial base to continue the build up its Navy?
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  31. AS always, thanks for the time and effort you put into these wonderful video's I agree with you about HMS Hood. It was a good and effective design when it was commissioned and deserved its moniker "The Mighty Hood" It was lost due to fighting a ship 20 years younger than itself where it hadn't never had a proper full refit. It does not deserve to be on this list. A flaw I see in the Italian CL's is how very, very close together the guns are in the turrets. Not a good feature. One question I keep forgetting to bring up is the fact Bismarck knocked out it's own radar when firing its main guns. Wouldn't this have been revealed in the ships working up period?? It must have fired its guns during training, so why wasn't this problem found then?
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  32. Agree completely Another question no one wants to ask is : If the Nazi's had broken their word (and we know Hitler's track record of keeping treaty's) and lunged after the French fleet in 1940, COULD the French navy have scuttles the ships or would the confusion of the time let the Nazi's capture the fleet? Especially with the government at Vichy doing everything to aid their nre German friends. The Frech make much of the scuttling at Toulon in 1942, but they had two YEARS to prepare it. In the confusion of 1940 could they guarantee!!! they would have been successful? No they couldn't and could ANY nation take such a risk of such a powerful fleet falling into enemy hands? If the positions were reversed I think the French would have done exctly the same thing.
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  33. Thanks Drach When you started these did you ever, in either your wildest imaginings (or nightmares) think you would reach the level it has? And I've been listening and learning (oh the horror! lol) since I found this channel in its single digits. Thank you so much for all you have done. And an even bigger thanks to Mrs Drach for putting up with it all
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  34. Thanks for another great video Regarding the Japanese lack of anti submarine, ability I have to say they weren't the only one's who failed to learn the lessons of WW1. With the U.S. entry into WW2 Germany deployed a small number of U-boats to the US East coast where they wrecked absolute havoc. The American's totally rejected all plea's from the British to institute a convoy system as they declared "That wasn't the proper role for a fighting navy" and instead relied on regular patrols of DD's moving at high speed to deter attacks. We all know how that worked out. Q&A: I do have a question about the Anglo-German Naval Treaty of 1935. My research shows that Treaty allowed Germany to build up to 35% of the RN and the Germans insisted that meant total tonnage. I'm sure I have read the British insisted the Germans had to comply with the same limits pf individual tonnage the British were by the Washington and London Treaty's. Can you provide anything on this. I feel the British would not have been so stupid as to allow themselves to be so limited but allow Germany to build any size ships they felt like and feel that the extreme's Germany went to to hide the true displacement of their ships supports the fact they were supposed to obey the limits of the Washington and London Treaty's. Regarding the Tennessee Vs QE battle mid 1920s, a further factor to didn't mention is the cage masts of the US ships. These suffered badly from vibration, especially at high speed and would have effected the Tennessee's gunnery.
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  35. You really show just how fast technology developed during and after WW2. It was so rapid that a new fighter was barely introduced into service that it's replacement was just around the corner, which must have made this very "Popular" with the crew designated to service aircraft. I can hear them sighing "Not another new type" It also show the strength of the Essex class and how well they were designed that they were able to adapt to aircraft never dreamed of when they were on the board.
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  36. Thanks for a brilliant and well thought out and researched video. The massive numerical advantage held by the Allies at the end of the war makes any chance of a German victory unlikely, especially as many of the flaws revealed at Jutland had been corrected. Then again a Naval victory wasn't the point of the German plan, it was to get better terms at the peace conference table and to avenge German honour. Points a game cannot truly duplicate is that by late 1918 many ships of the High Seas Fleet were in poor mechanical condition due to low crew morale and falling discipline. Also many of the best officers and crew had been transferred to U-boats reducing efficiency and skills. Another point is that the quality of coal available to the HSF was very poor which would rapidly affect speed,
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  37. Thank you for a detailed report on one of the most important and powerful classes of Battleships ever completed. HMS Warspite seems to have had an extra special level of protection built in given her legendary ability to survive damage which would have sent many a lesser ship to the bottom. That model is awesome Drach and I am both envious and jealous of it. Take very good care of it and if by some impossible to understand reason, you get tired of it, put me down as someone who would be delighted to offer it a home. I used to build those Airfix models when younger but my skills were never of this caliber, and my eyesight has deteriated too much to ever hope of doing so again.
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  38. Thanks for another great episode The information about how difficult it is to build a large naval gun was an eye opener. I knew it took a long time to build them but didn't truly understand just how exacting it was. And they had to be strong to withstand the pressure of hundreds or pounds of cordite going off multiple times. On the Canadian BB. I do feel you made an error in this. If Canada had gone for the 10x15inch gun ship it would NOT have been capable of 25 knots. The original design for the QE's was a 10x15 inch gun ship capable of 21 knots as per the rest of the fleet. Calculations showed that they could remove Q turret and still have a broadside heavier than the 10x13.5 armed ships. By removing Q turret the space saved was used for more boilers to produce a 25 knot BB to act as a fast wing for the fleet. As to whether this ship would have survived the Washington Treaty would be the source of numerous debates. The Americans raised a massive stink over HMAS Australia, They demanded it be scrapped as they declared it part of the British fleet despite if being the flagship of the Australian navy as H.M. A. S., note the A there, and our only capital ship. I feel the Americans would have been similarly adamant about a proper Super Dreadnought even if it was the flagship of the Canadian navy as HMCS Canada. Another vital facility the Japanese ignored at Pearl Harbor was the vital machine shops and repair yards. If these had been destroyed, or even heavily damaged, it would have played havoc with attempts to maintain or repair any ship. The Japanese seemed to be more interested in a limited tactical victory and propaganda coup than in an intelligent, long term strategic success.
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  39. With all the praise heaped on German ships it's annoying that all too many people ignore just how massively they exceeded the treaty limits. Yes, they were forced to sign the Versailles Treaty, but that's what happens when you lose a war. These ships were not 'slightly' overweight. They exceeded the Versailles treaty limits of 10,000 tons by between 17-21%. That's a huge margin and any ships going over their design specs by that much would have severe sea keeping and stability problems and their speed would suffer. As this wasn't the case, these ships were designed to exceed the limits and Germany just lied and understated thir true tonnage as they later did for all their large surface ships. Much like Japan did for their cruisers and carriers. How about a video about the Flower class corvettes for all the incredible work they did escorting merchant ships in the Altantic in some of the worst weather.
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  40. Great as always Drach Wow, a class of seven BC's. That would have been the largest class of German capital ships ever built. I can easily imagine the British building even more ships to counter them.
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  41. Two things I thought of to do when waking up as Admiral Kimmel is to send every sub I could racing on the surface to intercept the Japanese fleet and have a signal standing by to inform them of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour and take appropriate action. And send out recon aircraft along the same path, If discovered I think the Japanese fleet would have run for home. Sending the three Hippers out to raid Atlantic convoys has one big flaw. The absolutely terrible reliability of their machinery. It;s not hard to see them broken down and just awaiting capture due to engine failure. Thanks for the shout out regarding the RAN. Yes we are Tasmanian devils, not very big compared to some others, but with one hell of a powerful bite for our size.
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  42. Thanks Drach for another HMAS story Not hard to imagine of what Canberra's survivors thought of Turner and his USA first orders.
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  43. I'm tired Need to go to sleep WAIT, a New Dry Dock episode. COFFEE TIME!! Thanks for more learning and lack of sleep Drach. Your dedication to posting awesome episodes is fantastic and much appreciated. A battle between the German HSF and the US Navy would be compounded by each side's lack of bases and ability to refuel after a long voyage to just reach the enemy's coast. I have rad German ships were "famous" for the lack of comfort in their ships. This was accepted as they were designed for shout duration voyages and the crew would leave the ship and live in barracks ashore while in harbour. Despite the Kaiser and Tirpitz denying the HSF was aimed at Britain.
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  44. Thanks Drach HMS Hood was the largest warship for decades and certainly one of the most beautiful ships ever built. It is a tragedy she never got the reconstruction she deserved, if she had I think Bismarck's voyage would have ended in much sooner
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  45. Merry Christmas to you, Mrs Drach and of course Baby Drach's first Christmas Don't be surprised if she finds the wrapping paper just as much (perhaps more) fun as the actual presents
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  46. Thanks Drachinifel. You've convinced me, I'll stop imitating Kaiser Wilhelm ll who designed BB's in his spare time. I'm hiring some professionals to design and build my Dreadnoughts. And there's no way I;m naming any of them Captain.
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  47. Agree with you completely. The fuel tanks should have been one of the priority targets. The strongest fleet in the world is harmless without fuel. The Japanese didn't think like professional military people, they thought more like solo warriors rather than a coordinated military. As they say a champion team will beat a team of champions every time. Or in this case, soldiers beat warriors.
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  48. French warship design certainly was a confused mess. Did they start their discussion after they were well lubricated by a hearty liquid lunch?
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  49. Nice video I guess a Battleship firing its main guns at night nagates its stealth ability :) That is truly both an awesome and terrifying sight
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  50. Well Drach didn't just poke the hornets nest, he kicked it over and sprayed water on it just to be thorough. there will be as many opinions and definitions as there are people willing to argue them. Personally I do NOT regard the British I classes as BC's. They were conceived, designed and built as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers but used in roles outside their concept. The German "BC's" of WW1 apart from Von Der Tann should be more properly be referred to by the phrase Drach coined 'Light Battleships" as they were designed to supplement the main battle line as therefore were armoured for this role. But of course people will have their own opinions and that's perfectly acceptable.
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  51. I agree. People praise the Japanese and German ships while very conveniently ignoring just how massively they violated the treaties they signed.
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  52. No Drachinifel has used his command over the power of time and space and has a museum of all the most important ships the channel covers including Dreadnought, Warspite, Hood and Vanguard as well as many others too numerous to mention. All preserved in perfect condition And by bending the rules ever so slightly he can have recordings of Jackie Fisher yelling at members of the Treasury.
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  53. That was incredibly interesting and well done. The Indefatigable must have been a much sort after berth for many crewmen given her success in capturing ships. I can just imagine a sour faced Franch shipyard manager telling a new ships captain to not damage the ship before he turned it over to HMS Indefatigable. It's a question of pride in his workmanship to hand over a ship worth keeping.
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  54. Really interesting and well thought out alternative time line. In many ways it show just how brilliant the Queen Elizabeth design was since these ships were based on it as were the proposed Italian Caracciolo BB's. All armed with the magnificent British 15/42 gun and efficient twin turret
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  55. Getting accurate history seems to be becoming harder and harder as people desperately try to rewrite it to make it conform to their own approved/prejudiced ideas. I applaud Drach for looking at all sides and presenting a neutral and accurate view rather than trying distort it to suit his own likes and he always explains the WHY he thinks a particular way and backs it up with research. Look at the way Bismarck fans try to make everyone think it was the mightiest Battleship to ever exist and would sink Yamato by looking sternly at it. A teacher would probably say of Bismarck "Adequate but plenty of room for improvement with the appropriate effort"
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  56. Great work as always Drach I loved the comment about one of the reasons for Derfflinger's toughness was defective British AP shells. This is all too often ignored by those less informed but rabid supporters of uber German toughness. Hope you have a great time on your US trip. One warning I can give you is to be very careful when using US currency. Unlike Australian or British notes, theirs are all the same colour and size so you have to pay attention when using them. Showing Aussie notes to US shop assistants their response was "Oh why can't ours be like that? They are so easy to tell apart"
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  57. Thanks Drach What was that website to order a BB from? And can I put it on my credit card? Building up a navy is way more complex than just buying some ships and having Naval reviews to scare your enemy One point in the planning I feel you overlooked is People. Building up the machinery to make what you need is nice, but you nee the trained and experienced people to actually use that machinery and produce quality ships. This is an ongoing and very expensive part of the production. Those dock workers are another of the unsung heroes of any nation, the one's who actually build the ships and weapons and even the task of repairing a damaged ship. Did the Washington Naval Treaty play a part in the Depression? All those industry's withering away from lack of orders?? Excellent point about the equipment needed at a dock yard. The Yamato's were so big that the Japanese spent a fortune to enlarge the docks and had to strengthen cranes just to lift the guns and turrets onto the hulls. They even needed to build a special ship just to transport the turrets from the maker to the dockyard. One author said the German Navy had a huge advantage over the British as their dock yards were new and designed for a steel and steam navy whereas the the British one's were designed in the age of sail and had to be adapted. One the other hand the British yards had highly trained people and there were a lot of them.
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  58. Well that was almost an hour Drach, keep going an you'll crack that magic 60 minute mark soon. I have read as much as I can find about Admiral Jackie FIsher. A complicated man but a true workaholic and dedicated to the RN. The name Dreadnought was indeed deliberately chosen as he wanted the ship to be a symbol of Britain's might and if you wanted to play in the big leagues, this is what you had to match. I find it ironic that the French in the Napoleonic era built a homogeneous class of ships, yet later on in the pre dreadnought era they wre notorious for building a fleet of 'samples' and as you've pointed out, couldn't resist fiddling with the design while under construction. Is there a reason for this?
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  59. Thanks for another awesome informative video The Essex class really were superb carriers and well suited to their role in the Pacific. the only rael 'weakness' of the design was the open bow, which like all too many ships with this feature, led to problems in very rough weather. The rougher weather more typically encountered in the Atlantic led British to use an enclosed or 'Altantic' bow for their modern carriers. Interesting to see teh US alternative design was for an armoured deck as per British practice. It shows just how operational requirements and location affect choices. The British carriers were meant for a close range hard punching war where enemy land based aircraft would be available in numbrs sufficient to swamp any air defence a carrier could put up. A deck armoured Essex in the Med would have been an interesting thing to see. For a video about carriers, perhaps a comparison on the differences of damage control, ventilation and aviation fuel stowage between the British, American and Japanese Navies to show just why Japanese carries were so vulnerable to fire and tended to explode or burn so violently.
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  60. It really shows just how fast the pace of naval development was when such powerful ships were declared obsolescent barely a decade after entering service.
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  61. As the famous quote goes "Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics"
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  62. Thanks Drach. As always a learning experience to stress my poor brain. You have to give credit to the crews of all merchant ships. Sailing into a warzone in a slow and unarmed ship took courage. Not enough credit is given to all those brave souls who risked death repeatedly. Without them there could be no victory.
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  63. Looks like Drach has been in Drydock himself and been converted into a very long range youtuber. Wonder what episode 100 will bring and will I need to reserve a week to watch it?
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  64. It is fully justified as I did the same when one of my questions was answered.
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  65. Our first rum ration of the year, with lime juice mixed in of course. Though a friend wonders if you could switch to vodka for his ration, it's his preferred tipple.😄
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  66. Thanks Drach. I don't know how you manage to put out so much high quality material but I hope you continue. Many other youtubers could learn from you.
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  67. Thanks Drach This is probably been answered in a drydock but was there any reason cruisers stuck with single guns so long? given the advantages of a twin turrets, and the fact turrets had been used on BB;s for decades, why not on the larger protected cruisers?
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  68. Thanks Drach Looks like things haven't changed much in all the years since the 40 thieves were built. Contractors still have "Cost over runs" and use substandard material whenever they can get away with it.
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  69. Loving the Drydock episodes as I have from the start. I learn so much despite the problem of stuffing more information into my worn out old brain. Maybe I need a refit. The part about the limited use of Pre-Dreadnoughts in a Dreadnought battle fleet was well done. I did cringe then then the questioner made the statement that they could at least be used to catch shells for more valuable units. Obviously this person has played too much WoWs. These ships would be crewed by PEOPLE and I'm uncomfortable with someone disposing of them so callously. As I'm sure they wouldn't like it nor would their brothers in arms. I guess too many MMO players forget this real life difference. People aren't pixels. Another point I thought of during the discussion about dense tank like shells is that compared to naval battles, tanks engage at what would be considered point blank range for a large ship and the trajectory is flat, where as naval gunfire at most battle ranges is a parabolic arc which would somewhat negate the hyper velocity you are trying for. Drach, if you want an engineering nightmare imagine designing a taper bore gun for a Battleship's main armament. On that I leave you to your nightmares.
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  70. Considering the American Captains dirty tactics in trying to run after he surrendered I'd say many people would have called his dishonorable or perhaps even oath breaker. a true insult in that period. Or as the British might say "Not a Gentleman"
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  71. You have said the US Navy learned a great deal about how to correctly operate fighters from carriers when HMS Victorious had its temporary name change to USS Robin. What were those differences that made RN fighter direction so much better?
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  72. Awesome information as always I'd like to see a movie about Jutland. There is very little done about it whereas as Trafalgar has had a lot. Of course I'd want the movie to be as accurate as possible and none of the current British bashing about exploding BC's we're getting. Both Lion and Tiger survived very heavy battering and were in battle worthy condition the following day while the German BC's were hor's de combat. I'd also like the British characters in the movie to actually have British accents (gasp) Looks like you can easily capture Drach by asking an engineering question. I imagine a cat looking at something shiny waved in front of its nose "Here Drach, here's a pretty engineering question" Then rolling the question across the floor and watching Drach pounce on it from hiding :)
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  73. His troops in the Philippines called him Dugout Doug because he never left his very deep and well supplied hole in the ground.
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  74. A beautiful looking ship as well as a powerful warship. To quote another author:Vanguard may not have been the best in any single category, but she scored high in all, thus making her one of the best BB's ever built
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  75. I've read a book called White Coolies by Australian Army nurse Betty Jeffrey about the experiences of her and her fellow nurses and their terrible treatment after their hospital ship was sunk during the evacuation of Singapore in 1942. AHS Centaur wasn't the only hospital ship put down by the Japanese. It's well worth a read. Sink the Bismarck is an epic film and the only flaw is the portrayal of Lutjens as a rabid Nazi, which he certainly wasn't. I shudder to think of the mess it would be if remade today.
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  76. Thanks Drach While the US Admirals wanted a perfect ship this lass proves the old British maxim, a lot of good ships is better than a few outstanding ones.
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  77. Thanks for an excellent video I think you hit it right on the head with your analysis of Rozhestvenstky's actions. It's usually the armchair admirals or politicians who are most eager for battle, even when it's hopeless.
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  78. Excellent and comprehensive history of this ship. To me it seems her bad reputation stems mainly from being rushed into service without proper training and served with an Admiral whose 'gung ho' attitude didn't allow the ship to be used to it's best potential. The German BC's get massive praise for their toughness yet you clearly show that the British BC's were equally as capable of taking punishment and it was mainly poor stowage of their propellant that cause the losses. Plus a generous slice of both luck and skill for the Germans to hit the British ships turrets. Both Lion and Tiger took almost as many hits as the much more heavily armoured German BC's yet at the end of the day were still combat capable and spoiling for a continuation of the battle the next day while the German ships were hors de combat and running for home with their tails firmly between their legs.
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  79. Awesome video Regarding the Bismarck I have read about Pro Bismarck fanatics swearing that the ship was completely intact below decks with the engines humming along as if waiting for an Admirals inspection and the ship could have easily been gotten back to port. I think we can dismiss those fantasies. The ship was doomed and going down no matter what. The best answer I've read as sto what actually sank Bismarck is "It doesn't matter" The ship was a flaming wreck incapable of retaliation or fleeing and her sinking was inevitable. Interesting idea of the French Navy joining the British. The biggest problem I can see is maintaining the ships due to differences in equipment, especially replacing shells due to the French using different gun sizes.
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  80. Very interesting video I was very surprised that none of the French pre Dreadnoughts were in this book, especially the one you refuse to name. I believe the term "My eyes, my eves, they burn" from a previous video is appropriate.
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  81. Thank you for another massive dry dock Drach Take care of your health first and foremost, we can wait till you're healthy for a live stream
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  82. Loved seeing all these navies put into one video. It makes sence of their arms race and how it affected the policies of the various governments. Q&A what are the advantages and disadvantages of the very different methods of loading the propellant charges in BB guns? The British and others used bagged charges while the Germans used brass cartridge cases for all guns, right up to the very biggest in WW2. Is one system superior to the other or is it trade offs between the two? I can see pluses and minuses to both.
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  83. Another great video Drach. One point about the contest between the various Navy's BB's is the weakness of US masts. The cage mast was shown to cause lots of vibration which would have degraded the accuracy of fire and even the Colorado's used this. The section on Impressing sailors was great. Many people point to t;his as proof of British cruelty and hypocracy but VERY conveniently ignore how many other country's did the exact same thing, or worse
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  84.  @Dave_Sisson  I have read some of his fanatic rantings and find he is mono focused on the Pacific war and he totally ignores just how helpless (and perhaps useless) a carrier would have been in the Battle of North Cape against Scharnhorst where the action took place in the darkness of winter in the Northern latitudes and during a storm.
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  85.  @bull614  Not to mention cutting into the cuddle time with Mini Drach and do you want to face the wrath of mini Drach?? I'm not that crazy 😄
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  86. An excellent and well thought out video The lesson presented here is how operational location greatly effects which system is better. A Yorktown or Essex operating in the Med eaarly in the war would have been overwhelmed and sunk by massed attacks no air group could have fought off. Similarly an Illustrious class would have been defeated by Japanese carriers greater striking power but might have remained afloat if it could dodge the torpedoes. British Admiral: "Another kamikaze! If this keeps up we'll have to order more brooms, Make a note of that yeoman" Where both the RN and the USN proved far superior to the IJN was in the area of damage control and Avgas security. Avgas is one of the most dangerous things for any ship to carry and carriers have to ship massive amounts of this. The Japanese method of storing what is essentially a massive bomb was flawed and combined with the single ventilation system it turned their ships into floating bombs waiting to go off after battle damage.
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  87. Thanks for another awesome video Loved how you pointed out that the Japanese, Germans and to a lesser extent the Italians broke the Various Treaty's limits. It's disgusts me to read people approving of this and some even saying "Who follows a treaty during wartime" but they forget (of deliberately ignore) that these ships were designed and construction began during peacetime. The much vaunted Bismarck's were announced as 35,000 tons but came out at 41,700. You don't add that much to a ship without creating severe problems with speed, stability and sea keeping ability and only after the war was it proved just how much they were over the limits, much like all German major units. None of the over praised Japanese ships were near their announced displacement and most broke the various treaty limits. The comparison of air attacks in the Med and Pacific was very interesting. One point you didn't cover was aircraft toughness between the Axis powers. Japanese aircraft were much more fragile then German or Italians. They achieved their speed, range and capacity at the expence of any protection, many not even having self sealing fuel tanks.
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  88. And here we are for round two of the marathon I've read that prior to the Washington Treaty the Japanese were spending as much as 40% of their GDP on the Navy alone, so the Treaty saved the country from bankruptcy although they don't like to admit that. And for abiding by the Treaty's, basically the Japanese never did. All the cruisers built under the treaty were grossly over the announced displacement as well as over the 10K limit for CA's. The carriers were also over the agreed limits and the Japanese just lied. In building the Dreadnought Jackie Fisher said "It was better for the RN to take the lead rather than play catch up" The US ships were NOT laid down before HMS Dreadnought. Both being laid down in December 1906 while Dreadnought was laid down in October 1905 and completed in December 1906 I agree the Danton's were the best of the last Pre-Dreadnoughts but they were built years after the others. The sailors of the HSF didn't think much of their Pre-DN's as main battle line units dubbing them the five minute ships. The enemy would spend four minutes laughing at them and one minute to sink them
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  89. Thanks for another drydock Drach though I'm so cunfused. You said tis is episode 79 while the vudei flash up the number 80 So one of them is wrong :) A point about the Norway campaign is that the KM had one priceless advantage over the RN and MN. The KM KNEW where they were going and the timing while the British and French did not. They hay had had guesses but no definite information.
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  90. So Drach, when did you first meet your old friend Square Cubed Law? You seem to know each other very well and I hope Mrs Drach doesn't get too upset with the two of you talking the night away😁
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  91. Agreed, The Invincible and the Indefatigable class should be referred to as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers as that was what they were designed to be. Their role was to hunt down raiding cruisers and scout for the battle fleet and they did this job perfectly. They were never meant to face Battleship level guns. The Germans built ships that were more fast Battleships, meant to help in battle line but sacrificing gunpower for speed. They had the massive advantage of going second and building to defeat a known design much like the I's were designed to kill cruisers they knew about. The German Navy likes to forget their first responce to the Invincible, Blucher, didn't measure up and call her a cruiser.
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  92. Great video as always. When I first saw these ships I had to wonder what was going through their designers minds (if anything) when I saw just how close the lower 6inch guns were to the waterline. Did they not can't bad weather into account? Seems not.
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  93. Thanks Drach It shows how even minor hits can lead to disaster in the right circumstances. HMS Invincible's accurate gunnery shows how effective the British BC's were when they had a chance to properly practice, something not possible in Rosyth.
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  94.  @reaperking2121  You are totally correct. The Japanese plan was to present the declaration of war to Secretary Hull only 30 minutes before the attack was to start, thus giving the US absolutely no chance to respond. Hull declared he had never seen a document so full of lies and distortions. This was a cowardly and purely political face saving attempt to show an 'innocent' face to the world that the Japanese were an honorable nation and not a collection of gutless murderers who only attack when you aren't expecting it. That plan failed due to not trusting a trained typist. As one historian commentated "Japan has never started a war by declaring war before an attack" See the attack on Port Arthur for proof.
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  95. Speaking to us from the past? Drach, What have you been told about walking into a big blue box with a certain crazy person? You'd think a native Brit would know better than that but Drach was probably asking how the engineering for the larger internal space worked and didn't realize what he was walking into.
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  96. Great video Drach and I'm glad to hear you sound much better, Tgose pictures of ship covered in ice and snow were chilling. It showed just how harsh and tough a place the Artic Ocean is in winter and how dangerous it was to run convoys to Russia in such conditions. THe biggest danger seemed to be the build up of ice on a ship wich could jam vital equipment and maybe even capsize a ship if left unchecked. The crews on both sides fought bravely in appalling conditions in proved that the Battleship still had a role to play. A Carrier would have been useless in this situation.
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  97. Thanks for answering one of my questions Drach, it was very informative. I always look forward to the Drydock. I'm happy with whatever format works best for you to bring us, your loyal followers (minions?) our dose of naval education and lessons in dry British understatement. I've read that one of the reasons the British chose the 5.25inch was that the 4.5 was considered too light an armament for something the size of a cruiser, the 4.5 being more a DD gun. Perhaps the Admiralty was reluctant to use the 4.5 for a BB's secondary armament because of criticism of the early Dreadnoughts weak 4inch secondary guns. But as you said. Hindsight is 20/20 One of the top contenders for unstable and top heavy ships are the Japanese interwar designs which were notorious for 'Problems' requiring extensive refit to correct.
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  98. Exactly the same problem that Craddock faced at Coronel. Out gunned and out paced by newer and more powerful ships. At least Spee had highly trained regular crews while Craddock mostly had untrained over age reservists.
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  99. While absorbing the lessons in this video I had this thought. What would have happened if the Union navy had decided to concede the coast to the CSS Virginia and adopted a distant blockade similar to the one used by the British in WW1? The Union ships could have intercepted any Confederate ships trying to get through and dared the Virginia to come on out and fight on the open sea. Would the CSS Virginia have been seaworthy enough to survive chasing ships at sea or remaining afloat after battle with Union steam frigates?
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  100. Thanks Drach Loved the explanation of the value of crossing the T. Another major reason Scheer was able to run was all the smoke caused by funnels, guns and haze. Jellicoe saud that he personally only ever saw the first 4 ships of the HSF, the rest were hidden in the smoke. And it's a lot harder to stop an enemy who can turn and disappear into the muck at 20 knots than it was in Nelson's time. Viewers need to remember that World of Warships is a game, and a very inaccurate and biased one. The Russian Navy wishes its ships were a tenth as good as the paper designs they have put into the game,
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  101. I've read that if the Allies had tried to land in France in 42 or 43 it would have been a complete disaster and the invasion would have been thrown back into the sea with massive losses in killed and captured. The Allies needed to learn how to invade large scale, that's what Dieppe tested.
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  102. Thanks for all your hard work in providing these wonderful informative videos. Maybe we need a T-shirt captioned "I survived a Patreon Dry Dock" That Cuckoo attack would be even more devastating when you consider that ,unlike most other navy's, German sailors did not live on their ships but when in harbor left them and lived ashore. By the time the crews got back to their ships, IF they felt like it, the progressive flooding might be uncontrollable.
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  103. As always a great video I have previously read that the major reason Tirpitz was so hard to sink was overcoming the advantages of her berth. Narrow twisting fjords combined with heavy nets made torpedoes impossible to use and made dive bombing very tricky and dangerous for the pilots. Add in heavy fighter cover close by, massive shore based AA and shore controlled smoke screen generators, as you pointed out, made getting hits on the ship difficult at best. All these details are too often overlooked by people crowing about "German BB toughness" It seems the US navy had an easier time sinking the two Yamato's at they were at sea where aircraft could get at them easily.
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  104. Thanks as always Drach I find it interesting that Germany favoured a triple screw propulsion system for their BB's, but all the BC's were built with 4 screws. Is there any reason they did this?
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  105. Although a hurried war design, these gave excellent service. A tribute to the people who built and crewed them. Britain certainly seems to have made a habit of producing great designs that worked well despite the way they were rushed through the design stage and put into production.
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  106. Another great video One further point that has to be taken into consideration regarding a fight between HMS Vanguard and Bismarck is the very poor quality of German heavy naval ammunition in WW2 There are many instances of heavy German shells either failing to detonate or only partially detonating. This was a flaw in either the shell's design or lack of quality control. Most of the Bismarck's shells which struck PoW failed to explode. This would have to be factored into a battle and gives an even bigger edge to Vanguard. How about a video on the RN Town class cruisers. These were excellent ships and did sterling work during the war but just don't get the credit they deserve. They did everything that was asked of them and unlike the Japanese and German cruisers did it without illegally stomping all over the limits of the various Treaty's either country signed. Even on the rare occasions Japanese cruisers were under the Washington treaty limits, they were well over the announced displacement.
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  107. Awesome as alwys Drach Although not regarded as 'glamorous' ships the R class gave invaluable service and were able to scare off German raiders while protecting valuable convoys.
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  108. thanks Drach, always nice to see more of your Australian visit, even if we had to keep a close eye on Dr. Clarke to make sure he didn't try and make off with HMAS Vampire hidden in his luggage 😁 It is true that Australia's sheer size still comes as a shock to people given today's technology. Even chatting to friends in the US they just don't get how BIG our country is and that the "Great State of Texas" would be swallowed almost unnoticed by Queensland or the Northern Territory let alone Western Australia
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  109. Thanks Drach It seems this period is one of incredible and perhaps made innovation where any idea, no matter how insane if seems, was given at least a look at. I guess that's what happens when you have a large budget and technology is changing so rapidly no one knows just what gems will come to light once you have sifted the dirt.
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  110. Hope you get better soon Drach. All that talking with a stuffed up nose and sore throat must be hell. Regarding H.M.A.S. Australia I have read that another reason the Australian Government went along with scuttling the ship was the problem of crewing it. As a very young country Australia had barely 5 Million population and getting enough trained personal to crew such a large ship (post war) put a severe strain on the RAN's limited personnel. I can see the RN 'loaning' personnel to the RAN and then transferring ships to the Australian Navy as "gifts" o give the Dominions a navy capable of defending themselves. However I can also see a monumental American and Japanese "Dummy spit, Holding my breath until my face turns blue howl" over that little plan. With the Montana redesign knowing the Yamato's true size you mentioned stretching it so it could match Yamato's speed but my sources show that's wrong. Yamato's max speed was 27knots while Montana was designed for 28knots I could be wrong, but if not I blame the cold you have, it's always a good excuse :)
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  111. Thanks Drach While they didn't have exciting careers these ships proved the value of the turbine over the older engines. I've read the US had trouble with building turbines which is why the first DN's had triple expansion engines.
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  112. Thanks for the Christmas present Drach. When a naval engineer says he's going to "Put the kettle on" to boil some water, it means something considerably different to when I say that.
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  113. HMS Hood was a beautiful ship and it's rebuild, as you postulate, improves on both her looks and ability to fight as a proper Battleship. Her loss unjustly damages her reputation and incorrectly boosts the reputation of an inefficiently designed ship like Bismarck. Her loss is the result of both excellent gunnery from that ships crew and well as rolling a natural 100 (twice in a row) on percentile dice. An often overlooked fact is PoW's own incredible gunnery in hitting Bismarck at all given the total lack of training of its crew and faults still occurring. The quality of Bismarck's gunnery also show how silly are the claims that her crew was untrained and thus excusing her very poor showing against the Swordfish and later KGV and Rodney.
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  114. A point that is too often ignored in war stories is the heroism of the thousands of Merchant Seamen who repeatedly put to sea and went into danger without any true means of defence.
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  115. Three video's in a row. Both loving it and definitely needing a refit for my brain's storage capacity.
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  116.  @khaelamensha3624  Actually the water/tear drop shape was first trialed in the British R class of WW1. A highly successful design but the listening/attack technology of the time wasn't up the making it a proper hunter/killer sub as was it's purpose
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  117. Thanks Drach, it shows the incredible speed of tech development when a ship can be considered obsolete even before it launched
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  118. Oh Drach I understand just how HUGE the Honor Harrington series is as I have them all, They are well worth the read even though in later books he stumbles a bit and there's a bit too much politics. At the very least read the first book "On Basilisk Station" It shouldn't take you long and is still one of the best, before the universe got so complicated. Another series by Mr Weber is the Mutineers Moon series. Only 3 books long with the first 2 being absolutely top notch. The third is a bit of a disappointment but after the 2nd, where can you go?
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  119. Excellent video pf the oldest commissioned warship in the world. I had no idea 1st rates were so rare, probably as a result of Hollywood showing them to be everywhere. So under the Georgian Navy system HMS Victory is more powerful than the current HMS Queen Elizabeth as it has more guns. I can see Admiral Drachinifel on the bridge ordering the crew to "Give em another broadside men"
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  120. Thanks Drach These ships must have been a logistics officers nightmare given how varied their weapons load out was. They were obviously a well thought out and constructed design that the Royal Navy really got their money's worth out of. Great to see at least one survived to show us just what a WW1 ship was like. I'll bet there were no ice cream makers on this ship :)
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  121. Thanks Drach, amazing work as always, SO you made a slip of the tongue, it just proves you're human like the rest of us, just with heaps more knowledge and stamina
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  122. Thanks Drach, your video's are always well done and thoughtful The Japanese attack must be considered a failure as they thought this would make the US too fearful to stand up to them. Instead it united a divided country as little else could have and as Yamamoto said "Filled them with a terrible resolve"
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  123. Wasn't MacArthur's most successful campaign his non stop PR campaign extolling how great he was? I remember hearing from my Grandfather how his men in the Philippines called him 'Dugout Doug' for his refusal to leave his very deep and well stocked command bunker during that campaign. How his PR has tried to eliminate this. Soldiers in New Guinea didn't think much of him as they were slogging through the rain forests while he sat in comfort back in Australia eating steak and eggs.
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  124. great video and I learned much about the voyage and Admiral Rozhestvensky. He had what had to be one of the most horrendous appointments given to any officer. A point you made but many ignore is the incredible hardship of the journey on the crew in ships not designed for tropical conditions and the fact they made it is a testament to the skill of the few competent crew in keeping the ships afloat and moving. The Japanese boast of their massive victory, but it's obvious they had nearly every conceivable advantage except numbers, but those numbers were actually a detriment to the Russians.
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  125. Great cideo. Not enough is said about the service men who defied the Germans and continued to fight for their country's freedom. I had no idea these 'minor' navy's had so many ships.
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  126. The amount of fiddling with Vanguard's construction is almost French like ewww But unlike those unfortunate French ships HMS Vanguard was a beautiful, powerful and effective ship and most fitting for the last Bb ever built. At least she upheld the pride of the RN ans could out steam those big Iowa's in rough weather.
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  127. I made it though a Patreaon dry dock though I refuse to admit how many cups of coffee it took Thank you for all your hard work through out the years in educating we your faithful minions and all the best to yourself, that angel Mrs Drach and of course Mini Drach
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  128. Thanks Drach The escort forces are an all too often overlooked but very vital part of the war effort. The Japanese almost totally ignored this arm of the Navy and paid the price in the loss of their merchant marine.
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  129. What a brilliant concept and a great pity for the RN that Unicorn was never modernized. I can only imagine how useful she would have been inn the Falklands campaign if she had been retained and kept up to date.
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  130. I like how the new format will be. You have obviously been swamped with questions so a new method is needed. That's what you get for being so good. lol Can care of that golden vouce, without it the Drydock just wont exist and I love seeing a new video from you. I always learn so much from them. Like you I also have a large collection of books on Naval history and ships and am always looking to expand it. One trouble is trusting the author as I've read some books I totally disagree with as I feel the author has let National pride get in the way of the truth. Such as one book where the author categorically stated the greatest BB's ever built for any Navy where the Bismarck class. Needless to say I completely disagree and didn't bother with that author any more.
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  131. If Drach in command of the Roman naval construction is scary I have an even scarier thought. Imagine Drach going back to the early 1900's, getting introduced to Admiral Jackie Fisher and not being NOT being locked up as a crazy person but forming a friendship with Jackie and being hired as a civilian advisor to the Admiralty. Just what changes could you introduce Drach?? Have fun imagining that :) Hmmm Baron Drachinifel???
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  132. Huge congrats on reaching episode 300. And to think when it all started you wondered if there would be enough interest for you to continue with them. I'm sure you have your answer. So that's 300 down, only another 700 to go to reach four figures 😉
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  133. Great video too many forget Australia had a small but effective Navy that did excellent work during both wars. The sinking of the Italian cruiser was an example of good training, and teamwork between the Sydney and the DD's. The Italian's boasted about the speed of their cruisers, but that was obtained only during trials which were run in unrealistic conditions. Sometimes without even the gut turrets installed. At sea and fully outfitted for war they were only slightly faster than British built cruisers. The loss of the Sydney was a tragedy born of human error, but that happens in both war and peace.
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  134. As always an informative video. I've noticed the best way to tell a German BC from a German BB is to count the number of propeller shafts. German BC's always had 4 while the BB's had 3 shafts. I've read one of the weak points of the Germam BC's was thay turned slowly and lost a lot of speed doing so. How true was this?
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  135. Thanks Drach, as always an enjoyable and learning experience. I agree the fire control systems are vastly simplified for movie goers. I've read that a naval officer once describe BB's shooting at each other as "Trying to hit a rabbit racing over broken ground from the back of a moving car with a rifle. It's a miracle we hit anything" An evil polish laugh? Isn't it "Muhahahahaha" IN POLISH! Yeah, giving the Polish navy a BB, yeesh! good luck holding them back, I'm not crazy enough to get in their way. I can imagine them sending rude messages to Bismarck daring it to come over here and fight.
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  136. This account proves the nickname of the Sunderland was accurate "The Flying Porcupine"
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  137. Another great video I like how you pointed out that this ship was designed to have much better freeboard and stability than previous ships as these two categories are very important in ship design. The British County class gets a lot of criticism for their "Outdated and Cruise Liner" look compared to the sleek Japanese ships, but they were excellent sea boats with the freeboard and stability to survive very rough weather on the World's oceans. The much praised Italian and Japanese cruisers were very deficient in both freeboard and stability and had trouble in bad sea conditions.
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  138. Thanks Drach for more outstanding information. I do wonder how you do all this as well as your other hobbies AND pay the proper amount attention to Mrs. Drach. One point is the question about Turbine engines is you stated the Helgoland's had steam turbines whereas my information says they had VTE engines. The first full German Dreadnoughts to have turbines were the Kaisers while Von Der Tann and the 'light' battleships comprising 1stSG had turbines.
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  139. Thanks Drach, both HMAS Australia's in a single week, yay!! It shows just how well the county class was designed and how tough they were, unlike some more praised designs which did not stand up to the test of war as well as they did.
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  140. Great to see such a ship featured. This ship fought from the start to the finish of the war and obviously never backed down from a fight. Fantastic to see the town of Cowes honor the ship which fought so hard to save it. This ship deserved to be preserved
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  141. Interesting ships and much like the French Danton class, A fight between the two semi dreadnought classes would be an interesting match up
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  142. As always, an awesome and informative video Drach Very interesting to hear that the Bismarck shell found in PoW would have never hit the ship if the fuse had functioned as designed. I had never heard that before. I really learn things watching your video's. I would like to see a video on HMS Lion, the WW1 BC. People rave so much about how much damage the German BC's survived at Jutland yet they ignore Lion also took many hits but was still at sea, still combat capable and looking to continue the fight the next day while the German ships were hor's de combat and ran for home asap. Although hit by less shells, these German shells worked as designed as opposed to the malfunctioning British one. Lion also carried less armour. So balancing that against the heavier German armour and ineffective British shells I'd say she took equivalent damage to SMS Seydlitz, yet was in far better fighting trim at the end of the battle. Heavier inefficient British shells Vs Heavier German armour as opposed to lighter efficient German shells vs lighter British armour. What are your thoughts on my reasoning??
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  143. Thanks Drach The lesson is: Don't lay up your fleet to save money until AFTER you have the peace treaty signed. And leave enough ships in commission to at least defend yourself.
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  144. It seems what went wrong in Norway was the usual in early WW2. The Germans getting the much, much larger slice of the Luck pie with whatever luck the Allies got was too minor to really make a difference.
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  145. Thanks Drach These Victorian era ships may look strange by today's standards but were cutting edge at the time It's incredible just how fast technology was changing then whereas in living memory it had been fairly static for hundreds of years.
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  146. Thanks Drach, a very welcome patreon drydock to listen to as this week I had my visit to my eye specialist and was mostly blind until the drug that dilates my eyes wears off.
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  147. Whereas if the US navy found any spare deck space, they slapped an AA gun there, the Swedes instead used it to carry more mines
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  148. Nice video I'd like to see more WW1 ships since they get so little attention compared to WW2 ships. The Lion class BC's get a lot of criticism but despite their much weaker armou,r both Lion and Princess Royal took a lot of hits at Jutland from properly functioning German shells and the next day were still at sea , still combat capable and looking for a fight while the supposedly superior German BC's had run home and were no longer capable of battle. Maybe HMS Tiger and would she have been an effective ship in WW2 if refitted to the extent the Kongo's were. The R class are treated almost as a joke in WW2 but they were very powerful ships in WW1, fully equal to the much (over?)praised Baden's. And of course the Iron Duke class, the last and newest 13.5inch gun BB's built to serve with the RN.
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  149. Thank you for another much needed fix of Naval history Another class of ships notorious for mounting their guns too close together is the Italian CL's of WW2, they appear almost side by side. And as no two guns are truly the same, mounting them in a single cradle to save weight is not a good recipe for accuracy.
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  150. You show just how tough and effective these ships were. Just foes to show that despite all the massive cheating the Japanese and Germans did with ship displacement it doesn't mean you've got a good design.
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  151. Thanks Drach And welcome back our old friend Mr Square Cube Law, it has been some time since we have been graced with your presence. I loved the comparison between the German heavy cruisers and potential Allied cruisers displacing the same, I also thought the Baltimore's were a far fairer opponent to a Hipper than a Treaty compliant County or US ship. Hmmm a 16,000 ton county would be interesting.
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  152.  @alexalbrecht5768 IMO Germany only ever built ONE Battlecruiser Von Der Tann. From the Moltke class onward the ships of 1stSg were designed to supplement the Battle line and were built far more on the scale of Battleships rather than as ships designed to hunt down and kill enemy cruisers, which was the original concept. They should more properly be called Light Fast Battleships not battlecruisers. But that argument rill rage till the end of time.
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  153.  @alexalbrecht5768 As I said, my opinion and the German ships were NOT designed to hunt cruisers as was the original concept, they were essentially second line BATTLESHIPS and build like that. Also not that the first battlecruisers the British built were the Lions. The six I class were conceived designed and built as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers and were misused by putting them against ships with guns there were not built to face. The Lions proved well able to stand against Hippers ships and were still at sea ready to fight the next day while 1stSG ran whimpering for home unfit for battle. The loss of Queen Mary is less due to poor design than good and very lucky shooting by the Germans in hitting turrets and unstable propellant. German designs were nowhere near as great as you think and had many shortcomings that other Navy's couldn't tolerate such as overly cramped conditions for the crew as they were designed for very short deployments. There is more to a warship than simplistic comparisons of guns, speed and armour and German sea trial speeds were usually exaggerated
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  154. As always an awesome video Of course you're not the Mighty Jingles, you're the Mighty Drachinifel. One small comment on Nations sticking to the limits of the various Treaty's I have to point out the Japanese never did, even for a second. All the cruisers and carriers Japan built under the Treaty's were well above their announced displacement and usually well above the Treaty limits. The talk about the German love of light shell for higher rate of fire was great. History proves this failed by the way the British CL's with their 6inch guns dominated the German CL's armed with more numerous 4.1inch guns and the facat teh last CL's the Imperial Navy built were armed with 5.9inch. Yes, with four Admirals Hood would have gotten the rebuild she needed and combine that with eight Super Tigers, hmmm yummy. Now where can I get me those!! And wouldn't the US Navy be jealous of that considering their standard BB speed of 21 knots.
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  155. Thanks Drach, always a great learning experience I know Beatty gets massive criticism for reducing the safety measures for ammunition handling but why does no one ever criticize Hipper for doing the exact same damn thing early in the war and only the dedication and sacrifice of the crew enabled Seydlitz to survive that near fatal hit at Dogger Bank. And it was this survival that let the Germans learn just how dangerous their procedures were and correct them before Jutland. My theory is because Seydlitz did Not blow up, people forget this failure on Hippers part and Beatty gets much more flak because his similar failure came to light in THE major fleet action of the war.
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  156. Great video Although rushed into service I love how you pointed out just how formidable these ships became after all the teething troubles were corrected.
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  157. Thanks for another gret video I agree that any ship built as a follow on from the G3 or N3 classes would have been monsters that would laugh at most of the BB's built during WW2. One query I've long held is why the USA didn't shift most of their Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific after Pearl Harbour. the BB's, CV's and even the CA's had little to do in the Atlantic as the major threat there were U-Boats and very occasional converted merchant raiders. Why not shift the major surface units and fleet DD's to t he Pacific to reinforce the fleet there and just leave some CL's and DD's for convoy escort? Any major German units would have to get past the RN (and we know how hard that was) so why not rebalance things against the Japanese.
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  158. Utter nonsence When Bismarck was designed Germany was lucky to be able to build even the 15inch guns they did. Changing to the 16.5 would require complete replacement of the shell hoist system to handle the larger shell and charges Bismarck was just a poor, treaty breaking design
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  159. Thanks Drach Each one of these ships was almost a separate class of their own such was the rate of tech change.
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  160. I would have loved to have HMAS Tiger and HMNZS Princess Royal fully refitted and modernized in WW2 but the US loudly protested about HMAS Australia claiming it was part of the Royal Navy and counted among the ship which had to be scrapped to comply with the Washington Treaty. I also read that the Australian Navy had trouble crewing the ships after WW1 and the BC took too large a chunk of the limited manpower. Still, the RN could have "loaned" some people to crew both ships on a long term basis, You know, just between friends :)
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  161. Thanks Drach Excellent video on how operational requirements drive the design of any ship. Many criticize Rn carriers for the small air group but they faced a far different threat to US or Japanese carriers and once in the Pacific they adopted US deck park policy and their ability to resist damage far exceeded Japanese carriers. "Creative Japanese accounting" a PC way of saying Treaty breaking.
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  162. Hmm, getting late, need sleep! What? A new Drydock...coffee time! Don't let teh naysayers get you down Drach, they're just jealous of your knowledge, your soothing voice and that model of Queen Elizabeth. I don't think you're doing a reasonable job, you are doing a fantastic job here and I have learned so much. I may not agree with everything you've said, but what a boring old world it would be if everyone agreed all the time.
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  163. Great video for your half ton Drach. Take your cap off and wave your mouse and mic to acknowledge the cheers of the fans Loved how you pointed out the reason Swordfish survived Bismarck's AA was the fragments passed right through the fabric doing little damage. That makes far more sence than the Bismarck excuse makers saying the Swordfish flew too slow for the AA guns to properly track. And ignoring queries about the manually aimed 20 & 37mm guns.
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  164. Thanks Drach An amazing pair of French ships which seemed to be built to roughly the same design, a rarity for the MN.
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  165. Thanks again Drach for all your hard work in keeping us entertained and educated. People say Hood was wet aft Henri IV: Hold my wine
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  166. I think you mean a little younger than the KGV's and almost twice the displacement. HMS Hood developed 144,000 SHP and carried 8x15inch guns.
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  167. Thanks Drach I have been waiting for a video about how Battleships guns were made. This was so informative. I can only imagine that building ever bigger guns is far more complicated than just repeating what you are doing and just making it bigger, the stressed would have to be finely calculated or as you say, bad things happen. Does baby Drach need a plushie naval gun to go with her plushie shell?
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  168. Nice video Vesta was one of the many unsung heroes of the war, doing the very much needed but far less reported roles that were essential to any fleet. Wonder if the crew ever groaned at a 'repeat' customer ship coming back for more repairs saying "Damn it, we just patched you up"
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  169. There is a great book called Duels in the Sky by Captain Eric M.Brown. RN that covers this is a small way. Captain Brown was a RN fighter pilot and test pilot during WW2 and holds the world record for the most different types of aircraft flown. His assessment is that despite the changes to the bf109T it would have been a difficult aircraft to land on a carrier due to poor view and a tendency to drop a wing. The bf109 also shares the same weaknesses of the Spitfire when converted to naval use. Weak landing gear which caused many accidents as well as a short range.
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  170. A very interesting and thought provoking video Drachinifel There are so many variables in this it is very much a case of 'Viewer pick your favorite possibility.' The fact you took out the very poor decisions of the Japanese admirals really help their forces. Loved how you showed just how decisive an advantage technology can give one side in the right circumstances, especially when that edge in pronounced. Also, thank you for pointing out just how dangerous the Japanese long lance torpedoes were to the ships carrying them. Liquid oxygen and shell fire is a devastatingly bad combination which too few people realize. Another possible "What If" scenario to do would be" What if Beatty's signals officer didn't mess up at the Battle of Dogger Bank and the British BC's were able to chase the German BC's down.
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  171. Thanks for another gret video I had read that the British did trial high pressure boilers in the 1920's but as the results wre not promising they let the concept lapse, though other sources say the new boilers were not given a fair chance to prove themselves. The good point of the older boilers was that British machinery in WW2 was considered very reliable, a good point for a Navy stretched to the limit covering everything that needed to be covered but really needed many more ships.
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  172. Thanks for your efforts in another video Drach, informative as ever.
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  173. Great video Drach and gratz on reaching 50k subs. How jealous is Donitz? Now the next target is 100k Seeing the inevitable rise in the size of DD's brings to mind a quote from a book I read years and years ago. "As we increase the size and capability of our DD's, we gradually change them from the hunters to the hunted" Just can't remember where I read that.
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  174. Another great video Drach It's just my opinion but I think the Japanese in WW2 were so wedded to the Decisive Battle Doctrine because it did work for them once before, the battle of Tsushima Shortly after that battle Russia sued for peace whereas some modern theorists think if she had not the weaker Japanese economy would have forced them to negotiate for peace. The Japanese in turn did not examine the true reason for their stunning victory, that they basically had every possible advantage there was except sheer numbers and those superior Russian numbers were NOT an advantage. In this particular case quantity was not a quality all of its own, Thus they formed their own decisive battle doctrine based on the enemy doing what you think they will.
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  175. Loved the video Informative and also filled with tongue in cheek humor The German operation shows the advantage of good planning and surprise when combined with a bit of good luck and favorable weather conditions. Plus some overconfidence on the part of the British. Can we have a minutes silence for that poor bakery. It never hurt anyone
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  176. I can see where trying to wargame Jutland 2 electric boogaloo would be a nightmare with each side trying to get the most favorable conditions for their side. I have another wrinkle to add to any attempts for historical accuracy. How many of the Germans heavy Naval shells would fail to work? And I can see the swelling of German pride/arrogance screaming that's nonsence but if we're going for true historical accuracy, all too many of the WW2 heavy shells failed to work. Just ask HMS Prince of Wales
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  177. Great video Drach You show just how pointless and useless it is to pay off pirates or terrorists. It never works and costs much more in the long run than the cost of burning them out. It's a lesson we need to relearn with the current batch of pirates. Unfortunately they would probably run and hide behind women and children while live streaming to youtube about the barbarism of whichever Navy is sent to deal with their hideous crimes. And some bleeding hearts thousands of Km's away would side with these monsters, conveniently forgetting about what was done to the people they have kidnapped (enslaved?) and the stress to the victims family's.
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  178. Happy 100th guide, they are all awesome. It's a pity such a great ship was lost so early in the war. I'm sure she would have been of immence value in the Pacific once hte British had adopted the American system of a permanent deck park. This is certainly a case of "We learn by doing" Flaws in a ships design can sometimes only be found in actual combat operations as happened here. The lesson is to 'Take you lumps, learn from it and don't make the same mistake again"
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  179.  @CorePathway  Helped cripple and then sink Bismarck, crushed Scharnhorst, frightened Tirpitz so it only left its hiding place when it was safe to do so. Did better than most other heavy Naval guns. Germans BS a lot about hos "superior" their technology in WW2 was.
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  180. Poor ship seemed to have all the bad luck and reputation I hope they at least apologized to the USS Iowa for almost serving them a tin fish.
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  181. Excellent video about just how complicated designing a new ship can be, especially when technology and threats are changing so rapidly, Not to mention the even harder battles any Navy has with its own nations Treasury Department.
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  182. Thanks Drach. I can't recall who said it but a quote goes: While our nations may be at war, all sailors have a common enemy in the sea.
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  183. Great video Drach For ships never meant for front line service they certainly gave better than they got
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  184. Well I've survived another marathon dry dock, though it took quite a few sittings. Should we all put in for long service ribbons?
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  185. Poor Bearn It could have been worse Drach, someone might have asked for more information on the French pre Dreadnoughts 😀
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  186. Thanks Drach The sheer number of ships built is amazing when we look at today navy's. The amount of wood used in even one vessel would give an environmentalist nightmares.
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  187. This is a marathon Drydock. I htink it's the longest one yet. So what is planned for Episode 50? The all important half ton in cricketing language. Regarding that massive fleet of Ships of the line attacking Bismarck. In your scenario where everything goes right and the ships manage to get alongside Bismarck, what if they didn't blow themselves up but boarded it with pistols and cutlasses? Captain Drach urging his crew on to add yet another ship to the Royal Navy. Hmm and think of the prize money.
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  188. Loved the Babylon5 comment Drach. Absolutely one of my favorite sci-fi shows ever and it kicked Star Trek's ass all over the place with better story lines and dialogue. If you can try watching Farscape. A brilliant show made here in Australia and combined great characters, storyline and at times comedy. It wasn't afraid to laugh at itself.
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  189. Thanks Drach I never knew about these 1st Flower class and they were very interesting. The speed which they were built at sounds amazing and shows just how massive were the UK's ship building muscles
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  190. Thanks Drach for an excellent way to spend over half an hour. It looks like the US was quite lucky that the Japanese pilots were greedy to add to the tally when they diverted to North Carolina rather than making sure Enterprise was on her way to pay a visit to Davy Jones.
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  191. Thanks Drach for handling such a delicate topic carefully. I never had a problem with the sinking of the Belgrano. The situation can be boiled down to this. Argentina attacked and invaded British territory, causing a war. The Belgrano is an enemy combatant in a time of war and is therefore a legitimate target in any circumstance. Going by the argument that the ship was sailing away you could say the attack and sinking of HMS Ark Royal in WW2 was illegal as it was heading to port.
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  192. Escellent video there and something I never knew about, It's less about active stealth and more about misdirection. As you pointed out every eye was skyward during the raid and any explosions from Revenge's guns would have been written off to bombs hitting. I wonder if the modern stealth systems like paint and hull design would survive battle damage? What happens to the stealth rating if that paint is burnt off fom a fire or the hull is no longer that nice angle?
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  193. Thanks Drach Hope you remembered to put those pins back in on the pom-pom training wheels :)
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  194. Loved the explanation of the difference between the different types of armour. I agree that all too many poorly informed people just rave about how perfect German armour was and how much stronger it was supposed to be. Thanks for proving that not everything German wa the pinnacle of perfection and in some cases worse than other nations, I;ve had some people say the 1.5 inches of side plating on the Iowa's means their armour belt was equal to 13.5. inches of proper BB armour. Obviously this was not true as STS steel was not the equal of proper face hardened armour.
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  195. Always a welcome thing to see Drach. I also asked what happened to wooden ships when they were broken up, so thanks for answering that question,. I do wonder if Sir Drachinifel is a proponent of the all big sword approach to medieval warfare?
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  196.  @gerardmdelaney  I'm sure the Star Empire of Manticore will not let the name lapse. They are probably planning to reuse the name for a new SD(P)
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  197. Three in one day. Don't tire that golden voice out Drach, we need our regular dose of history. So the Nassau V2 class lol Better ships but still with a cumbersome turret arrangement. I say Billy Mitchell's demonstration did more harm to the aircraft lobby by his ridiculous and very obviously rigged attack, not to mention his assertion that it's easier to hit a ship underway than it is a stationary target. At the end experts said your could have sunk the BB with a carpenters hammer by smashing the porthole glass. His heart, and perhaps mind, were in the right place but he was too determined to win and ended up shooting himself in the foot. As Italy proved in WW2, high altitude level bombing is not the way to sink ships underway. Dive or torpedo is the way to go
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  198.  @bigblue6917  And eating steak and eggs in fine restaurants while US troops captured in the Philippines and Australians in New Guinea starved. There's a reason his own men gave him the nickname Dugout Doug. A place he never left until he got an excuse to skedaddle.
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  199. Thanks Drach A fitting tribute to a man who gave his life in service to his Queen and the Royal Navy
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  200. You'd think if Italy ws the one to declare War they would make sure their Navy was alerted and ready before they did that. I do suspect the the attack had been planned for some time given how fast and successful that was. Interesting to note the Austria-Hungry forces targeted military installations and gave civilians time to get to safety before opening fire in contrast to Hipper who appeared out of the dark and deliberately targeted civilians without warning.
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  201. It seem the British have a habit of building ships which render all others obsolete, makes you wonder if what the next one will be.
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  202. Carpenter" "I just fixed this STOP SHOOTING HOLES IN MY SHIP!!!" Captain" "Your ship?" Carpenter: "Do you want ot fix this...Sir?" Captain: "Carry on"
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  203. Another great video Thaks for answering my question about British Vs German guns, it was very helpful. The summery of the fire control systems was also great. I have several references which state the same thing you did. German gunnery was very fast to get on target but accuracy dropped off rapidly as the battle wore on and fatigue set in while British gunnery was slower to get the range but improved quickly and stayed there as the system was far less tiring to use. Wonder if this means that staying at longer ranges was better for the British as the battle would be longer and German accuracy would diminish?
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  204. As the saying goes "You can be good or you can be lucky" No points for guessing which path Yukikaze took.
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  205. Thanks Drach The plan to gift Repulse to the Australian Navy sounds like a" very cunning plan" Baldric😁 I can imagine the absolute Dummy spit the US Navy would do but if it happened before the Washington Treaty there isn't much they could do. Hmm where did I park my Tardis? Want a quick trip Drach?
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  206. Thanks for another amazing video Drach It shows how jaded we have become when we hear about high speeds as 19knots but considering the technology of the time that is an amazing speed on such a small ship
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  207. Thanks for an excellent and informative video of these ships. They are often unfairly criticized compared to their German counterparts but in service they did everything asked of them and withstood the test of battle in good order. Unlike their supposedly superior opponents they were eager and able to continue the fight the following day only to find the enemy had fled the scene. The biggest falw would seem to be their poor luck when it came to being hit in battle, the Germans having the uncanny and very lucky ability to land hits on turrets.
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  208. Another massive video. Has anyone actually just how long 5 minutes is supposed to be? :) The Zero was an excellent aircraft for the environment it operated in with both great strengths and weaknesses. A weakness was that it required a highly experienced pilot to use its strengths to their best advantage and by early to mid 1943 Japan started to run out of pilots with that skill. I think it's greatest flaw was that it lacked a capacity of growth. Once newer and faster Allied fighters started to appear it got overwhelmed by fighters using zoom/strafe tactics and refusing to engage in a dogfight and at higher speeds the Zero lost much of it's superior maneuverability. An excellent book is Duels in the Sky by Captain Eric M. Brown RN who compared Allied and Axis aircraft against each other. And the man actually flew most of the aircraft he reviews.
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  209.  @RedXlV  Drach covered this exact scenario in his five minute guide on HMS Tiger showing that the RN made the correct choice in saving the Revenge class ships.
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  210. You have said preciously that the British 40mm Pom Pom only narrowly lost to the 40mm Bofors Do you think the reason the Bofors won was because it was a much newer design with the higher muzzle velocity required to deal with modern aircraft. Something which did not exist when the Pom Pom was created
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  211. Maybe a little from column A and a little from column B
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  212. Thanks Drach for an informative video It shows just how much technology has changed over the years. During WW2 new systems could be obsolete almost before the crew got used to them.
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  213. Small ships but full of fight and punched above their weight in terms of losses Vs kills
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  214. Bismarck's freeboard wasn't that great either. German ships were famous for being very poor seaboats.
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  215. Wow Drach, I'm starting to think you don't like the Graf Zepplin at all :) Yes I know, it's an inefficient and poorly thought out design. Another point against the ship is the fragile nature of the air groups landing gear. Neither the Bf109 nor the Ju87 had strong gear. For a great review of WW2 carrier aircraft I cannot recommend strongly enough "Duels in the Sky" by Capt Eric M Brown RN. I've read one of the problems with the 10k maximum displacement for cruisers was that it also became the minimum limit any new ship would be designed to.
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  216. As always Drach, All your loyal (fanatic) followers appreciate the time and effort you put into these fantastic video's. For a movie about a nuclear carrier back in WW2 there is "The Final Countdown" released in 1980 starring Kirk Douglas where the USS Nimitz is flung back to 6 December 1941and hte captain and officers debate on what the hell do they do. A dated movie but fun to watch, especially the scene of 2 Tomcats Vs 2 A6m Zero's. Guess who wins :)
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  217. Thanks Drach, I've been waiting for this and you didn't disappoint It's obvious the British BC's poorer gunnery is more the result of location and inability to properly practice rather than laziness. I know you have a poor opinion of Beatty but it seems to me he was more unlucky and had subordinates who totally failed to use any initiative or were incompetent. I'm sure he personally didn't send those radio signals or hoist the flags but like any Admiral he gave the orders and expected them to be properly done professionally. He gets blame for poor ammunition handling procedures but I likes how you pointed out Hipper did the exact same thing until he learned his lesson at Dogger Bank. He was just lucky to learn his lesson in a small action rather than a major fleet engagement.
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  218.  @Silamon2  I admit I have my doubts about the excuses made for Bismarck's AA gunnery. Given the very small numbers of aircraft attacking her, it seems she had a pretty strong AA armament. The to slow excuse doesn't hold up against the manually aimed weapons.
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  219. Thanks Drach I have read a lot about teh 'Elswick' cruisers and their place in history but really enjoyed learning more about this fascinating period and the role it played in the development of technology. You could say our current tech level is a result of the race to produce the perfect ship, which pushed the tech at the time to the utmost limits of what it could do, and sometimes beyond. Mr White deserves a place in history through his brilliance and hard work.
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  220. Nice to learn about the less known ship design as well as the famous.
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  221. Thanks you for this very special episode of The Drydock. It answered so many questions about Life, the universe and everything. And for God's sake Don't Panic and don't forget your towel. I have no real problems with ads but I'd prefer to be ad free, especially for the ships Guide videos.
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  222. Is there any reason stated why the British choose Q turret placement for the Lion class instead of the more practical X placement? It just seem strange they would put a turret where it would have such a limited arc of fire. Surely someone at the design stage would say "Well we have a superfiring B turret, why not superfire the aft guns? Also Q position is so close to the boilers making it a hotter place.
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  223.  @thomasgray4188  To answer point 2 HMS Canada was originally ordered by Chile as one of a two ship class, but they wanted 14inch guns. When WW1 broke out the ship was eventually purchased by Britain and commissioned with the guns already completed for the ship. HMS Canada was returned to Chile in 1920 The other ship was eventually completed as a carrier, HMS Eagle
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  224. Thanks Drach, an excellent video about a brave crew who did their duty
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  225. Simple, Drach is in the UK and The Doctor is always visiting there.
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  226.  @mebeasensei  Good freeboard isn't just about crew comfort, it is also about good sea worthiness, the ability to remain at sea in fighting condition in all weather. A ship with too low a freeboard is in severe danger of being swamped by waves in rough weather. Those waves breaking over the deck may look nice but make it much harder to work the guns of a warship and can sweep the crew overboard. I have seen pictures of even Battleships with their forward turrets trained to port and starboard to avoid damage to them due to huge waves breaking over the bow in very rough weather. These waves can also find their way below decks and even into the engine room via the air intakes if they are too low. This poses a severe risk of the ship taking on too much water and foundering. This almost happened to the USS Moniter on its way to fight the CSS Virginia. Stability isn't just about freeboard. These are complex equations which take into account things like draught, ballast, top weight and things I personally know too little about to comment on with accuracy. As Drachinifel is an engineer he knows much more about this. One of the major errors of Japanese ships built before WW2 was excessive topweight. This combined with low freeboard is one of the reasons the IJN lost ships during ships during a typhoon in the 1930's, prompting a very close examination at the calculations of their ships stability causing the removal of equipment and strengthening of hulls.
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  227.  @1Korlash  Sorry for not being clearer but the blast problem I was thinking about is the effect it would have on the crew. All the light AA guns on Yamato were shielded as the blast effect would have a very high chance of concussing any exposed personal. I can't recall the figures I read but the difference between even 16 inch guns and 18.1 inch is massive. While some say AA guns would not be manned during a surface action, the Japanese developed main gun ammo for the long range AA role. Yamato firing her big guns would cripple the light AA crews just as an air attack was incoming. So I can only imagine the pressure wave from 20 inch guns on any exposed crew.
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  228. Thanks Drach One point I feel I must ask is with the Japanese plan to launch torps outside spotting range of the enemy fleet. If you're out of their sight, how do you know they are there?? If you can see them, they can see you, especially as the screen would be closer to your ships than you are to the enemy BB's. A great point about the true speed of torpedoes in WW2. WoWs DD crybabies whine about the slow torpedoes with speeds of "Only!" 65knots, yet that is 30% faster than the best.
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  229. In your latest video about carriers you stated they replaced BB's about mid 1943 as THE capital unit but all the examples you gave were for Pacific operations. How much impact would a carrier have had in the Arctic, especially during winter and would it have been effective in the battle against Scharnhorst? I think the conditions of that battle showed the BB to still be the better choive as aircraft couldn't have been launched or recovered in that night action.
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  230. Thanks for answering my question about Japanese turrets. Hope your move goes well. Having been through it myself recently I know the pain of having all your favorite bokks out of reach and then having to unpack later on and put them in order. Loved the discussion about raised forecastle Vs flushed deck. It really showed why DD construction was better left in the hands of specialist company's. The section about Italian bravery was interesting though I think all sailors showed remarkable bravery in the wars, and too little credit is given to the men of the various merchant marines who continued to put to sea in slow unarmed ships knowing what was out there waiting for them/ I've read the biggest problem the Italian sailors faced was the LACK of courage at their Admiralty. The Italian high command wanted to sink the RN but didn't want to risk their ships to do so.
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  231. The human voice is so much better than the computer voice. The computer fails to capture the nuances we love so much The Tribals were powerful ships and their losses maily stemmed from the fact they were used in roles for which they were not designed. I doubt anyone thought aircraft would be so dangerous when these ships were being built. An analysis fof a 1 on 1 fight between Tribals and ships built around the same time would be interesting. Let's leave the Fletcher's out of it as they were five years younger and had war experience built into their design. Five years is long time given the way technology was increasing due to more money being spent vecause of rising tensions,and later, war
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  232.  @onenote6619  As was the gnashing of teeth and probably vows of vengeance as they screamed LIE! LIES! LIES! and Drach knows nothing🤣
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  233. thanks again Drach for all your hard work and excellent presenting of this. And thanks to Mrs Drach for her understanding of your passion. Regarding the Political decision to scrap Vanguard, being the cynic I am, "You never underestimate a politician ability to screw over everyone, including the country they allegedly serve, to further their own pursuit of power, money and lack of accountability.
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  234. And the look of USS Bainbridge in that last photo shows just how narrow the beam was, sorta scary to consider her roll
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  235. Thanks for sharing your holiday snaps Drach, Maybe that hardhat should be nominated for a meritorious service medal for preserving your little grey cells?"
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  236. Something all too many people ignore about the gunnery of the British WW1 BC's is that based at Rosyth they could not practice live shooting at all. So of course their skills would deteriorate. Just notice the excellent gunnery of the Third BCS after they had transferred to Scapa Flow for gunnery practice. IMO Beatty copes a lot of flak for things beyond his immediate control. He gets blamed for the BC's shooting at the wrong ship but I think his orders (given the tech of the time) would be simple like "Engage opposite numbers" and the other ship captains are the one who screwed up. He just gets blamed for it. I think I read some of that Harry Harrison book before I threw it away in disgust. The whole thing was a poorly written British bashing fantasy.
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  237. Ah It's jolly good to be Drydocked again. While I'm here Drach can you clean up the hull, overhaul the engines, clean the bilges and reprovision the ship please. Hmm, there's an inspection coming up soon so retouch the paint work too, there's a good chap lol Loved your pick of ships for a fleet of choice. The Town class are often overlooked by people enamored by the pretty Japanese ships, but when it came to the crunch the Town's were tough and powerful ships and survived an environment which would have sent many other ships to have a chat with Davey Jones. I agree, the theater of war influences choice, an Essex in the Med in 1943 is in danger. I have a book by Capt. Eric Brown RN who has flown many Allied and Axis aircraft and he states that if the Seafire had the range and deck landing ability of the Hellcat it would have ruled the sea's. It's biggest flaws were lack of endurance and delicate undercarriage. The Zero's biggest flaw was if extreme vulnerability to damage., it didn't take many hits to flame it. If I had to operate a sub in the Med my choice would have been the British U class. Despite their limited numbers these small subs caused havoc among Italian and German shipping.
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  238. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using bagged charges for heavy naval guns as opposed to the brass casing used by the Germans for all their guns, right up to the Heavy Gustav gun?
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  239. Well said old bean
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  240. Interesting ship It shows what you can do with a bit more time to consider your options and allow for maturing of technology
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  241. thanks Drach You deserve an award for stamina in producing these videos and all the research that we don't see,
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  242. Thanks Drach Your efforts are always appreciated, just don't burn yourself out producing all these videos for we, your devoted minions.
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  243. Considering next week is the Patreon DRryDock is there any sort of special endurance training you do to get through all the questions? 😆
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  244. I think this ship is an example of a ship trying to be a Jack of all Trades but master of none
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  245. Thanks Drach Interesting to note that the German preference for the smaller shell for their protected cruisers changed to the British practice of a heavier armament in these ships. The guns going from the previous 4.1inch to 5.9's, a size more in common with British practice. Hope you and Lady Drach stay safe and well in these trying times.
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  246. Gratz on reaching this epic milestone Harking back to the early days of the channel "Sir, there are 100,000 subs in sight" "Damn, we're going to need a lot more escort ship"
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  247.  @jedimasterdraco6950  Someone once posted the only game which deserves the name 'Football" is Australian Rules as the only way a goal can be scored in that game is by Kicking the ball through the goal posts. Touch it with any other part of the body by either side means you only score 1 point and not the 6 points a goal awards. A much more free flowing game than the US game of throw ball :)
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  248. A very impressive ship that survived incidents that would have sent many other vessels, even warships, down to have a long chat with Davy Jones. Brunel was a man with incredible vision and drive.
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  249. Thanks for another informative Drydock. I always learn so much with this. Q&A: I seen many people comment on "What If" about the K class submarines. My query is "What if the British had continued the development of the R class subs" These greatly resembles today's tear drop shaped hull found on modern Hunter/Killer subs and could achieve 14 knots submerged. The bulbous bow contained five sensitive hydrophones and the lightened conning tower was also well-streamlined. Several squarrons of these would have played hell with enemy shipping nd even warships.
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  250. The Wisconsin certainly seemed to love running aground. Maybe the ship just wanted to visit the State she's named after? Hope the US preserved that drone due to it's historic achievement of having troops surrender to it. Maybe it can run for President next election? Couldn't do much worse than Trump and it wouldn't be tweeting all day. lol
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  251. Thanks for the video pf these ships. I've often considered them one of the most underrated ships constructed under the Washington Treaty. People rave over the Japanese cruisers but very conveniently ignore the blatant cheating and treaty violations of the Japanese. None of the cruisers built under the Treaty was anywhere near their announced displacement and most exceeded the 10,000 ton limit. The much praised Mogami's being the worst offenders. Despite their "luxury liner" look, the county's were powerful ships with the ability to keep the sea's under the worst of conditions. If a ship lacks sufficient freeboard and seakeeping it might as well stay in harbour, swinging at the dock, for all the good it does.
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  252. Looks like someone failed history class when they decided to put Canadian Naval aviation under the control of the AirForce
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  253. Always great to see another episode of the Drydock. I was going to comment on the mistake about Montana'a speed but I can see that's already been brought upand answered, so no point to that :) Q&A: You've previously mentioned how if the G3 and N3's had been built, the N3 design would have been less useful in WW2 because of their speed. I would ask how much could that have been raised if they had a rebuild in the mid 30's along the lines of the QE? Since their armour was already very heavy as were the guns all the weight saved by more modern machinery could have been used to boost both the AA suite and higher speed like the Italian WW1 BB rebuilds. Could they have gotten up to a useful WW2 fleet speed of say 28 knots or more?
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  254. Nice I can se the design teams had lots and lots of fun churning out different designs for the Montana class. Maybe there should be another design where every space inch of deck space is covered by AA guns. I can almost see the ultimate design, deleting all main armament guns for a solid wall of 40 and 20mm AA weapons lol.
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  255.  @mbryson2899  I remember "robo voice" as I found this great channel when the sip guides and dry docks were in single digits :) I'm sure Mrs Drach is grateful they found the cure for that condition 😅
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  256. I always learn something new with your video's Drach. I admit I haven't researched South American Navy's in great detail so this was welcome information. Victory was guaranteed once Peru entered WW2 with these experienced veterans :)
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  257. Thanks for another great video It seems this Emden was an unlucky ship whereas the WW1 Emden used all the luck that was available to that name.
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  258. A we;; presented account of a very one sided battle Many pro German supporters only yell about how badly Von Spee was outgunned vy the BC's at the Falklands battle but completely ignore that Craddock was even more outgunned by the German ships at Coronel. And that most of the British sailors were reservists while the German crews of the CA's were highly experienced and crack gunnery crews.
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  259. Awesome video as always Drach Thanks for answering my question about the construction of the Dantons, Building ship designs which were obsolescent (or even obsolete) struck me as strange but your answers made sence. Especially for a country like France which cannot seem to NOT meddle with a design even after it's supposed to be settled.
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  260. Thanks Drach. As always an excellent video on a heroic ship and it's epic voyage. I have read accounts of people criticizing and mocking British efforts to find Emden but these 'people' obviously have forgotten this was in the days before Satellites, radar, long range aircraft. Even many older merchant ships did not carry radio and the only way to know a raider was operating was when ships failed to arrive. In those bygone days fining a single small ship in the vastness of the Pacific was a daunting task.
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  261. As always Drach, a great informative video. I've read comments on how people rave over the "invincible" H-44 design but few of them will admit that these design were (as you pointed out) fantasy paper ships produced by people trying to avoid the Eastern front. It would seem the Germans had learnt little from the war with these ships as they carried far too few AA weapons and those were too light by later war standards. A point about the massive 8 inch armoured deck. was it a proper high mounted deck or still the close range brawler design which left the power and communication lines vulnerable as previous ships? Submerged torpedo tubes are another weakness in hull strength as proven in WW1, it seems they were added as "Why not". THe H-41 to H-44 ships also pay little attention to the blast effect those massive 19 or 20 inch guns would have on the AAA crews. Hitler wanted them invulnerable to BB's but it looks like they could be sunk bu massed carrier strikes as were the two Yamato's
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  262. Any idea why the gunnery director was so massive given that Hermes carried so few guns?
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  263. I think you should continue with the way ou currently discuss gun and turrets. We who understand naval matters can work it out very easily and I agree you don't want to confuse newcomers. Otherwise you're going to have to take a long winded approach by saying "A ship with three turrets each carrying three guns of 15 inch (381mm). My personal opinion is the Town class has a big advantage over the Takao class in ruggedness of construction. In order to fit all those engines, weapons and armour the Japanese ships were lightly constructed and lacked freeboard. The thickness of armour counts less if what it's attached to is flimsy. The RN cruisers proved their strength in the cauldron of the Med. Despite ll the fans raving, an analysis of WW2 large German ships showed they were not good value for money. Most lacked sea worthiness and freeboard, their machinery was not considered reliable. the DD's were overgunned while the Scharnhorst's were undergunned they were the best of the large ships. The best designs were easily the U-boats and S-boats, both superb craft. As more the overpraised, overhyped Bismarck, I think my opinion matches yours about this design, adequate but lacking in many fundamental areas.
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  264.  @bkjeong4302  And the British BC's were shot at by the entire German battle line earlier that day, when visibility was far better. Not exactly fair to the British is it? Put it this way. Thinner British armour Vs efficient German AP shells while Thicker German armour Vs poor quality British AP shells. Seems to me the German ships had the better deal. But the point I'm making is that the British BC's were NOT the tin cans waiting to explode as many pro German fanatics crow about. They were tough ships able to take and dish out punishment. Take volatile cordite and dangerous handling procedures out of the equation and the British BC's stood up to the test of battle. As Drach said in the video, Tiger and Lion suffered almost as many HITS! as Seydlitz and Lutzow. And while the shells were smaller those hits were from shells which functioned as they were supposed to, while the British mostly exploded on contact. The next morning the British BC's were looking for a rematch while the German BC's were toothless wrecks running for home.
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  265.  @bkjeong4302  It doesn't truly matter WHERE the damage came from. My point is that Tiger and Lion took only a couple of actual HITS less than the much praised Seydlitz and Lutzow but at the end of the battle were still combat capable and looking for a fight while both Seydlitz and Lutzow were hors de combat and had no choice but to run for home. Both ships actually sank but Seydlitz grounded in shallow water and was able to be salvaged. Think about it this way: Larger but poor quality British shells which mostly exploded on contact Vs thicker German armour Smaller but fully effective German shells Vs thinner British armour Seems to me the British ships held up as well as their German counterparts to the pounding they took once you take the whole cordite and it's handling out of the equation. Seydlitz almost exploded at Dogger Bank when her after turrets were hit but was saved the same way Lion was at Jutland. The skill, courage and sacrifice of her crew who flooded the magazine in the nick of time. So I guess any ships can blow it Lady Luck says your time is up.
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  266. As always an educational experience Drach. I wish I had been this attentive in school. My former teachers wish that too I bet. Nice PPE Drach but doesn't that make it difficult to use hand sanitizer or even drive to the market to get those field rations?
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  267. What if all four of the Admiral class had been completed before and retained after the Washington Treaty. What ships would the RN have scrapped to keep the peace with teh US and what would have been their likely refits? How much of an impact during WW2 would four refitted Admiral class fast battleships have made.
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  268. Thanks Drach The County's get a lot of stick for being poorly armoured but they were far better protected than most others and after the Treaty's became invalid they were probably amongst the best protected cruisers and did it without massive violations of the Treaty's like certain other Country's did. And unlike those sleek Japanese cruisers, the County's were excellent seaboats.
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  269. So does this mean Kamchatka holds the record for spotting enemy ships at the greatest distance?
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  270. What do you think you happen if during the Washington conference, the British and Japanese stood by each other and refused to end their Treaty just because the US whined about it? If they bluntly told the US "Who do you think you are telling us who we can and can not ally with" And got the French and Italians on their side by telling them that the US will probably try to restrict their rights to self determination by telling THEM who they can ally with. And rounded it off by asking "Wasn't the US supposedly founded on the rights of self determination?
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  271. Good looking ships at the start but that pagoda mast always made the ships look top heavy and liable to capsize at any strong wind, at least to me it does. Did that massive tall structure cause the ships any problems in rough weather?
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  272. Regarding the bit on Battleship guns, it would be interesting to have a Wednesday video on their construction and just how difficult it is to cut rifling into such massive weapons Perhaps describe just what rifling means beyond the bland "making the shell spin" and how the driving bands of a heavy naval shell engage the rifling.
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  273. In a few guides you've said a ship was too far along in the design process to stop and the result was a ship technology had overtaken like the Dantons. If a ship design is obsolete before construction has even begun, why proceed? Wouldn't it have been better to absorb the lost time and money, thrown away the plans for outdated ships and then take the time to design something better. And put the assembled material into storage to use for the better ships. Instead of six Dantons they French could have used the 12inch turrets for three proper Dreadnoughts rather than build an obsolete design which cannot stand in the battle line.
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  274. Thanks Deach I have to admit the idea that the US blew up Maine as an excuse to declare war isn't helped by the speed the usually underfunded US Navy swung into action and how their ships were so well positioned to take advantage of that declaration.
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  275. Thanks Drach, 99 and not out. Just take a deep breath and wait for the right ball to hit that magic ton. Regarding ships cats getting lost on something the size of a US supercarrier, maybe look into putting the equivalent of a GPS tacking chip into the naval moggie. If I remember my history correctly the British 15/42 gun and it's twin turret was one of those rare combinations of gun and mounting being a very successful marriage. Hope your new PC world well for you, just remember "Trust the computer, the computer is your friend"
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  276. Would love to see your list of the world's worst warships and I can make a guess at one of your picks. Considering the rant on the five minute guide I'd say you nominate SMS Nassau. One mistake I noticed is that discussing the Goeben scenario you gave Breslau's armament as 12-5.9inch guns but she was armed with 12-4.1inchers like all early German CL's. The Imperial German navy preferred the rapid fire of the smaller gun over the heaver 6inch favoured by the British. History shows which was the better weapon. Another reason for the success of the British 15/42 gun was the twin turret. It was a superb design that had an enviable reputation for it's ruggedness, roominess and reliability. It fast to get on target while having the right amount of 'creep' for minor corrections.
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  277. These ships attract a lot of negative comments and distasteful jokes because of their losses at Jutland, but when they were used for the roles they were designed for they proved to be highly effective ships. the losses at Jutland were more due to poor ammo handling plus both skilled and lucky German gunnery. The German BC's were more fast BB's than cruiser killers/scouts, which is the role the Invincible class was built for. The German ships had many flaws as well, but too many believe they were perfect in every way, which they most certainly were not.
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  278. Thanks Drach You're right, in the praise of operation Overlord too many forget the complex planning involved in getting those troops to the right area at the right time.
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  279. You have pointed out that warship building is a huge investment and once run down is very hard to get going again. What if, instead of scrapping ships and stopping all construction the Washington treaty allowed for replacement of ships on a 2 tons for 1 ratio in existing ships. This would shrink the size of navy's but maintain employment and retain vital knowledge and skills. What do you think the various Navy's would have built in the 1920's while sticking to the 35,000 ton limits.
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  280. These ships look like the Germans tried to do too much on small hull because they thought bigger was better.
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  281. Thanks for another great video I think these magnificent ships are all too often overlooked despite the sterling service they gave. Many people focus on the Japanese ships but don't do the research to find out just how blatantly the Japanese lied and broke the treaty's (during peacetime) with their ships being both well over the announced displacement as well as the 10,000 ton limit. The Mogami's announced at 8,500 tons were actually over 12,500 when finally fit for service and that was before any war. Despite all that, Japanese, German and Italian ships were lightly built to fit more guns, speed and armour but were to withstand either rough sea's or battle damage. Thick armour is great but ineffective if what it's attached to is weak and fragile. The Town's were tough and solidly constructed ships that were well able to handle rough weather and stood up to enemy action.
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  282. Thanks Drach for all your efforts Why can I see Drach with his own Holman projector at a medieval festival and trying to "explain" it's just another type of Trebuchet with a slighter faster rate of fire..Honest!😁
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  283. As awesome as awlays Another problem I see with the German squadron dashing to the Med is fuel. IF they pulled it off, well Italy was very short of oil fuel for its own capital ships and adding the three German ships would only cause more problems. The French predreadnoughts were a weird collection of samples. Is it true that one of the most important positions of a French capital ship was the sommelier :)
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  284. Thanks Drach A ships engines are often overlooked as all the attention is usually focused on guns and armour. After propellers maybe you could look into a ships fuel and the back breaking labour involved in coaling a large ship and how coal was stored and used in order to maintain the ships balance. Perhaps an explanation of drawing the boilers fires in order to clean the residue left as this was (as you said) "Bad" for the boiler.
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  285. Thanks Drach Always a highlight of my day to see another Drydock
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  286. Thanks for an early Christmas present with this video. Hope you get better soon and get lots of nice presents. Though I don't unerstand what's up with this cold weather comments?? It's predicted to be 29C on Christmas day. Oh right! I'm in Australia Oops :) Regarding crew comfort on ships. This was one reason why German ships were harder to sink, especially in WW1. They were designed for short duration voyages and were more closely sub divided as the crew left the ship while in port and lived in barracks ashore. Most navies had the crew living in their ship and HAD to have more creature comforts and space available to the crew. On ship nicknames I've read that First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill wanted two of the QE's to have the names Oliver Cromwell and William Pitt. King George V refused both names as 1. He refused to have a ship named for someone who killed a King. 2. Being a former naval officer himself he knew what nick name a RN crew would give a ship called Pitt and thought that unfitting for a ship of His Majesty's Navy. He was no fool.
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  287.  @1Korlash  It's something I readmany years ago and, of course, now i go looking I can't find it :( One excellent book I have is "Conway's All the world's Battleships 1906 to present. Edited by Ian Sturton. This states the Blast effects from Yamato's main guns was so severe that all light AA had to be shielded and the ships boats stored below deck. Another lesser evidence is one of the reasons the British did not go for superfiring turrets in their first dreadnoughts was the guns would concuss the crew of the lower turret due to the sighting hoods when fired on certain bearings. The turrets were later redesigned to correct this. Considering these were 12inch guns, the effect of the Yamato's 18.1 inch guns on unprotected crew would be devastating, perhaps even fatal. And the Germans were thinking of 20inch for their fantasy H-44 class.
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  288. He also persistently tried to get a ship named after the former Prime Minister William Pitt but King George V refused as he was a former Naval Officer and knew just what nickname sailors would give a ship with that name.
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  289. Thanks Drach If the Japanese had completed the 8-8 program, what would the US have built in reply to it once they learned the details of the Japanese designs. Let's hope some sanity prevails and they don't compete the 'tin shed' Lexingtons. If the British I class ships 6inch armour was useless against 12inch fire, the Lexington 7inch would have been even worse against 16inch shells.
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  290. Very interesting video about a little appreciated aspect of war, logistics, I remember reading a saying that "Anyone can raise an army but without proper planning you run into problems at dinner time" And ships get as hungry as anyone else.
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  291. It still boggles the mind to see just how deep the oceans are adn I can only imagine thee pressure that deep. The oceans of the world remain an unknown and mysterious environment.
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  292. Thanks Drach While the RN no longer issues a rum ration We are glad you continue this fine tradition
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  293. In many video's ou have mentioned how difficult is was to keep a large coal powered ship at full speed for any great length of time. Just how hot did it get in the boiler rooms of a coal powered ship and what (if any) efforts were made to keep the stokers on their feet? Did they have different teams of stokers and use them in a tag team? One team resting while another shoveled coal?
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  294. Why did Scheer pursue Beatty at all? Even without the Pre-Dn's hindering his speed he could nver have caught the BCF and the 5th BS. The only ships that could, 1st SG had shown they didn't have a chance against 5th BS. And why did neither Scheer nor Hipper wonder why Beatty was heading north and not northwest towards Scapa? Did it never occur to them Beatty was skillfuly leading them into the guns of an already at sea Grand Fleet? The German Fleet certainly seems to have gotten the major share of the luck pie that day
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  295. For a ship with a fearsome reputation from the age of sail I remember the video about HMS Indefagitable which captured so many ships the French may have been building ships for the British RN.
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  296. That's .....some impressive lateral thinking, I guess it never hurts to be a little mad when you need to think outside the box, but I guess the inventors of this don't even know a box exists. You have to give them top marks for originality. I can see it now: "Captain, there's a German surface raider dead ahead" Captain: "Ramming speed!!"
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  297. I learned lots here. Coastal defence is far more complicated than I ever imagined. By the way, have you ever Google'd the word 'Brief'? :) "That word you use, I do not think it means what you think it does" lol
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  298. A battle between a Caracciolo and Hood would be interesting. I can imagine the Italians both pouting and grinding their teeth at Hood being several knots faster though.
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  299.  @themightynanto3158  You could also ask: What if Seydlitz's' magazines had not flooded in timer at Dogger Bank and she blew up with the Germans therefore remaining ignorant of their unsafe powder handling procedures and the consequences of the later Battle of Jutland.
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  300. Another example of the enemy saying No! is the British distant blockade tactic of WW1. The German HSF fully expected the GF to employ the close blockade tactic used in years past so they could use mines and submarines to weaken the British and also to use the full HSF to swoop on isolated blockading squadrons. The distant blockade strategy wrecked these plans and left the Germans scratching their heads with no back up plan.
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  301. Not exactly a Q&A but in re-watching your video on the KM Prinz Eugan you said "For my opinion on the Hipper class as a whole, see that video" I've looked through the whole list of cruisers but can't find a video on the Hipper's. Did you take it down or haven't done it yet and it has slipped past you?
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  302. Thanks Drach I recently went back and listened to the first Drydock and was amused at how short it was as well as your thinking it would only be a temporary, short lived presentation, Have you ever looked back on your first Drydocks and wondered "What the hell have I started and how did I get myself into this?"
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  303. Thanks Drach Now we know how to make an area proof against Drach sneaking in, just put bells everywhere :)
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  304. You have stated that one of the reasons the German capital ships of WW2 were inefficient was because they had no experience of building large warships after WW1. But after the Nelson's were completed NO ONE else was building them either. Although other Navy's were designing ships they couldn't build, you have stated the Germans were also designing Battleships they were forbidden to build, so they did have practical experience in designing large capital ships. As for keeping up physical experience by rebuilding and modernizing ships, again, so were the Germans with their Pre Dreadnoughts. So is there any other reason why WW2 large German ships were so badly designed or is it, as it seems to me, just people making excuses.
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  305.  @bluemarlin8138  You do make a lot of good points though there is a huge difference between the design of a cruiser compared to a Battleship, especially given the limited displacement available to treaty cruisers, And Germany did build their own light cruisers no matter how bad they were and later on the Panzerschiff. Germany DID have experience with 4 shaft propellers, all the BC's in WW1 used a 4 shaft design as opposed to 3 in their BB's. Why they chose what is perhaps the least efficient layout can only be speculated on unless you go with the pride/arrogance reason.
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  306.  @augustosolari7721  I think as Drach pointed out, it comes down to industry and having to compete with the Army. Although they had a robust economy, the Germans didn't have the trained personnel or the number of dockyards able to build enough large warships, especially BB's to overtake the RN. Also, while they did make excellent guns, they couldn't produce them in large enough quantities and had to compete with the all powerful Army for those guns, and the Army outranked the Navy in Germany. And building up the required industry and Docks is very, very expensive. This was compounded by the introduction of Dreadnoughts as there ships were too large to use the Kiel canel, which had to be widened, yet another huge expense and only just completed in time for WW1.
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  307. I know you don't like Beatty but I feel it unfair blaming him for getting the range wrong at Jutland. He wasn't personally in the spotting top taking range readings, he probably ordered fire to be opened at a range the Germans couldn't respond to and his subordinates got it wrong. Nor did he personally hoist diganl flags, your video on Jutland shows it was Tiger's job to pass along signals to 5thBS and she didn't. As for the distance between 5thBS and the BCF, weren't both forces zigzagging as was standard practice in wartime? Both forces were moving away from each other at jsut the wrong time. A case of massive luck for the Germans, maybe 10 minutes later they would have been converging. I also feel you give Hipper and Scheer far too much praise. They both made massive blunders at Jutland, once Beatty drew out of range, WHY did they chase him??? The HSF couldn't catch him and Hipper didn't want the fast BB's of 1stSG tangling with the proper BB of 5thBS. And why did neither of these supposed genius' wonder why Beatty was heading North towards Norway and not NW toward Scapa?? The HSF ultimate escape was down to two (lucky for them) factors. The earlier mistake of the officer in getting information from Room40 and a very lucky catch of the GF's recognition signal. I feel both get far too much praise when a lot of their successes come down to both some skill and huge good luck. Good luck denied Beatty. But as someone once said, "We praise the losers so much because if they were supposed to be this good and we still beat them, we must be far better"
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  308. A lot of people think Von Spee arrived off the Falklands with is entire squadron but this isn't so. He sent Gneisenau and Nurnberg ahead to scout the harbour and they were spotted. At which point the British ships started raising steam. The two German ships immediately returned to Von Spee to inform him they had seen large tripod masts in the habrour which could only mean battlecruisers or battleships. This is 1914 technology, so this takes time as they didn't use their primitive (by today's standards) radio. Von Spee would have had to organize an attack as you propose without consulting his captains and do so immediately. He had no way of knowing the state of the enemy ships or how prepared they were for sea so he made the best decision he could and tried to escape their overwhelming firepower. It wasn't until he got a good look at them that he had proof they were BC's that could outrun him so he ordered his CL's to scatter while he took on the BC's. He knew he was doomed as these ships had as big a firepower advantage over him as he did over Cradock at Coronel. The German ships had also come under fire from powerful shore battery's (Canopus) and thought the harbour was well defended. As they say, hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy to come up with the perfect solution when you have time and knowledge the person on the spot doesn't have. Von Spee's goal was to run until night fell or the weather turned and hope to slip away in the dark, but the British BC's caught up and we know what happened then.
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  309. What do you think would have happened if Germany had NOT declared war on the US after Pearl Harbour? Would the US have joined the war or would they have just said "Tough luck Tommy, we now have our own war to fight" This would have been interesting if the Japanese had decided to NOT attack any British territory to keep them from getting involved in the Pacific.
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  310. I know your eyes st be burning after having to vie the early French pre Dreadnoughts so go and relax them by looking at some fine ships like HMS Hood or HMS Warspite. Maybe the French battle plan was very cunning. They planned for their enemies to laugh themselves sick at the appearance of the ships so there would be no return fire?
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  311.  @joweeqc98  Actually the Italian Navy should have dominated the Med given the central position of Italy, their much larger Navy and airforce and the ability to defeat Force H and the Med Fleet in detail. Britain had a larger Navy overall but could only deploy a limited number of ships to this theater. The biggest problem they faced was their Admiralty seemed to be terrified of losing ships. They couldn't seem to realize that in order to win you have to sink the enemy's ships and to do that you have to engage them in battle which means risking losing some of your own ships. Also co-operation between teh Italian Navy and Airforce was poor at best.
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  312. Thanks for another rum ration Drach A well done and comprehensive look at a vastly underrated ship. In fact the whole Town and Crown classes are underrated. Despite being classed as CL's due to their 6inch guns, they carried armour as good as the supposedly superior German and Japanese ships and it was better distributed. All this on a displacement that complied with the Treaty's, unlike the Germans and Japanese who dishonourably lied and broke their oaths.
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  313. Is there any reason the German and Japanese navy's mounted most of their main guns firing to the rear while others had them forward, in the attack position?
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  314. Actually Italian engineering wasn't as good as this brief look shows. They were only able to achieve those ridiculous speeds on trials by running the ships in very light conditions, sometimes without gun turrets or armour installed and with barely the minimum fuel to do those trials. At sea and in full wartime load the much vaunted Italian cruisers were barely faster than their British built opponents as HMAS Sydney proved and could not take anywhere the same amount of damage due to their light construction.
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  315. A very well traveled ship that filled all her roles admirably.
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  316.  @bluemarlin8138  Fully agree with you, What so many rabid Bismarck fans refuse to understand was how very, very quickly the ship was silenced. This is the result of good shooting by the British RN and poor design work by the Germans in her construction. Another major point is Pride. Germans seem totally unable to admit they were beaten in battle and create excuses for their loss. The myth of the "Stab in the back by civilians" created by Ludendorff at the end of WW1 is a prime example. He started screaming that one as soon as the cease fire was announced. He wasn't mature enough to admit he lost, hence the propaganda.
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  317. It looks like the Germans examined what was being done in other Navy's and proceeded to select the worst features of all the ships and combine them in one hull.
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  318. Regarding the assembly of the combined German fleet of the two Bismarck's and Scharnhorst's at Brest. Do you think the British would have tried a version of the thousand heavy bomber raid on the harbour to cripple or destroy the ships and how successful do you think that massed heavy attack would have been.
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  319.  @tommatt2ski  You are showing you lack of understanding and pro German bias, The situation is totally different. The US ships at Pearl were at peace at not at action station ready for battle. Some even had water tight bulkheads open, ready for inspection that day. Bismarck was at action station with all compartments sealed. And it did NOT take 400 heavy hits, That's pure German propaganda, what is really telling about her armour is how quickly she was silenced. As for the Torps, they were probably unnecessary but the RN wanted to make sure. And the US ships were hit by 16inch shells converted into bombs hitting their thinner deck armour. As for Tirpitz, ONE hit was enough to doom her, but the Lancs were lined up for bombing runs and were notgoing to wait around to see if more were needed. Remember there were large fighter airfields close by and a bomber isn't going to wait around. The difficulty in destroying Tirpitz was more about defeating the massive shore based defences to get at ship cowering behind them. Of all the WW2 built ships, the Bismarck class were the worst, especially when yu take into account how they violated the Anglo-German naval treaty about displacement.
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  320. Can you explain the difference between the British 40mm pompom and a 40mm Bofors gun and which was the superior weapon system and why. The Bofors largest design was a quad mount while the pompom went up to 8 guns.
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  321. Thanks Drach and I hope you have fun (and survive) Tank Fest. Remember, sleep is a good thing, just not while you're driving. Loved the ship which cannot slow down without rolling over. Now we just have to build a fleet oil tanker that can keep up with it to refuel that monster
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  322. Thank you Drach and Guest. A very thorough and informative look at one of the most under rated and under appreciated classes of Battleship. They did everything that was asked of them and walked away victorious. The only loss was sunk under an attack that would have sunk any other comparable BB even without that lucky hit. This is in contrast to Bismarck which is bluntly the most over rated, over hyped ship which has so many excuses made for its many, many failings in design. And that list just keeps getting longer as fans 'discover'*cough create cough* more excuses for its loss.
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  323. As an alternative timeline. What if instead of suspending construction of capital ships The British RN looked at past wars where everyone said it would be a short war and ended up totally wrong. So instead of suspending construction they planned for a long war and continued designing and building Battleships. What do you think the RN would have produced as a follow on to the QE's and R's?
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  324. I have noticed you almost have a 'wink, wink' attitude towards the way Britain used the Treaty to put in the water displacement armour scheme they had developed, almost as if they were cheating. While clever it was completely legal as per the treaty guidelines and anyone else could have done the exact same thing IF they had thought of it. This is completely different to Japanese attitude of outright and dishonourably lying about the displacement of their ships during peace time. By as much as 40% in the case of the Mogami's.
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  325. I have read how the conditions at Scapa Flow in WW1 were bleak with little comforts for the men of RN ships and the various Captains and Admirals went to great length to provide sporting and entertainment for their crews. This contrasted sharply with German senior officers who did little for the crews at their base. How true is this?
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  326. Thanks for another episode of entertainment. Now you've got your Ton of episodes I guess your next target is the double ton. The segment on Tirpitz was interesting. It confirms something I read long ago that stated one of the biggest hurdles to overcome in dealing with the ship was the defences of her anchorage. Both the German made one's as well as the natural defence afforded by a narrow, twisting fjord.
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  327. Thanks Drach, you're entering the nervous nineties so take a deep breathe and concentrate on making your ton. The second battle of Narvik shows just how very, very wrong that inaccurate and silly game World of Warships is. History shows what happens when a DD strays into gun range of a capital ship but in that game HMS Warspite would have been obliterated by the first DD she ran into with said DD taking minimal damage in return due to overpens. Which the DD player would still whine to WGing about and demand BB's guns be nerfed even further.
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  328. Great explanation on the benefits and disadvantages ot sloped Vs non sloped armour belt. Some authors had heavily criticized the KGV's for the non sloped belt but this showed there are just as many (if not more) advantages to the British decision as there are disadvantages. I've read that an internal belt is a real bitch to repair after battle damage. Captain Drach, these a full salvo of spoonerism's off the port bow! Orders Sir?
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  329. For a purely theoretical scenario and leaving out any cruisers. How do you think a fight between Bismarck and a properly modernized G3 would go?
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  330. These subs show what you can do with the combination of an excellent design, good crews and massive numbers againat an opponent that dismissed anti submarine warfare as beneath the notice of a fighting Navy. Which is strange considering some senior officers of the US Navy had the same attitude when the US entered WW2. They were fortunate the Germans were not able to capitalize on this to the same extent the US did against Japan, mostly due to having to fight past the British RN and their allies
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  331. As Jackie exclaimed, the RN's biggest enemy is Treasury.
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  332. Excellent video Drach Full of facts and destroys much of the nonsense written about the supposedly 'Invincible' Bismarck. I've read story's about how things below deck during the last fight were quiet, calm and the engine room fit for an Admiral's inspection. Clearly written by people who still believe the Sun revolves around the Earth. The German crew fought a brave action but were overwhelmed by superior forces and at the end it doesn't matter what dealt the death blow as Bismarck was a flaming wreck incapable of escape. I have also read pro-German propaganda of British cruelty in leaving Bismarck's crew to drown, but you show that U-Boats WERE in the area and I'm sure the RN remembers how U9 torpedoed three British cruisers during WW1, two of which had stopped to rescue the crew of the first one. So I don't blame the British caution when they sighted a sub.
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  333. Thanks Drach A fully refited E class cruiser as outlined by you would probably take one look at an Atlanta and say "Hold my Beer"
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  334. All those guns. I can almost ask, "Would you like a ship to go under all those weapons? Q&A: How would the original design have fared in the rougher seas of the Atlantic or even the Arctic? As the ships had stability problems I don't think they would have been successful there without losing some top weight.
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  335. You have a huge library I am envious of Drach, though my eye's aren't up to long periods of reading anymore. I had the silly thought you only live there at the sufferance of the books, they have you vastly outnumbered so do not anger them 😁 I hope you have the collection insured
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  336. The Majestic class, beautiful looking ships and which set the standard other Navy's had to match. The Royal Navy certainly seemed to have a habit of doing that
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  337. Thanks Drach These were incredible design for the period and in a way show the uber German subs t at the end of WW2 their fans rave about still could learn much from boats built nearly 3 decades earlier.
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  338. Agreed. The only person with more authority is of course Mrs Drach...and Baby Drach... and sometimes Floppy the dog😉
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  339. As always an entertaining and informative video. Completely enjoyable. In regards to the slope of armour. Would the ship rolling in heavy seas change the penetration values to any great degree? A thin sloped armour belt could be comprimized it the ship rolled at the wrong moment. I have read at much as I could find about Admiral "Jackie" Fisher and found he is one of the most incredible characters in the long history of the RN. For an Admiral, he hated war but if was was necessary he was prepared to go all out for victory. He's quoted as saying "Humanize war, you may as well try to humanize HELL!" His drive to reform the RN was characterized by his motto of "Ruthless, Relentless, Remorseless" He was a workaholic who put in long hours no matter his appointment and once at the Admiralty I've read he walked around with a sign around his neck saying "I have no work to do, please give me some. He was the right man, at the right time, in the right place. He had his faults but I doubt anyone else could have accomplished what he did. Even after he retired Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) appealed to his close friend Jackie Fisher to head the commission to convert the RN to oil fuel, stating no one could do it.
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  340.  @Wolfeson28  I have to disagree, there are many, many vital things you are skipping. The lax ammunition handling practices so many gleefully point out also existed in German ships prior to Dogger Bank. There Seydlitz was nearly destroyed by the same thing that happened to the British ships at Jutland and only the brave and fast action by her turret crew saved the ship, thereby the Germans learned of the dangers the reinstated the safety features while the British remained ignorant, which led the the losses. The boast of better ships is counterbalanced if you consider the British heavy AP shells were defective and exploded outside the armour while the German AP shells worked as designed. So lighter but effective German shells against thinner British armour Vs heavier but defective British shells against heavier German armour. IMO the British BC;s proved their toughness in battle more so than the Germans, who should have been in better fighting condition when taking that into account. So Lutzow took only six more hits from defective shells than Tiger and was hors de combat while the slighgly less hit Tiger, hit with working shells was still looking for a fight the next day. Tiger for the win. Add in the German advantage of being designed for limited short duration cruises in the North Sea while British ships had to be able to operate anywhere in the world, so German ships could afford to be more closely subdivided than ships of other Navy's. In harbour German crews left the ships and lived in barracks ashore, again not something other Navy's did. And at the rangers the guns were firing at, you're lucky to hit the ship at all, much less the turret as the Germans had a habit of doing, It's a combination of excellent training, excellent optics, a bit of good fortune where the shells hit and the sun favoring the German ships at the start of the battle. It all adds up. Another point few research is how German gunnery quickly worsened as battle wore on due the the intense strain of using their excellent rangefinders while the British system took longer to get on target but once there it stayed on target as the system was easier to use, or more user friendly in today's parlance.
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  341. I did google "Incompetent Admirals" and the first name on the list was Ernest King USN. A vile tempered man who cost thousands of lives and billions lost in cargo due to his refusal to accept advice from anyone not in the USN and ordered his people to not learn from those more experienced. In addition to Villeneuve I would add Scheer and Hipper, both of whom were willing to send thousands to their death for no real purpose in order salve their pride and hope to go out in a blaze of glory.
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  342. At least these ships would have a very distinctive profile
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  343. Thanks Drach I'm sure Mini Drach is just exercising her lungs in preparation for her future career when she is helping tp present dry docks to spare your voice when it comes to the Patreon videos.
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  344. Thanks Drach A more normal length Drydock compared to last weeks marathon. Barely in dock long enough for a new coat of paint compared to the previous session where I got a full overhaul. :) Yes the Invincible class got a bad reputation because of Jutland but when used for their designed purpose they were excellent ships. The Germans had the advantage of building their ships several years after the British one's, so if they weren't better, something is wrong with their designers.
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  345. Thanks for the video and it's great to hear you sound much better than in recent previous episodes. It's in some ways scary to hear how thin the armour was on these ships and the Lexington's despite gun size going from 12 inch to 16 inch since the Invincible's were designed. I doubt either of those two classes would be able to stand up to a G3
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  346. If the Royal Navy had used the # hulls for conversion to full carriers, what do you think the probable design and capability would be? Especially if you could go back in time and "Lend your advice" to the design team.
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  347. Good thing the video listed November 4th 2023 as at 1:57 you said 2022, ah well, what a year between friends. Or are you friends with that crazy person with a big blue box?
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  348. Ok Drach, you've done the video, you can take that blindfold off now. I couldn't get mine on, I was laughing too hard so I had to watch the WHOLE thing, my eyes, my eyes! One thing I can say to the French, "That's an awful lot of guns! Would you like a ship to go with them?" Qas the designer of this thing actually working for the French, or a rival country?
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  349. Sorry to hear your ISP is being difficult As always fun and informative. Loved the section about a Dreadnought being able to fight two or three at once. My first thought turned out to be the same as your explanation. the turbine engines gave DN's a huge advantage over older TE powered ships. Vibration would have made accurate gunnery nearly impossible and there was always the chance of a TE engine giving out and leaving that ship a sitting duck unable to help it's fellows and be picked off at leisure.
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  350. My theory is the Japanese didn't think that way. They considered themselves "Warriors" first and soldiers second and a warrior is all about personal victory and doesn't think in a strategic sense. In many ways the Pearl Harbor attack was a failure as the vital targets you mentioned were left unmolested and it united America as little else could. Even their plan to declare war 30 minutes before the attack is political BS, a cowardly effort to 'Save Face', something very important to them and to show the rest of the world they weren't lying back stabbers...Honest!!! As one historian has commented "Japan has never declared war before launching an attack"
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  351.  @WALTERBROADDUS  yes a single crane is a hard target, but he work shops are huge buildings full of delicate tools, It doesn't take much damage to render precision tools useless. Also the fuel farm is a massive target which would, as Drach pointed out in a previous video, take months to restore and refill. The largest fleet in the world isn't going anywhere without fuel
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  352. A good attitude for anyone in war, if you're going to die, take as many of the enemy with you as you can, especially if it saves the lives of your fellows.
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  353. Thanks Drach. As always a great video to watch and learn something from. I would LOVE! to see a Jutland movie, but I would want it to be as historically accurate as possible but I fear it would be Hollywooded into something that would make all we naval history buffs cringe in horror. Either making it all poor ol Germany, the war is NOT their fault, or America comes to the rescue. Considering the length of the battle we'd hopefully see something like the Snyder cut of Justice League
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  354. When a wooden ship is sent to the Breakers, what happens to all that timber? Is it recycled or just destroyed.
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  355. Thanks for another Drydock Drach and congrats on achieving the 250K mark. If we are going back to fight the Napoleonic war at sea, I'm calling Dibs on being both in the British Royal Navy and being posted to HMS Indefagitable. Hmm Prize money
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  356. Awesome video Drach I have read the history of code breaking, especially in WW1 but this brought it to life. Don't worry, we, your devoted viewers are already planning a raid to free you from the grasp of those trying to suppress our education. If that doesn't work we'll sic our lawyers onto them
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  357. So what you're saying Drach is that the gunfire in WoWs isn't entirely accurate? Or as of reviewer called it Tanks on water. Considering Signals Officer Seymour was so bad at his job, Is there any reason Beatty didn't replace him? Given this is the early 1900's and nepotism was rife across the services of many of the world's military's, did Seymour have some connections that made sacking him impossible to do? I think you've being a nit hard on Beatty blaming him for poor signals. He gives the order and the signals officer is the one who chooses how to implement those orders.
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  358. It's interesting the different design choice made by the British and US navy's when restricted by tonnage limitations. The British emphasize ship qualities while the US emphasizes strike power. The US choice was determined by the wide, empty expance of the Pacific while the British concerns were the North Sea and Med. Both close to massive land based airforces.
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  359. If someone had told you WAAAY back in the beginning of the Dry Dock series how long it would go on and just how long some of those episodes would be, what do you think your probably responce have been?
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  360. Loved it Drachinfel One of my favorite books dealing with the development of Destroyers is simply called "Destroyer" by Ewart Brookes It mainly covers the development of RN DD's from their first inception to the end of WW2 and gives great accounts of many famous DD actions. A truly fascinating read and if you don't have it I very much recommend you getting your hands on a copy.
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  361. Running into Typhoons in the Pacific seems a common occurrence. What do you think would have happened if the Japanese did NOT run into the Typhoon in the mid 1930's and therefore did not learn how dangerously unstable and lightly constructed their warships were
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  362.  @0ld.Richard  It was an attempt to save weight by using the mast as an anchor point for the crane for the ships boats, it just wasn't very well thought out as central director fire had yet to be developed.
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  363. Who was Beatty's second in command at Dogger Bank, I have tried to research it but cannot find anything. The reason I ask is how much blame for Hipper's escape could and should have been attached to this offices total lack of common sence and initiative. Despite the conflicting signals he should have ignored them and pursued the retreating enemy, not ganged up on an already defeated and sinking ship. I believe if Beatty had been the 2i/c his character shows that he'd have done a Nelson (telescope to the blind eye) and gone off after the fleeing Hipper. Did the man ever face a court martial for 'lack of courage in the face of the enemy' as happened in the days of sail or even a disciplinary hearing for lack of initiative? Confusing signals aside the British public would have been delighted to see an end to the man dubbed "Baby Killer" for his nighttime sneak attacks on undefended civilian seaside towns, a tactic that appalled many people of the time. today we'd call them Terror raids
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  364. Very interesting ships there And unlike the US, the Rn had to contend with competent submarine designs so they couldn't be nothing but AA destroyers.
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  365. The Spanish Armada V2, "Electric Boogaloo" Spain certainly was caught by surprise by the war while the US was strangely well prepared. Did they set it up to give themselves the excuse to declare war and Spain's Caribbean Islands while the Philippines an unexpected prize? Probably a question no one wants to look at.
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  366. That must have been an incredibly confusing time to be a sailor. You'd just get used to one change before a whole slew of innovations were thrown at you. Pity the most important innovation could never be used, that of the muzzle for politicians who wanted the same or more firepower for less money
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  367.  @Jodonho  The feeling of 'Goodwill' as you call it was not shattered by the Great Depression. The Japanese dishonorably lied and cheated before the ink was even dry on the Treaty. All the cruisers and carriers were well over their announced displacement by 20% or more and frequently over the maximum treaty limits. The Mogami's being the most blatant examples of Japan's 'compliance' being 40% over their announced standard displacement. (ie:12,500 tons as opposed to 8,500) Italy built some of their Treaty cruisers over the Limit It seems only Britain, France and the USA tried to honour their signed oaths
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  368. You have often said press gangs sometimes grabbed anyone they could Has it ever happened that they grabbed the wrong person? The person they pressed was already a voluntary sailor between commissions or perhaps a very valuable Dock Yard worker who had just a bit too much to drink? What would happen then?
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  369. Given how the size of ships was increasing in the run up to WW1, what do you think the major navies would has built if that war had never happened? What would the RN has built after the QE's and Revenge's and do you think Germany would have eventually realized they could never out build Britain and their attempt to "Seize Neptune's Trident" as the Kaiser had declared had pushed Britain into the arms of their long time enemy France.
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  370. A key and secret Japanese construction technique for all their ships designed after the Washington treaty was signed.
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  371. Thanks Drach A great video about a brave man who went above and beyond his duty.
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  372. In some ways it's amazing just how long ships of the late 19th and early 20th century survived. I can't really see today warships lasting so long in any role
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  373. Is there any information of what Battleships the RN was designing during WW1? I doubt they completely stopped despite the Politicians belief the war would be over by Christmas 1914
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  374. Another awesome video This filled in a lot of details I've missed in my own reading. I'd probably be a member of the developmental group of the RN. Carefully assess new technology and work out the kinks before implementing it. The development of wooden ships was certainly slow compared to their iron children. It's been said a sailor from the Tudor HMS Mary Rose could go aboard Nelson's HMS Victory and within a few hours be quite comfortable. Yet a sailor from Victory going aboard a ship less than 80 later would be hopelessly lost with all the changes brought about by new equipment.
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  375. Does the US naming carriers Yorktown, Saratoga, Lexington and Bunker Hill count at trolling Britain?
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  376.  @thebismarkandthehood  The Japanese went to extreme lengths to hide the true size of the Yamato class. Even putting up buildings to block the view of the shipyards where they were being built and covering the windows on a ferry service to prevent passengers seeing anything when the ferry sailed past the building slip.
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  377.  @thomasgray4188  I suspect it was because the British had already selected the 15inch as a follow on from the 13.5inch used previously and to build 14inch guns would be a step backwards. And going from 13.5 to 14 is too small a change to do considering all the expence involved in building the infrastructure to make the guns.
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  378. Great video which shows the battle from multiple perspectives. It seems the Germans had a major share of the luck on that day and if Jellicoe and his report had been acted on there would have been many more German ships talking with Davy Jones. I count Seydlitz as sunk at Jutland but later salvaged as she grounded outside of harbour and if the water had been deeper she would never have been recovered.
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  379. Thanks again Drach Regarding the lack of Escort Carriers before WW2 I can easily see many politicians complaining about the cost of these 'useless' ships with no war and how it's costing money to keep them as warships as opposed to money making merchant hulls
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  380. One question I have to ask is: Looking at the picture of the Russian Admiral, why is his uniform so heavily loaded with medals that it appears to almost be armour plate and weigh so much it would take several people to help him put it on. Surely he cannot have been in that many battles to have earned that many medals and awards.
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  381. Thanks Drach Wonder how much drag those two big guns imparted n the sub?
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  382.  @maxie7116  Due to the limited number of escort available the RN couldn't hunt a U-boat to death as they would have liked to as that would have left a hole in the screen. When enough escorts were built the RN were able to form Hunter/Killer groups. A force trained to operate together and whose mission was to reinforce any convoy under assault. These reinforcements were able to drive attackers off and hunt them to destruction while the merchant ships steamed on. The original US doctrine against U-boats was flawed and based on WW1 practice. That of patrolling warships instead of convoy escort as herding merchant ships wasn't seen as the proper role of a "Fighting Navy" After very heavy losses along the US East Coast, the US reorganized it's system along tried and proven RN practice andwas very successful. Things were different in the Pacific as the Japanese Navy paid far less attention to attacking merchant ships than they should have. Most of their subs were tasked to support the fleet and attack warships. Their subs were not the best design for attacking convoys, being either too large and unmanouverable for the role or too little and lacking endurance.
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  383. Thanks for another guide Drach While many criticize these ships compared to Von Der Tann, they ignore tha fact they were designed before the German ship was even a gleam in the ship builders eye. Germany had tha massive advantage of seeing what the British had built and designing to counter that. And they were only meant for short duration deployments meaning they were uncomfortable to seve in long term but acceptable for limited voyages.
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  384. Always love a new Dry Dock Further on regarding the "Change one moment" section What would be the long and short term consequences of Seydlitz blowing up at Dogger Bank due to the fires being just that little bit more fierce? This deny the Germans the knowledge of their dangerous Ammunition handling procedures and the Kaiser would be even more protective of his precious ships.
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  385. It would have been a different WW2 if these BC's had been built and the Germans would not have enjoyed it
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  386. Thanks Drach Just what are the challenges involved in increasing the caliber of large naval guns as when the British went from the 13.5 to the 15inch gun. Some would say that if you have a successful weapon, just make it bigger, job done. But I imagine the engineering involved is far more complex than that simple statement.
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  387. Certainly a very different approach to Naval guns. If you don't try you don't find out. I suppose it would be rude to suggest it, but I wonder if anyone nicknamed the ship USS Blowhard?
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  388.  @michaelkovacic2608  Ridiculous statement At point blank range (and what do you mean by that?) NO amount of armour will stop a BB's shell from going straight through except for a lucky angled hit. Rodney's shells punched right through Bismarck's turrets and out the other side. The idea that the relatively thin belt and deck armour of Bismarck would resist the 1,460k shells of Yamaot's 460mm guns traveling at 780 mps is laughable. Clearly German propaganda which has made excuses for Bismarck failings ever since it was sunk by the RN. Of course there is luck involved, it might, repeat Might work once but I certainly wouldn't rely on that. And did I say hitting the same spot ALL the time?? No, that's impossible but at point blank range a BB's shells would go right through any amount of armour you could put on a ship. Since the KGV's had the thickest armour of any ship before Yamato came along, I guess their protection was even better.
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  389. Thanks for another great video I do wonder about the stability of the ship with three superfiring turrets aft. The weight of a large turret that high up would be a danger. The fact these ships were to have four screws is completely different with all other German BB's as (for some reason) the Germans always used a triple arrangement for BB's. Only the WW1 BC;s were given a quad screw arrangement. Is there any reason for the break in this tradition?
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  390. Thanks Drach, a very informative video It seems that much like Admiral Jackie Fisher pre-WW1, Admiral Lee was the right man, in the right place at the right time.
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  391. Thanks Drach, another informative video One of the problems I've encountered in looking into Naval Estimates is the problem of translating the sums into modern amounts. The British Estimates for 1914 seem ridiculously small to modern eyes but in that era they were huge. Just how huge is hard to really work out unless you're a financial expert who can account for inflation and earning power across a century and more of time.
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  392. Thanks Drach I survived, but it took several sessions. I'm like you, I think of height in feet and inches but weight in Kilos, so you're not alone in your weirdness. Personally I count SMS Seydlitz as sunk at Jutland as she came to rest on the bottom due to battle damage but since it was in shallow water and close to home, friends then came to help and the ship was salvaged. Much like the US battleships at Pearl were sunk and later salvaged, but no one disputes the Japanese claim of initially sinking them.
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  393. in a weird time traveling information scenario, Bismarck learns how Johnston stood up to Yamato and says "Nope, not tackling that" and leaves :)
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  394.  @stevevalley7835  Drach did a video on ships firing at the very long range (for WW2) of 30,000 yards and explained that the accuracy and chance of a hit at that range was basically a waste of time. So engaging at 40,000 yards would just be a waste of ammunition. As for Bismarck, she was going to sink no matter what, so any German scuttling rumors I regard as German face saving, not wanting to admit oi being beaten in battle.
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  395. Since this is called "The Dry dock" How much was involved in Dry docking a ship. Was putting a large and expensive ship into dock for refit, repair or any other reason a tricky and worrisome business?
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  396. Thanks Drach I do understand where you are coming from and why it upsets you so much. There is theoretical fights and real world battles where so many things can happen you cannot take into account, or as the phrase says "Shit happens" I also get annoyed reading any story where person X travels back in time yet the author has events still occurring exactly as in the original. They fail to take into account that if you make a large alteration in a major event then future events will change,
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  397. As the Dantons were laid down after HMS Dreadnought was completed why didn't France just scrap the design and build a proper dreadnought rather than waste massive sums of money on ships which were already obsolete?
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  398. Thanks Drach Some very interesting ships there Maybe Indefagitable wouldn't have been so bad if the Politicians weren't so manic about penny pinching and trying to get more ship for less money. Personally I consider the Lion's the first true British BC's as the 6 I class were definitely (as you said) designed as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers
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  399.  @alganhar1  Excellently said. The way the rabid pro Bismarck fanatics scream you'd think the Germans aimed precisely at Hood's magazine like a sniper shot. I've often said it was a Galaxy level lucky shot, but that shit happens at times. Those same fanatics also refuse to see the very serious flaws in Bismarck's design and proclaim her as the most powerful BB ever built. HA! I think HMS Rodney would like to say a few words to KM Bismarck about that.
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  400. Thaks Drach That's a... large class of DD's. Well if it works build more. The T34 tank was another of those weapons which appeared in just the right place and time. Pity the Western Allies didn't/couldn't copy the design with only a few minor changes instead of the fragile Sherman.
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  401. I notice the German Navy used brass cartridge cases for ALL their guns, right up to the 15inch guns while the RN and USN uses silk bags for the larger guns. How did the German navy get rid of large, hot and heavy brass cartridge cases in a turret after firing. These would be a danger to the gun crew. Did they save them to be reused or were they thrown overboard? Brass is a very valuable metal in war.
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  402. Can you com up with a reason the Germans so doggedly stuck with triple screw propulsion for its major warships when of all the three alternatives (twin, triple, quad) the triple seems to offer the least advantages compared to its disadvantages. If the RN had completed the Malta class carriers, how useful would they have been and how would they compare to an Essex or Midway?
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  403.  @TraditionalAnglican  Actually the hydrodynamic shape did not originate with the German type XXI The British built a series of Submarines called the R class in WW1 with high underwater speed, a high battery capacity, large bow salvo and hydrophones. Built today they would be classed as Hunter/Killers. Sadly the design was not continued. You could say the type XXI were based on the shape of the R class
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  404. The Italia certainly looked interesting. Given how you once described HMS Agincourt as a turret farm, this looks like a funnel farm, almost French in appearance. Having rigid airships in WW2 would have been interesting for the British, imagine how useful they would have been on anti submarine patrols in the Atlantic and closing the mid ocean gap. G3 Vs Iowa, one danger I saw for Iowa is having that long slender nose take a hit or two, that'd wreck your day fast. Drach, Designing a better German BB, you traitor, Off with his head :) I see two problems 1. Which shells do you go with, the variable quality Italian shells or the German one's which had problems detonating? 2. Escaping from Hitlers wrath if he finds out you went to the Italians over a good solid German design. Better start running before someone snitches on you.
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  405. U had to look twice at the bow of this ship before it truly registered with me. What effects on seakeeping would it have and how bad would spray interference be for the forward turret?
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  406. Thanks Drach As for the last thing on the video, didn't they tell you not to touch the things which go bang?
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  407.  @tominiowa2513  Bismarck fans are scarey ain't they :)
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  408. Although Beatty gets massive (and perhaps unfairly) criticism for his signal failings it is clear from this he was far, far from alone in this. If any of his ships had spotted the Germans slinking their way home he would have opened fire. Although the German fleet had more night fighting training I cannot help but think a full on night action would have been suicide as it's obvious, given their multiple near disasters, it would have been a case of hoping you are shooting at the right target. And spotting fall of shot near impossible.
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  409. I've read that the British insisted that water and oil fuel were not to be taken into consideration when calculating the new Standard Displacement on the ground that their ships had to be capable of steaming further in defence of the Empire. But is was also a way to conceal the new and secret method of allowing water into space in the armour to increase its effectiveness. With the square cannon shot I also wondered about the ballistics of such square cannon 'balls' Would the blunt face reduce the range or cause it to tumble in flight? It the blunt face actually hit a ships side, would it have more penetration or be more prone to breaking up?
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  410. An interesting series of designs. It's sp easy to look back and criticize with 20/20 hindsight but Jackie Fisher revolutionize naval thinking and design which everyone had to follow. I am puzzled by the statement that HMS Dreadnought was the first to hit the water but not to start construction as NO ONE started building all big gun BB until the South Carolina's which were laid down in December 1906 which is the time Dreadnought commissioned. And the US ships took over three years to build. I very much admire Admiral Jackie Fisher, although he had his flaws he is the one man who did so much to modernize the RN and forged it into the weapon which defeated Tirpitz's HSF
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  411. Thanks for answering my question Drach Always thought being a stoker on a coal powered ship was one tough, hot job and there was nothing like OH&S in those days.
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  412. If the RN had the time and money to rebuild the R class the way the Italians did their WW1 BBs, what do you think they would have come up with?
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  413. It seems the USS United States was lucky to face a Captain with limited understanding of actually fighting and commanding a ship in battle. I wonder what would have happened if you could magically handwave a replacement for Macedonian with HMS Indefagitable under Pellew, both in their prime.
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  414. Following on from the question about Green Boy shells. How would the HSF have fared if the defects been noticed and acted on in time to refit all the Grand Fleet with the Green boy shells prior to Jutland.
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  415. Thanks Drach for all the entertainment and knowledge Hope you and Mrs Drach have a wonderful Xmas and don't give in to the "I'm starving" looks from Floppy. Well not too much anyway/
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  416. Thanks Drach. Nice to see a 'colonial' ship featured. I think the six I class should not be rated as BC's. They were conceived, designed and built as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers, designed to scout for the fleet and destroy commerce raiding cruisers, NOT sit in the battle line facing Battleship level guns. In the role Admiral Fisher planned for them they were stunningly successful. The German replies to them were more like fast Battleships with less firepower, so is it any surprise they fared badly when faced with the HSF 1st SG. This makes the Lion class the first true British Battlecruisers and they proved able to handle their German opponents, the loss of Queen Mary more the result of faulty cordite handling, good gunnery and a large slice of luck. At Jutland the Germans seemed to have the Devil's own luck in hitting turrets repeatedly,
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  417. What is the reason the Admiralty wanted the KGV's to fire their main guns over the bow at such a low elevation Wouldn't that play hell with the deck structure? And it a worthwhile target for the main guns was that close I'd be trying to give it a full broadside.
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  418. Thanks for another great episode of the Dry Dock On the question of Japan using huge numbers of DD's in place of a balanced battle fleet. This is not a new idea. Around the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century the French also thought about doing this. Replacing the fleet with Torpedo Boat's and Subs as they knew they could not out build the British in capital ships. Called the Jean Eucole school I think. It was not proceeded with because of the reasons Drachinifel put forth. A balanced fleet will smash a specialized fleet like this, especially as the torpedoes of the time were short ranged and slow by even the standards of WW2. This is also one of the reasons the Destroyer was developed, to destroy Torpedo Boats swarming your BB's. One question I have is: Why do people (even today) rave about the 'Awesome' firepower of Bismarck's main guns, yet sneer at Vanguard's when both ships had 8-15 inch guns? Although an older design, the British gun and its turret were considered one of the best designs ever produced. Additionally the German 15 inch shell was much lighter than the British and had a high failure rate. One the boiler question. One country did put speed ahead of other requirements. The Italian rebuilds of their WW1 ships used the weight savings to up the speed from 21 to a maximum 27 knots. Pity the armour of these ships was left mostly alone and wasn't sufficient to withstand the 15 inch shells they would face. All they could do was run.
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  419. We Aussies thank you Drach
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  420. Considering the scene in the , as you say Questionable movie Battleship, just how difficult and how much time would it take a battleship to go from 'cold' engines to having power to steam. The questionable movie made it seem almost as simple as putting the kettle on for tea, but obviously it's far, far more complicated than that.
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  421.  @dantreadwell7421  Another point is the Japanese tried to time it so the declaration was delivered only 30 minutes before the attack started a quarter of the way around the planet. Given the technology of the time there was no way anything could have been done. Especially as Hull would have had to read the massive document full of political BS, probably more than once as he overcame his shock. Even today 30 minutes warning is both an insult and a joke. The whole thing was a purely political face saving stunt that backfired on them. As a commentator said : Traditionally Japan has never declared war before launching an attack. See a place called Port Arthur for proof.
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  422. With regard to the pros and cons of high velocity naval guns, will you do a video on the construction of large naval guns similar to the video you did on the development of boilers and armour
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  423. Thanks Drach I would hate to be the logistics officer in charge of ordering an ammunition resupply for these ships. Its enough to give you nightmares.
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  424. Thanks Drach In their quest for the BIGGEST gun the Japanese are almost going back to pre-Dreadnought number of main guns just without the large secondary guns to provide the 'hail of fire'
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  425. Excellent Although not glamorous these were some of the most important ships in WW2 and can take a large credit of the Allies victory. Without them and the brave sailors who manned them, the convoys would have been devastated.
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  426. Thanks Drach I believe you have previously sated the British ships always had a few knots on reserve beyond their listed maximum speed. Seems a smart thing to do in contrast to other Navies who ran speed trials in unrealistic conditions just to make false boasts and look better than they were.
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  427. Thanks Drach If presenter Drach ever gets into an argument with executive Drach over anything, I guess both can appeal to the highest authority, Mrs Drach, and she will be able to sort it out. Either by a hard glare or if necessary, well you did say she knows how to use a knife, :)
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  428. Thanks Deach I'm glad there are people with better brains than mine to work out Naval gunnery. I think my head hurts :) I read one person describing Naval gunnery as using a rifle to shoot at a rabbit speeding across broken ground from the back of a car also speeding over broken ground. He said "It's a miracle we hit anything."
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  429. These ships seem like an example of a politicians dreams far outreaching practical engineering reality. My thoughts are the Soviets would have been better served building a smaller battleship to let their designers and builders relearn the 'tricks of the trade' rather than trying for a supposedly perfect, world beating ship as their first effort. Why they worried about looking like they were complying with the Washington Treaty limits seems silly, they were not signatory's to that Treaty and not bound by it.
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  430. We hear so much about the German, Japanese and US submarines and their exploits. How about a guide on British submarines, especially the U Class which wrecked havoc in the Med and with Rommel's supply convoy's.
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  431. Thanks Drach Always enjoyable to learn more about naval history
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  432.  @CharlesStearman  Yes that is correct. German ships in WW1 were designed for North Sea/Baltic Sea operations, in harbour the crews left the ship and lived ashore. I've read reports that due to their extensive subdivision you had to leave one boiler room, go all the way up to the weather deck and down again just to get to the next boiler room. This makes them hard to sink but inefficient for extended voyages. Navies which had to cruise for extended periods of time could not do this, there had to be more comfort for the crew, otherwise they would fall ill and become far less effective.
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  433. Obviously code break ing played a larger role in the war tan most realize. Probably because if doesn't involve lots of flashy explosions. I had read the Poles were key to breaking the Enigma code, but not to the extent you've shown here. Of couse all this code breaking is a bit of a puzzle to me.
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  434. I think an American newspaper termed it "The Germans fleet has assaulted its jailer but at the end of hte day was back in prison. The Germans also ignore the fact SMS Seydlitz actually sank on it's way back but was close enough and in shallow enough water they were able to salvage the ship and return it to service. So really the German HSF lost two of its battlecruisers that day.
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  435. Devastation was a great looking ship in her day and in many ways was just as revolutionary as HMS Dreadnought would be.
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  436.  @andreastiefenthaler3811  Actually Japanese submarines were far from the best. Their entire doctrine revolved around attacking enemy warships and not the vital resupply convoys, the US got off very lightly there. The biggest problem was the faulty design of the Japanese subs. They were either too small, being meant for coastal work, or way too big which meant they were easier to detect and had poor underwater agility and unable to evade attacking surface ships. The US subs struck a good balance between size, range and crew comfort. Even the German type lX subs would have been a vast improvement over the oversized Japanese subs which carried an aircraft hanger. As for poor convoy protection, well the Japanese didn't think escorting Merchant ships was the proper role for a fighting navy, the US Navy also thought this when they entered the war and were eventually forced, kicking and screaming, to adopt the British method of close escort and not offensive patrols by DD's, something the British tried in WW1 and found did not work. Which is one reason they instantly adopted the convoy system in WW2
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  437. Thanks Drach So if I can ever get to see this ship, unlikely as it is, does that mean I can get the special tour if I say "Drach sent me" lol
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  438. Is there any reason ever given why the German Navy always used Triple Screws for their Battleships yet used Quad Screws for Battlecruisers? It can't have been for better manouverability as WW1 German BC's turned slowly and lost considerable speed in the turn.
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  439. Given your explanation of pressure waves from a large naval gun, In the movie Under Siege Tommy Lee Jones' character is right under the 16inch guns when they fire and he basically walks away with bleeding from and ringing in the ears. Just how ridiculous is this? I know Hollywood writers do completely ridiculous things but how much of a face palming did you do on seeing this? I do the same when Rybeck is swimming the whole length of the sub to place the improvised explosive on the diving planes and not just jam it against the propeller or shaft.
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  440. ​ @John-ru5ud  As well as Admiral King of the US Navy for his valuable service in fighting tooth and nail to prevent the implementation of a convoy system after the US entry into WW2. And totally refusing to learn any lessons from the RN about their vast experience in fighting U-Boats.
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  441. Thanks Drach I've assembled computers but modern stuff looks way, way easier than trying to do anything with that fire control table. Important tip, if you want the special 'Royal' treatment when visiting any museum ship, take Drach with you lol
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  442. Thanks Drach It was time for bed, but this appeared so it became coffee time.
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  443. I also played SFB and when it first came it was a great, fun and simple game to to enjoy. Unfortunately power creep came in and then several tons of contradictory optional rules which made it hard to find someone who played the same game you did. Then the designer fell in love with the Kilngons and they became THE race with all the best stuff as did their allies. So much for allegedly superior Federation tech. The game died due to 'Rules lawyers' and too many optional rules. What rules one player never used another would consider must haves. Did you play Star Fleet Battles or Warp Speed Galactica? Always thought fighters in SFB was rubbish.
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  444. Certainly an interesting ship and shows how the game of one-up manship was played back then. Wonder what the crew thought of "them strange new lights' in the ship.
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  445.  @shannonrhoads7099  Aussie rules fans aren't as crazy as Soccer/Euro Football fans as a draw is fairly rare.
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  446. Now that's a video worthy of a gold medal for 'going the distance'. You must have had extra fuel tanks installed to do this as it took me four goes to listen to all of it. And lots of coffee. I don't even want to contemplate you trying to break this record.
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  447. Thanks Drach Which weeks Dry Dock is this? I think you lost me at that sharp turn at Albuquerque.
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  448. Is there any reason why the German Navy used triple screw propulsion for their Battleships but used a Quad arrangement for the Battlecruisers? It seems strange they used two different systems if they believed the triple arrangement was superior
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  449.  @donalddemo  Have to disagree. The ships of 1sst SG were armoured and constructed more like Battleships and their role was to supplement the battleline. More like battleship than battlecruisers. But each person has their own opinion. Light means less firepower than their equivalent Battleship
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  450. Poor Implacable As Admiral Sir Jackie Fisher said "The greatest enemy of the Royal Navy is the Treasury Department."
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  451.  @EslayerTM  Well it wasn't a ram, but in 1940 HMS Cossack came alongside the German supply freighter Altmark while it was attempting to reach home waters. The crew of Cossack boarded the ship to rescue 299 merchant sailors captured by the Graf Spee. Those men were delighted to hear the ringing cry of "The navy's here"
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  452. Thanks Drach Wonder just what sort of comments were made by USN officers when they saw the open bridge of these ships? Probably nothing that could be written here without getting into trouble 😉
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  453. Thanks Drachh for a detailed and thorough analysis of a most tragic event. As you have previously said, one of the luckiest shots to ever occur but that is what happens in war and life. As it was said in one of the Predator movies "Shit Happens"
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  454. Thanks Drach, an great video describing ships which were an excellent design for their role. It's interesting to compare how tough they were and how they stood the tests of battle and sea keeping compared to their opponents who couldn't equal either.
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  455. There are other problems with the RN using Baden than covered in the video. German ships were designed for limited duration North Sea voyages and had very cramped quarters for the crew. This was considered acceptable as in Port, German sailors left the ship and lived in barracks ashore whereas in many other navy's, the ship is the sailors home. Most large German ships didn't even have water distillation plants for fresh water, just replying on the water they can carry due to their planned limited duration voyages. This equipment was considered essential in other Navies. Another point against Baden in the strange German love of the triple screw design which the British never used. Most others used either twin or quad screw designs to enable steering with the engines if the rudder was damaged. This isn't possible with the triple design (as Bismarck found out). According to my research the Triple design is the worst possible, with its advantages outweighed by the disadvantages. So why the German Navy loved it so much is a mystery to me. Though they did use quad screws for their BC's, go figure.
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  456. What a pleasant surprise to see yet anohter drydock so quickly. You really are dedicated to us (your loyal viewers) and we certainly appreciate it. I just have to get my poor brain to accept all this information, maybe it needs to be dry docked for upgrades :) Putting the two together you're only the 42 seconds for a two hour episode. Ah that magic number 42
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  457. Thanks Drach You efforts in keeping us entertained and educated in Naval history is very much appreciated. A second live stream?? I love them but don't want you to burn yourself out, or have Lady Drach get upset with the amount of time this takes away from her. Due to time differences Live Stream is way way too early for me so I wait and watch them after/ You should watch one yourself and run your cursor along the time bar and see your movements sped up to insane levels, it is very funny.
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  458.  @philipprucz3099  Poor quality shells is a small part of the problem. What people are forgetting is that the fight took place at (what was for the time) very long range and high speed. This was the first time such conditions had been seen in battle and it was a learning curve for the BC's. The Germans having learned from the battle of Coronel. And as Drach explained, the Germans were lucky to have the wind in their favour which hindered the BC's gunnery Also something not many realize is German ships seemed to be tougher because they were designed for short duration voyages with far greater water tight integrity but also far less habitable conditions. Other navy's (the British especially) had to be capable of long duration voyages and HAD to have more comfortable living conditions. A British ships had to be able to operate in sea's ranging from the Arctic to the Pacific at short notice, not something usually expected of a German built ship.
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  459. Thanks Drach These were tough and well built ships that gave sterling service. Amazing that Britain, France and the US could build ships that complied with Treaty limits yet other countries just couldn't seem to abide by treaties they signed.
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  460. Given the sheer power of large naval rifles and the very large amount of propellant used to fire them, what if any procedures were in place to deal with the problem of a gun which failed to fire? Would they have another go at it and if that also failed could the breech be safely opened and propellant removed?
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  461. You make good points about most of these ships but I disagree with Seydlitz. In boasting about her durability at Jutland you have to take into account the fact the shells which hit her were defective, little better than HE and she did sink due to combat damage and later salvaged. So she should be considered a combat loss. In contrast to HMS Tiger, though a larger ship she had much thinner armour, was hit by almost as many shells with did function as fully effective AP shells, yet after the battle is still combat effective but is still at sea, looking to continue the fight while Seydlitz is creeping home, hors de combat. The German ship also had other design advantages, being built for short duration voyages and therefore the crew facilities were far less than most other Navy's ships.
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  462. Poor Eagle suffered from the problems of being an experiment when people had to learn just what a carrier was and what it was supposed to do.
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  463.  @Gingerbreadley  Japan NEVER obeyed the Washington Treaty with regards to the weight of its ships. If you examine the true displacement ALL their ships averaged 20+% over what was declared. Even their first such vessel Yubari was massively over what Japan told the world, the Mogami's being one of the worst examples where Japan declared their tonnage as 8,500 when the Japanese thought they would be 9.500 but when finally fit for service were over 12,000. Japan simply lied, hardly an honorable act. They did the same with their carriers, they lied so much it appeared they had enough tonnage left to build Soryu when in fact they did not. Japan withdrew from the Treaty system and all ships laid down after 31/12/1936 were not restricted in size though they did expend massive resources and efforts to hide the true size of the Yamato class.
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  464.  @mikearmstrong8483  Well said Billy Mitchell's 'demonstration' was completely unrealistic and his assertion that it was easier to hit and sink ships underway at sea than it was when they were unmanned and at anchor is completely ridiculous.
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  465. That was an extensive rebuild Wonder if it would have been faster and cheaper to just purchase a new ship?
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  466. Thanks Drach In the segment about many lighter guns Vs fewer larger gun I was wondering the the slightly faster rate of fire of the smaller guns would eventually add up to counter the greater individual weight of hte larger weapons.
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  467. Sorry to hear about your future job loss but at least they have the decency to let you know it's happening. I've heard of people being surprised at suddenly losing their job by being informed by an SMS text message while on their way to said job, Now that's truly cowardly. Maybe Dr. Clarke can put in a good word for you at a guest speaker at his University,
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  468. From an engineering viewpoint, is it all that wise to design successors to ships that have yet to hit the water and undergone any sort of real world evaluation.
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  469. Thanks for a gret drydock. I really appreaciate all the work you put in for these vidoe's. They are something I look forward too. You are so right about the massive sour grapes some Germanophiles indulge in. I've read articles which now claim the Scharnhorst was not sunk by the RN, the crew scuttled her instead. What's next? The RAF didn't destroy Tirpitz, the crew deliberately capsized her?? Maybe I shouldn't give the idiots ideas. It seems the biggest problem the Italian Navy had in WW2 was their high Command. They wanted victories but were averse to actually risking ships in combat.
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  470. Thanks Drach Your stamina and dedication in cranking out all these high quality videos if much appreciated by all of your devoted followers (minions?)
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  471. I guessing you might be thinking about the He 177 Greif. Not a successful aircraft due to the habit of it's engines bursting into flames.
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  472. Ah those Japanese torpedo boats, they turn up everywhere The biggest lesson learned was that while you could build an impressive fleet, if you can't supply them with fuel they might as well stay at home
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  473. In regard to getting the RN officers to show more initiative. What do you think both the short range and long term consequences would have been if the second in command of the British BS's at Dogger Bank had 'done a Nelson' and ignored Lt. Seymour's confusing signals and chased down the fleeing German BC's?
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  474. Thanks Drach You really make it difficult to do anything else once I see a new video has been uploaded.
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  475. Although the range was much closer, Duke of York hit Scharnhorst at night in the middle of a howling gale in the Arctic while WV was blessed with a calm Pacific night. Iron Duke's shooting at Jutland was very impressive given the very poor light, gun/funnel smoke, conflicting shell splashes and far less capable fire control technokogy.
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  476. Thanks Drach A different thought would be is there any way to redesign Bismarck so that Germany honorably adheres to the Anglo-German Naval treaty of 1935 and builds the ship with a standard displacement of 35,000 tons.
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  477. Thanks Drach I've been waiting for the video on this ship Her performance at Jutland was first rate and shows that British fire control and training had little to learn for the much over praised Germans. Too many forget the conditions at Rosyth did not allow for the live gunnery practice as happened at Scapa but given HMS Invincible's excellent shooting they were capable of doing just as well with the ability to practice properly
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  478. Nice I'd say the RN got their money's worth out of this ships service
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  479.  @kurumi394  It Might, repeat Might have been impressive if Mogami hadn't been around 50% over their announced displacement of 8,500 tons and almost 30% over the Treaty limits. And despite all that the Mogami's were so lightly constructed they had to be docked for their hulls to be strengthened. Not so impressive now huh!
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  480.  @mattwilliams3456  I agree, Ryan appears to be speaking off the top of his head and not from a script. It really hurts his presentation as does his one eyed view of the Iowa class. They were good ships but not the paragons of perfection he makes them out to be. And they did have significant weak points he ignores.
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  481. The French make much of their sinking their own ships in 1942 to criticize the actions at Mers-Al-Kebir. But could they have been so successful if the Germans had made a run for them in 1940???? They had had two YEARS! to prepare at Toulon but in the confusion of 1940 I think the Germans would have been more successful and the RN couldn't take the chance of powerful forces falling into hostile hands. How many other navy's would have done the same thing as the British in those circumstances? Be honest!
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  482.  @AtomicBabel  Thanks. I checked it out and it was bery interesting
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  483. Thanks Drach A ONE hour Dry Dock this time, I was startled at how quickly it went by, You've spoiled us with those massive one's.
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  484. DRACH SENT ME!!! sounds scary Thanks for another video Given the relatively smaller size of the light carriers in the US fleet, do you think they would have benefited from them being pure fighter platforms to be used in defence of the fleet? As a fighter is smaller than most strike aircraft they could have squeezed in more aircraft for a larger force.
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  485. Vulcans flying off Habbakuk, most illogical!! Oh wait, sorry, wrong sort of Vulcan lol
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  486. An excellent point all too many overlook in their zeal to praise German engineering. The British ships had lighter armour and took almost as many hits by properly functioning AP shells but the next day were still at sea, in no danger of sinking and eager to continue the fight. SMS Syedlitz had Battleship grade protection and was hit by shells which had poor fuzes, making them explode on contact, but she was a smashed wreck running for home with her tail well and truly kicked. Since the ship came to rest on the sea floor outside the harbour, does she count as sunk due to damage inflicted by the British but later salvaged? Much like the US ships sunk at Pearl Harbour and no one disputes the Japanese claims they were sunk.
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  487. So were there recruitment stations for cats? Or were the press gangs in the days of sail also tasked with 'recruiting' the necessary felines? Did cats have a standard pay rate and promotion path? Just what share of any prize money was awarded to the ships moggy? These and other questions are of vital interest for any cat wishing to follow their ancestors in serving in their country's navy.
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  488. I can't remember but have you done a video on the advantages and disadvantages of turbo-electric drive Vs Steam turbines
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  489. Thanks Drach That's a really odd layout for the main guns. Was there any reason for it beyond quirkyness? Having them so close to the sides of the ship would make them very vulnerable to magazine penetration, especially given their weak armour protection,
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  490. Another fascinating video Drach Loved the section about the Pom-Pom Vs the Bofors. It likes the biggest weakness of hte Pom-Pom is age. Given it was designed nearly a decade before the Bofors and aircraft of that era were a completely different level of threat, the Pom-Pom was a deadly weapon against them. It shows coming alone years later with a system designed to deal with the newer threats makes a big difference.
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  491. Thanks for another great Drydock Drach. You have said many times in upgunning a ship, you can gain two inches in gun caliber and lose one gun. The German plan for the Scharnhorsts was to gain FOUR inches while losing one gun. Does this violate the standard rule or show the Germans made allowances to upgun these two ships during their construction. What other changes would be necessary to make this work? Like shell hoists, storage of shell and charges, etc.
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  492. Should all the six I class BC's be more properly classes as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers and not Battlecruisers as that's what they were designed and built as? Therefore Britain's first true Battlecruisers were the Lion class. The German BC's were designed more as small, fast BB's than BC's, except Von Der Tann whose armour was weaker.
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  493. I love seeing another episode of The Drydock, it really makes my day and I always learn so much. I wonder if another reason the British didn't go for at sea refueling early in WW2 was the Atlantic is a far rougher sea than the Pacific and makes it more difficult to refuel at sea compared to putting in to one of their many bases. Also perhaps the RN didn't think using a BB as a convoy raider was an intelligent use of such an expensive and vital unit that would be so vulnerable to a lucky hit from an escorting ship with torpedoes. I often laugh when people's comments on your ship reviews start with "But World of Warships does..." As you pointed out WoWs is a GAME and I think has only a vague relationship with reality. Some players also call it Tanks on Water as the company used World of Tanks programming to save money and adapted the armour angling from that game. Battleships were designed to fight on the broadside for max gun usage. Q&A Could you answer how long it would take for a surface ship like a Japanese DD or CA to reload its torpedo tubes. I've seen reviewers whine about the loooooong 90 seconds they have wait to have tubes reloaded, but all information I've read say it would take at least 30 minutes to do this, and the ship couldn't do that while under fire and manouvering hard to avoid fire. As for one DD I saw fire well over 30 torps in a game, that was ridiculous. Thank you so much for your account of the Birkenhead disaster. I agree with you that the men who sacrificed themselves fully knowing they were about to die was humbling. They are truly worthy of the utmost respect for their decision. Hindsight is always 20/20 but as you pointed out there was little more anyone there could do and they make the best decision they could. I only hope I could be as courageous as they were if I ever faced a similar situation.
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  494. In keeping with your answer about why Americans seemed to be so aggressive. Do you think that in modern terms the USN is approaching that ossification as it has been the dominant Naval power for so long without a truly destructive war which causes it to build massive numbers of new ships and rapidly promote very young captains wh haven't been entrenched by "The Book"
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  495.  @sandrodunatov485  German and Italian BS excuses The treaty's under which these ships were constructed stated that standard displacement was to be 35,000 tons standard as defined by the Washington treaty. Their DESIGNED displacement was well over that and therefore makes them treaty violating and those two cowardly oath breakers The Escalator clause you bleat about does NOT apply to them as that was part of 2nd London and neither of those two nations were part of that treaty It was between the France. the US and the UK and stated they could begin construction of ships with a standard displacement of 45,000 if Japan did not sign the treaty by 1st April 1937. The key words are BEGIN CONSTRUCTION. As for the 'proposed reconstruction of the Nelsons to raise them to 40,000 tons, this is he first I have ever heard of this so where did you get that? German wiki? The British Admiralty KNEW the Bismarck's were breaking the treaty but the political will to do anything was lacking, much like they knew the Japanese cruisers were well over the limits.
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  496. The Littorio and Bismarck's, cheaty by a side margin
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  497. Thanks Drach Another episode full of information to enlighten and naval enthusiast. Loved the section on how effective a design is relies on what and where it's mission is. The big subs would have been in great danger in the Med's restricted waters while the British U class wrecked havoc there.
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  498. Although a lot has been said about the different armour schemes on BB's, just what are the advantages and disadvantages of a turtle back deck as opposed to a thicker flat deck.
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  499. Thanks Drach and I hope you feel better very soon
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  500. In keeping with the proper pronunciations. How do the British and/or RN people pronounce things like Harwich or Rosyth. I have heard several different ways and of course my own version is probably different from UK natives. Just like Jeremy Clarkson always pronounced the race Bathurst race in Australia very differently from the way Australians do.
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  501. Thank you for all your efforts in producing these wonderful video's. I don't know how you manage it while keeping the peace with your wife but keep up the great work and pass on my thanks to your lady for putting up with all the time these take.
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  502. Regarding the 'cheating' on speed trials, didn't those in charge of the fleet realize what was going on and takes steps to make sure the trials were run in realistic conditions? Or after accepting the ship into service, run their own trials and put forth claims of companies lying and penalize them to stop them doing these tricks?
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  503. Excellent video Drach and shows just how insanely dangerous explosives are, especially in large numbers. It shows that much of the blame thrown at Beatty for the BC's losses at Jutland is very, very unfairly placed when more and more details are understood. Maybe Beatty suffers from bad publicity (people looking for a scapegoat) and extreme jealousy of people who outlived him but did not advance up the ranks as fast. It's easy to blame someone who can't defend themself to cover up your own mistakes.
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  504. Considering how often ships were painted and repainted during their service, was all those layers of paint ever scraped away to avoid excessive paint build up which could result in a fire danger during battle? I have read a report that during the battle of First Helgoland bight one of the German cruisers sunk was burning brightly due to layers of paint over the years set on fire.
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  505. Thanks Drach While the men who fought the war rightly got praised for their efforts, the men who risked their lives time and time again to salvage ships thought lost, never to return, deserve far more praise than they got. the attack on Pearl was supposed to overawe the US and force them to settle for peace but as Admiral Yamamoto quoted " We have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve"
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  506. Regarding the 'rules or war' about a surrendered ship I do wonder what was the reaction of other US captains and crew if/when they heard about Decatur and his dishonorable actions in trying to run off after his surrender? Were they appalled at his actions or think it was just British propaganda?
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  507. Looking at the ships profile and armament, Are you sure she's not a French design? Well she certainly shows her US breeding though with guns, guns and more guns.
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  508. Was this a precursor to the notorious French habit of a fleet of samples in the late 19th and early 20th century
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  509. The Nelson class gives the impression of a hurried redesign of the G3's to gt ships with 16" guns into service asap. What would be the result of the RN designers taking the time to do a new design with all the experience of the G3's. What sort of new battleship would you design for the RN in the 1920's (and yes you keep all your current knowledge)
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  510. As a pre-teen I got to read a book called Destroyer by Ewart Brookes which covered the development of that ship class right from the very early days when it was first the Torpedo Boat, then torpedo boat catcher, the torpedo boat destroyer and finally shortened to just Destroyer. And it covered things from that beginning right up until the end of WW2 mainly from the British side.
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  511. I agree with you Drach, both movie and tv writers are some of the laziest people around and throw out rubbish and pretty much demand you act like a brain dead idiot while watching their creations, no matter how bad they are. If you have seen ST:Strange New Worlds, the very idea that Enterprise's XO has been in the fleet for YEARS and not once has had a medical scan which showed she was a member of a race banned from joining the Fleet is completely moronic. It also shows the Federation to be racist banning a species which chooses to change themselves to suit a planet instead ot terraforming the planet. Just because the Earthers don't like it! Suck it up you babies.
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  512. Thanks Drach Given where the AA guns were originally mounted I do wonder just how they were going to get ammunition to them?
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  513.  @notshapedforsportivetricks2912  I remember that episode. Goodies, goodie, goodie yum yum. Way to show me my age 😜 Just remember, Ecky Thump!!, and watch out for the black puddings You couldn't make that show these days as too many groups have no sense of humor.
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  514. Thanks Drach Both were fine ships whose crews fought courageously. It's such a pity the designers put so little effort into armouring their ships to increase survivability. I do wonder what the British could have produced if the illustrious class had the same displacement as these ships.
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  515. If Seydlitz's crew had been just a little slower at Dogger Bank and the ships had blown up, who do you think would have replaced Hipper and what effect would it have had on the German Naval effort? Would the Kaiser have placed even more restrictions on the HSF's movement and thus making Jutland almost impossible due to paranoia and fear of any further losses. If something like Jutland had occurred, what do you think the result would have been with Germany ignorant of their dangerous cordite handling procedures which led to the loss of Seydlitz.
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  516. Proof about just how important the fleet train is. Ships need to 'eat' just as much as their crew and without regular 'meals' they are just harbor decorations.
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  517. Thanks for another Dry Dock. A shorter one to preserve your voice as Irn Bru can only do so much
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  518. Q&A I've noticed that a lot of designs post WW! went for triple gun turrets to save weight and increase the number of guns. Is there any reason the Japanese 8-8 ships retained twin turrets?
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  519. I know you don't have a high opinion of Beatty but I feel Scheer and especially Hipper get far, far more praise than they deserve. Why did neither of these supposed Naval Geniuses wonder why Beatty was leading them North towards Norway and not North West towards Scapa during the run to the North? Once he drew out of gun range only Hipper's ships could catch him and the fast Battleships of 1stScG had proven they did not want to tangle with the true BB's of 5th BS. And yes I said fast BB's, apart from Von Der Tann, given how they were designed, they are far more like lesser armed BB's trading fire power for speed than true BC's.
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  520.  @marcusfranconium3392  There are several massive problems with this Dutch fleet being built in German yards. Germany simply did not have the yard space to build so many extra Dreadnoughts as well as their own ships and I suspect that once war broke out work on them would have been suspended in the same manner as the Greek Salamis. Also the German Army had priority on guns produced by Krupp and would have seized them. Also events do not happen in isolation. If these 9 ships had been in a position to be seized and completed somehow Britain would NOT had suspended Battleships they were building or proposing and would have pressed ahead with them and had more ships in the Grand Fleet. Sorry but I find it very annoying where people give Germany a MASSIVE!!! and unrealistic boost but have the British doing nothing to counter it when they can see it happening. I could counter with "What would have happened if Britain had completed all 8 proposed QE's and 8 R class and had them at Jutland? With green boy shells."
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  521.  @marcusfranconium3392  I'm afraid yours is the ridiculous argument, Denmark was certainly not in a position to finance and man NINE dreadnoughts. One or two maybe, but not nine as the cost would have bankrupted the country. Nor was Germany in a position to build such a large order, if they had the yard space they would have built more ships for their own navy, Their yard space, armour and gun manufacturing was pushed to the limit as it was. And the problems of British AP shells were known long before the war, Jellicoe noted this when he was in charge but after his transfer to a new position he did not follow up, just left a note for the new man coming in. So if you can have a fantasy situation of nine more DN's for Germany I see nothing wrong with boosting the British for a change, somehthing which many people think is not allowed, probably jealousy as Britain won the majority of battles against the vaunted HSF.
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  522. Sorry to hear you're unwell and hope you improve quickly and take the lesson to heart I'm sure Mrs Drach will take good care of you and only after you're better will proceed to tell you how much of an idiot you were, for your own good of course :)
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  523. Amazing video Drach, I had to watch it in stages to get through it all. I can only think you've been in Drydock and had extended range Iron Bru tanks installed to make it through something like this marathon. And you have a live stream coming, make sure those Bru tanks are full. I can only say Lady Drach is an angel.
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  524. Thanks Drach The numbering system of the US Navy aircraft is enough to make you dizzy and ask for some Aspirin. When you have that meet and greet it's probably advisable to have plenty of pictures of baby Drach to show everyone, probably surrounded by her plushie shell and torpedo
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  525. What level of armour has WGing given these ships? origianl Iowa class BB or downgraded to CA levels?
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  526. I suspect the debris is actually flakes of paint. To prevent rust most things on a ship are painted and firing a large naval gun generates massive heat along the barrel. As the gun fires successive salvo's the paint is damaged or 'blisters' and the shock of the gun causes it to fly off. I've seen pictures of several US Cruisers after heavy action with the paint on their gun barrels is appalling condition.
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  527. Thanks for another gret video Drach and I hope you and Lady Drach are feeling better, Have you ever read the book Destroyer by Ewart Brookes which details the development of that class of ship from it's inception to the end of WW2?
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  528. Thanks Drach Looks like you have a few books in your collection, I'm SO jealous. I can easily imagine your greatest nightmare is moving house, not only in packing everything up (and preventing damage) but even worse, unpacking and putting them back into your 'Drach approved' sorting system. Is there a section in those books on French BB's about the proper storage of the all important wine? lol
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  529. The Hippers, the most obvious example of how well Germany honors and follows any Treaty they sign.😝
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  530.  @666Blaine  Only part of it is lack of ships. Another small part is the US Navy didn't think escorting merchant ships was the proper role for a fighting Navy, despite proof from Britain that it is. The Japanese also had this attitude and only learnt is right at the end how vital your merchant ships are. However a major part of this massacre of shipping lies directly at the feet of Admiral King. His hatred of anything NOT US is well known and as Drach explained in his video on the Western Approaches Command, King ordered!! his men to NOT go there to learn anything from people who had years more experience in hunting subs. It is to their credit that many US commanders quietly ignored this idiocy, went there and absorbed valuable teachings. Given King's legendary vile temper and ability to carry a grudge, it's not hard to imagine the consequences if he'd learnt of this.
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  531. I have read that Japanese aviation fuel stowage was far more vulnerable to battle damage and liable to cause catastrophic explosions than either the US and especially the British precautions. How true is this and if so how much of a role did it play in Japanese carrier losses.
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  532. Regarding the question of night fighting: Given the number of disasters and near disasters the HSF bumbled into when they were running for safety after Jutland, was Jellicoe smarter than Scheer when he decided a night action was far too dangerous and was a seriously bad idea
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  533. And on the underside of the New Jersey could be a small spray painted "Drach was here" right next to Ryan's name with "MINE, MINE, MINE!😜 Of course this idea would never occur to Ryan or Drach, well not until I mentioned it
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  534. Thanks Drach I watched all of it in sections otherwise I'd be getting keyboard face trying to binge it all.
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  535. Thank you as always Drach and especially Captain Seaguist for such a fun and informative talk on actually commanding a ship at sea. Having heard you talk about the good parts of command, what in your opinion was the hardest or perhaps most distasteful duties a Captain has to perform?
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  536. Maybe as a challenge for your Alternate Admiral: Dreadnought game. Without changing the gun layout (ie must be 4x2 NO triples) Can you shave enough displacement from Bismarck to make her comply with the Anglo-German Naval Treaty limit of 35,000 tons? What would you have to sacrifice to reduce her to this legal limit?
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  537. Thanks Drach You really show just how deadly a night action could be in the pre radar days if you don't exercise strict control and have trained for it. Given the series of near disasters the German HSF blundered into during the night after Jutland (despite their night training) I can't help but feel a full on night engagement would have been similar to what you've have just described. And many of the German DD's had already expended their torpedoes covering the Fleet second retreat from the GF. Unlike that silly WoWs game, torpedoes are not in unlimited supply on DD's.
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  538. Thanks Drach. A very informative lesson on the differences between the American and Japanese navy's. The US had several other advantages: 1 they were able to learn from the RN experiences, especially in the Med and from repairing damaged RN Carriers. 2 The US built entire classes of carriers (the Essex swarm) while the Japanese ships were more of one off designs, like the French pre-DN, The design also played a massive part, the Japanese method of aviation fuel storage was badly flawed and vulnerable to explosion. And to fit the maximum weight of fighting ablity into their ships, they were lightly built. Not a food thing for a warship. Given te Japanese aggressive Attack, Attack, Attack mentality did they expect to not face return attack on any large scale? Having already destroyed their enemies.
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  539. I liked what you would do if you were in command of the RN in 1935. My first thoughts were "Get Hood in for a full rebuild". Though I was thinking 'Angled flight deck' for carriers How about applying that to WW1. If you were put into the same situation in say 1908.
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  540. Could you do a special segment on both the advantages and disadvantages of bagged cordite charges compared to cased charges for large naval guns. It seems that the German's tied up vast amounts of valuable brass as they used cased charges for all guns, even the largest while other Navy's used bagged charges.
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  541. with some of the Japanese ships so lightly built the hulls had to be strengthened, how was this done? Were the ships disassembled to add more hull frames or was there a way to do this without resorting to such drastic expence?
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  542.  @jimtalbott9535  To me it sounds like yet another rabid Wehraboo dreaming up excuses for the failing of their beloved ship, seen that so many times. Maybe they think if htey keep making up more and more excuses everyone will start to believe them, much like the "only sank due to scuttling" fantasy
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  543.  @alexalbrecht5768 Oh so typical Wehraboo selective fact picking garbage overlooking many facts they don't like. 1stSG were very brave when bombarding undefended seaside towns but their first action when sighting ships capable of putting up a fight was RUN AWAY. German near Battleship level armour against defective shells and they are wrecks. British ships with thinner armour hit by nearly as many shells whcih worked as designed and they are still at sea, combat capable and looking to renew the fight. Which ships are superior??? Only winning with superior numbers hmm, 2nd Narvik when 5 British DD's outfought twice their number. Glowworm crippled a ship 10 times her size in a heroic battle. Barrents Sea when much smaller cruisers fought off a ship which out gunned them and should have won/ Hood was sunk by the luckiest shot in naval warfare which PoW was sunk under an air attack which would have sunk ANY BB of the time and was hit OUTSIDE her torpedo protection. The KGV's, (ton for ton) were the best of the3 WW2 Battleships and far better than the illegal, treaty breaking Bismarck. And wasn't that ship crippled by ONE small torpedo carried by obsolescent aircraft? What a rubbish design. And yes treaty violating, do some real research. German ships only ever won when the odds were heavily in their favor.
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  544.  @alexalbrecht5768 So Wehraboo with the policy of cherry picking facts and posting distortions. 1stSG was hit by shells with poor fuses with caused minimal damage yet were hors de combat and were lucky to get home. SMS Seydlitz hit bottom due to proressive flooding caused by combat damage and should count as sunk but salvaged, though I can imagine the screams of outrage already. The British BC with their lighter armour were hit by almost as many shells which worked as designed but next day were still at sea, still combat capable and looking for a fight. So much for "superior" German design. Hood was sunk by a galaxy level lucky shot, but that happens in war, it nearly happened to Seydlitz at Dogger Bank except for the courage of some of her crew. PoW was hit Outside!! the torpedo protection and the hit broke the A bracket of the propeller shaft which opened the ships hull. Anywhere else and she would have shrugged the hit off. And wasn't the much overpraised Bismarck crippled by a single small aerial torpedo? And destroyed as a fighting unit by poor design choices in her armour design? All this on an illegal, oath breaking ship 20% over the limit in the treaty agreed to by German. So much for German honor. And the British have a long history of fighting and winning when out numbered, Trafalgar ring a bell? 2nd Narvik. Many of the actions of the Dover patrol? The list goes on and on and on but I guess if it isn't German propaganda you haven't read it. German ship only fight when the odds are heavily in their favor, otherwise they cower in harbor. Even when the odds are in their favor they lose, Barrents sea ring a bell.
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  545. An incredible voyage. These were truly the days of wooden ships and iron men.
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  546. I think Drach deserves a special award for the sheer length of his video's as well as their frequency. I really don't know how he does it, that Irn Bru must be some drink.
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  547. Thanks Drach Several major points about the question about Germany replacing the Bismarck's and carriers with Scharnhorst's is: What effect would the construction of 6-8 fast light BB's have on the British building program? What backlash would Germany face for violating the Anglo-German Naval Treaty even more obviously, provably and blatantly than they did historically?
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  548. Thanks fpr another great video All too many forget the vital work carried out by the staff at WA command. Without their tireless and at times thankless work, things would have turned out very differently.
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  549.  @Locochris1956  Thank you for the information. I have noticed that while many people fall over themself crowing about the 'strengths' of German designs they conveniently ignore the grave weaknesses of those said ships or the advantages their limited duration voyage design gave them.
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  550.  @bkjeong4302  True, once enemy raiding cruisers were swept from the sea the I's had little role. Personally I do not consider them BC's at all despite them being reclassified. They were conceived, designed and built as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers and therefore the first British ships to be designed as Battlecruisers to be the Lion class. And faulty cordite handling aside they proved well able to stand up to the German BC's given the large number of hits they took at Jutland and were still combat capable whereas their more heavily armoured opponents (hit by defective AP shells) were hors de combat despite their advantage of being designed solely for short term voyages in the North Sea and thus could be far more heavily sub devided. Something they deny of course. But that's just my personal opinion.
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  551. Thanks for another Dry Dock I have read that another reason the British did not go for stern launched spotter places was concerns of having a large open space for the hanger right above the propellers and resulting echoing resulting from that. Is there any truth to that?
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  552. Thanks Drach A complex man with great strengths and unfortunately great flaws. His forbidding his Captains to learn from people who'd been successfully fighting U-Boats for years cost thousands of lives and incalculable money in ships and cargo lost. Perhaps his anti-British phobia has a simpler origin. When he first encountered the RN in 1917 it was the greatest and most powerful navy in the world, bar none. And his pride and ego couldn't handle the US Navy being in third place.
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  553. Thanks Drach, that is quite the unique ship. I can see the crew taking deep breathes near that second funnel to smell the brewing
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  554.  @afrikacorpse  Those are some excellent points. The Captain is THE deciding voice on his own ship and if someone orders him to violate regulations in a way which endangers the ship, he would damn well demand them in writing. Also something to consider is that while Beatty is an Admiral, HMS Lion is Chatfields ship, so IF the blast doors were removed as history theorizes he would have had to agree. Since Drach has pointed out that Chatfield was a proponent of higher rates of fire (which is why the 14ince gun was pushed in the 2nd London naval treaty) could the removal of the doors (if they were) been his idea?
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  555. As always, a great and informative video
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  556. Going on from the question about how fast a capital ship can steam from harbour. Just how likely was it the German BC's could be intercepted during their brutal attacks against the purely civilian British seaside towns. Hipper earned the name Baby Killer for these attacks but for some reason gets praised for his bravery?? in steaming at high speed across the North Sea at night, appearing at dawn off and undefended town, spend 10 or so minutes bombarding it, then running for home at full speed. Just how likely was any interception in this situation given the length of time it took to raise sufficeint steam for high speed and the distance from Rosyth to the attacked town, while the German 1stSG was already fleeing at full speed.
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  557.  @WALTERBROADDUS  That is no answer. My question is, was there any real chance of the BCF ever catching 1stSg as they ran for home at full speed after a short but vicious bombardment. MTB's also would never get there in time as they would have receive word of the attack, organize and then travel from where their base was and HOPE they caught sight of the fleeing Germans, remember NO RADAR. And you would need massive swarms of MTB's to tackle 1stSG and its escorts
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  558.  @TheKingofbrooklin  They tried that by raiding the trawler fishing fleet and it resulted in the Battle of Dogger Bank which ended in the German BC's running for their lives as soon as they saw opponents that could fight back. The Kaiser was so terrified of losing any capital ship they would only engage when they had a decisive advantage. An equal, or near equal, fight was not something the German fleet wanted and avoided at all costs.
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  559. Given the cavalier attitude towards Treaty limits these were powerful ships but had many faults Do they earn Drachinifel's most scathing word of "Inefficient"?
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  560.  @bkjeong4302  They were still inefficient designs as the Japanese over emphasized the WAR part of warship and forgot the SHIP part of the equation is just as and perhaps even more important. If the ship is unstable it cannot keep the seas safely and is a danger to itself. Both the Germans and Japanese ignored this in their quest to see who can violate binding Treaty's while lying about it.
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  561. I have long thought these ships should be rated as Battlecruisers due to their large size (twice that of a Baltimore CA) and 50% bigger guns. I just thought the US was shy of the BC designation due to the lose of three at Jutland and the Hood sinking. The points you raised here have me rethinking this as you are corect. The purpose of this design was almost identical to the original Invincible mission and designation DNCA.
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  562. Considering the initial problems the British had with the quad 14 turrets, did they ever ask the French Navy for advice as they had considerable experience in this area and had just completed two ships with quad main turrets.
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  563. Hope you have a good vacation in sunny Tropical Wales Drach and watch out for that sun, you don't want to get burnt :) Are you sure this is OUR Drach?? You answered a lot of the questions in the right order in this video, that's not how it's normally done or is it the vacation time that's messing up the normal system?
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  564. I have noticed that many French ships have their guns positioned very far forward, leaving them with little (or no) forecastle compared to other Navy's ships. Why did they position their heavy guns so far forward and how did this effect their sea keeping in different weather situations?
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  565. Thanks Drach The biggest problem with Japanese plans was they relied on complicated twists and careful timing and the enemy doing exactly what they wanted them to do, You would have thought they'd have learned from WW1 with the German plan to invade tehw west which also relied on precise timing. As the saying goes: No battle plan survives contact with the enemy
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  566. And people say HMS Agincourt had a convoluted history into service :)
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  567. Thanks for all your work in producing these informative video's. I see you're creeping up on that magic 60 minute mark. A point about the US siding with the Germans is how effective thier fleet would be given the range to the UK. Without secure bases to refuel would they be turning up desperately seeking a safe harbour? It would seem like the voyage of the Russian fleet during the way with Japan. Q&A. What are teh disadvantages Vs the advantages of having all the guns in a turret mounted in a single sleeve? There are several US and Italian ships which did this and is the weight saved better than the risk of shell interference when salvo firing?
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  568.  @Niels_Larsen  I don't think the British BC's were meant to serve in the battle line but the German 1stSG was meant to 'supplement' their own battle line which is why they had BB level armour. They just sacrificed weapons for more speed, Perhaps their truest designation should be that wonderful phrase Drach used in one video, Light Battleships! With only Von Der Tann being a proper BC.
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  569. How dangerous is it for a ship other than an aircraft carrier to carry reload torpedoes? What is the chance of a hit detonating the warheads or the fuel? Especially the oxygen used in the Japanese Long Lance's
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  570. Thanks Drach.. As always it brightens my day with a new Drydock
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  571. Should the Town and Crown classes actually be considered Light Cruisers despite their 6inch guns? While that biased and massively inaccurate game WoWs has them being smashed by just about any gun these ships actually had equal and in some cases superior armour to their overpraised German and Japanese opponents. Additionally they were strongly constructed while German ships had problems with their weak stern and Japanese cruisers were lightly built to make room for more guns, armour and speed and paid the price for it.
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  572.  @michaelkovacic2608  Sloped belt armour is less effective at close range which is what Germans ships seem to be designed for when raiding convoys. So thinning it there seem counter productive if they were caught by an opposing BB. While the sloped armour deck helps here but is less effective at longer ranges. The German practice in WW2 of having it low in the ships leaves more of the ship vulnerable to incoming fire and that deck was thinner than most other Navy's new designs. No armour is truly impenetrable if hit often enough, hard enough and at the right angle
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  573. All that tinkering after the design was settled. Are you sure this wasn't an attempt to imitate teh Fench Navy? Or did someone on the committee have French ancestry?
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  574. Ah the French. Never afraid to tinker with a design even when they really, really shouldn't.
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  575.  @scottmason2557  I think their biggest value would have been a huge propaganda coup and close examination of German ideas. Some of the problem of actually using either of them would be: (a) the enormous cost of repairing them. And those resources would be better spent on their own construction. (b) Equipment incompatibility. The German navy used different standards to the British and the ships would have to be totally refitted or spare parts made just for those ships which would be a waste of manufacturing capability. The German ammunition was also different, even the 15inch shells on Bismarck were much lighter than British 15inch shells. It just wouldn't have been cost effective to take them into Allied service. Completely different paradigm from the age of sail where this was frequently done. The British would not have learned much from examining Bismarck, she was at best an obsolescent design and (given her massive 20% weight advantage) the weakest of all the WW2 BB's. As Drach once commented, Bismarck was an inefficient design, a major flaw to an engineer like he is.
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  576. It seems the French Navy finally got it's act together with this ship as opposed to the gun farm that was the Lyon. A thought that occurred to me is that the German Navy's Plan Z to oppose the RN totally fails to factor in the French Navy. With these four ships, plus carriers to add the the building program the RN would have certainly undertaken, it would have been WW1 all over again for the German Navy
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  577. Should HMS Warrior be classified as and Ironclad?? Going vy strict use of language she was not a wooden ship clad in iron but the first iron hulled warship. An iron clad is like Gloire or Virginia which was a wooden ship 'clad' in iron whereas Warrior's hull was iron.
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  578. Hi Drach Considering all the time warp scenario's that come up, What do you think the result would be if Nelson and his fleet used at Trafalgar went back to face off with the Spanish Armada. Would his superior firepower and ship design over match the greater numbers of Spanish ships?
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  579. Great paintings Drach Wish I could afford them :(
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  580. Thanks Drachi Interesting that the French high speed DD's almost shook themselves apart at their top speed while the British ships were able to operate quite comfortably at similar speed. I bet Manxman speeding past the US Carrier group raised more than a few blood pressures on the Coral Sea. And probably caused a bit of 'less than polite' language too.
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  581. Certainly a ship with a different layout of guns. It seems Admiral Fisher wasn't the only person fixated about End on fire.
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  582. The many, many different names for guns could very easily be confusing to the non sailor, maybe even professional sailors had trouble telling them apart. It reminds me of the excellent BBC show Horrible Histories and the clip they did explaining the 'easy to understand' Tudor currency. You'll get a good laugh out of it.
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  583. Is there any reason the German navy stubbonly remained fixated on triple screw propulsion for their Battleships but used the more efficient quad screws for the WW1 Battlecruisers?
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  584.  @davidandmartinealbon3155  You need to do some research. By the time the first 16" gun ships were laid down Britain had built 14 ships with this gun/turret design and had HMS Hood on the stocks. After the war they built the 16" gunned Nelson's and the later 14" gunned KGV's were constrained by Treaty. They used the twin 15's on Vanguard as they were readily available in storage and hoped to build the ship quickly as the guns and turrets were, as Drach pointed out, one of the longest lead items. The British 15/42 and it's twin turret are regarded as one of the finest heavy gun and turret matchings ever produced so it made sence to stick with a winning combination. You may as well ask why the Germans, French and Italians went for the 15" instead of the 16". As the Japanese found out, bigger doesn't always mean better.
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  585. Is it fair to compare the and praise the Bofors over the Pom Pom? The Bofors is around 10 years younger and several generations in technology advanced over the British Pom Pom.
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  586.  @themightynanto3158  As Drach explained in the video, the hit was possible due to Hood's bow wake exposing a weakness in the armour. Prince of Wales would have a different bow wake and the shell most likely not have reached the ship. The shell which ended up in PoW only reached the ship because it was a dud. Given the very high failure rate of German heavy naval shells, the hit which sunk Hood was (as Drach said) rolling a natural 20. I'd say rolling 20 twice as hitting the location AND the shell actually working.
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  587. A longer gun means the propellant burns more completely and thus having a greater muzzle velocity and range, but can a gun be too long and thus cause problems?
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  588. Well said At times I think Drach's hatred of Beatty colours his viewpoint in ignoring the many 'natural 20's' Hipper and Scheer rolled during that battle. Even hitting a ship at range during WW1 was both skill, training and a bit of luck, actually Hitting! the vulnerable spot involves a large slice of luck. The Germans seemed to be rolling a lot of 20's during Jutland
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  589.  @bkjeong4302  No I got what you were saying I'm just commenting that 1. IMO Drach places far too much blame on Beatty, even for things beyond his control. Like opening fire late, well HE wasn't behind the rangefinder taking sightings, Beatty was on the Bridge and most likely ordered :Open fire when you have the range" 2. The German fleet were rolling natural 20's all day and only saved from destruction (or far worse damage) by that. Even that Danish steamer that blew off steam and started the battle was a huge slice of luck for the HSF. If not for that the BCF and GF would have been far closer to each other and the HSF much farther from it's base IF battle had been joined.
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  590. Since the 6 I class ships were really conceived, designed and built as DnAC's, should the Lion class be considered the first true British BC?
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  591. Thanks for another great Drydock Another carrier innovation I read the US navy used for carriers was a cross deck catapult fitted in the hanger to launch aircraft from there.
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  592. It's sad we could lose such important pieces of History so easily and transfering them to electronic storage is obviously so time consuming if you want to do it right. Hey Drach, you're a Brit, can't you just ask The Doctor to take you on a little trip so you can use a proper camera to get really accurate images? It's all in the name of science and history :)
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  593. Only 60 mines! Are you sure this is a Swedish ship😅
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  594. Thanks for another Drydock I agree, the greatest danger to historical accuracy is the bigoted and rabid Wehraboo who refuses to look at fact and insists everything German is perfect and unbeatable, particularly about everything Naval. What's next? Tirpitz wasn't sunk by the RAF, her crew started the scuttling as soon as the Lancaster squadron appeared.
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  595.  @Drachinifel  And I thought I was just making a snarky comment Yeesh!! I've also heard that the ONLY reason Scharnhorst sank was...you guess it, she was scuttled by her crew AND she actually had NINE!! inches of deck armour. Wonder how the Wehraboo's would react to anyone saying "Bismarck did not sink Hood, the ship blew up when a crewman walked into the main magazine while smoking" The same with Queen Mary, Indefatigable and Invincible. Honest!! At least the RN isn't that self delusional.
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  596. Interesting to hear the difference between my pronunciation and that of a native speaker. Wonder how a German or Japanese person who doesn't speak English would butcher British or American ship names? I still trip up over the proper pronunciation of the cruiser USS Des Moines
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  597. Thanks Drach, a very good and well thought out responce to Germany's supposedly all powerful Z Plan Many rabid Germanophile's seem to imagine that Reader's grand plan would magically appear with the Royal Navy doing Nothing! to counter it. It shows a distinct lack of thought and imagination on their part as well as a desire for Germany to just easily walk over everyone.
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  598. Given Britain's vast experience in Naval warfare and knowing how it can last for years, if not decades, why did the Admiralty cease nearly all Battleship construction at the start of WW1? Did the senior Admirals want to continue and only sigh at the politicians with their "It'll all be over by Christmas" attitude?
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  599. Considering that only the Germans used the turtleback armour scheme in WW2, just how effective was it? Did they know something every other navy missed or was it just a case of using what they knew? I ask because of a disagreement with someone who is adamant that the combination of Bismarck's sloped belt and turtleback deck would enable the ship to successfully defeat a point blank shot from Yamato's main guns which I refuse to believe.
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  600.  @kemarisite  I think the moral is "Don't try to use facts to change the mind of a fanatic" It's amazing just how many rabid fanbois Bismarck has who just wont listen to any other arguments. He he never stated just what he considered "Point Blank" range. As Drach has repeatedly pointed out, no armour is proof if you get close enough.
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  601. Its good to see her grave being protected as opposed to sites elsewhere in the world which have been looted by so called "treasure hunters" The Germans greatest asset seems to be their incredible luck in constantly hitting turrets at Jutland
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  602. Regarding the question raised about gaming out alternative battles which might alter history in a major way. What if Admiral Troubridge actually attacked Goeben with his flotilla of four Armoured Cruisers
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  603. You'd have thought the Japanese would have learned from earlier French and British efforts about the problems of excessively large submarines. While the previously mentioned navy's used guns, the Japanese decided that submarine carriers were the way forward.
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  604. As always a great video. I have read that in the tensions following the US Civil war their Congress threatened to sned the monitor fleet to settle things with the RN. Your video clearly shows this would be total folly. Is there a difference between "Face Hardened" armour and cemented armour ?
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  605. With all the Jutland questions, what do you think would be the result if contact between the Grand Fleet and HSF had happened much earlier in the day, with far more time for battle. The late timing certainly seemed to favor the HSF in their evading.
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  606. In some ways the ship looks 'French like" with that high freeboard which looks sorta like a hotel
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  607. Bias built into a game by it's designers? Gee I wonder which ship game takes first prize for that?
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  608. The false scuttling claim is a way for the Germans to say "You did NOT beat us, we let you win" Sounds like a child throwing a tantrum. What's next? Blucher scuttled itself? The Destroyers at Narvik blew themselves up? I'd read garbage reports saying the say thing about Scharnhost as about Bismarck. So I guess Tirpitz also scuttled itself when it saw those Lancasters carrying tallboys. All complete BS as far as I'm concerned.
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  609. Thanks Drach, an interesting and informative video. I hope to see something similar with regard to the Royal Australian Navy. Politicians, the bane of any long term intelligent planning for defend your country for bullying neighbors.
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  610. In some video's you have given details of WW1 German ship designs that were produced during the war but never started. Did the British also keep designing new BB's despite the ban on building more capital ships? Or did they just come to a complete halt, even in theoretical designs, after the R's and QE's?
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  611. Thanks for all you effort and time Drach, very informative. I never knew about those very early carriers pre 1900, so I learned something today, which is always a good thing. Where was this attitude when I was in school? ut I guess we all say that. It's interesting that the US built the best of the first generation carriers in the Lexington class, which had enclosed bows, but later on used an open bow, which is poorer for operating in rough weather.
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  612. thanks Drach You have often said the 5/38 was the better weapon for the US in the Pacific war due to it's faster traverse and higher rate of fire compared to the older 5/51. While the faster traverse is obvious due to the 5/38 being smaller and much lighter, i don't understand why the rate of fire would be that much higher/ Both being 5inch weapons, surely the shell and propellant charge would be similar enough that if shouldn't make that much difference. Am I missing something?
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  613.  @Drachinifel  And submarines, mustn't forget about those.
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  614. Thank you for another marathon Dry Dock. I honestly don't know how you manage to produce so much quality video's without burning out. And a special Thank You to a not mentioned hero of these video's. So thank you Lady Drachinfel for putting up with his obsession.
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  615.  @stevevalley7835  I think Drach covered that at the start of the 20th century the UK was the largest ship builder in the world and even with the RN ordering as many ships as it could afford there were ship yards screaming for more work. The Germans never really had a chance to catch the RN. I sometimes wonder if the Washington Treaty was part of the cause of the Great Depression as the loss of business caused massive downturn in many industries and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. Just a thought.
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  616.  @Captain_Seafort  Very well said. Beatty gets a lot of unfair criticism for the powder handling practices of the BCF yet all too many ignore the fact that the Hipper did exactly the same thing until HIS near disaster at Dogger Bank. Another thought is what would have happened if the crew was just a little slower and Seydlitz had blown up? Would the Kaiser have ever let his precious ships sail again?
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  617. Thanks Drach An insightful video about what is just as important as the combat fleet. Yet these vital people rarely get the awards and medals they deserve for their efforts yet faced dangers just as lethal as the fighting branch in ships not designed to survive hits.
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  618. If the Hood had been refitted in the US after surviving the encounter with Bismarck, How much extra weight could have been saved if the US had decided (for their own reasons) to use their newest High pressure boilers and not standard UK equipment?
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  619. Thanks Drach and I hope you get over your head cold quickly and Don't pass it on to Mrs Drach. Now where do I apply for that special tee shirt?
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  620. As a possibly silly question I did wonder just how all the accumulated layers of paint on a ship actually weigh? I can imagine an Iowa class ship might empty an average paint store inventory.
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  621. How did the crew preserve the ready use 4 inch ammunition from the corrosive effects of the sea even though the cases are brass?
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  622. Much is made by Wehraboo's about the superiority of everything German. While in WW1 the HSF did practice night fighting more than the British, considering the almost comical series of near disasters the HSF blundered through in the night after Jutland, what are the chances any night action would have been just a deadly to them as the British. Possibly more deadly as the Destroyers of the Grand Fleet had many more torpedoes than those remaining in the HSF.
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  623. I do wonder just why you criticize Beatty so much for the BC's lax cordite handling yet praise Hipper when the he did exactly the same damn thing the British did until SMS Seydlitz was hit at Dogger Bank and survived exactly the same way HMS Lion did at Jutland. The skill, courage and sacrifice of her crew as you explained in your guide on SMS Seydlitz. Criticizing Beatty for not correcting this yet praising Hipper feels so wrong as Hipper only corrected his unsafe practices the same way Beatty did. Surviving a near disaster. Beatty just had the bad luck for it to come to light in a major fleet engagement where more ships were lost. And the Germans seem to have had the Devil's own luck in hitting turrets as often as they did, it's not like they actually aimed AT the turrets, that would be ridiculous at such ranges and I'd call BS on anyone who said they did.
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  624. Should the Armoured cruisers be separated into different categories much like Dr Clarke advocated for Battleships? There are "sovereign" style mixed battery armoured cruisers and then the Invincible class which were designed as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers.
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  625. I the run to the North during the Battle of Jutland, Why did neither Hipper nor Scheer ever wonder why Beatty was steaming due NORTH towards Norway and not NW towards Scapa where Jellicoe should be coming from? It seems a gross error on both their parts to chase a faster enemy on a course that is leading it away from their bases or reinforcements. It seems neither ever considered the possibility that the Grand Fleet was at sea and perhaps close by.
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  626. That Vickers fun salesman sure gut around. Did they have him on permanent standby when anyone ordered a ship?
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  627. Regarding the question for Scheer to somehow 'hook' his slow BB's around Beatty I have this: Knowing they couldn't catch Beatty and the 5thBS, even if they left the Pre-DN's behind, why did Scheer and Hipper chase him after drawing out of range? Only the 1st SG could catch the 5GS and they truly didn't want a rematch against them. And why did neither of them wonder why Beatty was steaming north and not NW towards Scapa? If somehow Scheer did 'Hook' around Beatty, wouldn't he have just steamed further south west towards the Thames and drawn the HSF further from it's base and have them run into Jellicoe and the GF when they tried to slink back home.
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  628.    I have to disagree with the statement "The German Navy was the best in the world" While excellent ships they had massive weaknesses that did not come to light as they ships were designed and used for short voyages only, The crew quarters were very cramped and would have resulted in a loss of combat efficiency if forced to operate away from base for any length of time. The much praised internal subdivision would have been a real hamper in a long voyage, and many ships even lacked a desalination plant for fresh water, bing content with what was in the storage tanks as they were never meant to be a true blue ocean Navy, being built solely to fight in the North Sea, Tirpitz' s denials aside. I do agree with you and Drachinifel that the shot which sank Hood was probably the luckiest in naval history and Hood's reputation suffers unfairly from it.
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  629.  @lukedogwalker  The are several major problems in reusing Bismarck. It would have to be completely repaired and even rebuilt as all the equipment would not be compatible with that used by anyone else and would need to be replaced. Even the main guns used ammunition that could not use British 15inch shells as German shells were much lighter. And even if it was acknowledged that Bismarck had struck her colours, I think the Nazi's would have issued orders to "Sink the Bismarck" at all costs to prevent it being towed into an allied port, whether it could be repaired to service condition or not.
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  630. Congrats on breaking the one hour mark !! (waves flag) I have no problem with your current upload schedule. No matter when you upload there will always be someone who'll miss sleep if they simply can't resist watching, so whenever is convenient for you is fine, I'll watch it eventually. With the two Acharnhorst's fighting either Malaya or Ramilles one big factor you overlooked is their appallingly weak deck armour, only 50mm. While the German 11inch MIGHT penetrate the British ships at long range, the effect of a 15inch hit at similar long range would be devastating. Especially with that low mounted German turtleback deck.
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  631. In WW1 how long would it take a capital ship to go to full stem pressure and ready to sail from being in harbour on a regular watch? How long would it take to raise steam for sailing from a cold boiler in either of the world wars?
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  632. A longer gun lets the powder burn more thoroughly and gives the shell a higher muzzle velocity. Have there ever been any instances where a gun barrel is too long and resulted in problems?
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  633. There is a safe way for you to view Admiral King's 'discussion' with the developers of the mark14 torpedo. The TARDIS does have a cloaking system The Doctor used to visit the White House. Just give him a call and you can hitch a ride with him and his crew, the Legs, The Nose and Mrs Robinson :)
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  634. As a follow on from the Question if Lion had blown up at Jutland. What would have happened if Syedlitz had blown up at Dogger Bank as it very nearly did. This would deny the HSF knowledge about their dangerous ammunition handling procedures and who would take over during that battle? Would the Kaiser be so rattled by the loss of one of his beloved ships that any future actions would be under such tight restrictions no further meetings would ever occur?
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  635. You have said the US 5/38 had a higher rate of fire than longer barreled weapons like the 5/51, but why. I get why teh 5/38 )being lighter) would track faster than the longer weapon but surely the rate of fire would be the same as both are 5inch weapons firing the same shell and charge.
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  636. From Australia: I'd say SMS Derfflinger. Rated a BC she was more a fast BB and was able to take and dish out damage.
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  637. Certainly a very interesting design I do wonder why the Dutch thought 'Isolationist' America would intervene if Japan attacked? Or if they did the US wouldn't just take their colonies like they did to Spain
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  638. Thanks Drach Your summery of Craddock was well thought out, It's easy to criticize with 20/20 hindsight, but we now know things he did not. A lot of people also don't seem to realize just how hard it was for find a ship in the vastness of the oceans in the days before satellites, radar or aircraft crisscrossing the world. As for what's coming up Wednesday, that sounds ominous and potentially messy
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  639. I'd list the Germans as blatant treaty breakers right up there with the Japanese. None of the ships built under the various treaties they signed complied with them usually being around 20% over the displacement allowed with the three Hipper class being the worst at between 40-60% depending on the specific ship. Although Scharnhorst was around 32,000 tons, Germany 1. Announced them as 26,000 and 2. Started construction BEFORE the Anglo=German treaty was signed which (by law) makes them illegal as they are breaking Versailles treaty limit of 10,000tons. As it takes years to design a large warship it shows intent to break that Treaty. And the escalator clause of 2nd London does NOT cover the Bismarcks as Germany was not a signatory of that Treaty and so is not covered by it.
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  640. With Sturdee's pincer movement deployment, even IF it could have been accomplished perfectly, would the shell splashes from two different components of the Grand Fleet caused massive confusion trying to work out just whose shell splashes were whose.
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  641. Thanks to both for this video On the musing that Cunningham would have loved two carriers at Matapan, If Illustrious was still active at that date, would Formidable have still been assigned to his command or would she have been sent elsewhere?
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  642. I think the trouble with a triple 15inch Scharnhorst is anyone believing the German lie about them being 26,000 tons when the triple 11 version was well over 32,000 tons. If they did build the bigger ship I think the French would rush the building of the Richelieu's and the British would have built the triple 15/45 version of the KGV and likely have scheduled Hood for her rebuild ASAP and maybe refitted Repulse along Renown lines.
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  643. Thanks for all the hard work you put into these video's It seems the most dangerous enemy the American submarine community faced in WW2 was their own bureau of ordnance. Mayve the sailors should have awarded the bureau a faux Japanese medal to send a clear message of their opinion. The Gato's certainly set a standard for long range subs. Crew comfort is vital on long duration missions. something many forget. On the reverse side, their size would have made them terrible boats for places like the Med, where smaller subs had the advantage.
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  644. A fairly major point Drach forgot is that German WW2 heavy naval shells had a proven very high failure rate and that shifts things even more in favor of Rodney.
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  645. If the Canadian QE's had been built with small tube boilers this would have given the British builders experience with them, so would it be possible that Renown and Repulse (if built) would have them or perhaps Hood equipped with small tube boilers? And would the ships have just been lighter or the weight saved used for more armour or speed? Regarding gunnery, while WV's shooting was excellent, that was on a calm pacific sea. Though the range was closer I'd consider Duke of York's shooting more impressive as that was in the middle of a howling gale in the Arctic. And Iron Duke's shooting at Jutland was incredible. In the failing light, massive amounts of funnel/gun smoke, conflicting shell splashes and far less developed fire control, her achievement in the number of hits she scored cannot be under estimated.
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  646. I notice the guns of this ship very close together. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this practice?
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  647. A Patreon drydock that has crossed the 6 hour mark, something to note in our diary
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  648. Thank you for the sacrifice of your teeth and taste buds in showing us RN food in the days of sail and a special thank you to Lady Drach for the damage to her kitchen. Maybe the problem with the biscuits was the quality of flour as it may not have been as fine as what you used? Could you issue this as a challenge to Heston Blumenthal to make food of this era more acceptable? Will we be seeing Drach supplementing his Irn Bru with his new burnt toast coffee?
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  649. Thanks Drach for a great video. There are so many places I'd love to visit if only I had the finances to go there. I wonder if hiring Drach to guide me around would be a good idea? Would he restrain my enthusiasm to go racing off trying to see everything at once or would Lady Drach be just rolling her eyes as two overgrown children went racing through the Museum while telling the staff "Nope, don't know who those two are, I have nothing to do with them" I agree Drach, education is dumbed down to the lowest level, instead of prizes for 1st, 2nd or 3rd, everyone now get a participation ribbon.
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  650. But don't Wehraboo's claim Bismarck's guns could shatter the moon, her armor is proof against the sun going Nova and she could sail the galaxy on a thimble of fuel Maybe if they put down the big book of German wet dreams and fantasies and joined the real world, but I doubt it
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  651. Interesting to note that although they followed German use of 15 and then 16.5 inch guns the Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine went with British practice of quad screws and not the German mania for triple screw propulsion.
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  652. An amazing ship really, starting life as a cruise ship and then being the first of the true aircraft carriers
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  653. Thanks Drach So in a collaboration with the RN would the product be a Rum flavored Ice Cream? And if so would US sailors be legally allowed to taste it? lol On your trip to Australia a big difference you will find is Milk bottles are mainly plastic with a screw top and with an additional sealer under the screw top to make sure of no leaks
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  654. Well you'd expect a ship named England to be good at anti submarine work. A pity she was scrapped, Economics has killed more ships than enemy action over the years.
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  655. Another awesome video On the question of the first Dreadnought. Well it's amazing the lengths Americans will go to in order to be first. Their first two all big gun DN's weren't completed until 1910 whereas H.M.S. Dreadnought was completed in 1906. So we have four years of the British ship shelling the construction docks of the first US DN's and them not able to do anything about it. This of course removes all pre-dreadnoughts in this scenario. The US insistence on a ship having superfiring turrets in order to be called a Dreadnought can be countered by the British demanding a ship had to have turbine engines in order to be called a DN. I think your Kronshtadt Vs Scharnhorst scenario missed a big point. While the German ship had much thicker belt armour, it's weak deck armour, poor power and communication line protection and notorious habit of knocking out it's own fire control may seal its fate long before the action gets close enough for belt armour to count. Yeah the Ten-go plan was poorly thought out. A point is the ships barely had enough fuel to reach the target and beach themselves. What would have happened once this limited fuel was exhausted? Without fuel there's no power to anything and given the fact Yamato's turrets weighted over 3,000 tons you can't turn those with a hand crank. And a beached ship can't dodge incoming fire and would be rapidly overwhelmed.
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  656. It looks like ranger taught the US a valuable lesson on the problems of trying to squeeze too much into a small hull. Looking at how the aircraft were deck parked on outriggers i shudder to think how many would have been lost in a Pacific or Atlantic storm.
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  657.  @chopchop7938  Bah, Stereotypical American. A shallow reading of events. The Germans were NOT better sailors or tougher people. Their rangefinders were quicker to get on target but required perfect eyesight in both eyes to use (which cut the number of available people) but also required intense concentration. Battle however is full of distractions. Thus while starting better their accuracy diminished as operators tired while the easier to use British system took longer to get on target but improved rapidly and was able to maintain accuracy as it was more user friendly. As for excused for failures I believe that's the pot calling the kettle black. And every non American I've met says that about American currency. We use decimal currency too and you can tell the different denominations at a glance from across the room due to the different colours, (a system many nations use) can't say that about the standardized grey-green American notes
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  658. Thanks for another great video Drach. I read one of the reasons the British went to the 13.5inch was the 12inch MK:X was a failure due to inaccuracy and barrel whipping. Is this true and can a gun be TOO long and the excessive length cause problems?
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  659. I think the Germans focusing more on surface ships would have aided the British far more than the Germans. Less Subs means less merchant ships sunk, more supplies getting through and less damage to the British economy, while the limited number of extra surface ships would not have changed the strategic balance all that much given the difference in numbers between the GF and the HSF. than you add in the US 6th battle squadron. As Drachinifel has pointed out in previous episodes, the items which really dictate how fast you can build a ship are the guns and turrets. The guns take a great deal of time to make and the German Navy's biggest problem here was, believe it or not, the German Army. At the outbreak of war the German Army seized as many guns as they could for their land offensive, leaving the Navy scrambling. German ships building resources were limited compared to Britain and much slower. They had less large naval gun manufacturing ability. Also the blockade cut them off from obtaining nickel, a vital metal for making guns and armour for ships. I think if Germany had continued building the ships you listed, the British would have sped up the construction of all four post Jutland Admiral class BC's and the Mackensen's were no match for these as they were more contemporaries to the Lion class. My sources only list four Mackensen's ever contemplated, so 5-7 is a mystery to me unless you're getting confused with German ship naming policy.
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  660. Congratulations on hitting that ton of Drydocks Drach. Your efforts on educating and entertaining us are very much appreciated. Torpedo armed floatplanes would be a sight but I have to wonder about what happens if the plane doesn't find a worthwhile target? Does it have to ditch that torpedo in order to land?
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  661. Thanks Drach Tashkent is one of the few Soviet ships that isn't an overpowered paper design. I guess reality has to rear it's head occasionally, Her trials speeds are impressive but what was her speed in service? Like most Italian speedy designs I'd say the trials were run in unrealistic conditions, without most of the essential equipment a warship needs. What was her speed in service? And did she have a history of damaging herself at full speed like all too many French and Italian speedsters?
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  662. The standard cry of most politicians towards the armed forces (or almost any government agency except themselves) "Do more with less"
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  663. Great as always Drach Regarding the three planned video's on the development of Destroyers You have missed part of it. The first was early history up to 1914 The second was 1918 and the Interwar years The third is planned for WW2 to the present. it seems you're skipping over 1914-1918, unless this is to have it's own video?
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  664. An excellent book on the evolution of the modern destroyer is "Destroyer" by Ewart Brookes It explains how the ship type evolved, though it mainly focuses on the RN Destroyers. First came torpedo boats Then to defend the capital ships they designed larger, more seaworthy ships to catch the TB's called torpedo boat catchers These proved successful and the more arrogant term Torpedo boat Destroyer came into use. It was soon shortened to just Destroyer, the ship type that we know so well.
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  665. If a Canadian QE had been built and then preserved, why did I get the image of Drach and Dr Clarke being part of a cabal to somehow "borrow" it and get it to the UK as a museum ship there. It wasn't us, Honest! 😆
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  666.  @guilty_mulburry5903  Drach and some friends war gamed out a scenario like that It is on this channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrTeYcRXDEw&t=888s Last ride of the High Seas Fleet
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  667.  @ArcticTemper  From what I have read, they were mostly worried about the huge fight between other Navy's demanding their "fair share" of the German ships and the impossibility of satisfying everyone and not having it turned into a political high explosive time bomb. Trying to determine who got what and how much would be "Difficult" at best. Personally I doubt the British RN truly wanted them, the difference in equipment would make maintaining them a nightmare and German ships were designed for short duration voyages, not really useful for the RN.
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  668. ASide from changing Bismarck to an all or nothing armour scheme you also have to raise her low armoured deck as that was one of her most glaring weaknesses. It left the vital power and communication linces vulnerable to being easily destroyed by hits which may not have penetrated her deck armour. An ANZAC fleet fo that size would have been interesting, Would the Japanese have supported the idea if their alliance with Britain was not cancelled or was replaced at US insistance with an ANZAC/Britain?Japanese pact with a secret 'understanding' they considered the rapacious US as the main opponent. Though it's easy to see the huge US dummy spit at the prospect of that alliance.
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  669.  @bkjeong4302  That's not a guarantee. You can do an all or nothing scheme and still leave the armoured deck low if you wish. It's up to the designer. There is no law that says you HAVE to mount the deck high, it's just a common sence reaction to the growth of airpower and the increase in the number and importance of power and communication systems. Something the German designers ignored and could still ignore if they want their beloved turtleback which is better for close ranged engagements. After all they never got off their triple screw design despite all the evidence of its flaws.
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  670.  @bkjeong4302  What rubbish Just because the Germans couldn't BUILD BB's did not mean they weren't designing them on paper like everyone else did. Much like they weren't supposed to have Submarines, they just 'outsourced' the construction of those to other countries. No one was building BB's after the mid 1920's. The Nevada pioneered the AoN scheme and those ships commissioned in 1916 and it is absurd (or typical German excuse making) to say they didn't know about it in the TWENTY years before the Bismarck class was designed. The Germans preferred the graduated armour scheme for a simple reason. It gave more protection against the small guns likely encountered as a typical convoy escort while they were shooting up helpless merchant ships. The German capital ships of WW2 were not built to fight their opposite numbers, they were units of national orestige and merchant ship killers.
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  671. Thanks Drach, these highlight that training and even more training is needed to iron out any problems, especially with new things like carriers. I did have one 'strange' thought. These fleet problems must have been very expensive to run, with the Great Depression occurring. It struck me to wonder what the general public thought of what they probably considered a "waste" of money to allow the military to play games while people starved?
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  672. Another great video where I learned so much. Will there be a special award ceremony for the first Drydock video to break the 60 minute mark?  Loved the section about the cost effectiveness of a ship. It's definitely not a simple answer. Tirpitz's best value was in tying down enemy forces. Somehow I just cannot agree with the concept that the best use of a BB is commerce raiding. It's like using a sledge hammer on a thumb tack. As Bismarclk proved, a BB used like this will generate a massive responce and it's always possible for a pesky escorting DD to get that lucky hit with torpedoes. Or if the situation is desperate enough, do a "Glowworm" and ram you. With its depth charges set to the shallowest setting to explode under your hull. OW!
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  673. They were certainly small ships. Have to wonder at their sea keeping ability in rough weather
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  674. Regarding the section on HMS Hermes you said that the 'armoured' deck allowed the ship portion of the carrier to continue to operate normally until repeated hits allowed bombs deeper into the hull. I was thinking "What if steam turbines were never developed and ships still used RE engines" Given these things shook themselves apart just by running at high speed, how would the repeated impacts and explosion of bombs affect the ability of the engines to operate?
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  675. Thanks Drach, this is a part of the war that gets very little coverage and it's sad so much death could have been avoided if King had tried to act like an adult and gotten over his jealousy of the fact that in WW1 the British Royal Navy far outclassed the USN. I remember your Video on the other small Navy's if Europe ignoring the orders of their Nazi approved new Governments and continuing to fight for Freedom Given how the majority of French Admirals and Politicians outside France were content to sit back, eat cheese, drink wine and let others die to free their country leave me feeling contempt for them. They scream about Mers-al-kabir but if people put themselves in the British situation could you have honestly done any different and the later sinking of the fleet at Toulon was when the French had had nearly two years to prepare. If the Nazi's had lunged for the port in 1940 is yet another massive What IF question that could have gone either way.
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  676. Thanks for another Drydock Drach I hope you keep safe and well with everything going on. Many questions boost the power of the Axis at the expence of the UK so I'm going the other direction. What would be the impact on the Battle of the Atlantic if an escort ship from 1945 was time warped back to early1940 with all it's anti submarine advances intact.
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  677. Q&A How did they load the shells and cordite into a BB's magazines and how did they de-ammunition a BB when it was decommissioned?
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  678. Loved the live stream but due to time differences I'd probably never get a question answered as I'm asleep when you start so I'm putting it here. If the crew of SMS Seydlitz had been just a bit slower and that ship had blown up at Dogger Bank, what do you think the consequences would be for the HSF both in the immediate term (would the rest of 1stSG be wiped out?) and in Long term. Would the Kaiser let his beloved ships ever sail again without severe restrictions on their deployment? Would they have ever found out the reason for the ship blowing up was in their very dangerous propellant handling procedures? (fixed AFTER Dogger Bank)
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  679. Thank you Drach and The Operations Room for all your work It shows what can happen when skill and hard work is accompanied by decisive action and a bit of luck
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  680. Thanks for yet another great drydock. I always feel better agter learning some interesting facts, pity I never felt that way when I was in school. Yep I wouldn't want to fight that first Sheridan, he's just too good at tactics and the ships he has available have a slight tech edge. Love the Whitestars. I laught when various people ask about using Monitors but they overlook a huge disadvantage of the design. The near total lack of freeboard, This almost cause the loss of the original ship on its way to Hampton Road and is one of the reasons the RN wasn't worried about the US sending them to 'sort out John Bull' after the civil way. THe Atlantic would have sunk them. I'm getting you favour a normal ship at high velocity. So the British 15inch weight over the German but a longer barrel. So in place of the British 15/42 a 15/50?
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  681. Thinking about the recent Battle Carpentry video I wondered What if (for whatever magic hand waving reason) the British repaired and refurbished HMS Indefagitable and sent her to the North American Station just before the war of 1812 kicked off. How do you think she would have fared against the big American frigates? Especially if they thought she was just another easy kill and not a razeed third rate
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  682. Excellent looking ships as well as being an effective design I think the US absolutely made the right choice to use the extra displacement to increase the protection and AA armament rather than going for a massive main gun battery as some other Nation would have. Compared to the Hipper's they were obviously the superior ship on less displacement and were not saddled with unreliable machinery. I can only imagine the horrified look on their designers faces when they saw the butchery done to their beautiful ship with those extensive all missile refits.
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  683. Great job os showing just how tough allied cruisers were. They could dish out the punishment as well as take it. Many Axis ships were unable to withstand the damage Allied ships took. People rave over the German and Japanese CA's but conveniently ignore by just how wide a margin these nations broke the various treaty's. It's easy to build a badass ship if your's displace 50% more than peacetime treaty's allow. Those who boast about Prinz Eugen surviving the atomic bomb blasts need to research to see how many other ships did the same
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  684. Either my eyes are playing tricks on me or the diagram shown at 1:40 indicates this ship is capable of 78 knots? Now that's impressive for a WW1 DN
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  685. I think I'd like the Drydock schedule kept as is. While the Patreon docks can be very long I do not listen to them in one long session. You can turn them off at any time and when you come back to them youtube should just pick them up at the point you stopped, I usually take 2-3 days to listen to a 5+hour drydock
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  686. Thanks Drach The words of Obi-wan need to be considered "As you go through life, many of the great truths you cling to depend on a certain point of view" I'm sure the Mk1 Drach would not go off course or fail to explode the way he Mk14 did, though I don't know what the explosive power of Irn Bru is. Could japan be considered a winner of the WNT? I've read that if they attempted to finish their 8-8 program it would have bankrupted the country
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  687. In the segment on the Italian BB's guns being rebored you mentioned that ALL guns suffer from this. I have preciously read books where the author states only the RN wire wound guns did this while the supposedly superior US and German built up guns did not. How true is this or is it just more boasting by some navy's
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  688. Thanks Drach I noticed the rifles are designed to be fired by a right handed person and this obviously effects your reload time on bolt actions and may also be responsible for the hit cartridges hitting you, If a leftie enlisted in the Army or Royal Marines would they be "encouraged" learn to fire right handed?
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  689. Are you supposed to "talk" about fightcamp?
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  690. By the logic of Item 2 the ships of 1stSG of the HSF are what I have long called them, Light Fast Battleships. Though many still demand they be called battlecruisers
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  691. So Hull form design is just a bit complex lol If you went back in time with all your knowledge Drach, do you think they would listen or have you burned as a witch?
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  692. In an alternate history scenario: What if the Washington treaty didn't just demand ships scrapped wholesale to shrink fleets but instead could be replaced on a 2 for 1 ratio in displacement while sticking to the new 35K limit. By this I mean everyone would have to scrap 70K tons of BB's to build 1 new 35K ton ship. Would this have been an effective strategy and maintained employment in industries vital to warship construction?
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  693.  @stevevalley7835  Sorry but that was NOT the point of my scenario. Too many Alt Histories revolve around shafting Britain and boosting everyone else. So my scenario was to maintain the status quo. What you have in commission at that time IS your limit and to build new ships means scrapping on a 2 for 1 tonnage rate which would shrink fleets, Ships under construction are to be scrapped if they exceeded 35k tons. Under your proposal I could easily see Britain instantly laying down the G3's and N3's and truthfully station "They are under construction" the treaty doesn't state "At what level". Your scenario give the US such a massive advantage no other nation would tolerate it.
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  694.  @VersusARCH  Only partially correct but so wrong where it truly counts Please do some research if you are going to present a Youtube channel, perhaps watching Drachinifel would help. It is true Germany was not a signatory of either the Washington or London Naval Treaties they did sign the Anglo-German naval treaty of 1935 and section Two of that treaty specified that all the ships had to conform to the same weight limitations as the Washington Treaty. Germany did sign that treaty and instantly decided they would not comply when they built the Bismarck and Hipper classes which were well over the displacement limits. So much for German Honor. The Treaty Germany was NOT a signatory to was 2nd London pf 1936 which had the escalator clause if Japan did not sign bu April 1937. The illegal Bismarck class is not covered by that as Germany was not a part of that Treaty
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  695.  @bkjeong4302 I was commenting on VersusARCH's inane comment that Germany was not bound by the limits of the Washington and London naval treaties which was part of the Anglo-German treaty. As for efficient Japanese cruisers? Define Efficient? As built they were hideously and dangerously unstable and lightly built, the Divine Wind of that 1936 hurricane hammered home how bad their designs were and let them correct the flaws in peacetime, if not for that the situation in WW2 would have been very different. Also the boast if 15,000tons of equipment on 12,000tons is proof of how dishonorable and oath breaking the Japanese were as the limit under the various treaties was TEN thousand tons with the Japanese lying that the ships were under that limit. Their nearest rivals in terms of displacement would be a Baltimore, not one of the pre war British or US cruisers, maybe one of the Italian heavy cruisers as they were in the same ballpark displacement wise.
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  696.  @bkjeong4302 I do fully realize that German ships were inefficient due to poor design. But to praise Japanese cruisers as efficient solely because they carried all that equipment on 20+% more tonnage is very wrong in my opinion and I find it both baffling and disgraceful the lengths people go to to make excuses for and/ore ignore Japan's flagrant treaty breaking. If Britain had done this they would be screaming the heavens sown. They were only competitive with other treaty cruisers because of that massive displacement advantage As built they were very poor designs being too lightly constructed to withstand battle damage and so unstable they were in danger from bad weather. Now that is an inefficient design. Good efficient design is more than just boasting about how much armour, guns and speed you have. It is Very obvious you are trying to create a smoke screen by saying the Baltimore were inefficient due to size, they were not. I merely included them to say that given the massive displacement advantage Japanese cruisers had over treaty the Baltimore class were a fairer match up. I imagine other nations cruisers designed to the Japanese self given displacement of 12.5K tons would be equally powerful, though the Italian cruisers did have poor choices in parts of their design
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  697.  @SazabiMSG  And what point are your trying to make??? It is irrelevant how well armoured or not parts of Japanese cruisers were. They were massively over both their announced displacement AND the limits agreed to in both the Washington and London Naval Treaty's. 10,000 tons. That is what should be front and center of all information about these ships before anyone starts screaming about how great they were.
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  698. Makes you wonder if some of the many, many medals on Russian admirals were awards for corruption and/or incompetence?
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  699. Nice video Drach. These are some very powerful DD's Imagine the RN having several flotilla's of these ships in 1939
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  700. Thanks for another video Drach I like the assessment of the Invincible and Indefatigable classes and the way to properly use them. Personally I do not call them Battlecruisers as they were conceived, designed and built as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers and were never meant to face battleship grade guns for any extended periods. Similarly (apart from Von Der Tann) the ships of the HSF 1stSG were designed to supplement the battle fleet and were built accordingly so should be called Light Fast Battleships But each person will have their own opinion
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  701. When firing age of sail cannon, was the barrel of the gun damaged by the cannon ball as it accelerated up the barrel given the amount of windage allowed?
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  702. A lesson that bigger doesn't always mean better
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  703. Very short but now there's something else to learn. Oh my poor brain, it needs to be drydocked for a rebuild and upgrade
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  704. Thanks for another Dry Dock Drach and I hope your pain goes away quickly I guess I'm lucky as an X-ray of my mouth and jaw showed that I have no wisdom teeth at all, they just aren't there. I must store my wisdom somewhere else, still looking for it though :)
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  705. Thanks for another great drydock Hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip
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  706. Is there any reason why the German Navy used triple screw propulsion for their Battleships but used a Quad arrangement for the Battlecruisers? It seems strange they used two different systems if they believed the triple arrangement was superior
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  707. These ships embody the phrase "If it's stupid but it works, it ain't stupid" I wouldn't want to be an enemy soldier station near the coast if one of these ships rocked up to ay 'Hi'
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  708. Italian cruisers and their sold designs had the main guns very close together. Does this translate into significant weight saving large enough to put up with the the shells interfering with each other during firing.
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  709. Perhaps you could clarify a point for me. Here Dr Hocker said the best possible defence against splinter damage could be a lightly built ship where the balls would just poke neat entry and exit holes. Yet in an earlier video you said how a Frigate was unwise enough to fire at a ship of the line and was promptly obliterated by a single broadside. Seems a contradiction.
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  710. Thanks Drach Looks like the designers of the German boilers never heard of that wonderful engineering principle K.I.S.S. Maybe they thought by making it more complicated it would impress their Bosses and get more funds.
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  711.  @johnshepherd8687  Dreadnought was laid down on 2 October 1905, launched on 10 Feb 1906 and completed in December 1906 South Carolina was laid down 18 December 1906, launched 11 July 1908 and completed March 1910. Drach did make a little mistake when he said others were being built before Dreadnought. But I think we can forgive an occasional little error given all the wonderful content he provides
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  712. Very Interesting Drach It may seem a strange question, with Gannet and Cavalier both sitting in flooded docks, does the water there become stagnant and start to smell? And what procedures are there to keep it clean from various types of rubbish which may find their way into the water? I hope there are fines in place for any careless (lazy) visitors who drop rubbish into the water.
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  713. Impressive piece of equipment for something done in a hurry. Proves necessity is the mother of invention
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  714. Q: Was the 8 inch armoured deck on the H designs the usual (and flawed) low mounted turtle back system or had they learned form experience and mounted it higher to protect those vital power and communication lines which made their other capital ships so vulnerable? The H's seem to be very vulnerable to a massed DD attack as their secondary armament was still the same as Bismarck.
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  715. Thanks for another informative video Drach Just what sort of weaponry would a ship have to carry to protect itself from a swarm of pigeons attacking it? :)
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  716. Thanks Drach A great video about men whose bravery is truly humbling. They knew there was a good chance of not coming back and never flinched.
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  717. We have survived the Millennium bug, byt Hmm a couple of years Nice way of dealing with that Bismarck question, it was framed in a way to make it seem the Germans cold have built 4 Bismarck's if it was for the over engineering The number of excuses made up for the failings and inefficiencies of German designs grows with each passing day and all of them unsubstantiated, except maybe Wikipedia. And we all know how perfect and accurate that is.
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  718. Should Seydlitz be counted as sunk by the British at Jutland? Well the ship flooded and grounded outside the harbour due to combat damage inflicted by the Royal Navy and was later salvaged by the German Navy. Seems similar to the situation as the 6 US BB's sunk by the Japanese at Pearl and later salvaged.
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  719. I notice that American subs of WW2 had the diving fins on the hull like most other navies. Is there any reason modern American subs have the fin on the sail? Wouldn't that reduce their diving speed?
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  720. Beautiful looking ships, The extra displacement was needed for the Pasta makers...honest! Seem like the Frech weren't the only one's who were bitten by the tinkering bug,
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  721. I have read that there was a brief consideration of arming the WW2 KGV's with 3 triple gun turrets as a tripe was something they had experience with and that was simpler and easier to build and work than the quad. In your opinion (with hindsight) would this have been a better option?
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  722. Thanks for another video Clearly the Town class were a tough and excellent design and gave brilliant service throughout their lives. Some downplay their effectiveness becaue of their 6inch guns and designation as CL's but they were heavily armoured and in some ways were heavy cruisers, just armed with smaller 6inch weapons
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  723. It shows just how an emergency wartime design proved so successful that so many Navy's accepted these ships into service. While not glamorous they filled a vital role and were very good at it.
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  724. Thanks Drach The follow on did work on my computer, can't speak of any other formats. It doesn't bother me how the patreon Dock is done as I don't listen to it live due to time differences. I'm probably sound asleep when you start if. Love how you opinion of Politicians is ...perhaps... less than worshipful :) I've often said one party could come up with a perfect plan to make our country the economic giant of the world in perpetuity and the other party would do everything can could to destroy that plan as it's not good for THEM! Guess my opinion of professional politicians isn't much different from yours.
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  725.  @gustaveliasson5395  Completely and totally WRONG. The Anglo-German Naval treaty was signed on 18 June 1935 while the Scharnhort's were laid down in May of that year BEFORE the treaty. But they were 'forgiven' as people knew how loud the Nazi's would squeal if it was pointed out. As for Bismarck, the escalator clause to build ships up to 45,000 tons was part of the second London Naval treaty of 1936 and Germany was NOT a signatory of that treaty and therefore is not covered by it. The Bismarck's were illegal ships but mindless rabid Wehraboos cannot admit that Germany set out to break their sworn oath. As Drach stated, ships take years to design and as these two were laid down IN 1936 it proves Germany had no intention of adhering to the agreed limit of the A-G treaty which was 35,000 tons. The class IS illegal under the treaty. These are Facts!
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  726.  @stevevalley7835  He's actually wrong on all counts. The Scharnhorts were laid down before the A-G treaty of 1935 and the escalator clause to allow the building of BB's to 45,000tons was part of the 2nd London Naval treaty of 1936 and Germany was not a signatory of that treaty and therefore is not covered by it.
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  727. Is there any information on what British battleship designers were doing during WW1. Although all construction was halted on the outbreak of war, i feel that they would have been working on improved designs (even if they couldn't be built) much like the Germans were,
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  728. Carrying spare torpedoes was rare for surface ships and only the Japanese went for it in a big way. Since World of Warships has DD's spamming torps almost non stop, How fast could a Japanese DD or cruiser reload it's tubes and could it actually be done during battle? How dangerous was it to carry torpedoes? Could they detonate if hit? And how dangerous was it for the Japanese ships using their O2 fueled torps?
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  729.  @kennethdeanmiller7324  I don't have that but I have Diabetic Macula Edema. Diabetes is making the veins in my eye's swell. They dilate my eyes to look at the veins to see how close they are to the pupil. If the Doctor thinks it's necessary I get an injection of Eyelea into my eyes. It's not a cure, just a treatment but better than having partially blocked vision. Now I just need to get the cataract taken care of. Getting old(er) sux, don't do it 😀
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  730. Thanks Drach and whoever insulted your pronunciation is obviously an uneducated, poorly read ass. Going on the Top Ger analogy there is a famour car race on Australia called the Bathurst 1000. Clarkson always pronounced it BAthrust with a long A sound like the city of Bath in he UK. Here is Australia we pronounce if Bathurst with a short A sound. I always laughed/cringed at Jeremy calling the race BAthurst1000. As someone pointed out "You spell nife (as it's said) with a K. And the reply was "I spell it with an N but I never could spell
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  731. Is the France-Russia alliance the reason the two became so similar? Neither seemed to b e able to resist the temptation to fiddle with a design. 6,000 tons does seem quite large for a protected cruiser of the period. An early form of the 'Large Light Cruiser'?
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  732. Another Great Drydock Drach Thank you for your efforts in making these fine videos and keeping us (your devoted minions) both educated and entertained during this trying year. Many good wishes to both yourself and your (long suffering?) lady and hoping you both stay safe and healthy.
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  733. In the age of sail was there ever a recognized code of conduct for a ship which had struck its colours? You said at Cape St.Vincent Trinidad struck its colours but was towed off, was it held that once you did that you were expected to adhere to your surrender and not fire or try to escape? I imagine a ship falsely striking its colours to gain a dishonorable advantage would not be believed a second time.
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  734. One minor point is you classification leave out the G3's
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  735. Always wondered what the food was like for the crew of the various navy's and if it changed between WW1 and WW2. Although movies make fun of the food served to the crew in the days of sail, I've read they were fed as we;; as possible due to the heavy physical nature of their duties on a sail powered ship. A poorly fed crew is an inefficient one which can't perform well, especially in battle .
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  736. Is pictures of older Battleships we see "Bags" covering the openings between the gun barrels and turrets, most likely to keep water out of the turret. What material was this made of and how tough did it have to be to withstand the effects of repeated heavy guns firing?
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  737. Thanks Drach This was truly fascinating and informative. The history of ship armour development is something many overlook as the booming of the big guns captures the attention of most. One of the biggest problems of the return of the Battleship would be the rediscovery of the techniques of making these huge plates of armour as well as remading the equipment to do so. Fortunately we have engineer "Geek" like yourself who would love to dive into such a project, Probably with squee's of happiness :)
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  738. Thanks Drach, a very interesting vessel to be sure This ship has a length of service that is hard to beat.
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  739. With some of the questions in Drydock 65 helping the German ships I thought I'd pose one to help the British Grand Fleet. If the defects in the British AP shell design had been noted at the Falkland Islands, the shell's redesigned, and the whole fleet had been supplied with Green Boy shells before Jutland. What do you think the German losses would have been? Much of the hype about Germans toughness comes from defective British AP shells.
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  740. A fight between the G3 BC's and a Lexington BC would be interesting but I think a walk over for the G3 unless the Lex get's a Bismarck level lucky hit in. The Lexington Bc's were so thinly armoured that the only thing it could do is run How about the British Town class against a Mogami as it was originally completed, without the extensive rebuild necessary to fix all the problems. It's strange that the Japanese, Germans and Italians forgot that loading a ship with guns, armour and engines is counter productive if the ship isn't a good seaboat. The cruisers completed by these powers were just weren't very seaworthy and in rough weather the British RN cruisers would have a huge advantage. They were also lightly built. A Leander against any of the German Light Cruisers?
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  741. Thanks for another great video Drach While the crew of the two Navy's were friends it is unfortunate that it is politicians who make the decision to go to war and politicians are always well away from any possibility of injury or death. Maybe if they weren't they wouldn't be so eager for war or so penny pinching with funds for the armed services. I do wonder what the situation would have been if the German Admiralty has quickly shuffled Tirpitz off to a distant post as they found his idea's a genuine danger to the Empire since it involved in deliberately and obviously poking his finger in the British Royal Navy's eye.
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  742. Is there any truth at all to the often repeated piece of BS I see that the Swordfish were flying too SLOW for Bismarck to hit as its AA system was calibrated for planes flying at a much higher speed. To me this is completely ridiculous. Not only the fact that any plane is TOO SLOW to target, but that the methodical and precise Germans would not think that if Bismarck DID come under torpedo attack in the Atlantic then the aircraft would be Fairy Swordfish, a plane whose speed was well known as it had been in service for some years. Guess the Nazi's should be grateful the Allies didn't get a working helicopter into service. Another point that is either ignored or an excuse made is the failure of the manually aimed 20 &37mm. The usual excuse is the crew was untrained. Also ridiculous for a ship completer in Aug1940 would not be fully worked up by May1941. I trust your opinion Drachinifel and ask if you can settle this. The ONLY source I've found for the "Too Slow" fiction is the comments of Bismarck fans and their Wikipedia posts. And we all know what an unimpeachable source Wikipedia is lol
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  743.  @michaelkovacic2608  If I remember correctly Drach covered this in his 5 minute guide on the Littorio class
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  744. Do you think the South Carolina's should even be counted as proper full Dreadnoughts as they retained the old triple expansion engines Vs HMS Dreadnoughts turbines?
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  745. I did notice you gave stats for both the Abruzzi's and Cleveland's armour but basically hemmed and hawed about the Towns and finally didn't give details for their armour thickness. My own research shows the Town class had thicker belt armour than Abruzzi. I do hope you're not buying into the WoWs complete rubbish about the the Town class fragility! They were light cruisers only due to their gun caliber. Their armour was fully the equal to the much over praised Japanese and German Heavy Cruisers and were strongly built, tough ships well able to take significant damage and keep on fighting.
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  746. The things fertile minds can come up with when you couple that with lots of money and a willingness to take risks
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  747. Many times during a ships modernization you've commented that the ships boilers were converted from coal to oil firing but what is entailed in doing all that? Does it require the complete replacement and re-engineering of the ships power plant? The calculations to maintain the ships stability must be very involved.
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  748.  @TheOreoOverlord  The Battle of Trafalgar might not have been a battle of anihilation but is secured Britain's domination of the seas for a century. You could call the Battle of Tsushima such a battle as Russia lost nearly it's entire fleet in the Pacific and my thought is that because that worked once for Japan they thought it would go their way again. Which is rather foolish and narrow minded of them as they planned their entire strategy on the enemy doing exactly what you wanted them to do.
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  749. Thanks Drach Ir's interesting to compare the different way the British and German Navy's armed their CL's. The Germans were firm in their choice of the lighter but faster firing 4.1inch while the British went for the heavier but more destructive 6inch. Considering British Cl's generally came out ahead whenever the two dies met in equal numbers I'd say the British made the superior weapon choice.
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  750. Thanks Darch Personally I think if there had been a night action at Jutland I don't believe it would have been the success for the Germans as many say. Given the number of dear disasters the HSF blundered into and near collisions between their own ships a fleet night action would have resulted in more own casualties than the Germans would ever admit was possible
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  751.  @Aelxi  You are correct, HMS Blake was Guide 152
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  752. Is there any reason the Germans insisted on using a triple screw arrangement for their BB's instead of win or quad? I've read the riple is the worst system to use as it precludes steering with the screws and causes drag with the centre screw.
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  753. I read the twin 6inch mounts were added late in the ships design phase as they were considered under gunned. And that many of the world's Navy's considered the design almost obsolescent upon completion due to the casement mountings.
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  754. Makes you wish those 'people' (and I use the term loosely) in charge of the US BueOrd Office should have faced charges of aiding the enemy due to their obstruction of change and refusal to face reality. Just give the crews of the subs they said were incompetent a copy of that, put the authors in front of said crews and walk off for an hour or so. That might change their minds
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  755. This Drydock is long enough for Hood to have a full modernization and be back in time to kick Bismarck's butt A point about continuing to blame Beatty for everything is that in your own Jutland video's you stated a reason for the BC's poorer gunnery is that in their base at Rosyth they could NOT practice due to the town right next to them. This is why 3rd BCS was at Scapa and others would have rotated to sharpen their skills. Much like the reason you gave in this that actual deck landing on moving ships is better than landing on a strip painted on the ground. I have great respect for all the three British Admirals who were instrumental in WW1, Fisher, Jellicoe and Beatty while Scheer and especially Hipper are over rated but had greater luck. Indeed Hipper's tactical decisions were all the same, Run Away whenever he saw something that could give him a fight.
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  756. Has there ever been any definitive and reliable sources listing why Bismarck;s main guns knocked out it's own radar and why this was not detected prior to her sailing? I have been hearing so many, many, many excuses made that is seems to me Bismarck fans are really reaching into the realms of fantasy to find any excuse for the ships numerous failings.
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  757. Given the incredible resources needed to build the Yamato class, and including the resources to build the Infrastructure up to construct the ships. Do you think the Japanese would have been better served with more numerous but Treaty compliant ships. If the Japanese DO appear to comply with the Treaty, the US cannon invoke the clause which permitted the Iowa's construction.
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  758. Several people have asked how you would change things if put in command of the German HSF with the knowledge you have now. In a reverse of this What would you change in British ships if you went back to 1910 with all your knowledge and had the authority to do whatever you wished and everyone had to listen to and obey the mighty Drachinifel? Do we wave a quick goodby to the HSF if they come out to fight?
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  759. I have watched the movie "Sink the Bismarck" many times and I am positive the gunner is saying 'Right gun shell' 'Right gun first half charge' then as he works the system and more bagged charges drop into the tray he says 'Right gun second half charge 'And there is now a colourized version to download and watch Describing your criteria for Light BBs I think it perfectly describes all teh ships of the 1stSG of the HSF apart from Von Der Tann. To my mind these ships were Light Fast Battleships as they were designed to supplement the battle line and not Battlecruisers as defined by other Navy's.
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  760. Thank you for this video Jackie Fisher was a man of great achievement but not without flaws but certainly a man who made the Royal Navy fit to fight WW1.
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  761. These ships would have been very interesting if they had been built and lasted long enough to be equipped with harriers
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  762. Thanks Drach and good luck on any possible trip. Just make sure you can head back in these unsettled times.
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  763. Considering how your 'panic' about sneaking across the US/Canada border went, perhaps you should also be more cautious about the offer of people "hunting you down". You never know how some may misconstrue that one hehe. Yes I am being silly...maybe :)
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