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

  1. 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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  2. 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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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. 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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  9. 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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  10. 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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  11. 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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  12. 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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  13. 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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  14. 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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  15. Three video's in a row. Both loving it and definitely needing a refit for my brain's storage capacity.
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  16.  @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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  17. 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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  18. 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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  19. 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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  20. 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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  21. 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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  22. 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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  23. 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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  24. 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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  25. 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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  26. 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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  27. 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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  28. 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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  29. 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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  30. 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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  31. 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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  32. 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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  33. 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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  34. 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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  35. 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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  36. This account proves the nickname of the Sunderland was accurate "The Flying Porcupine"
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  37. 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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  38. 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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  39. 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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  40. 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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  41. 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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  42. 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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  43. 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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  44. 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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  45. 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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  46. 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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  47. 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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  48. 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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  49. 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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  50. 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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