Comments by "GWTPict GWTPict" (@gwtpictgwtpict4214) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. Animation on the Swordfish was sheer genius, took me a few seconds close watching to realise it actually was moving. Well done Sir!
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  2. I do like the fact that a lot of Drach's answers to what if, or why not, questions are basically, 'because physics'. Hopefully this will encourage some people to to some reading and learn a little.
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  3. No problems here with sponsorship, I've been a military history nerd for years and your content has, on a number of occasions, caused me to go back and reassess my opinions on Naval history. Well done that man :-)
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  4. HMS Penolope, though she was finally sunk by a U-boat in 1944 she earned the nickname HMS Pepperpot for the number of holes punched into her during her service in the Mediterranean
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  5. I have heard that currently the Flat Earth Society is concerned that social distancing rules, ie staying at least two metres apart, is pushing some of their members over the edge.
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  6. To use modern terminology, HMS Africa was bad ass. Got a bit lost but, in the finest traditions of the Royal Navy, sailed in the direction of the sound of the guns while exchanging fire with the entirety of the van of the Franco Spanish fleet until she arrived where she was supposed to be, and then got stuck in. Legend.
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  7. Yup, de-activating the fuzes rapidly became part of the abandon ship drill.
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  8. On the legendary naval dressing down question, thirty plus years ago I was doing a guided tour of HMS Victory. The bloke leading the tour was ex Royal Navy. For those who don't know, on HMS Victory's quarterdeck there is a a highly polished brass plaque mounted on a piece of wood attached to the deck. The plaque simply reads "Here Nelson fell" along with the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Having confirmed that there were no French in the tour group the ex RN bloke related the following story. A few years before a fellow tour guide, again ex RN, was leading a tour and getting to the plaque was explaining what it was when a French exchange student on the tour decided to jump onto the plaque, thrust a fist into the air and shout "Vive la France!". The tour guide, a burly ex CPO punched him in the face knocking him to the deck. Much hilarity ensued, apparently you're not supposed to punch the tourists. Ex CPO finds himself up in front of the commander RN dockyard Portsmouth. As Drach said, details of this sort of thing are generally not recorded but the gist of it was the ex CPO was given a thorough bollocking, being an ex CPO he just stood there and took it. Bollocking delivered the commander RN dockyard Portsmouth stood up and shook the tour guides hand while mumbling about the finest traditions of the Royal Navy. As the story goes the tour guide didn't have to pay for a pint in the pubs around Portsmouth dockyard for several years. I have no idea how true this story is, the RN have a long reputation of spinning yarns, but I think I can believe it :)
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  9. On pronunciations, at university I knew a lass whose Dad was Polish, escaped to Britain during WWII and continued the fight. She just got on with the fact that her surname, Zowada, was generally in Britain pronounced phonetically, Zo-wa-da. She explained how it should be pronounced, my best attempt at writing that down would be Zzva-da. So, once informed by her that's how we, her friends, pronounced her surname. Pretty much the rest of Britain stuck with Zo-wa-da. Props to those Eastern European immigrants to Britain who generally got a lot closer.
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  10. I've been a military history geek for nigh on fifty years now and that was bloody fascinating. Well done that man :-)
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  11. Regarding the "What makes a good Naval historian" question, many years ago I had a lightbulb moment. Never stop learning. What you "know" is fact today may turn out to be obsolete tomorrow. Bearing that in mind has served me well over the years. Please keep doing what you do because it's fascinating :-)
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  12.  @charliepayne4033  Wrong, the early videos used a computer generated voice but he started using his own voice ages ago. Where you see 'Human voice', or something like it, is where he's redone computer generated audio in his own voice.
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  13. I've gone quite teary at Judy's story, well done that dog.
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  14. I really don't get the "was Bismark sunk or scuttled" thing, the scuttling argument seems to come from assorted wehraboos of the "Bismark bestest battleship ever" school. It's weird, there is evidence that all four Japanese carriers lost at Midway were actually finished off by their own side, but I've never heard anyone argue they weren't sunk by the USN. At its simplest the RN put Bismark down, whether at the end she cut her own throat to end the misery or just drowned is irrelevant, she was never getting home. That said, I'm looking forward to Drach's dissection of the argument :-)
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  15. I think several hundred years covered in two hours could be considered brief?
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  16. Don't sweat it, you were close :-)
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  17. Bloody good effort on both sides, trying to work out a solution that could work while both being bombarded by frankly silly orders from their respective senior commands.
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  18.  @M_Northstar  No such thing as a British 'Royal' Army. Royal Airforce and Royal Navy yes, but it's the British Army. Supposedly because the modern British Army has it's roots in Cromwell's New Model Army of the English Civil War, and they were definitely not on the Monarchist side.
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  19. Got a bit dusty here at that point. Excellent stuff Drach.
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  20.  @Charlesputnam-bn9zy  Admiral Hipper was a heavy cruiser, not a battle cruiser but still, a roughly 1500 ton destroyer against a nominally 10,000 ton beast, brave brave men.
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  21.  @YoloSwagNinja  I offer you the war of 1812, America declared war, had some initial success at sea with it's big frigates but was still blockaded by the RN which eventually did considerable damage to the American economy. On land America invaded Canada and was then kicked back over the border, British troops followed up and captured Washington, burning down the Capitol. There's a reason it's called the Whitehouse today. Ok, as a Brit I may be biased but I'd call that a win for us :-)
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  22.  @jimtaylor294  She was launched as HMS Heartsease. Heartsease is also known as Wild Pansy.
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  23.  @frankbodenschatz173  Having knocked down a couple of FW200 Condors while flying off HMS Audacity, the first RN escort carrier, he spent several hours floating around in the Atlantic after she was torpedoed and sunk by U-751 before being picked up by a Royal Navy corvette. As you said, the man was a machine.
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  24. That makes sense, even if you could compensate for minor differences between individual guns, you're still dependent on the consistency of your ammunition. Look at Italian battleship gunnery in WWII.
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  25.  boris boris  Well, for your sake I hope you're never on the losing side in a conflict. We're not talking Himmler, Heydrich and co here, we're talking Matrose Hans Schmidt who joined the Kriegsmarine to earn a living 80+ years ago.
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  26. The Flower class corvette HMS Pansy didn't happen, she was renamed HMS Heartsease before launch. Someone was determined to sneak a pansy through though, heartsease is a plant also known as wild pansy in the UK. So Mr unterseeboot Kapitan, you were actually rammed by a wild pansy. Don't mess with British flora.
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  27.  @knutdergroe9757  FFS! First rule of the 'hidden bottle of single malt' club is that we don't talk about it, Ok?
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  28. Instant thumbs up just for the title.
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  29. Can't remember where it comes from, but I do remember a quote, "English doesn't so much borrow words from other languages, rather it follows them down dark alleys, hits them over the head and then rifles their pockets for anything useful." HTH :-)
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  30.  @davidpnewton  For 30 knots I'd go with 'steady on', we're speaking English here so understatement is the key.
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  31.  @LordInter  Assuming you're talking about the proposed HMS Habakkuk built from Pykrete, it wasn't sand, it was some form of woodpulp,sawdust or even paper.
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  32. Does sound like she did a damn fine job. Though I do like the idea of her rocking up somewhere to request something and someone staring down their nose at her and saying "And you are Madam?" to which she could answer "Admiral Cunningham's wife". In the Med in 1940 that's a win the game card 🙂.
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  33. Love that story, mm thinks someone, HMS Zulu's stern has been blown off by a mine and HMS Nubian's bow has been wrecked by a Hun torpedo. Hold my pink gin and bring me my welding torch! Genius.
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  34.  @cogitator1213  We're not. We lost more ships, we lost more men. We know that. We also know we retained control of the North Sea which was what mattered. The High Seas Fleet attempted a few hit and run style attacks against British targets post Jutland, but buggered off sharpish at the first hints of the Grand Fleet coming out to play. When told that they were going to sea to attack the RN in October 1918, the High Seas Fleet mutinied and the operation never happened. Post the armistice in November 1918 most of the High Seas Fleet was interred at Scapa Flow where they scuttled themselves.
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  35. The Royal Navy, trolling people since 1660.
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  36. I suspect the Italian Navy at Taranto, the Bismark and around 20 U-boats would disagree with the 'miss' bit.
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  37.  @admiraltiberius1989  From memory the Commander of the USS Maine had a bit of a history of poorly maintaining the ships he commanded. At the time the fact that coal bunkers could overheat was known so surely the temperatures should have been monitored. They weren't, or at least not properly so I'd argue that human error was involved.
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  38. Badges? We don't need no stinking badges! Erm, hang on, belay that, yes please :-)
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  39. Yes, but as Drach pointed out, they already had been explicitly ordered to ignore that type of order.
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  40. Mine does have very nice hands, also watching them during the game was quite fascinating for the body language. Psychology graduate so bits of human behaviour grab my attention :-)
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  41.  @Genessyss  How about videos on the US genocides and massacres? You could start with the Native American tribes.
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  42. Come on ladies, time to go home :-)
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  43.  @bytesback.  Actually we can survive for extended periods of time without tea, though we do tend to get a bit miffed. @JIM the heliophobe, my commiserations, though I must admit to feeling a bit smug as I picked up a box of 160 this morning.
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  44. Last time I was this early floaty log was state of the art.
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  45. That was his wife, giggling at her idiot husband.
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  46. Two instances I can find, in one the bomber got home, http://ww2today.com/7th-july-1941-jimmy-ward-climbs-out-on-the-wing-mid-flight Second case it didn't. http://ww2today.com/27-april-1944-fire-fighting-on-a-lancaster-bombers-wing Both men were awarded the Victoria Cross.
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  47.  @Aelxi  Fairly sure they were there to let the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica know not to bomb them.
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  48.  @matchesburn  Pusser's rum claims to be the only rum blended in exact accordance with Royal Navy specifications. Woods Navy Rum claims to be made from an original RN recipe dating back to 1887. Both are distilled in Guyana.
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  49. He also shot down two FW 200 Condors flying off HMS Audacity and spent three hours in the water after she was torpedoed and sunk in late 1941.
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  50. See that tugboat over there? Well for today we're calling it a light cruiser.
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