Comments by "John D" (@johnd8892) on "The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered" channel.

  1. Living in Williamstown, where it was in dock being repaired, I learnt of part of the story when in primary school through displays of Williamstown history by the Williamstown Historical Society. Would be over fifty years ago.
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  2. Would there have been German embassies in neutral USA at the earlier years of WW2 reading the shipping notices in daily US newspapers. If so , I would expect coded diplomatic telegrams being sent to Germany. At what cost to lives?
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  3. I understand one important part of the victory over the military might of Japan was the Royal Australian Navy noticing in the 1920s that the Japanese were still using the same Naval codes they shared with Australia when Japan was on our side during World War One. Had to be kept very secret what was known and how we responded after the Japanese signaled their next moves. What was known of Pearl Harbour prior? A work colleague told me of her mother being at Townsville Australia, a listening post during the war, but even 60 years later would not say what secret work she was involved with. My father, who was a soldier at Port Moresby and other parts of New Guinea stated that the destruction of Japanese supply lines saved Australia and him. Possibly the code breaking focused efforts on supply ships as being less risky and more productive than just attacking Japanese warships. Heard a story of an american pilot who was shot after not following his orders to sink Japanese fuel tankers but instead fired on a destroyer group protecting the tankers. Perhaps a story circulated to keep pilots from making bad judgments.
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  4. THG error now pinned at top of comments. DOB was 1885.
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  5. A search for Railway Gauges in Australia for Wikipedia will give a better description of the Australian gauge situation than some of the misleading comments here about Australian railways.
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  6. Thanks for making this more widely known. Living in the Melbourne waterfront suburb of Williamstown, where the Shenandoah was in dock being repaired, I learnt of part of the story when in primary school through displays of Williamstown history by the Williamstown Historical Society. Would be over fifty years ago. A more recent local news item on this visit : https://youtu.be/yEBX2QTMrQo And from our state library more detail : https://youtu.be/t-h1eoyuiCQ
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  7. When did the Riviera convert to front wheel drive? Not the sixties ones as I understand,
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  8. THG error pinned at top of comments. DOB was 1885.
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  9. Luck and the Royal Australian Navy noticing in the 1920s that the Japanese were still using the same Naval codes they shared with Australia when on our side in World War One. Had to be kept very secret what was known after the Japanese signaled their next moves. A work colleague told me of her mother being at Townsville Australia, a listening post during the war, but even 60 years later would not say what secret work she was involved with. My father, who was a soldier at Port Moresby and other parts of New Guinea stated that the destruction of Japanese supply lines saved Australia and him. Possibly the code breaking focused efforts on supply ships as being less risky and more productive than just attacking Japanese warships. Heard a story of an american pilot who was shot after disobeying his orders to sink Japanese fuel tankers but instead fired on a destroyer group he came across.
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  10. To avoid much higher conversion costs for lines of marginal economics and performing minor local tasks
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  11. Just a coincidence perhaps , but here in Australia it is a big motor sports weekend with the Bathurst 1000km race. More TV hours of this event watched in Australia than any other event. About thirty hours of coverage over three days on the Seven network. STP had quite a profile with drag racing here along Studebaker.
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  12. Interested to see this to shed light on the NACA duct used in high speed car racing since the sixties when I read about it named but not explained in car magazines around the world. Even me in Australia. I see I am not alone in hearing of NACA from car racing.
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  13. Although the ship was docked at Williamstown and the crew were given railway passes on the government railway system but not on the private railway companies out of Flinders Street station to St Kilda and other south and South eastern lines. So even more mysterious unless St Kilda held some important attraction.
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  14. Ketchup term close to unknown in Australia but Heinz starting to label Tomato Sauce as such. Tomato sauce however a traditional staple. Close to all fast food meat pies at sports events etc eaten with Tomato Sauce. Meat pies being the main food consumed at sports events here. Same with lesser consumed Hot Dogs, Pasties and Sausage Rolls. A few put it on their Bunnings Sausage Sandwich or Democracy Sausage when voting, a recent cultural icon in Australia. BBQ, Soy, Worcesertshire and HP sauce also widely consumed in Australia. Few Dim Sims in Australia eaten without Soy Sauce. For Tomato sauce Rosella, Heinz, White Crow, Big Red and Fountain were some of the major brands.
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  15. Wikipedia is a good reference (search for Railway Gauges in Australia ) and shows how little the third rail system is used in Victoria. The third rail is only used in space constrained areas. Just 32 km in total mostly suburban Melbourne. As as 2019 in Victoria we have 16 km of 2ft 6in, 1912 km of 4ft 8.5in, 2357 km of 5ft 3in and just 32 km of mixed standard and broad. The direct Sydney & Melbourne standard gauge route in 1962 was achieved with a standard gauge new line largely parallel to the broads gauge line. From 1962 onwards most of the train usage on it was the much more economically beneficial freight traffic. No broad gauge locos pull standard gauge stock in Australia. Victoria has separate dedicated standard gauge diesels for the standard gauge lines in Victoria. The mistake of standard gauge in NSW was recognised as early as 1857 by the NSW railways chief engineer, John Whitton, who recommended NSW change to broad gauge while there was only a small amount of track (37 km) to convert. He was ignored due to cost pressures.
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  16. Promontory Summit. Media miss reporting from 1869 repeated.
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  17. First US locomotive. Lots in the UK in the previous twenty years or so.
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