Comments by "mpetersen6" (@mpetersen6) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. It's not just the hulls. The USN needed all the machinery. The interior fittings. Bunks, storage lockers, refrigeration, desks, chart tables and God knows what else. Just how many light bulbs were there on a Cleveland much less an Essex. All of the electrical equipment. Generators, radios, radar etc. The armament. 20mm, 40mm, 5"38s, 6", 8", 12", 16" and the ammunition for each. Fuel. Av Gas. Food. Plates, bowls, cups, flatware. Uniforms. And we still haven't even gotten to the most important part of the ship yet. The crew. Basic training. Advanced training. Plus all the administrative work to keep track of just where all of these men went. Now add on everything the Army needed from small arms ammo to bridging equipment much less lend lease.
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  2. Your torpedo circles back around and sinks your sub. "A significant emotional event". Major Nicholas Moran "Once fired Mr. Torpedo is nobody's friend.' The Mighty (and exalted) Jingles Has anyone else noted that Drachinifel's videos are more entertaining when the subject matter is less than a stunning success
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  3. The amount of shrapnel laying on the seafloor of the Western Pacific expended by the US Navy would probably be equal to the steel required to build a Yamato.
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  4. That took balls bigger than the unexploded shell. I wonder how he managed to walk? But yes, Plumridge was a complete ass and likely was the official mascot of the Upper Middle Class Twit of the Year Award on Monty Python.
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  5. The top brass of the Board of Ordinance should been handed a choice. A blindfold, or not.
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  6. This goes a long way to explain the COVID-19 response in the US. Americans by and large do not like being told what to do. Especially by agents of government. Of course at their workplace they are being payed so that's different
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  7. The Imperial Japanese Navy had a top secret rock laying ship operating outside of Russian ports
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  8. As the Chieftain recently stated "I'm not doing a Drach"
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  9. The ultimate anti tank rifle. The 16"50
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  10. One unfortunate thing that happens during a major war is a nation finding out it has admirals (and generals) who may have been brilliant in a peacetime assignment that failed badly under the strain* of combat due to a number of factors. That does not mean the officer should automatically be cashiered. Such officers if they are excellent in the administrative role can still be of service in training or other support commands. *the strain can be because of multiple things happening at once overloading the officers decision making capacity. Or it can be simply psychological in that the officer simply can not make a decision. Add in being not up to command of a combat formation is another thing.
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  11. USS 2nd Amendment vs Kamchatka
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  12.  @krakenpots5693  When everybody stinks. Nobody stinks.
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  13.  @billbolton  Well after ther war they had to account to Congress most likely for all the materials. "Captain, we have 200,000 rounds of unexpended 20mm onboard." "Screw the paper work, expand it over the side."
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  14. But if you had a dyslexic French admiral the bottom of the North Sea would littered with LeClerc Main Battle Tanks instead of Motor Torpedo Boats.
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  15. To roughly quote his excellency Jingles the 1st "Its got really crappy armor, did I mention its got a lot of guns" "Its really slow. Did I mention the guns?" "It handles like a greased pig on teflon. Lots of guns though" "Draws destroyers like sailors to a brothel. The guns shoot really fast. Um, just like the sailors."
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  16. And taking notes. Lots of notes. I wonder just how often a lone merchant man on her way to her destination just blindly found herself in the middle of one of these fleet problems.
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  17. The Golden BB. Yah, Bismarck had a certain amount of luck on her side. But Bismarck also had very good fire control and shooting. She also had her share of bad luck. A torpedo hit in just the right spot is what prevented her from reaching port in France. Imagine Bismarck sitting in Brest or another French Atlantic port. Just how much would that have complicated running convoys to the UK.
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  18.  @Nyet-Zdyes  Plus the drawings needed for the Tool & Die shop that made the dies
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  19.  @Aelxi  That was her radar. Not her optical range finders.
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  20. RUD* of enemy aircraft *Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly
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  21. Lexington and Saratoga in profile had to have been the two most recognizable warships on the planet in the interwar years. Simply because of that huge funnel structure.
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  22. "Attacked freighter. Sank Truck" Log entry of USS Sea Tiget. Cary Grant commanding.
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  23. Add in Wisconsin vs T-34 in Korea.
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  24. One of the few times he made sense
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  25. The Athenian Naval Treaty attempted to limit the number of oarsmen and the size of bronze rams. But everybody cheated. Plus they were confused by Kamchatka steaming around aimlessly looking for torpedo boats.
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  26. I'm sure that someone else has likely pointed this out but the F4F was one of TWO fighters that served from 41 to 45. There were other types that served through the same period.
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  27.  @patchouliknowledge4455  And the Fletcher that did not meet specifications and was a bastard build. USS FitzFletcher
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  28. Their support and ammunition ship would be HMS Rock Quarry
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  29. Can also be stated as 1) You aren't where you think you are. 2) The enemy isn't where you think he is. 3) Your met data is a wet finger stuck up into the breeze. 4) And finally your men on the range finders all need their eyes examined.
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  30. Imagine a lad that goes to sea to escape mucking out the stables. And he gets stuck on a horse carrier shoveling ........
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  31. USS Essex l, ll, lll etc USS Fletcher l, ll.......MMMCCCCCXXXII....... LSTs. Send the production order to Ford
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  32. The big factor in improved performance was the engines. More power and improved reliability. I often wonder just why the RN used a mix of radial and inline liquid cooled engines up through WWll. Radials without enough power for home grown fighters? The Bristol Hercules should have been sufficient. But the Fleet Air Arm being hamstrung by the RAF likely did not help. For US Navy fighters the R-2800 was a godsend. Used in both the Hellcat, later Bearcat and Corsair.
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  33. The photo of what l believe is Wisconsin moored next to the raised hull of Oklahoma speaks by volumes. Battledhips post WWll certainly could have been improved but would still have been vunerable to not only aircraft but the pace of technology. Improved ordinance. Homing torpedoes. Attack aircraft operating at higher speeds. And ultimately nuclear weapons. Their time as naval offensive weapons against naval targets had passed. Their employment against land targets as artillery platforms could be performed by smaller ships and they would always be range limited.
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  34. One needs to put the proper spin on it.
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  35. Away from the major cities in the upper midwest and the great lakes people usually are very nice and polite. We might be a little stand-offish with strangers but that's only because you might be from Chicago
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  36. It's not just the Black Sea that has ancient settlements hiding in its depths. When Bob Ballard was doing a project for National Geographic on the sunken British and French warships off of Anzac Cove (Gallipoli) they accidently discovered a number of circular stone structures up to about 30 meters in diameter iirc. They varied in size. All of them featured an entrance at one point and a central taller stone structure in the center. I wonder if these may actually of been some type of communal dwelling. The central pillar would provide support for roof beams which would also sit on the outer wall on the other end. Then roof the structure with thatch. The area was last above water at least 8k years ago. Plus I would think they were abandoned long before they were submerged unless they went underwater during the melt water pulses a the end of the last Glacial Advance*. *I won't say at the end of the last Ice Age because we are technically still inan Ice Age and have been for millions of years. We just see periodic warm periods in between glacial advances. As to the causes of the glacial advances there are the Melenkovick Cycles but another contributing factor is probably the rise of the Panama Isthmus and the blocking of circulation between the Atlantic and Pacific of warm surface water.
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  37. A running theme in these sorry incidents is that is the crews that pay the price. The boneheaded idiot is merely getting his just reward. The only good thing about the Scilly* disaster is it ultimately gave us chronometers. And as for ridiculous names there are a series of books recounting the fiction adventures of Amelia Pezbody Emerson and her husband Egyptologist Radcliffe Emerson. There is one recurring character with a thoroughly ridiculous name connected to British intelligence. Author Elizibeth Peter's (Barbara Mertz) *given the pronunciation I've usually heard the whole was not silly at all.
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  38. And make sure to wear your coconut bussoms Classical reference
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  39. A new school of thought coming out of France. If one simply puts the most luxurious hotels possible to sea the enemy will feel the immediate urge to drop all hostile activity and check in for a spa day. Then you escort them to their 4 star accomadations in the ships brig. For the British one must never conduct gunnery practice as it musses the paintwork. Simply won't do old chap.
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  40. Shooting was too good for them
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  41. "after charging into melee range" On fire and taking water having already used your fire suppression and damage control and are on cool down.
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  42. ​ @roykliffen9674  In the US the Coast Guard likely had more boarding party experience than the USN at that time.
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  43.  @IO-hh2fz  If the RN had been in that position the Argentines never would have acted
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  44. Well if they survived into the 1840s it would be likely.
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  45. The winner of that year's Upper Middle Class Twit of the Year Award
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  46. The Swordfish. The worlds first prop driven swing wing aircraft 😊
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  47. Here a gun, there a gun, everybody gets a gun, on Old McNavy's farm
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  48.  @rogersmith7396  The DOD also decided to eliminate the chroming in the chamber
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  49. I'd say one of the two best aviation guys at least from the history aspect. Greg's Planes and Automobiles goes much deeper into the technical details especially on the engine side.
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  50. Dear Mrs Bomb Defusal Drone; It is my regret to inform you that your it* suffered a RUD** while performing his duty in the general location of the Baltic Sea. He bore the best traditions of the service until his end Regretfully; Marvin Martian, General, Looney Tunes ace Force *would it really be fair to use his preferred pronoun as it was unknown **RUD, in SpaceX terms Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly
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