Comments by "Keit Hammleter" (@keithammleter3824) on "Not What You Think" channel.

"The US had no titanium." What do you think is used to make white paint white? Titanium has been an important part of jet engines for nearly as long as jets have been made. A major exporter of titanium then was Australia, a close US ally, so the statement that it was obtained from the USSR without the USSR knowing is garbage.
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@evolutionist6654 No, he's right. While it was a very stupid view, the British navy officer class did indeed have the view that the Japanese navy did not amount to much. Just as the British Army thought the Japanese could not take Singapore by coming down over land. And we know how well that turned out. My father served in WW2 in the Army. They were continually told they had nothing much to fear from Japanese soldiers because they only had light weight civilian grade rifles. But if you are shot in the head or chest it doesn't matter what the gun was, you are dead anyway.
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@tonyblakemore3843 On YouTube you can watch old interviews of crew that survived the sinking of Royal Navy ships sunk by the Japanese Navy. A common view they had was that the RN senior officer class thought there was not much danger as the Japanese navy was inferior. Repulse and Prince of Wales actively sort out the Japanese to fight them, whereas it would have been more prudent to keep away until a carrier was available or more forces could be brought to the fight. In this way crew thought they had been dudded by stupid senior officers. There is a difference between having the courage to attack, and attacking in ignorance.
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@lvjinbin28 As far as enlisted men ("other ranks" in British terminology, "grunts" in Australian slang) are concerned, you are completely correct. But the further up the chain of command in the officer ranks you go, it becomes complicated. The more experience the better. But adapting to changing circumstances matters too. The reason the British navy lost so readily to the Japanese navy was overconfidence. But the Japanese navy lost badly against the United States navy - same reason - overconfidence. Looking at it another way, the Japanese navy experience was experience in obsolete concepts. The US Navy had not then fought in a major war, but its highly trained officer core had been rehearsing and trying out new ideas for decades. Until the USAAF destroyed Germany's ability to wage war be destroying oil refineries, etc, Germany did really well in waging war in WW2 - because their officer class was very experienced and because they had plenty of time to absorb new technology and think & test about how modern war should be conducted (eg the use of blitzkreig strategy).
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@GrandaddyO-E14 Well, the perceived needs were determined by Churchill, who just couldn't care what happened in the Pacific Rim. But the important thing was that an aircraft carrier allocated to accompany the Repulse and Renown had, through incompetence, ran aground and had to return to Britain for repairs. Much reduced? I would say - it was reduced to zero when the two ships sent were sunk by the Japanese.
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