Youtube hearted comments of Big Blue (@bigblue6917).

  1. A bit of film trivia. The actor who played the captain of the Prince of Wales in the film Sink The Bismarck, Esmond Knight, was a gunnery offices aboard the Prince of Wales and saw Hood explode. Just after that he was wounded by shrapnel which resulted in the permanent lose of sight in one eye but he received a series of treatments from Dr Vincent Nesfield designed to restore sight to his remaining eye. The treatment was a great success, restoring much of Knight's sight in that eye.
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  2. So they did not fly a rocket out of a volcanic crater in Japan and capture it in space. Instead they just borrowed a truck for a few hours. Loses a bit the drama I'd say.
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  3. Some years ago the Royal Navy and the US Navy were taking part in a joint exercise when one RN ship went to refuel with a US ship. The captain of the RN ship got a message from his admiral as to why he was using a US ship and replied that they gave Green Shield Stamps.
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  4. The British man and his shed. Wife: what did you do today, dear. Husband: I was in the shed and I just knocked up a couple of monitors for the Royal Navy. Wife: that's nice dear. Husband: got one up to 8 knots. Surprised all them who were sailing their little boats in the boating pond.
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  5. Antony Preston should have outlined his criteria and then measured his choices against it. Imagine if this had been a thesis he had done for his university. They would have thrown it out so fast it would have burst into flames from the friction with the air.
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  6. Propeller driven aircraft. It's a bit like fashion. If you wait long enough it will come back into vogue.
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  7. One of my late fathers brothers was one of the crew aboard the Norland. Not the first time he'd gone to war as he also served in the merchant navy in WW2 on the Arctic convoys.
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  8. Thanks for the video. I have seen photographs of German tanks after the D-Day bombardment. Sixty ton Tiger tanks laying upside down like they had been thrown around by some giant toddler. Not a place you would have wanted to be at the time.
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  9. A. J. P. Taylor had long argued Hitler was not a mad man for the same reasons you have said. If Hitler had been captured and put on trial his lawyers could have pleaded the Mad Man defence claiming he was not responsible for his actions.
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  10. I used to know someone who was the missile operator in the British Armies Westland Scout helicopter. He said that to operate the anti-tank missiles he had to lay down and look through small window below the main window. The helicopter would be flying around at below treetop hight before popping up to fire it's missile and then back down again to fly to the next fire point. All was fine until he had to return to his seat and suddenly the motion sickness kicked in. Sometime ago I was looking at a number of photograph which showed a number of Soviet Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopters in Afghanistan. They all had the camouflage and markings of the Soviet armed forces, except for one. It had the camouflage and marking of the East German military. How and why it was there I do not know as the text and caption did not even mention this helicopters, just the they were Russian helicopters. One possibility is that losses were such that they had to get helicopters from East Germany and had not had time to change them.
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  11. At Jutland. Every captain on both side. 'So, how do we get hold of the Maori kit then.
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  12. I had read about the battle before and I seem to remember watching a documentary about it. But I very much enjoyed hearing about it again. Two of my late fathers old brothers sailed on those Arctic convoys. Not a place I'd choose to be. To the best of my knowledge neither of them was torpedoed. The irony here is that my fathers eldest brother was and he was in the army on a troop ship.
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  13. Interesting about pre WW1 colour schemes. Prior to WW1 the Great Eastern Railway, which covered East Anglia, painted its passenger locomotives royal blue. But when war broke out this colour was no longer available because it was being used by the Royal Navy. So all locomotive were painted what could be described as battleship grey. You would have thought that is the colour the navy would have used to camouflage their ships but no. Having said that there is no record of a German warship firing on an Great Eastern locomotive, so as a camouflage scheme it did work.
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  14. Bit of an upgrade from a 6 pounder on the back of a truck in North Africa in WW2.
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  15. I think it's good idea. You use the right tools for the job. Interesting that they brought back the Bronco as it served in a similar role in Vietnam. Back in the 80's the British looked at making a turboprop aircraft to deal with the huge fleets of helicopters used by the Russians. The Russians planned to use them to drop troops and light attack vehicles behind NATO lines so this aircraft would have dealt with them. It would have been a canard configuration for manoeuvrability with a rear mounted engine. It would have carried a gatling gun in the nose and a number of short range air-to-air missiles under the wings. One interesting point was that they planned to use the same wing shape as the Spitfire.
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  16. Looks like the plans for at least three different aircraft which got mixed up.
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  17. Interesting that it was a Maryland which first reported the deparcher of the Bismarck. When the British Royal Navy lost contact with her later it was a Catalina which found her again. This time the American connection was even closer as the man who spotted the Bismarck, the pilot of the Catalina, was an American. As America was still technically neutral at this time this was not mentioned until much later.
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  18. Okay. I knew about this one as I used to work at the Blackburn factory, though by then it was Britsh Aerospace, and they had a model of it on display in the reception area. If those hangers behind are at Blackburn's then I worked in one of them.
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  19. In WW1 the Royal Navy mounted some of their guns on railway carriages and used them on the Western Front. But after a while they were "gifted" to the British Army, much to their displeasure as they did not wont them either. In 1918 two 14 inch guns were mounted on rail carriages to be used in the 100 Days campaign which would see Germany surrender. The two guns were operated by 471 Siege Battery and were known as "HM Gun Boche Buster", operating near Arras with First Army, and "HM Gun Scene Shifter", operating near Bethune with Fifth Army. King George V personally oversaw the firing of the first shell by Boche Buster and the first shell fired from it heavily damaged a railway junction at Douai and became known as "The King's Shot"
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  20. It also looks like a nearby warehouse also got flattened and the cranes next to the Novocherkassk were also damaged.
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  21. Something for your next Alternative History. I have a scenarios with regards Midway and Hawaii. Firstly Attack Pearl Harbour as before, this time making sure they destroy the fuel storage tanks. Then fall back on Midway to support the invasion forces. The advantage of this is that the US Navy is going to have to sort out its ships before it can intervene and without fuel it is not going to be able to go very far. You could put a submarine screen between Midway and Hawaii to act as an early warning for the carriers ind any ships trying to intervene. Then after the Japanese take Midway it can then be used it as a jumping off point for Hawaii. This would have put Hawaii in range for an invasion fleet and with many US Navy ships out of commission or possibly having to pull back to the mainland there would be less opposition. Japanese submarines positioned to the east of Hawaii could deal with any warship coming or going with a priority in sinking tankers. Then the third stage would be the invasion of Hawaii. The advantage with this scenario is you will not need to split your forces as at the Battle of Midway. Yes it will be in two parts initially but the attack on Midway will involve all of the forces as no diversion would be needed. Done quickly enough there would be little time for the US forces to recover from the attack on Pearl Harbour. Though it would be a major commitment from Japanese forces it would prove much harder for America to be the threat it became to Japan.
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  22. You know when your hide is good when someone pisses into you hide and not know your there.
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  23. In the paining it looks to me like the woman is holding a book of matches. This would go with the fact that the man next to her is holding an unlit cigarette. Possibly this shows that she has what he needs but she is not providing it.
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  24.  @billdyke9745  As you have just confessed to wearing flares on YouTube I think your task of destroying the evidence may not be as successful as you believe 🤔
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  25. Between Stalingrad and the final surrender of Axis forces in North Africa Germany lost some half a million men. Not a good year for the Axis. Merry Christmas Mark and everyone else here😀🎅
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  26. British railways also preferred South Wales coal for the same reasons.
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  27.  @EdNashsMilitaryMatters  Wrangler flares and a Ben Sherman shirt. Those were the days. They had Sweet playing Ballroom Blitz on the film Suicide Squad, the only good thing in the film, so maybe time for flare to return.
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  28. The migration theory is the most likely as it was a common practise during this period. The feelings of tragedy may well be because, unlike today, those that left would often never be seen again. So people may have been expressing their lose of loved ones. When people started migrating from Europe to America similar feeling were felt by both sides as there was every likelihood neither would see the other ever again. So parting was often felt more like a bereavement. So it is quite possible that this concentration on the loss has grown out of proportion and distorted what actually happened.
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  29. The number of people killed or wounded by a bayonet is tiny. Something like 0.01% of all casualties are caused by bayonets. And that has not changed since the American Civil War. Soldier prefer to shoot the enemy because it's safer then trying to stab them with a bayonet. For one thing they may well be trying to kill you at the same time. In WW1 when the British Troops were ordered to fix bayonets and charge the enemy but most would sooner shoot them instead.
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  30. Thank you for the video. Very enjoyable and informative as always. One idea put forward for Johnny only earning a penny a day was that he was on a piece-rate and so he only earned a penny because, as it says, he could not work any fast.
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  31. I forgot to mention that many Neolithic longbarrow burial mounds had a large bowl placed inside them. When the residue in the bowl was tested they found it had been full of mead
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  32. Congratulation's on reaching 40K It is very well deserved. You listened to your audience and gave us what we asked for. What more can we do but watch your excellent videos. I think one of the other factors here is that there is a very good audience all willing to chip in and add what they know. It feels like a group of like minded people. Always enjoyable to read the comments.
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  33. Died drinking the water of life. Made me laugh. In September we are going on holiday which will include a trip to Holy Island where I plan to make a small detour to Lindisfarne Mead. And as it is my birthday a week later I am sure some of the mead will be consumed in celebration.
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  34. I enjoy watching this channel because so often Mark fills in details to events I was aware of but not in detail. But now and again he brings out a little gem, like this one, to which I am very pleasantly surprised. I am aware that the Germans managed to get various groups, sometimes antagonistic to each other, to fight for them. But I was not aware of them mutinying against the Germans. So definitely a first today. Thanks.
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  35. I did read that the problem with the USAF not having guns on their fighter jets was due to the Top Brass being ex WW2 bomber crewmen with no understanding about dogfighting. This was also why fighter pilots were allotted such little time for training in dogfighting. And why, despite having an F for fighter designation, the F-105 is nothing more then a glorified high speed bomber. I understand that the late General Robin Olds had a number of run-ins with the Top Brass because they thought the days of the dogfighter were over.
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  36. I understand the Russians had a secure phone called Era. This would help them talk to each other without being listened in on. The reason it is not working is because they destroyed the Ukrainian phone masts which they needed for their phones. The latest death of a Russian general was discovered on an expletive laden call between two people from the FSB. Which was not secure. Do they have a WhatsApp group do you think. A US expert has been looking at photographs and footage of the Russian trucks which have flat tyres. From what he has said the problem comes about because the trucks have not been moved for a long time which means that with the heat from the Sun and other weather factors has made the tyres fragile and subject to splitting. He believes these trucks have not been moved for a year.
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  37. Yes I also did a double take and wondered what had happened. Having done a one hour plus you went all giddy and tried to repeat this feat. Pity you ran out of steam at the end, need of a boiler refit I think. Having said that another 43 seconds would have given you a double ton. 👍
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  38. To paraphrase the Ford motor car myth, You can have any colour submarine you like as long as it's black
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  39. The Late Great Planet Earth and The Man Who Saw Tomorrow probably influenced the writers of the British TV comedy Whoops Apocalypses which starred, amongst others, John Cleese.
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  40. A man for whom the phrase 'Happy-Go-Lucky' was never used. I think the notion that he haunted the village because he died unrepentant was wishful thinking. It was not in his nature and he would never have repented even if he had the chance. I wold have buried him face-down. Give him a good view of where he was going. Interesting about not letting his dead lover be buried. During the Medieval Period there was a French queen who would not let the king be buried when he died. He died in bed laid next to her during the night. She was so distraught that she would remain in bed with him for two years before she was finally persuaded the let him be buried.
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  41. I think they should sue the Devil. It says in the contract that he is supposed to help his own.
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  42. Well it has to happen now and again and I am so very pleased when it does. Mark comes up with one I've not heard of before. And today's the day. Often I have some knowledge of the subject and Mark kindly fills in the missing details. But today it's the whole show. Thanks for that.
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  43. Russia is so great it cannot even get its own gas and oil out of the ground. It needs the 'evil' West to do it for them. And for the record Europe is already made up of countries. I know there has been cutbacks in Russian education, those super yachts don't pay for themselves, but you would think even Russians must know this
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  44. It has recently been discovered that the people who built Stonehenge died out some 4,000 years ago and there is evidence of them having the plague. When three skeletons from that period were examined, two from Somerset and one from Cumbria, it was discovered that there was Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, was in their dental pulp. 4,000 years ago is when the Neolithic ended and the Bronze Age began. There has for sometime been discussions as to whether or not the change to the Bronze Age was due to new ideas being passed on or an invasion of people with new technology, the making of items in bronze for example. It now looks like it was a migration of people from the continent moving into what had become empty lands in Britain. There was also evidence of the plague in England 1,500 years ago. Did anyone see when Covid started a young man who wandered around his village dressed as a plague doctor. Some people were upset by this and someone called the police but the police saw the funny side and he went home to get changed out of his costume.
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  45. I saw the rocket turrets and thought it was something from War Of The Worlds. I was waiting for them to get up and start walking. Like everyone else I have seen the film of the rockets used on D-Day and in the Pacific but the distinction between the different types was not usually explained. o once again Mark has provided important details and added to my knowledge. It is said that the rockets fired by the likes of the Spitfire, Typhoon and Swordfish gave them the equivalent firepower of the broadside from a cruiser. So it looks like each rocket armed landing craft had the firepower of a fleet of cruisers.
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  46. Just watching this and I thought it looked like a giant water tank. Which is somewhat ironic as the name tank came from the code name for the first British tank which was 'water tank for Russia,' which got shortened to just tank. Makes you wonder if the designers of these vehicles had a secret desire to be plumbers.
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  47. Thanks, Mark. Another great video. You have to wonder it these airbases would br so useful to the Japanese why they didn't build their own before the US turned up.
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