Comments by "" (@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684) on "County class - Guide 115" video.

  1. My father (Ldg/st KX 108902 Stanley Higgins) was a stoker onboard HMS Dorsetshire From June 1940 until her sinking in April 1942. During the final Bismarck action on 27th May 1941, he was off watch from his stoker's station in the boiler rooms, and was at his action station in a damage control party. Part way through the action he was told by the party leader to go "up top" to see what was happening, and he witnessed the flaming, smoke shrouded wreck of Bismarck being pounded before its sinking. After being stood down from action stations, all available hands were called to "man the sides" and help in the rescue of the Bismarck's survivors. he took part in the rescues, and during his assistance, one particular survivor called Friedrich Junghans, gave dad his "erkennungsmarke" or ID tag in gratitude. It is currently on display in the Merseyside maritime museum in Liverpool, UK. 11 months later on 5th April 1942, at the time of Dorsetshire's own sinking, he was again very luckily off-watch from the boiler rooms ("lucky" as no-one on duty there survived the sinking) and was again called to action stations, at this time he was a leader of a damage control party up near the Dorsetshire's bows adjacent to the ships "paint locker". Very shortly after the commencement of the Japanese air attack, all comms in the ship were lost, though it was all too apparent that Dorsetshire was receiving a heavy pounding, with the ship heeling over and quaking from the impact of the Japanese bombs and the many near misses. During the chaos and din of the Japanese dive bombing attack, one concussion dislodged a length of heavy suction hose from a bracket on the compartment's bulkhead, the heavy, solid hose, known as an "elephant's foot", hit dad on the head, knocking him senseless for several seconds. On regaining his wits in the now blacked out darkness of the compartment, sensing that the ship was starting to list heavily, he ordered the party to get on the upper deck via a ladder leading to the "bosun's hatch" in the compartment roof. The first man up the ladder shouted that he couldn't unlatch the hatch "dogs". and dad used a crowbar to release the latches and the party crawled out into the burning sunlight on the rapidly inclining foredeck. One party member, a South African named David van Zyl, confided to dad that he couldn't swim and despite desperate pleas from dad for him to jump overboard, he tragically went down with the ship, the rest of the party all survived. The two cruisers each had a complement of approx 650-700 men on board. After both were sunk, only one intact lifeboat remained afloat from the two ships, This was used to hold the many severely injured sailors while the less heavily wounded and healthy (including my dad), had to cling to assorted flotsam. The sinkings took place at around 2:00pm on a sunday afternoon, they floated through the first night, and right through the following Monday, suffering horrible burns under the tropical sun whilst being crusted in salt from the seawater, dad said the saving grace was the men slathered themselves in thick oil from the sunken ships fuel tanks which began to surface a couple of hours after the ships had gone down, this gave some protection and relief, but they all increasingly believed that in their exhausted state that they were to die during that second night. The British Eastern fleet commander was aware that the two ships were overdue and mercifully sent a light cruiser and 2 destroyers to make a sweep. But it was a Fairey Swordfish from Ceylon that spotted a reflection of the rays of the dying sun on a biscuit tin that had been tied to an oar and held upright being rotated by a man in the boat full of wounded. A message was sent from the aircraft and shortly before sunset, the 3 ships (HMS Emerald, Panther & Paladin) arrived on the scene and rescued 1120 sailors from the approximately 1400 men who were on this ships before their sinking, after having spent 33 hours clinging to wreckage. He "Crossed the bar" in 2013 aged 93. Great vid as usual from your channel, all the best.
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  2.  @sirderam1  HMS Dorsetshire. Also read the KTB (war diary) of U-74 whose captain Kpt Lt Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat, clearly states that he was in the area and even viewed British warships through his scope. But thank you for your honest words concerning the treatment of the Bismarck survivors once onboard Dorsetshire. They were provided with 3 meals a day, rum, cigarettes and even sweets by the crew. One of the survivors who was brought on board with a severely wounded arm was operated on hours after his rescue, but died the following morning. He was buried at sea and afforded full military honours by the Captain and crew of Dorsetshire, his name was Gerhard Lüttich and he was commited to the deep from under the flag of the Imperial Kaiserliche Marine as there was no nazi flag in Dorsetshire's flag lockers. This was agreed to by the senior Bismarck survivor Burkhard von Müllenheim-Rechberg. All the best.
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  3. Gee whizz... a depth charge that size would snap the ship in two if she wasn't careful. I do believe its some form of life preservation, much like what are used on modern ships, but admittedly I've never noticed them before. Well spotted.
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  4. HMS Enterprise, which helped pick up the survivors of the county class cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire.
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  5. She bloody well should be, seeing as she displaced TWICE as much as the Counties, though she still only sported 8 x 8in guns and had no speed advantage over them either. I'd prefer to say she was more inefficiently designed than the counties.
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