Comments by "" (@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684) on "Extra History" channel.

  1. Unfortunately Piorun did NOT fire "everything she had" She was the only one of the 5 destroyers (HMS Cossack, Maori, Piorun, Sikh & Zulu) of the 4th destroyer flotilla that forgot to fire her main weapon, her torpedoes. Hats off to the Poles though for their eagerness to avenge their country's oppression.
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  2.  @thecreature916  The other four RN destroyers of the 5th flotilla (HMS Cossack, Maori, Sikh & Zulu) were too busy firing their main weapon at Bismarck (their 5 x 21 in torpedoes) to be signalling to the target.
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  3. Yes how DARE the Royal Navy sink a ship that had been tasked with wiping out unarmed international merchant shipping !!!!
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  4. Unfortuntely you're wrong. In May 1941 the world's largest operational battle ship was the Bismarck. The Yamato (& not the Japanese Admiral you've named above) was sat in a fitting out basin at the Kure Shipyard in Japan with half of her systems unfitted at the time these events were taking place. She was not commisioned until Dec 1941 when she joined the Japanese 1st battleship division. You can now consider yourself better informed.
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  5. Complete bollocks. Bismarck's crew actually scuttled a 51000 ton mountain of sinking, flaming scrap metal. All guns silenced, her superstructure devastated, her main armour belt broken and penetrated in several places, her command staff obliterated, internally aflame from end to end, her stern and port gunwales already underwater, a thousand of her crew dead, and further hundreds of her crew already in the water behind her.... All the scuttling did was to sink her a few minutes earlier than was already happening. In the world of boxing the crew's scuttling efforts are what is known as "throwing in the towel", submission of a boxer AFTER he has been punched senseless by a more skillful & powerful opponent, and only a deluded child would say, "the victor didn't win, his opponent gave in before he lost.", when the truth is the loser had his arse ripped off and handed back to him on a plate.
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  6. Please remember that other fairy stories are also available.
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  7. Not at the time of these events it wasn't. When Bismarck was patrolling the North Atlantic in May 1941, Yamato was sat in a fitting out basin in Kure shipyards in Japan, without her guns and a large part of her systems fitted. She was commisioned into the IJN in Dec 1941 6 months after these events. Therefore at the time these events took place Bismarck WAS the largest operational battleship in the world.
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  8. In May 1941 Bismarck was indeed the world's largest operational battleship. Yamato was at that time sitting in a fitting out basin in Kure shipyard in Southern Japan, minus half of her systems, and was not commisioned into service until December 1941.
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  9.  @matteodebelser1025  Yamato was far from completed in May 1941, and Bismarck WAS the world's largest battleship by displacement at the time these events were taking place.
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  10. Not in May 1941 they weren't.
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  11. To be precise, at the time of the events that this video describe Bismarck WAS the largest battleship in the world. Yamato was still in the dockyard being built.
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  12.  @Il_Principessa  Why would the RN dispatch a sub which is both slower and with less visual range than a surface ship to look for the "needle in the haystack"? The RN WAS the master of the world's oceans... the fact we controlled a GLOBAL empire with the world's largest navy attested to that. Apart from the USN and IJN there was no navy in the world that could challenge its pre-eminence at that time.
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  13. That would have been sunk as well.
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  14. They should have added the word "operational" to make the statement 100%% correct.
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  15. In May 1941 neither of the ships you mention were completed. So as "operational battleships" they were "jokes".
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  16. A very good introduction to the subject for those unfamiliar with the story. Those who wish to will read and view further to build up a more complete picture.
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  17. At the time these events were taking place, (May 1941) Bismarck WAS the largest operational battleship in the world. At the same time Yamato was sat in a "fitting out" basin in Kure Shipyards in Southern Japan without her main guns and many of her subsystems still unfitted. She only became operational in Dec 1941.
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  18.  @matteodebelser1025  Well if you're not bothered about the time element of history, forget Yamato.... The US Gerald R Ford class aircraft carriers are over 30,000 tons heavier than her.
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  19. At the time of its sinking it was the largest (by displacement) operational warship in the world.
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  20. Such is the way of humanity. Read about the Mongol, Khmer, Chinese, Malian, Aztec, Incan empires etc, and see how they too coveted their neighbours lands and resources over the millenia, and you'll also find that none of them were European.
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  21. But "She" suffices for 99.9% of the English speaking population.
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  22. And was still sat in the Kure shipyard uncompleted when these events were taking place.
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  23. the second one. Yamato wasn't operational until Dec 1941. (PS Isoroku Yamamoto was an admiral of the IJN)
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  24. In truth the 3 survivors rescued from Hood all stated afterwards that they saw no other men in the water before their rescue.
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  25. Complete bollocks. Bismarck's crew actually scuttled a 51000 ton mountain of sinking, flaming scrap metal. All guns silenced, her superstructure devastated, her main armour belt broken and penetrated in several places, her command staff obliterated, internally aflame from end to end, her stern and port gunwales already underwater, a thousand of her crew dead, and further hundreds of her crew already in the water behind her.... All the scuttling did was to sink her a few minutes earlier than was already happening. In the world of boxing the crew's scuttling efforts are what is known as "throwing in the towel", submission of a boxer AFTER he has been punched senseless by a more skillful & powerful opponent, and only a deluded child would say, "the victor didn't win, his opponent gave in before he lost.", when the truth is the loser had his arse ripped off and handed back to him on a plate.
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  26. What about the Glasgow street sweeper who lost his only son on the Hood? Or the Young wife from Liverpool with a young family to bring up alone, who lost her husband on the same ship? Or any of the other 1415 families who suffered the same grievous tragedy? ALL individual tragedies.
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  27. Your problem is that you seem to have utterly NO understanding of the enormity of the world's oceans. Try looking for a single "needle" of a ship in a 41 million square mile "haystack" of the North Atlantic ocean in the age before GPS, "over the horizon" radar and long range aircraft reconnaisance, and you'll understand why is was so difficult to find ships. If you look at a reasonably sized map of the Atlantic, then place a ball point pen "dot" in the middle of the ocean, that dot will give you a reasonable appreciation of the range of visual search from a ship in the world's seas.
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  28. I think you mean Mr Briggs was invited to take part in the programme, rather than the idea that he "kept showing up for TV interviews every time a new hour documentary was being produced".
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  29. At the time of its sinking Bismarck was the largest battleship in the world. Yamato which was the largest battleship of the entire war was not operational until 7 months after Bismarck's sinking.
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  30. No, you'll find that the Maharajahs and Mughals of India profitted handsomely from selling their subjects into British slavery.
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  31. And beyond "lies and BS" there is lack of knowledge. Yamato was not completed at the time of these events. If you're going to ignore the timeline then forget about Yamato, the US Aircraft carrier "USS Gerald R Ford" commisioned 5 years ago weighs in at over 100,000 tons.
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  32.  @ybet1000  It appears you're unaware of how ships are constructed, let me fill you in. A ship's hull is first completed and then launched to allow the shipyard to then use the slipway to start the construction of the next ship to be built (hence the "Launch date"). The hull that has been launched (without any superstructure or systems), is then manoeuvred by tugs into a "fitting out basin" where the rest of the ship is then built. So in the case of Yamato, her hull was launched in August 1940 (without her superstructure and guns), and she was finally completed and handed over to the IJN in Dec 1941, 7 months after Bismarck had been sunk.
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  33. Facts really are a problem for you aren't they? How's your Veyron with no engine, transmission or wheels?
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  34.  @poketuber2261  I take it as implicit that it means "at that time", but reasonable to believe that others who don't know the timeline could take it to mean "of all time". Call it a "score draw" eh? :)
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  35. I think the writers got a bit "carried away" themselves when they wrote that. You're right in saying Bismarck's 15in APC shells weighed 1,764 lbs. (800 kg), and Prinz Eugen's HE shells (which she fired right the way through the Denmark Strait engagement) weighed 269 lbs. (122 kg) possible to lift, but they would never have penetrated the armour surrounding PoW's magazines. The Germans also used their secondary weapons systems for part of the engagement, but once again they would not have the penetrating power to land in one of PoW's magazines.
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  36. Sad EMBRYONIC Yamato noises.
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  37. Whole story was a figment of the imagination of drunken Portsmouth sailors.
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  38. Wrong on BOTH accounts.
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  39. Aye, you're far better off learning history by reading and watching widely, than merely relying on the agenda filled syllabus now followed in western schools. Keep up the good work.
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  40. No.... the Fairey Swordfish were flying in thick cloud and the USCG Modoc was detected as a radar return by the Fairey Swordfish's pioneering airborne search radar. The squadron commander dropped below cloud cover to identify the contact, and correctly observed it was a neutral US ship, and therefore no attack was launched on it at all, but while he ID'ed the US ship he was spotted by Bismarck's crew which was only a few miles away and thereby lost the element of surprise in the subsequent Swordfish attack on Bismarck.
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  41. Not operational or even completed in May 1941.
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  42. The pilot you're referring to was Lt Cmd John Moffat, who because of his Scottish heritage was known as "Jock".
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  43. More gushing nonsense. Here's the real story. ORP Piorun was one of the 5 ships of the RN's 4th Destroyer Flotilla, the other British ships being HMS Cossack, Maori, Sikh & Zulu. The commander of the flottilla was Captain Philip Vian. On discovering that contact had been temporarily lost with Bismarck, Vian ordered his 5 destroyers to "fan out" and search for her. Purely by chance Piorun's search "finger" crossed Bismarck's path first. Ignoring Vian's orders to wait for all 5 to make a co-ordinated attack together, Piorun charged in alone to take part in a gun duel with Bismarck, Piorun's six 4.7 inch guns Vs Bismarck's eight 15 and twelve 6 inchers, Whilst simultaneously flashing its now famous signal "I AM A POLE". After Bismarck landed a couple of main gun straddles close to Piorun, Piorun withdrew and managed to lose contact with Bismarck, taking no further part in the action that carried on through the night of 26/27th May. Luckily the other 4 ships of the flotilla (Cossack, Maori, Sikh & Zulu) had now made it to the scene and then engaged Bismarck in unison, also with their 4.7 inch guns, but with the added tactic of synchronised torpedo attacks (Which Piorun had forgotten to use). In the rapidly falling light and difficult sea conditions the torpedo attacks are not thought to have landed any hits, but as you say the 4 remaining ships of the flotilla did engage Bismarck all night, and exhaust her crew.... while Piorun remained out of contact.
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  44. P.S HMS Cossack was sunk by a U-boat in Oct 1941, HMS Maori was sunk during axis air attacks on Valletta harbour in Malta in Feb 1942, While both HMS Sikh & Zulu were sunk by coastal artillaery during a commando raid on Tobruk in the Mediterranean in Sept 1942. Life on a WW2 destroyer was a dangerous affair.
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  45. Yes, a 51000 ton "wotan" steel pinata !!!
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  46. Yamato was not finished at the time of these events.
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  47.  @Random-CanadianStuff  Yamato was officially commisioned in Dec 1941.
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  48. Bletchley Park was FAR more than Alan Turing.
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  49. No, at the time this was happening the US Government was happy sitting on the side lines making MASSIVE profits by providing good and services to both sides, while her no 1 global competitor continued to bleed herself dry in single-handedly opposing European totalitarianism.
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  50.  @GhettoSmoshFan420  Calm down? what ARE you on about?
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