Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Drachinifel"
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@fortusvictus8297 Firstly, thanks for your service. The US has always been the best fed country in the world, in war or peace. One hand, it's a matter of luck that we can grow about any kind of food the exists on the face of the earth, but is also something that many successive governments have understood - that a well fed people are also generally contented people. A full belly tends to quench a lot of revolutionary thoughts.
When my dad's squadron was in New Guinea, many of the advance bases were run by the Australian Navy. I don't know if it was a matter of wartime shortages or just the need to ship as much food as they could to the mother country, but Australian rations tended to be less in quantity and calories than what the Americans got. The rations were also less diverse and more monotonous, with many of the Aussie complaining they were right sick of a constant diet of canned lamb, bully beef, and biscuits. The K rations generally had some small cans of fruit, usually peaches or pears. By 1943, it had been years since the average Aussie had seen canned fruit except maybe for the holidays. Tobacco of any kind, and cigarettes in particular, were not only had to get, but Australian sailors had to buy their own at the canteen, when there was one at a base. They were eating dinner with sailors from an Australian minesweeper, and they refused to believe American sailors got free cigarettes withe every meal until one of our guys opened up a K ration and showed them. Now, one thing the Aussies tended to get in abundance was beer, something US sailors were only rarely allowed to get in the war zone. As you might imagine, that set up some pretty active bartering for cigarettes, canned fruit, and beer. The Aussies did have two other things Americans wanted - tea and blackcurrant jam. US rations never had tea, amd Australian rations almost never had coffee. Those that favored the non-available drink on either side set up a pretty active bartering market. Some sailors seem to develop an almost unnatural craving for Australian blackcurrant jam. I've never had it, but my dad described as the best thing on a biscuit he ever had. He didn't smoke much, so he bartered away many a pack of smokes for some of that jam.
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@stanleyrogouski I don't know about the last time, but Jones was in command of a force in the Russo-Turkish war when kept the Turkish navy near Ochakov on the run and provided shore bombardment for the invasion of Kinbern and laid siege to Ochakov. He was under Admiral Potemkin's command, and Potemkin and other Russian admirals feared Jones was going to rise in command, given his known abilities and the rumor that he and Catherine II had more than a professional relationship, if you catch my drift. Potemkin was constantly sending back action reports with filled with lies about Jones's supposed cowardice in the face of the Turks. He was finally recalled to Moscow under the pretext of being transferred to the Baltic Fleet when, in reality, he was put in a staff position Potemkin knew he would hate. Even though Jones was awarded the Order of St. Anne in June, 1788, he knew he was being forced out, and returned to Paris just before Christmas of the same year. He learned his lesson about serving in a foreign fleet from this, turning down the offer of command of the French revolutionary fleet in 1790.
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Although the USN has officially been "dry" from 1914 to 1980, sailors are still sailors. Even ignoring the proliferation of "torpedo juice" stills, some skippers were very creative about sneaking beer and wine onboard and using the medicinal alcohol supply for purposes other than those intended. Eugene Fluckey, captain of the USS Barb, was famous for finding places in the limited confines of his sub for 30 or so cases of beer, with each man getting one beer after a significant sinking and two beers for Christmas and Fourth of July. Even though Fluckey was the subject of several investigations for his violation of Navy alcohol rules, it was a tribute to the love of his men for their skipper that not one officially admitted to ever having alcohol onboard until after the retirement of Admiral Fluckey in 1972.
The USN did allow alcohol after the end of Federal prohibition in 1933, but only on shore. This was originally at the navy clubs on base. The Pacific war was such that many ships didn't see a proper Navy base of periods of a year or more. The rules were bent by having "recreation days" on various semi-deserted tropical islands, and one of the main attractions, in addition to swimming and baseball, was two warm beers per visit. Navy Secretary Edward Hidalgo finally allowed crews in 1980 to have two beers on board after 45 continuous days at sea. This decision was supposedly prompted by Hidalgo's experience as a young officer on the USS Enterprise. A kamikaze attack on May 14, 1945 destroyed the whole task force's supply of beer. While the attack itself was a blow to morale, that only increased when word of the destruction of the beer supply began to spread. Only an emergency run by a Navy transport put things to right before the next recreation day.
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While the crews of British submarines suffered greatly from heat of the Indian and Pacific oceans, the biggest issue was the buildup of humidity and consequent buildup of condensation on the hull interior. This caused drips and streams of water to run down the surface of every space while the boats were submerged. This had a disastrous effect on the electrical and electronic equipment onboard in the days of everything being tube (valve) operated, especially in the later stage of the was as things like radar, radios, jammers, and sonars. The moisture even got into periscopes, making them almost useless until they could be dried out with time on the surface. The Amphion class finally solved the problem with effective air conditioning, but only two were completed in time for Pacific service. The time and expense put into the design of the boats served the RN well postwar, with the Amphions being the equivalent of the USN Gato class in long service, some being modernized rather like the GUPPY program, and the last not being decommissioned until 1974.
The importance of air conditioning in tropical waters was well demonstrated by the experience of the HMS Turbulent in the Indian Ocean in 2011. The boat was running on the surface in 120 degree air temperatures when the air conditioning failed due to the intakes being clogged with large numbers of crabs and barnacles. Repair crews were unable to clear the intakes because the hull was too hot to touch. The only fresh air ventilation possible was the two hull hatches since nuclear subs are almost completely sealed vessels. The crew was progressively getting sicker due to heat exhaustion when the captain decided the only answer was to dive into cooler waters at 200 feet until the hull and interior cooled to manageable levels, allowing the intakes to be cleared.
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tamenga88 It was only the propellant charges that were hand carried from the lift. The projectiles were loaded and rammed automatically. The problem with the Worcester's guns was the dual lifts for AP AA rounds. The plan was the turret crew could quickly switch from on type to another as the situation demanded. The design of the loading machinery placed the two so close together that a call for one type of projectile could sometimes cause the other to roll into the loading tray, thereby causing a jam and stoppage. These jams weren't easy to clear since the automatic rammer would jam on both projectiles, and the turret had to be shut down until the jam was cleared. Only having one loading machine with projectiles solved that issue as a workaround, but Worcester off Korea faced an air threat while doing shore bombardment. Then both type of projectiles had to be kept loaded in the trays so the jamming problem came back.
Any other light cruiser, British or American, would have performed better than Worcester fore shore bombardment because they didn't have DP guns. Worcester's guns were accurate, but the jamming with two loaders in use dropped her actual ROF to about half of cruisers like Belfast. Even with the great size of Worcester (larger than a Baltimore class heavy cruiser), there still wasn't room to accommodate automatic loaders without interference. The British ran into the same problem with their Mark N5 gun on the Blake and Tiger, even though the largest turret with widest gun separation possible was installed. It seems the six inch gun was one size too much for a reliable automatic DP mounting. These problems could have been worked out, as seen with the excellent 8"/55 automatic guns on the Des Moines class, but they were too expensive and required too much manpower for a role that was seen as obsolete.
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@neniAAinen The infrastructure problem in the French navy was constant design revisions that put them far behind the curve even before new ships were launched. There was nothing more restrictive about Normandie than there was about USS Nevada . Both were designed and laid down at about the same time. BOth were almost identical in dimensions and tonnage. Normandie was the last battleship to have submerged torpedo tubes, and would have been the only battleships that had the odd combination of turbines and triple expansion power plants. In service, it's doubtful this maintenance nightmare of a power plant would have given Normandie more range than _Nevada_, and her top speed was theoretically identical.
They had 13.4" guns at the time other navies had already switched to 14". They went back and forth constantly between twin, quads, and twin over quad turrets at the same time Nevada had only two less guns but in five turrets, twin over triples. They didn't have to worry about blowing off half the superstructure if they actually fired a full broadside, a distinct possibility when firing on any targets slightly abeam of broadside. There's no reason the French couldn't have also produced 14" guns if they made the decision while she was still in design stage. Her armor scheme was a generation behind when she would have been commissioned, in particular her deck armor. On top of that, she was launched at almost the same time as Nevada but would have taken about two years longer to complete, assuming the schedule was actually adhered to, something not common with French warships. There was nothing incredible about Normandie compared to Nevada . She wasn't any faster, had poorer armor, and poorly distributed main armament. She was defeated by the French navy taking way too long to come up with a final design (and stick to it once they did) and sluggish construction. This only got worse in the interwar period.
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@bushyfromoz8834 You might be thinking of the Neptune. She got herself into an Italian minefield and hit two mines. One caused no material damage, but another struck the bow and almost took it off. She was reversing out of the minefield but struck a third one that blew off her props. While drifting, she struck a fourth mine and capsized almost immediately, taking all but one sailor with her. I don't know of any other Leander class vessel that reversed her way to port though. The HMNZS Leander was hit by a torpedo in July, 1943, just abaft of A boiler room rather than at the bow, but the damage was severe enough that repairs took over two years and were only completed in September, 1945.
All three Australian Leanders suffered bow damage due to torpedo hits in the vicinity of the A turret. It does seem as if the ASDIC compartment and aviation fuel tanks created a weakness in that section of the ship. Sydney and Perth were both lost to torpedo attacks. Perth, however, was hit by four torpedoes, so it's hard to attribute the bow hit alone as being fatal. Hobart was hit by a torpedo in the same area of the bow, but it was just far enough aft that the bow wasn't severed. Only by heroic damage control work was the Hobart able to limp into Espirito Santo for temporary repairs, but she did so bow first. I think it's fair to say that any Leander hit by a torpedo near the A turret was in big trouble.
[Edited for my numerous typos]
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