Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen - Guide 155" video.

Thanks for covering what's a generally little known class of coastal defense ships. I've always thought they were an attractive looking class, and they gave the Finns the chance to poke the eye of the Russian fleet. It's unfortunate the Russians and Finns couldn't come to an agreement on returning the ship to the Finnish Navy. She, along with the Chinese Zhongshan, would have been the last survivors of a once numerous type. The Väinämöinen and Zhongshan would have been interesting bookends to the nominal type of coastal defence ships. (Edited to correct error in ship names)
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You're right, never noticed that juxtaposition of dates. Just the idea of fighting a war in the Finnish/Russian winter makes me cold.
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@Alpostpone Oops. you're right. I'm not good at keeping Finnish ship names straight. I've edited my comment to get it straight now.
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IvS did play an important role in helping Germany keep up with more modern submarine developments by using this Dutch front corporation. Beyond that, it didn't play any real role in surface ship design. The Project 1047 design did use some of IvS's work. but most of it came from scouring such sources as Jane's Fighting Ships. Given the problems with Dutch light cruiser size ships building 15-20 years late and the difficulties keeping much smaller ships like the Sumatra running, it was probably good thing that the start of the war cut off any more spending on a plan that had very little chance of success. The one area that the 1047 was a real leader in was the use of dual purpose armament and a much more effective light antiaircraft battery. If the ship was built in a timely manner, it would have taken the Japanese longer to sink her, but her sinking would have happned anyway. A lot of money and manpower at the bottom of the sea from a country which couldn't afford the loss of either.
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Good summary, and all true. Coastal defence ships look pretty cool, and it seems like they could have been useful vessels, but very few proved to have any real utility when faced with actual combat, other than a few shore bombardment sorties.
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Yes, due to her slow speed and lack of torpedo tubes, a Fletcher could have dashed in to deliver a torpedo attack and dashed back out before the gunners on the Väinämöinen class ships could have delivered an effective counter attack. Given the results from her sistership hitting a floating mine, the sinking wouldn't have taken long.
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CipiRipi00 Yes, they were the interwar version of HDW, designing submarines for all comers.
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