Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "The Drydock - Episode 091" video.

@kemarisite Indeed, and eventually the Seafire finally gave the RN a modern fighter capable of taking on the Zero and most later fighters. It took quite a while to build up Seafire strength, only finally being speeded up to equip the British Pacific fleet to intercept the expected hordes of kamikaze attackers during the invasion of the Home Islands. Even with its unreinforced narrow track undercarriage, it performed surprisingly well as a naval fighter, only being topped by the excellent Sea Fury, developed just too late for the war. The Corsair was an even better naval fighter, and the Avenger, a better torpedo attack plane than the venerable String Bag, which had very little chance of survival against the better Japanese fighters. Ironically, it was mostly the British demonstration of using the Corsair on even their smaller carriers that finally convinced the USN that the Corsair might also be the war winner that it eventually turned out to be.
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I hope everyone is tolerating their time in prison as well as can be expected. I'm looking forward to a gradual opening up of at least the US economy over the next month. The high here in S Alabama reached 90 yesterday, so maybe the heat will at least make life difficult for the virus. The big issue in using the so-called "Persian Corridor" was expanding the marshalling yard capabilities and then constructing hundreds of miles of double tracks and increased length sidings to haul enough freight to come close to Arctic convoy tonnage, even with all the sinkings. When the British first took over operations of the Trans-Iranian Railway in 1941, the entire line had the capability of moving one 60 car freight train a day. Due to mostly the superhuman efforts of the Royal Engineers, the line was expanded to the point where it was handling up to 10 80 car freights a day. The most important problem once the line itself had sufficient capacity was where were the locomotives and freight cars (wagons) going to come from to move all the freight. Between the British and Americans, over 15,000 freight cars were built, 310 steam engines were constructed or diverted from British and American sources, and over 100 diesel-electric locomotives from the US were supplied for use on the difficult northern division. It was an engineering wonder, going over three mountain ranges, through 100 tunnels, with blasting heatmost of the year, and very little water. Diesel operations on the Trans-Iranian proved the efficiency and economy of the internal combustion engine. While this was great for the war effort, it was also the beginning of the end for our beloved steam engines.
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@dernwine I can't imagine why anyone would have made such a claim. The RN was desperate for a single seat high performance fighter. Even though the Sea Hurricane and Seafire were better fighters than the obsolescent Fulmars and Skuas. It was the RN that recognized the potential of the Corsair early in 1943, at a time the aircraft was only used as a shore based fighter by the Marines. The USN considered the Corsair too "hot" to use on carriers while the RN set out to make it work. The did some airframe modifications, like clipping the wings to fit in smaller hangers, that made the plane easier to land on a carrier. The bulged Seafire type canopy improved visibility while landing, and the RN practiced maneuvers like lazy left hand turns to line up on the deck. It did cost them some planes and pilots initially in accidents, but they perfected the use of the Corsair on even escort carriers at the same time the USN wouldn't fly it from our largest carriers. Anyone claiming the RN wouldn't use it because armored deck carriers were too small is pulling things directly out of their butt.
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