Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 105" video.

  1. I got excited when I saw the question about the da Vinci in the index, but, at that time mark, in the audio, is a second question about bulbous bows. I have been looking into the attempted salvage of the da Vinci, the RM's wish list for how it was to be rebuilt, and the resulting cost escalation, due to the feature creep.
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  2. wrt to the question about DD guns with fixed or semi-fixed ammo at 56:37, eons ago, I saw a training film on the 5"/38, with it's semi-fixed ammo, in the all singing, all dancing, enclosed turret with integral ammo hoist. iirc, there were two men: one drops the propellant in the loading tray, the other drops the shell in the loading tray, then the rammer pushes both in together. The film explained the choice of semi-fixed ammo: crew fatigue. By breaking the load into two pieces, they kept the weight of each piece down, so the loaders could keep loading longer without becoming exhausted. 5"/38 shells weigh about 55lbs and the propellant about 30lbs. I pity the guys that had to load a 5"/25, because it's fixed rounds weighed 80lbs.
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  3. wrt the High Seas fleet not being scuttled, Italy did take a number of Austrian and German destroyers and cruisers into it's service as war reparations, many of them lasting into the 1930s, though Italy did change out the guns for Italian types. Considering the loss of da Vinci, and the obsolete condition of most of the RM's BBs, if the RM was inclined, I could see them welcoming the Bayern and Baden into their service. The French would probably prefer the Italians have those two than complete the Caracciolos. It seems that, what freaked the French the most about the Caracciolos was their 28kt speed. From my readings, the MN did a study of what was needed to juice up the incomplete Normandies to match the Caracciolo's speed. As if lengthening the hulls and installing a more powerful powerplant was not exorbitant enough, France built capital ships in drydocks, and they did not have drydocks long enough to allow the lengthening of the Normandies that would be required. While the Badens had 15" guns, larger than the 13.4" on the Normandie and Bretagne classes, they were only 2 ships, and they topped out at 21kts.
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  4. On armor plate: what is the order lead time? Say it is 1919, I'm in Italy, and need 75mm thick STS, how long until my order arrives from Terni?
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  5.  @WALTERBROADDUS  I agree, no battle of the Denmark Strait. Actually, with QE being some 4-5 kts slower, the Brits might not have intercepted Bismark in the first place. From the accounts I read, all the hits on Bismark came from PoW. Take PoW out of the engagement and Bismark might not have been damaged. If Bismark isn't damaged, it doesn't turn around and make for the French coast. Yup, with QE, instead of PoW, the battle wold have gone vastly better, for the Germans. Now, if you want to send QE and Valiant to Malaya as Force Z, I would be OK with that, because we all know what happened to Force Z and I hate to see a ship as new as the PoW be sunk. Looking on the bright side of them being in Force Z, they would not be sitting ducks in Alexandria in mid December, when Italian frogmen with limpet mines came calling. Actually, with the AA added to both in their rebuilds, they might have had a sporting chance as Force Z.
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