The Drydock - Episode 295 (Part 1)
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:33 - Other navies Enterprise's?
00:07:06 - What are sailors watches?
00:12:18 - Given the relatively size parity between the Queen Elizabeth’s and the Colorados why did the QEs require and additional 50000ish HP to reach a speed only 3 knots higher?
00:15:34 - Ships that won but sank?
00:20:56 - How lethal is HE fire compared to AP fire against battleships?
00:29:32 - Did the French over or underachieve in the Carribean during the American Revolution?
00:35:43 - If you could decide the focus of a USN centered series by the “Band of Brothers” “Pacific”, “Masters of the Air” producers, what would you focus on?
00:41:27 - Was the PQ17 decision a mistake?
00:44:06 - Firing a broadside to free a ship?
00:50:28 - Did the Allies try to send false signals to lure U-Boats into a trap?
00:56:16 - In the Age of Sail, how did someone become a shipwright?
01:00:48 - Tons vs barrels of oil?
01:02:45 - When the settlers reached the west coast of the US and saw the giant sequoia trees where they thinking "Wow, we are going to make the biggest ships ever!" or was it more like "These trees are way too big to use, practically speaking!"
01:04:54 - How are gun diameters determined....why go from a 5 inch to a 5.25 instead of to a 6?
01:10:55 - Fun naval wagers?
01:12:56 - How long ago in warship history did they decide to cut ships in two to lengthen (or shorten) an existing hull?
01:16:30 - What are the chances of getting a video on the Battle of Lake Baikal for it's anniversary later in the year?
01:17:44 - When a foreign ship is operating with another navy for long periods of time, how do supplies, fuel, repairs get controlled and paid for?
01:21:43 - Admiral Yamaguchi's tactics at Midway?
01:26:09 - If the Kriegsmarine had developed an effective radar fire control system by 1940, would the lighter/outnumbered surface fleet pose a serious threat to the RN's ability to blockade Germany?
01:29:59 - Could you discuss the British Battleship 1929 Design 16A and compare it to Admiral Hiraga’s potential Treaty compliant battleship design with 10 16-inch guns and contemporary US designs of the same period?
01:36:57 - Why wasn't polygonal rifling taken further?
01:42:04 - Inter-wawr Japanese problems in ship construction?
01:47:51 - At what point in time was angled “armour” first deliberately used?
01:50:43 - How was potable water stored and/or generated in lifeboats during the 20th century, and how has it improved over the years?
01:54:38 - How quickly could age of sail ships change and maintain speed?
01:59:24 - Why did the US Marine Corps become more of a self contained army instead of most other countries using them as Protection or Special Forces?
02:03:53 - How long is a ship in the slipway before getting pushed out to a drydock?
02:09:32 - Were there any noteworthy examples where such a seaplane was successful such as providing spotting for over-the-horizon main battery fire?
02:12:59 - Disesel vs steam power in a race?
02:16:02 - If you can take the collected works of one naval historian with you to a desert island, including anything NOT naval history. Who do you pick?
02:17:36 - Soon after the contact of the High Seas Fleet & the Grand Fleet, Admiral Scheer ordered “Gefechskehrtwendung nach Steuerbord”. The signal must have been verbal or morse code. How would the signal been given using the flags of that period?
02:18:59 - How does Yamato stack up with regard to accuracy, supreme, average or sub-par? Or do we have enough data to even make such qualifications?
02:25:26 - Best interwar trade-protection type cruiser of any navy?
02:30:32 - In a car, the clutch allows the driver to switch gears. Was that the function of Belfast's clutch?
02:34:13 - 'Armoured deck' carriers in WW2?
02:42:23 - Did merchant vessels in the Age of Sail defer certain types of activities until they reached port?
02:46:36 - How common was it for uncomissioned warships to engage in battle?
02:50:17 - Diesels used in ships and subs. Did they have reversing gear or did you stop engine do some valve/timing changes and restart in the opposite direction. How long did it take to reverse?
02:52:37 - How would you rate the US crews during the War of 1812 in regard to training?
02:59:22 - Battleships and Battlecruisers or a single design?
Hearing commentary from Little Drach makes me smile.
Me too
For the mini-series, I really think a series focused on submarines would be the best bet. Maybe follow Richard O’Kane (fulfilling a role similar to Winters in Band of Brothers) and USS Wahoo and USS Tang with some stories from other boats. Crew size is small enough that you can get to know a significant proportion of them. Much hate can be directed at the Mark 14. Convoy battles are intense. You can rescue some pilots or folks from islands, put folks ashore behind enemy lines. With O’Kane you get the POW experience. As far as production goes, there are multiple fleet boats in near WWII configuration on the Great Lakes - take them out under tow and get convincing at-sea shots. Silversides could even play herself in an episode. And I hope that would result in some needed love for those great museums.
I agree. They can use the books "Wake of the Wahoo" and "Clear the Bridge" as great source material to start. The only bad thing is that neither of these two subs suffered serious counterattacks by the Japanese.
“Didn’t suffer serious counter-attacks?” USS Wahoo was sunk after a day-long effort by Japanese air and surface forces. Focusing on Wahoo would require addressing the matter of whether, or not, its crew deliberately fired at and killed helpless survivors in the water. Either way these alleged incidents are portrayed, it will generate enormous controversy - “how dare you portray American sailors as merciless murderers of helpless sailors” or “how dare you ignore the clear evidence that American sailors American sailors mercilessly murdered helpless sailors.”
@@dougjb7848American forces committed many war crimes that got swept under the rug. Possibly the largest was the outright shooting of most SS prisoners after the Malmady massacre. Such is war.
Concerning spoofing enemy comms, since it will absolutely educate the enemy that you can not only read their mail but know enough about it to fake it, the possible benefit would have to balance out the loss of this intell and the associated loss of life of your soldiers and sailors. That balance will almost never be made during war.
Concerning the USMC usage, I was told that there was a difference in legal standing between landing some marines versus landing the actual army. Today it would not matter but in the 1700 & 1800, apparently it did.
So at about the 2 hour 14 minute mark I started hearing a sea mine fussing, too young to be ready for deployment. Congratulations!!!
Stories are about characters. Band of Brothers, the Pacific, etc. were notable for each episode focusing not only on battles over the war but on the individuals of the unit. So my vote would be to focus on one ship but highlight different personages/perspectives from the crew. E.g., if it's the Enterprise, there would be the top view from Halsey, the deck view from the crewman who laughed at him (and then got promoted); the rotating air commanders; the officer who kept making those AA reports; the madman at the helm who slalomed the ship through air attacks; the change of the guard when a new commander came on board (shades of Captain Winter being promoted/ replaced); etc., etc. All in the context of the historical battles that the Big E got herself mixed up in.
Even if it’s from one character. The late Bill Norberg served as Captain’s Yeoman for all of Big E’s wartime career.
It could be cool to do a big battle such as Midway, ect. Then have the next episode focus on the medical crews and many touch into some of the search and rescue efforts.
@@ph89787 This is an excellent idea for a mini series centering on the _Enterprise_ !
@@williestyle35 I’m still trying to dig through the crew role. As when Enterprise was decommissioned in 1947. She still had about 8 or so plank owners still aboard her.
@@ph89787 good to hear.
4:25 I think the Venetians, Genoese etc of the Middle Ages would challenge the assertion that a ship named after the concept of commercial enterprise is inappropriate!
I love hearing from the new co-host! Congrats again Drach to you and the Mrs for a happy and healthy baby!
🎉Drach, just wanted to say 🎉Congratulations! 🎉 on the new addition to the channel !👨🍼 May your and Mrs. Drach still get a number of nights of decent sleep, and may the dirty diapers not be too overwhelming 😁
BB62, and that entire class, are such beautiful and elegant ships.
5 Drydocks to 300! 7k to 500,000 subscribers. And also it's Saturday night!!
Hearing baby Drach's hiccups took me back!
When In the video do I hear them? That's kinda cute
Oh so that's what it was awwww baby drac
@@joshuavinicombe5774 2 hours 15 minutes or so - the question about Graf Spee and New Jersey.
Ice cream ship miniseries when?
Include a ship from the British Pacific Fleet, build in some rum for ice cream swaps, some trading chicanery and ... I've just invented McHale's Navy. 😁
Any plans to use wood from mature giant sequoias (sequoiadendron giganteum) for shipbuilding would have only lasted until they cut a few down and discovered that the wood is brittle. They actually have a tendency to shatter when felled. Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), on the other hand, is used a lot for construction (it's particularly valued for it resistance to decay). The trees are taller than giant sequoias, but less massive.
About the Hornblower question, I think the scene discussed was when Hornblower was a lieutenant on HMS Renown, a 74-gun two-decker. The ship beached itself, an anchor was rowed some distance away from the ship and a broadside of double shot was fired to rock the ship. Here's a link to the scene: kzhead.info/sun/etafna9upHeDlIE/bejne.htmlsi=D9KevPEOijwBlhCK&t=5056 (starts at 1:24:16). There's probably a more detailed description in the book, but I can't be bothered to look it up now. Not sure if these differences change the answer to the question. Probably not too much.
Right, it was very similar to the hypothetical scenario Drach was describing at the end of his answer. Renown was trying to kedge off the mudbank they'd run aground on, they had the anchor cable at full strain trying to pull the ship off, and the double-shotted broadside was fired to jar the ship and break/weaken the suction between the ship and the mud just enough to allow the cable and capstan to start moving the ship. They had also started trying to move the guns (at least the ones that weren't engaged) aft to try and free the ship by shifting weight, but I gather that gradual shifting wasn't able to break the suction the way that the rapid sharp impulse of the broadside did.
I think that your Idea for a WW2 series following a gun crew is right on the mark.
Drach, I wish I could spend just a few hours with you, sipping fine whiskey, and discussing pre-treaty battleships. 😊
I wonder if Drach would appreciate sipping a fine fifteen year old single malt aged in sherry casks.
Great DD Drach thanks for all your time and effort.
Another Drach just in time for morning coffee! Life is good!
I know right. I use his long videos to listen to while I work. They are very good while on a long haul.
@Drachinifel If memory serves, the log for Scharnhost for the engagement with Glorious (June, 1940) is reproduced in "The Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau: Volume 1-2" by Miroslaw Skwiot and Mariusz Motyka. It states that the radar was turned on as an aide to fire control, but does not provide any additional information. The fact that it was turned on does not tell us to what extent it actually ended up being used. The log also provides the sea state and wind conditions, which were excellent for long range shooting.
20:56 this dreadnought HE vs AP debate reminds me of the Age of Sail debate of targeting the hull vs the rigging. If you can wreck your enemy’s rigging, then you can leisurely outmaneuver them and rake their stern, inflicting massive damage, while they can’t use their broadside. Of course, reducing their rigging takes time, and meanwhile they can aim for your hull. Who’s gonna break first?
6:20 for those that want to see a simulation of the 1799 _USS Enterprise_ check out the opening montage of 'Star Trek _Generations'_
Give HMS Shannon's crew their due. Excellent crew and excellent captain. End of story.
2:16:37 right there with ya Drach. The number of books I need to stay entertained is ridiculous. I can easily read a Tom Clancy novel in a day, if left alone. The bigs ones, not the shorter ones, lol
Colossus was deciphering Lorenz traffic. Enigma was cracked by Bombe.
Impressive machine too. I've been to Bletchley, had a roll of punch tape from Colossus on my shelf.
DANG Drach is the hardest working KZhead creator I know, barring marketing scammers and hardcore gamers lol💯...
You even pronounced my name right! Best youtuber ever!
Your videos and documentaries are simply amazing!
I don't know, I don't think I'd want to be on the receiving end of a ship named "The Business"
great and informative as always!
You learn something new every day, did always think of the US carrier Enterprise name as in "company business" or "making trades"
Good to be corrected. I thought of it as innovation in trade. A bit like The Queen's Award to Industry.
I always took Enterprise to mean being mission-focused, innovative, hard-working, and clever. Like an officer who shows great enterprise and pluck.
I tell people I'm working dogwatch at the papermill where I am employed and they look at me like I'm nuts. You're one of the few people I've heard use the term. I have a question about galvanic corrosion on ships' hull, and the sacrificial anodes used to help abate this effect. When did ships' maintainers and engineers discover this and how did they come up with the solution? Thanks much!
1:37:00 Applying my knowledge of small arms, polygonal rifling works well enough when you're using black powder, but not so much when you're using smokeless. Black powder releases all of its energy pretty quickly, whereas smokeless powder releases its energy slower (relatively speaking); this slower release allows more pressure to build up. Think of it like the difference between a sharp jab and a hard shove. Now, the building heat and pressure causes the bullet to expand, biting into the grooves and imparting a spin on the bullet. But with polygonal rifling there's nowhere really left for the bullet to expand to, and with the higher building pressures of smokeless powder you could potentially clog the barrel, effectively turning your gun into a pipe bomb. The other side of the equation is matinance. Black powder doesn't burn nearly as cleanly, resulting in residue buildup where you have to stop and give your barrel a quick swab every few dozen shots. Polygonal rifling is pretty easy to swab out compared to regular rifling, but with the advent of smokeless powder you could shoot literally hundreds of bullets before fouling even starts to become a problem. Now there's more nuance to this question, and when it comes to larger artillery the scaling of stuff up causes these things to increase exponentially so it's not a perfect 1:1 comparison, but this is the rough gist of what's going on inside the barrel.
Polygonal rifling works fine with smokeless powder. The specific combination of powder, rifling, and the cartridge in the Lee-Metford wasn't considered acceptable as it wore took quickly by British military standards (for modern civilian standards it would probably not be considered an issue), but many firearms have successfully have had polygonal rifling since then including (but not limited to) Arisakas, MG-42 (both traditional and polygonal were used interchangeably), G3, Glocks, and the PSG1.
1:52:13 - Water generation on lifeboats. - The book Wheezers and Dodgers, chapter 14, discusses some work done towards that during WWII, leading to developing a still that "was only the size of a jerry-can, but it could produce twelve gallons of fresh water for every gallon of fuel"" Also mentioning that they'd looked and found "in the First world War no fewer than 980 patents had been taken out for small-boat still in America alone". But I guess none of them ended up widely deployed in lifeboats; for the reasons you stated.
With regard to recoil rolling the 'Indefatigable'. a 32 shot with 12 pounds of powder as the shot clears the muzzle the muzzle there is plenty of energy left in the barrel to continue accelerating the powder and it now has only 12 instead of 48# to accelerate. The recoil contributed by the powder as opposed to the shot is not inconsiderable. Once the shot clears the muzzle the powder will accelerate to a much greater degree and recoil is mass x velocity. While the powder ight be a fourth of the weight of the shot its final velocity is likely to be twice thus the recoil effect would be half not a fourth. As a rough guide a muzzle brake to reduce recoil should have zero effect on the projectile. and its entire effect in decreasing recoil occurs by venting maybe half the powder to the side (in a fashion that balances out and is not added to recoil). So muzzle brakes are regarded as useful even though they should have zero effect on the projectile and maybe half reduction in the recoil by the powder.
On a sidenote: Welcome to this Strange Planet, Splendid Little Drachling!
2:09:46 - working alone in workshop, volume quite high to hear over sanding noises. After a minute or two - I thing my heartrate is now slowing down a litte.
4:20 as an Italian, I approve of the translation, we'll need to work on the pronunciation
In the USN you have a watch schedule and a work schedule. You’re always on duty at sea
Throughout the ages they have found tired sailors are compliant sailors. A fun fact about the HMS Bounty. The Captain switched to a different watch schedule so his sailors could get enough sleep and rest. It didn't exactly help him in the long run. History doesn't exactly remember Captain Bligh as the nice Captain who cared about how long his sailors slept. Instead he got turned into a virtual cliche.
I wonder if Captain Bligh had mellowed by the time he commanded HMS Agamemnon at the Battle of Copenhagen
Drach, sir, youve gone into fine detail about battleship main gun dispertion? was dispesion for cruisers and destroyer in a similar range? or did the smaller guns have "better " dispersion?
Sounds like Baby Drach is getting her introduction to the family business....
With the merchant crew question, a lot is also going to depend upon the type of merchant ship/cruise involved, too. While it is a special case, Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast is about US trade with the California coast before the Gold Rush. The reason it was two years is that it was a single cruise that the author took for his health. Because the ships he was on were gone for such a long time, they did careen one of the ships he was on (I can't remember off the top of my head whether it was Alert or Pilgrim) and did a lot of other maintenance while on the cruise. But this was, as I said, a special case where the ships involved were part of a consortium, going up and down the California coast buying up hides and selling mostly manufactured goods brought in from other ships to allow for absolutely PACKING the ship that eventually went back to Boston with so many hides the hull was nearly hydrostatically strained by the silly things. But at one point, Dana makes a point that it was during the long journey from Cape Horn to Boston that they did much of the deferred maintenance and painting of the ship, and that the ship had been looking most ship-shape just before returning to Boston than it had at any time since the trip down from Boston when they had done similar maintenance work.
02:09:32 Regarding ship-borne launched seaplanes providing targeting information (spotting) for over-the-horizon main battery fire. I don't know about the other navies, but for the US Navy shore bombardments the best results were obtained with their own seaplanes (or specially trained naval pilots) doing the spotting. I once read a long magazine article about naval bombardments during WW2 (from Europe to the Pacific theaters) that spotting by Army (or even US Marine) personnel on the ground or from US Army liaison aircraft gave very indifferent or inaccurate data due to their inability to provide proper shot fall observations in relation to the ship etc. Said army trained observers were trained to provide spotting data to fixed position ground based artillery units NOT moving ships etc. An anecdotal story mentioned (though it's outside the era this channel covers), during the Vietnam War, USS New Jersey who at that time given up her seaplanes during a shore bombardment operation had to rely on spotting data from US Army Bird Dog liaison aircraft. The land based spotting aircraft and US Army observers kept saying that the battleship's main gun fire was totally on target. It was only after the mission and the New Jersey got back to port that the after battle reconnaissance showed that the New Jersey was actually off the target by several hundred yards and the whole day's worth of bombardment was wasted blasting the surrounding jungle!
While false signals to the U-boats would be problematic for the reasons you gave, did the Allies ever contemplate jamming the frequencies U-boats used or were there too many options available in the frequencies assigned by the Kreigsmarine to U-boats for jamming to be viable?
As for the lake Bajkal battle - if you get some Czech sources, I will be happy to translate them to English for you, Drach.
For the mini series you could put them Laffe around the time of her kamakazi hit
On the Giant Sequoias, they would also have been terrible for ship building. As far as i am aware, the wood could never be used for anythign structural. The things we see made out of redwoods are from coastal Sequoias which were much better suited than the inland giant sequoias.
Yep, they're (all varieties) very fast growing which makes for a poor building source. Very resistant to rot and bugs which is why we see so many outdoor uses.
Interesting. What makes fast-growing trees unsuitable for construction?
@@notshapedforsportivetricks2912 As I recall Sequoias, especially giant Sequoias, are quite brittle and Giant Sequoias had a tendency to shatter into smaller pieces when the tunk hit the ground. Coastal Sequoias have a similar issue but to a much smaller degree. I would guess the cause is: because of the speed and size they grow to, they basically need to prioritize the key strengths that hold the tree up which means weakening other aspects. In a more modern parlance: Giant Sequoias are probably the min-maxers of the tree world.
@@88porpoise very informative. Thanks!
Sorry, Sequoias were a terrible disappointment as lumber. As noted by 99porpoise (below) the wood was too brittle for structural work. The wood was used for grape stakes and wine vats (not barrels). One notable exception; the wood was soft and easily machined and was widely used making "gingerbread", complex decorative attachments used on the "Victorian " houses that were so popular in turn-of-the-century west coast.
You could do Tin Can Titans which covers the war from Guadalcanal through the end of the war.
Yep, that is a good book.
@44:55 I recall that episode [Mutiny (2001) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_(2001_film) ] where Hornblower is the third lieutenant the Renown [74 gun ship of the line] in Santa Domingo. Also, the ship boats were moving the anchor to kedge to the rear. The broadside in conjunction with the kedging frees the Renown.
Hail Drach and a perfect Sunday.
For the question about firing a broadside to un-stick the ship, why were you using energy and not momentum to calculate the ship's new speed? If you do that, you get (assuming my math is right) about 0.07 m/s, not 2.8, so about 40x lower.
Yeah, I heard “energy” and went “oh no”.
Regarding "sequoias", there's actually two species. Neither are suitable in structural applications. The pics are of the giants. The big ones, although strong, almost as strong as oak, are very brittle and not suitable for load bearing applications do to the potantial for catastrophic failure. The smaller variety, also know as the coastal redwood, or simply redwood, are the worlds tallest trees, so on the surface they would seem to make great masts. The problem with the smaller ones are that they're weak, even weaker than white pine so only used for decorative purposes like decking. Redwood was used after the San Fransico earthquake in structural applications due to the tremendous need for building materials, and a few are still around today, I think...kept around for historical purposes.
I think for a mini series.I would focus on several small groups of men aboard a destroyer starting at Guadalcanal and going through till the end of the war.
do you feel too much attention is given to ships, when it is fleets that fight the battles and the interactions of fleet members that make history. It seems that great deal of semi-important minutia obscures the effective tactical study of the engagement.
Thanks Drach
hey could you do a video on what would happen if the Bismarck made it out into the Atlantic OR if the Bismarck made it back to breast
RAF schedule intensifies. See Tirpitz
2:57:37 That’s quite high praise!
Missed the boat on the big trees. Ship size was limited by the strength of wood as a material, not the ability to fasten pieces together. A giant Sequoia doesn't have wood that is stronger than other trees, so you couldn't make a bigger boat, even if you had bigger planks or timbers.
I like how you can tell when floppy shows up lol
For cold starting diesels I've often wondered what the start up procedure for ship's diesels was in the early days. I remember early diesels in tractors and cars were difficult to start, Glowplugs etc. Just how did they start those big engines?
is young mss Drach gonna be a Drachinifelle ,or Drachette?
Do you have a video that describes the differences between the types of ships? Such as Frigate vs Destroyer vs Battleship vs Cruiser vs etc… Or do you have one to recommend?
The Yamato nailed the Johnston, a destroyer, with both 18 inch and 6 inch rounds during the Battle off Samar from about 20 miles away. That was an incredible feat, considering they were using optical rang finding during very smoky conditions.
I don't think so particular since 6" rounds don't go that far. Is more like 20kyds.
Here we go it’s a big one! Time to settle in for a while.
How to you account for Yamato's performance at the Philippine Sea? She fired a dozen salvos and very close range and *maybe* scored a single pass through hit on a destroyer?
during the period you cover, did carriers (or other ships) do "steel beach" parties?
Drach, the question timecodes need a little bit of work as you ask multiple questions but the tag stays as the one about the QE's for well over an hour Edit: 29:19... HMS Baby Drach makes first sound "appearance" on a Drydock if you listen with headphones on and later on in other parts Edit 2: Regarding the question on Hornblower, there are a few errors I feel I should point out. 1st, the ship was not the _Indefatigable_ but the 74-gun ship of the line _Renown_ which was in Series 2. 2nd, the ship was not being tugged by rowboats but the boats were carrying an anchor to winch itself off - the error might be confusion that Series 2 episode with the Series 1 episode "The Frogs And The Lobsters" where _Indefatigable_ is being warped along by her boats because there is no wind... With a great moment where Captain Pellew says he will get the ship to its destination if he has to row himself and which he does a few minutes later
The timecode issue should be fixed
You need to add the weight of the powder to the weight of the shot when doing recoil calculations to get a better rough estimate. I say rough, because the velocity of the gasses from the burned powder is much higher after the shot leaves the barrel.
At approx 1:02 when converting the fuel oil quantities, you say that "because this is the US we'll keep this in Imperial" and proceed to use 2240lbs per ton. But isn't that the British measure and the Americans would be using a 'short' ton of only 2000lbs? Recognizing that for an order-of-magnitude type calc where the density is a guess anyway, the exact number isn't going to be correct either way, of course.
A very modern non-naval "de-fanging" example, is that Bradley that wiped the optics off a T-72 and made it combat ineffective (soft 💀). Like crawling through the giant's eye 😉 to continue.
I can hear a baby being held and fed.... Congratulations?
45:45 the 250mph velocity figure seems a bit low, in most places online it's stated to be 300-450m/s, which is ~4 times faster, perhaps a unit conversion error?
Congratulations on the new crew member Drach. Hope all goes well.
For the final show have them broken up some on the Bship and others get to fight the battle of Samar - also a great example of HE vs Yamamoto At 02:09:43 I hear a weird sound.
We didn’t stand watches in the classic sense in a squadron. Our world revolved around the flight schedule. The maintenance and admin department had a day/night check: 12 on 12 off. We had a squadron duty officer in the ready room with an asst. Ashore, when not flying I worked 0730-1630, and maintenance worked 2-shifts of 8-hours. We generally had a Duty officer, asst duty officer, duty driver and a fire watch on the flight line. Weekends were usually off ashore. Squadron life was much different than ship’s company.
I remember coming across a Quora section on Dreadnought vs South Carolina and some guy wrote because Dreadnought may only be able to fire one turret at a target directly astern, he'd give the odds of a battle 60-40 in South Carolina's favour.
No way that’s the first time drach thought of how to make a great naval historiographer televisions series. I’d watch it.
41:30 From what I’ve read, most intelligence available to the Admiralty at the time was that _Tirpitz_ had not sailed, but Pound chose to believe a few contradictory inputs and decided _ Tirpitz_ *had* sailed.
One of the most accurate and widely used snipe rifles produced in the last century was the Austrian Steyr SSG-69. Think .5 minute at100 yards. Hammer forged polygonal barrel.
1:06:00 I know what a illumiating shell as well as a white phosphorus shell is.But what is a window shell, and what is it used for?
German radar 1940 - Seekat had range resolution around 50 m which is very good for range-finding. I wasn't aware that it had lobe-switching which was necessary to differentiate shell splashes from targets. Have you reference which discusses this?
For Graf Spee I believe they had to still spot the splashes but the ranging resolution was fine to aim in the first place.
@@Drachinifel (If my dementia has not progressed too far) In 1937 the German navy made the war-losing decision to get their radar into production and idiotically cancelled the current work on lobe-switching. Their radar was the best from then until sometime in '42. This allowed their naval surface raiders pretty much free access to the Atlantic until '41 when the RN started installing reasonably good sets onto its cruisers. I suspect, but do not know for sure that B & PE lacked true blind-fire capability because there were times it could have served them well but they did not really try it.
How about a series based on fictional retelling of Capt Hughes. He commanded a old DD at the beginning with ABDA command and again with USS Johnston at Letye Gulf. The in-between time could be fictionalized.
All hands to cleaning stations.
I can imagine a series following a sailor from enlistment to his first posting aboard a destroyer escort like the USS Slater up in Albany, being moved over to filming scenes aboard USS Iowa which is in California, or Alabama or Massachusetts which are still in their WW2 configuration. I would probably avoid Intrepid in New York unless you're filming some interior shots or bridge shots since it has been fully converted to a museum.
Polygonal rifling: I would imagine that making the ammunition is much more difficult. As opposed to the "simple" cylinder tapering to a smaller "point". The polygonal projectile will need a lot more milling and precision measuring. Every angle has to be just right. The twisting faces to mate with the barrel must be kept constant around the projectile. To me, it seems like the much more complicated and time consuming to manufacture, outweighs any possible accuracy benefit.
I kept hearing some odd noises and was wondering if I had another vid playing in the background and then realized it was little Drach :]
Drach said that US Submarine skippers preferred docking using the electric motors instead of the diesels because of the difficulty in reversing the diesel drive. That is largely incorrect in WWII. Starting with the last four Sargos, and excepting the two off Marlin Claas, all US fleet boats were diesel-electric drive. The earlier Porpose class were the first full diesel-electric US submarines. The Salmon class had mixed propulsion. If they were using battery to dock it was because thatt was the standard procedure from pre-fleet boat days.
I was quoting from a postwar USN report comparing the two sub types. :)
@@Drachinifel OK, The answer sounded as if you t was standard procedure for all submarines. Side question. Aren't electric motors more responsive and be better suited for more precise maneuvers?
@@johnshepherd9676 the report seemed to suggest an advantage for low speed evolutions where switching back and forth from reversing to forward constantly was needed.
As far as the "Band of Brothers show🎬❓" 🤔 I would try " Masters of the Air" Model. This would be set on The story of John Bulkeley and his PT boat Experiences in WW2. He earned the Medal of Honor for leading the famous torpedo boat squadron 3 in the Philippines. And his evacuation of Douglas MacArthur most famously. Even later, he transfers to the Atlantic and commands a squadron at D-Day. He is the subject both the novel and the John Ford film, "They were Expendable." This provides you the basis of small unit, small cast adventure to follow. The ability to film action scenes without the need for hundreds of extras. And ties into conveniently the story of JFK and PT 109. With the books on both events as well as films. You have the basis of a basic miniseries screenplay. And it's a lot less complicated than trying to recreate a carrier operation. 🤔🎬🎥 And you still have some existing boats available. And others can be recreated.
From studies of U-Boats type VII-IX, and the Gato"s and Balao's, I find that the US boats were strictly propelled by electric motors powered by batteries or four diesel engineshe. US boats had no reason to revers the diesels being only electrical connections. However the U-boats had a diesel engine, clutch , motor/generator, clutch, and then shaft. This allowed the diesel to be clutched out for submerged operation clutched in for surface running and charging, and clutching out the motor/generator from the shaft for charging only. Whether or not the diesels could be reversed I do not know, but I am of the understanding that they operated mostly on the electric motors while maneuvering to or from moorings. Large direct reversible diesels ship engines do have a problem when trying to revers at speed because of the water passing over the propeller will continue to drive the shaft while the air injection is trying to spin it in the opposite direction. This has been noted as an issue with the Baltimore Key bridge collision with the ship trying to revers at 8.5 kts. On the other hand both steam engines and steam turbines have the power to stop the shaft and get it spinning in the other direction at any operating speed. Thus part of why steam hung on for so long.
It depends on the class for US ships, they tried all sorts of propulsion combinations in the interwar period, and the USN report I cited certainly seemed to believe a reasonable number of US subs would have to use diesels in reverse for independent harbour work.
From the simple diagrams I saw of the Type VII boats each of the two diesels turned a shaft leading to its associated propeller. On the way the shaft ran through its motor/generator and then the thrust blocks. That leads me to think that the diesel could be decluched from the shaft at any time. I wish I had spent more time talking to the English submariner I met. He really surprised me about the shafts on the boats he was familiar with.
Blucher (WW2 version) was essentially destroyed by high explosive shells, with the death blow being from fires started by the 11”, 6”, and 57mm detonating the magazine. The torpedo did help of course but from my understanding it wasn’t itself lethal Thus when you don’t use long range gunnery
A question about your Hornblower experiment: Why just fire half the guns? Why not move the other guns?
They’re really heavy, and where exactly do you fire them? Through the walls?
Interesting question about Hornblower firing a broadside to free his ship. I have been trying to picture it, and I think the guns should have been fired on the side opposite to the grounded one. Here's why. I think the guns are all above the ship's center of gravity (which would be somewhere down in the hold). When the guns fire, the total momentum vector would be above the cg, and that would generate a torque. The torque would rotate the ship such that the part above the cg moves opposite the flight direction of the cannonballs. The lower part would rotate away from the ground on which the ship is stuck. I wonder what the TV movie showed. What do you all think?
To me, your logic is sound. I personally would love to test it, lol.
Sounds reasonable, but there would also be some horizontal force imparted, would there not? This would force the hull further onto whatever it was grounded on. I can only suggest that we get our hands on a 74 and try it out.
@@notshapedforsportivetricks2912 Great idea! Let's take up a collection to buy one!
⛵235 years ago today.... April 28, 1789.... The Mutiny on the HMS Bounty.
I'm old enough to remember that being in the papers
@@Trek001 🤔You know I was just thinking? This channel has been on for like 7 years? And I don't think we've covered the story? OR are the 2000 mile Voyage of WIlliam BliGH? I have searched for video. Have we ever done a Wednesday guide?
“In the period the channel covers” for most interesting enterprise, does that mean you would’ve said CVN-65 if that was in the channel’s scope.
I wasn't aware Drachinifel was a father...
We all know about USS Robin but it seems that the assignment of the Ranger battlegroup to the Home Fleet seldom gets discussed.. Why is this?
Remember when USS Borie got into a literal melee fight against a U-boat, won but also sank?
I hear the baby sea mine❤
2:15:05 What was that odd noise? Cat? Chair squeak? 2:17:28 Bird? Dog?
Ship has superstructure burned down to the deck and does not sink? USS Belknap enters the chat.
No it wasn't Indefatigable. The scene from Hornblower that they are asking about is aboard HMS Renown. Not the Indy