Basic Fleet Tactics - 1,000 years of holding the line

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@bigal3055]

Hi Drach. Is HMS Temeraire and her shenanigans during the Battle of Trafalgar on the to do list?

[@kurumi394]

If you were to build a 35,000 ton treaty compliant battleship, what would you go for? Would it be something like the Richelieus with good speed and decent armament, the South Dakotas with good firepower and decent speed and protection, the KGVs with a good overall balance, or something entirely different?

[@larsdejong7396]

Why do you think latin- style rigging got out of favor?

[@claypidgeon4807]

@Drachinifel Hood and Repulse are extensively modernized in a US yard in time for the Hood to join the Battle of the Denmark Strait, which she survives with easily repairable damage. Simultaneously, the ghost of Admiral Fisher possesses Royal Navy procurement, declares battleships to be yesterday’s news, and delays Lion and Temeraire in favor of two more Illustrious-class armored carriers, which are fully worked up by mid-late 1941. These three units then join Force Z, which consequently survives, both due to air cover and due to Hood and Repulse using the addition of a large number of US-made AA guns that, while mostly consisting of the mediocre 1.1” gun, did come packaged with plenty of tracer rounds. This larger Force Z (with escort of course), due to a miraculously less angry Admiral King, then joins up with the US Pacific Fleet in a manner similar to the 6th Battle Squadron joining the Grand Fleet in time to help Enterprise escort Hornet for the Doolittle Raid. They also gain access to US aircraft and tech when available, if they want them, and vice versa (so the Brits can immediately have Wildcats and the Americans working aerial torpedoes, for example, should supplies allow). How does immediate access to three fast capital ships, plus two armored (if quite comparatively limited in airgroup size) fleet carriers capable of night operations change the Pacific Fleet’s fortunes? By the late war, they’ll be only a small portion of the Big Blue Blanket, but for encounters like Coral Sea, Midway, and the Guadalcanal grind, they’ll surely come massively in handy.

[@SeveralWeezelsInaTrenchcoat]

What if the armistice of the 8 of September 1943 never happened and admiral Bergamini could ingage the allied fleet? How would the battle go considering that Bergamini had a pretty big force with relatevily modern ships (some with radar) and a brand new modern battleship?

[@adhdengineer]

If I've learnt anything from playing world of warships since closed beta, best tactics are for the destroyers to rush in and get sunk then the cruisers should hide behind islands until is too late to make any difference and the battleships should sail backwards keeping as far away from any enemy ship as possible.

[@davidbrennan660]

It served the USN well in the Pacific War theatre 41 to 45.

[@paulsteaven]

That's the IJN tactics for their capital ships except for the Kongo class.

[@bryant7201]

You forgot the BB needs to be cursing carriers and submarines,

[@bkjeong4302]

@@paulsteaven Because the Kongos actually achieved all that much by being more active /s

[@bkjeong4302]

@@bryant7201 carriers are, if anything, NERFED in WoWS (for the fleet carriers). In reality they would be out of the map entirely, and thus be outright invulnerable to surface attack.

[@davea4245]

I'm retired now however I'd worked for 3 decades in a shipyard. I had never given any thought as to where or why the name forecastle originated. It would seem Drachinifel still is able to teach this old dog new shipbuilding facts. Thank you

[@mlccrl]

You'd better never say this otherwise you will be taken as intelligent as a tibetan goat.

[@khaelamensha3624]

@@mlccrl It takes courage to admit you do not know something, how many lied in the same situation. I do too learn with Drach why it is called like that. 😇

[@johnjephcote7636]

I remember noting on our minesweeper, the corruption of 'gunwhale' to 'garden wall'. Working on a fighting ship in armour has the double fear of death-by the enemy or plunging straight down into the oggin.

[@visassess8607]

@@mlccrl Yes, how dare someone not know the etymology of every word

[@jpheitman1]

Which one?

[@PalleRasmussen]

I have done some sailing in Viking ships, and some getting in and out of them. It is actually quite difficult to board across the stern of a longship, even against the side of the ship. They are higher than they look. And you subject yourself to a "broadside" while going through a "bottleneck". The enemy can put three to five weapons on you and shoot on your friends behind you, while you cannot do the same to them. That is probably why it is written about when succeeding. It would take a skilled, tough, lucky and brave/insane warrior to go first.

[@MartinGreywolf]

And at that point, you may as well add well-armored to the warrior's description. A good hauberk might just about tank all those stabs coming your way, especially paired with a shield.

[@PalleRasmussen]

@@MartinGreywolf that too. I am a bit knackered and forgot to write both that, and that it seems the front man was a position of honour possibly called "stavnbo" (Stern/Prow man, though bo means "to live somewhere"). I will have to check, but I believe we know that title both from a runestone and later sagas. Nothing online about it on runestones, only in sagas. It is not an uncommon surname in Denmark BTW.

[@Jaxck77]

A true Berserker perhaps

[@bryant7201]

"OK, when Bjorn finishes biting his shield could someone tell him he volunteered to board over the bow in this battle. "

[@frankbarnwell____]

Did they say they were Vikings? Might have been people from Northern Europe in boats.

[@jonathonphillips7903]

this is gonna be good.

[@ayh0210]

agreed.

[@frankduff18]

Yes it was

[@hattrick8684]

When isn’t it? There’s some rum ration videos of his I’ve watched a dozen times. There’s plenty of ship reviews I’ve watched a dozen times, robanky the whole CC/CB playlist.

[@hattrick8684]

Probably, robanky… sure whatever iOS predictive text… that’s a real word.

[@onasknox9284]

Yup

[@xerxeskingofking]

I love that early tactics can be summed up with "sail me closer to the enemy! I want to hit them with my sword!

[@Voron_Aggrav]

more often than not in the earlier part of it was "Row me closer to the Enemy!"

[@simonoconnor7759]

I detect a bit of a riff off the classic 40K meme, "Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!" If you don't know it, look it up. Imperial Guard tank commander with a cavalry saber.

[@The_ZeroLine]

@@simonoconnor7759Jurgen, drive me away! I don’t want to hit them with my sword!

[@therealuncleowen2588]

Drach, two video ideas: 1. Details of just how Yorktown was repaired so quickly after Coral Sea, in time to fight at Midway. 2. A ship's guide to the Japanese WW2 destroyer Arashi. The fateful role she played at Midway is all I know about her.

[@tcpratt1660]

1 - a couple pages in Walter Lord's "Incredible Victory quickly sketches the repairs of the Yorktown - a 15-20 minute video would be very cool, if possible. 2 - Arashi was one of the IJN Kagero class destroyers, and I don't see them in the video playlist either.

[@AnimeSunglasses]

@@tcpratt1660 That's odd, I thought there was a video on at least Kagero herself...

[@Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

No big shoota? No problem. We fight in _glorious hand to hand, face to face melee combat._

[@thehandoftheking3314]

"Sail me closer! I want to hit them with my sword!"

[@atpyro7920]

DRIVE US CLOSER, BROTHERS! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY CHAINBLADE! FOR THE EMPEROR!

[@Solidboat123]

STRIKE FROM THE SEA BROTHERS!!

[@CSSVirginia]

The Tau have left the chat.

[@cideryeti7957]

@@CSSVirginia That might change with their new codex. The battlesuits do melee but can go pew pew or brrrrt in melee as well now.

[@tomhaymes2045]

Nice 20,000 foot view. I like how you tie everything together narratively. That has a huge amount of value. As an addendum, it might be interesting to look at how task force formations developed during the interwar period under the influence of aircraft and submarines and the idea that a task force had to protect its most vulnerable asset: the aircraft carrier. Nimitz (before he was CINPAC) developed the idea of a circular formation, which became the standard for the US in World War II. What were the strengths and weaknesses of Japan’s and the UK’s approach to the same problem compared to the US approach. It’s yet another unfolding of “the line.” That would make a pretty interesting video.

[@bkjeong4302]

The late-war American formations especially provided good protection by, ironically, allowing the carrier itself (via its CAP) to be the first and strongest line of its own defence, having a distant picket line to vector the carrier’s fighter screen towards enemy air attack. Consider that even by the last few months of the war, after the advent of VT fuses and the strongest levels of shipborne AA in the war, that fighter screens were STILL taking a much heavier role on Japanese air attacks than AA. Another trend-one that I just can’t understand-is the whole idea of providing carrier task forces with fast capital ships. For the much slower escort carriers, a battleship escort could have some merit (albeit that even something like the Standards were fast enough to keep up with CVEs), but for the fleet carriers there shouldn’t be need for a serious anti-surface escort in the first place. The whole point of a fast carrier strike force is that it relies on its strike range, and the ability to maintain that range via its mobility, to effectively wield distance as both protection and as a means of avoiding detection, being able to strike without fear of surface attack during the day, and being able to maintain the several-hundred-mile gap between it and enemy surface units at night. Adding fast capital ships to such a force pretty much ensured that they’d only get to serve as gigantic, pointlessly expensive destroyers/CLAAs in the AA escort function.

[@hattrick8684]

Problem with fast carrier attack groups is the existence of fast battleships. The US may have had the fastest at just about 33kts, Germany and Japan also had battleships with a top speed of 25-31kts. The Kongos, Bismarck’s, Scharn’s, Yamato’s we’re all 27-31kts even Nagato was 25-26kt and I think Fuso 24kt, which may not be fast enough to catch a full speed fast carrier but likely fast enough to get within firing range while it’s at cruising speed. Had we not had the Iowas, SD/NC to escort them and they came up against Haruna, Heiei or worse Nagato they would have made short work of the cruisers and destroyers. Especially if in their own Kentai-Kessen battle group. Sure I’m retrospect we didn’t really need them but we didn’t realize how powerful the CV would be when they were designed and ordered, plus’s the other nations fast ships still existed.

[@bkjeong4302]

@@hattrick8684 You’re assuming that the fast carrier attack group would even be able to find the fast carrier attack group when it’s going to be something like a few hundred miles away (neither optics nor WWII surface-search radars had enough range), then actually get close enough before the fast carrier force notices them and has enough time to also accelerate and move away (which isn’t going to happen if the carrier has aircraft aloft to look for enemy vessels, which it would be doing if it’s competent). Even assuming that it’s night to take the carrier’s own detection capabilities out of the picture, there’s still the problem of trying to find a carrier strike force whose last known location was far outside your own detection range. And the vast majority of fleet carriers in WWII exceeded 30 knots (Kaga and Ranger being the exceptions and even they did 28 and 29 knots respectively), and over half of them did 32-33 knots; a few exceeded 34 knots. Even the Iowas would have major issues trying to run down most fleet carriers of WWII (especially since the carrier would have a massive head start)-some of them could outright outrun an Iowa, and the rest would still take a massive amount of time for the Iowa to get close enough to open fire, too much time to make a surface attack on a fleet carrier a realistic prospect.

[@boobah5643]

_Shattered Sword_ noted that at Midway the American carrier task forces tended to put their AA escorts as close to the carriers as they could to concentrate firepower, trusting in shooting the enemy planes down before they could deploy their weapons, while the Japanese assumed the attack runs would happen and so gave their carriers space to dodge the ordinance. On the topic of fast BB escorts: remember that a carrier conducting flight operations doesn't get to choose its course; it's heading into the wind. Which can make avoiding enemy fleets a chore.

[@hattrick8684]

Again, there are CVE, CVL as well as CV they aren’t as fast. Even the faster CV don’t travel at full speed all of the time. I assume nothing here. I’m simply stating that these fast BB’s and CC’s exist. The mere existence of them dictated that these ships would need protection from equal ships. That’s not me assuming, that’s one of the reasons for it why they were built and why it was done. Yes we all know the CV ended up being the capital ship and came out on top and replaced the BB/CC. They didn’t know that at the time. You are looking at the subject with all of the knowledge we have of today, not through the eyes of a mid 1930’s to early 1940’s person.

[@dmcarpenter2470]

"Fully armored knights, leaping from fore and stern castles, literally, to make an impact." Hmm, analogue proto-Mechwarrior Death From Above attack

[@tominiowa2513]

Or the Angel Sahaquiel.

[@thelordofcringe]

This reference was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

[@scotthill8787]

It’s so nice to listen to someone talk about a topic that they are both knowledgeable in, and passionate about. Thanks, Drach!

[@dwozman1]

That was outstanding. To me what was the most fun was starting to understand what was going on in so many marvelous naval battle paintings I’ve seen in the museums of the world (during the late age of sail). Thank you.

[@jefffinkbonner9551]

First time I’ve stumbled upon one of your videos here. I found this documentary very easy to watch, which sounds unassuming, but I think is a very under appreciated aspect of video-making. Many content creators hungry for clicks narrate at an almost breakneck speed in an overall sort of hyperactive level of presentation that bombards the viewer with quick flashes of captions and visual aides on top of the audio. I suppose it works for entertainment at least for those who don’t find it obnoxious and overwhelming to take in that much information at once. Here, your pacing was very pleasant as you explained certain intricacies or nuances in a manner and tone that almost guides the listener through the thought process of those making certain innovations like the height of the forecastle, etc. It was neither hyper nor droning and dragging. Really perfect for the mind trying to follow the information and wrap itself around new concepts. The simple visuals of amazing artwork depicting the relevant ships or the simple graphics demonstrating line formations and pursuits was perfect. Like a good teacher, you naturally hold people’s attention without gimmicks or bells and whistles and allow students’ minds enough of a chance to keep up with the information. I feel like I can watch these at the end of the day, learn a lot, and have it be relaxing and not demanding on my senses. Thanks, and take my sub! (Pun intended)

[@jrocketcan710]

Thank goodness! As an army guy, I've never really been able to entirely understand naval tactics until now. Thank you!

[@stevensrocks798]

You forgot the French Navy's greatest ever victory back in 1985, when they bravely and selflessly sank the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior" while it was docked in port. Amazing bit of state terrorism that's been completely forgotten.

[@downskated]

Sit down to enjoy with my cup of coffee for the day, about 20 minutes in realized this is a lot heavier of a topic and I need more coffee.

[@ncrveteranranger3559]

Very interesting stuff. Last video I'll be able to watch for a while. I'm off for Navy Basic training today so I won't get to see anything for the next two months. Thank you for all the interesting videos Drach!

[@hisdadjames4876]

Arent you a vet already? Anyway, enjoy basic training and if they ask you why youre doing something wrongly, just blame the Drachmiral!

[@daleeasternbrat816]

Enjoy your adventure!

[@yuryvendiktov4832]

I love your videos, they are incredibly well made, well-spoken, and very informational!

[@jobo5300]

Loved the video. As someone who hasn't got an extensive knowledge on naval history this video was really informative and helped fit some things into the bigger picture. I would very much like to see similar videos for Asia or the Cold War period.I would even be interested in deeo dives into certain periods of naval tactics,

[@duwop544]

Hurrah! Well done. As usual, the graphics chosen are great.

[@BCSJRR]

Regarding wooden sailing ships and your fleet having the weather gauge; if the wind is blowing at the enemy the heeling of their ships will expose their hulls below the water line. Put enough holes in a ship down there and they're stuck sailing on that point of the wind, if they change they can be quickly inundated. Heel can also be mitigated by sail management albeit at the cost of speed, but if it's that heavy it might not be a good idea to be cracking on all sail lest the rigging start to carry away (or stressing the rigging, masts, and yards enough to make it relatively easy for enemy fire to become the straws that break the camel's back so to speak) Thanks for another great video!

[@assessor1276]

An excellent treatment of a central topic in naval warfare - as always.

[@jtoddjb]

your volume is lower than 99% of other channels. Whenever I want to watch one of your videos which I enjoy very much, I always have to watch with a remote in my hand. Hope that helps. Excellent channel. Thanks

[@Kierkergaarder]

Amazing stuff as always, thank you Drach. I loved how you mentioned the presence of galleys at Sluys, medieval naval battles are a weird and interesting time.

[@f12mnb]

Thank you for the entry. The description of a carousel attacking resembles what was happening on land. Cavalry used to perform a maneuver called a caracole (or caracoll arachiac) - ride up and fire their pistols and muskets rank by rank and cycling back forward. This was dismissed after Gustavus Adolphus brought back aggressive shock tactics for his cavalry.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

the one thing I think you ommitted was the advent of torpedoes and their accompanying ships in ww2 (and to a lesser extent ww1) which made lines incredibly dangerous since if the enemy ships shot out a fusillade of torpedoes and missed their target, there was probably another ship right behind it, which seemed to happen with frightening regularity in the early half of the war. if nothing else, they served to break up formations and cause chaos since nobody wants to get poked by the 20 foot long doom fish

[@picatdim]

He didn't omit it. He discussed the threat of torpedoes near the end.

[@TomSedgman]

Next up we find Drach in his kitchen attempting to replicate Greek fire

[@Kowalski089]

50:59 - 51:13 “Snackin-ifel” Love your work, Drach ❤

[@apleknight411]

I’ve always wanted to learn about fleet tactics thank you.

[@admiraltiberius1989]

I cant wait for Drach to give us a full reenactment of the first battle between two war canoes. Maybe after pressing Dr Clarke into the video.

[@senecanero3874]

We need that

[@admiraltiberius1989]

@@senecanero3874 it would be hilarious and amazing to see.

[@tominiowa2513]

The correct terminology is "Floaty Logs". 😉

[@abrahamlincoln9758]

I imagine if one of them was British, it won the battle and later exploded for no particular reason.

[@richjg3049]

Great video. I was in the navy and studied naval history and much of what you presented was new to me. Thank you

[@larsdejong7396]

Less then an hour, Drach? I'm impressed! :)

[@tonyromano6220]

My absolutely favorite KZbinr!

[@mezmerya5130]

Tactical formation had been the best force multiplier till very recent times(in historical perspective). WIth advancement of weaponry in silicon age after 1970 or so, force multipliers changed, and no one really deciphered them so far, in practice.

[@TheJuggtron]

I'd say the advancement was a little before, with transistorisation leading the way in the 50's and 60's but got WAY more complicated with cheap silicon transistors, and you're right with nobody deciphering it - there's a reason there are more admirals than ships :)

[@RCAvhstape]

@@TheJuggtron More admirals than ships is because of the growth of bureaucracy more than technology.

[@Voron_Aggrav]

@@TheJuggtron the next major war would be comparable to WWI by how Doctrine and knowledge miss matches current capabilities, Let's hope we never have to learn those lessons though

[@magmasajerk]

Fortunately, we haven't had any massive, globe-consuming wars since the 40s.

[@Voron_Aggrav]

@@magmasajerk indeed, and if we'd do, it's going to be bad ...

[@robbabcock_]

Fantastic video! I find the Age of Sail fascinating, even more so than the battleship era of the 20th century.

[@noone4479]

Would have been better if you had raw footage of a thousand years ago! Keep that in mind for next time please. :D All jokes aside I like this. I really like ship battles even though I could never have been an admiral unless someone wanted to lose an entire fleet.

[@morenofranco9235]

Excellent, Drachinifel. Always good to watch.

[@zzzd1927]

Great video! For the drydock: Can you comment on how the concept of a captain going down with his ship was viewed in the 20th century? Was it viewed more as a honorable tradition or senseless expenditure of life/a valuable naval officer? Any cases where a captain was viewed unfavorably for not going down with his ship or vice versa? What about situations like the sinking of Prince of Whales and Repulse where one captain chose to go down with his ship and the other didn't?

[@ethanmckinney203]

Yamamoto gave a specific order against it, which stated that doing so was a failure of your duty to continue to serve the Emperor. He had to repeat it later. If I recall correctly, they did something like cutting off the pensions of the captain's widows. A tradition also developed of proclaiming that you were going down with the ship, then allowing yourself to be dragged off by your junior officers (literally dragged in some cases, but not trying to fight them) in order to save face. By WWI, the American attitude was generally, "Heck, no." By WWII, Halsey would free dive to bring you back up so that he could strangle you.

[@vaclavjebavy5118]

I thought the concept was: "Captain leaves last, and if he cannot save everyone/the ship needs him until the end he then goes down with the ship"

[@ethanmckinney203]

@@vaclavjebavy5118 it went beyond that in some periods and countries straight-forward suicide: "A captain always goes down with his ship."

[@vaclavjebavy5118]

@@ethanmckinney203 that's plain stupid

[@ethanmckinney203]

@@vaclavjebavy5118 I think we can look at any culture and find stupid practices by modern standards. Look at your country's military traditions, its history, and see what you find. Southeastern Europe has no shortage of suicidal actions.

[@PaperSmiles]

Man, I’ve been begging for this video since I first got into naval wargaming at the start of lockdown 🥳

[@bigsarge2085]

Always informative AND entertaining! Thanks!

[@WayneBorean]

Thanks. That’s a beautiful explanation of how technology informs tactics. Just beautiful.

[@frankbarnwell____]

The time came. Thank you!

[@agesflow6815]

Thank you, Drachinifel.

[@ThrupennyGreen]

Talking about the boarding nets (15:10), I may be wrong but I do remember some mention of the boarding net possibly dooming allot of the crew on the Mary Rose

[@khaelamensha3624]

Well holding the line was quite the motto for terrestrial battle too! Two of my favorite ancient naval batt3are Salamid and the battle of the red cliff. Just realized that for the former the holding the line strategy was a winning factor as for the latter it was a loosing factor.

[@TactWendigo]

Another great video. As someone who loves the sea and history, this channel is perfect.

[@hakon5473]

Just finished the last drydock just in time for this. Thx Drach keep up the good work

[@RhodeIslandWildlife]

Thank you.

[@scootergsp]

Great video, Drach! Keep 'em coming! 😁

[@DavidtheNorseman]

You might take a look at the Korean, Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, and his tactical/tech brilliance. Seems to me the fellow was a sea-going equivalent to the US General Ulysses S Grant who always seemed to pull off ridiculously complex movements of men and heavy weapons involving exquisite timing....

[@tominiowa2513]

Do you have someone to translate old Korean historical documents?

[@DavidtheNorseman]

@@tominiowa2513 I can't even translate modern Korean historical documents! I believe there is quite a bit written in English about Admiral Yi Sun-Shin and Drachinifel always brings extra light to material in a great way...It is quite possible amongst the subscribers there is someone who can, though, good thought!

[@ares106]

No need to read boring books just watch The Admiral: Roaring Currents :P

[@George_M_]

Or the Extra History series on him.

[@marxel4444]

The Martial Lord of Loyalty! Maybe the greatest admiral there was when you look what he had to work with,what was providet to him and what he was up against :D

[@GrumpyGrobbyGamer]

Very interesting conversation! Thank you Drach.

[@ronaldfinkelstein6335]

The final "line of battle" action was the.Battle of Surigao Strsit. THE US force was composed of Pearl Harbor survivors, plus a couple of other 'old' battleships.

[@Cailus3542]

Eh. Yes and no. The battle was such a one-sided slaughter that it's hard to see it as a real line-of-battle...well, battle. Even a single US battleship could have smashed the Japanese force, never mind six of them. The line of battle was more a firing line than anything else. If you're looking for a proper example of the last line of battle engagement, the Battle of Calabria might qualify. That ticks all the boxes, and I can't think of any neat examples that come after it. Both the Allied and Axis navies would sail multiple battleships in that formation in several battles to come, but never again with multiple battleships on each side. That could very easily occurred off Samar, mind you, if Halsey hadn't made that crucial error. If it had, that would've been the largest surface engagement since Jutland, and probably far more deadly to both sides.

[@ronaldfinkelstein6335]

@@Cailus3542 true. But it was the very last Battleship vs. Battleship action...probably for good, since there are no active Battleships left. The US may still have the Iowa class ships in reserve...but it is unlikely they will get unmothballed again, I think.

[@glypnir]

I was going to comment on this too, but instead I'll just give a like and a reply on this one. There is definitely a sometimes explicit Royal Navy emphasis in this video. It's still a very good one. I prefer these videos to the discussions, because they're much more focused and efficient. Perhaps the British emphasis is why this battle wasn't mentioned. Although I agree that the Japanese force was much chewed upon by little ships and boats hiding among the islands of the strait. The tactics discussed here are mostly oriented to the open sea, where maneuverability is possible, and mainly large and seaworthy ships are the only participants. Much naval activity is close to land, and there are all kinds of ways to use the land and to attack the land which are not addressed here. There are lots of cases where shallower draft ships can take advantage, like along the Dutch coast. And certainly the Royal Navy had much experience in blockade, and in commerce protection, all of which are part of naval tactics.

[@byz2482]

Drach, you honestly spoil us.

[@maximumvoid5326]

2:07 What on earth is a fire dart and where can I learn more?

[@dan1984842]

Good vid thank you, I really appreciate these broad stroke summary videos. And the battle summaries

[@Horseshoe-808]

Fascinating video. Well put together and just enough detail.

[@TheJunehog]

The English guitarist Richard Thompson has a record called "1000 Years of Popular Music" in which he, a percussionist, and a backup singer play example songs from the last thousand years. This video was like that. But without Jerry Lee Lewis or Britney Spears.

[@usagiyojimbo5944]

I am really grateful for the explanation of medieval naval warfare. I always looked at the ships of the Hanse and never really got my head around their shape and purpose. (and in some naval museums they might not be the best at explaining things...)

[@bryant7201]

Interesting how ramming to shear off oars was a Greek technique in the Mediterranean but does not seem to have been done by anyone else.

[@LeCharles07]

Everyone else was smart enough to move the oars out of the way I guess. :/

[@gregorywright4918]

The Med galleys were often crewed by slaves chained to the oars, so not easy to withdraw.

[@bryant7201]

@@gregorywright4918 not in antiquity when Athens was known for the trick. But I see the point for middle ages. Possibly north sea conditions made ship construction not suitable for oar shearing.

[@Fulcrum205]

I likely was but the medieval written sources are scant and written by churchmen who didnt know a prow from a poop deck. The other reason it probably wasn't done much is that the Greeks (at least some) maintained semi-professional Navies that were required to practice on a regular basis. Medieval Navies were generally made up of whatever sailors and soldiers were at hand when the war kicked off. There was never much time to get fleets worked up

[@davidbrennan660]

I have cleared for Action and are engaging the video.

[@khaelamensha3624]

Battle stations!

[@Keaperman]

I found the Queen Elizabeth Cake Mini. Yes, Now That Is how you have some fun with your Queen, in a typically English way. :) I'm, very glad to hear she licked it and just went with it. Because it's Great !! :)

[@HNW00]

Superb Video!

[@mattterry1255]

Love this and everything about your channel and you, you're voice is soothing beyond belief! Just it's FUS-ill-ade, [39:21] my nauty brother, not full-i-sade, but I loved that one too! Never change! 😂❤

[@RonJohn63]

10:37 This reminds me of the _Dawn Treader_ (from what I remember of the book).

[@pineutrino]

Same! That book is the one and only place in all fiction where I’d ever encountered any mention of a “fighting top”. Part of me kept wondering why the ship in that diagram didn’t have dragon-snout bows.

[@gonotgone1]

I would love to see you analyse the events leading up to the execution of Admiral Byng and the actual battle

[@harrybusa1]

Thanks drach

[@matthmaroo1984]

Thank you again! Another high quality video!

[@algentry1]

Absolutely wonderful. You just blew me out of the water. Now I have to get another sailboat and add some cannon. :o)

[@thehandoftheking3314]

"Hold the Line!" *Commissar intensifies*

[@robinstevenson6690]

Beautiful naval art! Could add the term "curator" to the resume'!

[@Juke-Fox]

Good stuff!

[@bernhardlangers778]

Ah, perfect timing again. Just when it is my day to cook I get infotainment all along, thank you :).

[@w2dsx]

Just awesome!! Thanks as always!

[@yarpen25]

One of them Drach vids I like before even watching

[@chloehennessey6813]

Can anyone read Morse code and let us know what the battleship at 29:00 is signaling?

[@iberiksoderblom]

I love all those pictures of my ancestors 🙂

[@michaelbrogan7537]

Saw "Admiral, Roaring Currents" and it's fantastic!!! Highly recommend it!!

[@21nickik]

Some interesting uses of Galleys were in the 80 years war. Some Spanish brought them up to Netherland where they used it to pirate in the river networks. This was so effective the Dutch had to start building their own galleys.

[@fixeshousestuff9159]

Well Done!!

[@thelogicmatrix]

Woooh finally a video on naval tactics

[@alialkharassani3958]

Everyday drachnifel releases a video is a good day

[@MisteriosGloriosos922]

*Amazing video, Well done!!!*

[@acceptablecasualty5319]

Thank you drach. I will now use this knowledge to play Kantai Collection.

[@kolakevicius]

Double teaming and ramming are my favourite terms to hear from Drach

[@jamesa702]

Good stuff. Thanks much.

[@MartinGreywolf]

I have a criticism of the medieval portion of this video - it forgets slings are a thing, and that has a few effects. First issue is that a lot of the battle descriptions of this period say something like "and then came a rain of darts and stones", without telling us what launched said darts and stones. They may have been thrown by hand, from bows or from siege weapons, the text doesn't call out any particular method. Which means all those stones people assume were thrown by hand may not have been. For range, sling with a small projectile used by a skilled slinger outranges most of the contemporary ranged weapons, or comes out on par with them, at least at first - 130+ lbs heavy warbows (English, Welsh, Ottoman, some nomad, etc) are about on part with a sling. I'm not a greatly skilled slinger, but I can still lob a baseball (double the weight of a warbow arrow) to about 130 meters. You get a whole range of projectile sizes you can use, from 30 grams to as much as 450 grams in archaeological record, and we have pictorial evidence of slinging of large rocks that would be 1kg or more in weight, and this has been tried out in practice - it works, but your range is not that great and your wrist is getting a workour. You'd get much less range, but gain the ability to damage some of the lighter ships, as well as people in heavy armor. Then, there are staff slings. There are several illuminations of them used specifically in naval combat in high medieval period, sometimes using incendiaries - and in at least one case that pops up even in google search, not Byzantine incendiaries either, since it depicts the battle of Sandwich (1217). The question is, how widespread were the slings and staff slings, and the answer is, we don't know. Every battle that mentions ranged stones could have had slings in it, and while we do know slingers weren't present in large numbers in late medieval armies (we have the receipts), early and high medieval periods don't have any clear answers. They were definitely known about and used enough to appear in illuminations and other art, at least, but not as widespread as bows. Archaeologically speaking, we don't have much evidence, but it's kinda difficult to tell a stone is from a sling, and medieval archaeologists often don't know to look for sling stones in the first place - I recall reading about at least some of the sling stones being misidentified as beads, toys or, as is tradition, ritual objects, even in ancient dig sites. Tactically, it changes only little. Having a half kilo rock from a staff sling chucked at you from 200 meters isn't very nice, but neither is an arrow. The greatest effect this would have is in case of those small, fast flanking boats - they now need to keep moving at all times, because while shield wall on them may stop arrows, sling stones could probably destroy the boat itself with repeat hits. This would also potentially limit their engagement time, since they are now taking chip damage to their hulls as well as crew.

[@SubutaiFTW]

The one issue with a sling is the amount of space needed to use effectively. Given the normal sizes of the ships i wouldn't be surprised if this is the reason slings weren't used often in a Naval setting.

[@MartinGreywolf]

@@SubutaiFTW I think they were used fairly regularly, since they made it into the few pictures we have from the period, although on a less wide of a scale than bows - the utility of being able to damage boats and ability to shoot incendiaries are fairly valuable. The size issue is especially complicated, because it depends on what the boat shape is, exactly, what slinging technique you use, where the other people are (shield wall at the side, rowing, etc) and so on. Battlements on ships do make simple slings almost unusable, but that only applies to high medieval and later ships.

[@lobsterbark]

People don't realize how powerful a sling can be. When using smaller heavier projectiles like lead balls, they are comparable in power to some of the weaker handgun cartridges that are still made. .22, .25, .32, etc. A hit on an unarmored head or chest would be as lethal as a good stab with a knife would be in the same spot. Using a sling against a car, the holes in the bodywork could easily be mistaken for bulletholes.

[@Bt26x]

That had to be very chaotic when the ships did it have cannons & they had to pull isn’t up next to each other & fight with swords! Man I love this channel. I really enjoy all the WWII content. 👍🏼

[@Pos3id0n.]

GLORIOUS

[@crazykirsch]

In regards to the "parallel lines of battle" strategy: I wonder if there was ever an admiral/fleet who tried either up-armoring the first 2-3 ships and/or running them with skeleton crews/guns to soak up fire? Given the limited range and proximity of battle it would probably be identified as such but in low visibility the opposing line may take longer to figure it out.

[@blinkyrem]

Up-armoured ships would be slower so more likely to drift to the rear, unless you're slowing down the whole fleet

[@khaelamensha3624]

Well à Korean admiral invented the first armored ships.. Yep worked quite well 😁

[@gcharny8022]

There is the Venetians did that but not limited crews in the battle of Lepanto

[@gregorywright4918]

That kind of adjustment would have to be planned, prepared, and trained for ahead of time, so it would be hard to keep secret from the enemy. Then the enemy could take steps to counter it and you would have a weakness in your line. Might be better to select your first couple of ship captains as the bulldog-type, then have the next few be the aggressive-dash-in-and-smash type behind them.

[@ianbell5611]

Thank you. Very in depth Very informative. Cheers

[@wendywhite4537]

Great video!

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

Excellent work sir!

[@freefall0483]

Thank you kindly, good sir. Greetings from the southern (convict) colony! The effort put into these videos is genuinely appreciated. The dry humour is absolutely golden.

[@deathhog]

Wake up. See Drach vid. Listen to Drach vid while I go to work. That simple.

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

Thanks Drach, for being the one who finally demonstrated to me how Sluys should be pronounced.

[@m.streicher8286]

Drach has made Wednesday the best day of the week.

[@DawgPro]

In this beautiful work, near the end: 48:10, there's a clip of ships operating at see. Do we know which one they are?

[@comeslittorissaxonici7395]

The "formalist" line-of-battle-at-all-costs school had a tendency to lead to drawn battles, with perhaps a couple of ships changing hands. By the early 18th Century, a number of battles were fought and won by melee tactics - it can be argued that Trafalgar marked the triumph of melee over line tactics. The signal "General - to chase" was used to release ships from the "order of sailing will be the order of battle" rigid adherence to the line. As an aside, Nelson could well have faced dire consequrences from leaving the line at Cape St Vincent under a more rigid formalst than Jarvis. iiui the next captain to leave the line, unordered, was Dalrymple-Hamilton in HMS Rodney.

[@Goatcha_M]

The other advantage of having the Weather Gauge is if the enemy fleet is in your lee you can cut off their wind with your sails, effectively stalling them while you can still manoeuvre.

[@gregorywright4918]

Depends on how far apart you are - the closer, the more effect. When battle was joined the ships would often "clew up" the lowest sails on the mast (the "courses") to prevent sparks from igniting them, which would also lower your lee effect.

[@alekssavic1154]

Realistically that would only work if you were right next to the enemy ship, at which point boarding is probably a bigger concern than maneuvering. At any sort of distance the effect would be so small as to be negligible. Plus you'd have to be *directly* in line with them, not just generally upwind.

[@Maverick966]

"Hold the line! Love isn't always on time"

[@ewhartiii]

Woah, woah, woah...

[@Marci124]

What a banger, I think that one deserves all the recent hype Africa has gotten more than Africa itself.

[@jeromebirth2693]

Toto