Battleships South Dakota and Nagato (Color:1945)

[@tigerbeforyou181]

My dad served aboard the South Dakota the last 3 years to the end of WW 2. He loved his ship and told his 8 children stories often. Bob Ferguson May he RIP. Wish he could have seen all the videos available before he passed several years back. She had a fearless crew for sure. I’m proud of them all!

[@TheRealDanielMartin]

My grandfather (Ralph Martin) was on the USS South Dakota as well and loved telling all the grandchildren about his service in ww2. He operated the 20 mm cannon machine guns to shoot kamikaze planes out of the sky. The greatest generation, that’s for sure.

[@tigerbeforyou181]

@@TheRealDanielMartin My dad was a store keeper but his battle station was the same guns you mentioned. Wonder if they could have known each other. Since he has passed I can’t ask. He used to be active at the Ships reunions until later 1990s.

[@TheRealDanielMartin]

@@tigerbeforyou181 I believe he was pretty involved with the reunions. I was just a young boy in the 90s but when I went off to college I was fortunate to be in the same city where he lived so I got to spend more time with him and my grandma and hear all his stories. He was very proud of his service. The moment he began talking about the war, you would just be so captivated and thankful for what these young men did. He was from Rochester, Minnesota. In the early 60s, he moved the family to Southern California. I wish I would have done more when I had the opportunity in early 2000’s to capture all of his stories. At that time, I had a basic cell phone that didn’t even record video. Facebook had just been introduced online but at that time you had to have a college email to have an account. Technology has advanced so incredibly fast just within 10-15 years, I wish I would have had the availability of what I have now in terms of media production devices.

[@hawaiiancane1]

I'm so glad I found this video. Its a shame these magnificent warships couldnt be restored. Sad to see so many hours, days, months, years it took to complete these warships. So many lives lost.

[@Aelvir114]

Nagato would have made a great memorial to the lives lost during Pearl Harbor.

[@danielshubeck5893]

Thanks for posting this. My Uncle (Leo "Alex" Bodnar) was a Fire Controlman FC on the Horace A. Bass at this time. He told me so many stories of his life on board this ship and the events on this film. He boarded the Nagato and was in Tokyo Bay for the surrender! RIP to a great man!!!

[@Ironworker12]

My Dad was on the Horace A Bass at the same time as your 2:41 uncle! My Dad was a signalman. He told me stories of being in Tokyo Bay at the surrender.

[@jarejil]

My dad was an engineer on the Nagato when it was towed to Bikini Atoll. We still have the binoculars from the ship, I wonder if you have any more info on this?

[@mgorilla52]

Stand fast jaylock! (I knew i should have typed in more detail about my Fathers story.) BM1 Morris Pratt was ships company on the South Dakota. He was on the initional boarding party (from the South Dakota) that went on the Nagato to retreave thier small arms. His Captain wanted Him to go so the enemy would see what "Big Americans" looked like...and to throw a little fear into them. Maybe that is why you see the South Dakota in this video. My old man commisioned and decommisioned the South Dakot

[@lawrencebracken9272]

actually the armor was angled in board which gave it the effectiveness of 16 inch plus armor

[@potatoraider7320]

We all know that was an enourmous Anti-torpedo buldge.

[@mgorilla52]

The man with the beard at the end of this video is "BM1" Morris F. Pratt or "Big Red" to some of you old salts. And that Man is my father. I am Morris F. Pratt Jr. he told me this story years ago but i just thought he was full of B.S. Thank You to Whoever put this on here.

[@danielshubeck5893]

My Uncle Leo "Alex" Bodnar was on the Bass and told me all about this!!! Thanks to these great men!!!

[@Ironworker12]

My Dad was there on the Bass!

[@ddland45]

I wish there was a archive of videos like this for sale for warship fans like me. Nagato was once the most powerful ship afloat but like the rest of her peers, she was eclipsed by the aircraft carrier. Just imagine what would have happened if there had been a Jutland-like battle of the battleships in the Pacific instead of a carrier war. Arizona class battleships duking it out with Kirishima and Ise class, North Carolina and SoDak verses Nagato and Mutsu and Iowa class battlecruisers vs.Yamato!

[@glennwinter2197]

Iowa 's had more armor than the S.D. 's did on turrets ,5in mounts conning towers ,they are fast Battleships ,designed before any knowledge of the Yamatos

[@TheRealDanielMartin]

My grandfather (Ralph Martin) was on the USS South Dakota as well and loved telling all the grandchildren his service. He operated the 20 mm cannon machine guns to shoot kamikaze planes out of the sky. The greatest generation, that’s for sure. 🇺🇸

[@TheInnocuousfever]

brings a tear to my eye, South Dakotan's can brawl,,i love my state

[@Delfinmar]

Thnaks this is very cool and special. I love the story of Big Red

[@admiralshepsky6402]

it really is sad to see IJN Nagato in the shape she is in, even after all that she went to she ended up being used as a target.

[@RenerDeCastro]

Well, considering that the Nagato was where part of the Pearl Harbor attack was planned, and that the US was still very much mad at the Japanese for that and the subsequent war, I'm not surprised they did it.

[@potatoraider7320]

@@RenerDeCastro Nope, its more likely about the complexity of operating a battleship that US battleship crews are never familiar of, adding into insult, this is a ww1 Super Dreadnought(alot of outdated components and equipments that requires specific crews which US does not have since they dont have one) and its manual and all readings are in japanese, making it even more difficult. Same thing could be said for Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen.

[@jasonsabourin2275]

@@potatoraider7320 I heard Japanese Steel makes Great Coral Reef. ✌️

[@ijnfleetadmiral]

So sad to see any great ship reduced to such a condition; she looks exhausted...it's almost as if she's saying in the film, "Thank God it's over".

[@potatoraider7320]

well, looking at it, its looks like a mess. It was never repaired since docks were damaged.

[@Colt45hatchback]

Didnt the yanks then proceed to nuke it at bikini atol?

[@Schnitzle1919]

Yep. It was part of Operation Crossroads

[@s0undwavekiller558]

The sad part of this video is that neither of these ships exist anymore. Nagato was used as a nuclear target and South Dakota was scrapped in the 1960s. So much for preserving history >:(

[@jaylockification]

Don't know if my dad knew Morris Pratt but he was also aboard the Nagato for a month in 1945. I have a list of men from my dads ship the USS Delta that were assigned aboard but I doubt if Pratt is among them. Great video and interesting to see the damage to the bridge done by an aerial topedo that skipped and went high into the bridge and killed many of the officers on duty that day.

[@Navyfieldguy]

WoW, thank you so much for this. =)

[@usnhistory]

@mgorilla52 Wonderful story! Thank you for sharing.

[@mop09drg]

1:30～ くらいからの艦橋のフォルムが実に美しい．．．

[@hashteraksgage3281]

Yeah Japanese battleships look like castles, so beautiful

[@shinbashicarp]

おお・・・本物の長門が動いてる！。・（ノД｀）・。

[@lawrencebracken9272]

the Iowa's were battleships ddland45

[@ユーキノリ]

長門、子供の頃、プラモデル作りましたよ‼️

[@masatomomiso]

長門に星条旗を付けるな

[@jasonsabourin2275]

Why? It ain't yours. All this coming from someone with a "Cadillac" emblem for a thumbnail. "Cadillac", one of the company's that made Sherman Tanks. 🤪

[@wogelson]

Wow

[@stonks6616]

Down to the bottom with all her comrades, sad way to go, but at least she is where she belongs. o7

[@ddland45]

Hahahaha...okay. Study battleship design and you'll realize Iowa class had more in common with battlecruisers than battleships. Fast, heavily armed but under-armoured. Most modern WWII battleships had thicker armour than Iowa. In fact, Iowa class was an elongated version of SoDak class; bigger, faster, but same armour thickness = battlecruiser.

[@potatoraider7320]

Uneducated swine... Iowa has 12 inch HTS and RHA armor, the fuck you talking about? Are you standardizing Yamato? a battleship who exceeded standard limit which is illegal just to be able to massacre Multiple battleships. Iowa can do the same but not as much as yamato.

[@patrickmccrann991]

No, they were battleships not battlecruisers. U.S. battleships used an "all or nothing" design for armor unlike other designs from different countries.

[@ddland45]

@@patrickmccrann991 Hate to burst your fantasy, but, by design, the Iowas were built to counter and intercept the Japanese Kongo-class battlecruisers which could make 32 knots. Everything about their design fit the definition of a battlecruiser; large, long, slender and FAST. Passing through the Panama Canal has always been a condition of design for US capital ships due to their "two-ocean" policy. In order to meet their design requirements, they sacrificed armor, again, a trait of a battle cruiser. Consider that Iowa's 12 in armor belt was thinner than that of many of her contemporaries including the British KGV class, the German Bismarck, the French Richelieu, the Italian Littorio, and of course, the Yamato. Even the Navy brass were concerned about the armor protection of the Iowas, but it was too late in the process to increase the deck thickness and maintain speed requirements. It wasn't an accident that the Iowas spent their careers as 'fast carrier' escort service while the dirty work of ship-to-ship battle was assigned to the slower and older American BATTLESHIPS.

[@breakfastwithtrees9524]

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