The Drydock - Episode 232 (Part 2)

[@nathangillispie51]

I'm amazed by the quality of the content Drach puts out

[@darrellsmith4204]

When you also factor in the quantity of content he produces it boggles the mind.

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

He does a tremendous job.

[@davidbryden7904]

And he's one of the most prolific youtubers I've seen!

[@davidbrennan660]

It is as if there is an entire Class of Drachs.

[@rydplrs71]

When your job is sharing knowledge about your hobby of learning I’m sure it helps

[@NathanOkun]

My idea of the hit by BISMARCK on HOOD that blew HOOD up being just above the joint of the 12"/7" belts was actually tested by a British 15" Mark IIIA/VA APC shell, among other armor firing tests, during the HOOD's design process since the original design was pre-Jutland with rather limited internal hull armor of any appreciable thickness (designed to resist blast and fragments caused by shells with non-delay base fuzes with very short distance motion after the first ship penetrating impact). To see what had to be done to fix some potential weaknesses this would cause against shells with longer delay-action fuzes (0.025-0.035 second). The problem here was that the 3" laminated HT-steel flat deck at the level of the joint of the bottom of the sloped 7" upper belt and sloped 12" waterline deck was found to be able to deflect upward the 15" shells after punching through the 7" belt, but this deck stopped at the joint of the sloped 2" turtleback deck extending down to the bottom edge of the 12" belt to stop fragments only, so there was a rather wide gap between the 3" deck edge and the rear of the 12" belt. The tests showed that extending the 3" flat deck to the joint of the 7" and 12" belts filled the gap and prevented hits on the magazine or powerplant spaces below the 3" deck. Unfortunately, the following happened when completely HOOD: (1) There was only a single 0.75" HT-steel plate between the powerplant spaces and magazine spaces, so a detonation in an adjacent powerplant space to a magazine would blast fragments into that nearby magazine and KABOOM! (2) If the enemy delay-action-fuzed APC shell penetrated the lower portion of the 7" belt at a downward angle of about 10 degrees or more, the shell would hit into this turtleback deck gap, so this gap needed sealing with the 3" deck extension badly. (3) If the enemy shell came at a horizontal angle from off the bow or stern and penetrated into the powerplant space nearest the magazine on the opposite end of the ship, the shell could continue forward due to the delay and punch through that thin HT-steel plate itself, making and even more guaranteed KABOM even if the shell did not explode properly. (4) The 3" deck extension was made over the magazines at each end of the ship, but, probably due to weight restrictions, it was NOT done over the powerplant spaces. Thus, you have two large "slots" in the HOOD's 7" side armor protection that can blow up the ship. Not very good design work here. The design defect of (4), above, is a major possibility as to that blew up HOOD. The under-the-belt hit due to hull wave shifting over spots of the lower hull at high speed is of course a completely viable alternative, though it supposes exact wave configurations and a hit at precise spots on the lower hull that conform to the waves.

[@josepetersen7112]

I'm leaving a comment here as a placeholder so I can come back and find your post later. KZbin makes it a little difficult to find specific posts. Nathan, I've read a lot of stuff you've worked on at Navweaps, do you run a site of your own by chance?

[@edwardloomis887]

The discussion regarding Royal Navy camouflage schemes reminded me of a joke about the British Army and its wide range of officer uniforms within and between regiments: If two British officers arrive at an event in the same uniform, the junior officer must go change.

[@keithskelhorne3993]

what about "Mess Dress"?,,,,,

[@SS-ec2tu]

The star on a U.S. Navy officers uniform designates a line officer. Various forms of oak leaves and acorns are used for supply, medical, dentists and other support officers.

[@pagejackson1207]

I thought that the star on a U.S. Navy officers uniform designates that the officer had commanded a ship of the U.S. Navy.

[@camenbert5837]

Imagine a 5-star dental officer with teeth instead of stars... you'd not mess with them...

[@allenparmet1016]

Oak leaf for medical branch plus two nuts (acorns) for a dentist, one nut for a physician and no nuts for a nurse.

[@timengineman2nd714]

@1:14:38 That's a Broadwell Drum on the Gatling gun, it is gravity feed with 12 slots that held 20 rounds each for a total of 240 rounds. (There was one version that held 400 rounds!) You had to manually rotate the drum to a slot that still held ammo. The ones I've seen (don't know if they are replicas or not) had to be removed to be reloaded. I also don't know if the 400 round drums were interchangeable with the 240 rounders.....

[@jlvfr]

Regarding the metallurgy question: you can see this in the evolution of tank armour and aviation engines during WWII, specially the "dance" of ingredients the germans had to do, because of their massive shortage of elements require for hight density/high heat resistence alloys.

[@alexkarman4679]

Maybe battleships had so many color schemes because the people who decide those things all owned stock in Tamiya 😃

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

I believe that there was a sort of Christmas truce on the Rufiji River in German East Africa in 1914. The cruiser Konigsberg was holed-up in the upper reaches of the river and a small RN squadron was trying to dig her out. On Christmas Day, a british aircraft flew reconnisance over the Konigsberg and dropped her a Christmas greeting in a bottle. Captain Loof apparently sent return greetings via a native messanger

[@frjonathanhill9817]

If the Royal Navy pre-dreadnoughts were got rid of, that would surely impact the Grand Fleet, because some of its Battleships would need to be in the Channel Force, now deprived of the King Edward class. Hence the Fleet itself would be reduced in numbers.

[@datgood121]

we definitely need a Wednesday special type video on target ship crews describing there working conditions and how do they escape if their ship does eventually go down

[@RodneyGraves]

In the USN the star indicated an officer of the un-restricted line (eligible for command at sea) whereas staff and other non-line officers had the badge of their corps in place of the star.

[@thomaslinton5765]

General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. [This is not a drill.] Forward and up to starboard, down and aft to port. Set material condition 'Zebra' throughout the ship. (Inbound hostile aircraft/Hostile surface contact/etc.)

[@lawrieyoutube4375]

I see the 'loop' as a stylized loop of rope. Notice it comes from under and then over the way ropes are looped for knotting, tying etc. Most importantly, the way ropes, rigging, hawsers etc are looped as they are 'made fast'. This visually and conceptually conveys steadfastness, security, reliability and the rope's control/command on what it is holding fast over. Entirely suitable for visually conveying the responsibilities and authority of officer ranks I would have thought. As someone (with a dreaded visual arts degree) who is trained in reading visual language and visual metaphor, this is how I am reading a plausible and possible derivation directly from the symbol itself. After all, maritime and naval lore is impressively rich in visual metaphor.

[@coldwarrior78]

There is likely something to your observations.

[@Edax_Royeaux]

Or it could be their ripping off the hussar fashion...again. Hussars used the Austrian knot to denote rank, you see such knots used for rank for the Confederacy during the US Civil War.

[@l7986]

I wonder if there are recordings of the few people that were on Centurion when it was being shelled in the tests. I know you said it was uparmored to keep them safe but once the shells start impacting I can't imagine many were supremely confident that the armoring would hold up.

[@tehllama42]

While definitely NSWF, I'd love to hear those

[@williamharvey8895]

I love these Drach_athons. The longer the better.

[@darrellsmith4204]

If there were a Drachinifel Class of ships, I wonder what they would be. I'm going with Coastal Minelayer..

[@dsloop3907]

No, something more of a nuclear powered Iowa, with rail guns, more armor, and a 40 kmh top speed.

[@rooksfoot1184]

Pennant numbers: if we cant understand it. imagine the hell it causes the enemy

[@Wolfeson28]

Oh man, that scenario for the WNT with the rest of the Admirals fully built is a messy one. In one case, you end up with the RN having to scrap something like Hood in order to keep some of the Admirals while also being allowed to build their 16-inch-armed ships (while at the same time keeping older ships like the Renowns). Or if you get into the other extreme where the RN gets to keep most or all of the Admirals and build the Nelsons, while the USN gets a couple of extra Colorados and the IJN gets a Tosa...at that point everyone sure ends up building a heck of a lot of new battleships for an agreement that was supposed to curtail the building of battleships.

[@richardcutts196]

01:45:31 the RN did the same thing presumably for the same reason. The Royal Sovereign class BB's had 13.5/32 guns (same as the preceding Trafalgar class), the next first class BB's (Majestic class) went down to 12/35 guns.

[@NathanOkun]

The main new alloy element in some forms of naval armor in WWII-era plates was the introduction of the metal molybdenum in percentages up to 0.4% or less. Some manufacturers never used it while other always added it. The alloy element did not make the final product stronger, but had the ability to reduced brittleness during multiple heating and cooling used during manufacturing processing so that the amount of waste due to poor reactions of some plates. Thus, it made making armor less expensive and more uniform for given processing methods. Most US naval armor did not use molybdenum. British and German WWII-era armors mostly did. The Japanese restricted it to improved homogeneous, ductile Molybdenum Non-Cemented armor ued only on the YAMATO Class primary deck armor (7.9 flat -10.9" edge slope) -- the rest of Japanese armor types on these ships, as with earlier battleships and cruisers used New Vickers Non-Cemented of 1931 issue and Copper Non-cemented (several grades ) introduce around 1840 homogeneous, ductile armors or Vickers Cemented (British 1912 KONGO KC alloy from Vickers Limited) or YAMATO-Class-only Vickers Hardened (non-cemented face) face-hardened armor using NVNC alloy as a baseline. Some armors used a little vanadium, also, but not many plates. The biggest improvements from WWI-era to WWII-era armors was improved methods of post-hardening tempering (toughening), especially improved for face-hardened armor resistance.

[@baronvonfaust]

Thanks for the information Nathan, it's always much appreciated and very useful to an enthusiast like myself. All the best.

[@barryslemmings31]

On the question of quality control with ammunition I concur with everything that Drach says but I believe he omitted date of manufacture as an issue with cartridges. My understanding is that date affects quality as charges do deteriorate over time and were eventually sent back for re-manufacture if not fired. The Royal Navy went to a lot of trouble to issue the same batch by date to a particular ship whereas (as I understand it) the WW2 Italians had mixed batches on board their ships and often within one salvo. So if a nine-gun broadside is spread over four batches the shells fired by the three oldest batches may fall well short for lack of power while only the most modern might fall near the target. Barry

[@Sgtklark]

Thanks!

[@davidvik1451]

35:39 Here’s how the Field Artillery would deal with variability in ammunition from Lot to Lot. I was in a Self Propelled 155mm Field Artillery Unit which would do “Calibration Firing” a month or two before with for each Lot of powder and projectiles to be used in the up coming annual training. The guns were positioned at surveyed firing points and fired at surveyed registration points. From this the “did hit” data corrections could be determined for each gun for each lot of powder and projectiles and guns of similar characteristics could be grouped in each Battery ie: long, mid, and sort shooters. With the advent of the tube mounted ballistic chronograph, real time velocities became available for each gun and variations with in and between Lots could be taken into account in the field. Plus we were also able to survey each guns location to with in a one meter circle and spotters using laser designators could do the same with the target. With this plus the introduction of digital computers, separate data was sent to each gun that took into account internal ballistic variables negating the need for grouping similar guns. Calculations were also made to take into account external ballistics such as, wind, air density, and coriolis effect ect. With all the above it became very common to fire one adjust round fallowed by fire for effect, which says there was no need to adjust from the initial round.

[@coldown_ivan4864]

1:25:55 Regarding South America: - Argentina: It had as alternatives to acquire battleships from 32,000 to 34,000 tons with the following gun configurations: 12x356mm, 14x305mm and 14x356mm, in addition to modifying the Rivadavia under construction (12x305mm to 12x356mm guns)*. And it was incorporating 12 to 16 modern destroyers (4x102mm guns and 4x533mm torpedoes). - Brazil: It was analyzing the incorporation of 2 super dreadnoughts (356mm, 381mm or 406mm guns), in addition to the Minas Geraes class (305mm guns) and the acquisition of destroyer torpedoboats (102mm guns and 457mm torpedoes)** and destroyer gunboats (3x152mm guns and 4x533mm torpedoes)***. - Chile: It was analyzing the incorporation of torpedo destroyers (102mm guns and 8x457mm torpedoes)**, in addition to its 6 Almirante class destroyers (6x102mm guns and 3x457mm torpedoes). *With the cancellation of the second Rio de Janeiro dreadnought (12x356mm guns) and the sale of the third Rio de Janeiro dreadnought (14x305mm guns), then its purchase order was not issued. **Similar to the Argentine San Luis class (4x102mm guns and 8x533mm topedoes, pos German G-101). ***Rivals of the Catamarca, Córdoba and San Juan classes (4x102mm guns and 4x533mm torpedoes) from Argentina.

[@leftcoaster67]

Looking at the Jolly Sailors menu and Beer and Burger $10 Wednesday to Friday special. I think I need to make sortie there.

[@nathanokun8801]

This problem with armor steel evaluation was in a large part due, for example, to not understanding the difference between the various impact mechanical processes involved in damaging a projectile, some of which caused much more severe damage than others. As you said, lack of the ability to get very high speed videos of the projectile and plate damaging each other moment by moment made it difficult to figure out what improvements in the structure of plate and/or projectile would change these results. Adding AP caps did a lot for allowing better penetration of hard-faced armor by projectiles, but how this actually was accomplished turned out to be for some metallurgists completely outside their mental horizon. Going from soft AP caps to hardened caps improved things, but exactly why this worked also was not fully understood by many. "Science advances one funeral at a time" is sometimes true in engineering, too.

[@mhmt1453]

Perhaps the sleeve loop harkens back to a uniform with sleeve cuffs that folded back, and the loop served as a button hole to fasten the cuffs back. Sound plausible?

[@johnshepherd9676]

Admiral Lutjens made the right call in not going after Prince of Wales. Bismarck had taken more damage than PoW, his effective speed had be reduced to approximately the same as PoW so he could not close the range and the next hit could have crippled Bismarck to the point where no escape was possible. I think the reason that a lot commentators believe Lutjens made the wrong the decision is because they know the ship was eventually lost and think the risk was worth it. However, Lutjens did not know Bismarck was going down and but for the lucky torpedo hit on the rudder he probably would have made it to safety.

[@EK-gr9gd]

The USN introdouced the rank of "admiral" rather late. They US rejected it for several reasons. The same goes with the rank of "full general".

[@stevevalley7835]

*perk* an alt history situation with all four Admiral class being continued. If two Admirals were completed as carriers, they, plus Argus, Hermes, Eagle, and Furious, would fill the RN's carrier tonnage quota under the treaty. That would mean Courageous and Glorious could not be converted, unless, Argus, Eagle and Hermes were all scrapped/reclassified, which would have been allowed under the WNT. If those three ships are eliminated to permit conversion of Courageous and Glorious, there would be no tonnage available for Ark Royal. If only one Admiral was converted to a carrier, that would leave enough tonnage for Courageous and Glorious, provided Argus was scrapped/reclassified. Then Eagle and Hermes could be scrapped/reclassified to clear tonnage for Ark Royal. The one Admiral conversion also has the virtue of making the math simple: the RN has three Admirals as "post-Jutland", the US has the three Colorados and Japan has the two Nagatos. On the other hand, there would be a tendency to convert two, because the US and Japan were converting two. The RN could forgo converting the Courageouses, which leaves them available to chase German raiders in 1940. I rather like the prospect of Courageous squaring off against Sheer, rather than Jervis Bay.

[@michaelkovacic2608]

Regarding the QE vs Fuso question, one thing that shouldn't be forgotten was the QE's weak upper hull, being protected by 6 inches of armor - the 13 inch belt wasn't that high. This is important because before the refit, they carried only a 1 inch armor deck behind this, so I'm pretty sure a 14 inch AP shell can reach the citadel - it isn't even THAT unlikely. Drach, do you have any info about upgrades to the lower armor deck on the QE? Also, would it be possible to show the armor scheme of the modernized Renown? It is credited with a pretty respectable new armor deck (some sources state 4 inch), I assume they placed it on the top edge of the 9inch main belt? Was this deck completely new, or composite with new plates laid atop the lod ones?

[@Drachinifel]

Warspites lower armour deck had 2.5" NC added to 1" HT in her refit. Edit: Renown oddly enough had additional plate added to her lower decks including extending the flat section out to the armour belt in additio to the slopes, which may also have been upgraded (depends on source)

[@michaelkovacic2608]

@Drachinifel Thanks very much for your answer, info on armor schemes after refits is somewhat hard to come by. Extending the main armor deck to the belt on Renown is certainly not bad, Nathan Okun has stated that AP shells that pass just over the top edge of the main belt and then strike the slope can create very dangerous situations, especially since such a trajectory goes pretty much straight into the vitals. In fact, having the main armor deck connected to the top edge of the belt and still having a slope behind the main belt could actually be the best possible armor scheme of all. The German K class cruisers also had it, although the slope's angle wasn't particularly useful due to the very narrow hull.

[@christopher5723]

It's too bad the RN didn't keep at least an additional Admiral, an alternate history with Admiral class Rodney leading the force to avenge her sister after Denmark Straights is compelling.

[@sfs2040]

Thanks for answering my question on AS vs GQ! That had been bugging me for so long and yet the answer was so simple!

[@kennethdeanmiller7324]

Hey Drach, considering that you were supposed to be at a bar in DC tonight I had wanted to come & meet you. However, I've NOT been feeling well and decided that you may be better off NOT having me present cuz I'm not sure if I would be contagious but probably better safe than sorry. I'd hate to make you sick for the remainder of your visit here in the US! So hopefully maybe next time you visit the states you'll be back in DC again. But I do hope you had a good time in DC & safe & happy trip to you, the misses & your entourage!!!

[@Rammstein0963.]

On the Bismarck thing, I'd say yes personally. I mean you know your cover is blown, the RN KNOWS where you are (and are going), you're mot likely to get the mission done even if you somehow got to a safe port, so it essentially becomes a case of "If I'm going down YOURE coming with me."

[@Edax_Royeaux]

And risk returning to port for(slow?) execution for disobeying the orders from the very top.

[@tombogan03884]

The funny part is that the .45 Gatling cartridge was the bases for several later rifles. So that made them "machine gun caliber rifles" . LOL

[@hansbroger946]

The armor plate in the background of thy US metallurgy question looks to be a test plate for the Imperial Russian Navy Battleship "Retvizan" built in here Philly. ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BD_(%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%86)

[@thomaslinton5765]

Bravely done !

[@TrickiVicBB71]

There was people inside a target ship?! That is some nerves of steel

[@toddwebb7521]

If the standards had been refit before the big ultra mega jumbo torpedo bulges they got post pearl harbor the Big 5 (TN and CO classes) had the spare machinery space to get up around QE speed (23-25ish knot) with their pre ultra mega bulge hull form. Some QE speed standards would be as fast or faster than Fuso/Ise which would make the Fuso/Ise more useless than historic. Even Nagato would be questionable for having enough speed advantage to control the range and angles. This could result in some interesting butterflies if the US decided a 23-25 knot standard was fast enough to use in early war 1942.

[@philipdepalma4672]

Re:voice communications if you are a Admiral in WW2 why would you want a system that allows the President/PM and any other big wig in Washington or London to call you and question/bother you in real time. If installed you get a bucket of salt water and apply liberally.

[@PaulfromChicago]

Those "where would x gun hit" questions are thoroughly amusing.

[@toddwebb7521]

One of these months I'm going to have to ask about the guns at the old county courthouse which iirc are Dalgrens although I'd definitely want to confirm that before asking.

[@bkjeong4302]

I once tried to work out where Haida’s shells would land if she fired them from her current moorings at maximum elevation. Answer: probably somewhere in the vicinity of the Warplane Heritage Museum

[@PaulfromChicago]

@@bkjeong4302 ha. Look out them. U505's deck gun was safely pointed to Lake Michigan before the submarine was relocated underground. Remember, you can never be too careful around guns.

[@vespelian5769]

The gun outside the Jolly Sailor is a salvaged German u-boat deck gun from WWI. It used to be mounted just within the dockyard gate though I can't be sure of the caliber. Perhaps a 5.9 inch from the U-55 class though it looks a little small.

[@camenbert5837]

The only questions are surely (1)"can we hit Southampton with it?" and (2)"when can we have a try?"

[@GR46404]

I think the Germans put 105mm guns on some U-Boats. That might have been in WWII, though.

[@davidwright1577]

1:09:00 i'd like to think that without the predreadnaughts gallipole isn't even attempted and the resources are used elsewhere

[@toddwebb7521]

Well on the misattributing the Fuso and Kongo as being better than they are, when you do not know your enemy's capabilities in an area you have to assume they are equal to your own , so the RN had to assume the Japs had refit QE/Renown level fire control. With 12 14inch guns a Fuso would be a hard fight for a QE assuming equal fire control (which they didn't actually have) and with 8 14 inch guns the Kongo would probably be superior to renown if it had equal fire control.

[@MARGATEorcMAULER]

Maybe I missed it but what does the loop signify ? Seems like all the bars on the cuff says it all

[@gunnersmatemk1119]

The star appearing above the rank braid on a u.s. officers uniforme denotes they are a line officer, I wonder if the loop on a British officer's uniform is the same thing

[@keithskelhorne3993]

Ref the "Jolly Gun" , I think it is either a 5.5 or 6 inch BL, just my opinion :)

[@nomdefamille4807]

given that there are pics of bbs raised dry by floating docks, implying a mighty excess displacement compared to their load, were they the largest vessels of the era?

[@niclasjohansson4333]

Is that a Fletcher class submarine at 59.10.

[@TheJsmitty85]

I think this is the first time I got the pateron dry dock done in a day and some change.

[@Yuzral]

47:15 - With the slight hole in the logic that Zeus, among others, was not noted for being overly concerned about propriety. Or, for that matter, consent.

[@Wolfeson28]

If, one night, your crew awakens to the gyrations of some sea creature attempting to hump the ship's figurehead...ya...probably Zeus. 🦢

[@coldwarrior78]

About the ship cammo, was it (pattern or timing) decided by HQ and ordered down the chain or decided locally?

[@markjoenks2217]

The Germans used weather stations, weather station Kurt, to predict the bad weather to add cover for the Battle of the Bulge. Did they use weather forecasts to schedule ship movements, eg. time breakouts from Norway?

[@mattmartin3106]

G'day from Sydney, Australia. This maybe a little random but... I have a quick question for you (if you have the time of course). At the of me writing this. The first shipment of US Bradley's (infantry fighting vehicle's) are steaming across the Atlantic, abroad The Arc Integrity a civilian ship (which sails under an American flag). These war goods are bound for a Belgaum Port and then on to Ukraine. Where they will no doubt contribute/ be responsible for the death of Russian soldiers. My question is this: Under Maritime law, would The Arc integrity be considered a legitimate/legal target for the Russian Navy? Personally I see no difference between the Arc Integrity and the Lusitania. But I would love to hear your point of view.

[@Knight6831]

I was wondering where you heard t that the IWM had found those photos as that is very interesting as the photos would tell us just how far along with the 3 Admiral Class battlecruisers the British got before cancellation

[@davidbrennan660]

Just when 1 part of Drach is not enough..... hail part 2.

[@advancegamer3954]

Hey man, can you do a video on ships that the petrol has found recently?

[@VintageCarHistory]

Thank you for answering such a loopy question.

[@seanmalloy7249]

The Royal Navy had enough rules regarding the distribution of prize money -- for example, if another ship hove up in view of a battle while there was still firing going on but didn't get close enough to fire its guns, if the enemy ship was captured, the ship that sailed up was entitled to a share of the prize money -- I believe pro-rated by the ship rate. If that second ship was then dispatched to some distant destination, and did not return to Britain for months after the prize was bought by the Admiralty, it would still have its share of the prize money retained and distributed when the ship did return. But, as you point out, individual sailors would not be sought out by the Admiralty to be paid their prize money, while the captain of a ship owed prize money would be in a much better position to raise a stink over his crew not being paid. I have never, though, found out what would happen if ships A and B were determined to share the prize money for enemy C, but ship A was sunk with its crew before the prize money could be paid. I expect, with the pragmatism of the Admiralty, the unawarded prize money would vanish into the Admiralty's coffers, but as it was fairly common for sailors and some officers to have part or all of their pay diverted to their family ashore, diverting prize money could be politically expensive, at least with regard to the officers of the lost ship.

[@raymarsh9788]

What would a high calibre hesh round do 16in to a battle ship

[@void_killcode]

listening to this while building my new/second Bismarck model ship only thing is is that this ones bigger than my first one around 71,8 CM big

[@robertmatch6550]

Welcome Sunday morn!

[@Zonkotron]

What about neutraL ports. There you could have christmas stuff ?

[@coldwarrior78]

About the super-charges, my uncle heard a rumor that the super-charges had a habit of exploding the guns. Just rumor but possibly a morale issue or maybe some ranking officers heard it too.

[@jefffranckowiak8911]

Just wondering, how do the german 15 inch guns compare to royal navy and us 16 inch, did the German navy consider a larger gun?

[@niclasjohansson4333]

The Germans was planning to equip the H class with a 420mm gun, and the turrets of the Bismarck class was designed for those guns from the start. The 380mm had a higher velocity than the US or British 16" gun (A lot higher than the US 16/45), and therefore better vertical armour penetration, but poor, at best, deck penetration.

[@Deroven]

Sailing master, the original "Officer - Reality - Officer" dictionary.

[@leMiG31]

How to get my question in these videos?

[@Knight6831]

10:50 how ironic Drach as AC Naval History will be talking about what you just said on Tuesday

[@Valorius]

The woman on ships tensions are absolutely real in the modern navy. Ask any sailor that has ever served on an integrated ship off the record.

[@First-Last_name]

Man I've never joined a patreon or anything ever, but I'm drying to ask Drach question.

[@michaelkovacic2608]

Regarding the Bismarck vs Prince of Wales question: - Bismarck carried only 273 AP shells and had already used up 93 of those, scoring 6 hits, 4 of them on PoW. If we take this hit ratio as representative, Bismarck can hit PoW another 10 to 15 times before running out of ammo. I somewhat doubt that this is enough to physically sink PoW, unless a lucky hit occurs (please see below) - Bismarck might have finished PoW had she actually turned into the torpedo salvo at 0603, at which time the range had dropped to below 14 kilometers. It certainly would have been very risky, but this maneuver would have prevented PoW from opening the distance and allowed Bismarck to engage her at a range where PoW had no immunity against the 380mm guns. PoW's belt (at magazines) can be penetrated below 18000 yards when showing flat broadside. - Since Bismarck historically turned away from the torpedoes, PoW managed to open up the distance so that she again had immunity, so again, I don't see Bismarck sinking PoW. - Another very interesting point is that both BBs had weak bulkheads, which meant that neither had any immunity from one another against raking fire. So I disagree with Drach here when he stated that PoW won't explode: BOTH ships could have detonated if penetrated through bow or stern (assuming the fuse isn't triggered before reaching the bulkhead, in which case magazine hits are basically impossible). Neither Bismarck nor Prince of Wales was built for taking raking fire. Source: Paul Forest "Bismarck vs Prince of Wales"

[@princeoftonga]

🎉🎉I survived the patreon dry dock🎉🎉

[@oughv]

Smaller caliber does not mean less firepower. For example a .50 cal desert eagle is a hell of a huge handgun that will leave a fairly large hole in whatever you shoot. Yet the minigun that the terminator used to destroy an entire police force, fires itty bitty 9mm rounds.

[@bkjeong4302]

If Hood actually got her sisters: Hood was already the most overall capable capital ship on the planet before the tail end of the 1930s (as the new fast capital ships start coming online and especially as naval aviation comes of age). Now there’s three more of her floating around? That probably means that the WNT never actually passes because there is no way the USN and IJN will accept the Lexingtons or the Amagis turned to carriers after that, and then the Japanese would run out of money trying to build everything they wanted.

[@aviral3464]

Ah the Japanese would be able to expand more due to no fear of aircraft carrier. And the Yamato class can be built off the taken resources that japan occupied. Hell if those ships were finished japan could have schooled anything America and Britain had at the time. Because ya know 1938 was when Yamato was finished along with musashi

[@arieltimeshrine8137]

@@aviral3464 Japan was quite literally economically barred from further expanding their fleet which was a driver in why they signed the Treaty in the first place, since it'd allow them to stop, y'know, burning a third of their overall budget on their navy. Being able to "school" the other nations' battle lines isn't happening, they'd be outbuilt.

[@vstr4276]

Re: pennant numbers - were they perhaps handing out the lowest free number per category?

[@niclasjohansson4333]

The "super charges" was ONLY designed for the 15"/42, and ONLY for use by the ships with the "unmodified" turrets (max 20° elevation). As far as i know It was never ever used on a ship !?

[@sillypuppy5940]

Regarding the calling of ships "she", how does that work with merchantmen - ie, a merchant ship?

[@f-xdemers2825]

You made my day.

[@rayofhope1114]

Another point on the return of Royal Sovereign from the Russian navy is that all of the guns - 15 inch down to the AA weapons - were loaded.

[@kidmohair8151]

gotta love metaphors. a 3-way Mexican standoff in the South American dreadnought race (2.0)

[@mike28003]

US navy offiicer sleeves don't always have a star. A star signifies a line office, cross clergy and so on

[@tombogan03884]

1;52;00 Richard Sorge was a "German" in Tokyo who was feeding a lot of high value intelligence but he was a Soviet agent.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

2:54 the British really got a terrible deal in the naval treaty didn't they, I baffles me why they signed it like it was.

[@Jacob-W-5570]

Regarding the christmas truce at sea. There is the Church pennant, from the Anglo-dutch wars, comprised of a English and dutch flag sewen together into a long pennant. it was hoisted that there was a church service going on onboard, and that they where not going to engage in a fight. I Assume that if you'd fly it durign WWI christmas it probably would be honoured.

[@mhmt1453]

Camouflage: kind of makes sense that the RN would have so many patterns, considering up until WW2, it had the most ships of any navy. Obviously, one wouldn’t want to have any two ships to have the same pattern, or for instance to maintain the same pattern for any significant amount of time so that an enemy would more easily recognize the particular ship. I’m sure they would have kept the average seaman well-occupied with painting work details!

[@camenbert5837]

Imagine the embarrassment if you showed up to a mooring with the same camouflage as another ship...

[@giupiete6536]

@@camenbert5837 You're amazing

[@HeedTheLorax]

History with humor, I missed part the discussion about Australia vs Brazil and Chile in the inter war period. Something about a Mexican standoff?

[@calvingreene90]

When you have a small number of women in a large group of men the women must share their "favor" in a way that the men find equitable. Which means keep it to herself (this includes her mate husband or by other name) or pass it around like a collection plate.

[@loginavoidence12]

46:08 women are considered bad luck in general, not just aboard ships. they literally cause and dump all their problems on others with not one single bit of self reflection or thought

[@geoffhunter7704]

Hmm Women on board Warships the Royal Navy recently felt compelled to move the Captain off a Frigate as the relationship she was having with a CPO was considered the opposite of good order and discipline onboard,what a shame as that old saying "All the world loves a lover" is not strictly true.

[@niclasjohansson4333]

I think the IJN long lance was a failiure, in being oxygen powered. A conventionaly powered torp would have been almost as efficent, they rarely scored hits at long distance anyway and loads of Japanese destroyers and cruisers was lost or damaged when there "oxygen torpedoes" blow up.

[@bkjeong4302]

A lot of the cases of Japanese ships being sunk by their own oxygen torpedoes are suspect, however (Chokai being the most prominent example)

[@rupertboleyn3885]

Conventionally powered torpedoes were not anywhere near as efficient. They were slower, had much shorter range, and couldn't carry as large a warhead. To minise the effect of sheer size, let's compare a British 24.1" Mark I, with oxygen-enriched air, at 5,700 lbs weight, 20,000 yards range at 30 knots (long range setting), and a 743 lb warhead with an early Type 31 (Model 1, Mod 1) at 5,950 pounds weight, 21,900 yards at 48 knots (that's the short range setting!), and a 1080 pound warhead. Later production examples were a couple of knots faster (simply from improving the nose shape) Yes, it was a 10 year newer design, but that's not where all that performance came from. Late war models traded range (drops to ~16,000 yards) for a huge (1720 lb) warhead. Compared to the standard 21" torpedoes the difference is even more stark: The British Mark IX weighed ~3,700 lbs, had a range of 13,500 yards at 30 knots (long range), and a 750 lb warhead, improving to 15,000 yards at 35 knots with an ~800 lb warhead. The US mark 15 weighed 3,440 lbs, had a 15,000 yard range at 26.5 knots (long range), and a ~500 lb warhead, later growing to 3,840 lbs for 14,500 yards at 26.5 knots with an ~800 lb warhead. So even the 'short ranged' late war Type 93s had similar range to allied torpedoes, but were much faster (especially compared to US torps), and had warheads almost twice the size, making them more powerful despite the allies use of torpex. Whether the Type 93 was 'worth it' is debatable (I'm with Drach that it was), but that it had much higher performance than anyone else's torpedoes is not.

[@niclasjohansson4333]

@@bkjeong4302 You are right about the number of IJN CAs lost because of there own torpedoes blowing up has been exagerated, and Chokai, as you point out is one example. However some like Mikuma were, and also a number of destroyers were damaged/lost when there LLs were hit, and most if not all of those ships would have survived had the torpedoes been of the conventional type. An oxygen powered torpedoe has better performance, of course, but the chance of hitting a ship at the ranges where it would make a difference is slim at best. There was several battles where the Japanese launched almost a hundred torpedoes at US/allied vessels without a single hit, like the action against Washington and SD, Samar etc.

[@bkjeong4302]

@@niclasjohansson4333 The Long Lance did have rather dismal hit rates at very long ranges, but other torpedoes would have absolutely no chance at those ranges (because they literally couldn’t travel that far), and more importantly, the Long Lance had advantages over other torpedoes even at closer ranges (its speed especially).

[@thomaslinton5765]

DID THE DUTCH HAVE SUCH GOOD TORPEDOES AS TO COMPENSATE FOR US JUNK IN 1942? IF NOT, WHAT "EXCHANGE"?

[@kkupsky6321]

I thought the loops on sleeves were Austrian knots. And no one ever messes with the Austrians navy…

[@88njtrigg88]

American Uniforms are far more dignified, just my 2cents worth.

[@Captain_Seafort]

Re: Pennant numbers. I wouldn't be surprised if the incoherent gibberish was intentional. Imagine the confusion it would have caused in enemy intelligence.

[@davidbirt8486]

Or someone got loose in the rum store,...

[@WelshInRussia]

My thoughts exactly. I can imagine the conversation: "But Sir, if we don't understand the pennant numbering system, what chance have the enemy got?"

[@Drewmikola]

I detected the slightest hint of a "bloody colonials" in that first answer :)

[@Sandgroper-WA]

Hmm so that why the figurehead is always salty. Drachinifel is a font of random naval knowledge.

[@thurmanspurlock5949]

"SET IT'S SELF UP AS" (Jk, I know the US navy had a bit to go at this)

[@richardbennett1856]

The Washington Treaty was a joke,the London Treaty wasn't even close to parity. Reserve Fleet Allowcation is a builr in loophole. One of many. Understanding why Japan's reaction to the London Treaty because of the hulls already being laid, so they're being screwed by USN and RN, even though they're a former ally. We will just do our own thing, thank you.

[@bigsarge2085]

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