The Drydock - Episode 200 (Part 1)

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@Rdeboer]

Question: Did the advent of dual-purpose secondary batteries make a significant difference to a battleship's anti-aircraft capability while under attack?

[@semimiller7609]

german's type-7 uboats were any still used post second world war or were they all scrapped?

[@Eric_Hutton.1980]

I believe that I once read that the USS Lake Champlain crossed the Atlantic in like 3 1/2 days. Any truth to that?

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

I know this question is just a little bit out of the scope of your channels time line but how big was the scratch fleet assembled by the US navy at bikini atoll for operation Crossroads?

[@simonsmythe5401]

Do you ever plan on talking about the Chinese navy during the second Sino-Japanese war?

[@mattblom3990]

Seeing as I first found Drach within a few days of Drydock 1 was released, I'm amazed by the amount of content we've had the pleasure to digest over the years...Also a much better microphone :)) and boy, were the answers to those first Drydocks answered Oerlikon rapid fire style.

[@wierdalien1]

Shouldn't that be 20mm bofors, old boy?

[@johnbuchman4854]

@@wierdalien1 Way to shake those Pom-poms, olde girl...

[@robertstone9988]

I remember the robot voice reviews

[@model-man7802]

Me too,saw it from the beginning. 👍

[@wierdalien1]

@@johnbuchman4854 hey Andrew, you're so fine, you blow my mind hey Andrew? Hey Andrew? Metal Mickey but with Andrew Cunningham

[@Thunderous117]

Hey Drach, just wanted to say thank you for your incredible work throughout the years, I have been watching your channel since the original Agincourt video back when everything was Robovoiced. Every week for the past 5 years you have continued to produce fantastic naval history content with a nuanced and well researched position at every turn and you have never failed to impress me. I still am baffled at where you find the hours in the day to make all of this content. Anywho, thanks for all the amazing work, and I look forward to watching your channel for years to come!

[@rustysquid]

Congratulations on Dry dock 200! A security check was conducted by an E5 on my base. She gained access all the way to the comms window. That is when I checked and noticed her id badge had a picture of Miss Piggy.

[@davidvik1451]

02:26:03 The sliding breach block requires the last propellant increment to be in a metal casing which expands against the chamber walls providing the seal. With the interrupted screw the seal is made by the obturator spindle and pad which allows for the totally consumable propellant charge.

[@fryaduck]

Yes, @Drachinifel got the obturation fundamentally wrong. The two types of BL (Breech Loading) systems are interrupted thread and sliding wedge which are further broken down into Separate Loading and Quick Fire (QF), I am using English/Australian terminology btw. Quick Firing is also broken down into fixed and semi-fixed ammunition types. You, David, are correct that the obturation is made via the obturation pad (the spindle just holds it and allows for ease of maintenance). The interrupted thread is more efficient for separate loading ammunition. We see the interrupter thread on weapons of medium calibre and upwards (roughly 5.5inch and upwards). That being said there are exceptions to the rule as the Ordnance QF 18pr is an interrupted thread breech using fixed ammunition but that piece is a direct fire weapon and has an unnecessarily complicated milling of the chamber. The reason why the Germans only used sliding wedge was that Krupp wasn't able to produce an adequate interrupter thread (which is fascinating considering their alleged technical expertise). This also fundamentally slowed the fire rate of medium to heavy artillery as it required the cartridge case to be unloaded and manhandled.

[@murderouskitten2577]

This A and B sections in single week/day is the best of both worlds IMO. I like this idea.

[@MrNicoJac]

How hilarious would it be if the Fisher questioner was actually Mrs Drach? 😂

[@hughgordon6435]

There was a Royal navy squadron leader who had an ID card "as Mike Mouse," who gained access to the base commander, with a loaded gun during a TAC EVAL the brown stuff really hit the fan!

[@LeCharles07]

I have personally seen the "carry a clipboard trick" work flawlessly more than once and I when I graduated high school I saw people I had never seen before in my life but we apparently went to school together for 4 years. Regardless, the guy that snuck aboard the New York in the Panama Canal has got the be the best pirate I've ever seen.

[@sundiver137]

I seem to recall that two escaped American POWs who took with them a clipboard and tape measure and basically measured their way to France, where the Resistance got them to into Allied hands.

[@harrisonrawlinson5650]

200 episodes and I’ve watched every single one. Amazing how the channel has grown and improved since the early dry docks. Got to give credit to the people that ask questions too, there’s some really good questions that I would never have thought of

[@captainswoop8722]

Boilers and Forced Draught. Sorry if this is a bit long, I have experience working on ship boiler plant dating from the 1930s up to modern installations. 'Forced Draught' is not a 'speed boost' Even simple boiler plant on a ship uses a forced draught. A boiler will run at it's designed pressure for as long as you want it to as long as there is fuel and feed water, it will not burst or explode. Maximum boiler pressure has a limit set by the design of the boiler. It is enforced by whatever pressure the safety valves are set to. Boiler room fans run at a constant speed and give a constant draught, you regulate the draught in to the boiler by operating the 'dampers' on the front of the combustion chamber and boilers have multiple combustion chambers. Work from the boiler is also controlled by the fuel flow, either quantity of coal or oil put in to the combustion chambers through either the stoke holes for coal or the atomisers for oil. Boilers have a pressure range where they are at their most efficient and ships have multiple boilers. On small ships like the Leanders I served aboard there were two boilers, to increase speed fuel flow was increased and dampers opened, the draught was constant. On bigger ships that had multiple boiler plant such as cruisers and battleships a number of boilers would be kept just 'hot' but not at a high working pressure. When more speed was required this plant could be flashed up to pressure. Again the draught was constant. As a Sea Cadet before I joined the Navy I worked for a while aboard the former HMS Neave, the last of the Isles class Admiralty trawlers that had been converted in to a tank cleaning ship under the name of SS Tulipbank, my dad was working aboard as the engineer refitting the boiler and triple expansion engine. It had a 'Scotch' type oil fired boiler. Even she had a forced draught provided by electric powered fans. They had one speed and ran all the time the boiler was in full steam. Loss of fan draught on any ship 'kills' the boilers, without the forced draught they will not steam. Film of the SS Shieldhall raising steam, it shows how the forced draught works. Until they have enough steam to power their plant they use a portable fan to get the draught. Neave was more sophisticated than Shieldhall, it had a small auxiliary boiler to give enough pressure to operate the auxiliary machinery while raising steam. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXOogIZ3fpedm5o RN film from 1942, Raising steam on a Destroyer kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6iwg3aLZdSfiZI HMS Neave as she was in service www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205121299 As she was as the Tulipbank, the engine is preserved in the National Maritime Museum www.shipsnostalgia.com/media/tulipbank.1840/

[@captainswoop8722]

Just to add, the steam plant aboard the Neave/Tulipbank was identical to the Shieldhall, just half the size as she only had one shaft. As noted the Shieldhall wasn't as sophisticated as the RN installation as Neave had an auxiliary boiler and steam turbine-alternators for electricity.

[@spiritfoxmy6370]

Schleswig-Holstein were mostly German and their incorporation into Denmark initially was largely dynastic rather than any kind of popular interest. In fact the FIRST Schleswig war was triggered by an uprising by the German population in the two Duchies when the Danish crown tried to incorporate them directly into the Kingdom of Denmark itself. Prussia supported the rebels but were forced to back down by the threat of Anglo-Russian intervention and forced to sign a treaty in London recognizing Denmark's sovereignty over the two duchies in exchange for Denmark's recognition of their semi-independent status. The second war was triggered when the Danes, after a succession dispute, decided to again incorporate the two duchies into the Kingdom and rule them directly which violated the first treaty and this time Prussia - led by one Otto von Bismarck - had laid the diplomatic groundwork to guarantee nonintervention; having previously earned the friendship of the Russians and bought off the French, they persuaded the Austrians to join in a pan-German coalition to "liberate" Schleswig-Holstein, isolating Britain and the Danes. The second war ended with Bismarck agreeing to a joint occupation with Austria who he then proceeded to kick out of the place during the Austro-Prussian War. I'd imagine the reason the Prussians never tried to take the whole of Denmark was precisely to avoid the rest of Europe ganging up on them and forcing them to give up the two duchies again (this being Bismarck after all - one of the greatest statesmen in history) and the reason the Danes never asked for them back simply being recognition that the two duchies were fundamentally German in their identity to begin with.

[@hothoploink1509]

Also, Denmark was offered those territories after both WW1 and WW2 and only took the danish majority region, wisely concluding that taking more would invite revanchism.

[@gustav331]

This is completely wrong. Schleswig was still mostly Danish in 1864, while Holstein was wholely German. The war in 1848 was not because of Danish attempts to incorporate the duchies. It started because the German deputies from Schleswig-Holstein in Copenhagen gave the King an ultimatum, demanding the independence of Schleswig-Holstein. The Danish public responded in kind, and huge crowds went to the King in an almost revolutionary atmosphere, demanding a democratic constitution and that Schleswig should remain Danish. The war then finally started when the German units in Rendsburg revolted and took control of the citadel. This was the culmination of decades of growing tensions between Danish and German national feelings. Schleswig was the ancient battleground between these two sentiments, with both nationalities claiming it as theirs. Since Schleswig then had always been Danish crownland, and since the majority of Schleswig was still Danish as mentioned above, the Danish people wanted it incorporated into Denmark proper. Meanwhile, the Germans in Holstein, and the German nobility in Schleswig, wanted to leave the Danish Realm and create their own German state. Holstein was the richest and most prosperous territory in Denmark back then, and held undue influence in both Denmark and especially Schleswig. Because of this German influence, German was the official language in Schleswig, which the Danish majority was very much against. Therefore this battle between Danish and German in Schleswig was of great popular interest to the public. Meanwhile, the dynastic viewpoint was generally to try and maintain the status quo - that is to say, that Schleswig shouldn't be incorporated directly into Denmark, but that the Holsteiners shouldn't be allowed to get independence and take Schleswig with them either. The battle between Danish and German was therefore very much a matter of great popular interest, and not just dynastic - Frederik VII supported the National Liberals and the nationalistic sentiments that were at large in the population, true, but his successor, Christian IX, was very much opposed to trying to incorporate Schleswig into Denmark proper because of the Treaty of London in 1852. This leads me on to the second point which non-Danish people on the internet consistently get wrong (including Drach in this video): Schleswig and Holstein are not the same! Danish nationalists did not want to incorporate Holstein into Denmark, only Schleswig! Therefore it was only Schleswig which Denmark attempted to incorporate (and Denmark didn't do this till 1863, it didn't happen in 1848). The whole point of the wars was to get rid of Holstein, so that Denmark could keep Schleswig without having it be controlled by Germans in Holstein. This, however, was against Christian I's promise made in 1460 to keep the duchies united. And this was also the argument made by the Germans in Schleswig and Holstein against Danish attempts to incorporate Schleswig and throw out Holstein from the Danish Helstat. So in short: no Dane ever wanted Holstein, and the whole point was to be rid of Holstein. So there was absolutely no trouble with building the Kiel Canal in Holstein, since absolutely no one wanted Holstein. Danish nationalists after 1864 only wanted Schleswig back.

[@cartmann94]

There was two plebiscites in 1920 sponsored by the League of Nations to let voters decide whether to remain in Germany or join Denmark. The region was divided into three zones based on population proportion. Zone I in the north voted 75/25 in favor of Denmark, whereas Zone II voted 80/20 in favor of Germany. Zone III (further south) was not consulted as the Danes knew there was a significant pro-German population there. And that defined the frontier to this day.

[@PalleRasmussen]

Correct. We might add that at the dawn of Denmark as a realm it did indeed include Slesvig, not Holsten. It was only in the late middle ages they became Germanised under German dukes, though at that time it did not matter though as nationalism had not been invented.

[@PalleRasmussen]

@N Fels the only thing it is good for, is making your brain melt. It is literally some of the worst twisting of actual history to pursue a current agenda that I have ever seen anywhere- including "300" and "1612".

[@oldanalytics3626]

You, Sir, are for me the most informatic source when it comes to warships. You just see the facts. A good design is a good ship for you. no matter where the ship comes from. Keep on, youre brilliant. Greetings from germany

[@Aelxi]

Ladies and Gentlemen, we've reached 200th episode. Let's take a moment to appreciate the work of our lord and saviour Drach.

[@kendramalm8811]

Amen!

[@treyhelms5282]

@@kendramalm8811 God save the Drachinifel?

[@kendramalm8811]

@@treyhelms5282 Go in peace, to love and serve the naval history!

[@jonathanhill4892]

I wouldn't go that far, but let's express our thanks and appreciation of all that he does here!

[@chloehennessey6813]

I appreciate your sentiment. However my Lord and Savior is Ian McCollum- the one and only Gun Jesus.

[@tbretten]

Seriously Drach, give us a "let's do it the way that's best for you" Option to vote on!

[@1982nsu]

27:06 In the book "Japanese Destroyer Captain," Tameichi Hara's wartime autobiography, he states that for three years he secretly tackled a private project to prove the faults of existing Japanese torpedo doctrine and to develop a new manual. When published in 1932, his results were quickly accepted by the IJN and led to marked improvement in torpedo marksmanship. "Japanese Destroyer Captain" by Tameichi Hara is a great book mostly devoted to the war in the Pacific and includes his eye witness account of the sinking of Yamato..

[@HEDGE1011]

Thank you for this recommendation, Ruben. I immediately ordered the book!

[@1982nsu]

@@HEDGE1011 Good for you. I know you will enjoy it.

[@TrickiVicBB71]

Before I watch. You have hit a huge milestone. 200 Drydocks. I started watching some time before the first one aired when you still had robo voices. 200 weeks of Dry Dock. I remember when Jingles hit 400 MwJ

[@TylerHulan]

I've never watched one of your videos but every time I fall asleep watching YT, it without fail plays a drydock episode.

[@keppersdesignarchitecture6717]

Re: sneaking onto the ship. I once had a co- worker who served aboard one of the big U.S. aircraft carriers in the early 1960s. According to him, there were regular announcements that undercover security personnel had managed to sneak into the engine rooms, onto the bridge, etc. So security was a problem even then. But they were trying to improve!

[@glennricafrente58]

200 Episodes, whew. "Do not think that this is all there is. More and more wonderful teachings exist- Naval history is unfathomable." - apologies to Yamaoka Tesshu.

[@stevevalley7835]

wrt to Dr D M Platt's question about replacing guns, expanding a bit on gun refurbishment, since he mentions whether a gun has a liner or not: To replace the liner the gun was placed in a pit, and the outside tube heated, while cool water was flushed through the bore to cool the liner, with the difference in thermal expansion between the cool liner and hot tube hopefully loosening the liner so it could be pressed out. Initially, the USN made liners with a uniform outside diameter, but then realized if the liner's outside diameter had a slight taper the chances of successfully pressing the liner out were improved. If the liner refused to be pressed out, then the procedure is the same as refurbishing a gun that was not originally made with a liner: the inside of the gun would need to be bored out to entirely remove the stuck liner, or to prepare a gun to have a liner fitted for the first time. Boring out a gun would take several weeks. I may have a more specific number in my notes somewhere, but I recall reading that the boring time was a matter of 3-4 days, for each cut. I just found a piece on youtube by Ryan, the curator of Battleship New Jersey, talking about 16" gun construction and maintenance. He says the refurbishment process, if all goes smoothly, took about 2 months.

[@timothyschmidt9566]

I've seen photos of USS Salem replacing the liners with the guns in place. They pulled the liner out with a crane after packing the inside of the barrel with ice and heating the exterior of the barrel (with heated blankets, I think). New liners were put in using the same process.

[@stevevalley7835]

@@timothyschmidt9566 you made me look it up. :) The Des Moines class used Mk 16 guns, which Navweaps says were apparently the first mark that used a "loose liner", secured by a liner locking ring, rather than the usual shrink fit. That would explain how the liners could be removed with less temperature differential and force to break the liner loose than was the case with earlier shrink fit liners. I learned something tonight. Thanks!

[@Grimmtoof]

It should also be noted that 617 squadron was a specialist precision bombing unit containing some of the best crews in bomber command which would also explain their performance.

[@Simon_Nonymous]

Quite so - they used the new SABS bombsight which had to be calibrated to the Tallboy's trajectory, and the mission wasn't to unload on an area but to aim for a pinpoint target, so a small change of doctrine as well as a change in technology.

[@kelloggswag]

It should also be noted they were bombing a stationary target.

[@liquid6901]

Episode 200! Thank you Drach for your infinite patience and your stellar pronunciation!

[@88porpoise]

1:04:00 there are a few other factors as well as I recall. The bombs were dropped from a lower altitude than a typical heavy bomber attack. The crews assigned to the Tallboy raids were generally more experienced and better than the average aircrew. There were simply more time and resources invested in being accurate. Crews were much better prepared than a typical bombing mission with more reconnaissance etc and there were a large portion of the force involved were assigned to checking weather and reconnaissance of the target area to improve accuracy.

[@Simon_Nonymous]

Very well put.

[@sharg0]

Congrats on the 200! An amazing feat to dig up and put out all this information!

[@audiosurfarchive]

Congrats on 2-Hundo! Here's to 2-Hundo more you mad, mad bastard! My wife and I love listening to your podcasts. It's amazing how much knowledge you have; as well how good your research is. ♥️ Love from HTX.

[@christophermancini7380]

Congratulations Drach on the 200th Dry Dock! Better than ever!

[@calvingreene90]

The USS Iowa has the Captain's port cabin and the Captain's sea cabin or ready room. The relatively luxurious Captain's port cabin would be high on the list of space available for VIP accommodations.

[@davidvik1451]

01:02:25 The fins that cause rotation on bombs, and mortar rounds are do not stabilize the projectile in the same way as riflings in a gun barrel. Large caliber projectiles leave the muzzle at around 1000 RPM in order to make the pointy end to stay in front. The rotation imparted by the fins is much much slower. A falling projectile will never point exactly straight down which will cause it to veer off target . By twisting the fins the projectile will be constantly changing the direction it is pointing as it falls which averages out the error greatly reducing the error circle. Same as fletching on an arrow.

[@juliandoncaster6128]

If I recall my Barnes Wallis, offset fins making it spin to stabilise thought the sound barrier was a design feature was it not? A special case, but nonetheless ...

[@Simon_Nonymous]

David, what you write about averaging out any minor errors in the flight of a projectile is correct and very well explained - it's the same with diabolo air weapon pellets being fired from a rifled barrel. However I am sure I read in Flowers and elsewhere that the fins were a redesign to prevent tumbling experienced with initial straight fin designs. I am trying to find out how fast it would be spinning on impact, as I imagine that this gyroscopic effect would help keep the bomb stable? If I find out I am wrong - I'll stick an edit on the end of this :-)

[@Simon_Nonymous]

I've just checked in Stephen Flowers' book "the operational history of Barnes Wallis' bombs", which is pretty thorough, and he writes that the fins were at first straight, but oscillation led to the trial and then use of the angled fins to use the gyroscopic effect to stabilise the bombs especially as they passed through the sound barrier. I can't find any data on how fast the bomb was spinning when it hit though.

[@davidvik1451]

@@Simon_Nonymous It would be interesting in know how fast it would have been spinning at various points in its flight.

[@Psysouth]

Please do the longer versions. They are my favorite. Thank you very much for all you do.

[@davidpnewton]

HMSO was mostly privatised 30 years ago as The Stationery Office Ltd. The remainder ended up as part of the Office of Public Sector Information and is now part of The National Archives. So at least for the UK TNA is your destination in any case.

[@Wolfeson28]

Congratulations on 200 episodes! I've really enjoyed all of your great naval history content so far, and I'm looking forward to much more in the future.

[@KPen3750]

"fisher fishes fishing fisher fishing for freshly fished fresh fish for fish fry friday featuring flour floured for floured founder fair." Whenever this user comes up every so often in the drydock it gets more and more ridiculous and it always makes me die laughing (and yes, it took me way too long to figure out and type all the words, no I'm not sure they're all correct or indeed, if it has Drach stopping and restarting the tongue twister)

[@thomastheisman1751]

And I'm always disappointed when he doesn't have a question.

[@rcwagon]

One of the reasons these Patreon Dry Docks are so long ... ... ...

[@charlescasturo9146]

No idea who this guy or gal is but they might be my favorite of Drach’s patrons

[@sewing1243]

Re: 00:02:18 Vice Admiral Thomas Tingley Craven and the USS Maine On the USS Forrestal (CV-59) during the ORE (Operational Readiness Evaluation) in 1976 one of the guys in my squadron heard an announcement for the fire party and DC control party "called away", as a drill, to a passageway next to our squadron's berthing space. Before anyone from the fire/DC party arrived he quickly wrote the word "bomb" on a piece of paper and tossed it into that passageway. When the fire/DC party arrived they saw the piece of paper and assumed that it was part of the drill and went through all the procedures to deal with an un-exploded bomb.

[@MrNicoJac]

That's hilarious. How did it end? Surely, whoever planned the drill was a bit... 'miffed' about the parties not showing up 😆 Did they ever find out who wrote the note?

[@sewing1243]

@@MrNicoJac I'm not sure why you think that "the parties not showing up" was even possible? An announcement over the ship's 1MC (the ships primary public address system) is an order that is followed whether it's a real or a drill. I said that the fire/DC party hadn't arrived yet when the prankster tossed the piece of paper into the passageway. They arrived moments later (an Aircraft carrier is a big ship and it takes a few minutes for those fire/DC parties to arrive on scene). When a member of the team saw the paper it was treated as if there was a real piece of un-exploded ordinance in that space and the team called for EOD personnel to be sent to that space, and once they arrived the simulated disposing of that "ordinance". Since the prankster didn't claim responsibility I have no clue what the inspection team thought or did. I'm guessing they just had a good chuckle and then graded the ship's responce on that drill as if the simulated bomb had been their idea.

[@MrNicoJac]

@@sewing1243 Ah, fair, I'll explain my thinking: Clearly, some officer decided to have the drill, right? But they never planned on it being a bomb drill, right? That guy turned it into one, with his note/prank. So, the officer must have been planning/expecting something else. But the parties didn't show up at that location, because they came across a note that read "bomb" a few corridors earlier. (or did the prankster beat the party to the correct location, and drop a note without anyone else - not even those who ordered the drill - noticing him? 🤔 In that case, they must've been pretty blind, no?) Regardless, someone must have planned _a_ drill and been surprised when a 'bomb' showed up in an unplanned place, right? 😂 (it's still a hilarious bit of improvisation👍🏼) EDIT: I just reread your comment... Turns out I (sorta) misread it the first time, and didn't fully realize he was literally right besides the hallway they were called to. In my mind, he was halfway between where they were and where they were going. My bad 😅 Guess I should've finished my morning coffee first 🙈

[@misterbaker9728]

Drach I just wanted to say thanks. Your Guadalcanal series is amazing. I went and bought and read Hornfischer booKs and of course Franks Guadalcanal. Shattered Sword is next

[@mikeupton5406]

Doing "ships laundry" today. I am all for having these videos so they can be listened to while driving.

[@marvingerrits1683]

This is the best system for the drydock splitting and us subs of the channel.

[@merlinwizard1000]

I too like this A and B sections in single week/day and think it is the best of both worlds IMO. I like this idea.

[@TheEDFLegacy]

Happy 200! I know I told you yesterday in person, and I'll get to say it again in person today, but Happy 200! 😅

[@rackstraw]

00:13:58 - Coming in after the essential end of competition for the Blue Riband (SS United States in 1952), nuclear power [USS Long Beach (CGN-9) and USS Enterprise (CVA(N)-65), both commissioned 1961] would have given a warship the ability to compete for it.

[@Dave_Sisson]

In the early 1990s, Incat, an Australian company that makes large, fast car ferries decided to have a try for the Blue Riband. They carefully studied the rules for the Hales Trophy which was awarded to the holders of the Blue Riband and decided to try and win it. So they diverted a ship on a delivery run to Europe to go via New York, took on a token number of passengers and proceded to break the record. But the custodians of the Hales Trophy were patriotic 'Muricans and would not give it to them. So Incat broke the record again with another ferry. But they still had to go to court to extract the trophy from those who thought the United States should hold it forever. After all this, those who thought that a mere car ferry should not hold the prestigious Blue Riband started a campaign to change the rules so that only "dignified" ships could hold it and claimed that the Hales Trophy didn't represent the Blue Riband. It's all amazingly silly really, but for nearly 30 years the Hales Trophy has been proudly displayed at Incat's Hobart shipyard.

[@RedXlV]

Long Beach had a listed top speed of 30 knots, and Enterprise of 32 knots. Both are significantly slower than SS United States' Blue Riband runs of 34.51 knots westbound and 35.59 knots eastbound. But in the Cold War era and even to this day, the US Navy is known for understating the speed of nuclear-powered warships. And Enterprise in particular is rumored to have been much faster. The 40 knot rumors are probably an exaggeration, but it's possible she was faster than 35 knots.

[@AndrewPalmerMTL]

Further comments re Tallboy accuracy: 1. The tallboy-equipped bombers were under instructions for many missions to not drop all bombs at once but to drop is "salvoes" (effectively) and to stop dropping when the target was destroyed, thus showing the degree to which it was felt that the first few bombs would "do the job" and the rest not be needed. 2. There is a story on one raid, I believe in Paul Brickhill's book "The Dam Busters" of an attack on a large bridge (over a canal?) in Northern Germany. The account states that one bomb hit each end of the bridge, essentially levitating the whole span, which was then hit, in mid air, by the third bomb. The bridge, understandably, ceased to exist.

[@ChristianSlotHolck]

About the question of Slesvig-Holstein, first the demographic in the mid-1800's, Holstein was german speaking and german-mind, Slesvig was much more mixed, with northern Slesvig being danish speaking and danish minded, with southern Slesvig being german speaking and german minded. With the first dansih constitution of 1848, there were the war of 1848-1851, which was a kind of a civil between Denmark andg erman-minded Slesvig-Holsteiner with Prussia aiding the german-minded rebels. Part of the peace agreement was that Slesvig-Holstein was to remain undivied. Fast forward to 1863, the danish goverment brought forward a new constitution, which seperated Slesvig into the Kingdom of Denmark, and left Holstein to the German Federation or what ever it was at the time. Bismarck used this as cause for war, which led to the danish-prussian war of 1864. In april of 1864 Bismarck offered the danish a peace settlement with the borders roughly where the lie today. The danish goverment rejected the peace offer. The Prussian then conqoured the rest of the Jutland, and beat the danish army at Dybbøl and Als. Bismarck then said to the Danish goverment: You want Jutland back? Accept that Slesvig-Holstein is ours. His Majesty goverment accepted this. Afterwards, King Christian IX through back channels offered that Denmark joined the German Federation, which Bismarck declined, for political reasons. Fast forward to 1918, and Germany bashing was highly in vouge, there were a popular vote in Slesvig to decide if they wanted to be Germans or Danes, and this it the borders that we see today. In the aftermatch of WWII, there were talks in the danish goverment about moving the border a tad further south, but saner-heads prevailed.

[@icemule]

Congrats on 200,found you on 94 and been here ever sense, watched all those also, best channel on KZbin off to episode 1000.

[@elliottjames8020]

The new format works really well.

[@timengineman2nd714]

2:14:08; The US Coast Guard has run CODAG (Combined Diesel and Gas Turbine) plants for a long while. The two systems both use the same DFM fuel (Distillate Fuel Marine) and the clutching of them to the Main Reduction Gear(s) held up pretty well! Of course, you're talking approximately 2 generations of naval engineering past WW2 for this type of power plant....

[@forcea1454]

Many Second World War ships with steam turbines did have separate cruising and reverse turbines clutched into their reduction gearing.

[@timengineman2nd714]

@@forcea1454 They had to have reverse. turbines, or they wouldn't have been able to "ring up" any Astern speed. The Queen Mary actually had 3 turbines per shaft (High, Medium, and Low) which may explain why she and other liners could go so fast for the entire ocean crossing!

[@misterbaker9728]

Oh yeah and that live stream was Awesome!! I’m ordering shattered sword now with bong cleaner gotta love Amazon.

[@hedrigeemon8324]

Re: First question, something like this happened on land in Prussia: Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt got holds of an officer's uniform, sized up a bunch of enlisted soldiers and went to the City Hall of Cöpenick to ransack the treasury and put the mayor and treasurer under arrest for made-up charges of fraudulent bookkeeping. The story is known as the "Hauptmann von Köpenick" or the Captain of Köpenick and it's really quite amazing.

[@cjstanky]

isnt this the origin of the term "Bavarian Fire Drill" where if you look and act like you belong somewhere with authority no one will question things?

[@hedrigeemon8324]

​@@cjstanky Apparently not, the 'Bavarian Fire Drill', according to Tropedia, was named after an expression in the 1970s "Illuminatus" book series. The Illuminati are rooted in Bavaria. Köpenick is close to (and now a part of) Berlin, a good chunk away. Us Germans have a bit of a history with trusting authority too lightly, so the trope has apparently developed in several places :-/ The most recent example I can think of (and looping back to maritime things) is the Costa Concordia desaster, where a disproportinate amount of German passengers died because when the crew told them "All is fine, stay in your cabins", they did so...

[@brucewilliams1892]

Further to the question about RAF bombing accuracy, new techniques and equipment arrived once the need was noted. Pathfinding (tarket marking) by experts helped, using navigation systems like 'Gee,' H2S, and Oboe. Tallboy also took out the Saumur railway tunnel, which is worth a search.

[@shadowfox8748]

It’s 1am but dry dock 200 is here … sleep is for the weak

[@Tdelliex]

11pm here and i agree.

[@scottgiles7546]

"I'll sleep when I'm dead".... (Now where is that from??)

[@RonJohn63]

Split into sections, released on the same day is the best idea. (I suggested it a couple of years ago.)

[@Writingman4126]

A naval history of the Hanseatic League might prove interesting.

[@PalleRasmussen]

Yes, but huge.

[@streetracer2321]

Yeah that would be cool

[@strydyrhellzrydyr1345]

200th episode... Good on you Sir... Great Job

[@garyd.7372]

Re major repairs to museum ships: Could you arrange your next trip to the US to include a tour of duty "supervising" the USS Texas drydock work? It would be most fitting for you to prepare some future Drach Drydock episode while physically in a drydock, on or alongside USS Texas.

[@gustav331]

43:41 The Germans could of course have invaded and conquered Denmark, but Germany did actually change its stance towards Denmark in the early 1900s. Because of the Schlieffen Plan, the German Army did not want two army corps tied up in Denmark for two or three months. They needed everything they had on the Western Front. The German Navy still wanted an invasion of Denmark to be executed during the opening stages of a war with Britain, and there was therefore a lot of strife between the army and navy over whether to invade Denmark or not. This was settled between 1903-1908, when the Danish Prime Minister held secret talks with Moltke the Younger as to how Denmark could maintain neutrality. This gave the army proof that Denmark would stay strictly neutral, and that Denmark would also protect the Baltic against any British incursions. The army therefore won out, and Denmark was dropped as an invasion target until late 1916, when the Germans started planning an invasion again. Also: Schleswig and Holstein are not the same. Danes only wanted Schleswig back, since Holstein was completely German. No one in Denmark, even the most fervent nationalist, ever talked of wanting Holstein back. Therefore there was no danger in building a canal in Holstein.

[@88porpoise]

46:00 Denmark got a portion of Schleswig back via a referendum under the Treaty of Versailles. The rest was heavily pro-German and Denmark didn't really want most of it back as a result.

[@tonym480]

Regarding the bombing of the Tirpitz, as well as all that Drach says,the raid was carried out by Nos IX and 617 (the Dambusters) squadrons who were the cream of Bomber Command. They were probably the best and most experienced bomber crews the RAF, and mostly likely any other air force, had to offer at that time.

[@georgewnewman3201]

My understanding was that the Tirpitz mission was carried out by what amounted to a whole new squadron as the entirety of those original pilots had been transferred to other squadrons or lost in combat during the interval.

[@PalleRasmussen]

You are both right and wrong if I remember "The Damnbusters" book correctly. There were none of the original squadron left, but the sort of "rolling exchange" caused by losses, transfers and retirements did leave a significant amount of experienced and very high quality pilots in the squadron at any time to teach the noobs and impart the sense of being an elite and the demands of it. They were basically the RAF precision bombing squadron, taking out damns, bridges, tunnels, U-boat pens, missile sites, Wundercannon site, and a battleship, not just the damns and the battleship. They were consistently called on to perform precision bombing with Wallis' various inventions.

[@Isolder74]

Yes I do think that who was dropping the bombs had something to do with it.

[@georgewnewman3201]

@@PalleRasmussen Well I knew there had been quite a bit of turnover from what I had heard and read from other sources. The book you cited was not one I was exposed to directly. Thanks for correcting me.

[@tonym480]

@@PalleRasmussen Yes, I agree with you. Many of the original crew members who had formed the original line up of 617 died during the actual Dam Raid. Others were lost or transferred to other duties by the time of the Tirpitz raid. What remained was the core ethos of being an elite squadron which was formed from best available crews. As well as the precision bombing missions using the Tall Boy and Grand Slam bombs, 617 performed an important mission during the night before D Day when they carried out a 'spoof' flight at low level dropping bundles of Window (Chaff) to fool the Germans into thinking that the invasion fleet was heading toward the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy. This required them to fly an advancing 'Race Track' course at very low altitude, in darkness, demanding a very high degree of accuracy in their navigation and flying 617 is still an operational squadron with the RAF flying the F35 B V/STOL 'Stealth' fighter.

[@jonathan_60503]

I find it interesting that in aviation there was also a similar passenger plane vs warplane sustained speed dynamic going on with the Concorde. During her service life there were quite a few fighter jets that had a sprint speed faster than her cruise speed; but none of them could sustain Mach 2+ for anywhere near as long (generally managing several minutes vs several hours). The only plane I'm aware of that might have been able to was the SR-71 - and even then I'm not sure it could fully match Concorde's range without at least one mid-air refueling -- though it could far exceed her speed.

[@MrArtbv]

Episode 200 and I've seen every, EVERY one... There are times I've disagreed with Drach; BUT never been anything but an absolute fan.. HERE'S TO EPISODE 500!!!! So Drach answered my Greece/Crete question..BUT.. And it's honestly outside his area of expertise. The essence was absent an intervention in Greece.. British forces take Tripoli b4 Rommel lands and basically has the ability to force Italy out of the war against Britain with the return of Italy's colonies being the quid pro quo. IN that event Britain has 6 months to redeploy 2 carriers a division of Hvy CAs at least 2 Lt AA CLs and somewhere between 8-12 DDs. Force Zed becomes Force Alpha and a credible strategic counter. Perhaps Drach could consult with Chieftain about the implications of that scenario

[@clpollock72]

Perhaps the sheer weight of the tallboy also helped to make it more accurate than smaller bombs. Due to the square-cube law, the larger the bomb, the less it will tend to be affected by wind and other unpredictable atmospheric effects.

[@tommyfred6180]

hat probably helped. but the fact that the bomb was made to spin was front heavy and was dropped in the slip stream not into the slip stream. seems to be the primary reason.

[@bjarkih1977]

A link to part 2 in the description would be helpful :)

[@nikolailucyk]

Congrats on the double century!

[@SCjunk]

Both types of breech blocks are still used. The problem with your answer is that B.L. - the interupted screw doesn't seal in itself that is the job of the obturator, the slightly domed / mushroom shaped pad on the inner face of the breech block, This system was more or less perfected by the French in particular the work of Charles Ragon de Bang for his 155 mm 1877 long canon and Lt. Col. Perier de Lahittole for his 95 mm 1875 canon. Further improved in the Welin breech system by Swede Alex Welin who worked for Nordenfeld in London -and laterly inventing the Welin breach in his own company in 1889. but being one of the few weapons designers who went on to save lives as his primary claim to fame is the Welin Davit -as in what boats are lauched from on ships. The Krupp German system - called in English a QF = Quick Firing breech was a sliding breech block which as Drac said relies on a cartridge or at least bag charges and a stub cartridge to obturate the breech - in the same way a rifle cartridge does (unless it is a Chasspot which has hard rubber rings). The Krupp system is a variant of the Warendorf shutter system of the early 1860s around the same time as the Armstrong Screw breech as in HMS Warrior , like Welin Warendorf was also Swedish, The Prussians were impressed by the Austrian Empire first use of this system but found the original shutter too complex it was simplified by Krupp and Grusion - but it isn't just a simple block of steel and took a number of errors to get it right. Krupp really persisted with the sliding block to evade patents, however the largest gun ever -the 80 cm Gustrav Railway gun was a krupp horizontal breech block type.

[@mojorasin653]

As to security drills, at Pearl Harbor UDT divers would occasionanly make an attempt to place a "bomb" on a ship at berth. They would come at night and we were told they were coming and extra watches were put out through the night but we would never catch them. When dawn came the unlucky ship that they targeted was known to everyone in the Harbor as it would have a golden pineapple spray painted on the side just above the water line, much to the amusement of the other ships crews.

[@TomSedgman]

My favorite fact about the tallboy (might have been it’s bigger brother) was that when they cast the explosives it took a week to solidify because there was so much of it

[@AndrewPalmerMTL]

As a published book, it should be possible to obtain a copy of the "London Naval Conference etc. etc. etc." book through the library system, provided one exists ANYWHERE inside the library network, which I would expect to be the case at least in the UK. Knowing exactly the title, publication date etc. would facilitate the request of course.

[@chloehennessey6813]

USS Alaska, Blue Riband run across the Atlantic? Also, they can roll copper and gold pretty thin. I know a lot of modern ships use copper-nickel alloy for piping that carriers sea water. I guess the alloy after a given amount of time creates its own layer of oxide that the salt water doesn’t harm. Do you think, Drach that a thin layer of Cupronickel added to the hulls of these museum ships would be a viable addition to keep the hulls in good shape? Can you do the numbers and see if it would be a lot cheaper than say building a coffer dam? Modern fasteners are almost immune to oxidation. Such as 3Ms Scotch-Weld? My boat is a 48 foot (14.6 meters) Intrepid 475 Panacea. It’s a deep V fiberglass boat- it was put together with 3M adhesives. The boat itself will break, the substrates will break before the adhesive does.

[@surferdess494]

poor Operation Dragoon....never gets mentioned. lol. thanks for meeting Haiku.

[@mattzo12]

Hi Drach, I believe you are mistaken with regards to Hood and fire control. The intention was that both Hood and Prince of Wales would engage Bismarck, with Prinz Eugen left to the cruisers (or after Bismarck was disabled). Prince of Wales fired on Bismarck correctly from the start, because she identified the ships had switched places. With regards to integrated fire control, the preferred Master Ship Control could not be used across ships with different fire control tables (AFCT / Dreyer). The AFCT on Prince of Wales was calibrated for 14" ballistics, so data it generated would have been of little use to Hood. Hood and PoW used GIC instead, where each ship fired in its own time sectors.

[@1982nsu]

01:02:25 I think the highly trained 617 Squadron itself was a big factor in hitting Tirpitz with Tallboys.

[@ShuRugal]

RE: Marines - the USMC has recently announced that they are dropping the "special forces regular army" roles, to include divesting all of their Abrams units, and focusing back on being naval infantry and amphibious assault specialists.

[@elitecorsair]

I like the new formatting

[@TheJsmitty85]

The very first question brought back a story told to me by by old NJROTC instructor. During the 1980s he was the weapon officer on board one of the Iowas, which one I can't remember. Anyways they were performing a security drill on board his ship where there was the possibly of people who had boarded the ship. Everyone was to be locked down in their locations and stay there while the Marines and others were checking the ship for the boarders. A admiral's aide through decided the rules didn't apply to him, and further this admiral's aide had pissed off the Marines time and time again. So when the Marines found him going from location A to location B the Marines threw this officer down hard and hogged tied him. I think he was a commander then was running to the location in shock the marines had caught a border as this was simply a drill. He was not please to see said admiral's aide hog tied with the marines pointing a couple M-16s at this admiral's aide. I honestly wish I knew what happened to Captain Zivovic as he would be a good person to interview IMO as he had a lot to tell about his service in the navy. Sadly I don't know as I lost contact with him over the decades.

[@mikepette4422]

UGH ! you got the original manuscript for British Cruisers ? I'd love to have that one kinda hate Drach right now 🤣🤣

[@lucajohnen6719]

I like this Drydock solution ^^

[@dmcarpenter2470]

Congratulations upon reaching your Bicentdrydock.

[@kurtkuczynski]

Not to nitpick, but Arkansas and Texas are not standards. Congrats on the 200th episode, keep them coming.

[@manythingslefttobuild]

My thought for 'Single biggest impact of a torpedo working properly' What about the torpedos from HMS Ark Royal's swordfish launched against HMS Sheffield when they mistook if for Bismarck. Would they have reported back they had sunk the Bismarck and the rest of the fleet abandoned the pursuit? 'Were there any warships sunk in place and used as an ad hoc coastal defence battery' Petropavlovsk/Marat?

[@jetdriver]

“Is this going to be a thing where people find guns mounted in obscure locations and ask me to calculate what they would hit” Drach… Hold my beer. Challenge accepted lol. This should be good. Right now every subscriber is frantically trying to locate guns for Drach to calculate the trajectory of. Not that I’m going to be any different. Drach please Calculate what the fore and aft turrets of every museum ship in the US would hit when fired. Thanks.

[@davekrab3363]

Wednesday torpedo doctrine episode? Yes, please!

[@535phobos]

1:44:00 The Brandenburgs got different length guns because mid built a longer 28cm gun was developed which didnt fit into the middle turret (as that one had to clear the superstructure when turning). Would it then be better to NOT upgrade the other two turrets to keep a homogenous main battery of somewhat weaker guns? Ideally the superstructure should have been restructured, but that probably was too expensive.

[@RedXlV]

That would've probably been better overall. But yes, the ideal solution would've been to simply remove part of the superstructure to make room for 28cm L/40 guns in the middle turret. I'm not sure how expensive that would've even been; the L/40 was only *barely* too long to fit from what I can tell. It's a huge failure on the designers' part to not realize this before construction began. I know that Germany's naval budget at the time placed significant limitations on their ships. But simply reducing the superstructure and using the longer guns on all 3 turrets wouldn't have been that much more expensive and would've made them dramatically better ships. The other big shortcoming of the Brandenburgs is that the first two ships had compound armor.

[@wierdalien1]

The Sniper analogy can actually happen, that's why the Sniper Support weapon, the LMT AR-15, has a overkill scope, just in case the scope mounted on the AW is knocked out.

[@forcea1454]

The L129A1 is developed from the SR-25, which in turn is a development of the AR-10, chambered for 7.62 mm NATO.

[@wierdalien1]

@@forcea1454 its an AR-15 in 7.62, because it has the AR-15 control scheme. That does basically make it an AR-10, but not techincally.

[@Owktree]

How much faster to change out the guns if Adm Fisher is there on the dock sitting at a desk he just had installed there?

[@peterbrezniak7224]

New format works for me.

[@hanslenk9603]

Regarding the Deutschlands, I think the relevant point for evaluating them is not the purpose they were designed for, but the restraints under which they were built. As far as I am aware, their design background was not a specific purpose, but rather "we have been placed under horrible restrictions for our new big ships, what is the best possible unit that we can get for 10.000 tons plus a bit of cheating and 11" guns", with the design studies for the ships ranging from light cruisers to coastal battleships. And by that metric, I think the Deutschlands are really damn good, with the sole exception of their Diesel engines being propably not the best choice available

[@gzcwnk]

As an ex-marine engineer I was dual trained and qualified on both propulsion types. no biggee. .

[@funpolice4416]

As an Amazon driver, I can indeed confirm that the vest and package gets you in anywhere

[@graulus8986]

My tuppence concerning 'Germany taking Denmark': - The duchies of Schleswig and Holstein never were an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark. They were separate political entities belonging to the medieval German Empire, and only happened to be ruled in 'Personal Union' by the King of Denmark in his capacity as Duke of Schleswig and Duke of Holstein, respectively. In this capacity, in the 'North German Confederation' of the 1830's, the King of Denmark also had votes. - In the turmoil of the 1848/9 revolution in Germany, there was a war with Denmark (sort of), and the all-German Parliament in Frankfurt/Main fitted out (I think) three ships flying the black/red/gold colours of the first 'real' German navy (i.e. that of an integrated German national state - sort of including Austria, though not Hungary). I guess, Drach, you may at some point in time want to look into this. - In the aftermath of the revolution, Danish nationalists tried to 'danify' Schleswig and Holstein. This was met by resistance of (German) nationalists, in particular in Holstein, and led to two uprisings of segregation, the second of which (1864) was supported by both Prussia and Austria, and led to the occupation of all of Jutland by Prussia as well as to the Battle of Heligoland between an small Danish fleet led by the steam frigate Jylland (now preserved in Ebeltoft and well worth a visit), an even smaller Prussian detachment and by an Austrian squadron under Admiral Tegethoff of Lissa (1866) fame. Result: Denmark gives up it's dominance over Schleswig and Holstein. Note: No Danish Crown Territory was ceded! - 'I wonder why Denmark did not want to take back Schleswig and Holstein after WWI': Well, in fact they did, but in a very typical Danish civilised way. They organised a referendum! In 1920 (and there was quite some coverage on the centennial), people in the Duchy of Schleswig could vote as to whether to remain in Germany or to become Danes. Today's national border represents the outcome of the referendum, and splits the old Duchy in half. As a consequence, Denmark since has a German minority in Northern Schleswig, with granted minority rights (schools, language education, political representation), which are matched for the Danish minority in Germany's Southern Schleswig. -Oh yes, and talking of the Kiel canal, then there is Haithabu/Hedeby and the Danevirk next to the city of Schleswig, where the Vikings pulled ships from the Eider/Treene rivers to the Schlei fjord - worth another episode! Cheers!

[@TrickiVicBB71]

Listening to the Leahy question. I think it is soon time to do another Admiral Special episode

[@leonpeters-malone3054]

On books, I picked up a copy of Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat Second Edition, Captain Wayne P Hughs Jnr (USN Retired). If you know the chain of Elizabeth's in Australia, that's where I found it for 12 bucks. Turns out it would have cost me at one point, 140 bucks, 170 bucks to replace.

[@RedXlV]

1:42:42 Arkansas and New York aren't Standards, though. The Standard Type are super-dreadnoughts with the all-or-nothing armor scheme and a 21 knot top speed. Arkansas isn't even a super-dreadnought since she has only 12" guns, and both ships predate the all-or-nothing scheme. The Standards begin with Nevada.

[@zstewart]

A more realistic rifle/sniper analogy is shooter and spotter. The shooter has a smaller scope which actually fits on the rifle, and the spotter has a much larger scope that gives them a better view of the target for correcting shots.

[@kurshetl]

re the Blue Riband - the Deutschlands could probably do it. Their range was heading towards 20,000 km at 20kts. Provided the engines had just been overhauled, they should have been capable of holding 27kts+ for a single crossing - although they might well need another overhaul afterwards!

[@christianoutlaw]

The Patreon Drydock has just acquired A and B turrets

[@ShuRugal]

RE: Naval Treaty meeting minutes. it would be hilarious to get a copy of the London Naval Treaty minutes and have you and a bunch of navy youtubers (museum ships, historians, WoWS enthusiasts, etc) do a live action reenactment of the treaty, twelve-angry-men style.

[@georgewnewman3201]

00:24:29 - How many VIP quarters did Iowa have? - I think you may have misfigured the guest list; in addition to the VIPs, you have the admirals' aides, the generals' aides (at least 1 each for all four), at least one aide for Secretary Hull, one or more aides for President Roosevelt, 1 valet/orderly for Roosevelt, plus secret service detail, probably 4 men minimum. that's 17 minimum. Were they still firing the Mark 14s? No danger to Iowa and the President, then.

[@Drachinifel]

Yeah but the aides don't need their own cabins 😀

[@georgewnewman3201]

@@Drachinifel true, the aides can double up or bunk with mid-grade to junior officers and Roosevelt's orderly will stay close to him to help him take care of his needs.

[@CAP198462]

1:31:01 I did some research of my own and came up with very little more information. The name Admiral Mikhail Pavlovich Sablin came up frequently. I can’t say by December 31st, 1919 that they actually had a single ship. Basically what happened is the Ukrainians went round Sevastopol putting Ukrainian flags on all the ships. The Russians had reclaimed all of them by the end of the year. The one cruiser they held onto long enough to rename, the Pamiat Merkuria didn’t do anything except sit in harbour.

[@LeCharles07]

Speaking of Chinese junks, You should do a video on the pirate junk Ning Po.

[@kevinvilmont6061]

Ah yes. The floating part. Very important for a warship.

[@RiflemanIII]

Question here: Why did the Admiral Hippers displace so much more than all of their counterparts, like the post-rebuild Mogami, Baltimore, etc. It's not because they had more armor or anything like that, and their armament was largely the same.

[@niclasjohansson4333]

The Hippers did not displace that much more than other CAs, and about the same as a Baltimore. They did have turtle back armour thou, and battleship grade range finders, hydrophones etc, that many/most other cruisers did not.

[@M4nusky]

Radars usuallly add a random delay inbetween transmissions pulses and do an integration of the received signal. So even if 2 radars use the same frequency and capture each other's pulses chances are the delays will be all over the place (compared to legitimate receptions) and be smoothed out as noise.