The Drydock - Episode 314

[@glennricafrente58]

Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be a space age Horatio Hornblower series, so age of sail frigate seems appropriate.

[@charlesbaker7703]

I was listening to Drach's discussion about the USS Enterprise (NCC1701 not CV6 nor CV65) and incidentally reading Wikipedia's On This Day and saw that Star Trek premiered on this day in 1966. Coincidence? I think not.

[@benwilson6145]

Therefore Star Trek existence is due to the Admiral Lord Cochrane!

[@stanleyrogouski]

Two of Enterprise's sister ships are named the Constellation and the Constitution.

[@lexington476]

And it would of course have been an American Heavy Frigate 😎.

[@SmilefortheJudge]

Hey no need to curse. Klingon border sounds like a terrible toilet problem tho. But it’s all fiction so yaknow frigate

[@joesteidl8134]

"Fight small land battle with the additional risk of drowning" Love the Drachism

[@gustaveliasson5395]

58:18 In other words, the QEs' fire was quite accurate, but excessively precise.

[@onenote6619]

On the subject of voice encryption - it did exist during WW2. The simplest just swapped around frequency blocks (aka 'scrambling'), but could be broken fairly simply by someone with technical nous and the right equipment (or by someone with good ears if they learned the trick of it). The most complex was SIGSALY, used for high-level discussions over telephone, but requiring one room for equipment and another room for generators at each end. Might have been feasible on a couple of battleships, though. Finally, there was Delilah, which used random noise provided by synchronised record players (both of which were provided with identical sets of records, of course). That was about the size of a smallish cupboard, but Alan Turing didn't manage to get it working properly until just after WW2. Given that the US Marines used Native American speakers as biological coding machines (Code Talkers) to good effect, the Navy could quite easily have gone down the same route but chose not to. Reasons unknown. Possibly because mechanical codes are transmitted via telegraphy and those kinds of messages 'break through' radio noise rather better than voice does.

[@hektor6766]

I don't think Stimson, Knox or McCloy, three cabinet members directly over the navy and/or the OSS who were outspokenly for Japanese-American internment, would have approved ethnic Japanese codebreakers. Maybe Forrestal, would have approved, if he could get it past Stimson and McCloy. I think King and Nimitz were smart enough to see the merits and not be paranoid along racial lines, but the assignment of personnel handling vital military intelligence may have been above their call.

[@w.osterberg9385]

Good morning everybody, nice to listen to Drach with Sunday morning coffee and good company.

[@lenslr]

16:18 on this ship there are twelve Vickers 14" guns, none of which can be seen. Mr Gun 1, will you stand up, please?

[@forgetmeshots]

39:26 Three cheers for Mrs. Drach. 🥰🥰🥰

[@AnimeSunglasses]

16:18 Mr. Armstrong has learned the first lesson of Not Being Seen: _Not To Stand Up._

[@oriontaylor]

'However, he has chosen a very obvious piece of cover.'

[@Trek001]

Breakfast on a Saturday morning listening to Drach... What a pleasant day to start

[@808bigisland]

The real life Trekerprise equivalent is the triangle shaped alien vessel we ve seen. It’s 400-500m long and ca 6x times the volume of a US nuclear carrier.

[@Eboreg2]

57:41- Right... 500 yards away in the army is basically behind enemy lines while 500 yards away in the navy is "are you sure our torpedoes will arm?"

[@lexington476]

16:25 I nominate Drac to be the Vickers 14-in salesman. If nothing else I am sure Drac has a 14-in gun in his backyard 🙂.

[@Shadooe]

I doubt he'd actually sell much. "This is too nice not to keep."

[@myparceltape1169]

That question made me laugh into my coffee.

[@oriontaylor]

@@Shadooe He would be a horrible ordnance salesman, as he would just keep all of his sales samples!

[@lexington476]

37:47 'miser's hoard', I busted out laughing at that 😀😄.

[@CharlesStearman]

Regarding Royal Navy personnel 'shortages' in 1914, I've actually seen it stated that in fact after calling up its reserves the RN found itself with such a surplus of men that it was able to release enough of them to form an complete infantry division for service on the Western Front. This was the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, made up of one brigade of Royal Marines and two brigades of seamen.

[@Drachinifel]

@@CharlesStearman there is however a difference between having men and having men suitable to immediately put in modern(ish) ships

[@robert506007]

​@@Drachinifel well that would then beg the question how overstretched was the RN training establishments if it made more sense resource wise to form an entire Infantry division instead of sending the personal to cover other at sea roles in the Navy. Obviously, this is a full Drydock question.

[@magnemoe1]

Think most who worked on ships would work, most merchant ships was also pretty old tech. For the guns you probably want army people as I assume the replacement guns would be army or shore battery stuff. But I assume enemy would use 4"-6" pretty modern guns as in 20th century stuff. But they probably also used HE as they was fighting merchant ships and destroyers. Add some AP for ironclads and it might fail hard. Yes the pre-dreadnought ones probably works well but we all want the center battery ironclads.

[@alganhar1]

@@robert506007 It was not just about the training or lack thereof of the Royal Navy, its also about something you are not seeming to consider. The regular British Army at the start of WWI was TINY. The BEF numbered some 183,000 men in total, consisting of 4 Infantry and 2 Cavalry Divisions split into 2 Infantry and a singe Cavalry Corps. Because of the small scale of the British Army the Reserve and Territorial Force available was ALSO tiny. This is made worse by the issue that Territorial Units could only be deployed overseas with permission of the Territorials themselves (though most were eager to do just that). So its not just the case of, oh, the Royal Navy has too many men, in fact its almost entirely NOT because of that. Its almost entirely because of the issue that the Army had TOO FEW men, and they were absolutely desperate for manpower because the BEF was bleeding to death on the Western Front. Indeed, by the middle of 1915 that magnificent, superbly trained pre war British regular Army was largely dead. It was gone. Buried for the most part in the blood soaked fields of Ypres.... THATS why the Naval Division was raised. Not because the Royal Navy had too much manpower, but the Army had too little.... Even if you just plonked that Naval Division down to cover the Channel Ports and they did nothing else, that freed up an Infantry Division for the Front.

[@mbr5742]

That idea of the torpedo slinging aircraft carrier works nicely. Just have Commander Caine in command and have two fighters run attackes on the enemies AA batteries. Works perfectly ;)

[@magnemoe1]

But torpedo bombers is an other weapon system.

[@mbr5742]

@@magnemoe1 No no, pure fighter, no missiles or torpedos, just one pilot and two side mounted guns

[@alganhar1]

With the ship building question, its also worth bearing in mind that those larger sailing ships also required much heavier construction than ships like triremes. Especially when they started building more oceanic capable vessels. Triremes were lightly built ships save for the reinforced prow where the ram was seated They were more coastal ships, rarely moving very far from the coast as they simply were not built to handle open sea. Not unless conditions were very good. The larger sailing ships though had to cope with the increased forces generated by the larger sail plans they were carrying, as well as the more open sea and oceanic sailing they were undertaking. So they were much more heavily built, with the beginnings of framing as we would recognise it today, and usually clinker style planking. So its not just the size that increased the cost of building these later sailing ships, but also how they were constructed. The heavier construction also meant larger, and obviously more costly timber, and this started to require more specialist facilities for the drying of said timbers, as while its possible to build a ship of green wood, its generally better to build them of properly dried timbers. Especially if you are wanting these increasingly more expensive to build ships to last longer.... The combination of increased size and much heavier build would have driven the costs of building these sailing ships up even faster than just increasing the size alone.

[@rashkavar]

I love the idea of the 1870s ironclads doing WWI escort duty!

[@magnemoe1]

More fun if they did so well they got saved as museum ships.

[@tacitdionysus3220]

I've heard it suggested that James Kirk of the Enterprise was modelled on James Cook of the Endeavour. That would make Enterprise something like a Bark, modified for research and exploration. Three spacecraft have been named after the original Endeavour, with a fairly faithful replica of it being located at the Australian Maritime Museum. Both their skippers were farmer's sons. Both are arguably innovative and progressive thinkers. Perhaps Spock is modelled on Joseph Banks. The mischievous side of me would love to think the Klingons are modelled on the French.

[@alganhar1]

I am assuming you are using a spellchecker? They do not do to well with certain terms.... It swapped Barque (the ship type), for bark.... Its why I do not use the damned things.... That and I am old and cranky! And I am a Scientist by trade and spellcheckers have hissy fits when you start using taxonomical names!

[@tacitdionysus3220]

@@alganhar1 Actually I just didn't want it to sound French. It can be barque, barc or bark - says Wikipedia; so it must be true. Regardless of our differences however, I should state that I entirely support and emulate the old and cranky lifestyle, with a scientific bent. May your taxonomies bloom!

[@questionmark05]

A good ePIEsode. Thanks Drach.

[@steve-qc8hd]

00:37:27 Oldest assets used in WW1 were the 1875 laid down and completed 1886 French MN Requin 7.5K tons 2 x 27cm guns, and the Turkish Messudieh built Thames Iron works 1872 to 1876 and rebuilt in Genoa in 1903 plus the 1890 ex German Coastal battleships of 1890/ to 1894 iteration. Hairreddin Barbarousse and Tugud Reis ex Kurfust FreidrichWilliam and Weissenburg. Austro-Hungarian battleships Rudolf (1887) and Mars (formerly Tegetthof) (1878) were guardships at Cattaro and Pola. So ships comparable to Sans Pareill and the 1887 Admirals certainly served in WW1 - but more than anything the engines of 1890 era ships especially after lay up would be not capable of convoy escort.

[@williamerickson1238]

Hmm. Well, USS ENTEPRISE NCC-1701 I believe was named for USS ENTERPRISE CVN-65. In the 60's nuclear power was something rather new and CVN-65 was by the standards of the day the most power warship afloat. Additionally, the other ships of NCC-1701's class (CONSTITUTION class) were likewise named for 'modern' aircraft carriers. That being the likes of YORKTOWN, LEXINGTON and SARATOGA. I too, have heard that Kirk was modeled after Horatio Hornblower. Roddenberry had pitched STAR TREK as a "WAGON TRAIN' in space", as westerns were very popular at the time and sci-fi practically didn't exist. In STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION a number star ships bore the name of famous WWII warships including YAMATO, HOOD and (I believe), ESSEX. Point being the ships of STAR TREK (and subsequent iterations) were named for aircraft carriers and battleships of the WWII and post war era. I think D.C. Fontana had as much to do with the naming conventions as Roddenberry had.

[@johnshepherd9676]

Italy joined the Axis only after the invasion of Ethiopia. Prior to 1936 they were still members of informal Entente. Mussolini was the only WWI Allied power to stand up to Hitler's half hearted first attempt at Anschloss. Had the Austro-Hungarian Empire survived and started rearming in 1930s Mussolini might not have switched sides.

[@keab42]

As this is Episode 314, I guess that makes this the Pi-dock 😂

[@the_lost_navigator]

"All I ask for is a tall ship and a star to steer her by"... and the monotone ramblings of Science Officer Drach ;)

[@rashkavar]

Worst shooting of naval history: Kamchatka. Managed to discharge most if not all of its supply of ammunition on en route to its final demise while apparently only ever hitting one thing successfully: the cruiser Aurora, which was part of the same flotilla. Possibly during a funeral salute (which is generally not done with live ammo) though that part seems to be in the list of comical errors in judgement by its crew that possibly don't have a suitable primary source available? Seriously, there's bad luck and then there's...that.

[@Sneakymacd]

To be honest, the whole 2nd Pacific squadron could be nominated. An entire fleet opening fire at some fishing boats and the fishing boats remaining mostly unharmed is pretty poor shooting.

[@simongeard4824]

@@Sneakymacd Mind you, if their gunnery had been more accurate, they would quickly have found themselves in a shooting match with the British fleet, so it was probably for the better...

[@SingMineshaftGapInAFlatMinor]

Bela Oxmyx just called, he wanted to remind us that the Federation's Piece of the Action is definitely within the time period this channel covers!

[@dougjb7848]

16:25 (Kaboom) Mr. Jennings has learned the value of not standing up. Now gimme my biccy.

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

He has however, chosen a fairly obvious piece of camoflage. Jaffa Cake for me, please.

[@GaldirEonai]

Regarding the austro-hungarian empire question: If the empire had somehow survived the end of WW1, Germany probably wouldn't have allied with Italy at all because at that point it's pretty likely they could have got either A-H _or_ Italy on their side with the other a mortal enemy forever.

[@ronhudson3730]

Regarding the obsolete ships in service question... would these older ships have been able to stand up mechanically to the rigours of trans-oceanic distances? I tend to think not. I imagine quite a few escorts vessels stranded, watching their charges sailing off into the distance.

[@TheJuggtron]

Scrap iron flotilla :)

[@reportedebatalla6528]

10:00 I don't want to go into the details of the economies, but in terms of size, savings and financing in those years the situation was decreasing in this order: A, B and finally C. I would like to point out the Complete Naval Plans of the A-B-C (only formal orders of new ships): [B] Brazil (1907) - 2x Minas Geraes class (Minas Geraes and Sao Paulo): 19,000t 22k 12x305mm (2 Commissioned in 1910). - 1x Minas Geraes class (Rio de Janeiro): 19,000t 22k 12x305mm (1 Cancelled in 1910). - 1x Rio de Janeiro unique (Rio de Janeiro): 32,000t 22k 12x356mm (Order cancelled ~1911). - 1x Rio de Janeiro unique (Rio de Janeiro): 30,000t 22k 14x305mm (Sold to Turkey as Osman in 1913 and Requisitioned by United Kingdom as Agincourt in 1914). - 1x Riachuelo unique: 32,000t 22k 8x381mm (Cancelled 1915 -Not really from the Naval Plan-). - 2x Bahia class: 3,300t 27k 10x120mm 2x457mm (2 Commissioned in 1910). - 2x Bahia class: 3,300t 27k 10x120mm 2x457mm (1 Cancelled in 1910). - 10x Amazonas/Pará class: 650t 28k 2x102mm 2x457mm (Commissioned in 1910). - 5x Amazonas/Pará class: 650t 28k 2x102mm 2x457mm (Order cancelled ~1910). [A] Argentina (1910) - 2x Rivadavia class (Rivadavia and Moreno): 32,000t 22k 12x305mm (2 Commissioned in 1914/5). - 1x Improved-Rivadavia unique: 34,000t 22k 14x356mm (1 Pre-Order Cancelled in 1913). - 2x Catamarca class (Catamarca and Jujuy): 1,300t 34k 4x102mm 4x533mm (Commissioned in 1912). - 2x Córdoba class (Córdoba and La Plata): 1,300t 34k 4x102mm 4x533mm (Commissioned in 1912). - 4x San Luis class: 1,200t 31k 4x102mm 4x533mm (Sold in 1912 to Greece as Thiria/Aetos class) - 4x San Juan/Mendoza class: 1,200t 31k 4x102mm 4x533mm (Requisitioned in 1914 by France as Aventurier/Temeraire class) - 4x San Luis/Santiago del Estero class: 1,700t 33k 4x102mm 8x533mm (Requisitioned in 1914 by Germany as G101 class) [C] Chile (1911) - 1x Latorre class (Latorre): 32,000t 22k 10x356mm (1 Commissioned in 1921). - 1x Latorre class (Cochrane): 32,000t 22k 10x356mm (1 Requisitioned in 1914). - 2x Almirante/Lynch subclass (Lynch and Condell): 1,800t 32k 6x102mm 3x457mm (Commissioned in 1913). - 4x Almirante (second and third batches) subclasses: 1850t 32k 6x102mm 4x533mm (Requisitioned in 1914 by United Kingdom as Faulknor/Botha class) I am ignoring smaller, non-oceanic vessels, such as small submarines, auxiliaries and others.

[@stevevalley7835]

wrt the "Vickers 14" salesman", certainly not the only Vickers agent, but one of the most notorious, was Basil Zaharoff. who was in Vickers' employ in the early 1900s. If you happen to come across a DVD box set of the early 1980s production of "Reilly Ace Of Spies", Zaharoff, played by Leo McKern, appears from time to time. Jackie Fisher also shows up a few times. The series is based on "Ace Of Spies" by Robin Bruce Lockhart, based on the memories of his father, who worked with Reilly.

[@SomeRandomHuman717]

@0:42 How appropriate that Drach's first question in this Drydock is about USS Enterprise NCC-1701 since Star Trek (The Original Series) debuted 58 years ago today (September 8, 1966).

[@BleedingUranium]

Oh neat! I actually just finished watching TOS for the first time a couple weeks ago (grew up with TNG-to-ENT), it's very good. :)

[@GeraldMüller-c3n]

I just read John Winton "Ultra in the Pacific" Later in the war each TF had Japanese speaking teams for radio intelligence on board of the flag ships. But it was never mentioned that they included native Japanese. But I can only remember for 2 examples of short range voice transmissions from air to air communication: JAAapan used a flying air controller to coordinate the attacks during the Marianna Turkey shot. The Navy used the intercepted traffic to vector the caps. Same was done during Okinawa where the "shepherds" for the kamikaze were watched.

[@WelshBirder]

Apparently the British army in WWII used Welsh speakers as radio operators when they could. Used to know one.

[@notshapedforsportivetricks2912]

I read that Lloyd George used the sane technique after the war at the peace conference.

[@alganhar1]

The issue there being when they could. The number of Welsh speakers in total probably came to maybe 1% of the total population of the UK in the 40's. This was still the period of the Welsh Not, when speaking Welsh in schools was potentially punished by a caning. The percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales has actually increased since then. There were just not enough Welsh speakers to go around if that had been something they had wanted to do on a large scale. Hence why it was largely limited to the Welsh Regiments which for obvious reasons had the greatest proportion of Welsh speakers.

[@TheJuggtron]

Just an aside to the ST discussion - NCC-1701 was described in one of the old annuals as a battlecruiser, indicating to me that she carried excess fire-power and good speed - maybe equivalent to a big Frigate like the original 6 or a razee frigate. Another bonus aside, drachs favourite "square cube law" is the reason that only capital class ships are useful in TOS and TNG - fighters are basically worthless because they can't generate enough power for shields.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

42:34 my guess is if these things were sitting around come ww2, they'd be the blocking ships sunk at normandy to form the breakwater for the mulberry ports, maybe a few get reactivated during the dunkirk retreat even. something like an old ironclad or predread would probably be good for this since they have long beams and heavy hulls

[@MrNicoJac]

1:02:15 @Drachinifel for a future Drydock Q&A: For those carriers that had 8 inch guns, Their rate of fire would've been too slow to work as AA defense, right? Would it perhaps have been a feasible idea to use them for AA, _if_ the nations in question had developed special ammunition for them? I'm thinking along the lines of the cluster munitions we've recently heard about in Ukraine. Obviously those are land-directed and their submunitions detonate on impact... But _could interwar navies have designed naval shells with time-delayed cluster munitions?_ That might have been a way to solve the problem of accurately estimating the speed of incoming attack planes; By setting the fuses of multiple cluster munitions to automatically go off in 0.5 second increments (both earlier and later than the main setting that's set by the gun crews), even if your delay estimate was a bit off, at least one of the submunitions would still detonate relatively close to a plane. It would be a bit like those detonation cords fired by mine clearing vehicles - you detonate a string of (empty air) space, and anything within that volume would be damaged/shot down. Would this have been technologically feasible? (even if it would probably be wayyy more efficient to take off those heavy guns, and use their freed-up displacement for loads and loads of individual oerlikons, haha) [apologies for the long contextual bits; I'm too tired to think concisely - but I have italicized the main question for clarity, so you don't spend half a Drydock reading my comment out loud, before even getting to the answering part]

[@robert506007]

40:00 so HMS warrior in a gun duel with a surfaced German Crusier Sub or perhaps Warrior trying to ram a sub. Hmmm now that I think about it some of these ships had rams. Either, way an entertaining and Bizarre thought at the same time. Ohhh how about switching up warriors armerment with 3 to 4 inch guns of the WWI era. Then by some inexplicable circumstance she is sent to Dover and engages in a Duel with modern German destoryers and Survives. I mean how would the Warrior Museum look then?

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

58:04 I don't know about the US, but I do know that the Royal Canadian Navy (and likely by extension the British Navy) did employ "headache operators" who where supposed to listen in on Kreigsmarine radio transmission for such information.

[@myparceltape1169]

Would that also help in finding their locations by triangulation

[@janerkenbrack3373]

It seems to me that the advantage aircraft carriers have is the ability to strike targets while out of gun range. Close engagement would compromise the effectiveness of the air operations. It doesn't sound like arming them for close engagement is a good idea to me.

[@Crazyfrog41]

Normally you wold be correct, which is why most aircraft carriers are extremely lightly armed... however there was a brief period early on, when radar wasn't a thing and aircraft were both slow and limited to bright, calm weather... when an enemy fleet could 'sneak up' on a carrier and then you were stuck in a surface fight wether you wanted to be or not

[@nickdanger3802]

@@Crazyfrog41 HMS Glorious

[@simongeard4824]

@@nickdanger3802 Conversely, Cape Matapan, where Formidable found itself in the line of battle for a sneak attack on the Italian fleet.

[@bluelemming5296]

If memory serves, there were a number of training scenarios pre-WW2 where somebody in the opposing force managed to get surface vessels into range of an aircraft carrier, showing that there was a genuine risk. The North Atlantic is notorious for bad weather. There are times of year when 3 days in 4 are not suitable for flying early war WW2-era aircraft. But strategic considerations don't magically go away just because the weather is bad, so your carriers still need to be out there for extended periods so they can fly on the 1 day in 4 where the weather is good. Attack at night is also a concern. So there was a real risk that the enemy could get surface forces into range of carriers - and in real life it happened on at least two occasions and could very easily have happened on others if things had gone slightly differently. Having said all that, it's far better to have cruisers carry the guns and torpedoes, backed up by destroyers - and only AA guns on the carriers. The space and weight saved makes the carriers far better at their jobs. It's worth remembering that pilot fatigue issues limit carrier operations as much as anything else - after 3-4 sorties the pilots would likely be exhausted and landing on carriers is difficult enough without adding fatigue-induced misjudgement into the mix. You also don't want the hanger and flight deck crews to be exhausted - they are handling gasoline lines, liquid oxygen, and explosives so fatigue induced error is a concern - so having extra crew there is useful as well. Having more room for extra people directly supporting or involved in their primary mission makes carriers more effective. Carrier Pilot by Norman Hanson is worth reading - amongst other things he talks about the fatigue issue on a RN carrier in WW2. Note that destroyers have a tough time operating in rough weather, and tend to run out of fuel quickly. It can be hard to refuel at sea in bad weather. A destroyer-only escort is not a great idea. Also, on two separate occasions in WW1 German surface forces surprised and mangled Norwegian convoys (not the same thing as the WW2 Arctic Convoys) that had no escorts bigger than destroyers, a bit of history that provides additional justification for a stronger escort than just destroyers. Also note that on several different occasions in early WW2 German battleships were able to get into gun range of high priority targets, whether because of hiding in bad weather or just plain screw ups. In at least two of these occasions, they spotted a British battleship escorting a convoy and declined battle. Given the economic costs of the goods and ships and trained people on those convoys, those British battleships paid for the cost of their construction without firing a shot during those encounters. Bigger ships such as battleships and cruisers do better in rough weather and provide protection from surface raiders beyond what destroyers can provide. In the Pacific and Indian Oceans, weather was less of a concern from the perspective of encountering surface raiders - and the Japanese didn't operate many surface raiders (though they did operate some, and German surface raiders operated near Australia on occasion). So here there was even less justification for arming carriers with anti-surface weapons.

[@stargazer5784]

The original NCC-1701 was the penultimate Federation starship design of her time. Although her mission was peaceful, she had the best speed, protection, and firepower available at the time. This would make her the equivalent of a battleship.

[@bkjeong4302]

Thanks for doing my question! And yeah, Beatty’s complete and utter insanity about what carriers were supposed to be might take the cake.

[@jackray1337]

Remember to press the like button.

[@dyerwulf5459]

For worst "concept“ actually built, I would like to nominate the armored ram.

[@nektulosnewbie]

Armoured torpedo ram - Polyphemus only makes sense as a harbour guard, but why go to such lengths to build just a harbour guard?

[@jimdavidsmith4374]

For a view of First Generation American citizens of Japanese ancestry [Nisei], involvement in the Pacific theatre, try Bridge To The Sun, by Bruce Henderson.

[@Jan-hx9rw]

The idea of HMS Warrior as an escort against a German commerce raider is something I would love to see gamed out in Ultimate Admirals: Dreadnought, either with its original armament or with a bunch of modern 4.7 guns replacing its original guns.

[@DABrock-author]

Yeah, imagine a fight between a 'modernized' Warrior (the 1860's ironclad, not the 1900's armored cruiser) and Seeadler.

[@73Trident]

Great DD as per usual, Thanks Drach.

[@frankshaffer7645]

Saw that you are coming to Cleveland, Ohio. Maybe you can do a quick mention of Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry and the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

[@vespelian]

HMS Revenge was recommissioned for shore bombardment of the Belgian coast in 1914 and struck by two 8' inch shells on the belt.

[@SmilefortheJudge]

Best opening tune on all of KZbin.

[@Unreliablecaptionbot]

@Drachinifel Regarding the crimean war, your previous episode was excellent, was there going to be a further episode, about the Baltic?

[@keithrosenberg5486]

Roosevelt and Churchill did have a method of encrypting voice communications.

[@tokul76]

44:10 cutting edge weapon of 1906 did run down cutting edge weapon on 1910s. While judged being unfit for Jutland.

[@MrNicoJac]

Beaty with Eagle was way ahead of his time.... But only in the case of Taffy 3 😂😂

[@tombogan03884]

For the last question, It seems a better idea would be to add another pair of catapults, to all the Capital ships, then equip them all with Swordfish. Torpedo's, and (visions of Warspite ) dive bombing all day, then surface action by night. The crews should just LOVE that. 😁

[@lorenrogers9269]

Q&A: Please discuss the evolution of Battleship fire control from 1900-1945.

[@MrNicoJac]

That's gonna be Wednesday special, not a Drydock question 😅 And I'm sure it's already on Drach's to do list 😋

[@alganhar1]

I know Friedman's Naval Firepower can be a hard read at times but are you really trying to get Drach to essentially summarise that book?

[@jedighostbear4401]

The DS9 runabouts are more like helicopters than shuttlecraft, unless you compare shuttlecraft to utility helicopters

[@Moredread25]

I do enjoy these.

[@FrankBarnwell-xi8my]

HMS Arc Royal, + Swordfish+ torpedoes= a carrier with torpedoes.

[@kelvinroche2833]

Is there a fundamental difference between a torpedo cruiser and a protected cruiser besides number of torpedo tubes?

[@SamAlley-l9j]

Thanks Drach.

[@HorribleHarry]

Ok I can’t take it any longer… the last “ting ting” in the opening music comes in a fraction of a second too soon. My musical OCD is going to be the end of me someday…

[@emdenny10]

I often wonder why Gene didn't equip those shuttles with a more drone system? I always thought they could be.

[@keab42]

They tried to show something like that in Discovery season 2. Fans did not like it.

[@Alsadius]

As for the biggest technological innovation on ships, I might suggest radio for the short list. Not sure it's #1, but it was a big one.

[@stevewhite3424]

I would offer at least for discussion.That radar is the most innovative. You can add radar to a somewhat less capable ship and put it up against a somewhat more capable ship without radar and prevail, especially when properly employed. In reality I'd call them pretty much a dead heat. 😊

[@steve-qc8hd]

00:05:10 Possibly the only reason to go after Almirante Latorre was a reasonable chance of commonality of main armament with New York, Nevada, and Pennsylvania Classes the US having smaller chamber volume so with relatively little recalculation of range tables - for different rifle rate of twist until new liners could be manufactured, incidentally the "Vickers guns" built for Fuso class IJN Yamashiro were Mk III Elswick Ordnance Works guns of believed similar type to the Vickers 35.6cm gun but not delivered mena the IJN weapons became 36cm.

[@DutchBlackMantha]

When the question about terrible naval shooting came up, I expected the answer to be "everything the second pascific squadron has done".

[@AnitaOliviers]

I really appreciate your passion for creating quality content. Your videos are always full of energy and inspiration!🛬🩸🏏

[@longtimelurker2022]

what to you think is closer to using WW2 tactics Star Trek or Star Fleet Battles.

[@SmilefortheJudge]

1:00:34 as a descendant of a Mediterranean fish population I can remember when my relations suffered the indiscriminate violence of bad shots. Aim small miss small. Also that is a mean way to describe Sicilians.

[@jeffbybee5207]

My vote for worst shot was lt George Gift when the css Arkansas sailed through two USA fleets his gunner had the heartford faragates flagship targeted and lt Gift raised the breach to hit the waterline. And fired the ball hit short and bounced up putting a nice hole in the hull safely a couple a feet above the water line

[@milet72]

Nice, at last an ePIsode :-)

[@misterbaker9728]

I’m so bummed out I have to work Friday 13 when you visit my city.

[@rashkavar]

While I can't comment on the specifics of specifically trusted Japanese American translators being used during WWII, it is very worth noting that in general, there was a great deal of distrust for Japanese Americans in general, to the point where many of them were impounded in internment camps for the duration of the war and had most if not all of their property seized. This...does not suggest a situation in which real-time translation efforts would be widely sought after from members of this community. This went far beyond the distrust leveled at German expats in Allied countries, which was often considerable. In that situation, however, a lot of the translation work was done by German Jews, who had fled Germany while they could and were quite eager to strike back. At least in the intelligence community, the Allies had a pretty decent idea of what was going on right from the start and also had at least an inkling that by and large the German intelligence apparatus was not up to deep cover agents posing as Jewish refugees in order to volunteer...and there were enough people around that they could audit translators' work by having other translators do the same piece independently, so...yeah, might as well make use of the highly motivated volunteers who are fluent in German!

[@stanleyrogouski]

Croatia has all the coastline and Croats worshipped the Habsburgs. That navy would have gone on through the 1920s.

[@GrahamWKidd]

7pm on Saturday night and Drach's already dropped. Now for tonight's 5 Minute Guide!

[@Trek001]

I had Drach for breakfast Not to shabby at all

[@leftcoaster67]

This demonstrates the value, of not to be seen.....

[@dmcarpenter2470]

Reference gotten. Later in the war, would Mr Jennings have had Dazzle camouflage?

[@normfinn8422]

56:24 The US armed forces maintained large training programs teaching the Japanese language to soldiers, sailors, and marine intelligence officers.(See e.g. Wikipedia Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) for the army, Navy Japanese Language School for the navy.) Voice radio communications could travel 100+ miles if atmospheric conditions were right. Sending Japanese Americans to fight in the Pacific was avoided. Aside from any trust issues, one hesitates to imagine what would happen to them if captured.

[@gleniu2]

Nice❤

[@stanleyrogouski]

Commodore Decker used a shuttle craft to attack the planet killer.

[@duoduo8085]

Is it the drydock or pi-dock?

[@davewolfy2906]

Cannon allowed warships, as opposed a land battle on ships.

[@ASize-t9b]

Id like my cookie for getting the reference at 16:31 please! 🍪

[@augustosolari7721]

Drach sorry, but I would not say Argentina as a whole was leaning more to the side of the central powers in WW1 and that is for economic reasons. The question of the Malvinas/Falklands was not an issue at the time and the British were the main economic partner of Argentina. Consider the British made major investments in railroads, tramways, banks, finances, and public services, and even during the war Argentina fed the British troops with its corn beef. To put it shortly, there would not be an incentive to go to war with such a valuable trading partner.

[@leonpeters-malone3054]

How not to be seen? And not in choosing too obvious a hiding spot.

[@robert506007]

16:20 firstly should have said that in a German accent I suspect they would like to take the shot. Further its Monty Python's skit "Government Training film number [I forget will be hopefully fixing this comment latter] How not to be scene." I would like my cookie please.

[@robert506007]

39:25 Hmmm Realization that set you off Laughing for a good 5 minutes. Ok You may keep the cookie if you can guess the reference.

[@TheBaldParakeet]

16:08 ayyy i made it in

[@steve-qc8hd]

00:33:07 Short answer is probably less close affinity with Germany and much more commonality with Italy, post Armistice Austria up until the murder of Chancellor Adolphus was more closely aligned with Italy, although both Italy and Austria mutually feared attempts of a further border "re-distribution" especially in the Tyrol, where post WW1 defence lines are still extant as an indicator. Italy was daggers drawn against Germany over the murder of Adolphus and the Anschluss. Hungary on the other hand although ruled by an Admiral without a fleet, was largely neutral, certainly unaligned with Nazi Germany until 1941, in fact much backdoor chicanery was involved in getting Hungary to join Barbarosa, as they feared land seizures from Slovakia and Romania, states more aligned with Hitler. But it is a massive stretch of alterative history as had Austria-Hungary not broken up, in whole or in part, the rump Austria and Hungary Dual Monarchy under Emporia Karl would have collapsed into a Bolshevik state in Central Europe, probably leading to a Stalinist State in Central Europe from 1924-5, Hungary were the most militant Central European Bolsheviki post 1918. With all the problems that would have led to, it would have been a terrible case of be careful what you wish for, with only a riverine naval arms race as a distraction.

[@nekdonikde5317]

33:07 You are also forgetting the huge technological, economical and manufacturing changes this would cause. This would have served the whole Czech manufacturing capability (guns, armor plate, engines...) (unless that got also Versaillesed away somehow) to the Axis on a silver platter far before the Munich agreement/betreyal and the following creation of the Protectorate. And given how the stuff made here, funded just by Czechoslovak economy to hopefully protect us from the Germans, then stolen by Germans and subsequently thrown at the French performed (Kpfw. 35(t), Kpfw. 38(t)...) Imagine that manufacturing capability running at full speed from the moment Germany started to remilitarize. It would be really nasty to deal with.

[@TimMeinschein-j4s]

0:00:42 Did Roddenberry or any of the high-end staff of the Star-Trek (Original Series) served on either Enterprise (CV-6 and/or CV-65)?

[@kemarisite]

Roddenberry served in the US Army Air Corps in heavy bombers, flying B-17 missions in the South Pacific. This arguably explains the prevalence of commissioned officers depicted in the shows. Robert Justman and Herb Solow were too young to serve in WW2.

[@TimMeinschein-j4s]

@@kemarisite I was curious if someone "in the higher levels of Desilu, had served aboard either USS Enterprise. Were Justman, and/or Solow were aboard CVN-65?

[@graveyard1979]

RN was the navy to pioneer aerial torpedo attacks so the idea of using an entire carrier like a torpedo cruiser when one could put a few torpedo biplanes on her is a very high level of weird.

[@jefferyindorf699]

Remember we are talking about Beatty here.

[@skeltonpg]

Re Argentina in WWI: Like a lot of the neutral world Argentina suffered a depression early in the war. Export markets died and imports became less available and more costly. (Argentina was a top ten economic country by per capita income at that time.) Britain ceased to be a source of investment capital. Guess who was largely blamed. Britain's need for imported food (in 1914 it imported around 60% of its wheat and 40% of its meat) grew. Arrangements were made with Commonwealth countries and South America to fill the gap. If Argentina wanted to hurt Britain, its obvious course would be to cut off food exports, accepting the severe economic consequences, and civil unrest. The navy was not relevant even if it could arrange logistics to get to the war.

[@tombogan03884]

34:00 If Austria-Hungary had survived, how would that have effected WW-II ? The majority of Germanies earlier conquests, Austria, Sudetenland etc. were parts of the Empire but everyone hated the Hapsburgs. They had replaced the Ottoman's as the "Sick man of Europe". Without an invasion of France, would anyone have cared enough to interfere with Hitler's claims of "Defending the East" ?

[@stanleyrogouski]

The two biggest wars in the West, Ukraine and Palestine, are both happening because the Habsburgs and the Ottomans are gone.

[@StoolieP]

No Pi?

[@steveh7409]

Only a one parter this time??:(

[@gwtpictgwtpict4214]

Most Drydocks are one part, roughly an hour long. The last each month are marathon five to six hour two part jobs.

[@jame3shook]

Its the PI episode....lol

[@jaym6564]

Yay, I get a cookie!

[@SpaceCowboy-u7j]

That first question is NERD HEAVY!! 🤓🥳

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

00:00:42 - Star Trek, The Original Series ! Captain Kirk, the real mans, man, captain. Of course racking up the Federation's expenses, settling all those paternity suits, on board his flagship, the SS Harvey Weinstein.

[@salty4496]

:)