How significant are the bases/stratigic locations that the US gained under the destroyers for bases deal and do you expect they will be turned back over to the UK when the deal expires
One error in the Hedgehog Drach - there were "trainable Hedgehogs". They were fitted to a lot of post-WW2 American destroyers. I can quote Friedman if you want me to look it up? They were also initially prone to explode prior to firing.
If the Americans and British Canadians wanted to have a laugh, and fight a war on the Great Lakes with classic Great Lakes Freighters, ie, pilot house in the front, engine house in the back, and a long cargo space in the middle, how would you go around arming these vessels.
Many had heard about legend of Mulan, female soldiers existed during The Great War and War World 2 such as Flora Sandes, Milunka Savić, Russian Battalion of Death, Night Withes, Lyudmila Pavlichenko etc, but what about Navies, were there any cross dressed females or official officers or sailors as females beginning from start of age of sail all way to the WW2 in various cultures or if not, were there at least legends/folklore circulating around the navies on a matter? Considering the fact that sailors are off to sea for quite a while not seeing their opposite gender and the fact that people like to personalise and femanise some things and events it would be pretty much likely to expect, especially in countries where women are roughly equal culturally like in Russia, Japan and China.
Admiral: Members of Parliament, I know the budget is tight this year. Members of Parliament: Nodding and agreeing Admiral: However, for 12 easy monthly payments of only 749,999 pounds, we too can afford the Hyper Mega Super Ultra Uber Doom Dreadnaught 9000. Members of Parliament: Excited murmuring and nodding. Admiral: And if we order now, we don't have to make a payment for the first 6 months. Members of Parliament: Joyous murmuring and nodding.
Armored gratings: The original versions were crisscrossing layers of steel bars partially blocking the funnel opening, which were not very good against an AP shell, though usually good against most non-AP bombs. By WWII, this had been replaced by very thick plates of solid homogeneous, ductile armor steel, the same as the armored deck itself, with many large holes drilled in it (wider at the bottom than at the top), at the same level of the primary armored deck, continuing that deck across the funnel openings. These plates, when tested by the US with large-caliber AP shells hitting at high obliquity, were shown to be equal to 40% of their thickness of solid deck armor, requiring them to be very thick to compensate for the holes. Sometimes they was not quite as strong as a solid armored deck on the same ship, but at high obliquity, before the shell moved very far sideways it had left the grating if it hit it directly and, if the shell slid over it after hitting the regular deck, the shell would usually be moving in such a sideways angle as to make the grating act just like a deck plate, though it might have some webbing between some holes split off and fall into the funnel under the deck. Either way, these new-type gratings were considered adequate against virtually any AP shell or bomb that the regular deck around them could stop or deflect.
And for your age of sail wooden warships you also want a wide underwater hull form to resist the heeling force from all their sails way up in the air. That heeling force can really try to push the ship over, especially if you're taking the wind directly abeam (directly over the port or starboard side of the ship). Once you went to steam powered warships you didn't need to worry about a hull needing to resist the heeling force from wind so much, because their superstructures provided far less sail area, especially in proportion to their size.
Most people don't realize how great the weight of the rocks deep in the hull of a sailing ship was. Hence why they didn't need a centerboard with a large keel-weight like the smaller pleasure sail boats that you see being sailed on various lakes... Basically, yes, they would cause a flooding wooden ship to sink!
@@timengineman2nd714 Good point. And sailing merchant ships would carry extra ballast stone when otherwise lightly loaded. There are lots of cobblestone streets in the colonial America, the Caribbean, and Philippians where the stone came from ships that offloaded now excess ballast in order to carry heavier return cargo.
@@mancubwwa They do sometimes have to rig those Lateen (spelling?) sails and some of the "square rigged" sails almost sideways during moving through restricted waters, like entering a port.... going through known reefs and shoals, etc. But these were always done under much reduced sails!!!
@@timengineman2nd714 with sails lined up along ship axis and wind from abeam you essentialy get no propultion at all. Now I've never run anything that isn't "modern" fore-and-aft rig (either gaff or bermuda) but I know enough theory to know that no sail will create forward force if set like this. Even sub optimal you would need et least 30 degrees between ship axis and sail line to do something.
The highlight of my week is getting to sit down and maintain sanity with a couple of mugs of tea and the Drydock with Drachfinel! Superb content as always thank you for giving us another absolute gem of an hours worth of naval knowledge!
Concerning water impacts: Windscreens made of thin sheet steel are screwed on either to the shell nose lower edge, or to the AP cap or to a "Hood" (a thin mild-steel cap-like nose covering soldered to the nose to allow the windscreen to be screwed on without cutting weakening threads into the nose itself, as had been done in the original windscreen-equipped AP and base-fuzed Common shells with less-than-desirable results as to nose breakage). In many cases they are strong enough to remain intact and attached to the projectile nose (US windscreens had to have holes cut into them with thin metal covers to allow the water to enter them on ocean impact when using dye bags). German Navy Krupp WWII L/4.4 AP shells, the last version of their AP ammo, had aluminum windscreens that shattered on impact with anything solid, including water, to prevent them from applying any leverage on the AP cap that might loosen it -- Krupp also used a super-strong high-temperature solder not used by anyone else to attach all of its AP caps from just prior to WWI, so it seems that Krupp must have had some bad soldering experiences early-on and vowed to never let it happen again. The Japanese Type 88 and later Type 91 "diving" AP shells with the break-away windscreens and nose or, if used, AP cap tips, obviously did not worry about the windscreen after hitting the ocean. Pointed noses are bad underwater due to the high forces generated by turbulence as the shell tries to move nose-first as it did in the air (also, the shell is no longer moving at supersonic speed in the water, due to water's much higher speed of sound). Since the conical nose has a large angled surface area located far away from the shell's center-of-gravity, the spin of the shell is no longer strong enough to cause it to remain going nose-first and it tumbles, with the spin now making it rotate in all sorts of complex ways, drastically increasing drag. Flat noses, even somewhat-tapered flat noses like in the Japanese shells, force the water to move radially sideways in a "cavitation bubble" surrounding the shell and close up behind it's short body, so there is nothing to push the shell from its nose-first orientation, allowing a much longer rather straight or only mildly-nose-up underwater path before its fuze blows it up or it slows enough to just sink downward. While hits where the shells are falling at a steep-enough angle to dive into the water and stay there for a long period before, if not hitting at a steep-enough angle, coming back up due to the pressure difference on the top and bottom surface of the shell, will usually have the base fuze activated (barring a dud due to manufacturing error), if the shell hits at a shallow-enough angle to immediately ricochet off of the water with minimal immersion time, the base fuzes are almost never activated. Even Japanese Type 91 AP shells designed for such water impact, as mentioned, if they ricochet upward due to too-shallow a hit (under 7 degrees angle of fall or so), will usually become duds from such hits: This was shown when an 8" Type 91 AP shell skipped off the water short of the USS SOUTH DAKOTA and its windscreen, removable bluntly-pointed "Cap Head" (for direct hit penetration of thick homogeneous, ductile armor, which was the only kind used by Japanese cruisers), and nose-first (but wobbling like a corkscrew) body, diverged from one-another and made a Mickey Mouse head (no joke!) punched into the side of the amidships lower superstructure of the US battleship and the inert projectile body moved through that lower superstructure in the sideways direction, tearing entirely through the ship, making holes and slots in bulkheads, tearing off a heavy safe's door, and finally punching a deep dent and partial hole into the back of one of the 5"/38 armored twin mounts on the far side of the ship, before falling to the deck, where it was quickly thrown over the side by a damage-control party. This same thing happened to some US AP shells fired at JEAN BART that skipped off that ship's armor at high obliquity and ended up inert in the city of Casablanca behind the port, though some of these inert US base fuzes might have been defective due to filler fumes. Very high impact angles are not good for fuze operation, ever.
I've got to take off the proverbial hat off to you Drach. This continuing content is phenomenal. Much appreciated. Keep it up. A worthy archive and a great monument.
In relation to Squid and Hedgehog. In his book on British destroyers and frigates Friedman claims that in 1945 the Hedgehog had a kill probability of 26.3% against submarines whereas squid had a kill probability of 40.3%. So it demonstrated a very significant increase in lethality
I think Friedman’s figures are based on combat results, so it’s a very small sample size for Squid. The Squid warhead is six times bigger and the sinking rate is twice that of Hedgehog. Some Hedgehog launchers were trainable like Squid, but the way forward was a ship launched homing torpedo.
I was a "firelighter" on a preserved railway line, basically, I raised the steam before handing the locomotive over to the crew who would the engine out.. In the 1970s we had a coal shortage and used the coalite brickettes. There are some issues, on a foggy day the cement dust will bond with the water the atmosphere. This fell on the locomotive and ruined the paintwork. The other thing is open forced draft and you can lose brickettes through the boiler tubes.
Still got a few days, but I'm not sure if I get another chance in time to say this so: merry Christmas drach, I hope you will be gifted with a lot of happiness, great luck and great health. You have quickly become one of my favorite creators on this platform and really reinforced my interest in the naval side of history. And your videos always give me a place to escape my mental health issues for a while, so thank you very much for that.
I'd like to suggest that the disappearance of the "Dreadnought" designation coincided with the retirement/scrapping of the last "pre-Dreadnought" battleships so there was no longer any need to distinguish the two types.
Germany had Pre-Dreadnoughts in service during WW2. Some of the first shots of the war were actually fired by them against Poland. (Greece also had former American Pre-Dreadnoughts)
@@gokbay3057 I'm aware of that, but under the Versailles treaty Germany wasn't allowed any other battleships, and all the other major navies had got rid of their pre-Dreadnoughts much earlier.
@@gokbay3057 I'm aware of that, but under the Versailles treaty Germany wasn't allowed any other battleships, and all the other major navies had got rid of their pre-Dreadnoughts much earlier.
My thoughts also. Imagine being the captain of a squadron of RN cruisers in the North Sea in 1918 and getting a message that a brace of german battleships were heading your way. I suggesrt that your reactions would be different depending upon whether the pair were Pommern class (Fresh meat!!!!!), Nassau class (Lets give it a go, chaps) or Baden class (I'm coming home now, Mother). After the Washington treaty killed-off the mega hyper humungous dteadnoughts and economics killed off both the pre and early dreadnoughts, the distinction was unnecessary because; well, super compared to what?
Dear friend "Drachinfel", I trust you have illuminated the entire galaxy with historical knowledge of warfare on earth and I congratulate you for a job extraordinarily well done! I would like at this juncture of my life and yours to take a moment to remind you that upon earth their exists flowers and may I suggest that you stop and take a moment to "smell the roses" as you only live once. With all due respects, sir! Life has more to offer than war. Peter Nelson age 70.
About "dreadnought" becoming less used, I think it's about markedness in language. Whatever the "norm" is generally doesn't have a marker attached, the exceptions do. So in 1900, there are battleships. In 1910, there are battleships and dreadnought battleships. But post WWI, when pre-dreadnoughts are obsolete and mostly being scrapped under the Washington Treaty anyway, "battleship" came to mean a dreadnought, and their predecessors therefore had to be "pre-dreadnoughts". Similarly, terms like "talkie" and "safety bicycle" aren't used anymore, they've taken over "film" and "bicycle". Retronyms were created for their predecessors ("silent film" and "penny-farthing") that used to be "film" and "bicycle". If missile battleships ever become common, they'll become "battleships" and "dreadnought" will come back.
The most recent example of this, and one we are experiencing right now is mobile/cell phone. Most people just say phone, and only use stationary/landline to specify, as use of mobiles generally superseded use of landlines. Dial back to early 2000's and it was very different. And most people haven't even noticed this shift, happening right in front of their eyes!
Re: Squid vs. Hedgehog: The Squid had two sonars. One measured the distance and bearing to the target, the other the depth of the target, meaning you'd have it's three dimensional position. The data was automatically fed into FCS that set the fuse and this gave you a 50% change for a one slavo kill. Thus they came up with a Squid that had six barrels. RIP submarine!
Well this was a really good one. I wasn't thrilled with some of the Drydock episodes in early-mid fall but things have really picked question wise so I guess good on the channels members as well as Drach.
Another Great Drydock Drach Thank you for your efforts in making these fine videos and keeping us (your devoted minions) both educated and entertained during this trying year. Many good wishes to both yourself and your (long suffering?) lady and hoping you both stay safe and healthy.
Haha I’ve been waiting for my question to come around... the time had come! Thanks Drach appreciate the detail and love the explanation with Prince of Wales!
5:17 wow, I think by now we would have been at least up to the Hyper Mega Doom Dreadnought. I think this calls for a spreadsheet of time frames for terminology of where we should be at this point 😀😀😀.
As a frequent listener the 1st and second generation dreadnought and super dreadnought description for those who haven't heard Drach's explanation before. 1st gen dreadnought- 8 gun broadside of 11-12 inch guns. They may have more than 8 guns but inefficient Hexagonal layout or wing turrets where they can't fire them all on the same side Examples Dreadnought, Nassau, Heligoland, South Carolina 2nd generation dreadnought- still 11 or 12 inch guns but a 10 or more gun broadside because of either centerline guns or cross deck layouts Examples include Delaware, Florida, Wyoming, Kaiser, König, Tegethoff, Gangut, Agincourt 1st gen super dreadnoughts had 10 or less 14ish inch guns broadside Examples include all the 13.5 inch British ships, the New York, the Nevada, Bretagne Second generation Super dreadnoughts had either 12 14 inch or 8 15+ inch guns Examples include the standards from Pennsylvania on, Queen Elizibeth, R, Bayern, Fuso
it would be nice if each photo shown was labeled with, at minimum, name of ship and data. if possible, also location of photo (ie, name of port). Many photos are shown with little, sometimes no, identification of the ship or even much relation to the topic being discussed. Lastly, many thanks for the website and all your contributions. Lastly, lastly, the termination of your employment with the traffic (or whatever) department is a blessing in disguise (I'm a civil/structural engineer). Inventory your skills and niche capabilities, network your peers and consultancies with frankness, and you'll do fine. You're they boss, you no longer depend on one client (your employer) but have diversification, no commute, and so on. Its called professional practice. Good luck.
During the Age of Sail, as is true today, hull design also depended on it's use and were they were meant to operate. For example the vessels built for the Great Lakes during the War of 1812 were not as deep or rounded as their seagoing contemporaries because there was no need to carry a large amount of supplies, such as fresh water. Not having to carry an a lot of supplies would allow for a shallower and/or finer hull. The replica of the HMS Rose when built in the early 1970's was designed with a much sharper hull than the original and she actually sailed to weather pretty well.
As Drach explains wood has its limitations. And advantages too. One thing especially with large 1st through 3rd rates is you need to space for armament, gun crews, sail handlers, Marines, the skilled ratings (ships carpenter, sail maker etc, ships officers, any possible passengers and supernumeries. Plus their required stores. And spare spars, sails, cordage etc. And their required powder and shot. Wooden ships once they get long enough have a tendency to begin to hog. A condition where the bow and stern are drooping in relation to the middle of the ship along the length of the keel. Some ships tried to counter this with cables running for and aft that would put the hull under tension above the waterline. Probably the finest hulled large ships of the wooden era were the clippers. But they probably would have carried limited armament as war ships. In fact by the 1860s large ocean going wooden warships were able to carry less guns yet have a greater weight of metal. Another thing done on wooden ships to aid stability was the bottom of the ship could be filled with ballast. This could be pretty much permanent or could be part of the actual cargo. One thing I wonder is just how well a modern steel hulled warship up to frigate sized could be converted to sail. I know there have been a few instances where steam poweredvessels have had to jury rig sails due to mechanical break downs.
Amazing work as always Drach. Considering the speed and consistency of your work, shame the US Navy doesn't use you for its DryDock work. You certainly wouldn't take 5 to 7 years to rebuild a heavily damaged Amphib. ......just sayin. Also I've noticed how your pronunciation of Maryland has changed, or at least to my ears it has. I have no doubt during the Bismarck chase, Rodney's black gang was donning the red robes, using oils and incense and praying to the Omnissiah. Rodney had one hell of a angry and furious Machine Spirit
Our engines at full power, your destruction is our aim! Our ships are steaming on! Engage the linkage, Omnissiah! Engage, the linkage Omnissiah! Our engines are online!
Unfortunately in the peacetime real world time is worth the inverse of money. If you want your rebuild to be done faster all you have to do is cough up more money to do it. Also as a country, to have those kinds of resources available on the West coast on an as needed basis you have to pay big money to create and maintain them to begin with.
Imagine an admiral lobbying for construction appropriations for an Hyper Awesome Lave 9000 Dreadnought (alias - the HAL 9000 Dreadnought). The treasury agent responds, "what are you doing Dave?
Given the range of questions asked and answered would it be possible to create an index to all the Drydocks ? The amount of interesting information they represent should surely be made more accessible ? Or maybe a book of Drach's 1001 Random factoids about warships ?
I'd be interested in a poster so long as they don't cost too much. Say around $10-18 Canadian dollars. Also, I'd absolutely love an autographed poster Drach.
1:03:26 about that, perhaps having a preorder option ? like I was thinking something along the lines of, you put up a catalogue of photos you have with a preorder limit time, that way people can choose whichever they want and then you know exactly how many posters of which exact picture you have to get printed avoiding cost overruns of having to print a bit of each without knowing which will sell or not, granted preordering logistics is a bit unique.
22:49 One thing was that, in order to save money, the RN decided to only use 2 royal dockyards to refit their battleships instead of including private dockyards. If they had been able/willing to spend more money they could have spread out the work to some private dockyards, thus preserving building capacity, getting more ships refit (including possibly Hood), and helping the local economies in the area(s) in question. A case, in my opinion at least, of being penny wise and pound foolish.
Limbo was designed to lay a pattern of 3 bombs around a sub in a triangle pattern, they all detonate together and the pressure wave ruptures the hull. Limbo was fitted to Roy al Navy AS ships up to and including the Leander class Frigates and was still in use in the 80s. It is considerably larger than the Squid, the mortar barrels are around 6 feet long as are the bombs. They were loaded into the barrels from a deckhouse alongside the mortar mechanically and the system could still be used when the decks were closed down in an NMB situation. On the later classes of Frigate they were fitted in wells at the stern of the ship aft of the helicopter flight deck.
One side of mouth says BWWIITISH did not need long chains of fleet support due to their bases, Other side sez US did not have any fleet oilers and had to rely on BWWIITISH....thank you for saving humanity Englander. Great show as usual tho!
The Pearl Harbor battleships were repaired at Pacific ports. Colorado was already drydoaked in Long Beach when Pearl Harbor happened. New York, New Mexico ,Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Idaho along with the modern battleships were with the Atlantic fleet during Pearl Harbor.
On these off topic vids. I would love to see some content on model ships. Even some historical uses of ship models in the ship building process and ceremonial uses etc.
How does sea temperature affect turbine performance, then? Greater cooling effect on the condenser side of the circuit? I know you're not suggesting straight seawater is inducted and heated to steam and that water density somehow affects the energy being extracted out of the firebox.
@@BogeyTheBear i learned this in Navy nuclear power school 25 years ago so I might have forgotten some of the specifics but ... the lower the seawater temp, the lower the temp in the main condenser (heat exchanger), the greater the delta T and thus delta P across turbine (inlet is the same but outlet is lower), so greater power from the turbine. My sub could get two more knots in the artic vs the tropics
There is one advantage to the Hedgehog...if it exploded, you KNEW you hit the sub. With the Squid, it was like a depth charge-unless you saw debris, you would not KNOW that the sub had been hurt.
I had to stop half-way through, I wish 'people' could understand' what 30 knots feels like at sea, not the same as slowing down approaching town. Happy Christmas from afar, my hand and my heart (except for 'ovid restrictions) and may I introduce Ad Playerovski, got 21 subscriptions and deserves a whole lot more. Loving this, well informed and researched, I'll have to come back later, just too much 'on' right now. Straight out 'Happy Christmas!' H apP y Chr ist m a s.
I think for Destroyers there are two categories for the most powerful gun Destroyers. The tribals win hands down for surface-to-surface combat. The Fletchers on the other hand when as a dual-purpose platform. Surface-to-surface and surface-to-air, the example of their ability to fight on the surface would be the Battle of Samar. Granted a desperation move by the captains of the Fletcher's, but they did inflict some serious damage on the Japanese surface fleet while fighting Toe to Toe with ships that far out classed them. Anyone care to think of what an angry swarm of Fletcher's and tribals combined would do to the Japanese Fleet? One thing's for sure that would be a lot of blood and feathers in the air!
As usual Drack you make my Sunday. Maybe put up a poll with maybe 6 or 8 pix to gain an idea of interest. Its something I'd be interested in - for the right pic - only so much wall space that herself will allow me war things on.
34:10 the Battleship New Jersey channel has a nice video regarding how to haul / service large machinery parts through their main armour deck: you do it in pieces and you take your time OR just don't do it at all. ua-cam.com/video/BdudSHtdueo/v-deo.html
Choices, choices, choices. Drach or Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles. Early destroyers referred to as whale backs. Wow, I didn't know early destroyers were built in yards on the Great Lakes!
Alternatively known as turtlebacks. Think the last ones built that way were a couple of the "F" or Tribal class. Viking, the RN's only 6-funnelled destroyer certainly was - at that time the builders were given quite a degree of discretion about designs.
@@johnshepherd8687 Yes I know. Although I'm not sure just how much the word "combat" can be used with either type of LCS. Plus in WWII there were fair number of submarines and smaller vessels built in yards on the Lakes. Petersen Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay used to build for the US Navy until they finally got fed up with the Navy constantly changing specifications. They still might be doing some contract building for the Corp of Engineers but I'm not sure about that. I do wonder in the case of the LCS ships just how that relates to the treaty with Canada that has provisions limiting the size and capabilities of warships operating on the Great Lakes. Especially seeing as how any USN ships operating on the Great Lakes have to travel through Canada to get there.
@@mpetersen6 I haven't read the treaty provisions but give our defense relationship there is probability some sort waiver provision. When the St Laurence Seaway open in 1959 TF 47 was sent to Chicago as part of the opening ceremonies. The heavy cruiser USS Macon was the flagship and the number of ships sent was larger and more powerful than most of the world's navies.
@@johnshepherd8687 There are probably provisions for special exceptions. As I understand it the treaty limitations mainly are in place concerning vessels actually stationed on the Great Lakes. Of course it's not like a Nimtz class is going to be making a port call in Chicago. Over the years a few groups in Wisconsin came up with the idea of trying to get BB-64 as a museum ship. The Navy basically told them OK. If you can figure out how to get it there you can have it. A few years back there was an effort by a group in Milwaukee to secure a cruiser but that went nowhere. They only actual combat museum ships I can think of of the Silversides in Muskegeon and the Cobia in Manitowoc. There may be others but I don't know. There are two German subs on the Great Lakes. The U-505 and the one WWI sub sitting on the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Re: 50:20 - Was Langsdorff right to scuttle Graf Spee? I think the dilemma facing Langsdorff was the prospect that Graf Spee might possibly be captured since he would not be able to fight his way out nor run away in his damaged condition.
"Super-Mega-Ultra Dreadnought". And I'd want one. I don't care if it sounds stupid, if it's one of the insane Ultimate Admiral meme designs, I'm the only one laughing. While my enemies are busy being blasted into small chunks.
Drachinifel, would you consider doing a full series of all, or many ships of all kinds that have become museums? I though that if a ship is mentioned in one of your videos and a viewer finds out it's right around the corner to them, they may go visit it. Where I live there many within a day drive and I have become very excited about visiting them since I have been watching your videos.
Funnels have often got many other purposes. One is an area to use the exhaust to preheat air and fuel. An area for aux machinery as the area under-deck is limited.
Good program as usual, any chance of a video on the Audacious class carries of world war two?. I know you don't normally venture into post second world war ships,but as this class was ordered in 1943 and served until the 1970's, and were able to be modified to operate Sea Vixens, Scimitars, Buccaneers and Phantoms,( although only Ark Royal received the necessary large refit to do so in the case of phantoms),they might make for a suitable half hour program.
Concerning the question of RN battleships and their maintenance. The dockyards conducting this work would ideally be situated beyond the range of Luftwaffe disruption. Not a factor that the US was unfortunate enough to have to deal with or consider. For example during what are called the Blitz years it was felt to be too risky to send strategically important ships to Portsmouth.
Another point is that by 1920 there are no pre-Dreadnought battleships left in service so the distinction isn’t needed anymore. Battleships are again a uniform group with no qualitative distinction.
On posters, I'm a logistics guy, I do the stuff professionally. It's what my diploma is in too. Personally, if you can get the interest, I would recommend a bimonthly schedule. You need the time to get things, confirm orders, wait for payment and the like. So, a bimonthly to seasonal, three month window seems to be the most practical way to do it. Then the question is more international shipping. If you're just trying the post side of things, that's why I say bimonthly. One month odd built in for transport. At least for an experiment, seems worth trying out.
I assume a big part of the reason the term “dreadnaught” disappeared is the decreasing importance of pre-dreadnaughts so you no longer needed the differentiator
As far as U.S. Navy ships needing to use their own dry dock space. I know of a wreck of an ordinary merchant ship that sank at anchor in Santa Monica Bay, CA in 1942 because dry dock space wasn't available for this vessel, even though it was in need of a serious refit. U.S. Navy ships were getting priority. Good luck if you sprung a leak and your power failed. Though for a number of years It made a nice wreck dive.
Well the Daring class going only 30 knots really does seem slow since carriers are faster than this and I would suspect you really want should your carriers to be escorted at full speed. So while 33 knots would be fine 30 knots is just not good enough.
I have a lot of respect for Hand Langsdorff, a great man who fought for an evil cause. A great humanitarian considering the atrocities Germany & Japan got up to in general.
Could someone please help me understand why there were 1000s of crew onboard a capital ship during the world wars? What were the most common types of roles they were needed for?
Well..... Most things are done manually. Somebody has to turn knobs. Load ammo. Chip paint. Cook food. Every ship has this divided into departments. Deck, Engineering, weapons, supply, Etc. That adds up....
The Iowas tend to have the most readily available detail on this. The main battery turrets require around 94 men each, so there's 282. The secondary battery requires 20 or so men for each of 10 mounts, so that's another 200. The quad 40 mm Bofors mounts take about a dozen each, so that's another 240, plus a gunner and assistant for each of the 20 mm Oerlikons, total of about 320 for the light and medium AA guns. That's a total of about 800 men just to man all the guns, not counting fire control, engines, boilers, damage control, communications, watch, bridge, etc.
@@kemarisite Great! Does that include any redundant crew for the guns, doing something else while ready to replace casualties? A dozen crew to man a quad Bofors 40 mm sounds quite crowded since it didn't have any hoisting of ammo from a magazine below AFAIK.
@@bjorntorlarsson that's the immediate manning requirements for the guns and, where that information is readily available, the magazines and ammunition handling rooms. For the Bofors mounts, I'm specifically talking about the quad mounts used on larger ships, estimating one loader and one ammo handler per barrel, plus one man to train (rotate) the mount, another to elevate the mount, and a mount captain, technically 11. Note that most of these people, especially ammunition handlers for the light and medium AA, have regular jobs on the ship (one watch out of three doing whatever it is) and feeding the guns is their battle station.
I would argue that the Somers class is a more powerful all around design in terms of Gun and Torpedo Armament given that they also have 8 guns in 4 turrets (5" vs 4.7") and 12 torpedoes vs 4. But I think in the all around category (which includes AA and Anti Sub fire power) you should look at the Gearings which give up 2 5" guns to gain a lot of mid range AA (40mm and 20mm) and benefits from DP 5" guns vs single purpose and still has a very strong 10 torpedo armament.
The Anti Aircraft ship Ulster Queen claimed a JU 88 shot down above the cloud and never visually observed in mid September 1942 while escorting convoy PQ18 north of Norway. HMS Avenger was also using Radar for anti aircraft fire in this convoy.
Presumably it would already have been with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in Brest; Prinz Eugen only sailed with Bismarck because it was new, and both were still in Germany (and Raeder wanted Tirpitz with Bismarck, not a heavy cruiser). The end goal of Bismarck's launch was to group up with Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau for a heavy raiding battlegroup, so I think they'd want to keep the slower pocket battleships on their own for raiding (they did group Admiral Scheer with Tirpitz near Norway, but they were very cautious about attacking with those ships compared to earlier in the war).
@@BrigadierBill I know where she most likely would have been... What I meant was, imagine if she'd sailed with the planed link up as well after repairs were completed - get into a convoy and you would have obliterated it
The only problem I have with that is that it starts sounding like a music genre, opening the door for terms like "Progressive Dreadnaught" and "Dreadnaught-core".... lol
Pinned post for Q&A :)
How significant are the bases/stratigic locations that the US gained under the destroyers for bases deal and do you expect they will be turned back over to the UK when the deal expires
One error in the Hedgehog Drach - there were "trainable Hedgehogs". They were fitted to a lot of post-WW2 American destroyers. I can quote Friedman if you want me to look it up?
They were also initially prone to explode prior to firing.
If the Americans and British Canadians wanted to have a laugh, and fight a war on the Great Lakes with classic Great Lakes Freighters, ie, pilot house in the front, engine house in the back, and a long cargo space in the middle, how would you go around arming these vessels.
Alternate history Bismarck V Colorado in a 1v1 duel
Many had heard about legend of Mulan, female soldiers existed during The Great War and War World 2 such as Flora Sandes, Milunka Savić, Russian Battalion of Death, Night Withes, Lyudmila Pavlichenko etc, but what about Navies, were there any cross dressed females or official officers or sailors as females beginning from start of age of sail all way to the WW2 in various cultures or if not, were there at least legends/folklore circulating around the navies on a matter? Considering the fact that sailors are off to sea for quite a while not seeing their opposite gender and the fact that people like to personalise and femanise some things and events it would be pretty much likely to expect, especially in countries where women are roughly equal culturally like in Russia, Japan and China.
Admiral: Members of Parliament, I know the budget is tight this year.
Members of Parliament: Nodding and agreeing
Admiral: However, for 12 easy monthly payments of only 749,999 pounds, we too can afford the Hyper Mega Super Ultra Uber Doom Dreadnaught 9000.
Members of Parliament: Excited murmuring and nodding.
Admiral: And if we order now, we don't have to make a payment for the first 6 months.
Members of Parliament: Joyous murmuring and nodding.
True story!
Shouldn't a salesman from Vickers be there to confirm that offer as well?
Does it come with a set of Ginsu knives and a smokeless ashtray?
@@eddierudolph7694 Only if said ship is to be armed with 14 inch guns.
"Only 12 'E Z' payments!
"Call now! Operators are standing by."
Armored gratings: The original versions were crisscrossing layers of steel bars partially blocking the funnel opening, which were not very good against an AP shell, though usually good against most non-AP bombs. By WWII, this had been replaced by very thick plates of solid homogeneous, ductile armor steel, the same as the armored deck itself, with many large holes drilled in it (wider at the bottom than at the top), at the same level of the primary armored deck, continuing that deck across the funnel openings. These plates, when tested by the US with large-caliber AP shells hitting at high obliquity, were shown to be equal to 40% of their thickness of solid deck armor, requiring them to be very thick to compensate for the holes. Sometimes they was not quite as strong as a solid armored deck on the same ship, but at high obliquity, before the shell moved very far sideways it had left the grating if it hit it directly and, if the shell slid over it after hitting the regular deck, the shell would usually be moving in such a sideways angle as to make the grating act just like a deck plate, though it might have some webbing between some holes split off and fall into the funnel under the deck. Either way, these new-type gratings were considered adequate against virtually any AP shell or bomb that the regular deck around them could stop or deflect.
And for your age of sail wooden warships you also want a wide underwater hull form to resist the heeling force from all their sails way up in the air. That heeling force can really try to push the ship over, especially if you're taking the wind directly abeam (directly over the port or starboard side of the ship).
Once you went to steam powered warships you didn't need to worry about a hull needing to resist the heeling force from wind so much, because their superstructures provided far less sail area, especially in proportion to their size.
Most people don't realize how great the weight of the rocks deep in the hull of a sailing ship was. Hence why they didn't need a centerboard with a large keel-weight like the smaller pleasure sail boats that you see being sailed on various lakes...
Basically, yes, they would cause a flooding wooden ship to sink!
@@timengineman2nd714 Good point. And sailing merchant ships would carry extra ballast stone when otherwise lightly loaded.
There are lots of cobblestone streets in the colonial America, the Caribbean, and Philippians where the stone came from ships that offloaded now excess ballast in order to carry heavier return cargo.
Err, no the way sail are set up with wind directly abeam, the heeling force is significantly lower than with wind coming more from the bow.
@@mancubwwa They do sometimes have to rig those Lateen (spelling?) sails and some of the "square rigged" sails almost sideways during moving through restricted waters, like entering a port.... going through known reefs and shoals, etc.
But these were always done under much reduced sails!!!
@@timengineman2nd714 with sails lined up along ship axis and wind from abeam you essentialy get no propultion at all. Now I've never run anything that isn't "modern" fore-and-aft rig (either gaff or bermuda) but I know enough theory to know that no sail will create forward force if set like this. Even sub optimal you would need et least 30 degrees between ship axis and sail line to do something.
The highlight of my week is getting to sit down and maintain sanity with a couple of mugs of tea and the Drydock with Drachfinel! Superb content as always thank you for giving us another absolute gem of an hours worth of naval knowledge!
I want a poster of the Kamchatka with the words "Do you see torpedo boats?" written beneath
Concerning water impacts: Windscreens made of thin sheet steel are screwed on either to the shell nose lower edge, or to the AP cap or to a "Hood" (a thin mild-steel cap-like nose covering soldered to the nose to allow the windscreen to be screwed on without cutting weakening threads into the nose itself, as had been done in the original windscreen-equipped AP and base-fuzed Common shells with less-than-desirable results as to nose breakage). In many cases they are strong enough to remain intact and attached to the projectile nose (US windscreens had to have holes cut into them with thin metal covers to allow the water to enter them on ocean impact when using dye bags). German Navy Krupp WWII L/4.4 AP shells, the last version of their AP ammo, had aluminum windscreens that shattered on impact with anything solid, including water, to prevent them from applying any leverage on the AP cap that might loosen it -- Krupp also used a super-strong high-temperature solder not used by anyone else to attach all of its AP caps from just prior to WWI, so it seems that Krupp must have had some bad soldering experiences early-on and vowed to never let it happen again. The Japanese Type 88 and later Type 91 "diving" AP shells with the break-away windscreens and nose or, if used, AP cap tips, obviously did not worry about the windscreen after hitting the ocean.
Pointed noses are bad underwater due to the high forces generated by turbulence as the shell tries to move nose-first as it did in the air (also, the shell is no longer moving at supersonic speed in the water, due to water's much higher speed of sound). Since the conical nose has a large angled surface area located far away from the shell's center-of-gravity, the spin of the shell is no longer strong enough to cause it to remain going nose-first and it tumbles, with the spin now making it rotate in all sorts of complex ways, drastically increasing drag. Flat noses, even somewhat-tapered flat noses like in the Japanese shells, force the water to move radially sideways in a "cavitation bubble" surrounding the shell and close up behind it's short body, so there is nothing to push the shell from its nose-first orientation, allowing a much longer rather straight or only mildly-nose-up underwater path before its fuze blows it up or it slows enough to just sink downward. While hits where the shells are falling at a steep-enough angle to dive into the water and stay there for a long period before, if not hitting at a steep-enough angle, coming back up due to the pressure difference on the top and bottom surface of the shell, will usually have the base fuze activated (barring a dud due to manufacturing error), if the shell hits at a shallow-enough angle to immediately ricochet off of the water with minimal immersion time, the base fuzes are almost never activated.
Even Japanese Type 91 AP shells designed for such water impact, as mentioned, if they ricochet upward due to too-shallow a hit (under 7 degrees angle of fall or so), will usually become duds from such hits: This was shown when an 8" Type 91 AP shell skipped off the water short of the USS SOUTH DAKOTA and its windscreen, removable bluntly-pointed "Cap Head" (for direct hit penetration of thick homogeneous, ductile armor, which was the only kind used by Japanese cruisers), and nose-first (but wobbling like a corkscrew) body, diverged from one-another and made a Mickey Mouse head (no joke!) punched into the side of the amidships lower superstructure of the US battleship and the inert projectile body moved through that lower superstructure in the sideways direction, tearing entirely through the ship, making holes and slots in bulkheads, tearing off a heavy safe's door, and finally punching a deep dent and partial hole into the back of one of the 5"/38 armored twin mounts on the far side of the ship, before falling to the deck, where it was quickly thrown over the side by a damage-control party. This same thing happened to some US AP shells fired at JEAN BART that skipped off that ship's armor at high obliquity and ended up inert in the city of Casablanca behind the port, though some of these inert US base fuzes might have been defective due to filler fumes. Very high impact angles are not good for fuze operation, ever.
I've got to take off the proverbial hat off to you Drach. This continuing content is phenomenal. Much appreciated. Keep it up. A worthy archive and a great monument.
In relation to Squid and Hedgehog. In his book on British destroyers and frigates Friedman claims that in 1945 the Hedgehog had a kill probability of 26.3% against submarines whereas squid had a kill probability of 40.3%. So it demonstrated a very significant increase in lethality
I think the Japanese would tend to agree with freedmen on this. Look at what u s s English did.
Does he mention what those numbers were based on? Like actual tests or calculations?
I think Friedman’s figures are based on combat results, so it’s a very small sample size for Squid. The Squid warhead is six times bigger and the sinking rate is twice that of Hedgehog. Some Hedgehog launchers were trainable like Squid, but the way forward was a ship launched homing torpedo.
Great content; as ever.
I was a "firelighter" on a preserved railway line, basically, I raised the steam before handing the locomotive over to the crew who would the engine out.. In the 1970s we had a coal shortage and used the coalite brickettes. There are some issues, on a foggy day the cement dust will bond with the water the atmosphere. This fell on the locomotive and ruined the paintwork. The other thing is open forced draft and you can lose brickettes through the boiler tubes.
Still got a few days, but I'm not sure if I get another chance in time to say this so: merry Christmas drach, I hope you will be gifted with a lot of happiness, great luck and great health. You have quickly become one of my favorite creators on this platform and really reinforced my interest in the naval side of history. And your videos always give me a place to escape my mental health issues for a while, so thank you very much for that.
Fair answer to the maintenance of RN Battleships...... Well played. I admire your grace and agility in your replies. A treat for many Sunday Mornings.
Plus at the time Drach mentions for Renown the US Navy was undergoing a rapid expansion due to the Two Ocean Navy Act.
Death star builders: "An armored grate? Nah, too expensive."
I'd like to suggest that the disappearance of the "Dreadnought" designation coincided with the retirement/scrapping of the last "pre-Dreadnought" battleships so there was no longer any need to distinguish the two types.
Germany had Pre-Dreadnoughts in service during WW2. Some of the first shots of the war were actually fired by them against Poland. (Greece also had former American Pre-Dreadnoughts)
@@gokbay3057 I'm aware of that, but under the Versailles treaty Germany wasn't allowed any other battleships, and all the other major navies had got rid of their pre-Dreadnoughts much earlier.
@@gokbay3057 I'm aware of that, but under the Versailles treaty Germany wasn't allowed any other battleships, and all the other major navies had got rid of their pre-Dreadnoughts much earlier.
My thoughts also. Imagine being the captain of a squadron of RN cruisers in the North Sea in 1918 and getting a message that a brace of german battleships were heading your way. I suggesrt that your reactions would be different depending upon whether the pair were Pommern class (Fresh meat!!!!!), Nassau class (Lets give it a go, chaps) or Baden class (I'm coming home now, Mother).
After the Washington treaty killed-off the mega hyper humungous dteadnoughts and economics killed off both the pre and early dreadnoughts, the distinction was unnecessary because; well, super compared to what?
I know next to nothing about ships and I am not particularly interested in naval history, but I really enjoy these!
Yeah that was me a few years ago. Drach is a great teacher. You will learn and you will enjoy:-)
Same
Me too, I listen because his voice puts me to sleep at night 😅
Hes a great histrographer
@@emilyn6725 not even his voice lol mostly the video I'm wierd by brain working and thinking while my eyes are closed knocks me out
I really like the dry dock intro. The music starts. The fun begins lol
Dear friend "Drachinfel", I trust you have illuminated the entire galaxy with historical knowledge of warfare on earth and I congratulate you for a job extraordinarily well done! I would like at this juncture of my life and yours to take a moment to remind you that upon earth their exists flowers and may I suggest that you stop and take a moment to "smell the roses" as you only live once. With all due respects, sir! Life has more to offer than war. Peter Nelson age 70.
About "dreadnought" becoming less used, I think it's about markedness in language. Whatever the "norm" is generally doesn't have a marker attached, the exceptions do. So in 1900, there are battleships. In 1910, there are battleships and dreadnought battleships. But post WWI, when pre-dreadnoughts are obsolete and mostly being scrapped under the Washington Treaty anyway, "battleship" came to mean a dreadnought, and their predecessors therefore had to be "pre-dreadnoughts".
Similarly, terms like "talkie" and "safety bicycle" aren't used anymore, they've taken over "film" and "bicycle". Retronyms were created for their predecessors ("silent film" and "penny-farthing") that used to be "film" and "bicycle". If missile battleships ever become common, they'll become "battleships" and "dreadnought" will come back.
The most recent example of this, and one we are experiencing right now is mobile/cell phone. Most people just say phone, and only use stationary/landline to specify, as use of mobiles generally superseded use of landlines. Dial back to early 2000's and it was very different. And most people haven't even noticed this shift, happening right in front of their eyes!
Re: Squid vs. Hedgehog: The Squid had two sonars. One measured the distance and bearing to the target, the other the depth of the target, meaning you'd have it's three dimensional position. The data was automatically fed into FCS that set the fuse and this gave you a 50% change for a one slavo kill. Thus they came up with a Squid that had six barrels. RIP submarine!
Well this was a really good one. I wasn't thrilled with some of the Drydock episodes in early-mid fall but things have really picked question wise so I guess good on the channels members as well as Drach.
Perfect timing, just starting to paint a few Imperial Cruisers
you mean Hyper Mega Super Ultra Uber Doom SPACE Dreadnaughts?
@@viridisxiv766 and halsey thought the typhoon was rough travelling
Another Great Drydock Drach
Thank you for your efforts in making these fine videos and keeping us (your devoted minions) both educated and entertained during this trying year.
Many good wishes to both yourself and your (long suffering?) lady and hoping you both stay safe and healthy.
Thanks again for your enjoyable videos about naval technology / history.👍
I'm a bit hungover from Lindybieges British coin thing, and Chieftains US rank thing.
You're quite focused and appreciated!
stay safe.
Haha I’ve been waiting for my question to come around... the time had come! Thanks Drach appreciate the detail and love the explanation with Prince of Wales!
5:17 wow, I think by now we would have been at least up to the Hyper Mega Doom Dreadnought.
I think this calls for a spreadsheet of time frames for terminology of where we should be at this point 😀😀😀.
22:54 onwards is one of the most informative slap downs I've heard in a while!
As a frequent listener the 1st and second generation dreadnought and super dreadnought description for those who haven't heard Drach's explanation before.
1st gen dreadnought- 8 gun broadside of 11-12 inch guns. They may have more than 8 guns but inefficient Hexagonal layout or wing turrets where they can't fire them all on the same side
Examples Dreadnought, Nassau, Heligoland, South Carolina
2nd generation dreadnought- still 11 or 12 inch guns but a 10 or more gun broadside because of either centerline guns or cross deck layouts
Examples include Delaware, Florida, Wyoming, Kaiser, König, Tegethoff, Gangut, Agincourt
1st gen super dreadnoughts had 10 or less 14ish inch guns broadside
Examples include all the 13.5 inch British ships, the New York, the Nevada, Bretagne
Second generation Super dreadnoughts had either 12 14 inch or 8 15+ inch guns
Examples include the standards from Pennsylvania on, Queen Elizibeth, R, Bayern, Fuso
Awesome sauce with my naval historiography.... as per usual. Nicely done Drach.
it would be nice if each photo shown was labeled with, at minimum, name of ship and data. if possible, also location of photo (ie, name of port). Many photos are shown with little, sometimes no, identification of the ship or even much relation to the topic being discussed. Lastly, many thanks for the website and all your contributions. Lastly, lastly, the termination of your employment with the traffic (or whatever) department is a blessing in disguise (I'm a civil/structural engineer). Inventory your skills and niche capabilities, network your peers and consultancies with frankness, and you'll do fine. You're they boss, you no longer depend on one client (your employer) but have diversification, no commute, and so on. Its called professional practice. Good luck.
For Christmas please an especially snide and sarcastic special on the very worst of the French pre dreadnoughts
Just going to bed for work tomorrow and this pop up..... oooohhh, love from Australia mate cheers top work
During the Age of Sail, as is true today, hull design also depended on it's use and were they were meant to operate. For example the vessels built for the Great Lakes during the War of 1812 were not as deep or rounded as their seagoing contemporaries because there was no need to carry a large amount of supplies, such as fresh water. Not having to carry an a lot of supplies would allow for a shallower and/or finer hull. The replica of the HMS Rose when built in the early 1970's was designed with a much sharper hull than the original and she actually sailed to weather pretty well.
As Drach explains wood has its limitations. And advantages too. One thing especially with large 1st through 3rd rates is you need to space for armament, gun crews, sail handlers, Marines, the skilled ratings (ships carpenter, sail maker etc, ships officers, any possible passengers and supernumeries. Plus their required stores. And spare spars, sails, cordage etc. And their required powder and shot. Wooden ships once they get long enough have a tendency to begin to hog. A condition where the bow and stern are drooping in relation to the middle of the ship along the length of the keel. Some ships tried to counter this with cables running for and aft that would put the hull under tension above the waterline. Probably the finest hulled large ships of the wooden era were the clippers. But they probably would have carried limited armament as war ships. In fact by the 1860s large ocean going wooden warships were able to carry less guns yet have a greater weight of metal.
Another thing done on wooden ships to aid stability was the bottom of the ship could be filled with ballast. This could be pretty much permanent or could be part of the actual cargo. One thing I wonder is just how well a modern steel hulled warship up to frigate sized could be converted to sail. I know there have been a few instances where steam poweredvessels have had to jury rig sails due to mechanical break downs.
Merry Christmas Drach!
51:31 Drachinifel pronounces HMS Ajax as A with a "J" ax instead of A "Y" Jax.
Me: Who are you and what have you done to the real Drachinifel?!!
The Greek he should have listened to the first time went on hunger strike till Drach correctly pronounced it? ;-)
@@sadwingsraging3044 So when do we get round to deedo's?
Amazing work as always Drach. Considering the speed and consistency of your work, shame the US Navy doesn't use you for its DryDock work. You certainly wouldn't take 5 to 7 years to rebuild a heavily damaged Amphib.
......just sayin.
Also I've noticed how your pronunciation of Maryland has changed, or at least to my ears it has.
I have no doubt during the Bismarck chase, Rodney's black gang was donning the red robes, using oils and incense and praying to the Omnissiah.
Rodney had one hell of a angry and furious Machine Spirit
Our engines at full power, your destruction is our aim! Our ships are steaming on!
Engage the linkage, Omnissiah! Engage, the linkage Omnissiah! Our engines are online!
Unfortunately in the peacetime real world time is worth the inverse of money. If you want your rebuild to be done faster all you have to do is cough up more money to do it.
Also as a country, to have those kinds of resources available on the West coast on an as needed basis you have to pay big money to create and maintain them to begin with.
Imagine an admiral lobbying for construction appropriations for an Hyper Awesome Lave 9000 Dreadnought (alias - the HAL 9000 Dreadnought). The treasury agent responds, "what are you doing Dave?
Thank you, Drachinifel.
Given the range of questions asked and answered would it be possible to create an index to all the Drydocks ? The amount of interesting information they represent should surely be made more accessible ? Or maybe a book of Drach's 1001 Random factoids about warships ?
www.drachinifel.co.uk/the-channel
Includes link to a spreadsheet listing all the drydocks with questions listed
I'd be interested in a poster so long as they don't cost too much. Say around $10-18 Canadian dollars. Also, I'd absolutely love an autographed poster Drach.
1:03:26 about that, perhaps having a preorder option ? like I was thinking something along the lines of, you put up a catalogue of photos you have with a preorder limit time, that way people can choose whichever they want and then you know exactly how many posters of which exact picture you have to get printed avoiding cost overruns of having to print a bit of each without knowing which will sell or not, granted preordering logistics is a bit unique.
22:49 One thing was that, in order to save money, the RN decided to only use 2 royal dockyards to refit their battleships instead of including private dockyards. If they had been able/willing to spend more money they could have spread out the work to some private dockyards, thus preserving building capacity, getting more ships refit (including possibly Hood), and helping the local economies in the area(s) in question. A case, in my opinion at least, of being penny wise and pound foolish.
Limbo was designed to lay a pattern of 3 bombs around a sub in a triangle pattern, they all detonate together and the pressure wave ruptures the hull.
Limbo was fitted to Roy al Navy AS ships up to and including the Leander class Frigates and was still in use in the 80s.
It is considerably larger than the Squid, the mortar barrels are around 6 feet long as are the bombs. They were loaded into the barrels from a deckhouse alongside the mortar mechanically and the system could still be used when the decks were closed down in an NMB situation.
On the later classes of Frigate they were fitted in wells at the stern of the ship aft of the helicopter flight deck.
One side of mouth says BWWIITISH did not need long chains of fleet support due to their bases, Other side sez US did not have any fleet oilers and had to rely on BWWIITISH....thank you for saving humanity Englander. Great show as usual tho!
The Pearl Harbor battleships were repaired at Pacific ports. Colorado was already drydoaked in Long Beach when Pearl Harbor happened. New York, New Mexico ,Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Idaho along with the modern battleships were with the Atlantic fleet during Pearl Harbor.
Can I start a petition to call Yamato “Super Mega Super Ultra Dreadnaught Yamato”?
Canopus' practice shell hit on Gneisenau funnel at the Falklands knocked her speed down by an estimated 1/2 - 1 knot
On these off topic vids. I would love to see some content on model ships. Even some historical uses of ship models in the ship building process and ceremonial uses etc.
Ship speed is also dependant on sea water temperature. The lower the temperature, the more energy you can get out of a steam turbine
How does sea temperature affect turbine performance, then? Greater cooling effect on the condenser side of the circuit? I know you're not suggesting straight seawater is inducted and heated to steam and that water density somehow affects the energy being extracted out of the firebox.
@@BogeyTheBear i learned this in Navy nuclear power school 25 years ago so I might have forgotten some of the specifics but ... the lower the seawater temp, the lower the temp in the main condenser (heat exchanger), the greater the delta T and thus delta P across turbine (inlet is the same but outlet is lower), so greater power from the turbine. My sub could get two more knots in the artic vs the tropics
There is one advantage to the Hedgehog...if it exploded, you KNEW you hit the sub. With the Squid, it was like a depth charge-unless you saw debris, you would not KNOW that the sub had been hurt.
I had to stop half-way through, I wish 'people' could understand' what 30 knots feels like at sea, not the same as slowing down approaching town.
Happy Christmas from afar, my hand and my heart (except for 'ovid restrictions) and may I introduce Ad Playerovski, got 21 subscriptions and deserves a whole lot more.
Loving this, well informed and researched, I'll have to come back later, just too much 'on' right now.
Straight out 'Happy Christmas!'
H apP y Chr ist m a s.
Once again . Thank you .
Given the current advertising vernacular used today the only possible answer to the next generation of dreadnought would be "EXTREME DREADNOUGHT". 😁
Maximum Dreadnought, the Maxnought!
Hell, MAXNOT already sounds like a US Navy program name.
I think for Destroyers there are two categories for the most powerful gun Destroyers. The tribals win hands down for surface-to-surface combat. The Fletchers on the other hand when as a dual-purpose platform. Surface-to-surface and surface-to-air, the example of their ability to fight on the surface would be the Battle of Samar. Granted a desperation move by the captains of the Fletcher's, but they did inflict some serious damage on the Japanese surface fleet while fighting Toe to Toe with ships that far out classed them.
Anyone care to think of what an angry swarm of Fletcher's and tribals combined would do to the Japanese Fleet? One thing's for sure that would be a lot of blood and feathers in the air!
As usual Drack you make my Sunday. Maybe put up a poll with maybe 6 or 8 pix to gain an idea of interest. Its something I'd be interested in - for the right pic - only so much wall space that herself will allow me war things on.
Best channel on UA-cam.
34:10 the Battleship New Jersey channel has a nice video regarding how to haul / service large machinery parts through their main armour deck: you do it in pieces and you take your time OR just don't do it at all.
ua-cam.com/video/BdudSHtdueo/v-deo.html
Good video! Thx for sharing.
Been watching that channel. He's as biased on everything as nearly every American seems to be.
Unlike the Brits? :)
Choices, choices, choices. Drach or Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles.
Early destroyers referred to as whale backs. Wow, I didn't know early destroyers were built in yards on the Great Lakes!
Combat Ships are still built on the Great Lakes. Littoral Combat Ships are built at Marinette Marine in Marinette Wisconsin.
Alternatively known as turtlebacks. Think the last ones built that way were a couple of the "F" or Tribal class. Viking, the RN's only 6-funnelled destroyer certainly was - at that time the builders were given quite a degree of discretion about designs.
@@johnshepherd8687
Yes I know. Although I'm not sure just how much the word "combat" can be used with either type of LCS. Plus in WWII there were fair number of submarines and smaller vessels built in yards on the Lakes. Petersen Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay used to build for the US Navy until they finally got fed up with the Navy constantly changing specifications. They still might be doing some contract building for the Corp of Engineers but I'm not sure about that.
I do wonder in the case of the LCS ships just how that relates to the treaty with Canada that has provisions limiting the size and capabilities of warships operating on the Great Lakes. Especially seeing as how any USN ships operating on the Great Lakes have to travel through Canada to get there.
@@mpetersen6 I haven't read the treaty provisions but give our defense relationship there is probability some sort waiver provision. When the St Laurence Seaway open in 1959 TF 47 was sent to Chicago as part of the opening ceremonies. The heavy cruiser USS Macon was the flagship and the number of ships sent was larger and more powerful than most of the world's navies.
@@johnshepherd8687
There are probably provisions for special exceptions. As I understand it the treaty limitations mainly are in place concerning vessels actually stationed on the Great Lakes. Of course it's not like a Nimtz class is going to be making a port call in Chicago. Over the years a few groups in Wisconsin came up with the idea of trying to get BB-64 as a museum ship. The Navy basically told them OK. If you can figure out how to get it there you can have it. A few years back there was an effort by a group in Milwaukee to secure a cruiser but that went nowhere. They only actual combat museum ships I can think of of the Silversides in Muskegeon and the Cobia in Manitowoc. There may be others but I don't know. There are two German subs on the Great Lakes. The U-505 and the one WWI sub sitting on the bottom of Lake Michigan.
>Be alone
>Notification goes off
That 17:02 notification made me look around 😁
Re: 50:20 - Was Langsdorff right to scuttle Graf Spee? I think the dilemma facing Langsdorff was the prospect that Graf Spee might possibly be captured since he would not be able to fight his way out nor run away in his damaged condition.
Thank you again!
"Super-Mega-Ultra Dreadnought". And I'd want one. I don't care if it sounds stupid, if it's one of the insane Ultimate Admiral meme designs, I'm the only one laughing. While my enemies are busy being blasted into small chunks.
Drachinifel, would you consider doing a full series of all, or many ships of all kinds that have become museums? I though that if a ship is mentioned in one of your videos and a viewer finds out it's right around the corner to them, they may go visit it. Where I live there many within a day drive and I have become very excited about visiting them since I have been watching your videos.
Funnels have often got many other purposes. One is an area to use the exhaust to preheat air and fuel. An area for aux machinery as the area under-deck is limited.
I think Drach got a little bit triggered by the accusation that the Royal Navy maintenance was bad... XD
Happy Christmas Drach!
Good program as usual, any chance of a video on the Audacious class carries of world war two?. I know you don't normally venture into post second world war ships,but as this class was ordered in 1943 and served until the 1970's, and were able to be modified to operate Sea Vixens, Scimitars, Buccaneers and Phantoms,( although only Ark Royal received the necessary large refit to do so in the case of phantoms),they might make for a suitable half hour program.
Suuuuuper Fabulous Dreadnoughts!
Always something to learn here especially if you are WoWS addict
You need to make a poster with HMS By Jove, USS Second Amendment, and IJN Honorable Combat.
Love that snappy tune
Concerning the question of RN battleships and their maintenance. The dockyards conducting this work would ideally be situated beyond the range of Luftwaffe disruption. Not a factor that the US was unfortunate enough to have to deal with or consider. For example during what are called the Blitz years it was felt to be too risky to send strategically important ships to Portsmouth.
The Facebook messenger notification sound gets me every time 🤣
I want a Hyper-Super-Mega-Doom Dreadnought.
Hyper super ultra mega uber doom Dreadnought 9000™️!
Squid served in RCN DDE's through to the 1980s
Another point is that by 1920 there are no pre-Dreadnought battleships left in service so the distinction isn’t needed anymore. Battleships are again a uniform group with no qualitative distinction.
love the intro music
dreadnaught and juggernaut would have been an awesome team set name. black sabbath had that song Supernaut... throw that in for a trio of doom ships!
Ah yes nice to see HMS Duchess in her pre RAN days. BTDT First sea going draft.
Have a nice Christmas mate
On posters, I'm a logistics guy, I do the stuff professionally.
It's what my diploma is in too.
Personally, if you can get the interest, I would recommend a bimonthly schedule. You need the time to get things, confirm orders, wait for payment and the like. So, a bimonthly to seasonal, three month window seems to be the most practical way to do it.
Then the question is more international shipping. If you're just trying the post side of things, that's why I say bimonthly. One month odd built in for transport.
At least for an experiment, seems worth trying out.
I assume a big part of the reason the term “dreadnaught” disappeared is the decreasing importance of pre-dreadnaughts so you no longer needed the differentiator
As far as U.S. Navy ships needing to use their own dry dock space. I know of a wreck of an ordinary merchant ship that sank at anchor in Santa Monica Bay, CA in 1942 because dry dock space wasn't available for this vessel, even though it was in need of a serious refit. U.S. Navy ships were getting priority. Good luck if you sprung a leak and your power failed. Though for a number of years It made a nice wreck dive.
Great stuff. I’m glad I found your channel. Could you consider doing a vid on HMAS Perth one day?
Did you consider making a video on Superstructures, for example the evolution of superstructure, it’s purpose, and design?
What kind of photos do you normally look for (1st gen from the negatives, wire photos, etc.) and where do you go to find them?
Well the Daring class going only 30 knots really does seem slow since carriers are faster than this and I would suspect you really want should your carriers to be escorted at full speed. So while 33 knots would be fine 30 knots is just not good enough.
max speeds are typically battle speeds burning massive amounts of fuel though, crusing speed was much lower typically.
Support comment! Have a happy holidays and Merry Christmas, and goodwill and peace to all.
I have a lot of respect for Hand Langsdorff, a great man who fought for an evil cause.
A great humanitarian considering the atrocities Germany & Japan got up to in general.
Much respect to a commander who didn't waste the lives of his crew.
Could someone please help me understand why there were 1000s of crew onboard a capital ship during the world wars? What were the most common types of roles they were needed for?
Combat loss replacement, full manning for all stations 2-3 times over, extensive damage control.
Well..... Most things are done manually. Somebody has to turn knobs. Load ammo. Chip paint. Cook food.
Every ship has this divided into departments. Deck, Engineering, weapons, supply, Etc. That adds up....
The Iowas tend to have the most readily available detail on this. The main battery turrets require around 94 men each, so there's 282. The secondary battery requires 20 or so men for each of 10 mounts, so that's another 200. The quad 40 mm Bofors mounts take about a dozen each, so that's another 240, plus a gunner and assistant for each of the 20 mm Oerlikons, total of about 320 for the light and medium AA guns. That's a total of about 800 men just to man all the guns, not counting fire control, engines, boilers, damage control, communications, watch, bridge, etc.
@@kemarisite Great! Does that include any redundant crew for the guns, doing something else while ready to replace casualties? A dozen crew to man a quad Bofors 40 mm sounds quite crowded since it didn't have any hoisting of ammo from a magazine below AFAIK.
@@bjorntorlarsson that's the immediate manning requirements for the guns and, where that information is readily available, the magazines and ammunition handling rooms. For the Bofors mounts, I'm specifically talking about the quad mounts used on larger ships, estimating one loader and one ammo handler per barrel, plus one man to train (rotate) the mount, another to elevate the mount, and a mount captain, technically 11. Note that most of these people, especially ammunition handlers for the light and medium AA, have regular jobs on the ship (one watch out of three doing whatever it is) and feeding the guns is their battle station.
when you want to try deep sea fishing but have no rod never the squid is here
I would argue that the Somers class is a more powerful all around design in terms of Gun and Torpedo Armament given that they also have 8 guns in 4 turrets (5" vs 4.7") and 12 torpedoes vs 4. But I think in the all around category (which includes AA and Anti Sub fire power) you should look at the Gearings which give up 2 5" guns to gain a lot of mid range AA (40mm and 20mm) and benefits from DP 5" guns vs single purpose and still has a very strong 10 torpedo armament.
What are the triangle like structures that protrude from the sides of the stern of some of the Destroyers?
The Anti Aircraft ship Ulster Queen claimed a JU 88 shot down above the cloud and never visually observed in mid September 1942 while escorting convoy PQ18 north of Norway. HMS Avenger was also using Radar for anti aircraft fire in this convoy.
Hey drach, are the horns in the drydock intro from the William G Mather?
I've often wondered if Spee had managed to get free and home to Germany if she'd have sailed with Bismarck and Prinz Eugen?
Presumably it would already have been with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in Brest; Prinz Eugen only sailed with Bismarck because it was new, and both were still in Germany (and Raeder wanted Tirpitz with Bismarck, not a heavy cruiser).
The end goal of Bismarck's launch was to group up with Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau for a heavy raiding battlegroup, so I think they'd want to keep the slower pocket battleships on their own for raiding (they did group Admiral Scheer with Tirpitz near Norway, but they were very cautious about attacking with those ships compared to earlier in the war).
@@BrigadierBill I know where she most likely would have been... What I meant was, imagine if she'd sailed with the planed link up as well after repairs were completed - get into a convoy and you would have obliterated it
Personally, I’m partial to the term “post-Dreadnought” for all, well, post Dreadnought-style battleships.
The only problem I have with that is that it starts sounding like a music genre, opening the door for terms like "Progressive Dreadnaught" and "Dreadnaught-core".... lol
@@mattsgrungy And super-Dreadnoughts is any less prone ridiculousness?
@@jamesharding3459 Drum & Dreadnaught?
Merry Xmas! :)
another option would be to sell downloads of your pictures
and people can get them printed how they wish
and Happy Holidays to all.