Cruiser and Destroyer Actions of WW2 - Small but Vicious
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- Опубліковано 28 чер 2024
- Today we take a look a small sample of some of the smaller naval actions of WW2.
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:35 - Battle of the Bay of Biscay
00:14:16 - Battle of Vella Gulf
00:18:38 - Battle of Bastia
00:22:05 - Battle of Endau
00:28:09 - Battle of the Malacca Strait
Sources:
www.amazon.co.uk/German-Fleet...
archive.org/details/isbn_9780...
www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Des...
www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Histo...
www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Navy-It...
www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-Shamb...
www.amazon.co.uk/Warship-2015...
www.amazon.co.uk/Sink-Haguro-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Fl...
Naval History books, use code 'DRACH' for 25% off - www.usni.org/press/books?f%5B...
Free naval photos and channel posters - www.drachinifel.co.uk
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'Legionnaire' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
Pinned post for Q&A :)
Thanks Drach. I've been interested in the Mark2 16in 50cal guns that were to be fitted to the Iowa's before the famous mis-communication issues forced them to design the Mark7, a smaller lighter gun. I'm most interested in the sacrifices that were made to fit the smaller gun and I would love some actual real numbers as all I have is my guess work.
In my research into this I noticed that when the Mark6 16in 45cal guns went from being intended to use the lighter shell to the Super Heavy shell the powder that was to be used actually was increased and because of this I would assume it would be fair to guess that the Mark2 50cal guns would have at least not have the amount of powder decreased when going from the lighter to the Super Heavy Shells.
Conservatively keeping the powder the weight the same, The Mark2 guns were to use 700 pounds of powder while the Mark7 guns used 660 pounds with the Super Heavy shell, 40Ib or around 6% less.
Some back of the napkin math here, but assuming 6% more powder would give you around 6% more power and MV that would get the Super Heavy Shell to 2650 fps over the Mark 7's 2500 fps, 150fps more. That's nearly the same increase in MV the Mark7 have over the 45cal Mark6 guns at a 200 fps increase. This stuns me. Is there anyway to get an idea of how much power was actually sacrificed by going to the lighter Mark 7guns?
What’s the greatest insane destroyer battle in your opinion? Personally I go with Edsall’s last stand against the Kido Butai given that was probably the battle where the destroyer was most heavily outmatched.
In Drydock 303 you said you had found new information that made you change your stance on Rodney's torpedo attack from maybe to almost certain, are you planing to do addendum video this information and are there any other ships or battles you think need an addendum video might be good?
If Rodney _had_ aggressively pursued de Grasse's defeated force at the Saintes, a) how likely is it that he'd've been able to bag the entire deployed portion of the French battleline (as his critics afterwards alleged he'd passed up the opportunity to do), and b) if he _had_ managed to bag de Grasse's entire fleet, what effects would that've had going forwards?
When the allies overran German forces across France. What happened to any Kreigsmarine vessels still stationed in French Ports? Would they have been scuttled, used as floating AA in ports with German holdouts or make a run for neutral or friendly ports?
Everybody's gangsta until a Captain actually named "Manley Power" shows up
When you’re born with a name like there are really only a couple ways you can go…
Major Dick Hammer ain’t scared.
Manley Power, Dick Hammer.
Both sound like names of gas station sex pills.
Never has a name been more determinant of destiny.
@@michaelfoster9964His brothers Jack and Turd aren't scared either.
It’s always nice to see the Italians get recognized and not as the punchline to a joke.
The pasta power is real frfr
Italian frogmen would prefer their enemy continue to disregard them. "Pay no attention to the old freighter rusting in the dock near Gibralter. What's that, ships blowing up randomly in harbor? Perhaps you Brits should stop smoking near the ammo."
The Italian military throughout WWII is much like Italian rugby today. Tough, determined, capable of victory, even though most of the time, they will lose to stronger opponents. That's a far different thing than cowardly and easy to defeat as they've been painted in popular culture.
Beautiful ships. Poor air cover to protect sorties and convoys. No radar, scarce fuel, little help from Germany... they're basically doomed.
@therealuncleowen2588
The biggest problem with the Italian and French military personnel, is poor leadership! Both militarily and politically!
As individuals, they are quite capable and are a credit to their nation!
Their leadership, not so much!
Dealing with the RN for several years is no mean feat. Their special forces were also top notch.
Captain Manley Power is THE best name for destroyer captain ever.
should have a class of ships named after him.. Maybe the POWER class of frigates?
Manley Power, commander of Destroyers.
Cool as the name is for a naval officer, I imagine he had to fight for it, growing up.
Honestly they should have given him a battleship on the name alone.
@@andersjjensen
Why would they stick a guy like that on what would either be an old ship or a new but obsolete and useless ship?
Manly Power: "There is no kill like overkill."
Over kill is underrated
could we get a full video on the small boat war in the channel and bay of biscay? these were the vicious knife fights of naval combat. in particular seeing the battle of ushant would be gratifying.
While I see Drac has already put his seal of approval on the request, I gotta second this suggestion. The small boat actions have always fascinated me.
Ya, I was disappointed he didn't cover the exploits of the HMCS destroyers :/
Drach, you do seem to take great joy when referring to Captain Manely Power when he pops up. Did he have a sufficiently significant career to do a special on him? The prospect of a Manely Power special is quite splendid
Yes, we love our naval overachiever Captains.
Lee, Walker, Evans, Powers.
Outstanding leaders under extreme circumstances.
Power had a stellar career including being a major commander in nato,royal navy carrier commander, and carrier commander in the suez crisis. But I worry drach may consider that mostly outside the channel's time frame.
I think a good part of it is the name. I wonder if he has a brother named Maximilian.
@Macca17 this may be true, but I would vote he gets a special exemption for being a fan favorite.
If he was a UFC fighter he would have the greatest Bruce Buffer introduction of all time! 😂 Walkout song - "Now you're a man" (South Park) 😂
Hearing of a WWII naval commander that actually understood the capabilities and limitations of radar and used that knowledge to great advantage at Vella Gulf seems almost unbelievable after so many accounts on this channel where radar was dismissed, ignored, or generally misunderstood.
The Regia Marina really does have all the weird and wild stuff happen. I'd love to hear more about that particular scuffle, because it seems so uniquely Italian!
The Germans really do come off as a vicious, ungrateful bunch of moustache-twirling villains who get their just desserts, while the Italians absolutely glow with honour as they convert their dismay and disgust at what's just happened into heroics (with the Bersaglieri storming the port) and a noble administering of righteous justice (Aliseo apparently waited until she was fired upon, even after being ordered to shoot, before taking the Germans apart).
A very curious and fascinating incident all round.
I’d actually like an entire series on the post-Guadalcanal Solomons night actions. IMO they’re about as crazy as any of the Slot battles.
RIP USS Helena.
Little Beavers
@@issacfoster1113 Arleigh Burke, the destroyer god.
@@ph89787
And so many others. A lot of them were Guadalcanal veterans too. Hell you had ships in the Solomons campaign become legends and then get sunk in the next battle, not to mention all the battles where the winning side failed to actually accomplish anything meaningful (which happened to both sides) because it failed to affect enemy troop movements.
Not to plug a different UA-cam channel but check out the unauthorized history of the pacific war. They did a great vid on the battle of kula gulf
I always like hearing about the destroyer skirmishes. They're so much more chaotic than the big line battles.
This was an excellent video. Despite the short duration of the recountings, they felt adequately covered. I would actually like to see a part 2 of this, describing more cruiser/destroyer battles. Again, a very excellent video.
Agreed 👍
Moosbrugger was one dud torpedo away from a Flawless Victory. BuOrd deserves a Imperial Japanese Unit Award. 😡
First this action occurred after the problems had largely been fixed, hence the successful nature of this attack. Also, since it hit the rudder and punched a hole in it, it could be that the torpedo itself was not a dud, simply that it didn't meet enough resistance to set off the warhead. This also happened to an American cruiser of the Cleveland class. The only way they knew was hit was that she was sluggish to turn. Finally, an explosion on the rudder itself might have critically damaged Shigure, leading to her sinking. This would have preventing Shigure from being the sole survivor of several actions in the future.
@@MrTScolaro True - we would have lost Captain Hara Tameichi and not have his memoirs if Shigure was lost. BuOrd still deserves that award for all of their other torpedo shenanaigans, though.
Poor old Vampire. Won her spurs fighting in the Med, then escorted Prince of Wales and Repulse to their end and was with Hermes when she was sunk by dive-bombers off Trincomalee.
She was the Royal Navy's equivalent of the IJN's Shigure the Fleet Killer
Royal AUSTRALIAN Navy, thank you very much!
Sounds very similar to Yukikaze
A ship full of Jonahs.
The battles of Sirte would each merit a video in detail. Amazing work by the RN
Seconded. No pun.
The whole Wilderbeest-attacks-Sendai action can be played in a 2015 game, “Flying Tigers: Shadows over China” and despite being (essentially) an arcade game, you're forced to retreat before Sendai can be sunk - keeping things accurate to history.
When I think of small battle boats I cannot get over Taffy 3 and the insane amount of testosterone and guts.
USS Johnston and it's crew that had balls the size of Yamatos guns.
The ships that weren't really sunk by enemy gunfire, but actually by the ships losing buoyancy from the weight of the crew's balls
Vampire slipped into bat form and flew away silently. Too bad her report on Japanese night fighting led to some complacency.
So that was the ultimate fate of Arashi, the most important destroyer of WWII.
I was an ROV technician in 2016, we searched for the Alsterfuher for 4 weeks, didn't find her
You want to tell me you searched personally for the ALSTERUFER for four weeks (!!!) and still can't spell that name correctly?
@@thomaskositzki9424 - i spent couple years working with a software package in a job few years back. i CANNOT remember the name that software unless someone names it to me. Human memory is a frail and capricious beast.
@@thomaskositzki9424 I don't speak German and i smoke weed a fair bit. We can't all be grammatically gifted.
@@PlummySack79 I can empathisze with that. 😄 Deleted the last sentence.
Maybe cut a bit on the weed? Did work out a great deal for me. I know that can be tricky, just wanted to say it can be done to find a sweetspot. 🙂
of course Vampire was able to slip away into the night
This is not a battle or engagement. Being on a destroyer in late 1944-1945 and receiving orders to join the picket line. This was the first line of defense protecting aircraft carriers and battle ships who were pounding Okanaua and the Japanese home islands. Almost every day, these men had to face swarms of Kamakazi, pilots, and bomber crews.😢Sorry, spelling. I am not sure how many ships were sunk and men killed. It does seem to be as dangerous a Naval duty a ship would have to perform. It is a very unreported part of the ally efforts to bring Japan to its knees. Personally, I would find an in-depth look at the picket lines very interesting.
A video about the Haguro operation would be interesting, and I agree with you, The name Manley Power is probobly one of historys most fitting name of a naval officer!
Of the engagements discussed, all are worthy of further exploration. However, if having to pick just one I'd say the Italian vs. Germany confrontation. The idea of the Germans attempting their treachery against the Italians but being thwarted is, for a lack of a better expression, "hilarious."
One of my favorite overlooked battles. Moosebrugger is loose brother! Thanks, Drach.
I feel sorry for the moose.
Of these battles the one I would most enjoy as a more detailed, stand alone video would probably be the German’s trying to seize Italian crafts and the Italians resistance to the thefts followed by the naval battle
I liked this video presentation. These small actions are often under reported and under appreciated. Thanks for this presentation.
My dad was radio operator on a Fletcher class in the Pacific theater. He was always very modest about his service, he always said he, "answered the phone and made coffee". He survived Typhoon Cobra and a near mine explosion but the closest he got to the Japanese was the invasion of Okinawa when some Japanese airplanes attacked nearby ships but not his own.
The Alsterfuher was carrying Wolfram from Japan. A vital ingredient in the hardening of steel, particularly ball bearings. Her loss had a significant impact on production.
tribology, an underrated study
@@user-to9ge8ii9n It slips past most people.
Isn't Wolfram an ore off tungsten?
Wolfram is the German (and historic English) name for tungsten. The chemical symbol for tungsten is W (from wolfram).
@@jeffbybee5207 the ore is Wolframite, mixed oxide of iron, manganese and tungsten (Fe, Mn)WO4
The battle of Bardia sounds like something that's ripe for one of those old pocket WWII comics. Would love to hear more about that one and just general destroyer and cruiser melee in the Mediterranean would be a cool subject.
Drach needs to offer a "Captain Manl(e)y Power" tshirt :P
HMS Thanet, the only RN ship named after the Isle of Thanet, where I live.
These non popular but crucial surface actions are something deserves to be known. Esp battles between Axis lighter vessels like destroyers and cuisers and their Allied counterparts. German destroyers and cruisers are rarely cruised out of shore waters close to occupied Europe though. Naval battles of Narvik during Norwegian Campaign are something and first large defeat for German military in WW2
Yay! Some great small actions covered here.
Of course, you *had* to cover the Battle of the Bay of Biscay - had to, no question - but to see the little-discussed and curiously back-and-forth Action off Bastia discussed is an absolute delight!
Not least of all because, when scratch-building some Italian escorts in 1/350 scale for gaming purposes, I chose the Aliseo for her glorious and honourable conduct at Bastia, and a very enjoyable build it was. I'm pretty proud of her, and she sank three MTBs on her first outing at the club - even if my opponent was using her and those were *my* MTBs she sank!
(Sadly, I didn't have access to the lovely camouflage pattern details, so I chose to marry her to the legend of her older cousin Pegaso - the Orsa and Ciclone classes were practically the same hull - and so she, somewhat erroneously but very deliberately, wears a slight variation of Pegaso's 1942 splinter camouflage pattern with martial pride. Artistic licence there, and it allows me to use her as either ship if I want to. And yes, at the lower end of warship combat, she is an absolute *beast* - Bastia is a 'to do' game, as soon as my shore batteries and German MFPs are finished.)
-
As a footnote, Aliseo's captain, after defending and restoring his country's honour in battle, later on appears to have suffered a crisis of said honour over the general armistice terms and how that left his service & his country, and he sadly chose to take his own life.
It should be illegal to give a ship a name as badass as "Vampire"
Well it was a V class so naturally someone was asked to think of something that began with V.
@@davidty2006Valim?
It is so weird hearing Enterprise in a Surface Action i know of the cruiser but as an American Enterprise has always been an Aircraft Carrier its like cape Matapan with a carrier being in the battle line.
Funny you should mention the USS Enterprise in a surface battle. Because Dr Clarke, in an armchair admirals episode, joked about CV-6 getting involved in the night battles of Guadalcanal.
I could never quite understand why you would not have a mixed load in your turret of one barrel being loaded with armor piercing, and the other being loaded with high explosive.
Different shell weights mean they go on different arcs and thus different distances on the same elevation
@@Drachinifel I understand! It would mean the fire control Director would need to be making two separate calculations for each salvo sent down range. That kind of double duty in a combat situation would probably get very messy. By the way, getting a direct reply from the man himself just made my day.
@@BlindMansRevenge2002what hes saying is both barrels elevate together. Its physically impossible for both to hit the same target due to the weight variance.
As a Tin Can Sailor, this brought back memories of my time at sea on a small boy; USS Semmes DDG 18 1983-84 and USS Kinkaid DD 965 1987-89...
I used to go fishing with a guy called bill welden he was the gunnery officer on hms hotspur or the hasty absolutely fascinating guy he could explain really technical in a way that you could understand he told me once he and another officer were effectively the government of Palestine for about 48 hrs as the war finished....
Do something about the PT Boats of all sides and their effects in battle.
Captain Tameichi Hara gives a first-hand account of the Battle of Vella Gulf in his tremendous memoir "Japanese Destroyer Captain." He had particularly warned his squadron leader against the tactics of the night. It was months after the battle that Shigure went into drydock, and they found the reason their handling was so bad was their rudder had been pierced by that torpedo.
I cannot recommend Hara's memoir highly enough. It ends with his captaining the cruiser that accompanied Yamato on Operation Ten Go.
A good read! It's available as a free e-loan from the Internet Archive.
Thank You!
Nothing says "fighting man" better than a USN or IJN WW2 destroyer captain.
It always seems that the bigger the ship, the more the captain is concerned about preserving himself rather than smashing someone's face in. Destroyers? Well, it's their name.
Because the bigger the ship, the less navies were willing to risk them (since losing them means losing a lot of resources, and even using them successfully often wasn’t worth the expenditure), thus ironically making said ships less useful and less worth keeping around to start with.
This particularly applies to battleships in WWII as the new combat paradigm of airpower meant that they really couldn’t do their jobs as capital ships even if you actively tried to use them as such (due to vastly increased battle ranges rather than due to being more vulnerable than other warships) and pretty much all of them were either effectively sidelined to supporting roles that failed to justify their expense (not a problem for older battleships that had already served as effective capital ships for a decade or two, but a massive strategic failure for newly built fast battleships), used in failed attempts at deploying them as capital ships alongside carriers (which all ended badly for the battleships because the range difference meant they never got to fire a shot while the carriers did all the actual capital ship stuff, leading to the same situation described above), or were just plain given up on because of their uselessness (for the Axis navies).
That's not what happened at Narvik. Crutchley and Whitworth took the battleship Warspite into the fjords and wiped out the German destroyers present - admittedly with the help of escorts.
That's also not what the battlecruiser Renown did when she encountered Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off Norway. Despite being outnumbered two to one, Simeon and Whitsorth had Renown attack the German battleships. After reading the gunnery officer's reports from S+G after the battle, I have no doubt that Renown would have sunk both ships had they not ran.
@@bluelemming5296oh, let's not be so Eurocentric and consider the capital ships of WW2 Atlantic relevant to history😂.
If there had been a real German surface navy in WW2 (I know, I know, the "if" game) the Royal Navy would have followed it's WW1 precedent...another British admiral believing he can lose the war in an afternoon.
To further a game of "ifs", do you believe that commander felt he was at a precipice? No, he assumed very few risks and none beyond his command and the lives of his men.
No, surface actions in the WW2 Atlantic were nearly irrelevant. Nearly.
@@bkjeong4302another Eurocentric. My oh my. Let's consider the early Guadalcanal campaigns as well as the actions during both Phillippines campaigns.
Maybe it has more to do with Royal Navy timidity?
When IJN comanders displayed a Royal Navy level of daring, they were often dismissed to assigned to desks after poor performance.
Sorry, but the Days of Nelson left the RN with the advent of Dreadnought.
@@JD-tn5lz You used the world 'always'. A single counter-example suffices to defeat an argument that uses the word 'always'. I provided two. :-)
As for the relative importance of things, the surface warships provided a critical element in keeping the Arctic Convoys to the Soviet Union operational - which in turn kept the Soviet Union in the war - which in turn let the Soviets do the lion's share of destroying the Wehrmacht.
I freely admit that most of the interesting naval battles happened in the Pacific or Med, but that didn't make the role of surface warships trivial or unimportant in the Atlantic.
The early Arctic convoys were British - and the supplies delivered included tanks and other supplies that would be used in the battle for Moscow, helping to keep the Germans from capturing it. We know this because Soviet units operating with this equipment received commendations for their performance during the battle, which would become available to researchers and historians after the Cold War ended.
There were 78 total Arctic Convoys. A large Arctic Convoy would contain about ~1 billion dollars in aid in today's money. The ships and close escort and crews would represent another ~billion dollars in investment - and that's not counting the distant escort containing the bigger warships.
Those convoys were operated in the fall/winter/spring to take advantage of the bad weather and long Arctic nights to minimize the air threat. This meant that carriers were largely irrelevant as they couldn't operate in the bad weather.
In WW1 the Germans largely wiped out a convoy from Norway escorted by destroyers and lighter ships using two cruisers.
The presence of RN and USN cruisers and battleships in the North Atlantic, operating as 'distant escort', helped ensure they couldn't repeat that precedent in WW2, despite the notoriously bad weather in the North Sea and the Arctic Ocean which potentially provided raiders cover to operate without being spotted.
Surface warships also helped ensure German surface raiders never had the chance to take out a troopship convoy. Nobody wanted to lose a troop ship that might be carrying 1k+ soldiers to a raider ambush. The loss of a troop convoy is a major strategic disaster. To transport a division and it's equipment typically required 10+ troopships. To protect troopships from raiders, you can't assume good weather or even daylight, which means carriers alone can't do the job. You need to have ships that can fight at night and in any weather - and that significantly outgun the enemy so they can destroy the enemy before the enemy can get within range of thin-skinned transports.
So surface warships in the Atlantic were critical strategic assets that helped keep the Soviets in the war, and ensured the movement of troops to Europe and Africa to defeat Germany.
As a kid I would build historic ships out of Legos. I often wondered with as lightweight as the deck of an aircraft carrier is, why not just build more deck off the ends and sides for more space.
Because those lightweight decks needed the physical support provided under them by the superstructure of the ships they were built on. Unlike Legos, the metal and wood of aircraft carrier decking only have a limited ability to support the weight of an aircraft, without structural support.
@@williestyle35 You also don't want to be top-heavy. See how Ryujo handled in heavy seas and how it required refitting to avoid capsizing.
With the setup, I thought you were going to talk about the Battle of Balikpapan on January 24th 1942, with US 4 piper destroyers sinking some transports.
Another Hit. This should be a regular series for the channel.
I am clearly too used to USN vs IJN fights in the Pacific, because I took the first action (Battle of the Bay of Biscay) like this:
Drach: "Two cruisers versus 11 destroyers and torpedo boats"
Me: "That sounds bad for the cruisers."
Drach: "After lunch ..."
Me: "Oh, in daylight and with room to maneuver. That's much better."
Last time I was this early to a Drach video, Adm King was still plinking with small caliber rifles.
Me too. I've never been this early either.
"Captain Manley Power"
I can already envisage the shell proof chin on this man
“Captain, we’ve encountered ice!”
“No worries, lower me over the stem and proceed ahead slow.”
“Captain, we’ve encountered ice!”
“No worries, lower me over the stem and proceed ahead slow.”
19:22 Incredibly, I have never seen or heard of this type of German craft.
MFP - Marinefahrprahm, or alternatively 'fast ferry barge'. (They weren't actually very fast, but 11 knots is what it is for a steel box with lorry engines and a ramp.) They could carry troops, cargo or three medium tanks. 75mm HA gun and one or two light flak.
Italy used a variant of the type 'A' - similar to the one shown - as the Motozattera or MZ, built especially for Operation Hercules (the aborted Malta amphibious invasion). They ended up pulling vital duties along the Italy / North Africa routes, ferrying cargo to the beachheads in the face of powerful Allied air interdiction.
MZs and the lengthened German type 'D' variants were up-gunned with copious light flak of all types from 1943 and spent the last years of the war running the coastal logistic routes in the Med and Western European theatres, where the Royal Navy and attached USN light forces knew them as "F lighters". Very hard opponents for PT crews. (Easier prey for the British LCGs following behind the PTs during combined patrols.)
That was a very interesting video, kind of like the frigate duel series. The small boys have all the fun. True in the 1800’s, true in present day.
There's an interesting link between the battle of Vella Gulf and the battle of Malacca Strait. The IJN squadron commander at Vella Gulf was Capt. Kaju Sugiura. Although his destroyer flagship was torpedoed and sunk, he survived this action, and was appointed to the IJN Haguro in Dec. 1943. He was still her CO 18 months later and was killed in action when she went down in the Malacca Strait.
Would love to see the Haguro vs. North Cape veterans Sumaurez and Virago on their own video, but the Italians vs. The Germans is a worthy mention, too
I can never quite skip over that last gun shot in the opening.
These small battles between lighter warships are always interesting to me. Especially those fought in the Mediterranean Theater. They don't usually get much coverage, but were often quite sporty.
Small actions, not meriting their own shelf full of books, but nonetheless fatal for some of the crew involved, and well worth the time and effort to cover them.
I always liked the Type 1936As, even if they weren't exactly the best designs. That twin 5.9" mount may have caused a ton of stability problems, but it was interesting and unique, nonetheless.
Also one of the starter ships in Azur Lane is Z23, that may have something to do with it. Neat factoid though, she is able to equip light cruiser guns along with destroyer guns, but much like the actual Type 1936As, this is generally a bad idea, though for reasons of DPS rather than seakeeping.
I was happy to hear Nimi getting mentioned. Came down here to see if anyone else brought up AL.
I didn't think about mentioning the CL guns. While they can give her unprecedented damage per salvo among DDs, her DPM suffers horribly.
@@CiaranMaxwellI believe Nimi also can only equip the twin 150s rather than actually every CL gun in the game. Regardless you'd use DD guns and even on CLs you'd prefer them where possible (like on San Diego).
@@arieltimeshrine8137 Nope, just checked and it's any CL gun.
I appreciate these fantastic summaries!
Great material for Victory at sea and Cruel seas! Such a cool name Manley Power.
I remember reading the autobiography of the Shigure's Captain and his career during the war. He and his crew didn't realize that a torpedo had put a hole in the rudder until the ship was dry-docked MONTHS after the engagement. They chalked the destroyer's bad handling to mechanical issues after the battle due to how long the ship had gone without cleaning and refit.
The Barents Sea was mostly a very gallant destroyer action
Please do a segment on the Naval Battle of Balikpapan (on the night of 24 Jan, 1942). USN 4-pipers successfully get the drop on relaxed Japanese forces in a night action.
Drach, thanks for the summaries, photos and pictures of the action.
I just like falling to sleep with your videos. No pun intended. Your calm voice. Interesting topics. No anoying music. ❤
Yes, more on Battle of Vella Gulf...
I agree, I always like hearing about the biggest Jonah in modern history IJN Shiguri. Sailing with Shiguri was like putting on a red shirt and beaming down with Captain Kirk.
Very interesting. While some battles are smaller than others, they’re all “big” for those involved.
I think we could do with another such collection.
Very interesting video. Bring on more like that one. Well done.
Thanks for your great work all the time. I love it!
Brilliant! I would very much like to have you look at some of the destroyer flotilla actions during WWI as well as WWII. Thank you for a well informed episode.
"Vampire managed to slip away into the darkness..."
How Fitting.
Ooooo this could give me some good ideas to play out in Victory at Sea
You give me the option for more light forces actions I will say yes to all the above, I'm a massive sucker for the tin cans.
Damn , Enterprise had a field day with that one!
Drac please cover more of these, and ones of WW1 if there was any. I use your channel for my research and I love finding out more about smaller, less known battles/ engagements
Great job drach
Absolutely fantastic video! Any of these would be great to have more details on.
I have read somewhere that the action against the Haguro was taught in the RN naval college for many years as an example of a classic destroyer versus cruiser action.
Moosebrugger! Havent thought of that name in a long time . Had a bunch of friends and class mates who dads served on The USS Mossebrugger DD 980.
Great work
I, personally, would love a Wednesday video covering Bastia in detail. I mean, all of these would be the great subject of one, but that's probably the one I've heard the least about.
Great video, love the look at some of the small naval actions that get mostly ignored.
As someone else already commented, a series about the post-Guadalcanal Solomons campaign in 1943 would be amazing. There are quite a few night battles that are at times very similar to the actions in Ironbottom Sound, but are talked about a lot less.
Absolutely loved it mate, thanks awfully for that old boy.😊
I don't know if you've ever done an episode about German blockade runners but it's something that would absolutely tickle my fancy
RIP Hagikaze, Arashi, and Kawakaze. But wow, what an expertly planned operation on the part of the Americans, and flawlessly executed. Not something you see managed very often in wartime, in any context.
Great video!
What fascinates me is who recorded accurately the blow by blow timeline of these engagements? Your commentary details not only the blows, but also the thoughts in some cases, and also the logistics. As every man and officer must have been fully occupied in fighting a small ship, who had the time, overview and intelligence to put all this down on paper?
After-action reports are a necessity for any commanders, whether land or sea. No one escapes from paperwork except the dead.
@@rikk319 Thanks, but still not sure I understand. Battle histories often go into the finest detail, with exact timings, of dozens of decisions, by multiple commanders all made in the white hot heat of battle. Those officers can't remember everything, and they can't be sitting there with a notebook to diarise events and key moments. They can't be constantly dictating to a clerk on the bridge. And after the battle, if its part of an ongoing engagement, there's no opportunity for a group debrief. I swear this is a weakness in the Matrix. I'm surprised They let it slip through.
@@newscrews11 A sailor on the bridge would keep a log - that would be part of his job and he would be trained in how to do it (what to write down). Critical orders such as helm orders were always repeated by the recipient so there was time to write them down. These logs would then be used as the basis for reports after the battle.
For more information, look up "An Introduction to Navy Deck Logs" and "Other Logs ... Rough and Smooth Logs" at the US National Archives site.
Though the site is US-specific, this was a common practice for all WW2 navies as far as I know, the details probably vary in small ways from one navy to another.
On warships there were formal ways of reporting certain types of information verbally, whether by lookouts on the bridge, or through the voice pipe systems. For example, 'masthead, bridge, , periscope sighted ', might be a sighting report over the voice pipe from the masthead lookout to the bridge for a WW2 RN/RAN ship.
This formal process was primarily for clear, complete, and unambiguous communication, but would also help with keeping the log.
At some point after the battle, there typically would be a group debrief to cover a ship's gunnery (and perhaps other things such as damage control), with problems noted and discussion of corrections that could be made in the future.
I've never heard of the Battle of Bastia. It was certainly interesting to learn about!
Incredible.
Great content
Thanks
Thank You!
These are fantastic stuff amazing good give more thank you appreciate it. The best
Would love to get a full length video about the Italian vs. German skirmish, that sounds fascinating.
14:39 Shigure?
Oh boy that is not gonna go well is it?
Most destroyers had less experienced crews. The captains were less experienced or less skilled at this level. The successful captains were promoted to light cruisers on their way to getting heavy cruisers on their way up the ladder.
Actually, there's a lot more room for people that can't pull their weight in a cruiser or battleship. During war time, destroyer crews and officers tended to very rapidly become the best sailors in the fleet because they saw far more operational time than people on bigger ships, with a far wider variety of missions, and usually far more combat. Some of the best admirals such as ABC and Burke spent considerable time in destroyers during their careers.
Thank you
This is the best part of ww2 history- the stories of the small, less recognised actions that almost never get told.
Thanks Drach. Btw when is Old Charlie going to knight you for services to Naval history? Sir Drach does sound nice...
How are you drac. Question was there ever a battle where the US and British fought together in the same battle group
Take a look at the Java Sea Campaign of early 1942. American, British, Dutch and Australian ships operated together against the Japanese in attempt to stop the Japanese advance. It did not go well for the Allied forces.
British Pacific Fleet were active with the US Navy around the Battle of Okinawa, suppressing enemy airfields and acting as the USN’s fighter shield during the campaign
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 For the most part, the Allies were fighting with antiques.
USS Wasp twice ran Spitfires into Malta as part of British operations to reinforce the island.
In addition to what others have said ...
There were many operations in the Mediterranean in WW2 where US and British PT-Boats/MTBs fought together. The US boats had radar, the British boats had superior torpedoes. This made for a very effective combination in night actions.
US and British ships also worked together in amphibious operations such as North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normany, and the South of France (Dragoon).
For example, the British provided the vast majority of the ~300 minesweepers for the Normandy invasion as well as providing warships to support the landings.
At Omaha beach, a fair number of the landing craft had British crews, though American passengers. The British also provided two cruisers and three destroyers for gunfire support.
At Utah beach, the British provided a monitor, three cruisers, and two frigates.
I fantasize about a Drach video on Operation Berlin.. animated :) There's just very little info on it..
Thanks Drach
Please do more videos about small ship to ship engagements from all periods!
I've played WOWS for years and their torps never ever run into each other.
Historigraph did a pretty good video on Haguro at Malacca Strait
H-graph also did 12 minutes on Vella Gulf.