I had the pleasure of visiting the U.S.S. Alabama doing research for my book BETWEEN THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED. Nothing prepares you for the sheer size and complexity of the ship until you actually stand on its deck. I was like a kid in a candy store. Absolutely fascinating. I recommend the experience to everyone.
Graham was badly treated by the Navy, they locked him up when his age was revealed, stripped him of his medals & threw him out.. His Purple Heart was restored to him 2 yrs after his death. He wasn't the only one treated like that. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-boy-who-became-a-world-war-ii-veteran-at-13-years-old-168104583/
My Grandfather served aboard her as a P.O. in the engine room and served a 20mm AA gun during action stations. He said he thought he shot a few planes down but he would get quite and not talk anymore about it. I lost him 32 yrs ago and I wish I could hear his stories again! God bless all of the men and women who sacrificed so much for their countries!!
4:32 that image has been my background screen on my computer for years. Alabama in Casco Bay during shakedown. Grandad is somewhere in that picture. She’s a beautiful ship and a sight to see in person. Awesome that it lives on in Mobile Bay.
I appreciate that you add 'human voice' to the title. Your dry humor is much more enjoyable this way. However, I have also come to enjoy the 'oddities' that your computer-voice narrative creates. Thanks so much for your work here. Keep it up.
Great job on your short histories of 20th century vessels! (Especially with human voiceover) how about featuring the USS Washington (BB-56)? My father served aboard her, as did several celebrities of the day. Her career was incredible! She has received far less publicity than the “Showboat” and “Shitty Dick”. It was a sad day when she was sent to the breakers yard rather than being preserved as a museum. I read somewhere that her bridge armor was salvaged and used as shielding for a major government nuclear research laboratory due to the difficulty and expense of obtaining that quality steel in such a heavy thickness in 1961, 62. Have you read anything about that in your research?
I got to go aboard both the Alabama and Massachusetts during my time in the Navy. It was quite interesting to see what had and had not changed in terms of ship design and layout.
About 20 years ago I toured the USS Alabama I was surprised that something so big on the outside could be so cramped on the inside. Later that day I toured the submarine USS Drum. You would need nerves of steel and no concept of “ personal space “ to serve on one of those.
I want to visit the Massachusetts someday. She's the only preserved US battleship to come into contact with an enemy battleship. She's also one of only two preserved battleships that engaged enemy battleships in the world (with the other one being the pre-dreadnaught battleship Mikasa).
Ironically the electrical failure was completely manmade. I've lost two hard drives since I researched this, and I'm not going to search through my backup harddrive image CD-RWs (yes, it was that long ago and it took like 25 of them), but the chief engineer was newly promoted, I vaguely recall from prewar navy. The problem was the South Dakota's had a new multi-redundent breaker system. He didn't understand it so he wired one of the mains open (I recall there were four maybe?), resulting in much of the system catastrophically failing, I cannot remember if it was due to the shock of a couple of otherwise minor 14" hits or the shock of the South Dakota's own salvo. Of course since the Chief Engineer had disabled the system intentionally, some of the reset attempts only made things worse. Much of this is documented in the US Navy's after action and damage reports. I seem to recall it was a single seaman who kept the entire electrical system from total shutdown, which would have left the ship dead in the water with an oncoming Long Lance salvo that missed. So you had both a genius and a knucklehead sort of balance out. The Chief Engineer never served on a ship again, but I don't believe I found any court-martial record. Someone probably has put this altogether now in one spot, but I wouldn't know where.
@@BobSmith-dk8nw Here's the after action and damage analysis by the USN. www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/war-damage-reports/uss-south-dakota-bb57-war-damage-report-no57.html Note in paragraph 34 the 17.3" barbette deflected a hit by 14" AP - and at very close range. Many battleships would have been penetrated, in fact the damage might have been enough that a second hit close to the actual one might have gone through. "Paragraph 48. The source of these electrical failures was the unreliable operation of the automatic bus transfer switch. All of these switches have been replaced by a manual type transfer switch." It's a different report explaining how the system was actually set incorrectly by the chief engineer, causing the vulnerability. I don't remember my sourcing on that, sorry.
The 5' turret incident on Aabama was because of another knucklehead who bypassed the safety features designed to keep turrets from firing into other turrets.
My grandfather was on the USS south Dakota in the Pacific. He told a story about finding a shell in his underwear drawer, which is insane. It didn't explode somehow, but I always thought that was crazy
my great great uncle served on the uss south dakota and was a gunnery sgt. The guns jammed when kamakazies were coming down and he unjammed them and shot more planes. Apparently he got shot by a plane and they named a battleship after him called the "Uss Chatelain"
@Charles Yuditsky the Marines are part of the department of the Navy, and traditionally a ship's marine detachment would man some of their guns. In WW2 battleships this was usually one of the 5" dual purpose secondary turrets. Hence at least one USMC Gunnery Sergeant commanding a 5" AA gun during an air attack would have been normal practice.
I have been on the MA many times. Local boy scouts can even set up sleep over nights on the ship. Battleship Cove is a real great place to visit if you are up this way.
One of my coworkers told me that his son's scout troop had a sleepover on the Alabama. I've visited that ship many times, since my grandfather served in the Navy right after WWII, and we used to take family vacations to Pensacola and would pass through Mobile on the way. I made a stop there just last summer and spent a few hours looking around while on my way to a conference in Destin.
You might want to read the book Battleship Commander. The life story of Vice Admiral Willis Lee. He was onboard Washington as his flagship and was in command of the battle.
Considering their crucial roles in several important events they played in WW2 thanks in large part to the likes of South Dakota (BB-57) and Massachusetts (BB-59) and the other two ships in Indiana (BB-58) and Alabama (BB-60) serving with distinction as well, I consider the South Dakota class battleships to be the greatest of the excellent line of WW2 battleship classes that the USN had in WW2. Iowa class's longevity beats them out for best battleship classes in the USN's history of course and the North Carolina's come really close as well.
Please do an indepth review of the Indiana. Though sold for scrap, parts of her still exist to this day in Ft Wayne, IN and on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, IN.
This mighty steel warrior and the warriors aboard Her,The amazing work the two of you performed during the time of war in the past, we salute you.....😑
Could you please cover the Alabama? I live in Mobile where she currently sits as a museum, and I love learning more about her. I always find it a fun fact that she was one of the first ships to ever have an ice cream maker onboard
As a boy scout I went to a jamboree and did an overnight on the Massachusetts now that I live in northwest Florida on the Gulf Coast I took my son to see the Alabama just a couple weeks ago
I've been on Alabama many times growing up. Now that I live just across the Bay I get to see her every time I drive into Mobile. A fun fact is that the she was bought from the Navy and converted into a memorial with entirely public money. The Alabama battleship commission held a public fundraising drive to raise all the money that was needed. Battleship park is a great visit. In addition to Alabama there is the USS Drum as well as numerous aircraft and armored vehicles on display
You should provide a copy of this to the Memorial in Sioux Falls. Their old video presentation is sadly lacking in information and is badly in need of re-doing.
THANKYOU for the human voice. It is the reason I clicked. Hopefully the synthetic voice will go the way of leg warmers and shoulderless blouses. EDIT: what does it mean when you say "5 inch -38 caliber secondary weapons"? I thought 5" was the caliber.
It refers to the length of the weapon, which in naval guns is measured in multiples of the guns calibre. The USN had three main 5 inch guns in service in WW2, the older 5"/50 (anti ship) and 5"/25 (anti air) guns and the 5"/38 dual purpose gun. In each case the /XX refers to the length of the gun barrel in calibre's (IE multiples of 5"). It allows you to distinguish between different guns that have the same shell calibre. (EG the 16" of Nelson, South Dakota and Iowa are all very different.)
The South Dakota class was an excellent ship all around battleship for its displacement, under 44k tons under full load. Its biggest shortcoming was its cramped conditions especially after having a continuously increased Anti-aircraft gun armament. Specifically 20mm and 40mm weapons which added to the already cramped crew conditions. This was corrected with the Iowa's, with the same armorment and very similar armor but more space and 212k shp increasing the top speed from 27-28 knots to 33 knots for the Iowa's.
You should've included commentary on the habitability of the class vs. their predecessors and (especially, given the much longer hull) successors. As the number of light and medium AA mounts went up, the crew size expanded well past the ships' capacity. As a result, additional bunks were stuck in every nook and cranny, and I think some hut-bunking might have been necessary as well.
4:05 That's a good picture. Just shows you how massive battleships were, even though there were some much bigger than this. I think that's a fletcher class destroyer beside her
I would love to see a video on the Alabama, considering I'm selfish and I spent the night on her once. I like that the Lucky A never lost a life to enemy fire.
Thanks. I have been fortunate enough to have been on both Alabama and Massachusetts. BTW, did you know that USS Alabama BB-60 subbed for the "Big Mo" in the movie "Under Siege"?
USS Alabama was the last battleship built by the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia. Two days before she was commissioned in August 1942 two machinists who were working on her construction quit the yard and joined the Army together they were Robert "Popeye" Wynn and Darrell 'Shifty" Powers. www.navsource.org/archives/01/60a.htm
Awesome channel and love the Historical perspective , especially relative to the British Navy. Strikes me they often were a victim of self inflicted wounds, like the typical British treaty concept where some Brit all about rules and regulations actually thinks the rest of the world would abide by rules defined by the Brits to help them maintain power...bit them in WW1 and again in WW2. A lesson in this that will be learned yet again I'm afraid. The other thing that comes to mind is the B-52's life span is about as long as the entre history of dreadnaughts. F-15's closing in fast. Point? The technology changes and advances from Dreadnaughts to Iowa class to extinction was the immense....covered so much physical & mechanical space. Now warfare with biological and cyber just makes all that pointless. Men in big tin cans firing projectiles at other tin cans. Was easier to identify friend & foe..we are in the midst of another turbulent era where no amount of fire power & ships will determine the outcome. So channels like this help us understand where we were and how we have progressed, good or bad. Thank you for the obviously years of research and probably the best source of history lessons on the internet. :)
When I was a kid, I asked my dad why the Massachusetts was preserved and not the New York (we were from New York) He said “some people don’t care about some things “ But now, as an adult, knowing that the Massachusetts was a much newer ship and kept in reserve until the 60s, I realize his poor assessment of his fellow citizens was premature The situation of the 2 ships was remarkably different
You've heard the old Army saying, "If it moves, salute it. If it don't move, paint it green."? The Navy had a similar philosophy - paint everything grey, and if it's horizontal, mount AA to it.
Would love to see a video about the Sangamon-class escort carriers and more specifically the USS Sangamon (CVE-26). My great uncle served on her and he participated in the Battle off Samar, and his actions during that battle awarded him the Silver Star. valor.militarytimes.com/hero/55781 I've actually done some digging into what battleship he may have coordinated this strafing attack on and I think it's possible that it was the IJN Yamato after I noticed this excerpt in the wikipedia page: "Between 0906 and 0917 Yamato received multiple strafing and torpedo attacks from US aircraft, claiming one US aircraft shot down at 0915." Note that it only mentions strafing and torpedo attacks, but no bombing attacks. It's far from conclusive evidence, but hey it leaves the possibility open. He also earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions at Guam. On top of that, the Sangamon earned 8 battle stars over the course of her career, and all three of her air groups were given the Presidential Unit Citation. (My Great Uncle's air group was VF-37)
I got a question for Drydock: Was there any attempt to fully automate battleship caliber guns? Similar to the Des Moines class turret. And if not, what was the limitation/reasoning behind it?
FullMetalChicken My guess is such a system would be much more complex and take up so much space that it's simply not worth trying, instead of simply adding another turret (the Montana approach) or make bigger guns
Yeah, I never thought about that.I do know that Nimitz broke out his flag on SoDak in Tokyo Bay,but otherwise, probably better off with 4 more 5 inch guns.
Believe it or not she was the Flagship at the surrender signings and should have hosted the delegation. But because Missouri was Truman's home state they ignored tradition! Needless to say the crew was ticked off!
@@jonathanmccool9683 According to Wiki, South Dakota had been the flag ship of a rear admiral Shafroth -- who I've never heard of -- just prior to the Japanese surrender. When Nimitz flew in for the ceremony he stayed on South Dakota which then flew his flag -- so this is probably what you are talking about. Then, after Nimitz left, Halsey transferred his flag to South Dakota until he also went home. At the time of the surrender signing, there was so much brass around almost every BB was flying someones flag.
A mighty waka,tuwhakamana,kia rite te tangata Toa ki runga teraka whakawaka Taua,Ka Tuu kia Raua te mana i te wa, nga mahi kia raua te wa o te kaokaoroa o te Ao........PUUKANA
The USS So Dakota was NOT scrapped. The Prairie Battleship is in So Dakota. I have been board her. The hull was scrapped but the USS So. Dakota is most def there.
The arrangement of the belt system being a potential disadvantage in terms of difficulty in repairing battle-damage proved to be a non-starter in practice. Following South Dakotas damage on 14-15 November, she took no longer to enact repairs than any other ship. The same was also true of Indiana's broadside strike by Washington, which caved in an extensive section of her external hull strake. This accidental collision came nowhere near to jeopardizing her stability, contrary to some misinformed publications. Similarly, the argument that the belt provided inferior protection at ranges below the envisioned ~18,000-30,000 yard zone is also a non starter. Barring the relatively weak British 14"/45 rifles, and pathetic 28 cm German weapons, the rifles mounted on any new construction fast battleship of the period was entirely capable of penetrating one another's armor at closer distances. Even Yamato would not be safe at such close ranges. One final correction: Massachusetts did take a hit from battery 'El Hank' at Casablanca, but it struck far forward of the main armor deck and only had to contend with the standard hull plating. This would not be considered a "deck penetration" in the true sense, more an extremity hit.
Why was the 50 caliber machine guns such a big deal? A gun that was mostly a heavy infantry weapon and found on tanks. They could have been stored in weapons lockers and setup anywhere there an open spot using their tripods.
You can feel the American though on AA change in this video, 50 cals and 1 inch guns are all we need to we need every inch of this ship covered in 20 and 40mm cannons yesterday.
Original engines were manufactured General Electric. Boilers by Babcock & Wilcox, type number 8. Fuel was oil, 6950 tons worth. 4 screws, and made 27 knots.
I had the pleasure of visiting the U.S.S. Alabama doing research for my book BETWEEN THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED. Nothing prepares you for the sheer size and complexity of the ship until you actually stand on its deck. I was like a kid in a candy store. Absolutely fascinating. I recommend the experience to everyone.
Ooh might give the book a read thanks.
Calvin Graham the youngest US Serviceman to fight in WW2 served on the South Dakota. He was only 12 and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
How the fuck did he get into the navy
Graham was badly treated by the Navy, they locked him up when his age was revealed, stripped him of his medals & threw him out.. His Purple Heart was restored to him 2 yrs after his death. He wasn't the only one treated like that.
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-boy-who-became-a-world-war-ii-veteran-at-13-years-old-168104583/
@@GlowingSpamraam Must of glued his ass hair to his face to pass lmao 🤣
@@GlowingSpamraam lied about his age
@@TheMrPeteChannelNavy: Are you underage?
Calvin: Well yes but actually no.
Visited USS Alabama BB-60 recently. It was fantastic!
So glad that we still have these magnificent warships!
My Grandfather served aboard her as a P.O. in the engine room and served a 20mm AA gun during action stations. He said he thought he shot a few planes down but he would get quite and not talk anymore about it. I lost him 32 yrs ago and I wish I could hear his stories again! God bless all of the men and women who sacrificed so much for their countries!!
It seems a lot of WW2 vets would not say peep about their time in the war. /sigh
4:32 that image has been my background screen on my computer for years. Alabama in Casco Bay during shakedown. Grandad is somewhere in that picture. She’s a beautiful ship and a sight to see in person. Awesome that it lives on in Mobile Bay.
I appreciate that you add 'human voice' to the title. Your dry humor is much more enjoyable this way. However, I have also come to enjoy the 'oddities' that your computer-voice narrative creates. Thanks so much for your work here. Keep it up.
I call it Cary Grant's computer voice...lol
Great job on your short histories of 20th century vessels! (Especially with human voiceover) how about featuring the USS Washington (BB-56)? My father served aboard her, as did several celebrities of the day. Her career was incredible! She has received far less publicity than the “Showboat” and “Shitty Dick”. It was a sad day when she was sent to the breakers yard rather than being preserved as a museum. I read somewhere that her bridge armor was salvaged and used as shielding for a major government nuclear research laboratory due to the difficulty and expense of obtaining that quality steel in such a heavy thickness in 1961, 62. Have you read anything about that in your research?
I got to go aboard both the Alabama and Massachusetts during my time in the Navy.
It was quite interesting to see what had and had not changed in terms of ship design and layout.
I did my tour of the Alabama on my way from Orlando to San Diego.
@@yanni2112 similar for me. I was going from Mayport to Los Angeles.
About 20 years ago I toured the USS Alabama I was surprised that something so big on the outside could be so cramped on the inside. Later that day I toured the submarine USS Drum. You would need nerves of steel and no concept of “ personal space “ to serve on one of those.
I want to visit the Massachusetts someday. She's the only preserved US battleship to come into contact with an enemy battleship. She's also one of only two preserved battleships that engaged enemy battleships in the world (with the other one being the pre-dreadnaught battleship Mikasa).
Ironically the electrical failure was completely manmade. I've lost two hard drives since I researched this, and I'm not going to search through my backup harddrive image CD-RWs (yes, it was that long ago and it took like 25 of them), but the chief engineer was newly promoted, I vaguely recall from prewar navy. The problem was the South Dakota's had a new multi-redundent breaker system.
He didn't understand it so he wired one of the mains open (I recall there were four maybe?), resulting in much of the system catastrophically failing, I cannot remember if it was due to the shock of a couple of otherwise minor 14" hits or the shock of the South Dakota's own salvo. Of course since the Chief Engineer had disabled the system intentionally, some of the reset attempts only made things worse. Much of this is documented in the US Navy's after action and damage reports.
I seem to recall it was a single seaman who kept the entire electrical system from total shutdown, which would have left the ship dead in the water with an oncoming Long Lance salvo that missed. So you had both a genius and a knucklehead sort of balance out. The Chief Engineer never served on a ship again, but I don't believe I found any court-martial record. Someone probably has put this altogether now in one spot, but I wouldn't know where.
Thank you for this info! I have read several books about this encounter but never felt satisfied with the explanations given.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_South_Dakota_(BB-57)
@@BobSmith-dk8nw Here's the after action and damage analysis by the USN. www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/war-damage-reports/uss-south-dakota-bb57-war-damage-report-no57.html Note in paragraph 34 the 17.3" barbette deflected a hit by 14" AP - and at very close range. Many battleships would have been penetrated, in fact the damage might have been enough that a second hit close to the actual one might have gone through.
"Paragraph 48. The source of these electrical failures was the unreliable operation of the automatic bus transfer switch. All of these switches have been replaced by a manual type transfer switch." It's a different report explaining how the system was actually set incorrectly by the chief engineer, causing the vulnerability. I don't remember my sourcing on that, sorry.
@@shawncarroll5255 Thanks!
.
The 5' turret incident on Aabama was because of another knucklehead who bypassed the safety features designed to keep turrets from firing into other turrets.
I live in Massachusetts and I have been to the Massachusetts battleship it is fantastic well worth the visit
My grandfather was on the USS south Dakota in the Pacific. He told a story about finding a shell in his underwear drawer, which is insane. It didn't explode somehow, but I always thought that was crazy
my great great uncle served on the uss south dakota and was a gunnery sgt. The guns jammed when kamakazies were coming down and he unjammed them and shot more planes. Apparently he got shot by a plane and they named a battleship after him called the "Uss Chatelain"
@Charles Yuditsky the Marines are part of the department of the Navy, and traditionally a ship's marine detachment would man some of their guns. In WW2 battleships this was usually one of the 5" dual purpose secondary turrets.
Hence at least one USMC Gunnery Sergeant commanding a 5" AA gun during an air attack would have been normal practice.
I have been on the MA many times. Local boy scouts can even set up sleep over nights on the ship. Battleship Cove is a real great place to visit if you are up this way.
One of my coworkers told me that his son's scout troop had a sleepover on the Alabama. I've visited that ship many times, since my grandfather served in the Navy right after WWII, and we used to take family vacations to Pensacola and would pass through Mobile on the way. I made a stop there just last summer and spent a few hours looking around while on my way to a conference in Destin.
A bit late, but I would LOVE to hear about the engagement between South Dakota, Washington and Kirishima.
Episode 5 of Battle 360 has a rather detailed segment on that engagement. You can find it on here if you search for the show
@@aquateenchris Thanks! I loved that History Channel Series.
You might want to read the book Battleship Commander. The life story of Vice Admiral Willis Lee. He was onboard Washington as his flagship and was in command of the battle.
The USS Massachusetts is at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is well worth the $20 entrance fee. Highly recommended.
Considering their crucial roles in several important events they played in WW2 thanks in large part to the likes of South Dakota (BB-57) and Massachusetts (BB-59) and the other two ships in Indiana (BB-58) and Alabama (BB-60) serving with distinction as well, I consider the South Dakota class battleships to be the greatest of the excellent line of WW2 battleship classes that the USN had in WW2. Iowa class's longevity beats them out for best battleship classes in the USN's history of course and the North Carolina's come really close as well.
My uncle, who ironocally was from Alabama, served on the South Dakota throughout WWII.
Several years ago I went to see the Alabama, I was impressed that a ship that appeared so large on the outside was so cramped on the inside.
I visited it earlier this summer and I actually felt underwhelmed. The reason being that I had visited the Iowas before, so it just felt small
@@Voltstorm0207 that must have been an impressive ship
I’ve driven by the Massachusetts a bunch of times gonna have to make a point this summer to go down and actually visit it
Please do an indepth review of the Indiana. Though sold for scrap, parts of her still exist to this day in Ft Wayne, IN and on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, IN.
Thank you for narrating with a human voice.
Visit the USS South Dakota Park in Sioux Falls, SD. Not much of the ship there but they did a good job with what they had.
I would love a special on the battle between SoDak, Washington & Kirishima.
This mighty steel warrior and the warriors aboard Her,The amazing work the two of you performed during the time of war in the past, we salute you.....😑
Could you please cover the Alabama? I live in Mobile where she currently sits as a museum, and I love learning more about her. I always find it a fun fact that she was one of the first ships to ever have an ice cream maker onboard
It must be a nice experience for those servicemen
As a boy scout I went to a jamboree and did an overnight on the Massachusetts now that I live in northwest Florida on the Gulf Coast I took my son to see the Alabama just a couple weeks ago
I've been on the Massachusetts. It was great, and I'd love to visit her again!
I've been on Alabama many times growing up. Now that I live just across the Bay I get to see her every time I drive into Mobile.
A fun fact is that the she was bought from the Navy and converted into a memorial with entirely public money. The Alabama battleship commission held a public fundraising drive to raise all the money that was needed. Battleship park is a great visit. In addition to Alabama there is the USS Drum as well as numerous aircraft and armored vehicles on display
You should provide a copy of this to the Memorial in Sioux Falls. Their old video presentation is sadly lacking in information and is badly in need of re-doing.
My favorite ships,thank you.
THANKYOU for the human voice. It is the reason I clicked. Hopefully the synthetic voice will go the way of leg warmers and shoulderless blouses. EDIT: what does it mean when you say "5 inch -38 caliber secondary weapons"? I thought 5" was the caliber.
It refers to the length of the weapon, which in naval guns is measured in multiples of the guns calibre.
The USN had three main 5 inch guns in service in WW2, the older 5"/50 (anti ship) and 5"/25 (anti air) guns and the 5"/38 dual purpose gun. In each case the /XX refers to the length of the gun barrel in calibre's (IE multiples of 5").
It allows you to distinguish between different guns that have the same shell calibre. (EG the 16" of Nelson, South Dakota and Iowa are all very different.)
@@@Drachinifel THANKS!
The South Dakota class was an excellent ship all around battleship for its displacement, under 44k tons under full load. Its biggest shortcoming was its cramped conditions especially after having a continuously increased Anti-aircraft gun armament. Specifically 20mm and 40mm weapons which added to the already cramped crew conditions. This was corrected with the Iowa's, with the same armorment and very similar armor but more space and 212k shp increasing the top speed from 27-28 knots to 33 knots for the Iowa's.
I would love to hear the USS Alabama WWII service recounted as I’ve visited her many times.
You should've included commentary on the habitability of the class vs. their predecessors and (especially, given the much longer hull) successors. As the number of light and medium AA mounts went up, the crew size expanded well past the ships' capacity. As a result, additional bunks were stuck in every nook and cranny, and I think some hut-bunking might have been necessary as well.
4:05 That's a good picture. Just shows you how massive battleships were, even though there were some much bigger than this. I think that's a fletcher class destroyer beside her
True, theres alot of pictures of the iowa class warships next to modern warships and they are still huge.
one of the cut up sections of South Dakota's is viewable at the naval museum up in buffalo new york.
The South Dakota’s don’t seem to get enough credit for just how good they were
Review the USS Alabama please. I really enjoy the guide.
What an amazing array of anti-aircraft weaponry!
USS Alabama can you cover her closer? I have visit the Big A.
I would love to see a video on the Alabama, considering I'm selfish and I spent the night on her once. I like that the Lucky A never lost a life to enemy fire.
The Washington givith, and the Washington rammith.
Thanks. I have been fortunate enough to have been on both Alabama and Massachusetts. BTW, did you know that USS Alabama BB-60 subbed for the "Big Mo" in the movie "Under Siege"?
This may seem WAY off topic but may I suggest a video on 2 Ships Of The Line: the USS Pennsylvania and the HMS St. Lawrence
could you do a breakdown of the USS Alabama
USS Alabama was the last battleship built by the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia. Two days before she was commissioned in August 1942 two machinists who were working on her construction quit the yard and joined the Army together they were Robert "Popeye" Wynn and Darrell 'Shifty" Powers. www.navsource.org/archives/01/60a.htm
I would like a video on fleet oilers
I live i North Dakota so I visited souix falls to see the memorial
Awesome channel and love the Historical perspective , especially relative to the British Navy. Strikes me they often were a victim of self inflicted wounds, like the typical British treaty concept where some Brit all about rules and regulations actually thinks the rest of the world would abide by rules defined by the Brits to help them maintain power...bit them in WW1 and again in WW2. A lesson in this that will be learned yet again I'm afraid. The other thing that comes to mind is the B-52's life span is about as long as the entre history of dreadnaughts. F-15's closing in fast. Point? The technology changes and advances from Dreadnaughts to Iowa class to extinction was the immense....covered so much physical & mechanical space. Now warfare with biological and cyber just makes all that pointless. Men in big tin cans firing projectiles at other tin cans. Was easier to identify friend & foe..we are in the midst of another turbulent era where no amount of fire power & ships will determine the outcome. So channels like this help us understand where we were and how we have progressed, good or bad. Thank you for the obviously years of research and probably the best source of history lessons on the internet. :)
Can you make one on Alabama please
Plz plz plz
Did anyone else start humming 'sweet homefleet alabama' when he got to bama serving with the RN?
No? Just me? Thatd be right.
Who or what institution measured and weighed these ships to be in compliance to the treaties and how were these ships measured?
I visited the MA.
Being a Hoosier I would love to hear more about USS INDIANA
When I was a kid, I asked my dad why the Massachusetts was preserved and not the New York (we were from New York)
He said “some people don’t care about some things “
But now, as an adult, knowing that the Massachusetts was a much newer ship and kept in reserve until the 60s, I realize his poor assessment of his fellow citizens was premature The situation of the 2 ships was remarkably different
This was the largest ship built in the New York Shipyard in Camden, New Jersey.
72 40mm Bofors and 72 20mm! Even by USN WW2 standards that is crazy
You've heard the old Army saying, "If it moves, salute it. If it don't move, paint it green."? The Navy had a similar philosophy - paint everything grey, and if it's horizontal, mount AA to it.
Still want to see a video on the USS Alabama
That is so cool im going on that boat tomorrow
Ship suggestion - Armed merchant cruiser Atlantis (German).
Are the North Carolina and South Carolina Class Battleships also predecessors to the Iowa Class battleships? They look so similar
The video is a year old, but Mighty A was the first warship I ever visited, and needs more love
Wasn't the inclined belt also at least in part because of the need to keep it narrow enough to squeeze through the Panama Canal?
Would love to see a video about the Sangamon-class escort carriers and more specifically the USS Sangamon (CVE-26). My great uncle served on her and he participated in the Battle off Samar, and his actions during that battle awarded him the Silver Star.
valor.militarytimes.com/hero/55781
I've actually done some digging into what battleship he may have coordinated this strafing attack on and I think it's possible that it was the IJN Yamato after I noticed this excerpt in the wikipedia page: "Between 0906 and 0917 Yamato received multiple strafing and torpedo attacks from US aircraft, claiming one US aircraft shot down at 0915." Note that it only mentions strafing and torpedo attacks, but no bombing attacks. It's far from conclusive evidence, but hey it leaves the possibility open.
He also earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions at Guam. On top of that, the Sangamon earned 8 battle stars over the course of her career, and all three of her air groups were given the Presidential Unit Citation. (My Great Uncle's air group was VF-37)
If you want to email the channel (fiveminuteguides@gmail.com) with more info, I'd love to incorporate it into a review :)
Drachinifel I just sent some of the best information I’ve been able to find to you. I hope it helps. Thank you!
I was visiting Mobile Alabama and had chances visit USS ALABAMA. I was surprised on how short the battleship.😵😵
I was on the Alabama 2 times and it is a great ship.
145 AA guns. Awesomeness.
USS South Dakota, brought to you by Bofors.
I got a question for Drydock: Was there any attempt to fully automate battleship caliber guns? Similar to the Des Moines class turret. And if not, what was the limitation/reasoning behind it?
FullMetalChicken My guess is such a system would be much more complex and take up so much space that it's simply not worth trying, instead of simply adding another turret (the Montana approach) or make bigger guns
Both South Dakota and Musashi were built as flagships but, not being lucky ships, rarely served in that capacity as far as I am aware.
Yeah, I never thought about that.I do know that Nimitz broke out his flag on SoDak in Tokyo Bay,but otherwise, probably better off with 4 more 5 inch guns.
Believe it or not she was the Flagship at the surrender signings and should have hosted the delegation. But because Missouri was Truman's home state they ignored tradition! Needless to say the crew was ticked off!
@@jonathanmccool9683 According to Wiki, South Dakota had been the flag ship of a rear admiral Shafroth -- who I've never heard of -- just prior to the Japanese surrender. When Nimitz flew in for the ceremony he stayed on South Dakota which then flew his flag -- so this is probably what you are talking about. Then, after Nimitz left, Halsey transferred his flag to South Dakota until he also went home. At the time of the surrender signing, there was so much brass around almost every BB was flying someones flag.
Could you tell us about the USS Pittsburgh in WW2? Thank you!
Hall of Fame baseball player “Bullet” Bob Fellers served aboard the Alabama.
A mighty waka,tuwhakamana,kia rite te tangata Toa ki runga teraka whakawaka Taua,Ka Tuu kia Raua te mana i te wa, nga mahi kia raua te wa o te kaokaoroa o te Ao........PUUKANA
South Dakota-class battleship is the best treaty battleship.
The USS So Dakota was NOT scrapped. The Prairie Battleship is in So Dakota. I have been board her. The hull was scrapped but the USS So. Dakota is most def there.
The arrangement of the belt system being a potential disadvantage in terms of difficulty in repairing battle-damage proved to be a non-starter in practice. Following South Dakotas damage on 14-15 November, she took no longer to enact repairs than any other ship. The same was also true of Indiana's broadside strike by Washington, which caved in an extensive section of her external hull strake. This accidental collision came nowhere near to jeopardizing her stability, contrary to some misinformed publications. Similarly, the argument that the belt provided inferior protection at ranges below the envisioned ~18,000-30,000 yard zone is also a non starter. Barring the relatively weak British 14"/45 rifles, and pathetic 28 cm German weapons, the rifles mounted on any new construction fast battleship of the period was entirely capable of penetrating one another's armor at closer distances. Even Yamato would not be safe at such close ranges.
One final correction: Massachusetts did take a hit from battery 'El Hank' at Casablanca, but it struck far forward of the main armor deck and only had to contend with the standard hull plating. This would not be considered a "deck penetration" in the true sense, more an extremity hit.
So, we're gonna skip the memorial to USS South Dakota in Sioux Falls?
Why was the 50 caliber machine guns such a big deal? A gun that was mostly a heavy infantry weapon and found on tanks. They could have been stored in weapons lockers and setup anywhere there an open spot using their tripods.
I´d love to see the Alabama.
I'm going on the USS Alabama
The fact this video is above the KGV in the playlist continues to confuse me.
I’d love to hear more about the uss Indiana bb-58 my great uncle served on her
I had a great uncle there as well. Gunners mate 16" aft turret. Plank holder
Why is USS Alabama called "Lucky A"?
It never lost a sailor to hostile fire.
You can feel the American though on AA change in this video, 50 cals and 1 inch guns are all we need to we need every inch of this ship covered in 20 and 40mm cannons yesterday.
Please do an episode on HMS Vanguard.
It's on the list and we'll get there eventually :)
@@Drachinifel Excellent. :)
Also, it's just occurred to me, you've never featured any submarines so far... Can we look forward to any I the future?
Check out bb 59 in harbor at Fall River Massachusetts
How about a show about the US Atlanta class cruiser?
Unless you've already done it and I didn't find it 😀...
I did the Atlanta in robo-voice, it'll eventually return in human voice.
Wood like to more about the USS Maryland
Does anyone have data/info on the power plants and propulsion?
Original engines were manufactured General Electric. Boilers by Babcock & Wilcox, type number 8. Fuel was oil, 6950 tons worth. 4 screws, and made 27 knots.
@@WALTERBROADDUS 👍
Would have been great if Mississippi could have been saved. Then we’d have almost a full southern coast full of preserved battleships.
WWII enthusiasts in South Dakota never shut up about the USS South Dakota. Until now, I never got any real information about it, though.
Someone tell WG to give the NC the quad 14'' guns as a premium.
FullMetalChicken that actually should be the hull A, hull B should be the 16 inch gun version
They are adding the Florida, which is basically a 14inch armed NorCa
I like your voice
I would like to have a story of the uss monterey, CVL 26
How many AA guns you want admiral .... admiral: ALL!
The U.S.S Massachusetts fired the first as well as the last 16 Inch Shells of WW2.
Kirishima hurt South Dakota hard that Washington decided to put Kirishima in her place
Can u try to do a swedish ship guide :o ?
We've done one, more to come :)
@@Drachinifel can u link it cant find it
@@lokis2350 ua-cam.com/video/8nxEuXwXMVY/v-deo.html
South Dakota, San Francisco navy shipyard.