Thank you for this video. My dad served on the Sealion II during these war patrols. I’ve heard these stories many times. He was a volunteer “nurse” and gave up his bunk to help look after the rescued POWs. He (and the crew) received the Presidential Unit Citation from Sec’y of the Navy James Forrestal for heroism in action during those 2nd & 3rd war patrols.
Thank you for sharing. You might enjoy "One of Our Submarines," by Edward Young. It's a memoir by a sailor in the Royal Navy who served on subs and eventually commanded one - and who happened to be the original illustrator of the Penguin Publishing logo!
I am Australian. My dad flew a Liberator out of northern India, bombing the Thai Burma railway. My favorite WW2 photo was taken by an American submariner as they were rescuing four Australians, paper thin and covered in ship oil from a makeshift raft. The first Australian is being hauled aboard by one arm while he hangs on to one of his mates on the raft with his other hand. He has this beautiful smile on his face. It is a truly wonderful photo. This is freakish but today I walked past a guy who used to go out with my former wife. I have just recalled that his father had been aboard one of those ships and was also rescued after being adrift for days.
There is a great 1950's TV show called the Silent Service. It ran for 2 years. Covering US submarine operations in WWII & Korean war. One of the episodes is about the Sealion sinking of the Kongo. Often at the end of the episodes retired Admiral Thomas Dykers would interview actual member of the submarine that the episode was about. There are 79 episodes from the two years & you will find many of the TV/Movie stars of the 40's-60's in historical reenactments, plus actual combat footage from WWII. Thanks for this episode like so many other excellent episodes that you make. PJ
@@smokeonthewater5287 After retiring in 2003 I not sure if I would want to hear that sound. I have often thought about the men trapped inside say the Bismarck & Yamato. Between those two great ships over 5,000 sailors lost their lives. How many after the ships went down? Shalom
People poke fun at the modern Navy fleet but when they go all in, in a war they’re just as brutal and brave as any other branch. They just haven’t gotten the opportunity in decades which is a good thing big picture wise.
Fyi: the battlegroup accompanying submarine USS Pampanito is now a museum ship anchored in San Francisco Bay. This submarine was also previously used for exterior filming shots for the 1996 film "Down Periscope" (which, incidentally, is currently available on UA-cam movies, so if nothing else you can actually see what it looked like in 1995 when the filming was being done.)
I saw it and went inside the sun to see what it was like. Stepping down into it the smell of diesel was in the air as 6:01 my nephew and I toured it. It was nice get outside and breathe fresh air.
The flagship of Kurita's fleet was not Kongo, it was Yamato. Kongo was the flagship of the 2nd section. Also, while you can describe the Kongo class as many things, well armored is not one of them.
Kongo was the last British built Japanese major warship, built as a battlecruiser. The Japanese rebuilt the ship interwar, but it retained the light main belt armor and inadequate underwater protection.
@@edtrine8692 the Hiei that was. She was probably hit by torps during the battle and, if I remember correctly, she had been attacked by planes earlier Btw it was the steer that was disabled and her sister ship Kirishima tanked a good amount of hits from USS Washington and even incapacitated USS South Dakota
@darkbiddy511 only one recorded 14 inch hit was scored and all it did was damage a turrets training gear. Overall minimal damage, the more important damage was from the cruisers that tore up the radar, radios and range finders. No penetrating hits were scored
USS Archerfish sank a battleship hull, the largest ship ever sunk by a submarine as well. Shinano was a carrier conversion off the last of the 3 Yamato hulls.
@@JohnMeyer-b9p Nah that was Kaga, also a battleship convertion but much earlier. Basically when Amagi was obliterate by the earthquake, Kaga was then decided to be converted into a Carrier instead. Neither Amagi, Kaga or Akagi had sister ships so in turn all 3 were treated to belong to eachother.
Back in the 60's the Sea Lion was part of SubRon 6 out of Norfolk and was one of the sub serviced by the my ship the USS Orion AS-18, If you saw the movie "Pink Submarine" that was the Sea Lion in her primer paint! Sailed on her a few times, good sub, with a great record but a bit old at that time bur still going strong!
@@Randall1001 My father was a tanker in the US Army during WWII who served from D+10 to VE Day. He survived. I am proud to say that I'm an Honorably Discharged Veteran of the US Army who enlisted to serve his country. I served my hitch and left the military since it was not for me. As a result, I am very sensitive and aware of what the US military personnel give to the security of our country as should all Americans.
I love all of your channels and I am subscribed. I am also a U.S. Navy Submarine Veteran who was stationed in Groton Ct. GROTON is said or spoken like ROTTEN not Grow-ten. You have some excellent submarine history that you share and it always annoys me when you say it wrong. Having attended U.S. Navy Submarine School in Groton and then having been stationed aboard the SSN 690 in Groton at Com Sub Devron 12 for several years. I can tell you that it is said like ROTTEN........... and in many ways it was. Jim
@@revejmal I am not sure 😊. Petty officer Bynum was my class instructor. It would have been spring 1984. Like April or May. I wonder where I could find my class information? Jim Dorchak
Considering the comparison between the Kongo and the SeaLion 2, the Kongo group was the superior force, no matter that there were better armed/armoured enemy ships. This, was what the battle was. The luck of the Irish indeed. Love your videos.
Every possible award/citation the Navy could offer was received by @ least 1 crewmember: with 1 exception, the Purple Heart. That was the one thing Luck Flucky was proudest of. He would ice down beer @ the start of an attack, and if successful each crewman would get 1 cold beer to celebrate
Hats of for the boys in purple. They designed the TP-RP cross beam along with the JP2-POP swing arm when connected DElAm2. They also sank the TICK Blunder Custer which was the pride of Iceland.
Unfortunately, again, many inaccuracies in the video. A couple of the most glaring are: 1) the Kongo wasn’t the flagship of the convoy; it was the Yamato, and 2) the Kongo was a WW1 era battleship, which lacked effective anti-torpedo bulges. Her armour was good for the era but by 1944 it was showing its age.
To any of my fellow Americans considering enlisting in the U.S. Navy's submarine fleet, better known as "The slient service", understand that it takes a lot of training, discipline, commitment, courage, and guts to serve on a Navy submarine. Understand the risks and honor past submariners, including those lost at sea during world War 2, the cold War, including the crew of the U.S.S. Thrasher, and U.S.S. Scorpion: their final resting places. We salute all that served. God bless.🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
@@philgiglio7922 Oh. I don't remember about the U.S.S. Scorpion. Thank you. We honor all that lost their lives un the slient service. R.I.P.🙏🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊
I'd bet being a submariner in a modern US sub is statistically the least risk prone position in the entire military or at least it's up there. Modern subs and WWII subs are simply two completely different concepts and comparing them is honestly a bit disingenuous. Just the risk difference alone is enough that the comparison is absurd., Let alone the actual strategic objective being compared. The past vs modern US overwhelming force and expense can not be compared.
Kongo was was one of the least armed and armored Battleships. It only had 8 14" guns and every other class of Japanese Battleship had more or bigger guns. Except the one's that had been converted to seaplane carriers, in which case retained just as many guns. and EVERY other class of Japanese Battleship had thicker armor.
The Kongo class Battlecruisers being up armored to Fast Battleships was mostly a lie, they were still under armored to meet real battleships as Admiral Lee showed during his radar clinic during The Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in the USS Washington when it sent the IJN Kirishima to the bottom in quick order getting far more hits than they thought until the damage control records for the ship showed up many years later. On the other hand the South Dakota was hammered and no Japanese shells penetrated into what is commonly called the Citadel, the most protected parts of the ship.
She was definately a true fast-battleship by the end, even in tonnage, i think also her internal armour was far lighter. In terms of how Dakota was hammered, you have to realise that the absolute biggest guns the japanese had were 14inch. The only exceptions were the Nagato-Class (Mutsu of which was sabotaged anyway so thats here out) and the almighty Yamato-Class, who bar Musashi on only one occasion, never used their main guns at all, Any ship hit by a shell that size wouldve felt it. The US had several classes feature 16inch guns. Colorado, N'Lina, S'Dakota and Iowa, also these classes had far more ships in each one than japan had on average. Also, US made up for calibre in tech, i.e; special, Super-Heavy shells. eventually, just like armoured vehicles on land, firepower would've out-evolved armour, and everyone could pen everyone, and thats disregarding the advent of carriers.
@@BugattiONE666 Hiei was bombarded by US cruisers and destroyers, heavily damaging the topside and the a 8" shell disabled the steering system, so it is disappointing for a "fast battleship".
I love your videos! This is actually really cool and interesting side of World War II not a lot of people know about. Submarine destroying a battleship! That’s amazing! Where did you get the footage from? I’m starting a documentary right now and I was wondering where did you get all that awesome footage like the videos and stuff of World War II. I would like to know!
While he is a great editor little of this footage is from the actual ships involved and I would hazard a guess that none of it is from this actual confrontation!
The timidity of the Captains was a result of COs being chastised if they made a mock attack and we're spotted. The CO who hung back & did nothing would be praised. The former was "hazarding his boat and crew": there was no worse 'crime' to Navy brass. That attitude was somehow reinforced in the captains mind was the war began. Mush Morton and Richard Kane changed all that. Once BuOrd got off it's ass and fixed the Mark 14 torpedoes 'issues' sinking rates skyrocketed.
KONGO was originally laid down as a "battlecruiser" with a design that emphasized speed at the cost of battleship level protection. Although she went through some major rebuilds in her long career and was reclassified as a battleship she never truly qualified as such.
Iowas supposedly had poor torpedo protection as well. From doing some reading the Navy, during the war, build an Iowa class hull section and tested it to see if it could withstand a torpedo hit. It did not. There was a rapid re-design that was likewise tested but it too failed. The all or nothing armor scheme employed on the Iowa class did not offer adequate underwater protection.
Sea Lion 2 probably proved that ' Indestructible Diamond' was distinctly flawed. Kongo Class battleship are a tough proposition. But not entirely invulnerable..
"You didn't provide 4k footage of the actual attack and some of the ships shown weren't the actual ships and some of the people weren't the actual people and some of the scenes were actually filmed a couple of years before the attack and the weather was clearer that day and the battle paint wasn't like in the thumbnail and blah blah blah." Correcting the lead ship in the battlegroup is important and understandable, but most of the rest of the criticism I see in the other videos is pedantic nitpicking. You have a good, informative channel. If a detail or two is skipped intentionally or unintentionally at the altar of brevity, I am fine with that. This channel hits the important parts in a digestible format. If the people bothering to criticize the rough spots have such minor problems, then they should try to start their own channels and crank out content on your scale.
USS Sealion315 had a long career as a training vessel into the 1970s . She participated in the Bay of pigs landings, Cuban missile crisis and embarked USMC Recon, UDT, and the early Seal units for training in the Caribbean in the sixties. She was also the last US submarine to fire a deck gun.
With the benefit of learning about modern attack submarines that are only about three times larger in displacement, this seems like a very large submarine from over eighty years ago!
Consider the distances US subs had to operate across. A Balao or Gato Class sub had a range of 11.000 nm. That requires room for fuel and stores. Because tropical seas are so hot US subs starting around 1939 had air conditioning. This reduced condensation, mold and improved crew performance. The subs had relatively abundant fresh water, laundries and were clean and comfortable by the standards of any other navy's submarines. By comparison to the best German U-Boats of WWII USN subs were not deep diving but they had a feature no other navy at the time had. Every other navy geared their shafts to the diesel engine with electric generator/motors down the shaft a ways. To transition to electric drive a clutch disengaged the diesel from the shaft and the boat used the generator/motor as a motor. While simple the drawback is that both the diesel engine and the electric motor never operate at their ideal speed for best efficiency. On US subs, the diesels only powered generators. The diesels could run at optimum speed and you could run just 1 diesel and power both shafts for low speed running. The shafts were geared to electric motors allowing the motors to spin at their most efficient speed which was faster than typical shaft rpm. The efficiency of this system allowed US Navy subs to have a lot greater range than European designs.
I happened to have the oppertunity to speak with one of Nimitz's aides during WWII. The reason early on Kongo was feared (for lack of the a better word) was not for it's guns, but for it's speed. It was a 30+ knot ship (at least thats what was reported and believed at the start of the war). A battleship that can move that fast was not the norm early on and logistics personnel always worried about her coming in out of no where and wrecking a convoy.
Being a huge WW2 fan I’ve dreamed about being a uboat captain in the battle of The Atlantic. I probably would not have survived the war, as an American sub captain I’d be sitting around the vfw telling stories drinking a cold beer
@@DaveCompton5150 up in Groton Ct just down the road from USS nautilus museum they have conning tower of a US WW2 submarine, they also have the headstones of all 52 subs lost. Name of the boat, date and so on. In addition they have a list of all of the US submarines who gave their lives. It’s an amazing, beautiful museum area
@@DaveCompton5150 been there. That was a wonderful trip. I’ve been to the Normandy beaches, hitlers eagles nest on a mountain in Austria and at Bastogne ( battle of the bulge). Just got back from Florida on vacation, went to the 8th Air Force museum in Savannah GA and the USS Yorktown in Charleston on my way home. I just love it
The ship is rolling over. Things are falling and coming apart. Powder charges are falling. So are shells. One spark and BOOM. Find a video of HMS Barham sometime.
My uncle was aboard the Karidochi Maru , he was captured when Singapore fell , he was 24 when he died in the incident , oddly the Pampanito is preserved and there is a plaque aboard telling the story , however it was hushed up and his mother was told the ship had been sunk by a torpedo aircraft , for further info search "Hell Ships" my uncle was David Bowman of Grimsby died 1944 , south china sea !!!!
Adm. Ugacki didn’t go down with Kongo! He witnessed the attack from Yamato, as he noted in his diary. He was in charge of an Air Fleet in 1945 that launched kamikaze attacks on the US fleet around Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He died in a kamikaze attack on August 15th 1945 after listening to the Emperor’s speech.
The Kongos were originally battle cruisers. Rebuilt and somewhat up armored they were far from the best protected ships of the IJN. Armed with 14 inch guns they were armed the same as the Fuso and Ise classes of battleships. Japanese damage control was not the best. More than likely the Japanese were sailing in a straight line to save fuel. Oil was in very short supply 1n 1944 .
Kongou class were rare? Of all the IJN battleships, they were the most frequently encountered by the USN. They were easier and less costly to deploy, in no small part because they were smaller, lighter, and faster than later Japanese battleships like the Nagato class or especially the Yamato class. Among IJN battleships (and battlecruisers), Kongou class were the most lightly armed and armored (even after their conversion to fast battleships). Fusou class and Ise class (prior to conversion) had heavier armor and 6 turrets for a total of 12 guns compared to 4 turrets and 8 guns for Kongou. Eight 14"/356mm guns were nothing to sneeze at, of course, and the armor was heavy compared to smaller ships, but they still had trouble fighting effectively against USN cruisers and destroyers, some good examples of which being Hiei's troubles during the first naval battle of Guadalcanal and especially the battle of Samar where Kongou herself and other IJN battleships were unable to push their way past a group of USN destroyers and escort carriers who should have been hopelessly outgunned.
There was quite a bit more to this, that resulted in the eventual fate of the Kongo. There was so much more that could have been said about the actual sinking instead of the rather lengthy build up.
@@bendalton5221 all 10 tubes were loaded with war shots when they left on patrol. There were IIRC 2 reloads for the bow tubes and 1 for the stern. Skippers preferred to be sailing towards the target. It's possible that prop wash could affect the fishes path out of the stern tubes. I haven't read anything definitive about that, stern was a bit more cramped than the bow
My Dad served onboard USS MINGO SS-261, a GATO-class boat......And Although he did not serve in WW2, he served nearly 40 YEARS on boats, his last boat was USS GRAYLING SSN-646. But before he passed... he told me of some 'OPS' while in the Pacific, going near Vladivostok to "listen to" their (ruSSian) communication lines
It remains a question what the US submarine force would have achieved if they were equipped with torpedos that actually worked in the first half of WW2.
Could someone explain why these early subs had a sharp point in the front while todays subs have a round front? I know there must be a good point to this but would like to know.
WWI and WWII submarines were mostly surface ships that could submerge for a short period of time to conduct an attack and to escape being attacked. Most of their time was spent on the surface so they had hulls optimized for this. Modern subs, even diesel boats, submerge after leaving port and usually do not surface again until they return. Their hull form is optimized for underwater speed and quietness. They are very uncomfortable on the surface. They also do not submerge as quickly as old WWII boats did. WWII boats had their ballast tanks down the sides of the hull and could be filled and the boat submerged in under one minute. Modern subs with cylindrical hulls, and especially nuclear subs, have a ballast tank at the bow and another aft. They submerge more slowly but this does not matter since they do not run on the surface and thus don't need to submerge quickly to avoid attack.
At the 2:00 mark of the video. Isn’t that British Navy? I’m no expert on WWII naval uniforms, so can someone please clarify. This channel,, as much as I like it, uses of of context pictures quite often. 🤷🏼
The U.S. Submarine fleet in the Pacific during WW2 did the following Sank 54% of Japanese Merchant Ship tonnage, more than the combined sinkings of all ships and planes. They also did the following. Sank 4 Fleet Aircraft Carriers 4 Escort Carriers 1 Battleship 4 Heavy Cruisers 9:Light Cruisers 38 Destroyers 23 Submarines They virtually rendered the shipping to Japan of Rice, Rubber, Metals and Oil to nothing by 1945. They also lost 3,500 Officers and Crew. As in the Battle of Britain, “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” But this was done over four years and not over several months
Some years ago I was yakking with an F/A-18 pilot about the efficacy of cruise missiles to sink big ships like, oh, the Liaoning or something similar. His reply was telling " after the submarines get done there won't be much left for us to sink". Hearing that from a jet jock was a big surprise.
@@philsalvatore3902 I believe in the 1980s Falklands War, the Argentinian Air Force did some nasty work with their Exocet missiles sinking and damaging British ships. Only Victories they had. A Britain submarine did torpedo and sink an Argentinian warship killing 800. It is always War using different ships, jets, missiles, and submarines. Never an one size fits all war or battle.
@@richpontone1 The Argentines started the war with a total of seven Exocet missiles. WIth those they sank HMS Sheffield and MV Atlantic Conveyor. Atlantic Conveyor was hit by an Exocet fired at one of the RN aircraft carriers. British ECM spoofed the missile off target. After the miss the Exocet conducted another search and locked onto the Atlantic Conveyor. One hit should not have sunk that ship, nor should Sheffield have sunk, but the RN was exceedingly poorly prepared for war. They lost Sheffield because non of the de-watering pumps on Sheffield and four other ships in the task force worked. I guess the Brits don't do regular PM on their DC gear like the USN does with the 3M Program. Atlantic Conveyor was lost due to fire. It was filled with fully fueled and armed vehicles but no on board automatic fire fighting system aboard to put the fire out. Those are the only two ships the Argentines sank with Exocets. They shot one from a land launcher they cobbled together on the fly and managed to damage a RN destroyer with a near miss. . The ship detected the missile and turned to put its stern towards the missile to reduce the available cross section to its radar. The missile skimmed the flight deck and exploded close alongside setting fire to the helicopter hangar. There were no other successful attacks with Exocet. The rest of the ships the RN lost in that war were lost to old fashioned iron bombs dropped mostly by daredevil Argentine Skyhawk pilots, one of whom brought a piece of a RN ships mast back with it so low were they making their attacks. the piece of mast was stuck to the centerline tank if memory serves. Those low level tactics might have saved a few ships because the Argentine Air Force pilots didn't use the fin retarded naval bombs the Argentine Navy pilots were using. Their Air Force pilots were using normal US made land attack bombs. Their fuse settings were wrong and the bombs were not free falling long enough to arm. There were I think nine ships hit by bombs that did not explode that RN EOD types were able to defuse, saving the ship from destruction.
@@richpontone1 Their naval pilots were trained by the US Navy. Years later as a kind of reward for being on the coalition side during Desert Storm the US Navy arranged for the Argentine Navy to replace its Skyhawks and trained them up to fly from Brazil's old aircraft carrier. The Argentines weren't very smart. If they had waited six more months both of the small VSTOL carriers that fought that war would have been paid off and the Brits were planning to decommission their two LPDs as well. They were in one of their periodic rounds of "rationalization". The Brits had an old weather station on South Georgia Island and some Argentine metal scrappers were there taking the place apart to sell the metal for scrap value. They poked a flagpole in the ground and ran the Argentine flag up the pole. Once that happened nationalistic pride took over. The Brits told them to take their flag down and leave. The rhetoric escalated and the stage was set Argentina to invade the Falklands.
That's why he said it was the worst 'blue on blue' of the war. They had no idea what the cargo was.. Maru's were mostly cargo or troop transport, and those you definitely want to sink. They did rescue everyone they could, it had to be crowded as the bottom of a gunny sack aboard. They probably had to ration food also. Bet that cigarettes and coffee vanished pretty quickly
Thank you for this video. My dad served on the Sealion II during these war patrols. I’ve heard these stories many times. He was a volunteer “nurse” and gave up his bunk to help look after the rescued POWs. He (and the crew) received the Presidential Unit Citation from Sec’y of the Navy James Forrestal for heroism in action during those 2nd & 3rd war patrols.
Respect for your Dad and the Crew
Wasn't there a nuclear aircraft carrier named after James Forrestal? Didn't Mr. Forrestal die under suspicious circumstances?
Thank you for sharing. You might enjoy "One of Our Submarines," by Edward Young. It's a memoir by a sailor in the Royal Navy who served on subs and eventually commanded one - and who happened to be the original illustrator of the Penguin Publishing logo!
I am Australian. My dad flew a Liberator out of northern India, bombing the Thai Burma railway.
My favorite WW2 photo was taken by an American submariner as they were rescuing four Australians, paper thin and covered in ship oil from a makeshift raft. The first Australian is being hauled aboard by one arm while he hangs on to one of his mates on the raft with his other hand. He has this beautiful smile on his face. It is a truly wonderful photo. This is freakish but today I walked past a guy who used to go out with my former wife. I have just recalled that his father had been aboard one of those ships and was also rescued after being adrift for days.
That's incredible and what a patriot your dad was! Seems fitting that I would see this the day after Independence day!
There is a great 1950's TV show called the Silent Service. It ran for 2 years. Covering US submarine operations in WWII & Korean war. One of the episodes is about the Sealion sinking of the Kongo. Often at the end of the episodes retired Admiral Thomas Dykers would interview actual member of the submarine that the episode was about. There are 79 episodes from the two years & you will find many of the TV/Movie stars of the 40's-60's in historical reenactments, plus actual combat footage from WWII. Thanks for this episode like so many other excellent episodes that you make. PJ
There is an unique audio recording of the sinking of the Congo. Chilling listening...
That series is on UA-cam... Richard Damm, Periscope Films are hosts...
@@smokeonthewater5287 After retiring in 2003 I not sure if I would want to hear that sound. I have often thought about the men trapped inside say the Bismarck & Yamato. Between those two great ships over 5,000 sailors lost their lives. How many after the ships went down? Shalom
@@paulsilva3346 I know. I just wanted to let other people know. Excellent show. I was only 4-5 years old when it was on TV. Shalom
That’s a great series. Always nice to see actors early in their career
It's Groton CT like Rotten, not Groton CT like Growton. Love your videos! I watch your essays constantly.
Yes, I heard that too. Hurt my ears. Lived outside Groton in Gales Ferry.
Thank God for our fleet boats, absolutely courageous crew
People poke fun at the modern Navy fleet but when they go all in, in a war they’re just as brutal and brave as any other branch. They just haven’t gotten the opportunity in decades which is a good thing big picture wise.
US Navy submariner 1975-1979
They brought the Panche of the United States Navy to the Japanese.
Fyi: the battlegroup accompanying submarine USS Pampanito is now a museum ship anchored in San Francisco Bay. This submarine was also previously used for exterior filming shots for the 1996 film "Down Periscope" (which, incidentally, is currently available on UA-cam movies, so if nothing else you can actually see what it looked like in 1995 when the filming was being done.)
I saw it and went inside the sun to see what it was like. Stepping down into it the smell of diesel was in the air as 6:01 my nephew and I toured it. It was nice get outside and breathe fresh air.
You didn't play the audio of the attack?
Exactly, it's a rare recording that gives a chilling recreation of the attack
@@smokeonthewater5287
❤😮
The flagship of Kurita's fleet was not Kongo, it was Yamato. Kongo was the flagship of the 2nd section. Also, while you can describe the Kongo class as many things, well armored is not one of them.
They were battlecruisers first, after all
This channel is good but on a lot of the videos, there are many historical inaccuracies
Ich denke das es nicht mehr soviel Augenzeugen gibt ,die das alles miterlebt haben, und aus Aufzeichnungen und Erzählungen ….
Kongo was the last British built Japanese major warship, built as a battlecruiser. The Japanese rebuilt the ship interwar, but it retained the light main belt armor and inadequate underwater protection.
One of her sisters was disabled by 8" fire from the Heavy Cruiser San Fransico. Not to heavily armored for a Battleship?
@@edtrine8692 the Hiei that was. She was probably hit by torps during the battle and, if I remember correctly, she had been attacked by planes earlier
Btw it was the steer that was disabled and her sister ship Kirishima tanked a good amount of hits from USS Washington and even incapacitated USS South Dakota
@darkbiddy511 south Dakota incapacitated her self when here whole power system failed
@@adamkiraly9805 and took some beating by Kirishima as well. At least an entire salvo
@darkbiddy511 only one recorded 14 inch hit was scored and all it did was damage a turrets training gear. Overall minimal damage, the more important damage was from the cruisers that tore up the radar, radios and range finders. No penetrating hits were scored
USS Archerfish sank a battleship hull, the largest ship ever sunk by a submarine as well. Shinano was a carrier conversion off the last of the 3 Yamato hulls.
Was that the one that had 3teired tops ??
@@JohnMeyer-b9p Nah that was Kaga, also a battleship convertion but much earlier. Basically when Amagi was obliterate by the earthquake, Kaga was then decided to be converted into a Carrier instead. Neither Amagi, Kaga or Akagi had sister ships so in turn all 3 were treated to belong to eachother.
Search here for THE SILENT SERVICE: Archerfish shoots straight
@@BugattiONE666 The third Yamato was also converted to a carrier!
@@edtrine8692 Yeah i know, i was talking about the triple deck
I love the side view of the sub.
Love your channel.
Back in the 60's the Sea Lion was part of SubRon 6 out of Norfolk and was one of the sub serviced by the my ship the USS Orion AS-18, If you saw the movie "Pink Submarine" that was the Sea Lion in her primer paint! Sailed on her a few times, good sub, with a great record but a bit old at that time bur still going strong!
Do you mean OPERATION PETTICOAT?
i think it was a movie with Kelsey Grammer
I thought USS Roncador was the pink submarine?
My friends' father was a member of the crew of the Sealion II.
He was a member of "The Greatest Generation" as were all US servicemen and women.
@@josephnardone1250 Yeah, including my dad and five of my uncles. All served in combat in WWII. All survived.
@@Randall1001 My father was a tanker in the US Army during WWII who served from D+10 to VE Day. He survived. I am proud to say that I'm an Honorably Discharged Veteran of the US Army who enlisted to serve his country. I served my hitch and left the military since it was not for me. As a result, I am very sensitive and aware of what the US military personnel give to the security of our country as should all Americans.
@Randall Hess @randall1001 Who was your friend’s dad? My dad also served on Sealion II. William Hill, electrician’s mate.
@@cherillio His name was Ed Lonsky.
I love all of your channels and I am subscribed.
I am also a U.S. Navy Submarine Veteran who was stationed in Groton Ct.
GROTON is said or spoken like ROTTEN not Grow-ten.
You have some excellent submarine history that you share and it always annoys me when you say it wrong.
Having attended U.S. Navy Submarine School in Groton and then having been stationed aboard the SSN 690 in Groton at Com Sub Devron 12 for several years. I can tell you that it is said like ROTTEN........... and in many ways it was. Jim
What BESS class were you?
@@revejmal I am not sure 😊. Petty officer Bynum was my class instructor. It would have been spring 1984. Like April or May. I wonder where I could find my class information? Jim Dorchak
My school bus driver served in the submarine service. He never talked much about his service but I do know that his sub endured depth charge attacks.
Excellent channel. keep em coming please.
I find the drama exhausting and errors like wrong images rather sad. Happy to help...
My most sincere thank you and God's speed to all of you sub mariners and veterans everywhere, RIP
An excellent pictorial presentation and the best narration in media.
Considering the comparison between the Kongo and the SeaLion 2, the Kongo group was the superior force, no matter that there were better armed/armoured enemy ships. This, was what the battle was. The luck of the Irish indeed.
Love your videos.
He was obviously American born in New York, how could he be Irish
Gr8 as always ❤
Sub that sinks ship: 🥱, sub sinks train: exciting
Yeah that sub was based af. Especially the leader of that sub.
The Barb...
Every possible award/citation the Navy could offer was received by @ least 1 crewmember: with 1 exception, the Purple Heart. That was the one thing Luck Flucky was proudest of. He would ice down beer @ the start of an attack, and if successful each crewman would get 1 cold beer to celebrate
Hats of for the boys in purple. They designed the TP-RP cross beam along with the JP2-POP swing arm when connected DElAm2. They also sank the TICK Blunder Custer which was the pride of Iceland.
Unfortunately, again, many inaccuracies in the video. A couple of the most glaring are: 1) the Kongo wasn’t the flagship of the convoy; it was the Yamato, and 2) the Kongo was a WW1 era battleship, which lacked effective anti-torpedo bulges. Her armour was good for the era but by 1944 it was showing its age.
To any of my fellow Americans considering enlisting in the U.S. Navy's submarine fleet, better known as "The slient service", understand that it takes a lot of training, discipline, commitment, courage, and guts to serve on a Navy submarine. Understand the risks and honor past submariners, including those lost at sea during world War 2, the cold War, including the crew of the U.S.S. Thrasher, and U.S.S. Scorpion: their final resting places. We salute all that served. God bless.🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
Thresher.
And don't forget Scorpion
@@philgiglio7922 Oh. I don't remember about the U.S.S. Scorpion. Thank you. We honor all that lost their lives un the slient service. R.I.P.🙏🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊
I'd bet being a submariner in a modern US sub is statistically the least risk prone position in the entire military or at least it's up there.
Modern subs and WWII subs are simply two completely different concepts and comparing them is honestly a bit disingenuous.
Just the risk difference alone is enough that the comparison is absurd., Let alone the actual strategic objective being compared. The past vs modern US overwhelming force and expense can not be compared.
This guy has a great narrator voice crisp and to the point
Your narrator is excellent. The perfect voice
“Oh The Luck of The Irish” ☘️☘️
Hahaha Classic
Great video. Vice Admiral Reich was a family friend, and came to our wedding.
Kongo was was one of the least armed and armored Battleships. It only had 8 14" guns and every other class of Japanese Battleship had more or bigger guns. Except the one's that had been converted to seaplane carriers, in which case retained just as many guns. and EVERY other class of Japanese Battleship had thicker armor.
Torpedoes typically hit *below* the armour belt. It's kind of crucial to how they work.
it was a battlecruiser not a battleship
@@nitrous_god was just about to say that 😂
Too thick
@@nitrous_god not sure about that. It was a battlecruiser when built. Kongo was classified as a fast battleship by WW II.
The Kongo class Battlecruisers being up armored to Fast Battleships was mostly a lie, they were still under armored to meet real battleships as Admiral Lee showed during his radar clinic during The Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in the USS Washington when it sent the IJN Kirishima to the bottom in quick order getting far more hits than they thought until the damage control records for the ship showed up many years later. On the other hand the South Dakota was hammered and no Japanese shells penetrated into what is commonly called the Citadel, the most protected parts of the ship.
She was definately a true fast-battleship by the end, even in tonnage, i think also her internal armour was far lighter. In terms of how Dakota was hammered, you have to realise that the absolute biggest guns the japanese had were 14inch. The only exceptions were the Nagato-Class (Mutsu of which was sabotaged anyway so thats here out) and the almighty Yamato-Class, who bar Musashi on only one occasion, never used their main guns at all, Any ship hit by a shell that size wouldve felt it. The US had several classes feature 16inch guns. Colorado, N'Lina, S'Dakota and Iowa, also these classes had far more ships in each one than japan had on average. Also, US made up for calibre in tech, i.e; special, Super-Heavy shells. eventually, just like armoured vehicles on land, firepower would've out-evolved armour, and everyone could pen everyone, and thats disregarding the advent of carriers.
@@BugattiONE666 Hiei was bombarded by US cruisers and destroyers, heavily damaging the topside and the a 8" shell disabled the steering system, so it is disappointing for a "fast battleship".
I love your videos! This is actually really cool and interesting side of World War II not a lot of people know about. Submarine destroying a battleship! That’s amazing! Where did you get the footage from? I’m starting a documentary right now and I was wondering where did you get all that awesome footage like the videos and stuff of World War II. I would like to know!
While he is a great editor little of this footage is from the actual ships involved and I would hazard a guess that none of it is from this actual confrontation!
@@sslaytor I just want to know where you got the footage from so I can Make my own documentary that I’m working on right now.
one of 3 British built Battleships sunk by submarine
The other 2 being Royal Oak and Barham
Once you get rid of bad Mk14 Torpedos and get commanders with moxie.
The timidity of the Captains was a result of COs being chastised if they made a mock attack and we're spotted. The CO who hung back & did nothing would be praised. The former was "hazarding his boat and crew": there was no worse 'crime' to Navy brass.
That attitude was somehow reinforced in the captains mind was the war began. Mush Morton and Richard Kane changed all that.
Once BuOrd got off it's ass and fixed the Mark 14 torpedoes 'issues' sinking rates skyrocketed.
@@philgiglio7922 They also changed their tactics. No more maximum range shots. Now the tactic was to attack at close range.
I served aboard the Sea Lion. Sured enjoyed this production.
Great video and happy to have found this channel!
*I just love that the US didn't believe that the Archerfish sank something that huge. Goes to show how unbelievably large the Yamatos were*
KONGO was a first WW era battleship which lacked proper torpedo protection.
KONGO was originally laid down as a "battlecruiser" with a design that emphasized speed at the cost of battleship level protection. Although she went through some major rebuilds in her long career and was reclassified as a battleship she never truly qualified as such.
Yeah. I figured this
Iowas supposedly had poor torpedo protection as well. From doing some reading the Navy, during the war, build an Iowa class hull section and tested it to see if it could withstand a torpedo hit. It did not. There was a rapid re-design that was likewise tested but it too failed. The all or nothing armor scheme employed on the Iowa class did not offer adequate underwater protection.
Great video as always. Happen to have a link to the audio captured by the Sea Lion II that you spoke of?
Sea Lion 2 probably proved that ' Indestructible Diamond' was distinctly flawed. Kongo Class battleship are a tough proposition. But not entirely invulnerable..
"You didn't provide 4k footage of the actual attack and some of the ships shown weren't the actual ships and some of the people weren't the actual people and some of the scenes were actually filmed a couple of years before the attack and the weather was clearer that day and the battle paint wasn't like in the thumbnail and blah blah blah."
Correcting the lead ship in the battlegroup is important and understandable, but most of the rest of the criticism I see in the other videos is pedantic nitpicking.
You have a good, informative channel. If a detail or two is skipped intentionally or unintentionally at the altar of brevity, I am fine with that. This channel hits the important parts in a digestible format.
If the people bothering to criticize the rough spots have such minor problems, then they should try to start their own channels and crank out content on your scale.
USS Sealion315 had a long career as a training vessel into the 1970s . She participated in the Bay of pigs landings, Cuban missile crisis and embarked USMC Recon, UDT, and the early Seal units for training in the Caribbean in the sixties. She was also the last US submarine to fire a deck gun.
With the benefit of learning about modern attack submarines that are only about three times larger in displacement, this seems like a very large submarine from over eighty years ago!
"only" 😆 have you seen one in person? subs are freaking huge, honestly shocked me the first time i saw one, i literally went "wooaaahhhh" lol
Consider the distances US subs had to operate across. A Balao or Gato Class sub had a range of 11.000 nm. That requires room for fuel and stores. Because tropical seas are so hot US subs starting around 1939 had air conditioning. This reduced condensation, mold and improved crew performance. The subs had relatively abundant fresh water, laundries and were clean and comfortable by the standards of any other navy's submarines.
By comparison to the best German U-Boats of WWII USN subs were not deep diving but they had a feature no other navy at the time had. Every other navy geared their shafts to the diesel engine with electric generator/motors down the shaft a ways. To transition to electric drive a clutch disengaged the diesel from the shaft and the boat used the generator/motor as a motor. While simple the drawback is that both the diesel engine and the electric motor never operate at their ideal speed for best efficiency. On US subs, the diesels only powered generators. The diesels could run at optimum speed and you could run just 1 diesel and power both shafts for low speed running. The shafts were geared to electric motors allowing the motors to spin at their most efficient speed which was faster than typical shaft rpm. The efficiency of this system allowed US Navy subs to have a lot greater range than European designs.
I happened to have the oppertunity to speak with one of Nimitz's aides during WWII. The reason early on Kongo was feared (for lack of the a better word) was not for it's guns, but for it's speed. It was a 30+ knot ship (at least thats what was reported and believed at the start of the war). A battleship that can move that fast was not the norm early on and logistics personnel always worried about her coming in out of no where and wrecking a convoy.
Being a huge WW2 fan I’ve dreamed about being a uboat captain in the battle of The Atlantic. I probably would not have survived the war, as an American sub captain I’d be sitting around the vfw telling stories drinking a cold beer
America lost 52 subs in WWII. Death rates were estimated to be around 20%....rivaling that of bomber crews over Europe in 43.
@@DaveCompton5150 up in Groton Ct just down the road from USS nautilus museum they have conning tower of a US WW2 submarine, they also have the headstones of all 52 subs lost. Name of the boat, date and so on. In addition they have a list of all of the US submarines who gave their lives. It’s an amazing, beautiful museum area
@@ronjones9447 There is a similar museum just outside the USS Arizona memorial.
@@DaveCompton5150 been there. That was a wonderful trip. I’ve been to the Normandy beaches, hitlers eagles nest on a mountain in Austria and at Bastogne ( battle of the bulge). Just got back from Florida on vacation, went to the 8th Air Force museum in Savannah GA and the USS Yorktown in Charleston on my way home. I just love it
3/4 of All German U-boat crews did Not survive the war.
Any idea why a powder magazine would explode from flooding? Or are we to assume there was ilfire as well?
The ship is rolling over. Things are falling and coming apart. Powder charges are falling. So are shells. One spark and BOOM. Find a video of HMS Barham sometime.
the close caption could be improved but thanks also for the video.
You can tell the narrator is an American since he actually pronounces Gato correctly.
USS Sealion 2: the Sealioning
ESPN 8, “The Ocho”
I guess the moral of the story is don’t call your ship indestructible.
can you say Titanic?
Groton Connecticut is pronounced "Grott - ton." Not "grow-ton."
Local knowledge.
Isn’t it technically in New London anyway? 😂
@@ScreaminEmu Nope. New London is across the river.
Yes...this. And the Gato class is pronounced Gah-toe...
My uncle was aboard the Karidochi Maru , he was captured when Singapore fell , he was 24 when he died in the incident , oddly the Pampanito is preserved and there is a plaque aboard telling the story , however it was hushed up and his mother was told the ship had been sunk by a torpedo aircraft , for further info search "Hell Ships" my uncle was David Bowman of Grimsby died 1944 , south china sea !!!!
This was a (good) 1 respect 💯
Do the USS Swordfish next
Adm. Ugacki didn’t go down with Kongo! He witnessed the attack from Yamato, as he noted in his diary. He was in charge of an Air Fleet in 1945 that launched kamikaze attacks on the US fleet around Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He died in a kamikaze attack on August 15th 1945 after listening to the Emperor’s speech.
Pretty questionable thumbnail choice
The Kongos were originally battle cruisers. Rebuilt and somewhat up armored they were far from the best protected ships of the IJN. Armed with 14 inch guns they were armed the same as the Fuso and Ise classes of battleships.
Japanese damage control was not the best. More than likely the Japanese were sailing in a straight line to save fuel. Oil was in very short supply 1n 1944 .
well done
The name 金剛 Kongō means "emery", not diamond. "Diamond" looks like a mistranslation.
You tell em, steve.
Ummm, factual correction here. Kongo was a battlecruiser thus while heavily armed, it was not heavily armored.
You should do a video on the USS Stingray under the command of Capt. Tom Dodge.
Kongo was the Imperial's navy least armored and armed battleship
Welcome back. missed you bunches.😁😁😁😁.
The days of steel ships and iron men.
cool video
thx
My father served on a sister Gato Class boat, the USS Flying Fish, ss229.
The audio program misprononce the submarine names and classes and other names.
Kongou class were rare? Of all the IJN battleships, they were the most frequently encountered by the USN. They were easier and less costly to deploy, in no small part because they were smaller, lighter, and faster than later Japanese battleships like the Nagato class or especially the Yamato class. Among IJN battleships (and battlecruisers), Kongou class were the most lightly armed and armored (even after their conversion to fast battleships). Fusou class and Ise class (prior to conversion) had heavier armor and 6 turrets for a total of 12 guns compared to 4 turrets and 8 guns for Kongou. Eight 14"/356mm guns were nothing to sneeze at, of course, and the armor was heavy compared to smaller ships, but they still had trouble fighting effectively against USN cruisers and destroyers, some good examples of which being Hiei's troubles during the first naval battle of Guadalcanal and especially the battle of Samar where Kongou herself and other IJN battleships were unable to push their way past a group of USN destroyers and escort carriers who should have been hopelessly outgunned.
How does a single sub go into battle formation?
I had to pause this to go listen to the audio of the sinking of rhe Kongō
"Their first target was Kongō, one of the Imperial Navy's most heavily armed and armored battleships."
Should really do your research first mang
Aside from Musashi and Yamato, he’s right isn’t he?
@@chloehennessey6813Well if we set that aside, then we're forgetting history.
@@walkingcontradiction223 Its what this channel does the best.
@@chloehennessey6813 Not really, even the Nagato class was stronger than the Kongo.
@@samuelgordino also fuso class, kongo was a battlecruiser
How does one submarine go into battle formation?
There was quite a bit more to this, that resulted in the eventual fate of the Kongo. There was so much more that could have been said about the actual sinking instead of the rather lengthy build up.
Kongo Was Built-in England.
U know what ? Better than a good site. Blogger sites could learn a lot. Thanks for NOT trying 2 sell me something. Cda.
Please correct the pronunciation for Groton, CT. It's graw-ton.
Wow, as narration indicates, the boat fired at least 9 (!) unguided (!) torpedoes. I bet they didn't have many left!
well they carried 24 torpedos to start, so they had....
@@bendalton5221 all 10 tubes were loaded with war shots when they left on patrol. There were IIRC 2 reloads for the bow tubes and 1 for the stern. Skippers preferred to be sailing towards the target. It's possible that prop wash could affect the fishes path out of the stern tubes. I haven't read anything definitive about that, stern was a bit more cramped than the bow
Nice video, thnx. Kongo class was no match for US battleships. just ask Kirishima and Hiei.
My Dad served onboard USS MINGO SS-261, a GATO-class boat......And Although he did not serve in WW2, he served nearly 40 YEARS on boats, his last boat was USS GRAYLING SSN-646. But before he passed... he told me of some 'OPS' while in the Pacific, going near Vladivostok to "listen to" their (ruSSian) communication lines
My dad was on this boat during Nam.
It remains a question what the US submarine force would have achieved if they were equipped with torpedos that actually worked in the first half of WW2.
What is rare about a ship?
Is it rare to have just one ship in a class?
The Japanese got far, far less than what they deserved... Japan should have been nothing more than a U.S. military base in the end.
Could someone explain why these early subs had a sharp point in the front while todays subs have a round front? I know there must be a good point to this but would like to know.
Round point probably makes them quieter. Everything is about being as silent as possible nowadays.
early subs rode mostly on the surface...so, surface ship type bow...
WWI and WWII submarines were mostly surface ships that could submerge for a short period of time to conduct an attack and to escape being attacked. Most of their time was spent on the surface so they had hulls optimized for this. Modern subs, even diesel boats, submerge after leaving port and usually do not surface again until they return. Their hull form is optimized for underwater speed and quietness. They are very uncomfortable on the surface. They also do not submerge as quickly as old WWII boats did. WWII boats had their ballast tanks down the sides of the hull and could be filled and the boat submerged in under one minute. Modern subs with cylindrical hulls, and especially nuclear subs, have a ballast tank at the bow and another aft. They submerge more slowly but this does not matter since they do not run on the surface and thus don't need to submerge quickly to avoid attack.
At the 2:00 mark of the video. Isn’t that British Navy? I’m no expert on WWII naval uniforms, so can someone please clarify.
This channel,, as much as I like it, uses of of context pictures quite often.
🤷🏼
Groton, CT is pronounced as Grot-on. Not Grow-ton, as you stated. Just FYI
Lol😅
His pronunciations are flicking awful.
And he doesn't read messages.
And his clips are usually unrelated to the subject.
But I like the guy.
balao-class
Groton is pronounced like the word ROTTEN.
HEY FRIENDS, Has any one ever known, what kind of formation one single vessel can make, OH, a formation of one is good enough to sink the enemy.
The U.S. Submarine fleet in the Pacific during WW2 did the following
Sank 54% of Japanese Merchant Ship tonnage, more than the combined sinkings of all ships and planes.
They also did the following.
Sank
4 Fleet Aircraft Carriers
4 Escort Carriers
1 Battleship
4 Heavy Cruisers
9:Light Cruisers
38 Destroyers
23 Submarines
They virtually rendered the shipping to Japan of Rice, Rubber, Metals and Oil to nothing by 1945.
They also lost 3,500 Officers and Crew.
As in the Battle of Britain, “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”
But this was done over four years and not over several months
Some years ago I was yakking with an F/A-18 pilot about the efficacy of cruise missiles to sink big ships like, oh, the Liaoning or something similar. His reply was telling " after the submarines get done there won't be much left for us to sink". Hearing that from a jet jock was a big surprise.
@@philsalvatore3902
I believe in the 1980s Falklands War, the Argentinian Air Force did some nasty work with their Exocet missiles sinking and damaging British ships.
Only Victories they had.
A Britain submarine did torpedo and sink an Argentinian warship killing 800.
It is always War using different ships, jets, missiles, and submarines. Never an one size fits all war or battle.
@@richpontone1 The Argentines started the war with a total of seven Exocet missiles. WIth those they sank HMS Sheffield and MV Atlantic Conveyor. Atlantic Conveyor was hit by an Exocet fired at one of the RN aircraft carriers. British ECM spoofed the missile off target. After the miss the Exocet conducted another search and locked onto the Atlantic Conveyor. One hit should not have sunk that ship, nor should Sheffield have sunk, but the RN was exceedingly poorly prepared for war. They lost Sheffield because non of the de-watering pumps on Sheffield and four other ships in the task force worked. I guess the Brits don't do regular PM on their DC gear like the USN does with the 3M Program. Atlantic Conveyor was lost due to fire. It was filled with fully fueled and armed vehicles but no on board automatic fire fighting system aboard to put the fire out. Those are the only two ships the Argentines sank with Exocets. They shot one from a land launcher they cobbled together on the fly and managed to damage a RN destroyer with a near miss. . The ship detected the missile and turned to put its stern towards the missile to reduce the available cross section to its radar. The missile skimmed the flight deck and exploded close alongside setting fire to the helicopter hangar. There were no other successful attacks with Exocet.
The rest of the ships the RN lost in that war were lost to old fashioned iron bombs dropped mostly by daredevil Argentine Skyhawk pilots, one of whom brought a piece of a RN ships mast back with it so low were they making their attacks. the piece of mast was stuck to the centerline tank if memory serves. Those low level tactics might have saved a few ships because the Argentine Air Force pilots didn't use the fin retarded naval bombs the Argentine Navy pilots were using. Their Air Force pilots were using normal US made land attack bombs. Their fuse settings were wrong and the bombs were not free falling long enough to arm. There were I think nine ships hit by bombs that did not explode that RN EOD types were able to defuse, saving the ship from destruction.
@@philsalvatore3902
The ironic thing was that the U.S. Air Force trained the Argentinian pilots but the British were a higher level ally of ours.
@@richpontone1 Their naval pilots were trained by the US Navy. Years later as a kind of reward for being on the coalition side during Desert Storm the US Navy arranged for the Argentine Navy to replace its Skyhawks and trained them up to fly from Brazil's old aircraft carrier.
The Argentines weren't very smart. If they had waited six more months both of the small VSTOL carriers that fought that war would have been paid off and the Brits were planning to decommission their two LPDs as well. They were in one of their periodic rounds of "rationalization". The Brits had an old weather station on South Georgia Island and some Argentine metal scrappers were there taking the place apart to sell the metal for scrap value. They poked a flagpole in the ground and ran the Argentine flag up the pole. Once that happened nationalistic pride took over. The Brits told them to take their flag down and leave. The rhetoric escalated and the stage was set Argentina to invade the Falklands.
6:06 There was no knowledge of allied prisoners.
That's why he said it was the worst 'blue on blue' of the war. They had no idea what the cargo was..
Maru's were mostly cargo or troop transport, and those you definitely want to sink. They did rescue everyone they could, it had to be crowded as the bottom of a gunny sack aboard. They probably had to ration food also. Bet that cigarettes and coffee vanished pretty quickly
If it wasn’t for the USA and allies. The Chinese wouldn’t be speaking Mandarin, or Cantonese.
The average person there, has no idea.
It’s not Grow-ton, it’s Grotten.
My Connecticut born father always said it was rotten in Groton., with both words rhyming.
Graw-ton, Connecticut
Sounds like this was the first shot of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
What ram?
Kongo class ships weren't rare, there were 4 of them, the most class of BBs in the IJN.
Skip. Moronic title. "Smashed"? "Rare"?
Kongo was more of an armored cruiser than a battleship
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