HMS Eagle - Guide 166
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- Опубліковано 19 сер 2024
- HMS Eagle, a converted aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, is today's subject.
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Pinned post for Q&A :)
Drachinifel
If you could stick Beatty on any warship to ensure he dies as painfully as possible, which ship would you choose?
You should do a special on operation pedestal it's fascinating
The anti-piracy operations mentioned in this video have got quite a few people interested...so how about something (Drydock section or even a full video) about the little Age of Piracy in the interwar years?
I hope this isn't too modern and there is enough available information, but how exactly do guided munitions work and look internally (rocket-assisted, using adjustable fins, etc.?) and how much of a problem is their cost? Assumedly something like the VT-fuze is similarly complex and expensive and that tech was definitely worth the investment, how does that compare to naval guided munitions?
Great post - wondered why more research work wasn't put into torpedoes? Always seemed to be regarded by most navies from WW1 to WW2 as a secondary weapon. Was the dominance of gunnery admirals a factor?
My dad survived the sinking of the Eagle . He was picked up within 90 mins of the sinking ,swimming like mad to avoid being taken down with it as it went down in about 5 mins . Swimming in fuel and fire didn't do his lungs much good but he lived a brave life till passing away with cancer in 1996. He said he just heard and felt 4 big thuds and explosions and panic setting in . Proud to remember my dad Samuel Bott.
My great grandfather served on Eagle too, Dennis Carr, one of the maintainance crew who were in charge of looking after the aircraft
An ankle injury saw him left behind in port before the ships final sail.
It's a shame Eagles wreck has never been properly found and documented. It'd almost feel like a sense of closure on an unfinished story of its service, as well as documenting the final resting place for those who weren't as lucky as your father.
God bless the sailors who went down with her and the ones who survived the sinking.
Here’s to the honor of the crew of HMS Eagle. Thank you for sharing the stories of your families!
Multiple sailors in the water were killed by the depth charges set off by screening destroyers looking for the U-Boat. Eagle was known as the 'Happy Little ship' and it was a real shame she was lost.
A really beautiful and interesting carrier that sank in such short time.
My father survived the sinking and had stories of swimming in oil fire and bodies. Jack Clempson was his name and received the Maltese medal of honour later in his last years.
Good old Admiral Beatty...it seems like in any naval decision, you can't really go wrong by thinking "What Would Beatty Do" and then _doing the opposite._
He must have influenced the US somewhat as their early tanks such as the M-3 where covered in machine guns. Even the driver had two hull mounted 30 calibre MGs which he aimed by rotating the tank. Must have been fun for the gun crew when they were about to fire the 75 millimetre gun only to find the driver swing the hull around because he had a target.
Admiral Beatty should have received medals for his service … from Germany.
@@bigblue6917 In the first place, the hull mount 30's were quickly deleted, even by the US. In the second place, you Brits were damn glad to get our Stuarts, because unlike your tanks ours were reliable and they were THERE. I see the supercilious British attitude remains, even as your Empire disappears.
@@bigblue6917 Nah, everything is a target, don't you understand US Gunnery? FIRE EVERYTHING! IN ALL DIRECTIONS! SOMETHING IS BOUND TO HIT WHATEVER WE'RE ATTACKING!
@@donnacorrell3527 dude
Pirates: What are they going to do, send an aircraft carrier?
Royal Navy: That sounds like a great idea
I really would like to know more about her and Hermes'jolly good pirate hunting adventure
Pirates. That would make a good story
Seconded. That whole miniature Age of Piracy in the interwar years is ripe for a video or two.
I was about to ask the same thing. You never really hear about pirates post-Age of Sail to pre-modern.
You mentioned a pirate base in an earlier English aircraft carrier video, I'd like to hear that story.
@@xriz00 British, not English by jove great scott what what
I taught school with the guy who launched the four "Aale" (eels) that sank Eagle. He'd been around: run away to sea a at 13, gone into U-Boote, become a POW after one was sunk under him, and wound up teaching maths in Hamburg. He wasn't a Nazi by any stretch, but definitely a great respecter of Authority. The war to him was a great lark. He didn't talk about it much, but he and I had a common "off" hour for a semester and I drew him out. He gleefully described the cunning that got them in range of Eagle, then spoke of the launch in matter-of-fact tones. The only time I saw him affected by it all was in telling about the aftermath. The Italian fliers had badly chewed up Pedestal after Eagle's loss deprived it of air cover, and "You couldn't put up the periscope for weeks," he said. I asked why. His voice dropped to a croak: "Nur Aas!" How to translate "Aas"? Rotting meat? Corpses? Roadkill? Something like that.
"Carrion" is the direct translation of the word.
@@GaldirEonai True. But today, our experience of carrion being somewhat limited, I fear that the word has lost much of its "punch".
Remarkable that only 140 out of nearly 800 were lost if it sank in 4 minutes.
What a fascinating piece of history. Thanks for sharing!
The commen German soldier, sailor, airman was not a Nazi but was drafted into the military.
A lot of surving servicemen of both sides had their nightmares of killing their fellow man in the war. If you bombed a city, put a torpedo into ship, raided a town and rounded up the citizens after all we all are humans with a consencies
In defense of Beatty (now *there's* a phrase that doesn't come up often)...
Nobody in the late 1910s-early 1920s really saw carriers as capital ships (which was *entirely reasonable* given the technical limitations of aircraft at that time), but rather as an addition to the screening and scouting forces. As elements of the screen, carriers were expected to be at risk of stumbling across enemy cruisers at point-blank range and thus needed a means to discourage pursuit while they extricated themselves. That's why the USN and IJN conversions - all of which commissioned years after the idea of "God's Own Torpedo Battery" was scrapped - carried heavy batteries of 8" guns all the way into the late 30s and early 40s.
Beatty was a little outside the mainstream on this, sure - but not impossibly so. By his standards, this was downright sane.
And _Eagle's_ gun arrangement, with the big(gish) guns _below_ the flight deck, neatly eliminates the issue of tearing up the deck surface that designs with guns _on_ the flight deck (like the _Lexingtons_ or _Akagi_ mk. I) faced.
I’m guessing Beatty’s input looked something like this...
“Ok bois lets improve our carrier design. What things does an aircraft carrier need in its fleet role?”
*Beatty, smelling of cordite after a hard days work stacking shells and propellant in the gun turrets of his battle cruisers*
“lemme get some of that...uuuuhhhh...fuckin’
T O R P E D O S A N D G U NS”
“Brilliant idea Beatty! This is why we pay you the big bucks! Any other flashes if genius my man?”
*Beatty, watching his various ships explode and burn is the distance*
“Yeah fuck radios we don’t need that shit I got one dude who is better than any radio, let me introduce to you
FLAG OFFICER SEYMOUR”
"Every carrier should have it's very own Flag Officer Seymour"
- Beatty, probably.
At least it's a bit comforting to know incompetence was present at high levels even in renown armed forces.
"Any other flashes of genious"
I saw what you did there
DB 2310 The flash of genius will pass by the open flash doors and detonate the main magazine
They should have just put Homer Simpson in charge of the design process instead. At least that way she would have ended up with stylish bubble domes and tailfins. Plus an extra large cup holder would have improved her combat effectiveness far more than that torpedo battery.
"perhaps asking landing-pilots to fly thru a steel-tunnel was a bad idea"
"The partially finished Eagle was patched into a vaguely working state."
"god's own torpedo battery"
Yeah, his humor and wit nails it.
I thought that the IJN Kitakami with her 8 quintuple mounts of 24 inch torpedo tubes (total of 40 "fish"!) would fit that description better!! (as would her sister ship Oi....)
My dad was on on the Eagle when she was torpedoed. One of the Royal Marine contingent, he was one of the few Marine survivors. He was picked up by a Dutch tug following the convoy, the Daffodil. He finished the was on HMS Diamede.
My Uncle served on HMS Eagle but was moved to another ship not long before it was sunk. My old man was in the Tank Corp in Nth Africa when he heard that the Eagle was in Alexandria (Egypt) so he got his best uniform (including 38 Webley and harness) and hired a felucca to sail him out to Eagle. He marched up to the deck in his army boots and did a regular army stomp and salute (palm outwards) and said his name loudly then requested a meeting with William (same last name as his). The sailors got him so drunk he woke up in a garden in Alex with his hand frozen to his pistol (serious jail time for it's lose otherwise). The old man had many interesting tales of WW2.
One of the many reasons why the twin control towers idea was discarded were wind tunnel tests conducted with smoke (possibly the earliest use of smoke in this wind tunnel role) which disclosed the unacceptable amount of turbulence that the twin towers would create. A veritable vortex.
Settling on just one tower, the Royal Navy pilots were then asked: "Which side of the ship do you prefer to go to when you abort your landings?"
At the time rotary-engined aircraft like the Sopwith Pup, the One and a Half Strutter and the Camel were in vogue. All had idiosyncratic turns due to the gyroscope-like torque effect of the rotating engine mass at the front. The Camel was the worst example and this led to numerous low altitude crashes. The Camel could be a killer in inexperienced hands.
Given that rotary engines thus pull the aircraft tight and low to the right but high and wide to the left, the pilots said they preferred to abort their landings to the left (or port side) of the ship. Thus the Sopwith Camel has come to dictate the design of every aircraft carrier built since then - except the two Japanese ships which were given port side towers to distinguish them from sister ships with starboard towers.
Thanks for that information. In one of the first Drycocks I asked Drach why almost all carriers were right handed and he gave a similar answer to you, but with less detail on the aeroplanes and didn't mention the wind tunnel. But that was in the days of 30 minute Drydocks and the detailed answers we now get in 260 minute Drycocks were a luxury I never dared to dream of.
I should probably point out that the left side island wasn't so much to distinguish the ship from their counterpart, but more because the two carriers operating together would have their aircraft orbit on opposite sides of the ship. Never knew that about the Camel though, thanks for that.
It bears noting the torque-induced slew also happens during takeoff as throttle is applied. It also continued past the use of rotary engines, mostly from the propeller's rotation rather than the engine's so it wasn't nearly as bad, but still.
I cannot confirm but I remember reading Akagi and Hiryu (the two port-side carriers) had a higher incidence of deck accidents and near-misses because planes would turn or bounce towards the island rather than away during takeoffs and landings unless the pilot compensated with the rudder.
I believe that during Training and Flight Accidents (not enemy action) that the Camel actually killed more of its pilots than were actually killed in Combat!!!
Hence why I don't consider it a good airplane (S.E. 5 & 5A get my vote!)
@@timengineman2nd714
The Sopwith Camel appears to be a Marmite aeroplane which divides opinion. Some pilots hated it and made much of its allegedly bad handling while other pilots make no mention of it at all. Stories I have heard about it suggest:
1) "one quarter of all pilots who trained on Camels died during training"
2 "pilots would turn the engine off and glide in 'dead stick' rather than land with power on" (dead stick landings are normally dreaded by most pilots)
I have been unable to verify these stories. It should be pointed out that the Vintage Aviator Company of New Zealand has been building and flying Camels with replica rotary engines for some time and they report no big issues.
All this rather suggests that some pilots may have been 'shooting a line' (fibbing) about the machine to make it seem a greater achievement to fly one OR the stories have grown much in the telling. Certainly (as noted above) most aircraft with propellers suffered from some sort of torque effect when power was applied. One of the few which did not was the USAAF P-38 Lightning which had twin engines each rotating in the opposite direction. This effectively countered any tendency to torque and, hence, swing.
One other possible issue is that the Camel went through at least three engines of 110, 130 and 150 horse power. It is just possible (and I stress the word just) that the problem increases with the horsepower and that it was the bigger engines - and hence increased torque - which caused or enhanced the Camel's poor reputation as a bad handler at low altitude.
Barry
Hunting pirates! It's hard to be jolly when a aircraft carrier has vigorously rogered you.
Surely you mean "Jolly Rogered"?
Hunting down pirates.
I just imagined a Final countdown situation except it's Eagle hunting Blackbeards Queen Annes Revenge.
That's more plausible than that &$#* movie.
@@Kevin_Kennelly splash the zeroes.
Hey it not that bad. It’s just really really boring
The ridiculous amount of torpedo tubes mounted on her got a laugh out of me. That said, HMS Eagle was a fine ship with a fine career behind her, and I pray that the souls who went down with her know peace.
Aye. When you're a Carrier with as many torpedoes as a Clemson class Destroyer, you know something's gone wrong somewhere.
@@jimtaylor294 20-20 hindsight is a luxury they didn't have in those days.
@@carlscamino5844 Duh; but Foresight existed then too. Most in the Admiralty seem to have exercised it, as the torpedoes went.
"Admiral, under what sort of harebrained tactical doctrine would you anticipate a carrier using shipboard torpedoes ever?"
@@mjbull5156 Do you know exactly what threats they were expecting to face in the early 1920's? After nearly 100 years of history with carrier warfare, it's easy for Armchair Admirals with no more responsibility than for correct spelling on the internet to pass judgement.
This channel is a damned blessing.
Being damned is the opposite of being blessed. So you are very neutral about this channel's existence? :)
Indeed
I feel you are unfair to Beatty in this regard. I mean he clearly was trying to invent the space carrier with all those torpedoes and guns. The man clearly was a visionary, far ahead of his times.
I’m doing some research on HMS Eagle, my grandad was a gunner on hms Eagle when it was torpedoed during operation pedestal, of the many crew lost he survived.
He passed away in 1976, I’m trying to gather his history as a sailor during the war, I know my Nan lent his diary to the British war museum, for his experience in 1942.
This video will be added to my archive, thank you so much for putting it out there...
One of my relatives served on the Eagle as a batsman. He was killed not by the landing gear that broke off and hit him in a crash landing, which also knocked him overboard - but by getting hit by a block and tackled used to try and secure him from
The Eagle was a very pretty ship, love her lines and that large island.
Even her ridiculous fire control tower looks good.
Plus I love that her bow is mostly closed in.
Impressive that so many of her crew escaped after it had been torpedoed. 4 minutes isn't a long time to gtfo any ship.
The only thing i can think of is her captain drilling the crew in abandon ship exercises until they could fully evacuate the ship in less than 2 or 3 minutes. Given what happened to Royal Navy aircraft carriers until her own sinking, it is a likely possibility.
@Uncle Joe S I also red conflicting reports. Some say 4 minutes, some say 8 minutes, still a great feat of abandon ship, search and rescue.
Alunita Inghinala for real. You can’t get out of a Walmart in 4 minutes unless it’s empty.
@Uncle Joe S Thank you, i forgot to mention the damage control efforts to keep the ship afloat as long as possible so the crew can have more time to abandon ship.
@Uncle Joe I think when 4 torpedoes hit, everyone on the ship knew it was over and made for the rails rather than worry about trying damage control.
Guess who waited a long time for this video and is now gonna watch it over and over again? This guy!
Later to be mistaken by the Russian Second Baltic Fleet for Japanese torpedo boat.
How, they are underwater by this point
laughs in Kamchatka
@@eric24567 And still i think the crew of the kamchatka had a huge stack of hidden absinth instead vodka on board . they saw things the rest of the fleet never saw.
@@obelic71 probably crack, like there's regular jumpy and there's Kamchatka
My absolute favourite ship of all time, I can't thank you enough for such a wonderful video and recap of her life. A great gift to send to my family so we can all more truly understand where my grandfather stood. As always, you've done an excellent job, and I eagerly await the next video!
Well need to know about their pirate adventures
Happy birthday HMS Eagle, began her first Sea trials 100 years ago.
Interesting video. My Grandad served on Eagle but was fortunate to catch the flu before it embarked onto Malta. After that he served on HMS Broadway and then HMS Diadem.
She was a good ship ... with a good crew... no carrier of the time could take that much damage and survive... I salute her.. those who served on her.. and those that remain with her
Thanks for this. My Grandad was on the Eagle when it was lost, he survived.
She sunk in 4 minutes!!! WOW!
I am surprised so few actually died under that circumstance.
Thank you much for this video.
Thank you. A former neighbour survived the sinking and it's great to know more about the old lady.
Glad they got rid of the 'steel tunnel' thing. As it was explained to me, the reason pilots would turn to port (left) when going around after missing the arresting gear has to do with engine torque when the throttle is slammed wide open to regain flying speed and miss aircraft parked forward of the arresting gear. The development of the 'angled' landing area on the flight deck saved a lot of lives and aircraft.
Eagle led an interesting 'life' and was important in the development of carrier aviation and operations. Thank you for this look Drach.
I have a home movie that my father shot in Hong Kong around 1937. There is a brief glimpse of HMS Eagle. About 10 years ago I was going through the films and saw the ship. Since I knew it was not an American ship, I sent an image to the Royal Navy museum to see if they could identify it. They did. Awesome. I can only image what my dad thought when he saw it.
Have just come across this, after looking through my late great uncle's photographs from his time on the Eagle . My aunt told me he escaped the sinking by jumping overboard as she went down, though like a lot of servicemen, he never spoke about it whilst he was alive. Thank you for the background to the ship he served on in WW2. She seems to have been a lesser known of the carrier fleet.
I found interesting to compare fates of Eagle and Wasp - two carriers of similar size, which were operating together... and soon after, almost at the same time, were both sunk by a submarine. One was the oldest generation, the other was the latest design. One was a converted battleship and was well armored - the other was paper. The British ship was hit by 4 torpedoes, and the American with 3, but heavier ones. One ship sank in 4 minutes, the other remained afloat for a few hours - and it is worth noting that despite "Eagle" sinking so fast, almost 90% of her crew survived. Also when comparing the two carriers it is interesting that while being exactly the same size, the American had 2x larger complement and carried 3x more planes.
Very fond of this ship, her 2-stacked angularity, her prototype nature, & that she did the CV thing alone in the Eastern Med 4 quite a while (proving the usefulness of even a small airwing @ sea w/ no fleet competition). 💜
Great guide again, the photo at 6:00 is stunning.
I remember my dad telling me he was about 9 or 10 at the time Belfast was bombed by the Luftwaffe the Eagle was the only anti aircraft defence the city had she was in Haarland & Wolfe shipyard at the time for a repair
Great way to start a Saturday Morning, with a FANTASTIC Drachinifel video! :)
You should do a special on operation pedestal is fascinating
Am I the only one who replays Drach's intro by turning up the volume to maximum on my 5.1 surround like, "LET THE GUNS BE HEARD." Probably not.
no
I live very close to one of Admiral Beaty’s former homes just north of Portsmouth, (I’m assuming he had more than one.) It’s now a home for people who have lost their minds. Apparently it started off that way.
My Father, Captain Mascall 's last view of the Eagle was walking down the side of her hull, leaving last, as Captain of the Royal Marines detachment on board, together with the Ship's Captain. Hauled out of the water some time later by catching a line from a passing destroyer [they couldn't stop, obviously, for fear of being torpedoed themselves].
On Beatty and Eagle, as originally built, I'll play the devil's advocate.
Eagle would operate closely with the battle fleet. Provide daytime scouting, fighter cover and not really attacking anything large. Nights and in foul weather she would need to protect herself if fleets stumbled into each other.
Since she had the displacement and deck space to carry the guns and torpedoes, why not?
As carrier tactics developed and threats changed, so did her weapons load out.
She provided the RN with fine service throughout her career.
Always liked the utterly primitive yet massy look of this ship; clearing the eastern Med of Italians was a great display of 'budget' power projection as well
How about doing one British Armed merchant cruisers next like HMS Jervis Bay & rms Carmania
Not to mention Rawalpindi.
Beaverford deserves a lot more credit than Jervis Bay for that particular engagement. Did a lot more but never got credit for it.
Love the channel, would like to see a video on the kregismarine most successful panzerschiff Admiral Sheer.
"I am a carrier of the Royal Navy, Eagle. As a warrior of the glorious Royals, I will dedicate myself to the fullest for the fleet."
mmm yes close range CV fighting sounds like fun
To be somewhat fair to Beatty... I guess no one had any real idea just how effective planes would be, or how to fly planes at night or in anything but the perfect weather... But 18 torpedo tubes? Did he think the design was for JMSDF, and they would need some justification for calling it an "aircraft-carrying destroyer?"
EDIT: And no, all those post-WWII "totally not a carrier" designations and designs would never stop amusing me.
It's not a nice thought being one of those going down, Something those in power powers might want to consider.
[anxiety warning]
Trapped in a loud metal box in the dark thats slowly being filled with ice cold water, People screaming and no way out.
As you take your last breaths with no where to go eventually the water is over your head, You have no choice but to try and breathe again but try as you might your next breath takes in nothing but water, You panic, You flail in terror and moments later pass out, forever.
Every time a ship goes down in war xxxx number of lives lost go through this.
The engine room and magazine crew mostly, its personal with me as my son is an engineer.
Great shot of the shock absorbers there. I'd never actually seen any.
Full sails ahead, oceans painted red, when the -soldiers of fortune- aircraft carriers hunt for pirates!
So the original plan was for _Eagle_ to be the world's largest and slowest torpedo boat that could incidentally operate a few aircraft. Makes perfect sense to me...
In an alternative timeline in which the British and Japanese continue to be allies, a night surface engagement between Beatty's Eagle and Kaga vs Lexington and Saratoga maybe?
Operation Pedestal known as the Santa Maria convoy in Malta, as the tanker Ohio enrtered Grand Harbour on 15th August the feast of the Assumption, was the convoy that saved the island from capitulation. The Eagle was the first of many victims to fall to the Axis powers in that convoy.
So, Admiral Beatty turned HMS Eagle into a Battle-Carrier? As in, a full carrier built to get in and slog it out with the enemy, as well as send and receive aircraft and just keep the pain rolling? That's pretty badass if one thinks about the what-ifs... But I think it might have been too soon for that one Beatty...
It wasn't "too soon". There's no period in history in which the "battlecarrier" wasn't a bloody stupid idea, and there likely isn't going to be one in the future either :P.
@@GaldirEonai We likely wont see something like that til starships get developed and even then "We"( as in you, me, and everyone else here and reading this) will likely be long dead by the time that rolls around...
@@Feiora Even in that hypothetical future it doesn't work. Everything that makes for a good battleship makes for a terrible carrier and vice versa. The requirements for the roles are diametrically opposed. SW's Star Destroyers and the Battlestar Galactica are sillier in concept than any of the space magic floating around either setting :P.
@@GaldirEonai Taffy 3 "we are suckering them into 20mm range! " (referencing the almost entire Imperial Japanese Fleet) from the deck of one of the four small carriers.
That was a surprisingly light loss of lives in such a fast sinking. I'm guessing the captain called for 'Abandon Ship' practically right away? Even so, that would still be a tight fit for time for a lot of crew, especially if they ran into traffic jams. Well done to HMS Eagle's crew.
From what i've read so far, no "Abandon Ship" command was given. Seeing how 4 torpedoes hit her in quick succession or at the same time, i do not think it was necessary. You can imagine the ship listing almost immediately after being hit, not much you can do to save her, maybe keep her afloat long enough so that the crew can get off.
HMS Eagle falen in Operation Pedestal. and still the Axis couldn't get Malta on it knees !
The sacrifice of alot of ships and their crews was huge to defend and suply Malta.
Well, the convoy was protected by the largest escort ever assembled. Picture this: 2 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 7 light cruisers and 32 destroyers. And, out of those, 1 aircraft carrier, 2 light cruisers and 1 destroyer were sunk, while 1 aircraft carrier, 2 light cruisers and 2 destroyers were damaged.
A heap of merchant shipping was lost in the process though. But one wonders what would have the outcome had the tanker Ohio been sunk but with the other four freighters making it safely with presumably many food supply items for the civilians of Malta. It is interesting that two Axis oil tankers were sunk shortly after the remainder of the Pedestal convoy made it to port.
While it's very sad that she was sunk by a U-boat, I'm impressed by her own kill count seemingly out of proportion to her potential
The WW2 ONLY carrier with 2 funnels on her island. Now TWO carriers have TWO islands each... And that incredible (and impractical, I suppose) idea of two islands abreast!...
You are the best historian of 20th century war craft. Great work with th scrirpt
The reason pilots tend to turn to port is psychological/biomechanical. Most pilots are right handed, and it is easier to push the stick away than to pull it
EDIT: this sometimes applies to dogfighting as well, not just carrier landings
It's' known as the butterfly effect for drivers, who will swerve to the left as well, which is not good when you're driving on the right side of the road.
@@grondhero Aha, final proof that driving on the left is superior! Tea and crumpets all round chaps!
@@nerd1000ify Well, you'll just end up in a ditch. :P
With the deck island at the start it sure looked more advanced than the first US attempt at an aircraft carrier with the USS Langley
HMS _Eagle_ wasn't the RN's "first attempt at a carrier."
@Nguyen Johnathan I knew about the Langley being from the hull.of an oiler. I just thought it was odd not having a deck island. It must have been difficult to maneuver and keeping into the wind for take-offs and landings.
@Nguyen Johnathan All around better view as well........especially before radar was available.
Drach Time, coffee time.
Hmm, so the British did finally get two islands on their carriers with the HMS QE..
Wish She is in World of Warships. That would've been sick if she had her port island.
A pretty ship, though, no doubt about that.
You probably think Nelson and Rodney are sexy too.
Named after Admiral Lord Cochrane
Poor Eagle suffered from the problems of being an experiment when people had to learn just what a carrier was and what it was supposed to do.
What a pity that someone didn’t knock Admiral Beatty into the sea, accidental done a purpose...
and Seymour too...
@@fuynnywhaka101 Presumably any offing of Beatty would necessarily encompass Seymour, if only because Seymour seemed to have his lips permanently grafted to Beatty's posterior.
Apparently a file of Marines accompanied Beatty everywhere he went on ship. So low odds on that.
That's BRILLIANT - Thank you!!!
HMS Eagle was a tremendous ship - not in terms of aircraft carried - but in terms of the bold experimentation that aircraft carriers involved - as they were a very, very much unproven instrument at the time
I remember as a child reading Shipping Wonders Of The World - which was produced in the mid 1930s, and which very much captured the aircraft carrier versus battleship "conflict" of the times. British Imperialism ran rife through its pages - not deliberately, but it was very much a product of its time
Without the very brave - and very expensive - RN aircraft carrier experimentation, it is doubtful if aircraft carriers could have become the potent weapon that they did (sorry Mr/Mrs USA), but I'm just stating the truth ...
It is a real shame that the Fleet Air Arm of the RN were completely handicapped in its aircraft development - without the ability to develop modern aircraft the Royal Navy could never have the carrier force that it deserved ... thank you Mr RAF
So in that context, carriers such as HMS Eagle should be seen ... and appreciated!
Thanking you Mr / SIR Frachinifel indeed
The RAF's revenge for the Navy (and the Army) trying to kill it off at birth 😁. To be fair to the RAF many of the aircraft that equipped the Fleet Air Arm during the period it was under the RAF's control were state of the art, pace the Fairey Flycatcher and the Hawker Nimrod. It was their Lordships who insisted that having an Observer in charge of a fighter aircraft was the way to go, shades of Beatty perhaps?
@@marktuffield6519 Hi Mark Fair comment. Unfortunately pulling the FAA from the navy resulted in a collapse in its talent and much of its innovation. I made the point somewhere that it never really recovered from that separation and was always playing catch up to other navies. Eve in the falklands they were a shadow of the force they could have been even though they did fantastically well Brian
the way betty had this equipped was the work of a Luddite not unlike the captain of the glorious.
A grand old lady, I've a book on RN carriers and she certainly did well with such a small air group, have to reread it but there was a propaganda story when one of her air wings attacks on a harbour supposedly sank 4 vessels with three torpedoes or some such.
I think, I read this in passing in this book:
m.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-attack-on-taranto-thomas-p-lowry/1000310565
demanded the AA battery be reduced to A single 4-inch gun, presumably for moral purposes, lol.
Listening to 'Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles' videos on the P-47
I gather that there are certain turning forces on an aeroplane, that are generated by the propeller. One of these is called P-factor, and involves the differential forces exerted through the rotating propeller by various angles of wind-stream.
If an aircraft carrier is generally moving 'head to wind', then the high attack angles necessary for take off and landing should bias the easiest take off and landing trajectories, dependent on propeller rotation.
This may explain why aircraft carriers are 'right hand drive'.
This was indeed a big part of it. As an addendum to what you noted, around the time WW2 started the British aircraft engine industry decided (for unclear reasons) to standardise the direction of rotation of all new engines to be clockwise when viewed from the front. This is the opposite of what is typical in aircraft engines. As a consequence the Rolls-Royce Griffon rotated the opposite direction to its predecessor the Merlin, pulling the aircraft's nose to the right rather than the left. FAA pilots that converted from Merlin powered Seafires to the Griffon versions were no doubt somewhat miffed to discover that not only was the torque reaction far stronger (due to increased horsepower) but it also now aimed the already notoriously difficult to handle on the deck Seafire directly at the Island during takeoff.
I suspect it might have more to do with the gyroscopic turning effect of the rotary engines used in the aircraft that the RN were experimenting with to fly on and off the decks of ships during the Great War. Turning to port in a Sopwith Camel, in the event of having to go around again, is working against the engine presumably giving the pilot more time to correct control inputs etc. By contrast turning to starboard things could go wrong very quickly. As an aside a friend mentioned that the British convention is to board the aircraft from the port side, mounting a horse stylee and this was the reason that the island is on the starboard side of the ship. I believe US aircraft do not necessarily follow this convention 😁.
Another good day in the history of videos and God’s own Torpedo battery.
Good content presented well.
Your satisfying voice reminds me of BBC radio during the war.
Amazing....my grandad was one of the survivors of eagle......
Thankyou for putting so much research and development,and huomer into your videos. Could you please perhaps do one on t-boats submarines.. my dad served in them
All the firepower yet HMS unicorn bested her in acually shooting up surface targets
Well then there is the IJNs light carriers...
Thanks again for the content
I have to wonder what the starting point for these carriers would be after Billy Mitchell's demonstration of the Ostfrieland versus as scouting plans in the mid-1910s.
Great work
Nice presentation as usual. Seaplane tenders and Escort Carriers could use a review of their classes. Also the Akitsu Maru, the ancestor of modern amphibious assault ships.
If you consider the infancy of airpower @WW1, development of airpower benefited greatly with any aircraft carrier constructed. Conversion of cruiser and BB hulls to aircraft carriers economically, meant allowances and adjustments for trial and error. Baby steps.
I would like to know about HMS Belfast
In detail
Extreeme detail
"The HMS Belfast in possibly top much detail"
Drachinifel now has a good excuse for a visit :D
Dont all good stories involve pirates?
That's the History Guy for ya.
With all the modern eye rolling about Beatty, which I admit to taking part in, how the heck did he make it to command the Grand Fleet and then be First Sea Lord for almost 8 years? Talk about failing upward.
I want this in WoWS, but only if it has the torpedoes.
It could be tier 4 premium. I'd pay for a carrier armed like that.
Same!
Quite the pioneering ship (aircraft carrier).
So, HMS Eagle was a Torpedo Boat at first? Did the Kamchatka ever see it? Probably!
In that one photo with the bow forward, at quick glance she is looks reminiscent of the Illustrious. The 70’s Illustrious that is.
A puzzling report of her sinking appears in "Famous Bombers of WW2" produced by William Green in 1959, published by Hanover House . In it is a mention that a Savoia-Marchetti 79-11 Sparviero , a tri motor torpedo bomber , aka The Hunchback, of Italian Forces attacked and sunk The Eagle. All I can offer is that this air attack was in concert with the U-73.
My grandfather, Albert Challinor, was serving on HMS Eagle when she was sunk in 1942. He survived and was picked-up (I guess by other elements of the convoy). He had a premonition that something bad was going to happen, so before the attack, had stowed the few prized possessions that he had (on board) about his person.
Like you hinted, I think the "puzzling" report of an Italian aircraft being involved in the sinking of The Eagle isn't correct. She was sunk by Uboat U-73 - commanded by Helmut Rosenbaum. I believe he was award the "Knights Cross" the day after he sunk HMS Eagle.
I am curious, did she ever have "God's own torpedo battery" ( love that phrase) removed?
Nice One and Still Learning even at my age! Interesting plus Cheers
Bit of a short sharp ending to that. Given she sank in only 4 minutes and her complement must have been 1,000+ I'd love to know how the others got off?
The open layout (large openings in the hull to help with ventilation) probably helped.
Have you done any Cleveland-class ships? You make great content. I will continue to watch!
Hey, nice work, I like the voice and the narration.
One suggestion that comes to my mind: when you indicate various changes and parts (like at 3:10) it would be helpful for people not familiarized with the terms to mark them on the image.
Cheers!