I-400 - Guide 238

The I-400 class, submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy, are today's subject.

Read more about the sub here:

Next on the list:
Z Class
Cleveland class
SM U-156
Boston class
Des Moines Heavy cruisers.
Hydra Class Ironclads
Audacious class CV's
Malta class
Tennessee-class cruiser
The Merrimack and Mersey class of frigates
Henri IV
USS Marblehead
Pinguin
German Auxiliary Cruiser Atlantis
Project 24 Sovetsky Soyuz class Battleship
HMS Caroline

Ships of Battle of Campeche
PT Boats

[thebudgieadmiral]

"For millenia, man has faced a quandry: The desire to hit someone, but they're really far away. This has lead progressively to the development of: The thrown rock, the thrown, pointy rock, the far thrown rock, the _really_ far thrown rock, the flying pointy rock on a stick, the refined pointy rock on a stick, the spicy refined rock powered by fire, and, by the end of WWII, the happy fun times refined spicy rock transported by the big metal bird."

Words can't describe how much I celebrate this description. It reminded me of a scene from The Expanse, where one of the main characters says to her grandson while discussing meteorites: "I'm not scared of rocks, I'm scared of people who throw rocks.", to which the grandson responds: "But you can't throw rocks that big!"

[middleway]

A terrific anthropological analysis of weapons' development at range.

[Kevin_Kennelly]

0:57 "And, by the end of WW2, the happy fun-times refined spicy rock, transported by big metal bird."

[anondescriptbullet]

the Japanese navy: where anything can be an aircraft-carrier if you try hard enough

[gregtheredneck]

Had to pause after that opening to have a fit of laughter Drach, I almost passed out🤣🤣🤣 thank you I needed that. Now back to the video.

[lunatickoala]

The concept of using a big metal fish to launch a metal bird that drops spicy rocks was interesting but not quite viable because the metal birds were fairly vulnerable and couldn't drop their spicy rocks exactly where they wanted if someone else was throwing rocks at them. Some additional developments would be needed. Two of those were already being made elsewhere: flying fire tubes and happy fun times refined spicy rocks, and it wouldn't be that much longer before the rockmetal brain would come around.

[falloutghoul]

>Spicy Refined Rock powered by Fire
>Happy Fun-Times Spicy Rock transported by Big Metal Bird
Already a great video in the first minute.

[Jarumo]

0:34 - 1:03 'Short history of missile weapons for Neanderthals' ; narrated by Drachinifel.

[randallcarpenter]

My late father-in-law, uss queenfish, left us some pictures. One of them is a picture of two of these monsters at Pearl Harbor. You have to see them alongside the American boats to appreciate how big they were.

[MisterWlfe]

"Happy fun-time spicy rocks" my new favorite Drachism

[hawkeye]

"We had sticks. Two sticks and a rock for the whole platoon. And we had to share the rock." - Sargeant Major Avery Johnson

[phoenix]

That has got to be the best opening EVER! Drach, you outdid yourself. Well done!

[michaelwilson]

Once, during some down time in the field while in the US Army and after simulating grenades with rocks, several of us made up the "Operator's Manual for M1 Rock" . This included methods of employment, how to set up a range and zero your rock, overlapping fields of throw, how to PMCS your rock, function checking your rock (see employment), and so on. As soon as I heard your introductory comments it took me back to that day. Good times!

[wedge]

I have to say that is one of the best opening paragraphs I've heard in a long time

[cursedcaracal]

I'd still rather use a pointy rock than Mark 14 torpedo :V

[laszlo]

Submarine: exists
Japan: There is a plane for that.

[Mugdorna]

I've been lucky enough to visit Udvar-Hazy museum in Virginia. They have one of the aircraft designed to be carried on the i-400.

[enoughothis]

The I-400 was a forerunner to the modern cruise missile carrying submarine.

[kmechrd]

I hope some sweet day to hear your (then) historical take on the Zumwalt class "Visually Offensive Surface Combatant" and the comedy of errors that was its procurement. Perhaps a side by side comparison with French Pre-Dreadnoughts.

[socratesjohnson]

Interesting that both sides were prepared to use biological weapons against each other at the end of the war since the US had developed chemical sprayer attachments for the P47N models.
Grim as it seems, the bombs were probably the least deadly way to end the war