The Drydock - Episode 156

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:42 - How different would the war in thr Atlantic be had the Bismarck been able to reach German Air Cover?

00:04:57 - Hood refit turrets?

00:09:58 - Who had the most realistic naval doctrine going into WW2?

00:16:41 - Could the Saipan class have been as successful as the Majestics?

00:20:19 - Why only a few cruisers at most of the Gudalcanal engagements (and wider tactical considerations)?

00:26:40 - Did navies have captive coal fields and specific mines to supply their fleets or did they just buy the best coal off the market?

00:29:28 - How did steam ships manage to get out of port quickly in emergency situations?

00:33:12 - Why was the 410mm bomb/shell able to do such devastating damage to Arizona when it had negligible success against other ships such as Tennessee?

00:37:44 - Books reflecting the life of the men of the navy.

00:40:26 - Admiral Tryon

00:47:13 - Before the Dreadnaught was designed, was there a specific designation for the type of battleship we now call a Pre-Dreadnaught, or were they simply referred to as a "Battle Ship"?

00:49:07 - We hear a lot about the performance of the Type 93 Long Lance, and for good reason, but how did Japan's pre-Type 93 arsenal compare to the torpedoes in other navies?

00:50:29 - Battle of the Phillipine Sea, all IJN aircraft are fighters?

00:54:01 - USN Bombardment Monitors of 1917

00:57:19 - Avenger torpedo bomber radio range

01:00:13 - In the ironclad era, other than the US Civil War, were there any other major riverine ironclad naval clashes?

01:01:20 - Channel Admin

[CSSVirginia]

"I have neither the time or the crayons to explain this to you"

Best line of the stream.

[mattblom]

I just stick Drach's model of a refitted Hood on my larger, mostly unused 2nd monitor at work in our open concept office and just let the questions - and new conversions to naval history fans, come naturally.

[graycloud]

I was a sailor on the U.S.S. Missouri BB-63 from 1988-1991. If you ever have and questions, I’ll try my best to answer them. I’m really enjoying your YouTube videos. All the best.

[AtomicBabel]

Drach, your fans in the US will always be ready and eager to welcome you, whenever and always.

[cdfe]

Admiral Tryon: “It’s my fault. I assumed those morons had at least the mental capacity of a goldfish. Clearly I was wrong.”

[maxkuz]

Actually, the Soviet Navy did exactly what it had planned to do. Nothing. So bam, most cost effective Navy right there.

[grathian]

"Keep a boiler ticking over"...
If there is any possibility at sll of a need to use additional boilers, a main or auxiliary boiler would provide ship's service steam, among the uses of which is keeping a "steam blanket" on all the remaining boilers, just to ensure that the boiler water is heated and ready to raise steam. (I spent a few years as a qualified EOOW (Engineering Officer of the Watch)).
That said, coal plants are not as nimble as oil plants by a long shot. Aboard a deploying 1200psi steam Frigate, we lit off a week before the deployment.
My second tour was a gas turbine ship, Start main engines was 5 minutes before underway.

[phobos]

47:13 In Germany until 1918 Battleships were officially still called Ships of the line, because, well, Pre-Dreadnoughts were still ships of the line (and the designation stuck around for fiscal reasons). Consequently, Pre-Dreadnoughts in German are usually called "Einheitslinienschiffe" (standard ships of the line) as they all followed more or less the same design, and then come Dreadnoughts or Schlachtschiffe.

[GaldirEonai]

Okay, the picture at the 09:58 section was unexpected.

[toveychurchill]

10:13 you could make a T shirt out of that drawing Drach, it would be really lovely

[RamSkirata]

Thank you Drach for answering my question about the book recommendations!

[leftcoaster]

Breakfast, coffee and Drydock. Great way to start a Sunday.

[cpcupcake]

I remember reading that the US plan before the war was to have enough ships to outnumber the enemies. In this case, 'enemies' included expected enemies: Italy, Germany and Japan. The plans also included said enemies also capturing intact the navies of the French and the *British*.

I don't remember if they ever got the end of their prewar buildup.

[speedmph]

Legend has it the captain of HMS Camperdown was thrown out of the Royal Navy and enlisted in the imperial Russian navy, where he was given command of the fleet repair ship Kamchatka.

[MakeMeThinkAgain]

What the USN needed to block the Slot was MORE destroyers to operate independently of the cruisers. But the USN was short destroyers at this time.

My favorite books that give you an idea what life was like during the wars are the ones that follow particular ships. There are great ones for the USS Washington, Gambier Bay, and "Little Ship, Big War: The Saga of DE343". I'm sure there are similar books about the Royal Navy.

We are into another surge here in the USA, so I wouldn't count on you coming here this year.

[jordanvraptor]

My uncle Robert was killed in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He was a radioman/gunner on an SB2C Helldiver. The Western Union telegram said his plane was seen smoking and going down after being attacked by a Japanese fighter plane. He and his pilot were never recovered.

[glennricafrente]

Re Tryon: Giving an order that ran the risk of (and indeed caused) the deaths of hundreds of men on the gamble that your officers would disobey it was a hell of a teaching moment fail.

[nowthenzen]

Admiral Lee, the victor of the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal said "don't put bbs in the slot" or words to that effect. Of the 4 bbs committed to the shallow waters around Guadalcanal 2 were sunk and one badly damaged.

[ricdintino]

Coal from the Pocahontas mine in Virginia was the fuel of choice for the US Navy.

[thomaslinton]

"The Saipan-class aircraft carriers were a class of two light carriers Saipan (CVL-48) and Wright (CVL-49) built for the United States Navy during World War II. Like the nine Independence-class light carriers, they were based on cruiser hulls. However, they differed from the earlier light carriers in that they were built from the keel up as carriers, and were based on heavy rather than light cruiser hulls."