A Brief History of Naval Armour - Successfully Forging Onwards

Today we take a whistle-stop tour through some basic principles of iron and steel manufacture and apply them to a century of developments in naval armour technology.

Photo at time codes: 00:07:06 and: 00:17:22 by Barry Slemmings

[KarlBunker]

"There are literally two- to three-inch books ... that discuss this subject."
Of course, the best of these books are face-hardened for their first 250 pages or so, while the remaining pages are optimized for ductility.

This was a beautifully researched and constructed video, BTW.

[seafodder]

Having worked in the forging/heat treat industry for a few years, allow me to summarize the work environment: Hot, Noisy, and Dirty. My office was located between the furnaces and the press. I didn't have to look up to know when a 25 ton ingot was on its way to the press, I could easily feel the radiant heat of the ingot (30 feet away and through the wall) as it went by. I shudder to think how much radiant heat would be coming off of a 100 ton battleship armor plate...

[larryoloane]

Really, really, well done. As a Licensed Marine Engineer, with a good grounding in materials science, welding, and having worked in a steel mill I am willing to say that this may well be the best documentary on the range of topics presented that has ever been done. Congratulations!

[turbowolf]

"We leave that to dwarves who dig too greedily and too deep"

Please standby for Diggy Diggy Hole

[John-ruud]

The discussion of US Navy Class A armor brings to mind the old engineering line - "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

[admiraltiberius]

This video makes the followers of Vulcan and the Ommnissiah happy.
Drach videos at 6am are always a treat.
Thank you for everything you do sir. Your work is amazing.

[Korlash]

As someone with literally zero understanding of engineering, I salute you for making this video not just understandable, but interesting for viewers like me. Any engineer can spit out facts, but you can break down extremely complex topics and render them accessible to anyone, and that's really a gift.

I especially liked the comparison between the various nations' WW2 armor at the end. I've seen and heard lots of claims about various nations' armor quality, but they tended to be more one-dimensional, usually along the lines of "British and German armor were the best, Japanese armor was the worst" without qualification (often from battleship fans, which in retrospect explains a lot). And they never, *never* comment on Italian armor, or if they do they usually either assume it was poor because their shells were bad or they just appeal to the old incompetent-pasta-eaters meme. I didn't take these claims too seriously (being in no position to verify them), but your video was very enlightening.

My only questions would be:

1) How did French and Soviet armor stack up? I've heard that the Soviets had issues manufacturing armor plates at battleship-grade thickness but no more than that, and French armor doesn't get talked about much. You covered 5 of the 7 major navies, and it'd be nice to hear about the last 2.

2) Why were the Italians so bad at monitoring shell quality when they were so good at monitoring armor quality? Did different branches of the navy handle armor and shell manufacturing? Did they have different policies for monitoring arms and armor industries? Was it just incompetence on the part of the team checking shell quality?

[sreckocuvalo]

''I got nothing to do and an hour until I need to start packin''
Drac: ''Say no more fam''

[Engineersoldinterstingstuff]

As a material/metallurgy engineer myself I have to say this is a very good and informative video. Also this highlights the rather strong effect upon development of metallurgy due to war.

Having a book about steel casting metallurgy dated 1940 I can say that basically they know everything - and since then it's mostly about reducing production cost.

[stephenguk]

I loathed metallurgy when I was studying mechanical engineering. If I'd watched your video before starting out, I would have been much more enthusiastic about it and my career might have been completely different, but that was in the 1970s. Thank you. MORE PLEASE.

[petergordon]

Thanks Drachinifel. This pretty much covers half of the criteria in a level 3 module I teach. I think that this may get included in my lessons.

[tankfighter]

19:01, evidence the Eiffel tower was secretly built to build giant armor plates

[flashedwards]

All three of my uncles were engineers, and my father had a PhD in Physical Metallurgy and retired as the Senior Materials Engineer of one the largest petroleum companies in the USA. Although my career took a slightly different path, I learned quite a bit sitting around the table during our holiday meals. Not only that but, Mr. Drach, but my father served as a U.S. naval officer during the Second World War in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Your videos key in to many of the stories he told to me in my youth.
Thank you.

[ludgerhoutman]

Just want to say thank you to Drach for that brittle-ductile nail explanation. It helped me torture and execute a lampshade that had failed me for the last time.

[daviddavid]

The amount of money/energy/time/manpower these armor production methods took must have been mind-boggling. No wonder the Washington treaty came along. Thanks for this really neato piece, Mr Drak. Much appreciated.

[gordonmcinnes]

Any video with a clever Lord of the Rings reference is worthy of a like.

[stevewyckoff]

I'd be interested in the methods of fastening such enormous slabs of steel while maintaining a water-tight fit across so many pieces. Just coping with thermal expansion & contraction must be a problem.

[Colonel_Overkill]

Honestly I would love to see a picture of the martensite and pearlite structures of various nation plates and age groups to see the progression of the armor sophistication and face hardening development over the years.

[erict]

Still want to see a video on naval traditions such as crossing the equator and such

[Haamre]

"A brief history..." with Drachinifel - 50+ mins long
Myself: Oh, he's back in form again!