HMS X1 - Guide 355

The X1, a cruiser submarine of the British Royal Navy, is today's subject.

Read more about the ship here:

[knucker]

I'm a trainee Submariner and when I was at the Submarine school, they had a mini-museum with models of all the types and classes of subs we produced since the conception of the Submarine force. The K, X and M classes were definitely among the most bizarre. We had loads of wild and wacky designs. Especially pre-WW2 I honestly found it an excellent point of study.

The frankly staggering casualty rate of submariners at the time was terrifying though. My grandfather served on Boats during WW2 and looking back, I think he was mad.

Also Please Dranch, continue this as a series. There are a lot of really cool subs and stories that are rarely ever brought to light here. As is the fate of the "Silent Service" I suppose.

[free_at_last]

Fun fact, Rudolf Diesel drowned in the English channel in 1913. He had been traveling to Britain to discuss the possible licensing of his diesel engine technology to the Royal Navy, specifically for use in their submarines. It is very possible that he was done away with to avoid this.

[foximacentauri]

Cruiser submarines are probably my favorite ships that never established themselves. Guns, popping up where nobody expects them to is such a fun concept!

[khaelamensha]

Huge respect for the people that went in all type of subs as it was quite a death trap if anything goes wrong...

[johncunningham]

I read somewhere that HMS X1 holds the dubious distinction of being the only RN ship built between the wars that was scrapped before the start of WWII...

[marcusfranconium]

A long long time ago in the late 70s-1980s there was a Cartoon/show , called thundersub, A submarine that could turn in to a carrier and space ship . these old weird submarines always remind of that tv show.

[grenmastermike]

Outlawing of Cruiser submarines in the Naval Treaty? I was unaware. I imagine that the designs on the drawing boards at the time (which would have been thrown away after the treaty), would be a very interesting topic for a video or note in a Drydock.

[FirstLast_Nba]

Inter war year's r just so amazing in the design and experiment attempts by all nations, it explains why Studio Ghiblli always bases their stories in that time period.

[trooperdgb]

Was absolutely expecting to hear that she took an age to dive or surface. The fact that she was so "handy" in getting under, manouvering underwater and getting back up on top is possibly the most impressive thing to me!

[Alex-cwrz]

After hearing you talk about this vessel in a recent drydock I was very interested in learning more about such an interesting and very misunderstood submarine

[YaBoiNuka]

Drach can you do a video on cruiser submarine design philosophy and technologies? Would love to see how they solved the problem of exposing a turret to the sea, specifically making a watertight turret in the first place.

[chazcon]

Drach, don't take this the wrong way, but your voice and the King's English are soothing as your content is interesting and informative, and there is nothing better than listening to your videos while working/playing/zoning out. I often have to stop what I'm doing and switch back to your video to see the images you're describing. Great work mate, please keep it up.

[Robutube]

I've always had an affection for the, presumably apocryphal, exchange on a K submarine between the captain and his first lieutenant: "My end's submersing No.1, what's your end doing?".

[adrianrutterford]

Saturday Lunchtime viewing sorted!!
Excellent

[khaelamensha]

Drachism of the day: love affairs with intermediate caliber gun 🤣

[stephenrickstrew]

Staggeringly Ambitious… Touché Drach ..! That phrase is a keeper..and this is an excellent episode as well ..

[genericpersonx]

It is interesting how everyone went nuts with the cruiser submarines while missing what made the German kreuzers u-boots actually work at all. The German kreuzer u-boots were indeed big and made extensive use of their big guns, but their main selling point was they had the operational range to reach regions of the ocean generally not being protected against submarines. Thousands of kilometers from the major shipping routes and all, they could still catch lone merchantmen unescorted, so surfacing to gun down the ships was viable. Documentation left by the Germans also suggests they were aware that the kreuzers were really an inflexible asset that couldn't count on such conditions to allow them to repeat the performance consistently.

However, seems all everyone else remembered was "hey, big German submarines made merry hell on the high seas far from home and we want to do that too!"

Perhaps that is the real victory for Germany's kreuzer u-boots? Getting everyone to spend small fortunes on cruiser submarines that would have proven mostly ineffective in practice?

[DaveSCameron]

Can't wait to see HMS Celendine and similar Flower Class corvettes pop into my periscope one sunny Saturday morning ❤

[seafodder]

The craziest part about this boat is that it pretty much worked!

[quadg]

Douglas Reeman.
And the novel "Strike from the sea"

Is a good read if you want to know more about cruiser subs. pro's and con's (mostly cons)

The story is about surcouf (renamed Soufrière) not the british X-1.