The Drydock - Episode 334 (Part 1)

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:34 - Who would you say are some outstanding leaders outside the last three great naval powers in the time the channel covers?

00:05:35 - As impressive a feat as the capture of U-505 was, how significant was the Enigma machine found aboard it?

00:07:42 - Which nation would have benefitted most from a US-style rationalisation of types?

00:13:24 - In the movie “Sink the Bismarck” during the Battle of the Denmark Straits sequence, what is the turret crewman saying as the shells and charges come up the hoist?

00:15:39 - Would the WW2 German Capital ships have been more useful if they had been coal fired?

00:18:27 - How did the implementation of the cure for scurvy affect recruitment in the Royal Navy?

00:20:32 - In the 20th century specifically, how extensively were overseas Royal Navy bases such as Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria and Port Said, Singapore, etc., built up in comparison with bases in the UK proper?

00:25:56 - Define a 'light battleship'?

00:31:21 - Are the Nevada's twin and triple turrets the same size?

00:32:31 - The Battle of Lake Tanganyika?

00:37:31 - Multiple shell hits to the same section of armour?

00:41:34 - What class is this 'not-Lego' model based on?

00:43:48 - Hawke's resupply at sea system?

00:49:32 - What if the French reinforcements sent to Mers-El-Kebir reached the British fleet?

00:56:26 - Why all the confusion over the shape of the Hunley?

00:59:28 - How was damage control conducted/trained for in the early days of the electrification of capital ships?

01:02:00 - Admirals in WW2 going down with their ship?

01:05:10 - How powerful were the 11" Dahlgren's when the charges were uprated?

01:09:05 - Could the Japanese have refitted Ft. Drum with guns removed from the conversion of Ise & Hyuga to try and delay the US forces recapturing the Philippines?

01:12:41 - How were spar torpedoes deployed?

01:15:07 - Most Fenwickian naval victory?

01:21:51 - Of the major navies, what is each country's largest warship that never engaged an enemy in any manner?

01:24:58 - German code-breaking in WW2?

01:30:04 - Could con Ingenhol have brought the British to battle after the Raid on Scarborough?

01:36:48 - What were Beattie and Jellicoes criticisms of each other, what criticisms of each were fair, and which were not?

01:40:37 - Destroyers as part of a fleet screen?

01:45:20 - Rudder hard over?

01:48:25 - Fun naval facts?

01:52:41 - Could a close blockade work against Germany much after 1900 or so?

01:58:29 - Why was the RN so much more aggressive going after the Kriegsmarine than the Regia Marina?

02:05:59 - Could USS Maine have detected and fought her coal bunker fire?

02:11:12 - True battlecruiser Iowa's?

02:17:32 - Why there is so little knowledge of the Estonian submarines from the interwar period?

02:19:52 - In the RN how would midshipmen learn all the different specialties (gunnery, carpentry, sails, etc.)?

02:23:02 - How long did the British plan to starve the Japanese out in their interwar planning?

02:26:09 - The most heroic exploits of Axis ships during WWII?

02:30:00 - Diesel-electric plants on warships?

02:34:26 - Why do battleships get faster and faster?

02:41:19 - Are there ship types of either World War that were unsuccessful or unneeded in the intended role but an unexpected success in another role entirely?

02:44:17 - Boring but important battles?

02:47:36 - Why wasn't the all forward layout revisited when designing the King George V class?

02:52:10 - Which was the first warship to receive an electrical generator?

02:54:13 - How effective were armor belts once battle ranges increased?

03:00:20 - Are there any occurances of ships running completely out of fuel?

[Andy_Ross]

My Uncle Martin (I have mentioned him before in relation to the River Plate) was on Vanguard when the turret footage was filmed although he wasn't involved in the filming.
They used the actual turret crew and went through preparing and loading drill on the guns several times for the cameras.
Other parts of the ship were also used for filming various scenes in the film.

[Unreliablecaptionbot]

This the greatest British Sunday tradition alongside roast beef

[stevevalley]

re ships running out of fuel, one of the USN destroyers that was transferred to the RN in 40 came very close. The episode is recounted in "Fifty Ships That Saved The World". The ship was a Caldwell class, shorter ranged than the later Wickes class. There was concern about her short range, but, it was reasoned, she made it to France in 1918, so should be able to make it across the Atlantic again. Her group of six destroyers were en route from Halifax when they picked up radio traffic from Jervis Bay, which was engaging the Scheer. As the USN had handed over the ships with full magazines and torpedo tubes, the destroyers rang up flank and rushed to Jervis Bay's aid. They arrived too late, but the flank speed run had used up a lot of fuel. According to the book, the burners in the Caldwell class went out from lack of fuel, just as she dropped anchor in Belfast.

[nathangillispie]

I'm astounded drach was able to say that a Lego set could be 1 of 2 classes. Bravo!

[bkjeong]

1:18 Shout-out to Rozhestvensky for being a good enough leader to get the Second Pacific Squadron to Tsushima.

[antonalerte]

“Dreadnaught Pope” needs to be on a T-shirt

[OtakuLoki]

Regarding the intelligence haul from U-505: my understanding was that the maps and the code references for various map grid locations were one of the most useful items of information gained from the intact confiscation from the sub, compared to simply breaking a chance to handle a current Enigma machine. Breaking codes is phenomenally useful, don't get me wrong, I don't wish to discount that! But context is always going to be vital, too. And code-breaking is often dependent upon the context for providing useful intel.

U-505's intel haul provided a lot of context that would not have been easily duplicated in any other fashion.

[jonsouth]

Hood getting damaged by Strasbourg could be a fantastic thing for her as if the damage is severe enough then they might be forced to do the refit thus getting rid of her date with Bismarck or at the very least she goes into it in very different and improved material condition

[DABrock-author]

Drach, that prison fight analogy in the segment about the RN vs Kriegsmarine as opposed to RN vs RM (01:58:29) made me laugh out loud. That is one of the best comparisons I've heard. I can really see that when Warspite is involved. 🤣

[Unapologetically_apathetically]

Grab yourself a snack? How about a small buffet to get through this meal of a show! Appreciated as always Mr. Drach!

[GrahamWKidd]

Every week, just like clockwork!
Drach is a Machine!!
😃

[nikujaga_oishii]

"Is there another battleship out there? If there is another battleship out there, is it another 12.6"? Is it a Littorio? Are there two Littorios?"

well, that escalated quickly

[kevdupuis]

How curing scurvy affected recruitment in the Royal Navy reminds me of the Monty Python skit on the abolishment of cannibalism in the RN.

[marlinstout]

On the "Sink the Bismarck" question. Watching the loading scene, it sounds to me like he's saying "Right gun shell" then "Right gun first half charge" then "Right gun second half charge", though the machinery noise does make it hard to make out the second call.

[hughfisher]

I'm going to mildly push back on Dunkerque and Strasbourg and say that the thicker armour belt on Strasbourg doesn't make it a different class of ship. This is "top trumps" thinking, one number is bigger than another so must be significant. The French, and Royal Navy, fleet commanders at the time considered the two ships equivalent.
Dunkerque and Strasbourg were allocated to Royal Navy fast hunting groups early in WW2, and I'm not aware that the French or the British particularly cared which ship went where. Dunkerque was sent on one of the hunts for Scharnhorst and Gneisenhau, and nobody was arguing that they needed to send Strasbourg instead because of her "heavier armour". And I would guess that the German commander of S&G would not have been thinking "Phew, that's Dunkerque not Strasbourg. I thought we were in trouble." if they had been caught.

[John.z]

As you have now provided a reasonable summary of the Lake Tanganyika battles, I would love to hear what you have found about that "eccentric" British officer. The book I have that discusses this area of combat gives a *_very_* lurid description of him. That description, and wider account of his behaviour, seem to indicate a level of strange that is improbable be be accepted within any branch of the military to me... but stranger things have happened.
I suppose this is my vote for a full presentation on the actions around the Lake, and the wider implications. 😁

[dmphoenix]

30:31 Very interesting! Two ships of the same class but just different enough in armour to be categorized into different types. 👍

[DABrock-author]

In regard to the 'Multiple shell hits in the same area' question (37:31), I wouldn't be surprised if something like that happened during the first night of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, specifically when San Francisco took on Hiei. The combination of not quite battleship grade armor on Hiei and nine 8"/55s at bad breath range was probably the best chance of this scenario playing out.

[Pusserdoc]

Drach's response regarding how preventing scurvy affected recruiting (18:28) requires some elaboration.
From a broader societal perspective, I'm not sure this made much difference regarding actual recruiting: the men most at risk of scurvy (the sailors), were the ones who most needed a job - any job - in order to eat. Given the risks of starving now versus scurvy later, it would have been a bit of a no-brainer if there's no jobs ashore.
The other issue relates to ships carrying additional men to fill losses. Although I haven't looked at this specifically, I think this is a rationale developed in hindsight rather than how people thought at the time. Regarding the latter, I think that, given the choice between fewer ships with larger crews to accommodate losses, versus more ships with smaller cruises and losses be damned, I think the latter scenario is more likely simply because the latter could do more damage.... unless it couldn't.
I think the key reason for larger crews in Navy ships relates to fighting the guns: while this seems self- evident, I'm not sure anyone's considered exactly what this meant in practice.
So... let's look at a British 74-gun ship with 550 men (eg Bellerophon). These ships typically had 28 x 32 pounder and 28 x 18 pounder guns, plus odds’n’sods on the weather decks. Each 32-pounder needed 9-14 and 18 pounder 8-10 men. More men with better training = more rounds down range (typically three British broadsides to two French). Hence, 74’s needed a minimum of 476 men to fight both sides of the lower and main deck guns, leaving the other 70-odd to command, sail and otherwise fight the ship. In practice, it's my understanding that RN ships often only had enough gun crews to fully man one side at a time. Hence, no supernumeraries.
So... humanitarian issues aside, the impact of effective scurvy prevention and treatment was actually operational: among all the other advances in shipboard hygiene from the 1750s, it meant RN ships could keep more men alive at sea longer to fight their guns faster than their opponents. Ships without these benefits would lose more men more quickly, leading to smaller gun crews and hence slower reload times. By this metric (admittedly very 21st century!), these ships had to return home once they had run out of men to fight their guns to the level needed do anything useful.
Love your work... and thanks for the opportunity to contribute 🙂!

[chrisdooley]

Speaking of Lake Tanganyika “warships”, a 5 minute video on the Graf Goetzen/ MV Liemba would be interesting, give that she’s an Imperial German ship that’s still afloat and in service (as a passenger ferry).