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The Drydock - Episode 127

Drachinifel

148,638 views

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:33 - Was Operation Rheinübung doomed to fail from the beginning?

00:08:28 - Assessing WW2 in light of Axis war crimes

00:19:23 - After producing some of he best sailing warships in the world, what happened to the French design process that they mismanaged so many steam warship?

00:28:27 - "Splice the Mainbrace"

00:31:17 - Preferred postings in the Age of Sail?

00:38:06 - Fastest ship in WW2?

00:40:11 - Interwar cruiser and destroyer designs?

00:51:18 - Can you give a brief overview over the anti-submarines tactics developed in the interwar period (especially the 1920s)?

00:53:39 - Have their been any warships that spent more time in refit/repair than actual service by a significant margin?

00:55:58 - How were guns aimed and fired when central fire control was used?

00:59:45 - Top 5 most obnoxious efforts at stretching treaty requirements during the treaty era?

01:08:11 - Major naval battle in 1914/15?

01:16:10 - How much technical information exchange was there between the USN and the RN as compared to the Axis?

01:20:26 - What was the relationship between Oliver Cromwell and the Royal Navy like?

01:22:38 - USS Sable and Wolverine

01:26:29 - F2A Buffalo, not as bad as first thought?

01:32:26 - What’s the deal with the word “Caliber”?

01:41:19 - Why didn't battleships get lower and lower freeboards as turrets became more heavily armoured?

01:46:27 - Largest naval shell loaded by hand?

01:49:12 - Why not the Jeune Ecole?

01:56:51 - What ship had the best chance at surviving if it was put in the place of the cruiser Blücher?

01:59:30 - What are the advantages and disadvantages of exotic fuel?

02:05:06 - Shell storage

02:07:32 - Why Incomparable?

02:15:28 - WW2 large ship boarding actions?

02:22:32 - Battle Damage resistance of ships powerplants?

02:25:34 - Ships propellors

02:33:08 - Ratio of different ship types?

02:43:23 - Battle of the River Plate tactics

02:47:30 - IJN torpedo 'turrets'

02:49:15 - What makes a 'good' or 'bad' naval gun?

02:55:48 - Salvaged gold and shell speeds

03:06:23 - What would be your shortlist for best peacetime admirals?

03:10:26 - The legend of HMS Cockchafer

03:19:15 - Smokescreens

03:23:35 - Fuzeless shells?

03:27:26 - Kantai Kessen and defensive naval war

03:32:09 - Age of sail gun trunnions

03:34:48 - Risk of losing the Doolittle Raid carriers?

03:39:10 - U-Boats on the Great Lakes?

03:42:31 - What was the most important factor in CVs surpassing BBs as the primary striking power of the fleets?

03:49:56 - What happened to steel from warships that were broken up?

03:53:57 - Crane Ship No.1

03:57:02 - Torpedos and Devastators at Midway

03:58:53 - Mass of bunker fuel

04:02:36 - Why is Tirpitz not a war grave?

04:09:24 - IJN destroyer flotillas

04:15:16 - Post-service used for materials used in warships?

04:20:24 - Swedish gun-sloops of the 18th century

04:24:20 - Covert-ops subs of WW2

04:33:26 - Fluyt's

04:36:42 - Raw bows and bow waves

04:39:42 - The Polish battleship 'Paris'

04:41:58 - Teach me to be a pirate

04:48:42 - HMS Hood loss/refit

04:53:27 - British purchases of foreign ships in British yards

04:57:51 - USN crew training in WW2?

05:00:39 - Where there any battles where fleets had to retreat because they run out of ammo not from damage?

05:03:13 - Age of Sail arcs of fire

05:07:13 - Freidnly fire and AA guns in WW2

05:12:08 - Legendary ships and their reputation in WW2?

05:16:25 - The Russian 45mm AA gun

05:21:58 - Channel Admin

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20 Comments

@Drachinifel Creator 5 years ago Pinned

Pinned post for Q&A :)

@akacurmurdar1 5 years ago

"It's literally not worth the time or the crayons to explain this" is a phrase that you tend to think more and more as you get older.

@mbryson2899 5 years ago

Graf Spee: COME AT ME BRO!
New Zealand: <Captain dons Maori skirt>
Graf Spee: Run away, run away!

@GaldirEonai 5 years ago

How it started: Five-minute guides.

How it's going:

@jamestrivett1294 5 years ago

Me "Drachinifel answered my question!" My fiance "Ohhh I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious..."

@ykonoclast2851 5 years ago (edited)

I spent almost a year doing research, reading books, thinking etc. all because I was obsessed with an obscure naval architecture topic. It was nagging at me, I just wanted to understand.
Then I asked Drach, in 4 minutes he gave me a complete, definitive, thoroughly thought-out and satisfying answer at what I spent months trying to understand.
Damn impressive.

@MorningGI0ry 5 years ago

best thing to cure a new years hangover is 5 hours of drach

@alexanderrees1882 5 years ago

The fact I can sit down and spend a whole afternoon listening to an expert answering naval questions is truly amazing. Thanks Drach!

@isk3397 5 years ago

"The tyranny of physics."

I absolutely love this line, and vow to include it in life at some point in the future.

@jonathan_60503 5 years ago

Age of sail boarding - a point you didn't mention is that if you take the upper deck you also pretty much also took full control of the ship's propulsion since all the rigging lines come down to that deck (and any sail handers still up in the masts and yards would be horribly exposed). Whereas on a WWI / WWII ship for borders take or disable the propulsion (assuming you didn't have to somehow disable it to get aboard) you'll have to fight your way down to engine rooms - or have some pretty large and specialize equipment to, say, block the exhaust. That just adds to your point that by these later eras taking the main deck just wasn't the decisive blow it has been in age of sail.

@Tevildo 5 years ago

One minor factual correction - Jeanne de Clisson was Breton (not French), exclusively targetted French ships, and fought for Edward III (of England) against the French at the battle of Crécy. She would not have sought refuge in any French port. :)

@OutbackCatgirl 5 years ago

i'm imagining that crane ship with a bayonet and giggling madly, thank you drach for yet another highly amusing mental image

@Gailim 5 years ago (edited)

Drach a few months ago:

"I need to change format as the patreon dry dock is getting to be 4 hours long"

Drach now:
4 hour live chat and 5.5 hour dry dock

not complaining, I am just worried about you getting burnt out

@phaasch 5 years ago

A nearly 4- hour live Drydock, followed by a five and a half hour one? Prodigious!
This is definitely not treaty-era output. Well done, that man.

@sarjim4381 5 years ago

The U Boat attacks were generally confined to the waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence, the only part of the St Lawrence riverway wide enough and deep enough to allow U Boats to have the operational space they needed. As it turned out. the attacks on allied shipping in the Gulf turned out to be an advantage to Canada and the allies. Rather than convoys having to all assemble at Sydney NS, some of which were taking many days to navigate up the St Lawrence, shipping was diverted to the Canadian National Railway lines to Halifax, and convoys formed up there. The harbor was better, as were the defenses, and the removal of most of the convoy traffic from the St Lawrence decreased the U Boat targets and caused German to abandoned operations in the St Lawrence by mid-1943. U Boats did try to insert spies and pick up escaped POWs from the region, but none of those operations ever succeeded.

@karlvongazenberg8398 5 years ago

127 mm is 5", drydock127 is over 5 hours

@kemarisite 5 years ago

Regarding destroyer squadrons and flotilla, the US Navy in the Pacific suffered even more from the need to meet divergent needs and replace losses. Washington and South Dakota went into action off Guadalcanal escorted by four destroyers selected based entirely on the fuel they had left.

@arwedrv7125 5 years ago (edited)

As long as the voyage of the 2nd pacific squadron, but infinitely more enjoyable.

@SonOfAB_tch2ndClass 5 years ago

03:49:56 When the USS Worcester was broken up "Approximately 200 tons of her armor plate was sent to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, west of Chicago, and the armor is being used for absorption shielding in the particle accelerator and experiment lines." -Wikipedia

@rackstraw 5 years ago

Re: Peacetime Admirals - if you use the same criteria as Sims, Arleigh Burke would make the list. His exploits as a destroyer squadron commodore in WWII were as a Captain (though he was a temporary 1-star as as VADM Mitscher's Chief of Staff), but his contributions as Chief of Naval Operations had a huge impact, including transitioning the large WWII fleet into a fleet more suited to the Cold War mission, supporting then-Captain Rickover in the development of the nuclear submarine program, and supporting the development of the fleet ballistic missile submarine. He served three terms as CNO, more than any other admiral.