Pinned post for Q&A :)

22:34 “a harmless star shell”
*aggressive Taffy 3 noises*

Interesting that the Saumarez seems to have been able to punch torpedoes not only into the Scharnhorst but later into IJN Haguro. Little beast of a destroyer.

My Dad was a 20 year old midshipmen on Duke of York at North cape, still have his log book.

Hope that guy who spliced Duke of York's radar back together got a medal.

Peacetime is strange. In all my decades as a network tech I've never had to scale a mast in terrible weather, under fire, and get the network back up. Those boys were the best.

"the Norwegian destroyer showed remarkable antipathy to the Scharnhorst, blasting away at it all the way in and firing torpedoes point blank"
alternate phrase: the Norwegian warship invoked its Viking ancestors on a raid heard within Valhalla

76 years ago today. Second to last Battleship fight in history. I know the Germans were the enemy but what a terrible way to die, stay on a burning sinking ship or freeze to death in the water. The merchant marine suffered through this type of death for years in WWII. Brave souls all. RIP.

The lieutenant who repaired the Duke of York's radar was Lt H. R. K. Bates RNVR. He also was accompanied by Able Seamen Horace Badkin and Geoffrey Whitton. I'm not sure if they assisted in the repairs.

For those who don't know, HMS Belfast is still around.  She's enjoying a comfortable retirement in London on the Thames, moored just west of the Tower Bridge and directly across from the Tower of London on the opposite bank.  (She's only a 15-minute walk from the Tower of London using the bridge.).  The ship can be boarded and viewed for a small fee, and most sections of her from the engine rooms to the admiral's bridge are open to the public.  There's also a great self-guided audio tour for those who want to know more about the ship, its history, and life aboard a British light cruiser in WW2.

Her forward turret has a very interesting audio and visual presentation about the Battle of the North Cape and her role in it, complete with narrated accounts from her officers and crew.  It plays up her part in the battle a bit, but that's honestly pretty typical for most preserved ships I've been on, and it's still a very fun and educational, albeit loud (simulated gunfire!), experience.

(This info comes from my own visit in June 2018.  Beautiful ship, definitely a treat to tour.)

The Germans never thought that the British could have developed the cavity magnetron for microwave radar at the end of 1943. They understood the concept of the cavity magnetron, but they used the klystron tube as a more stable source of UHF radar signals up to about 750 MHz. The British vessel's true microwave radar transmitting at 3 GHz was never seen by the Germans, since their radar warning receivers only went up to about 900 MHz. British radar receivers were able to pick up the German radar signals from about 50 miles out. The Germans also needed about 4 kw of power to get only about half the range as the British obtained with 1 kw of power. This was a big deal in ship's electrical systems never constructed to handle these additional power demands.

The Battle of the North Cape demonstrated once and forever the primacy of ships that had the most advanced radars and best trained radar operators. Before this, many senior naval officers considered radar as little more than a technological toy developed by the big brains back home. The other radar lesson from the battle was the need to develop smaller radar antennas that were less prone to battle damage and the overriding importance of redundant cabling so a lucky hit couldn't sever the one cable set used operate the radar.

Nothing like seeing a KG V class battleship ploughing through heavy seas.

22:05 and the Duke of York said: let there be light.

Every man on every ship had to know that they would likely die if they ended up in the sea.  That had to take a special courage.

Mate of my Aunty worked closely with Bruce Fraser during the war. He told me few years back (both he & my Aunty still alive) that the secret to this battle was Fraser had worked on designing the guns for King George V battleships and chose exactly the right range to open fire. Battle of the North Cape then got him promoted to Adm of the British Pacific Fleet.

The Scharnhorst never had a chance against a KGV class Battleship. These Battleships were splendid fighting machines and in my opinion greatly underrated by some over the years.

Duke Of York's first shots on Scharnhorst were ridiculous. At such long range and in such low visibility to get nearly every shell on target is some great shooting

I have worked at sea off the north cape, out of Hammerfest and Kirkeness. I shudder to imagine the difficulties and sacrifices of the men involved in battle in these waters.

Just about fell off my chair hearing that the Nords were shooting a 420MM gun, then I realized that he meant to read 4 120MM guns.  Excellent content as always it is a highlight of my day to see and hear your work!

Me 2:00am PST: I should probably go to bed

new warship video

Me: ok after this