The Drydock - Episode 329

Found this 26 seconda after it was uploaded... it's going to be a good morning and day

My Highlight of the week play along to the song at the intro with a ching ching on my cuppa tea to match the riviting Noises !

Great as usual.thanks.

Thanks for the Hoche guide this week, you were kinder than I would have been, and I'm a French predreadnought apologist.🤪

Funnily enough, what prompted me to ask that question about the Shokakus was some gentleman who actually did think they were completely useless, were viewed as a non-threat by the Americans, and that the Guadalcanal campaign was fought entirely at the surface with airpower playing no role. He was INCREDIBLY convinced of this (to the point he outright said Santa Cruz was not part of the Guadalcanal campaign and accused me of historical revisionism when I said it was), and some people actually assumed he was correct!

There's nothing in British law to stop you building a Turtle and launching it. Private craft don't have to comply with any safety regulations if you are stupid enough to do it.

Trying to dive a turtle replica....and then ocean gate sub....ummm nope...not volunteering.

Early coffee and DryDrach. Too cool!

If Nazi Germany had built a big, impressive cruiser submarine, there is surely no way it would have been kept a secret. It would have been a WunderWaffe and propaganda would have been huge.

Exhausting research; excellent presentation!
Thank you, Mr Gentleman 🫡

Looking at Vittorio Cuniberti's portrait photo early on a Sunday morning I can't help but think there is some resemblance to you, Drach!

Rather than redoing the Hunley or Turtle. People should look to narco submersibles of today....

Japanese also had pilots on land based air forces. There was about 1500 aviators at the start of the Pacific War in the IJN. Some of the elite fighter pilots were land based in Philippines. And some post Midway dive bomber were assigned to land based squadrons. And some instructors in 12th Combined Air Group at the start of the war, were Chinese veterans.

Because for the last year or so I mostly used Drydock's episodes to fall asleep , my subconscious must be sailor by now with a thick facial hair and singing sea shanties.

23rd, 22 December 2024

Merry Christmas Drach to you and your family. Thanks for all you do.

Merry Christmas, and more happy adventures/research in the New Year!
In your visit to Galveston I'm guessing you had to pass a few hundred meters of me along I-45. Small world.

Where does this idea come from that HMS King George V was absolutely useless in the sinking of the Bismarck and Rodney did all the work? KGV scored hits that destroyed Bismarck’s aft turrets and I think the shell that penetrated her conning tower and killed her command staff

Sir Johnny Walker. Sure. Take a shot.

Japan was in a brutal, bloody, large scale, long standing war in China for YEARS before the rest of the world noticed WW2 had kicked off.

The USA and BCE had a LOT of advantages in training - both had access to areas of land and sea far removed from conflict zones and they both had access to FAR more oil and manufacturing than anyone else.

Attrition is always key - when you win a battle you keep more of your key skilled combatants - so every successive defeat degrades the side losing the war.

- and the US and BCE habit of withdrawing aces and those with combat shock to work as trainers helped the Allies out a lot

Not many men are Sgt Ezra Lee, that's for certain

Sunday morning Drach and coffee, what a great start to the day. Merry Chrismas to you and yours Drach.

I don't think that the health and safety issues, or the minor modifications needed to navigate a human powered vessel at night, even in NY harbor would be particularly difficult. It would require a chase boat. I don't think it would be all that difficult to find someone who is an endurance athlete who enjoys torturing themselves in that way, who overlaps with some interest in historical recreations.

I think the issue is re-enacting wouldn't help us learn anything.

merry xmas

If Tirpitz sailed against PQ17, wouldn't it likely be reported by Norwegian resistance? Or maybe by an allied submarine. In which case Duke of York and Washington would have been on their way. If they in turn were spotted by German aircraft or U-boat, my guess is that Tirpitz would promptly skedaddle back to Kaafjord.

Recreating the Turtle and its mission is "incredibly dangerous" but your considered swimming in plate mail experiment isn't? 😂
Have you seen the results of the Frenchman jumping off the Eiffel Tower to try out his flying suit? ☠

Thanks Drach

Potential question for a future Drydock episode. Why aren’t naval shells “boat tailed” like rifle rounds? Theoretically wouldn’t naval fire be more accurate due to the better aerodynamics of the shells?

Merry Christmas to you, Mrs Drach and of course Baby Drach's first Christmas
Don't be surprised if she finds the wrapping paper just as much (perhaps more) fun as the actual presents

On the pilot training for the IJN, Ugaki’s diary has lots of insights regarding IJN air groups being deployed on land in the Solomons campaign. Recovering them for carrier operations was an issue for him at times.
On another occasion when he was based at one of the island bases - I have feeling it might have been Truk rather than Rabaul - he laments the use of carriers to ferry equipment around the place, rather than being equipped with aircraft.

You also have the problem that the Japanese are eating their seed corn, in that they're keeping their experienced pilots out in combat, continually eroding the quality of their air groups (a problem which also began to become critical later in the war for Germany), while the US was able to rotate pilots back Stateside to train more pilots; as the war continued, the skill disparity continued to tilt in favor of the US.

the battle of the santa cruz islands was the only clear-cut victory tactical and strategic between the us and japanese carrier forces- with the shokakus taking the honors (Cape Engano was a strategic victory in that the japanese did what they set out to do)

Had there not been the German are presence in Norway that was historically there to help protect the German surface units stationed there it is very possible that the Royal Navy and US Navy could have sent Capital ships Cruisers and destroyers to batter the German surface ships into submission but with the threat of land-based are it was a no-go

Merry Christmas Drach!

A nice surprise,you answered one of my Questions!

About the only vaguely safe way I could see to test a Turtle replica would be to have the thing in a large enough pool, with a full safety team, including a couple of divers specifically tasked with pulling the operator out if things go wrong, and maybe have it attached to some kind of crane system, with maybe an emergency umbilical.

There is just not the space in there to stow diving gear, let alone get into it if something does go wrong (some people forget how bulky the tanks are when it comes to scuba gear). Not even the space to wear it while operating the thing. And even if there were its so small that if things did go wrong (pretty much inevitable in anything but a mill pond), they would go wrong really, really fast....

You would not get me near the thing, and I have been diving for forty years..... Not as it is shown in the illustrations anyway. You would have to make significant changes to it before I would be willing to risk my life in the thing. And those changes would probably ruin the point of the tests....

Drach going by hood's rep (more like obsession!!) with the Keigsmarine if she was sent to Singapore how bad would she have rattled the jap navy?

Safety being a major concern for the Turtle submersible, I am reminded of a tragedy involving a small experimental submarine where its designers ignored safety protocols to their own peril and sadly died when their submarine imploded. I doubt I would volunteer to cram myself into a tiny wood contraption for several hours, even for historical research.

I wish to wish everyone a merry christmas and a bright new year😊😊❤

Question:
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game has Nazi warship on top of the mountan ( dont ask why ) called KMS Kummetz . Year is 1937.
Is KMS Kummetz a utterly terrible atept of drawing Bismark by game designers ?
OR is it What if Germany doing battleships in 1920ties / early 1930ties ?
Because it kind of has vibes of Bayern and Bismark having a baby.

Idk, I've always been under the impression that ALL of the Japanese Carriers were very formidable opponents. No matter whether it was the carrier conversions or the purpose built carriers they were still to be feared & respected just as much as the original "Kido Butai!" And although the pilots on Kaga & Akagi may have had more experience but every carrier is dangerous until it is sunk or all their pilots are killed or injured.

Thanks Drach.

Drach, which of Starfleet's various Enterprises is your favorite?

I looked to get your book from US Naval Press or whatever and signing up seemed like an awful lot of faff at the time, maybe I'll take another look later.

The most optimistic option for Tirpitz v. PQ 17 is the outcome of the destroyer/cruiser action against Tirpitz and her escorts which forces PQ 17 to scatter and allows the Germans to chew on some merchant ships.

However even this "optimistic" result, will give Duke of York and Washington, as well as their escorting cruisers and destroyers time to get on scene. I would assume the Allied warships will be in a rather vengeful mood, so I can't see the engagement going well for Tirpitz and the Germans.