Drachinifel - naval history

[lordroel]

Aircraft Carriers - The Fleet Aircraft Carrier in the Interwar Years (1929-1939) - naval history - 48

[stevep]

Aug 26, 2020 13:48:36 GMT lordroel said:

Aircraft Carriers - The Fleet Aircraft Carrier in the Interwar Years (1929-1939) - naval history - 48

  Just finished watching it and reading the comments.  Given the discussion about a certain carrier/cruiser elsewhere there are some comments on how sections of the USN were still trying to get 8" guns on assorted CVs designed in this period.  They even wanted a couple of 8" turrets on the USS_Ranger, which was a small 2nd Langley to save space so the rest of the carrier tonnage could be allocated to a couple of larger ships!

[lordroel]

Aug 26, 2020 14:18:39 GMT stevep said:

Aug 26, 2020 13:48:36 GMT lordroel said:

Aircraft Carriers - The Fleet Aircraft Carrier in the Interwar Years (1929-1939) - naval history - 48

  Just finished watching it and reading the comments.  Given the discussion about a certain carrier/cruiser elsewhere there are some comments on how sections of the USN were still trying to get 8" guns on assorted CVs designed in this period.  They even wanted a couple of 8" turrets on the USS_Ranger, which was a small 2nd Langley to save space so the rest of the carrier tonnage could be allocated to a couple of larger ships!

Carriers schould only have AA guns, not guns used on destroyers and cruiser, but now i am starting to wonder how a carrier like Lexington with here 4 × twin 8-inch (203 mm) guns would have been able to defend herself against German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

[stevep]

Aug 26, 2020 14:47:30 GMT lordroel said:

Aug 26, 2020 14:18:39 GMT stevep said:

  Just finished watching it and reading the comments.  Given the discussion about a certain carrier/cruiser elsewhere there are some comments on how sections of the USN were still trying to get 8" guns on assorted CVs designed in this period.  They even wanted a couple of 8" turrets on the USS_Ranger, which was a small 2nd Langley to save space so the rest of the carrier tonnage could be allocated to a couple of larger ships!

Carriers schould only have AA guns, not guns used on destroyers and cruiser, but now i am starting to wonder how a carrier like Lexington with here 4 × twin 8-inch (203 mm) guns would have been able to defend herself against German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

  Not with those guns.  If it has no escort and can't get a/c in the air to attack them in time it can only run.  Although with a speed of ~33kts it can probably escape provided not caught by surprise.  Those 8" shells would only do minimal damage to a twin, while their 11" shells are going to be a lot more damaging to the far less well protected carrier.

[lordroel]

Aug 27, 2020 13:27:14 GMT stevep said:

Aug 26, 2020 14:47:30 GMT lordroel said:

Carriers schould only have AA guns, not guns used on destroyers and cruiser, but now i am starting to wonder how a carrier like Lexington with here 4 × twin 8-inch (203 mm) guns would have been able to defend herself against German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

  Not with those guns.  If it has no escort and can't get a/c in the air to attack them in time it can only run.  Although with a speed of ~33kts it can probably escape provided not caught by surprise.  Those 8" shells would only do minimal damage to a twin, while their 11" shells are going to be a lot more damaging to the far less well protected carrier.

You mean Lexington is less protected then Glorious.

[stevep]

Aug 27, 2020 13:39:20 GMT lordroel said:

Aug 27, 2020 13:27:14 GMT stevep said:

  Not with those guns.  If it has no escort and can't get a/c in the air to attack them in time it can only run.  Although with a speed of ~33kts it can probably escape provided not caught by surprise.  Those 8" shells would only do minimal damage to a twin, while their 11" shells are going to be a lot more damaging to the far less well protected carrier.

You mean Lexington is less protected then Glorious.

  Its almost certainly got better protection than Glorious, especially if its original BC design armour is still in place, but better isn't going to make much difference if the Germans get an hit or two in and slow her down enough that she can't escape.  No carrier on its own can mix it with either, let alone two ships each with 9x11" guns if they can't get a/c in operation early enough to stop/damage the enemy.

[lordroel]

KMS Graf Zeppelin - naval history - 49

[stevep]

   lordroel ,

  Drachinifel has done his weekly drydock, i.e. a question and answer session and its a monster at just over 3 hours.  Fortunately he gives tags for each question so you can select which ones are of interest and also hear the start to see if it might be one for you.  The link is at Drydock 109.

  At one point, refering to two USS Texas he asked what the plurals of Texas was which prompted a number of replies one of which was unrelated but made me smile.

I dont know about plurals of Texas, but I have a tangentially naval story about Texans. When I was at USN boot camp, at one point my division was gathered on bleachers awaiting our turn at the firing range. To pass the time the range training Cadre began asking all the recruits to raise their hands when he named their native state. As in "who's from California?" And all the kids from California calmy raise their right hand like civilized, well adjusted human beings living in a polite society. This went on through a half dozen or so states until one petty officer asked "who's from Texas?" From far flung points on the bleachers and thus obviously not planned, 4 recruits jumped to their feet thrusting their arms to the heavens and whooping loudly. The Cadre petty officer hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose as if in physical pain from this performance before resignedly saying, but with building intensity of frustration, "Every time! Every damn time I ask that question, every other state raises their hand; and without fail some Texas shitkicker jumps up and yells like Yosemite fuckin Sam. Don't mess with Texas? Nobody fucking wants to! sit your dumb ass down!" I'll never forget that, and subsequent travels into that benighted state did nothing to alleviate my impression of texans gleaned from that experience. 

  There were a couple of other snippets I caught, both about USN ships.

a)  Apparently the USS Massachusetts was the only BB, that went through WWII without losing a man in action.

b)  He had an appeal at the end about USS New Jersey which because of the current corona crisis is closing access to the ship because their not getting the visitor numbers to make it viable.  As such their not going to be making any money to support the ship so their setting up an appeal to raise funds.

  Steve

[lordroel]

Aug 31, 2020 15:31:21 GMT stevep said:

   lordroel,

  Drachinifel has done his weekly drydock, i.e. a question and answer session and its a monster at just over 3 hours.  Fortunately he gives tags for each question so you can select which ones are of interest and also hear the start to see if it might be one for you.  The link is at Drydock 109.

  At one point, refering to two USS Texas he asked what the plurals of Texas was which prompted a number of replies one of which was unrealted but made me smile.

I dont know about plurals of Texas, but I have a tangentially naval story about Texans. When I was at USN boot camp, at one point my division was gathered on bleachers awaiting our turn at the firing range. To pass the time the range training Cadre began asking all the recruits to raise their hands when he named their native state. As in "who's from California?" And all the kids from California calmy raise their right hand like civilized, well adjusted human beings living in a polite society. This went on through a half dozen or so states until one petty officer asked "who's from Texas?" From far flung points on the bleachers and thus obviously not planned, 4 recruits jumped to their feet thrusting their arms to the heavens and whooping loudly. The Cadre petty officer hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose as if in physical pain from this performance before resignedly saying, but with building intensity of frustration, "Every time! Every damn time I ask that question, every other state raises their hand; and without fail some Texas shitkicker jumps up and yells like Yosemite fuckin Sam. Don't mess with Texas? Nobody fucking wants to! sit your dumb ass down!" I'll never forget that, and subsequent travels into that benighted state did nothing to alleviate my impression of texans gleaned from that experience. 

  There were a couple of other snippets I caught, both about USN ships.

a)  Apparently the USS Massachusetts was the only BB, that went through WWII without losing a man in action.

b)  He had an appear at the end about USS New Jersey which because of the current corona crisis is closing access to the ship because their not getting the visitor numbers to make it viable.  As such their not going to be making any money to support the ship so their setting up an appeal to raise funds.

  Steve

I always like his Drydocks, but have not yet touched of a good question to ask.

[lordroel]

Queen Elizabeth Class - Design and Damage History - naval history - 50

[lordroel]

USS Helena - naval history - 51

[stevep]

Sept 5, 2020 14:38:38 GMT lordroel said:

USS Helena - naval history - 51

  Its interesting and a couple of classical Drachinifelism.  Seen it already earlier this afternoon.  He also posted a Drydock 109 live segment, but that's nearly 3 hours long and doesn't have the editing to show what topics he's going to cover so didn't have the time to plough through it else I might have linked it here.

[lordroel]

Sept 5, 2020 17:29:40 GMT stevep said:

Sept 5, 2020 14:38:38 GMT lordroel said:

USS Helena - naval history - 51

  Its interesting and a couple of classical Drachinifelism.  Seen it already earlier this afternoon.  He also posted a Drydock 109 live segment, but that's nearly 3 hours long and doesn't have the editing to show what topics he's going to cover so didn't have the time to plough through it else I might have linked it here.

There is also a new but smaller channel Drach once mentioned called:

TheShipYard

[lordroel]

The A6M Naval Carrier Fighter - Homegrown or Copy? - naval history - 52

[lordroel]

HMAS Bathurst - naval history - 53