The Drydock - Episode 174

When will you team up with Armando Ianucci to create a film about the Kamchatka?

'General' Dipper

What difference, if any, would it have made had the United States entered World War Two in 1939?

john c driscoll

I disagree Alaska isn't a battlecruiser she is a large cruiser you can argue that the Iowa class where there America battlecruisers of there time if you put them against the Montana's they have the same guns but less of them less armor And increased speed that sounds a lot like the way dreadnought and invincible to me whats your thought?

On the subject of oil leaks from wrecks. This has been a constant trouble regarding the tanker El Grillo that was sunk in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. Article with pics: https://www.icelandreview.com/nature-travel/sunken-wwii-tanker-still-leaking-oil-into-seydisfjordur-fjord/

Bjarki Hilmarsson

I argue the Alaskas were Battlecruisers - both by relative arms (historical battleship caliber and far bigger than contemporary cruisers), powerplant, and mission objective (Also the original statement of the US Navy before politics intervened), not to mention the costs of building and operating them, furthermore they also operated in a similar way in reality to the battleships - acting as an antiaircraft screen for the carriers. Had other nations built comparable ships then they may have been better described as cruisers but with history playing out as it did - they're battlecruisers.

Thomas Riley

Ryan on USS New Jersey did a video on the process of loading 16" shells.

Damage Control honorable moment in film, Remember when Spock took the radiation in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan? "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

So just catching up on the latest "battlecruiser or not?" argument. Dunkerque is a battlecruiser because her main guns are smaller than contemporary French battleship designs but fit in between the oldest and not quite so old WW1 dreadnoughts still in French service. But for the Alaskas, the WW1 dreadnought 12" Arkansas that is still in US service alongside the Alaskas doesn't count. Dunkerque is a battlecruiser because her armour is heavier than cruisers, comparable to WW1 capitals. Alaska has heavier armour than cruisers, equal to HMS Renown, but that doesn't count. Have I got it right? :-)

Hugh Fisher

On the list of weird installations. Beatty had an "Electric Light Bath" (basically a crude tanning bed, though his was a sit-in model) in his quarters in Both Lion and Queen Elizabeth.

Andrew Dederer