The Drydock - Episode 124

I joined the Drach Patreon after I saw what was happening. I am starting small and will step things up when I can.

His impact will be more keenly felt with HMS Splendid's absence from the Croydon patrol area, who will stop the Kamchatka seeing torpedo boats now?

Theodore Kamis

Thanks! Look forward to digging into this tonight!

Dubsington

I'm not Drach, but since I was curious myself, I decided to do a little digging. After the war ended, President Truman commissioned the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey to compile a series of reports about the effectiveness of the United States' attacks on the Japanese Home Islands. The main focus of the reports was on the strategic bombing campaign, but they also covered a few related subjects including the naval bombardments. I found an archive with several reports digitized over at the Pacific War Archive: https://pacificwararchive.wordpress.com/2018/11/15/us-strategic-bombing-survey-pacific-war/

Specialist290

Drach, having had my job eliminated myself earlier this year, my commiserations. I, for one, would gladly put up with sponsored videos in exchange for you keeping the lights on and giving us the excellent content I have come to expect from your channel.

Great as will have been your impact on the highways of Croydon, what you do here...educating and entertaining tens or hundreds of thousands of people, bringing naval history to a new and younger😉 audience....is of immeasurably greater value to society and, I imagine, to you personally. Thanks.

Drach, sorry to hear of your impending freedom from government service, but it forced me into introspection, I've been a parasitic fan for too long! And I've had a question for you in the back of my head for a while. The Guadalcanal theater would seem to have been perfect for mine warfare, given the confines and the predictable attempts of the IJN to resupply, but I can't remember reading of allied mine laying during the conflict. What have I missed?

Brilliantly Clueless

Perhaps the next live chat can be dedicated to the National Archives Tent fund...

Vintage Car History

LETS PLAY! lets play time!!

Cody

It would be very nice if you could give measurements in metric when it comes to things like areas (sq. ft. and sq. m)

Bjarki Hilmarsson

Drach, sorry to hear about the day job! But on that note, can you cover what is in your opinion the most dramatic firing of a naval officer?

Unemployed_History_Major

Another amazing store of knowledge. Thanks! Drach, some day could you cover the bombardments of the Japanese home islands at the close of WW2? The best (and practically only) source of info I have found on them is the wikipedia article, which gives you an idea of how ill-covered it is.

Dubsington

Drach, in the wake of your excellent series about Pearl Harbor salvage efforts, I was reminded of a question I've long wondered about: Why were some dreadnought style turret locked in rings to the barbettes, so that when something like the capsizing of Oklahoma happened, the turrets not only stayed in place, but hung in the barbettes while the ship was upside down for a considerable length of time, but the Bismarck and Tirpitz' main batteries were not so locked into their barbettes - with the wreck of the Bismarck lacking the whole turret assemblies as the hulk rotated through upside down on it's way to its final resting place - or Tirpitz' own Dora turret was knocked off its rings. How common were each of the two methods of keeping main battery turrets in place? What were the concerns that drove the choices for one method over another? Finally, was this another one of the Bismarck-classes design inefficiencies? Thank you again for all your work on this channel.

SendPenguins

Can you cover The Battle of Tonkin River? I just heard about that from someone on The History Guy's recent video. Either that or MHV cover it? :) Sounds utterly fascinating.

Brian Reddeman