The Drydock – Episode 270 (Part 2)



00:00:00 – Intro

00:00:32 – How effective would a battleship be against a container ship?

00:02:34 – How do submarines estimate their targetting solution?

00:08:44 – How did the galley on a Uboat/Submarine evolve during the period the channel covers and what are/were the implications on the food that was (made) available for the crew?

00:14:28 – The history of ship log?

00:19:09 – Why couldn’t the Regia Marina hit things?

00:30:09 – Hornet vs I-11?

00:35:37 – Top 3 minor countries that “punched above ther weightclass” from a naval perspective during some time in the channels period covered?

00:40:28 – What is your favorite naval art work of all time and why and could you give a brief summary of what is being shown and why?

00:46:33 – Whay could hybrid carriers have been good for?

00:52:22 – Are there any examples in history where an entire warship defected to an enemy hunt for red october style?

00:54:48 – Considering the battleship Mutsu blew up without contributing much to Japanese war efforts in WW2, would Japan have been better off not pressing for the right to finish Mutsu during the Washington Naval Conference?

00:59:10 – Can you explain age of sail positions like Master and Commander and Post Captain?

01:03:43 – How enforceable were “neutrality laws” in the 19th century?

01:08:07 – If carriers had been developed sooner, would they have been practical for commerce raiding/protection?

01:11:21 – Where any of the various navies’ armored cruisers refitted with centralized director fire control prior to the end of WWI?

01:12:45 – Why do some 6″ guns have such a high rate of apparent fire?

01:17:57 – Have there ever been specialty/novelty shells made for naval guns as a joke and or data gathering?

01:19:57 – Fixing top-head German destroyers?

01:22:24 – How does the British 4.5″ compare to the 5″/38?

01:25:48 – What does ‘mentioned in dispatches’ mean?

01:29:10 – Why wasn’t Craddock given one of the Devonshires?

01:33:06 – VC’s awareded thanks to the enemy?

01:36:52 – What, in your opinion, is the most ridiculous/unrealistic feat of ship building in a fictional universe?

01:40:19 – If Mikawa had continued to attack the transports after blowing through the cruiser screen at Savo how much would it have honestly set back US operations on Guadalcanal?

01:43:36 – If the war in the Pacific had gone on much longer than the war in Europe, would the US have actually pressed Prinz Eugen into service or just scrapped it?

01:48:23 – How silent could you make a battleship shell?

01:53:10 – Would a maximal Hood be more likely to get a refit?

01:55:52 – Would it be more beneficial for the British Empire during the Washington Naval Treaty to have Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa (and possibly India) to be allocated their own tonnage for ships (including capital ships) and if so, how would their inclusion change the treaty?

02:01:10 – How capable were the Sverdlov class cruisers and how did they compare to their Western naval equivalents? Also, why did they play such an outsized role in Western naval strategy early in the Cold War?

02:06:38 – Location of photographer on USS Washington – UPDATE

02:09:06 – What was the most heavily protected river gunboat or river monitor?

02:11:07 – What did copper plating do to the metacentric height of warships? After copper plating became common, did ship designers plan for the additional weight?

02:12:43 – Effects of firing a battleship gun on its turret crew?

02:16:20 – In aviation there are ‘aerospikes’ that allow a blunter airframe to function like a more streamlined airframe, although they are more commonly used with munitions than manned vehicles. Is there any kind of nautical equivalent that would allow you to keep your beam to length ratio after you’ve widened your beam without installing a new full on lengthened bow (or stern)?

02:18:58 – Gyroscopic stabilisers in warships?

02:21:31 – How were the Panama Canal bills paid?

02:23:57 – Had the wreck of the battleship New York been found and can you dive it?

02:25:17 – Regarding carrier aviation, was there anything technological, beyond innovation, that stood in the way of the later developments happening earlier? Could the ‘first attempts’ have been flat-top carriers with islands, even angled flight decks, from the word go, or was there speed bumps in the way and if so what were they and how were they addressed?

02:29:22 – Powder bags on ships of the line?

source

18 thoughts on “The Drydock – Episode 270 (Part 2)”

  1. Drach, your output in quantity and quality is amazing. What if you took a "break" and did an online movie review? I have seen other podcasters go this route rather successfully. If you go that route I I would highly recommend U-571 for the first screening.

    Reply
  2. 1:48:30, Silenced artillery was used in WW1 -similar to the Dynamite gun of the USN, the KuK (Austro-Hungarians and by capture Italians) and the Germans used pneumatic mortars to good effect. So two pneumatic mortars of 8cm and 15cm were designed in 1915 by the 58th Infantry Division stationed in the Gorizia region on the Isonzo sector as 8 cm Luft MM 15 and 15cm Luft MW 16 (name change to avoid confusion with an existing conventional MW.

    The first weapons were manufactured in the unit workshops, but soon the production was transferred to a civil company in Budapest (Vereinigte Elektrische Maschinen AG). So not only a stealth weapon that saw fairly large scale service but also by the ingenuity of a unit in the field. Only down side apart from range was a minor give way of water vapour in very cold weather in the Alps, but you'd have to be really observant to spot it.

    Reply
  3. Great piece on the Mention In Dispatches – my Grandfather got one at Jutland I've been told on Beatty's recommendation as he was serving on Lion at the time. Gallipoli in '15 and Jutland in '16 – I am amazed he survived the Great War and my dad was born!

    Reply
  4. Battlecarrier for amphibious support – I'd say it's even worse than Drach said:
    1. To launch and recover planes you want to be heading into the wind about as quickly as you can; but to provide shore bombardment you want to be moving slowly along the shore.
    2. Even if you could launch and recover while on the gun-line you'd still have to suspend bombardment while doing so; so might not be able to respond to critical calls for fire.
    3. Providing shore bombardment can put you close enough to be at risk of counterbattery fire, and a flight deck and hanger, not to mention the planes on deck, aren't going to enjoy being hit by even pretty small shore based artillery.

    I suspect that 1 & 2 are enough that even if you did build hybrid carrier / fire support ships that you end up having them temporarily act in just one role of the other. So today ship A is playing inefficient carrier and is further out to sea conduction air ops all day, while ship B is playing overly flammable fire support ship in-shore and doesn't do any air ops. Maybe tomorrow they switch places — but you'd still be better off with two ships of non-hybrid design.

    Reply
  5. Hi there. The 100 caliber gun was build by Gerald Bull. He was the guy who should have built the so called Bagdad gun. He got a .22 cal bullet in his head by Mossad for his effort .
    Great Drydock aß always. Keep on going. Greeting from Germany.

    Reply
  6. I visited a Cold War era submarine this summer and the tour guide said no one got a shower until the fresh food (mostly potatoes) that filled the showers was cooked up. He said that took about 2 weeks.

    Reply
  7. The US Navy used a hand held device called "Is-Was" which was used to determine firing solutions and as it was shaped like a banjo that became its nickname. An officer who could quickly arrive at a solution was highly valued…when the TDC came into use they still double checked the the results against the "Banjo"…as always the best to you and yours PAB

    Reply
  8. Did I hear the US 5” and UK 4.5” guns had shells about 25 pounds? Shouldn’t that be 25 kg or 55 pounds?

    If planning a ship sized bomb to destroy a harbor wouldn’t a tanker or fast cargo vessel be better for packing with explosives than a cruiser? Modern Gun vessels have fewer large storage areas than tankers. While a cruiser is faster tankers have decent speed

    Reply
  9. @0:19:09 Another possibility on the Italian guns is that you go out, do your testing and come back get new low quality liners that would cause the corrections that you computed during the testing!
    Also, if the inside of the shell isn't milled precisely, the shell will "wander off", with an ever increasing spiral, target! (Kinda like certain cheap 7.62 x 39 ammo from China, or former Communist Countries getting rid of their Military Surplus Ammo….)

    Reply
  10. Aerospikes for drag reduction in aviation work at supersonic speeds where they create a detached shockwave which in turn effects streamline airflow, so a direct nautical equivalent is hard to envisage. The transom stern is equivalent to the automotive Kamm back – as applied on the Shelby Daytona coupe and similar.

    Reply

Leave a Comment