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The naval war in the Atlantic, fought mostly by German submarines against allied merchant ships, forced the allies to find new ways to defend their vital supply lines. One of the solutions was the creation of an entirely new kind of ship, which hid heavy armament behind the appearance of a helpless merchant ship.
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This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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The Germans had their own versions & might also make an interesting story. Thank you for this one.
Q ship is now slang for a hot rod car of some sort that doesn't look like a hot rod.
5:58 anyone notice the red dot on the “R” in German?
I'd like to see you do an episode on my cousin once removed's plane from WW2. It was a B-29 named "Empire Express". It took off from Tinian and went down on a bombing raid over main land Japan. A Japanese pilot rammed into them sheering off a wing. Some of the crew were able to get out and chutes opened. My cousin once removed (Ralph Romines) was one of these. He was the right blister turret gunner. This is where the story gets blurry. Some accounts say that the men then landed and were killed by the locals, others say they were caught then taken to a local Japanese army base only to be beheaded and they're bodies burnt or buried, and yet another says that the army base was next to a medical school and the men were experimented on before being killed and they're bodies buried in a still unknown location. The loss of her only child haunted my great aunt Bonnie for the rest of her life. The army never did/could give her a decent explanation of what really went on. When she began to suffer from Alzheimer's in the early 90's, she use to call me Ralph, I guess maybe because I was right at the age he was when he died. I always felt so bad for her. She had a large picture of him on her wall for as far back as I can remember. It's the one picture of him I can find online, not sure how it got there. My mom has it still and she didn't do it. Maybe it was the army. They would visit Bonnie a few times after it happened to update her on things they found out, but I don't think she ever knew anything other than his plane went down and he didn't make it home. The local Japanese apparently made a monument to the crew of both planes on the side of the mountain that both aircraft crashed into. So, I don't know if I buy the story of the locals killing them. A person by the name Mike Berg wrote a book about it named "The crew of the Empire Express and peace on a quiet mountain in Japan", I have a copy on the way. I just thought it might make an interesting episode and that you may have better sources for information than I do. Thanks for all the great videos over the years and please keep up the great work keeping history alive!
Thank You!
Thank you Lance for another extremely interesting episode ! I always learn the most amazing things here !
Wasn't the Enterprise a Q-ship?
(I'm waiting to see if anybody caught that.)
Mmm unrestricted sub warfare may have played a roll in selling 'entering the war' to the American public but the resolve to join the fight was forged by the huge debts amassed by Great Britain and France that would not be repaid if Germany won.
Not sure whether disgust or admiration is the appropriate response to British loophole abuse shortening the war.
Why has you voice been sped up? It’s driving me nuts. It’s better with you normal speaking rate.
Now I know the origin of Q Ships.
SciFi Author David Webber, Creator of the Honor Harrington Universe in the First book { On Basilisk Station } Introducing Honor Harrington but also the make up of a space navy vs wet navy and of course Q ships.
I was unaware of the use of Q ships in wet navies but not surprised. Honor Harrington named her six legged Companion Nimitz and she being an Officer in the Royal Manticorian Navy was an avid amateur historian of the Wet navies of old Earth.
During WWII the German’s used false “merchant ships” as raiders on allied merchant ships. I read Bantam War Book about such a ship off the west coast of Africa.
I guess they were the last of the privateer’s of the high seas.
Such sneaky tactics led to the abandonment of rules and to unrestricted submarine warfare. Not sure if it was such a great idea.
I enjoy your videos, but I was disappointed that you made no mention of the Barlaong Incident of 1915 when the captain of the Q-ship HMS Baralong ordered all captured German submariners to be executed on the spot. Perhaps you could make a video on this dark episode of British WWI history.
You attribute unrestricted U- Boat warfare by Germany as the primary reason the US was drawn in to WW1. This is only partially correct; any discussion of the topic of US entry without discussing the Zimmerman telegram detracts from the record. Otherwise, a very interesting video thanks.
Fun fact Q branch in the James Bond novels gets it’s name from the Q ships
Never did understand why Germany trying to battle with surface ships when resource was better expended on U Boats That having 2x or more have rul ed the see
I would say that I didn't discover the subject with your video, but they are always well made.
I would say that the mose entertaining story of q-ships in WW1, with all due respect for those that died in wars, may be the story of the two Carmania(s) :
The german decided to disguise one of their civil ships, into the replica of the carmania, a british civil ship, making what is called in french an auxiliary cruiser, but the brittish also turned the original carmania into a q-ship, and with a stroke of bad luck one of the first ships the fake carmania met what the modified original wich sunk the copy.
if you want a short french video describing (on a funny tune) the story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcJWzmLOh9k
Thank you for your content!!
Q-Tips would have been a good sponsor of this episode.
There is a book on Q-ships during WWII. I read it and enjoyed it. Thanks for the WWI q-ship history,.
10:30 HMS Poggers?! 😂
6:15 hey guys, submarines are acting honorably by exposing themselves to fire to warn vessels and crew to abandon ship. You know what would be SMART?! Let's KILL ANY WHO ACT HONORABLY LOL. Oh my GOD why are all the subs sinking everything that floats?! These crew are literally the WORST PEOPLE EVER AND LITERALLY H17L3R!
All I can say? I only wish all of the ships and captains would have been sunk in horrible fashion without rescue for punishing honorable sub captains. You get what you SHUCKING deserve. You want war? Fine. Everyone drowns.
A book worth reading is "My Mystery Ships", which is a very detailed story about the Q ships… I unfortunately can't remember the author as I first read it almost 60 years ago.. For those who still read… 😁
I am 67 and my dad fought in WW1. Do the math. He was born in 1898. He was a pharmacist mate on a cruiser. He was 22 years older than my mom.
Another masterful history lesson from this world class historian !!
Thank you for this story!! I'm 64 and as a child my grandmother's friend Mrs Mackie who's husband had fought in WW1 told me a story with a Q- ship in it!!
When I was a kid in the sixties here in England every old person's house you went round would have examples of "trench art" from the great war, usually in their front room/lounge and in pride of place on the mantel piece (above the fire place). It was usually in the form of brass shell cases of varying sizes, some plain, some decorated and some turned into unusual things (for want of a better word), alas now all gone.
The first I came across the term "Q-ship" was in some submarine fiction, which depicted a "Q-ship" loaded full of ping-pong balls, making it almost impossible to sink. A sub captain wants to shoot a target that is beyond such a Q-ship, and is aware of what it is. He orders the depth setting of one or more torpedoes set so they can cruise under the high-riding Q-ship and hit the target on the other side. This story was set in WWII.
Q-ships were tried briefly in WW2, with little success. Since Cruiser Rules weren't in force during WW2 the strategy wasn't very effective, and they were useless as part of a convoy.
Have you given any thought to a program on Ripple rock?
But . . . Why name them Q ships?
Maybe Q from James Bond invented them.🤔
This is really cool. I don't think there is enough said about the Q-ships and their contribution.
What the Video fails to mention is that the use of the Q Ships was allready breaking the crusierrules, and that some Q Ships actually even commited war crimes by using neutral flags or killing surrendered UBoot Crewmen https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baralong_incidents
I signed up for magellan but I think you got screwed out of the commission.
Do you think the 1918 "Spanish" flu had any effect on the ending of WW 1? Was the decimation of the number of Germanys soldiers
already so great that the flu tipped the scale?
The HMS Kingfisher took part in the only Revolutionary war battle to take place in my county (Cape May Co. NJ) The Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet – June 29, 1776
Excellent.
Thanks to THG🎀….Shoe🇺🇸
I was first introduced to Q-ships by Admiral Hazard in "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank. It seemed like an ingenious idea.
The sponsorship ad insert for Magellan TV was executed flawlessly. It related perfectly to the context of the video. It's not often that I don't fast forward through a sponsor ad.