[EN] Armchair Admirals - Operation Iceberg, Ten-Go, Laffey the Unsinkable and much more!
Operation Iceberg: Kamikaze, Logistik und die Schlacht um Okinawa
![[EN] Armchair Admirals - Operation Ic...](/static/thumb/video/worriy4m-480p.avif)
Eine Analyse der Operation Iceberg, der Invasion von Okinawa, beleuchtet Kamikaze-Angriffe und alliierte Reaktionen. Die Diskussion umfasst Logistik, britische Beteiligung, Flugzeugtypen und die strategischen Differenzen zwischen den Alliierten. Die Bedeutung der Logistik und die Anpassungsfähigkeit der US Navy werden ebenso hervorgehoben wie die Rolle der Kaiser Shipyards und die Entwicklung neuer Flugzeugtypen.
World of Warships
00:00:00
00:04:47 Yamato war der letzte Samurai von der Japanischen Fläche.
00:05:01 Sie war die größte Battleship in der Welt und hatte auch die größte Batterie-Battern, Armour-Empflicht und eine Elite-Team in charge. Im Frühjahr 1945, Yamato engagierte in eine Krieg, die die Japan-Destinne definierte. Die Operation wurde genannt Tengo, und es ist erinnert als Yamato's finalen Mission.
00:05:43 That's the wrong screen.
Operation Iceberg und die Invasion von Okinawa
00:05:47
00:05:47 Hello, everyone, and welcome to this month's Armchair Admirals, where I'm joined by Legionnaire from our NA office and Dr. Alexander Clark, who many of you, I'm sure, recognize by this point. And on tonight's episode, we'll be talking about Operation Iceberg, more commonly known as the Invasion of Okinawa, the final and largest amphibious assault in history, if I believe, in terms of number of ships involved, even larger than Overlord.
00:06:16 Overlord is a debate of whether it's an amphibious assault or not, though. Well, technically, even according to von NATO doctrine, it's a river crossing because it's a shore-to-shore maneuver rather than a ship-to-shore maneuver, which is the definition for an amphibious operation. So that leads to all sorts of fun things. And of course, you classically get from the US Marines, if you're ever in a conference with them and they're talking about it, they go, of course it was an amphibious operation that we weren't involved.
00:06:46 Und so, es ist ein funes Ding, es ist ein funes Ding, es ist ein funes Ding zu bringen als ein Debate. Wir tenden zu benutzen es als ein Lesson, als part of Amphibus Warfare history, und da ist es ein Riesenmessen für ein Massive Book, hier. Ich werde das für den Diskussion grabieren, das ist, von der Way, highly recommended für jemanden interessiert in Amphibus Warfare. Es ist von Tristam Lovatt, und es ist Amphibus Assault Maneuver von der Sea.
00:07:11 Wenn ich sage, es hat alles in es, es läuft von Gallipoli in 1915 bis zum Irak und Al-Fall landen in 2003. Also, alles aus der 20th und Anfang der 21st-Century ist in hier, und ist in ziemlich viel detail. So, ja, es ist ein Worte, das Buch ist, aber auch, wie er in hier steht.
00:07:39 It puts in that there is a whole debate around the D-Day landings. But obviously there is no debate about Okinawa, because the United States had to bring, well, everything with it by boat. There are, I guess by this point, so I guess we'll set the scene, it's mid-45, April 1st, actually, and Iwo Jima, the Battle for Iwo Jima is still ongoing. The Philippines are still being fought over.
00:08:08 But the US military schedule waits for no man. And so Okinawa is picked after great debate between the Joint Chiefs about whether to land on Formosa, what is now Taiwan, or go straight for Japan. But Okinawa, which for those of you who aren't sure where it is in the world, is to the south of Japan. It's a small chain of islands.
00:08:34 um but actually quite big when when we think of the battles of the pacific when it's often described as fighting over tiny bits of sand that no one's ever heard of
00:08:47 But this is arguably the first case of Japan proper. I believe Iwo Jima was technically considered part of the Tokyo Prefecture in terms of organisation from the Japanese governmental side. But Okinawa is sort of the gateway to southern Japan. And so the US Navy and Army agree that they are going to take the island and put together one of the first ever proper joint forces.
00:09:16 The US 10th Army, which ends up consisting of four US Army divisions and three Marine divisions. And it's also the biggest battle of the war in terms of land troops.
00:09:29 But from the Japanese perspective, obviously the war isn't going well for them at this point. No. No. So in China, the Chinese forces are beginning their counterattacks. The British in Burma are beginning their major counterattacks down to retake Rangoon with efforts to retake British Malaya and such.
00:09:57 The Japanese plan for this great defensive barrier into the Pacific has basically entirely collapsed at this point. If you're a Japanese soldier on an island the Americans didn't bother to invade, bomb or shell, you're eating grass at this point. Grass? If you're lucky. Yes, if you're lucky. If the island produces grass, you're lucky. And so the Japanese decide...
00:10:26 Sie wissen, dass Okinawa eine dieser Position ist, in dieser shift in Late-War-Japanese-Doctrine, dass, stattdessen zu repeln an Invasion an den Beach, das ist was passiert in den früheren Island-Hopping-Battles, stattdessen zu adoptieren, wie es auf Iwo Jima ist.
00:10:49 Where we are going to make this as bloody and as expensive and men and material as possible for the Americans in the hope that this time it'll work and America will come to the negotiating table. Not really. No, this is not... No, it's not even... Whilst there are some who hopefully believe that, most are thinking about buying time for actually strengthening the defense of the Japanese home islands.
00:11:15 Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja.
00:11:42 They wanted somewhere closer to Japan to support bombing operations and the other things they were planning on doing. And frankly, Formosa just wasn't close enough. Yes, and Mainland China wasn't as easily accessible. And even if you wanted to get to Mainland China, as some US staff suggested, you've still got to go through the silent chain, the Ryukus. So if you're going by, might as well take them. Yeah, and Mainland China also has issues in terms of...
00:12:11 the politics and factions you're dealing with there because whilst the civil war had died down to an extent in China as they both as they'd all focus on the Japanese threat it hadn't gone away and the Americans and the British were both very sensitive about stepping into that particular cauldron of mess and finding themselves wrapped up in that yeah so at the end of the day
00:12:39 The US Navy's plan wins out, or more specifically Nimitz's plan wins out, to go for Okinawa and the islands around it. And so you end up on April 1st, while the Battle of Iwo Jima is still ongoing. Elements of the US Navy arrive off Okinawa and begin bombardment efforts. And at this point in the war, the US Navy has gotten exceptionally good at shore bombardment.
00:13:04 And all the old battleships that were damaged at Pearl Harbor are now back in service. Do we have the one of Idaho? Thank you. So here is USS Idaho in her semi-rebuilt form because she was one of the battleships that wasn't present at Pearl Harbor. But US military industrial capacity? Why not refit her? We have the space. We have the guns. Slap them on. Americans love guns.
00:13:30 She brings 12 14-inch guns to the party, which is not a party you want to be on the receiving end of. It's a fireworks display you really don't want to enjoy from up close and personal. This is one of the reasons why the Japanese have abandoned shore defence, because the running rates of casualty on shore defence, when they've been trying to hold the shores against US Navy artillery bombardment from...
00:13:57 The battleships, from the cruisers, even from the destroyers and other vessels, have been running at sometimes 100 casualties for every one American they take out. And that's just not sustainable. Their plan originally, when it came to defense against amphibious assaults, had been to defend every inch, every inch of soil. And now they treated it like, well, no, to beach anything which is in direct line of sight of these things is just not going to be a safe place to be.
00:14:22 Ja. Ja.
00:14:52 Es war sehr...
00:14:56 Oh, good lord. It really was a repeat of what they'd done versus the Mongol invasions. It was literally, we want to stand on the beaches and we will take the enemy head-on on the beaches. And that might work if you've got an archery advantage versus your opponents and the advantage in hills. But when they're packing 14-inch guns, you ain't going to have those. And 16-inch guns, definitely not. Yeah, and this is a point in the war where the Japanese have fully established themselves as a master of entrenchment.
00:15:26 This is something that the Japanese, probably by the campaigns and the Marianas, are gaining a reputation for, where they know how to dig into anything. And Okinawa's geology is actually quite supportive of these efforts, because it's a lot of sort of coral rock, which is, it's quite dense, it's difficult to break. The downside would be, if you do make it break, it does shatter into a million razor sharp.
00:15:55 So it's dangerous to be advancing through, but if you can dig into it, you can gain quite a lot of advantages. And for the defense, they have 100,000 troops on this island. Yeah, that's one of the key things and features here is you've got a distinction between other battlefields of this time. You've got Normandy where they had to basically build a ton of shore.
00:16:19 um shore facilities bunkers everything along those lines just to provide themselves some room um but if you are on the ground and you're trying to fight and you're basically under a clock of how long you have to fortify using the available the available terrain to your greatest advantage especially in this setting they really kind of latched onto that and did an incredible job and they were so fortified i forget
00:16:46 Ich weiß nicht genau die Details, aber man konnte nicht die Fortifikationen einfach nur weil man den Soil war sehr schwierig zu erfüllen, mit Standard Ordnance. Das ist warum wir Bunker Busters haben und so weiter jetzt. Aber ja, mit dem Masterful Use der Terrain und der bereits existen, ich will nicht sagen Infrastruktur, aber der bereits existen
00:17:12 in that terrain just really enhanced their capabilities. But that kind of only applied to Inland. Yes, but at this point, probably the master class of Japanese defense in the Pacific is often held up as Iwo Jima. Because General Kobayashi, I believe, was like, there's no point fighting on the beaches because we'll all be blown to pieces. And so by this point, it's...
00:17:39 More a case of let them come ashore and then inflict the casualties because we can't stop them on the beach. So let's not really try.
00:17:50 Actually, it wasn't Iwo Jima. And actually, this was a big problem, because they'd lost their real master of those defences and building defences. And a lot of the guy who come up with a lot of theories and ideas behind them, a guy called Colonel Kunio Nakagawa, who'd been in charge of defences and building defences on Peleu. And he'd come up with a lot of theory. And he'd been... Yeah, Peleu was an absolute nightmare to take.
00:18:12 Und es war eigentlich ein paar Leute, die Leute zu implementieren, seine Theories und seine Pläne. Das war der Grund, warum Pellew war so ein Nightmare. Er war derjenige, der Kommandor hat ihn und sagte, du bist der Experte auf das, mach das du willst, fortifiziere dich zu deinem Herzen. Hier ist das viel Resultat ich dir. Geh es. Und wir alle wissen, was passiert mit Pellew. Und Colonel Kunio Nakagawa hat eine sehr große Loss für die...
00:18:36 in pure Japanese army and the fact is they they promote him to i think lieutenant general posthumously because of his service he's a really really interesting character yeah and uh there's somebody from the chat to ask about dogs both me and legionnaire have our fluffy research assistants with us yes yes they have both of us so they can be saying hello at any time
Kamikaze-Angriffe und alliierte Gegenmaßnahmen
00:19:01
00:19:01 Someone asked earlier in the chat, is this the battle with all the kamikaze strikes? Yes. And this is also partially due to poor Allied intelligence, because the island, if we go back to the map, the island to the bottom left is Formosa, modern day Taiwan. US intelligence had them with 89 aircraft on the island. There were 700.
00:19:31 Es ist die Liste der Intelligenz-Failings gegen die Japanse durch World War II. Sie immer sehen, als wir penetraten und die Informationen haben, sie immer sehen, dass sie etwas ausfüllen.
00:19:58 Ultimately, because they decided not to broadcast everything, whereas the Germans, God love them, they broadcast everything at maximum power every single chance they get. So the US fleet attacking or supporting the invasion of Okinawa has to put itself between Japan proper to its northeast and Formosa and the Sakashima Islands, which also have their own airfields, to its southwest. So the US, in military doctrine...
00:20:26 As a rule, you don't want the enemy on both sides of your force, because it means that you can't focus your attentions in one direction. You have to split your force, so the force that you can bring in any one direction is usually half or a third of what your total force is. And the Japanese understand this, which is why the Japanese really start using their kamikazes in major force.
00:20:53 This is close enough to the home islands that even older, less range aircraft can make the trip one way. But that being said, Kamikaze aircraft were generally not given enough fuel for a one way trip, because if they couldn't find a target worth attacking, they were supposed to come back. So they did have as much fuel as Japan at the time could spare for them. We'll also touch on that when we get to Yamato.
00:21:21 And so the fleet starts arriving on the 1st of April. By the 6th, the Japanese have organized, they've activated the plans they have for the defense of the islands, and the kamikazes really start coming in. And if you've seen photos of the Pacific War, you've probably seen some of the images we're going to share because they're like the default ones. Because a kamikaze striking a warship is an incredibly...
00:21:49 visceral image, so I guess. Do we have Bunker Hills? This is probably the most famous one.
00:21:57 Because this is USS Bunker Hill, Essex-class, one of the most powerful warships of her time. And thanks to the, I guess you could call it bravery, insanity, patriotism of two pilots, she was knocked out for the rest of the war. Something that the conventional Japanese Navy struggled to do, knocking out US carriers permanently with the kamikazes. One man, one plane.
00:22:26 And a bomb? In the cruel arithmetic of war, Kamerakazi kind of makes sense. Definitely a very big bomb and very fanatic. But yeah, the voice from the deep here. What I'm also trying to do is I was in Okinawa myself in 2019 and I have some images that I'm currently looking for from the submarine bunker or the observation bunker structure on top of the mountain inside
00:22:56 Nara City, I think it was. One of the big cities next to the airport. And now this big US airbase there. There are two things I'd like to point out. One of them is that there's a lot of people in the chat going, we'd like to make the dogs part of the chat, part of the Armchair Emerald regularly. Just before this stream, I was suggesting we replace the humans with the dogs. So I'd like to point out, I came up with that idea first. We unfortunately don't have an office dog. You need one.
00:23:23 Es ist ein muss-haves. Und zweitlich, das ist eigentlich die Piloten nicht Fanatik. Die Piloten waren professionell, sie waren professionell, sie waren mit dem Training sie hatten, sie waren als normaler, als Sie getten, die Leute, die in den Armforzen waren, und sie waren sicher, dass...
00:23:51 Und sie haben immer gesagt, dass wenn sie nicht kämpft mit jedem Stück ihrer Leben, und sogar mit ihrer Leben, dann wird Japan nicht nur als eine Nation, sondern als Menschen, als ein Leben, als eine Kultur zu verletzten. Sie müssen immer noch ein Grund, warum Japan in der Krieg geht, ist sie die Amerikaner nicht nur als ein nationaler Wettbewerb, sondern als ein existentiales Wettbewerb zu ihrem Leben.
00:24:20 Es geht zurück zu Commodore Perry und der Black Fleet. Aber eigentlich, poor America hat, durch verschiedene Regionen, sehr schlechtes Diplomaten, zu finden sich in einer similaren Position mit Japan an dieser Stelle, wie Britain ist, wie Russland. Every time Russland ist für einen evilen Willen in der Welt, es ist immer Britain. Das ist die Mastermind behind it all.
00:24:48 Every single time you read it, it's Britain mastermindedness. And I'm going, have you looked at our governments for the last few years? They can't even mastermind a party in a brewery, let alone anything like that.
00:25:03 Let's call it reverberations in history. Yeah, we know that the governments used to be quite good at doing this thing, but the Karamons haven't been, so we're not sure who you're picking on here. Exactly, and so with all of this propaganda and fearmongering and indoctrination, you end up with the US Navy...
00:25:30 As an institution, it is looking at the kamikaze threat quite clinically. You see ships coming in for refits or dropping anti-ship weaponry for increased anti-aircraft firepower. For a great example, we have in game, as a point of reference, is USS Kidd. In game, she's presented in her late-war form where they've pulled torpedoes off her so they can put more anti-aircraft guns on.
00:25:57 Their aircraft carrier groups are being modified to carry more fighters, because that's what you need to deal with these threat vectors. And the US Navy is developing the doctrine of picket ships.
00:26:16 Being the guy dedicating destroyers to position themselves around the island in a circle to provide, in theory, complete and total radar coverage so that they can detect these airstrikes coming in and vector in their combat air patrol to...
00:26:37 ...to engage and break up these formations before they reach the fleet. But no plan is perfect, as the image shows, that these kamikazes are still able to get through all of this and get at the carriers. And those fighters, by the way, and those picket ships, they're all part of something which was developed by a guy called John Fack, who was also the guy who came up with the Fack Weave at the beginning of the war.
00:26:59 ...which managed to turn Wildcats into really good killers of Zeros by just weaving in and out. He came up with the concept of the big blue blanket... ...which was basically you would have constant fighters everywhere all the time... ...and you would have pickets and you'd have constant air sectors... ...so it'd be constantly watching and going, if there's anything appears in this area... ...it will be deluged by fighters before it gets anywhere close.
00:27:22 Und es ist in den ersten Zeiten, es kommt durch, es beginnt zu werden. Denn du kannst du eine Theorie, du kannst du eine Idee haben, wie du etwas deployst. Du kannst es alles gut, das ist mein Proposal-Papier. Aber es dauert einen Moment. Aber es dauert einen Moment. Und Drack hat jetzt erreicht, in Portsmouth. Sehr gut. Ich kann das sagen, weil er grünen bei mir.
00:27:46 Ja, und du hast auch die Japaner, und als großartige als Ihr Plan ist, natürlich die Japaner sind, die sich ausfügt, was die Radars können sehen. Also, Radar in dieser Zeit, in der Late-War-Ware-Advanced-Sets sind, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es, da gibt es 30 Jahre, 20 Jahre.
00:28:14 And so the Japanese are learning from experience of, like, send a couple aircraft up high to appear on a radar to draw enemy fighters in that direction, while the main force comes from a different angle. Because they have the advantage of the bases to the southwest, they can distract from Japan and hit from the Sakashima chain, which for the US carriers initially means that they tend to take quite a lot of damage from that direction.
00:28:40 Which is why, when the British Pacific Fleet arrives in force, they're detailed to suppress and deal with that entire flank of the invasion, so that the US can focus from aircraft coming from Japan proper, while providing support to the troops on the ground, which is difficult because of how Japanese entrenchment works. Like, this is the era... The Pacific War is the theatre of the flamethrower.
00:29:07 To be fair, the British did also deploy one of the, I'm not going to call him evil, but certainly if you're fighting against him, you would give him that description. Commanders they produced in the entirety of World War II, a guy called Philip Vien. And it's during this battle that he gets pissed off because some people won't take destroyers to go pick up his downed airmen. So he says, that's fine. You can't send the destroyers because they won't be safe on their own. That's fine.
00:29:35 und beginnt seinen Carrieren. Und so seine Tasker-Reforce-Commander hat ihn in seinen Battleships, mit den Crews und Destroyern, die den Carrieren schlägen seinen Carrieren, das werden ihn aufbauen.
00:29:51 You also have a slightly odd situation once the British Pacific Fleet deploys. At one point, while they're attacking the Sakashima Islands, one of the British Avengers goes down and a U.S. sub pops up and says, oh, you know, but we'll rescue you because the U.S. sub have plenty of practice doing this by this point.
00:30:18 So you've got a US Navy sub picking up a British pilot to his carrier and then almost simultaneously a British sub a couple of dozen miles away picks up a US aviator who's been shot down in a US Avenger and he's actually been shot down off Okinawa but has had the misfortune to basically be blown by wind and current most of the way to the Sakashima area.
00:30:42 So you have both sides picking up each other's pilots, well, both elements of the Allied fleet picking up each other's pilots at the same time. Because there's no way better to really discuss this, I sent Fructini a picture. Can you put him up on the screen?
00:31:02 Ja, das ist, was Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cuthbert Hay of the Royal Marines. Er war eine der zwei Air Group Commanders, und was die British haben, dass sie die Air Group split zwischen den beiden Carrieren waren. Er war in charge der Air Groups von zwei Carrieren, an dieser Stelle, und zwei der Fleet Carrieren waren. Er war eine der zwei Piloten, die wir auf jeden Morgen gehen.
00:31:27 Philip Vian writes in his book about them flying off in Hellcats, but I think they were flying off in Corsairs. And they were the air group commanders, and they fly off in the morning solo to check what targets is first thing in the morning for the day, and then would come back and give them instructions to the air groups. This caused trouble for several days in a row because of the big blue blanket and the whole idea of the air defense and the doctrine of them.
00:31:52 Total Defense of the Sea, because the Americans kept finding these solo fighters wandering around, and they thought they had lost from their fighter patrol, and they kept ordering them to join up. And at one point, you get a very interesting discussion where a major of the U.S. Marines is having an argument with Ronald Cuthbert Kaye, and basically says to him, you should be saluting a senior officer. And Kaye responds, well, I'm a lieutenant colonel, so that means you need to salute me, right?
00:32:22 Weil der Major das war, das war ein jr. Pilot auf sein, das er musste, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten, um ihn zu retten.
00:32:50 I really do. So they get to fly off solo first thing in the morning. Don't have to do a briefing first thing. They get to go for a flight first thing. Solo around the island. See what they see. Make the decisions. And then come back. They get to do that. They basically get to go for a joyride every morning. There's got to be some benefits of rank.
00:33:13 Ich meine, Jess. Die Amerikaner wissen nicht, die Britannien wissen. Und die Amerikaner sagen, warum sind das? Und die Amerikaner sagen, weil sie uns das tun. Und diese Leute sind unsere Air Group Commanders und sie sagen, es ist notwendig. Und die Air Group Commanders sagen, wir beide agree, das ist komplett notwendig. Ja, genau. Und so, so, so at this point you've got the, the Kamikazes are.
00:33:39 coming in in greater and greater numbers. Sometimes they all get shot down. Other times they do, a couple aircraft do slip through. Bunker Hill is hit. Several of the other ships are quite badly damaged. The picket destroyers take an absolute pasting because they're the first thing that a lot of these Japanese aircraft see. And so...
Schäden und Logistik
00:34:07
00:34:07 So they get a pacing USS Franklin, which is possibly the greatest display of US damage control of any of the carriers in World War II, because she doesn't even take a kamikaze hit. She's attacked entirely conventionally when she takes a pair of 500 kilo bombs from a Japanese Judy dive bomber that, as far as anyone recalls, it just appears out of a cloud bank above the task force.
00:34:37 Puts a pair of bombs into Franklin right as she's preparing to launch a major strike. So all the worst horrors of what happens to the Japanese carriers at Midway when their hangars are full of fuelled and armed aircraft, Franklin gets hit in exactly the same circumstances. And her and she, the only thing she doesn't do is detonate. Aircraft explode, fuel ignites, munitions go off. She suffers 800 casualties.
00:35:06 I don't think she does.
00:35:28 um she is she doesn't return to service in the sec mod war still muted sir
00:35:40 This is where we have the fun time of tech support. Yeah, she never went to see again. She was just redesignated constantly with things and then she was stricken from a register in 1964. I had to go check my notes. Yeah, and so she is taken out for the entire rest of the war. Her crew display incredible skill, competence and bravery keeping her together.
00:36:06 And what is incredible that she even manages to regain propulsion and sails most of the way back to the US under her own power.
00:36:17 But Franklin is taken out. Bunker Hill is crippled. Several other US ships are damaged. Several of the battleships providing support to the fleet are hit. So even though the US are bringing like eight fleet carriers, light carriers, escort carriers, they have hundreds of fighters.
00:36:42 The Japanese are still able to get through and hit mainline capital warships.
00:36:48 Ja, und so... Ja, weil du, wenn du in der Verfassung der Verfassung bist, hast du recht, dass du recht hast. Du hast nur recht, wenn du recht hast. Und die Trouble ist, besonders wenn wir darüber sprechen, und ich habe ein paar Diskussionen über Air Defense zu sehen, auf meinem Kanal. Die Sache ist, wir schreiben, wir schreiben über die Zeit, die Air Defense zu verlieren. Wir schreiben nicht über die Zeit, die Air Defense zu verlieren. Wir schreiben nicht über die Zeit, die Air Defense zu verlieren.
00:37:16 Our fighters intercepted, the Air Heavy AA went off, one aircraft got through, it missed, went home. It's usually a couple of lines in a book at most. So in Bunker Hill's case, if we can bring up her image again, well, Fruttini assists with Drax tech issues. I do love, there's been a smiling Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Marines. He's just been there the entire time. He would have found it appropriate. He died only in 2001.
00:37:45 Can we have Bunker Hill back on screen? I was just going to mention with Bunker Hill, so the US fleet is facing a multi-pronged approach from the Japanese, which is causing the problems. As you mentioned Kilobin, you've got the kamikazes coming through in large numbers, but you also have as well as
00:38:14 these Judy bombers, and they recur time and time again in various accounts, operating solo or occasionally in pairs, and they seem to have basically what's left of the battle-hardened experienced Japanese pilots, because they usually flown extremely well, and they sometimes mix in with the kamikaze assaults, and sometimes they...
00:38:42 Aber sie verwendet viel Arbeit die Japaner haben, mit elektronischen Untermeasures und elektronischen Intelligenz. Sie haben so, wie die Japaner versuchen, nachdem es eine US-AIRCRAF in den Rettung der Amerikanischen Striken. Die Amerikanischen Striken versuchen, die Striken über die Striken-Destroyer über die Pickett-Destroyer, und die Pickett-Destroyer-Destroyer-Destroyer-Destroyer-Destroyer-Eich-AIRCRAFT.
00:39:11 But they've also identified where there are likely to be blind spots in the radar in US fleet formations, because of course radar carries and can be detected a lot further than the radar can detect an incoming returning signal. So the Japanese have developed a number of techniques for the fact that by this point in the war they know what the American IFF frequencies are.
00:39:39 So, to a certain degree, they can track US strikes by just listening to the IFF things, even if they can't really do all that much about them, they at least know where they are and where they're going, which in turn also means they know roughly what direction they've come from, which tells them roughly where their carriers are, which helps them guide their kamikazes, even if their scout aircraft aren't having all that much luck.
00:40:04 One of the other things that they've worked out is that when carriers are doing flight operations, whether that be takeoff, landing or getting ready, one of the things I've noticed is that the carriers themselves won't use their radar on their port side, because obviously the island is on the starboard side, and the Americans had worked out that if you aimed...
00:40:31 der Radar über den Flugzeug war mit dem Flugzeug, leden sich an alle die IFFs auf, die alles überwältigte. So, sie haben, weil sie nicht, dass sie nicht, dass sie durch die 360-Jährigen müssen. Sie können zu steigen, oder zu steigen, 200 oder 270-Jährigen werden. Die Japanese wissen nicht, dass das ist, warum die Amerikaner nicht eine Port-Side-Viehre von Radar haben.
00:40:58 Sie wissen, dass wenn die Amerikaner durchführt werden, es ist sehr vermutlich die Radar der Radar der Radar sieht nichts zu porten. Natürlich gibt es auch die Escorts für die Destroyer und die Kruisers und so weiter, aber die Radar der Radar der Radar ist meistens die höchste Radar, und sie haben viele von ihnen, wie Sie hier sehen, hier auf dem Island. Wenn Sie die accounts von diesen Lone-Duty Divebombers haben, viele von ihnen...
00:41:25 von der Porte, auch wenn der finalen Attacken einstehen oder ein Head. Die meisten von der Porte sind von der Porte von einer American-Formation. Und natürlich die Amerikaner sind die Taktik für das zu tun. Sie enden mit mehr Destroys und Kruisers auf die Formation zu tightenen die Radar-Netz und so weiter. Aber obwohl Okinawa ist nach dem Ende der Krieg...
00:41:50 Es ist noch ein enormes Arm-Race von Technik und Countertechnik zwischen den beiden Seiten. Und natürlich, wenn man mass Kamikaze-Strikes betrifft, wird man wahrscheinlich auf die große Reaktion von großen Formationen aus. Und die Reaktion von ein einziger Reaktion, von komplett off-Axis, könnte wohl nicht sein, weil ein Radar-Operator ein vielleicht ein Glitch oder so.
00:42:15 Und dann ist es zu late, dass es ein Elite-Jappanies Pilot mit einem Torpedo oder einem Bomben ist. Und das ist nicht besonders brillant. Und dann, wie du gesagt hast, als die verschiedenen Carrieren sind, haben wir mehr Carrieren gebracht. Aber in Zeiten, die Rate der Carrieren sind, ist zu den Rate der neuen Carrieren kommen. Overall, US-4's strength ist bei einem Level.
00:42:43 But given the number of ships they're pouring into the battle, when it comes to carriers, they're not able to massively increase their carrier strike strength throughout the campaign, which is one of the reasons why Spruance is so happy to see the British Pacific, because it's extra flight decks and it's relieving some of the pressure coming from the Japanese airfields in Sakishima.
00:43:07 Ja, und in Bunker Hill's case, ich glaube, das ist der Image ist, dass Mark Mitchell ist, in dieser attack, weil der Kamikaze-Strikes nahe der Island, Explode, Shrapnel-Kills-Several-Of-His-Staff-Destroys-All-His-Stuff, das ist sehr verrückt, weil seine Flaggabin ist in der attack, er Misses Death by, ich glaube, das ist ein paar Feet-Worth-Of-Shrapnel.
00:43:36 He comes screaming across where they're standing. And so he manages to survive by the skin of his teeth. So you could be on the most powerful warship in the US fleet and the most powerful fleet the US has ever assembled. But as we said, someone's only got to get lucky once. And you've got to roll lucky every single time.
00:44:00 Yeah, although one of the things that's really shown up by the Okinawa campaign is the strength at this point of the US logistics for, excuse me, because although carriers are getting damaged and obviously some of them are having to RTB all the way back to the US eventually to essentially be rebuilt, which is Franklin and Bunker Hill's fate, a lot of the others that are not so badly damaged are able to drop back to places like
00:44:29 Guam, for instance, these forward bases that the US has established with floating dry docks and repair facilities and spare parts. So although carriers are being knocked offline at a disturbingly high frequency, a number of those will actually show back up again a few days or a few weeks later.
00:44:51 with temporary repairs that have been done much, much closer to Okinawa than you'd think looking at just, you know, the big pre-war bases of Pearl Harbor and San Diego. Yeah, I mean, Ulysses being the key one where the US is moving entire floating dry docks that can take the battleships and the carriers. So if they don't need to, say, go back to San Francisco for full overhauls and repairs, the US...
00:45:15 Instead of needing a 30-day trip back to the States, it can be 10 days to Ulythi, 10 days repair and refit, and then they're back in a month overall. Great picture I've sent you, which is of USS Iowa in a floating dry dock while there. Yeah. And there's also pictures of USS Randolph having her repairs carried down at Ulythi after she'd been hit by a kamikaze. Yeah, because...
00:45:42 Despite the extreme damage that kamikazes do, one of the elements of US carrier design being their wooden flight decks, or more necessarily not a slab of armoured plate steel, if the flight deck is compromised, it's relatively speaking easy to repair. The carriers can, well, the US logistic chain basically brings the equivalent of spare flight decks with them.
00:46:10 Ja, und dann mit der Open... Sorry. No, mit der Open... Well, Sie callen Open Hangers. Basically, Sie haben große Roller-Shutters, die Sie benutzen, um die Hanger zu openen. Und das bedeutet, dass Sie nicht die Risik von einem Ausbau von Aviation Gas Fumes werden, wenn die Strikke durch die Hanger decken. Das bedeutet, dass Sie ein sehr schrecklich und schrecklich Fires werden können.
00:46:39 Aber die Fires müssen die Führung durch die Schmerzen zu bezeugen. Obviamente, wenn man ein Flugzeug oder ein Flugzeug hat, kann das sehr schlecht sein sein. Aber unlike bei vielen verschiedenen Japanischen Karrieren während der Krieg, Sie werden nicht mit einer Situation, wo... Shinhano und Taiho... Ja, genau. Wo man sagt, wir haben die Damage kontrolliert, es gibt ein paar Minimal Fires und vielleicht ein Sparks, wir sollten es gut sein.
00:47:08 something wanders into the path of a floating cloud of gasoline and suddenly the whole thing just explodes like a giant firecracker and that's it. Franklin is the worst case in the US case because she's hit mid strike preparation.
00:47:26 Sie haben nicht geschehen, sie haben nicht geschehen, sie haben nicht geschehen, sie ist in der Mitte der Prozesse, die eine Carrier verletzt werden, wenn sie es hit ist. Ja. Und dann... Das ist immer ein Scenario für sie. Also, es ist die ganze Sache für die US-Navy, weil sie, weil sie die Art und Weise sind, wie sie in der Führung der Führung war, in der Pacific...
00:47:52 Especially from their perspective, where they have their logistic supply chain, if it begins anywhere in the Pacific War, it begins on the west coast of the United States. They've set up a lot of facilities there to supply and sustain it. And yes, their primary industrial hub is still on the east coast at this point, but they can feed it and supply it quite easily and quite sustainably.
00:48:14 They have designed with it into their ships from the get-go this idea to make them as easy to repair as possible, as functionally interchangeable as possible. That's a key part of the Essex design process. And one of the reasons why they can build so many so quickly. And so, and then on the flip side, obviously when the British carriers arrive, they start taking kamikaze hits. Could we have the photo of Formidable, please?
Britische Beteiligung und Flugzeugtypen
00:48:44
00:48:44 Whereas she is one of the illustrious class. She has an armoured flight deck, three inches of armoured plate. And this photo, in terms of the fireball and the smoke, looks quite comparable to Bunker Hill's hit. She takes a zero, kind of a midships near the island, same sort of area of the ship. And while she has aircraft ready on flight deck as well.
00:49:11 But she is operational again in a few hours. Yeah, the casualties are measured in dozens rather than hundreds, because it keeps all the damage external. One of the other interesting things that they discover quite quickly when the British Pacific Fleet is operating, and this, it doesn't apply...
00:49:31 Why so much during the Okinawa Campaign, because the British Pacific Fleet is kind of operating semi-independently, but it will factor in as the campaign moves on and as the war moves on, is they discover that while the sea fire is about as fragile as an ancient Ming Vars and breaks every time you so much as look at it, it is pretty much the best fleet defense fighter they've got.
00:49:57 Es ist sehr leicht, und bei diesem Punkt, es gibt einen Griffon-Engine-Versionen, das bedeutet, dass sie hochschlägt wie absoluter Rockets, als mit einem anderen anderen in den Pacific. Sie sind sehr langfristig, als mit einem Hellcat oder einem Corsair, aber das Kombination der Speed, Agilität und auch der Inline-Engine, also das sie sehr verschiedenste, von alles andere, macht sie sehr gute Point-Defense-Interceptors, weil sie sich um ...
00:50:26 Intercept incoming Kamikazes. And if they don't get them on the first pass, they're actually able to turn around and chase them. So there's quite a few rather interesting accounts from British Pacific Fleet Operations where you have Kamikaze aircraft that have broken past the Combat Air Patrol, at which point normally it would be down to anti-aircraft gunners to try and take them down. And instead, you have lone seafires zipping through the fleet, gunning down Kamikazes left, right and centre.
00:50:54 weil der sehr distinctive Schade der Anti-Aircraft-Gunners, obwohl sie natürlich auch unter irgendwelchen Pressuren, um, in den bestimmten Situationen zu lassen, haben sie alleine, während der British Pacific very quickly learns, dass wenn man einen der Corsairs versucht, dann die Anti-Aircraft-Gunners sagen, dass er eine große Radial-Engine kommt für mich, dann schießt es. Und nach ein paar Friendly Fire-Incidents, sie entscheiden, okay, Corsair ist auf Combat Air Patrol, Seafir ist auf Point Defense.
00:51:22 Und das wird, als die Operation durch den Krieg geht, und die Briefe operieren mit den USA, mit den USA enden, zu einer bestimmten Art und Weise, mit Seafires quasi über in Pointe-Defense, generell, weil es die Capabilität gibt.
00:51:40 Es ist alles gut und positiv, aber ein guter Teil davon ist, dass sie einfach nicht die Führung für die Avengers und die Helldivers haben, wie Airfields und so weiter, als die Gorsairs und Hellcats können. Ja. Und Wiener hat sich auch sehr interessante Informationen über Wiener. Ich will preface the section I'm about to read by reading an earlier section. Er war technically under, as I've mentioned, Admiral Rawlings' command.
Britische und Amerikanische Strategien und Logistik im Pazifikkrieg
00:52:08
00:52:08 The Admiral Rawlings Force was now added as Task Force 67, and under the agreement by which we are bound, the tactical control of Task Force 67 was reserved to Admiral Rawlings, an arrangement which was to prove unworkable in practice when we came to operate as an integral part of the combined forces. Now...
00:52:27 He goes on, discusses the sea fires being used. One of the things he does bring up is, on one day they were hit by, his flagship was hit by a kamikaze, and it came very close to causing very serious damage, but actually skipped across the deck and went over. But it was worried it was going to hit the island, because the one point they were worried about kamikazes hitting in terms of the British carriers, was if they hit the island structure at its base.
00:52:53 Because a number of communication systems and other systems vital to the operation of the whole ship go through that area. And it was worried about it being severely damaged. So the British is sort of going, well, our ships are...
00:53:07 Because the British have built their ships with the idea of fighting in the South China Sea to get to Japan, because that was their Japan war scenario, of fighting up against all those land-based aircraft or fighting in the Mediterranean against the Italians or, you know, as options. This is one of the reasons why they chose armour. The Americans chose larger air groups and it was basically, it was under Washington-London treaties. You could have one or the other. You couldn't have both.
00:53:31 Sie haben beide. Sie haben beide. Sie sind die Mid-Way- und die Maltin-Class-Design. Und sie zeigen, dass die Navies, sie haben beide. Sie wollen beide. Sie wollen nicht eine oder andere. Sie sind nur die Entscheidung und die Situation der Situation. Und die Situation der Szenario werden.
00:53:52 Aber das bedeutet nicht, dass britische Spiele sind invulnerable. Es ist immer so, dass man manualen und all diese Spaß macht, wenn wir ein Kamikaze haben. Es gibt einige, welche, auf der Kamikaze hat, die manchmal auch sehr minimale Probleme haben. Es gibt ein paar, welche die britische Carriere haben, und es ist ein Fall von O.
00:54:12 Ah, ja, es ist nicht auf Okinawa, aber es ist die famouse photo, glaube ich, Schropshire, mit dem imprint von Kamikaze into den Beltarmor, wie Looney Tunes-eske, almost.
00:54:28 Basically, belt armour is not what you want to try and punch in as an aircraft. You want to come in at roughly 45, between 35 and 55 degrees is what you want to be hitting the top deck up. So we've got two questions right now. I was always surprised there wasn't more coordination between the British and the US with their fleet of Akinawa. That's partially politics because war is politics by other means.
00:54:56 And when you've got a force of personality like Admiral King, he wasn't super okay with the idea of the British deploying significant forces to the Pacific, despite the British wanting to do so, which leads to this whole, like, the British have to be self-sufficient in all resources, and then as soon as they get into the theatre, anything that is compatible is shared openly and freely.
00:55:25 Ja, basically, es ist vieles zu argühen und argy-bargy auf der Strategie-Level, dankz zu King und ein paar andere Anglophobes, wirklich, in der American-Leaderschaft und die Leute, die wirklich nicht lief die British Empire. Und man kann es lieben, es geht, es geht nicht, es geht nicht, aber wenn du eine Alli hast, es gibt Probleme, die Leute, die arbeiten mit deinem Alli, und dann, wenn sie da sind, die Leute auf der Grunde sind, die Leute auf der Grunde sind, die Leute auf der Grunde sind, die Leute auf der Grunde sind,
00:55:51 We have beer brewing ships with us. We have ice cream brewing ships. Yes, the Royal Navy... Yes, the US Navy brought with them the ability to make ice cream. The Royal Navy brought itself the ability to brew beer at sea. Yeah, well, I mean, one of the other things that they... I mean, that's a match made in heaven, really. Yeah. Well, one of the other things that they also realise is that obviously...
00:56:18 für beide Navies, das ist die Deployment, denn die war in Deutschland, naval-wise, hat sich für eine lange Zeit gemacht, in Bezug auf major fleeter Assetz. So, wenn es eine Signifikante Fleet Asset gibt, für den Royal Navy oder den US-Navy ist, dann wird es in der Pacific gebracht werden. Und wenn man Nimitz und Rawlings und so weiter und Fraser...
00:56:44 Sie alle schauen sich an sich an, dass es viele sehr, sehr sehr viele Offizierungen von beiden Fleuten zu bezeugen. Und sie wissen, dass sie sich als erstes, als eine Force, von Okinawa zu bezeugen, dass es sehr, sehr viele Probleme mit der Chain-of-Command zu bezeugen. Denn, wer ist der mehr Senior-Admiral? Nimitz ist die Senior-Aufizierungen in der Theater.
00:57:13 Aber wenn Frazer aus Australien kommt, er würde dann technisch sein als Senior. Und alle wissen, ja, das sind die Regeln der Seniorität, aber die US-Navie ist nicht zu sein, dass ein British-Officer, aber die British-Officer nicht zu sein.
00:57:39 Unter the command of someone when they have a more senior officer on site. And while they're trying to figure all this out, they just say, well, actually, you know what? This is a self-contained striking force and Spruance very intelligently actually goes, well, hang on a minute. Spruance's thought process is essentially I've got to deal with Okinawa. So Okinawa, I need to have my amphibious troops there. I need to have my bombardment ships there.
00:58:05 Und ich brauche, aber ich kann es mit einem Flugzeug oder Flugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeugzeug
00:58:29 Aber sie sind in den anderen direkten. Und Spruenz weiß, dass er genug strength, um zu absoluten hammeren, einen oder anderen, aber nicht beide.
00:58:37 Aber welcher der einen erheben kann, wird die Flasche aufhören. Und dann sagt er, oh, hang on a minute, wir haben diese British force. Right, du gehen und attack das lot. Ich gehe und attack das lot. Und das ist, dass wir all die Japanese airfields haben, die senden Kamikazes und Bombers nach uns. Das ist dann letztendlich die Flasche, das ist die eigentliche objective. Und das...
00:59:02 Das ist eigentlich die größte Sache, warum man nicht die Britannischen und Amerikanischen Schiffe einfach nur mit einem anderen aussehen. Es ist eigentlich eine sehr, sehr sound-taktische Entscheidung, von Spuren. Das funktioniert eigentlich für alle, weil die US hat die sheer number of carriers und die sheer number of aircraft, die sich auf die coaste von Japan auf dieser Zeit in der Krieg und sagen, ja, come on, try es, wenn du es willst.
Kamikaze-Angriffe und Logistikherausforderungen
00:59:30
00:59:30 Sakashima, day in and day out. And although you still get all these attacks coming through, the thing is, you know, you think of all the Akamakaze attacks that hit the fleet while it's operating off Okinawa, then go and look at how many aircraft were destroyed on the ground or in air-to-air combat by the British Pacific Fleet and the Fast Carrier Task Force. Now imagine what would happen to the Okinawa landing if all those aircraft had also made it to attack the Okinawa beaches.
00:59:58 Exactly. And so, like, because even the US fleet carriers and such, like, their primary objective is defending the Marines and the Army on Okinawa. So if they have to be the ones to take the hits, they will take the hits. And someone was also asking how many kamikaze sorties were launched and how effective they were. And I am just trying to see...
01:00:24 wie viele Aircrafts die Japaner hatten in den Start. Weil, unfortunately, Late-War Japanese record-keeping ist nicht unglaublich. Es war über 1500. Ich weiß nicht, wie es kamikaze war. Du hast die Chat repeatedly, Kilobin, wo ihr Cat-Ears sind. Nicht hier. Das sind Syriac-History Streams. Sie kommen für die Weekly Streams. Ich meine, viele Kamikaze-Attacks starten aus ein paar hundert strong.
01:00:53 Und das ist Multiple Attacks. Und natürlich, dass nicht all die Failed Kamikazes sind, die Interceptet sind, auf der Home Airfields und so weiter. So, ja, wie Elie Gionnaire sagt, du bist du über 1000er. Ja. Ja. Ja, du hast Nimitz yelling at LeMay, die BOMB THE AIRFIELD WITH THE B-29s, weil wenn du sie verletzt hast, wird nichts left sein. Und LeMay ist ja, ich werde...
01:01:21 Ja, well, to be honest, the B-29s have a little bit of a problem, because they do try and hit the Japanese airfields, but their biggest problem is the B-29 is designed as a high-altitude bomber, which in World War II, when you're dropping unguided bombs, is great if your target is the size of a city. It's not so great if your target is anything smaller than a city.
01:01:50 Weil du kannst so viel wie du möchtest, aber wenn du beim B-29 aufbombststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststststst
01:02:19 So almost 2,000 aircraft are being thrown at this fleet with the absolute intention of it being a one-way trip. Japanese lose during the operation lose 40 over 1400 aircraft are lost.
01:02:44 We also have a couple of questions. Was it possible for British replacement carrier aircraft to fly out to the British carriers from the Philippines? No, that's what the escort carriers were mostly used for for the British. They would basically run a circuit from, I forget where the British resupply point in the Philippines was. Ormok Bay, was it? Yeah, they're sharing the US Navy facilities down there. But yeah, it's a case of like...
01:03:13 Technically speaking, if you put fuel tanks on them, apart from the sea fires, you probably could technically do a one-way flight, but you really, really don't want to be doing that because it's all manual navigation and you don't have the fuel to go anywhere else. I'd risk it in an Avenger.
01:03:36 Die British do have one advantage in this. There is one ship in the entire Royal Navy other than the beer brewing ship, which the US Navy are kind of coveting at this point. And that's HMS Unicorn. Yeah, which her role is repair and maintenance. She's mobile fleet aviation, forward aviation support ship, fleet aviation repair ship. And occasionally there are a few US admirals looking at her going...
01:04:04 Oh, that ship is sexy. And everyone's going, why are you looking at that small character thinking it's sexy? It's basically logistics in one hole. Yeah, and so...
01:04:13 But one of the problems the British have in this case is that, yes, if you look on paper, it's like they carry Corsairs, they carry Avengers, they're carrying American aircraft. But a British Corsair is not the same as an American Corsair because British carriers are different in terms of their dimensions. So a Royal Navy Corsair has to go from the factory in the US to the UK to be modified and then shipped all the way around the world.
01:04:42 ...to go on a British Carrier. Because, particularly in Corsairs, when the wings are folded, a regular American Corsair is too tall. British Corsairs have clipped wings. I'm starting to feel sorry for Legionnaire. He's kind of in a... ...and not getting many words.
01:05:04 Ich bin glücklich, dass ich ein glückliches Idiot bin. Ich bin glücklich, okay mit es. Er ist der größte Beard von all drei uns, die eigentlich haben Beards, aber er ist nicht so viel zu sagen. Ich wollte nur sagen, dass eine andere Sache interessiert über die ganze Logistik-Logistik-Situation ist, dass dieser sehr logistik-Logistik-Base-Chain ist ziemlich neu für die British-Pacific-Fleet.
01:05:32 They're also suffering from the fact they have a big fleet train. Their logistics isn't bad, but the Americans have spent the last few years building insane numbers of auxiliaries. So, you know, there's a couple of classes of tanker that represent almost all the fleet oilers. There's a few classes of logistics ship that represent almost all your dry storage, et cetera, ships in the US fleet.
01:06:00 Because they haven't had to have that much emphasis on fleet logistics in the Royal Navy, the fleet train is large, but there are almost no two ships alike. And that leaves... Unicorn has this rather wonderful lighter that slots in under the back of her flight deck, which can carry a couple of small aircraft or one big one. But it spends the vast majority of its time bouncing back and forth in harbour between all the various British logistics ships, basically just asking who has what spares.
01:06:29 because they just crammed everything and anything into whatever random cargo ship they could find. And so it's like, well, we should have brought, I don't know, 200 spare Corsair engines, but we didn't have a ship big enough to put 200 spare Corsair engines in. So there's 50 in that ship and there's 30 in that ship and there's 15 in that one. And I think there's a dozen over there. And it's like this for a good long while until about halfway through the Okinawa campaign.
Amerikanische Logistik und Flugzeugentwicklung im Zweiten Weltkrieg
01:06:58
01:06:58 um, über den horizon kommt diese große Macht von Victory-Ships, die Turbine-Powered-Versions der Liberty-Ships. Und die Fluss-Train ist einfach so, dass sie alle das gleiche sind. Es ist so wunderbar. Ja, das war die große Sache, die Kaiser Shipyards. Das war so eine große Sache. Ich war ein Parachute-Infantry-Mann für eine Jahrzehnte, und wir lebten und sterben von irgendwelchen supply-Cains, die wir zusammenarbeiten können.
01:07:27 Das ist das, auf eine große Ebene. Die Kaiser Shipyards kamen wirklich in Kee hier, wo sie launchen Victory Ships an einem obnoxious rate. Ich meine, large-scale Shipbuilding, die nie schon seit, oder seit. Und das war able, um diese Operation zu erhalten. Logistik war der Name der Spiel hier. Man kann nicht wirklich fly...
01:07:53 von den Philippen. Du kannst, aber das ist vor GPS. Es ist alles Manual. Es ist alles Slide, Rule und Map. Es ist alles... Du hast dein Legboard, wenn du bist. Sie wissen, zu navigieren durch den Osten. Es ist schwierig. Ich meine, in Midway, sie hatten eine sehr lange Zeit gefunden, die enemy Fleets, und sie kind of wussten, wo sie waren. Imagine, einfach zu finden, eine Freundin in einer Gruppe von Islands.
01:08:16 ...at der Maximum-Fuel-Range... ...we're just actively trying to avoid attack. I would like to finish this because you've both been incredibly nice with an actual quote from Philip Behan about his fleet train. Because he is, as you would expect from a British naval officer, incredibly polite. On the previous day, we met the tankers of the service squadron. We at once began to experience some of the difficulties which were to be ours throughout this period.
01:08:44 The British method of fuelling big ships at sea, which was by means of buoyant hoses, trailed to stern of the tanker, was primarily at fault. It was an awkward and seaman-like business compared to the American method, in which two ships concerned steamed along abreast of one another at a short pace apart. For some reason, we had failed to benefit from American experience to fit our tankers and warships in necessary tactical employment's method. We had to suffer for it until we did so. Furthermore, our tankers in a fleet train hastily collected, hastily fitted out...
01:09:11 Yeah, no, exactly. And like, and as we said, by this point in the war, the US Navy has figured out...
01:09:36 um its refueling plans we've had a couple of comments in in the chat about uh the the issues the us had was with refueling and it was a it was more a case of the elements of the of the whole of the wider fleet would detach to an area um where the tankers were on station with their own escorts
01:09:56 und du topst die big ships und dann workst du weg. Aber wenn du nicht genug Tanker hast, dann könnte ein Tanker-Refueller-Battleship werden. Ja. Und das heißt, Logistik in diesem ist wichtig. Jeder möchte über die big guns, die Planen, die Aces, all die crazy anti-Hiercrafts und alles. Aber dieses type of Operation beginnt und endet mit Logistik. Und das war eine Sache, in der Zeit, in der Zeit.
01:10:24 Ja, wir haben die Floating Diet in Dredock, in Iowa. Die American-Logistik war so tight in dieser Zeitung, dass sie ein paar Jahre alt waren, wo drei Jahre später, das wäre ein paar Jahre alt. Ja, alles in die Fotos, die in den Stream Chat sehen, nicht nur vier Jahre bevor das Fotos wurde. Die US nicht nur hat den größten Krieg der 20th Century, sondern hat die größte Logistik-Logistik-Chain der Welt gesehen.
01:10:52 Und sie hat das alles in ein paar Monate, in einem Fall, von design, zu planning, zu in-service. In der Fall der Kaiser Shipyards, wenn ich nicht so bin, das Shipyard war für den Krieg. Ja, es gab es in 1941. Ja, in 1941 war es nur land.
01:11:16 We need cargo ships. So they build an entire shipyard, and then they build hundreds of these ships, all to the same design, all to the same characteristics. They're making all the spare parts these ships need, and they can just do it. There's often these debates about who had more impact on World War II, the whole...
01:11:38 british brains american steel soviet blood kind of arguments but like the us as an industrial power in world war ii knocked everyone out of the park because they build everything like like like germany doesn't have to build a large surface fleet so it can build loads of submarines the us go that's cool i'm gonna build 24 essex's eight fast battleships
01:12:07 Thousands almost of destroyers it gets to by the end of the war. 747 ships just from Kaiser Shipyards. The other thing is... With the floating dry docks, at the beginning of the war, the US has in the Pacific a grand total of two, and the biggest thing they can reliably lift is an Atlanta-class cruiser, and one of them is in the Philippines.
01:12:35 Ja, und dann bei der Zeit, es ist, oh ja, wir haben vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier, vier.
01:13:03 Wenn man etwas für eine bestimmte Rolle bildet, dann findet man etwas gut in diesem Rolle, und dann klickt CTRL-C, CTRL-V. Oh, das Fassist-Liberty-Ship wurde in fünf Tagen gebaut. Oh, wir senden einen Samaritan auf drei Monate War Patrol, und es gibt einen Liberty-Ship. Cool, wir haben vier mehr gebaut. Du denkst über das Zeitpunkt. Okay, die US-Navy braucht fighters. Well, was hat es?
01:13:31 F6F Hellcats, which are by far the predominant aircraft, there's some F4U Corsairs, and that's basically it, unless you want to count the FM2 Wildcats, which are stuck on the escort carriers. So, you know, for their primary front line, you've got one major fighter and one fighter that's present in somewhat smaller numbers. You think about, you know...
01:13:58 ...wind the clock back a couple of months to when Germany and the Luftwaffe were actively still trying to resist incoming Allied bombers. And you've got FW-190s, BF-110s, BF-109s, BF-410s, ME-262s, ME-163s, HE-162s.
01:14:17 Und dann sagen wir uns, dass Deutschland nicht die Zeit, um ein paar Worte zu bauen. Das ist nicht die Zeit, um ein paar Worte zu bauen. Sie haben den Horten in den Wings. Ja. Die Nation, die wahrscheinlich ein paar Worte zu bauen, um ein paar Worte zu bauen, für ein paar Worte für alle mögliche Rolle.
01:14:38 Es ist einfach, F6F, Hellcat, go, brr. Und sie machen, und sie machen... Es ist zu sein, wie ich das in Modern Political Discussion bin, aber ich bin nicht, ich mache die Pointe. In dieser Zeit, in diesen Scenarios, es war wirklich understood, dass Perfect, bei den Allies, ist das Perfect, ist die Angelegenheit zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben.
01:15:04 Das bedeutet nicht, und so oft wird es sagen, dass man das System, das ist gut, oder man kann das System, das ist gut. Nein. Was man will, ist ein System, das ist wahrscheinlich 80% der Lösung zu den Problem. Aber du kannst wahrscheinlich 80% der Lösung, und über 20-mal die Rate, du kannst du eine perfecte Lösung zu produzieren. Und wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, ich habe einen 80% der Lösung für drei verschiedene Missions, und ich werde einfach aus einem großen Volumen, dann gibt es genug Masch zu tun. Ja.
01:15:32 Ja, ja, ja. Und da ist das...
01:16:01 Ich glaube, es geht um, ich glaube, es geht um, ich glaube, es geht um, es geht um, es geht um, weil wenn du 1,000 Fokker DR-1s hast, ein P-51 ist, es wird noch gut sein. Ja. Es ist nicht wirklich gut, aber wenn du etwas 80, 90 hast, du hast mit den Buffalos, zum Beispiel.
01:16:24 The F2As. The Bruces. The Thatch Weed was actually, it wasn't Wildcats, it was Buffaloes really early in the war. And that plane was just not good compared to the Zero. But if you even just doubled up on them, now you finally actually had some kind of, you had some form of tool you could use. And it's the same thing here where we have one airframe. The airframe is incredibly...
01:16:50 Es ist gut, es ist gut, es ist effektiv, die Piloten lieben es, es ist stabil, es geht nicht, wenn es auf den Carrier ist. Das ist Hellcats. Ich denke, die Corsair hat einen Problem. Und für die US, sie waren largely land-based. Sie waren Marine Aviation.
01:17:06 Because of the US penchon in 1939-1940 to take the Pratt & Whitney R2800, the massive engine that that was, stick a giant propeller on it, you get the Hellcat, you get the Corsair, you get the Thunderbolt, and the issue with the Corsair was because of how it was arranged, the Hellcat you could kind of see in front.
01:17:29 The Corsair, you couldn't. You were just looking at the... Yeah, you were just looking at your enormous engine count. Yeah, it's engine counting and sky. And so early on, the Marines get them first, which they love because it replaces Wildcats. And to go from a Wildcat to a Corsair...
01:17:47 Das geht von einem Golf GTI zu einem Nissan GTR. Ja, und es ist das, was wir referieren, als die every-infantrie-man-probleme, an der ground-level ist. Es geht darum, wie gut man kann, wie gut man kann, wie gut man kann, wie gut man kann. Es geht darum, wie gut man kann, wie gut man kann, wie gut man kann. Ja. So, wenn man ein entire division hat, nur ein guy hat night-vision, und ein pack-aiming-laser, und all das, geht darum. Es geht darum, hier.
01:18:16 If you have one side that, like I said, a comparison with it, well, a single Hellcat versus, you know, a lot of inferior aircraft at that time. If you're that guy who's been in the Marines, typically famous for, like, getting hand-me-down equipment, so you're stuck with F-4s at this point in time, you suddenly get a Hellcat. It's just like, this is what I, this is, thank you, thank you. This is the tool I needed. We have solved the every infantryman pilot. We've solved the every pilot program.
01:18:44 Weil wir jetzt eine Capable Aircraft haben, zu so viele Menschen, nicht nur nur die One-Offs zu sagen. Ich habe ein paar Prototypen zu sagen. Das ist eine ganze Menge Prototypen und alles so. Das ständig strahlt Ihr Supply Chain, auch. Und wir sprechen über Logistik. Wenn du auf der Zeit einstattest, was drei Airframes, Helldiver, oder sorry, vier Airframes für den US, Helldiver, Corsair, CoCat, und Avenger. Ja, bei 45. Ja, bei 45, wenn du...
01:19:13 Yeah, you've got Corsair, Hellcat, Helldiver and Avenger on the fleet carriers. Yeah. And then you've got modernised, upgraded Wildcats on the Escort carriers, purely because A, they're already in production, and the smaller carriers aren't as capable of handling the newer aircraft. Yeah, I was about to say, I think they were too big. Because the Hellcat's a bit bigger. Yeah. Yeah, inside the hangar deck. And so... Well, the interesting thing is, actually, even at that point,
01:19:42 Um, if you think about it, if you want the full spectrum of capability from a US carrier, you need six men and three airframes, because you need your Hellcap or Corsair for fighter role, you need your Helldiver for a dive bomber, and you need your three-man Avenger for torpedoing. But the fun thing is that the US is actually, by the point of the Battle of Okinawa, they're actually well in testing and development.
01:20:11 von einem 2-AIR-Frame-AIR-Group, die also reduziert die Menschen, um nur nur zwei. Weil sie arbeiten auf den Bearcat, die, von der Skinn des Teufels, nicht mehr auf World War II, die ist nur ein Single-Man-Fighter. Aber die Hellcats, von der Tumme von Okinawa, sind auch mit Rockets und Bombs- und sie sind eigentlich ein guter Stück von der Arbeit, die vorhin schon gewesen wäre, von Dauntless und jetzt Helldivers.
01:20:40 Und so, die US-Navie ist auch so, dass wir einfach nur ein Streicher aircraft haben, das kann mit Rockets und Bombs und Torpedos machen und eigentlich alles was wir wollen. Und dann haben wir einfach ein Streicher aircraft, die große Munitionen haben, und dann ein Fighter, um es zu protecten und die smaller Munitionen haben. So, wenn die Krieg gehalten hat, um viel länger, es würde...
01:21:07 Das haben wohl wohl Airgroups aus Bärkats und die wunderbare Flying Tank, das die A1 Skyrader ist. Oh, ich liebe Skyraders! Die Skyrader ist einfach so, wie viel Ammunition haben Sie auf Ihren Carrier? Ich werde es nicht mehr nehmen. Ich werde es nicht mehr nehmen.
01:21:25 You know what, I still don't have room, just strap a toilet onto it too. Toilet's the useful thing, it's a psychological operation. If you're dropping toilets on people, they're going to be really worried. And if you're firing fake beans at Italians, they get very, very worried as well. And the fact that the Skyraider can carry the equivalent payload as a B-17.
01:21:46 Und wenn man ein Skyrader und ein B-17 schaut, wie sie mit einem Comparable und Carriable Payload haben? Das ist ein Vorteil für 10 Jahre von Equipment Development. Ich sage Ihnen, das ist die Überraschung. Eine der Dinge, dass wir nicht mit den Angriffen haben, das ist, dass die Wissenschaftler, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen, die Anführungen haben.
01:22:12 Und das ist das, was wir haben verschiedene Variationen, verschiedene Models von Corsair, von Hellcat, von diesen Aircraften kommen und diese Improvementen kommen. Und das macht es. Wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn man, wenn
01:22:41 On a strategic level. To improve what you have. Right up until the point you can't. And the US is pretty ruthless when it comes to. Is this new piece of equipment. Worth the time money and investment. In disrupting production. To bring it in. Or can we just keep going with what we've got. Because like. The Hellcat is a 1940 design. Enter service. In numbers in 43. And is.
01:23:08 Probably has one of the shortest active service careers of a frontline fighter because it appears, it defeats the Zero, it disappears. The Corsair and the Bearcat follow on, take the US Navy into the 50s. The Hellcat goes. Well, it was the American manufacturing too. It's one of those wild things. The same thing happened with the early jet age at American manufacturing with aircraft.
01:23:37 Where you have all of these rapid developments that you have to find a way to implement already in stream. And one of I think the craziest versions of it was actually the B24, which they use in some variation of Pacific. Yes, they do. In order to not bog down their production line, they literally just made the B24A.
01:24:02 And then whatever theater it was going to, wherever else it was going to, it would go to a different upgrade facility and they'd chop it up and upgrade it. And so like America by this point in time is like, we are just going to produce these aircraft because we don't want to be stopping production, retooling, restarting. We're going to produce these aircraft, have dedicated upgrade facilities. And that mentality has still run through to this day where you just basically like are in production stream, we'll produce an aircraft, shift it over to the side.
01:24:30 und dann update als notwendig in bestimmte Airframes und das ist wie man, wie man, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um,
01:24:58 die britischen Anti-Supparene-Hunters mit einem Air-to-Surface Radar auf etwas. Und sie sagen, wir können einen ASV Radar auf einen Avenger nehmen. Wir brauchen eine neue Aircraft. Die Avenger kann ein sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr.
Anpassung und Innovation im Pazifikkrieg
01:25:25
01:25:25 We now have a Flying Radar command post, this is fine. And there's also some pictures from the Okinaupia, because Enterprise has kind of reinvented herself by this point, because the Essex class is now resonating in such huge numbers, it's become the standard fleet carrier. The poor old Enterprise and Saratoga, as the last survivors of their classes, are just going, they're the odd ones out now. So Enterprise has kind of gone, okay, we are now the night fighting carrier of the US fleet.
01:25:53 There are some night fighting small detachments on some of the other carriers, but Enterprise goes for it in a big way. And there's some photos from the time we develop an hour showing US Navy fighters, and they've just stuck an air-to-air radar on the wing. It's like, we have a radar-guided night fighter now. We didn't need a different aircraft. We just stuck the radar on. Yes, the radar Hellcats are hideous-looking aircraft because they've just got this big...
01:26:17 Schumer basically bolted to her wing. It's an air surge radar. Enterprise becomes the night fighting carrier. She is also taking part in Okinawa. And in this campaign, she's finally properly knocked out of the war. The Japanese Navy spends the entire war trying to knock Enterprise out. It's one guy in a zero.
01:26:46 Ja, du hast das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja, das Bild. Ja,
01:27:15 Das ist klar, das ist klar. Das ist klar.
01:27:37 Oh, so it's like German humour. It's totally flat and you're not sure. It was completely flat. And then he announced how he said that. Now I've got to go find a sausage roll. And just went off. That's a very Japanese way of going about it. Was he not? He just finished that statement and then he just finished it and then pauses and goes, now I've got to go for a sausage roll. And goes off with a sausage roll. I mean, to be fair, it took the American Navy to really destroy the Enterprise. Yes. Yes.
01:28:05 Speaking of which... And of course the thing is, she goes back to port for repairs. So, you know, if the war had carried on to 1946, she would have come back again. Yes. Because this is... When I was a child, many years ago, like 15, 20 years ago at this point... You were a child? Yes, unfortunately.
01:28:28 Back when the History Channel talked about history and not aliens, there was a series called Battle 360, which detailed Enterprise's career throughout the war. And the last episode is about the engagements of Okinawa.
01:28:47 Enterprise and her escort group had been relatively lucky when it came to kamikaze attacks. A couple of aircraft had come through every now and again, but they'd been driven off by the fighters or shot down by the anti-aircraft guns. And then on the day that this happened, it was a regular day, they knew some of the other task groups were getting hit, and all of a sudden this 1-0.
01:29:13 ... ... ... ... ...
01:29:38 Everyone thinks she's going to miss. It's an inexperienced pilot. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's just going to come in and hit the water in front of the ship. So the guys at the front take cover because they're worried about shrapnel coming up if the bomb explodes. And then as the Zero gets to about above Enterprise, as the ship tries to turn out of the way, it gracefully rolls onto its back and dives straight into the flight deck.
01:30:04 Es geht durch die Flugdeck, explodiert in die Hangar und die Bombe geht, und das ist warum der Elevator geht. Ich denke, das Bild ist von South Dakota, die an diesem Punkt war als Enterprise's Goalkeeper. In diesem Terms, die Goalkeeper ist die Closest-Ship zu der Carrier.
01:30:26 whose job is to, if possible, put itself in the way of any harm's way going for the carrier. Yeah, it's the FPL, the final protective line. Yeah, is she supposed to take the hit on the carrier? Yeah. I would... It's...
01:30:41 Und wenn sie all die... Es ist eine interessante Sache in dieser Zeit. Es ist eigentlich eine gewisse Zeit, wenn man all die Diskussion geht, wenn man die AA-Defensiv-Carriere und Plätze in dieser Zeit beginnt, wenn man die Pom-Pom-Versus-Bofors-Debate beginnt, und ob die Amerikaner waren wirklich interessiert in die Pom-Pom-Versus.
01:31:02 Und ich glaube nicht, dass sie sind. Weil ich glaube, die Amerikaner sind interessiert in den Octupol-Mauts von Pom-Poms. Weil sie sie schrägt, dass sie das gleiche schrägt. Und sie schauen auf ihre Bofors-Mauts und sagen... Sie wissen, wir können wirklich mit etwas machen, das hat einen extra 4.0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
01:31:30 Hey, y'all got any of those pom-poms? The other thing about the pom-poms issue is when it comes to kamikazes, the bophers obviously uses small clips. You can feed more rounds in, but it is a bit of an involved process, which is not necessarily something you want to...
01:31:58 be doing under pressure while there's a you know suicidal multi-ton explosive laden aircraft coming at you um whereas the the big advantage that the pompom has whether it's in quad or octuple mounts it just has these socking great belts with about a minute's worth of constant fire so um with the with the bofers you kind of fire adjust fire adjust so it's it's automatic but you are constantly checking your fire and adjusting because you can't just
01:32:26 press button and hope because if you miss it's going to take a couple of seconds to feed more shells in and those are a couple seconds you might not have whereas with the with the pom-pom you can just go okay general direction of enemy aircraft press fire button okay we're a bit low just walk the mount up and then suddenly violently disassemble the aircraft um which which is obviously a useful thing for them to do but the
01:32:53 Although, I think if the Royal Navy had gone with the, and this is the thing, there's a sort of mythical pom-pom mount in sort of the late 1930s, because they produced the octuple in 1930, the sextuple mount comes in, the six-gun mount comes in in 1936, and they were also apparently looking at another one which was going to be an improvement over the octuple and was going to have more guns, and it's probably going to have roughly a dozen.
01:33:21 Ich denke, wenn die Royal Navy noch ein paar Hände auf den Händen, wenn sie auf den Händen gegangen sind, ich denke, die Amerikaner würde nicken. Ich kann nur imagine... Ich kann nur imagine, dass die TX-Texas, wenn sie ein paar Hände, die ein paar Hände auf den Händen, auf den Händen, auf den Händen, auf den Händen, auf den Händen, auf den Händen. Sie sagen, nein, ich bin TX-Texas. Ich bin supposed zu haben die meisten Hände von jemanden hier. Sie können nicht mehr Händen auf den Händen auf den Händen.
01:33:49 Und so in Enterprise's case, a crew member actually gets blown overboard by this attack. And the thing he finds to hold onto when he's in the water is the elevator after it's come back down. So the guy is sitting on what's left of the elevator waiting to be picked up.
01:34:13 I think the elevator on Enterprise weighed about 15 tonnes. It goes several hundred feet in the air. All his crewmates think he's been killed because kamikaze hit, there's a massive explosion, the elevator has just departed the hull, and he's not there anymore. So they think he's basically been vaporised by the explosion.
01:34:34 Not an inexcusable assumption, Frank. And so Enterprise gets knocked out of the war, finally, permanently, so to speak. We just lost Legion's camera. The other thing I was just going to point out with this is that battleships, much as there's all those carrier versus battleship debate, the battleships, apart from anything else, still have a very, very important role.
01:35:01 in the war, which South Dakota is trying to do here for Enterprise, protecting the carriers, because the battleships are far, far more durable than the aircraft carriers are, and because you don't have to do large amounts of flight ops off them, you can cover them in an awful lot more AA guns. So one of the key roles of the battleship at this point is to basically act as bait.
01:35:27 Das ist der Grund, warum man sie mit den Karmikazen runterkommt. Man sagt, okay, wir werden hier sitzen, wir werden ein wirklich großartiges Objekt und versuchen, die Karmikazen zu uns, weil wenn wir die Karmikazen machen können, dann haben wir mehr AA-Gunst, wir haben eine bessere Chance für sie in der ersten Zeit. Und wenn wir nicht, und sie hit uns, die Battleship kann tanken, dann wird es viel besser.
01:35:50 Und das hat bereits bereits eine gewöhnliche Taktik in der Battle der Philippine Sea, a.k.a. der Great Mariana's Turkey Shoup, wo sie auf die US-Fast-Battleships verspürtt, und die initiale Main-Strike-Wave der Japanese-Aerfahrten zu wasten, dasselbe diese massive A.A. Bomben. Ja. Ja. Und es ist noch nicht in Okinawa. Ja, und ich habe ein Bild auf meinem Schrein, wenn du es um.
Angriff auf die USS Missouri und die Rolle der USS Laffey
01:36:17
01:36:17 because obviously the battleships don't get away with this scot-free, because you've probably seen this photo when it gets brought up of the attack on Missouri, where, like, that's a zero flying lower than the hull height of an Iowa-class battleship. That Japanese pilot was one ballsy bugger.
01:36:40 Und wenn man jetzt zu Missouri geht, kann man sich die slighte DENT in der upper part der Hull sehen, aber man kann es nicht mehr kontrollieren. Und so, um, und das ist... Und ich glaube, ich habe die Interview mit der Kameramen, die die Fotos haben. Weil sie sind supposed to be taking photos von der Command-Staff, die all-impressive und amerikanischen. Dann General Quarters get sounded, und sie sagen, was ist passiert?
01:37:04 The whole fleet starts opening up an incoming aircraft and then they realise that there's a Zero flying so low the guns can't shoot him.
01:37:15 But, again, as a downside, the only part of the ship he can really hit is the armoured belt. So he crashes into that and doesn't do a lot. Because he's struck the 12 and a bit inch armoured plate. So, brilliant display of flying skill. Relatively little impact. Pun intended. The shrapnel and the bits and pieces of the air. Yeah, the shrapnel does more than the impact.
01:37:41 Ja, das war ich zu sagen, die Schrapnel, ich denke, die 40mm Bofos-Mounte und die Bofos-Mounte und die Bofos-Mounte und die Bofos-Mounte und ein paar Leute. Aber die Dente und die Oberwerke oder die Hull ist, das ist es. Da ist ein ziemlich guter Bild. Ich denke, es ist eine der Zeros-Gunen. Ich habe es hier.
01:38:09 Let me pull it up when it loads correctly. Where you've got this just... To any American here, you might look at that gun and go, that looks an awful lot like a Browning M2. And you'd be mostly right, because the Japanese heavy machine gun is a Browning. It's just in a French 13.2mm caliber. But, like... And you've got to think, like, there's...
01:38:38 Several men standing in that gun pit, and after everything's calmed down and damage control is doing its things, and you peek over your gun mount and go, hang on a minute, that's new. That wasn't there a minute ago. But it does speak to the quality of construction, that it survived the impact.
01:39:03 In enough of a condition that you can still identify what it is.
01:39:09 Legion is back, excellent. So the Japanese are throwing so many aircraft, like thousands of aircraft at the US and British fleet and ships are being hit and ships are being knocked out of action. We can now, probably since we recently announced, actually on the last Armchair Admiral stream, USS Laffey. Yeah.
01:39:34 Und sie ist, ihr claim zu fame ist, ihr stand auf Okinawa, wenn sie in Radar Pickett No. 1 position. Which, unfortunately, you can probably guess what that means, ist, dass sie die ship closest zu Japan ist. So, every single Japanese kamikaze and regular air raid, that comes from the home islands...
01:40:01 Whoever's in Radar Position 1, yes, you're the first line of warning, so you are a perfect target, because there's no one else out there to help you. Which actually makes it an interesting choice for how they select the ships to be there, and it's one of the interesting things that comes up, and this is where I start to get in trouble with people, because people sometimes, some of the mythology which goes, if you're selected, that means you're the best ship in the force, you're being put there.
01:40:30 Und das ist nicht der Fall. Usually, Sie sind die besten Crew, die Sie können zu riskieren. So Sie sind eine Crew, die Sie reliable sind und werden zu tun, sogar in einem Schiff, aber Sie sind in einem Schiff, die Sie können zu riskieren, denn sie können Sie besser ausführen.
01:40:51 So, because if you wanted a radar picket there and you were going for the best radar picket you'd want, you'd want to go for the tallest ship you could possibly put out on its own, which wouldn't be the carrier. It's going to be a cruiser or a battleship because they're going to have a big, they're going to be a higher position to raise the radar up higher to give you the best radar range and the best horizon at this point.
01:41:12 Ja, so... Aber Sie wollen sie nicht mehr riskieren, denn sie werden eher schwieriger. So es wird ein Destroyer sein. Und das ist natürlich eine Sunderland-Klass-Destroyer. Und sie ist eine sehr gute Schrift, sie ist eine sehr gute Crew. Aber sie ist nicht die Schrift, denn sie ist die beste Schrift in der Fleet. Sie ist die Schrift, denn sie ist die größte Schrift, die sie in einem Schiff haben, die sie in einem Schiff haben, die sie zu riskieren. Denn sie wissen die Leidenschaften der Leidenschaften. Sie wissen die Leidenschaften der Leidenschaften der Leidenschaften.
01:41:36 they're probably not going to be taking it home. Or if it is going home, it's going to be going home for hefty repairs. Yeah, because she gets put on station because the ship that was previously in her position had been hit by kamikazes, had been forced out of position. So she's there on the 15th of April when a force of 50 aircraft, mix of kamikaze and conventional aircraft, attack her because they're...
01:42:04 We don't know 100% if the formation was just attacking her specifically to try and blow a hole in the radar net. Because as we said earlier, the Japanese are aware of US electronic and radar measures. So it makes a lot of sense to hit the picket ships to blow a hole in the coverage. That's like how to deal with an integrated air defense system 101. Make a hole in it. Well, that's what we were talking about too. The limitations of the carrier's radar at that time where you're basically like...
01:42:33 you are getting attacked from port because you are not putting your dish over port this is designed to basically fill in those gaps yeah all of these picket ships and and everything like that and you really are like there was laffy what was the final number they were under attack 50 times uh so it's a group of kamikaze it's a formation of 50 aircraft that attacker not all of them go for laffy basically a group of them break off so she is
01:43:02 um four valve dive bombers attack her first after she's spotted she shoots down one with her 40 mils a second with 20 mils the other two at aircraft attack from her stern um one of the valves is flying so low that she tears her fixed undercarriage off on the water and then crashes into the water um and then the fourth one is shot down just before impact
Die unerbittlichen Angriffe auf die USS Laffey und ihre Rettung
01:43:31
01:43:31 Then a Judy dive bomber strafes her on a port beam and is shot down. Then on the other side of the ship by her main guns, her five inch guns are shooting at this Judy. And then a couple seconds later, a Judy from the other side of the ship attacks. So the guns swing around, shoot her down. That aircraft crashes into the water, but its bomb still goes off.
01:43:54 Then another Val is shot down approaching again, but it is close enough that part of the aircraft does hit the ship, so I guess that's half a credit, because it wasn't the full aircraft that hit her, just most of it, but it's only a glancing blow, but it does coat part of the deck in aviation fuel which catches fire. So Laffy's shot down numerous Japanese aircraft, she's had shrapnel damage, she's now on fire, though it's not her fire.
01:44:24 Luckily. And then another Val attacks and crashes into one of her 40mm Bofors mounts. So she's down AA. That kills three men and destroys several AA guns and sets that magazine on fire. Not great. And in most cases, this is the point where the attack ends with kamikaze attacks. But then another Val approaches from the stern and is strafing on its way in. And that crashes straight into the rear gun mount.
01:44:51 So the fact in this image, you can still see that's a twin 5-inch 38 that's had a D3A valve bodily fly into it. Because these aren't armoured mounts, these are splinter-proof mounts. That's not like several inches thick armoured plate. A plane has physically flown into that. It was 19 or 13mm or something like that for those splinter-proof. I mean, it's less than an inch.
01:45:18 So it crashes into the rear mount, it disintegrates, its bomb explodes, which completely destroys the mount, as you would expect. And then another Val comes in on a conventional bombing run that misses the ship but jams its rudder. And then two more, another Val and another Judy crash into Laffy. At this point, four Wildcats turn up.
01:45:48 von USS Shamrock Bay, so I guess Lucky the Irish and all that. Of all the ships to send aid first, it's USS Shamrock Bay. And these four Wildcats do basically everything they can short of ramming into Japanese aircraft themselves to try and get as many of these kamikazes away from Laffey. Because they can see she's on fire, she's burning, she's going in a circle. They know that Laffey's in serious trouble.
01:46:16 Obviously, she's been on her radio sets calling for help because she's being attacked by 50 aircraft. That's worth breaking radio silence for.
01:46:26 Having been in a few bar fights alongside relatives who are from Ireland, I would say having the Irish on your side in such a brawl is quite an advantage. The only nation state which I would actually consider hard from personal experience would be if there were any Gurkha pilots in the air, and I don't think they were going around above. And so the Wildcats do what they can. Then a group of...
01:46:55 Marine Corps Corsairs arrive, because at this point the US has enough control over the island to have land-based fighters deployed, which are probably closer to Laffey than the actual Carrier's Air fighters are, given where they are. And then another Val lines up on Laffey, when she's basically adrift, and a Corsair dives after her, between it and the...
01:47:22 Die Korsair schießt die Incoming Aircraft, aber die Korsair schießt so viel, dass es Laffey hits. Its wing hits her Radar Antennas. Ja, ich was going to say, down there. Yes, and then it crashes itself. And then, like, just reading off her, it's just...
01:47:44 Just attack after attack after attack. And so at the end of it, she hears Laffy gets hit by four bombs and six kamikazes. Plus enemy strafing. She loses 32 crew killed and 71 wounded.
01:48:01 And amazingly, she survives all of this. She doesn't just survive all of this. She's a museum. Yes, you can go see Lassie today. You can go on board Lassie. She's in Charleston in South Carolina. She was the last of her class to be retired from the US Navy in the 1970s. It's on my list that would like to visit. Yes. Interestingly enough, when she gets back to the States, there's a big...
01:48:27 Es gibt auch eine interne Debatte in der US-Navy, weil einige US-Navy-Officer sagen, dass sie sich öffnen zu dem Publikum bevor sie wird, um die Leute zu sehen. Weil, auf diesem Punkt, die Krieg ist für eine lange Zeit, und sie sagen, dass die Krieg ist, dass die Krieg ist, und es ist nicht all over, bar die Singen. Und andere Offizers sagen...
01:48:52 No, we don't want anyone to see how bad it could be. And the first lot, like, no, we do want them to see how bad it can be. It goes back and forth. Eventually, the first lot actually went out and Laffey, basically, because she becomes a short-term museum ship for people to come and look around while she's in a very broken state, then goes and gets repaired, then has a nice career in the US Navy, then becomes a museum ship in a somewhat better prepared state.
01:49:18 Ja, bei der Zeit sie zurückgekehrt zu den USA, das wäre genau...
01:49:24 Right after the end of the war in Europe, too. So that would have been, yeah, like, oh, hey, we just need this last bit. It's not that big of a deal. Germany's handled. It's only a matter of time for Japan. And then you see Laffey, who has made it through one of the worst days. I believe she is subject to the most concentrated kamikaze attack of any warship during the campaign. She is attacked relentlessly over the course of several hours.
Okinawa und die unglückselige William D. Porter
01:49:53
01:49:53 Und die Wahrheit, dass sie sie überleben, ist ein Testament zu ihrer Crew und ihrer Design. Ja, und diese waren, ich meine, diese waren generell Summoner's Gearrings, diese waren, wie Stretzfletchers, wenn ich mich korrekt, in ihrer Design. Basically, ja. Die andere Hero-Destroyer, auf der Zeit, William D. Porter, also made an appearance at Elkinawa. I will squeeze myself in here a bit, while talking about Museums.
01:50:22 in 2019 i was actually in okinawa and i found some of my old pictures um of the navy hq um that is in the center of nara um the big uh i think basically capital city of okinawa if you want to say like this and yeah i mean let me quickly show them off to all of you before we then switch over to the villi d um
01:50:50 I don't know if it's gone for the full album. It doesn't look like it. Jeez. They're very nice photos.
01:50:58 Nope, still. Ah, da, da we go. So it's like a Japanese bunker building was an art of its own. Oh yeah, that's right. I mean, they used existing terrain and they amplified it by digging in deep. As you can see, I mean, the tunnels are not very high as well, but quite well built for the time.
01:51:24 yes upstairs um yeah potato quality from back then in 2019 um i think this this was basically the section with the numbers of um shells fired uh lives lost and everything on okinawa which was well one of the bloodiest battles um during the pacific as well in regards to civilian life lost etc etc um
01:51:48 Ja, ein bisschen von Text. Okanawa und den Philippinen waren die Bereiche, wo es eigentlich eine gewöhnliche Bevölkerung gibt. Ja. Ja.
01:52:02 But people willingly lived in Okinawa. Willingly doing a lot of work and operatively on that. Willingly, yeah. So here we see a bit of a, I think I remember from the Japanese perspective, the US landings, when they happened. Most of the fighting was in the south of the island, where all the mountains and the ravines and...
01:52:23 Das ist warum, wenn man die US-Raporte sagt, wir haben den Nordhalb des Islanden genommen und es gibt keine Resistance, das wird einfach sein. Das ist einfach. Ja. Hier in der Norden ist eigentlich alles jungle und viel forest. Hier ist eine der Stadt, dann hier ist ein kleineren Städte und dann alles andere ist hier. Ja, genau.
01:52:47 There are some of the living conditions, medical treatment room, the tools they used to dig these tunnels. Yeah, like this wasn't heavy industry, heavy engineering, this was pickaxe and shovels and manual labor. Some more pictures of the battle. You see the landing crafts, we had a similar image earlier.
01:53:11 Und ja, es war ganz tief. Hier ist die, in 2019, die 300 Meter aus der Tunnel Network, die eigentliche Accessible für die Viewer sind. Und ja, das ist es. Ja, ich habe nicht die Image. Ja. Returned to the Productions, ja. Ja, so Willy Porter, die Unluckiest Ship in der US Navy. Willy, die...
01:53:41 Aber als Sie sehen in dieser Bildung, sie war nicht ein tolles Day hier. Man kann also sagen Glückwunsch für die Crew, für sicher. Ja. Unlucky für alle anderen. Incredibly Glückwunsch für die Crew. Die Kamchatka der US-Navy. Ja. Ja. Ja. Das ist special für die Titel. Ich weiß nicht, dass sie das Titel deserves.
01:54:08 Given the way that she ends up sinking, it's just like... It's one of the most spectacularly unlucky ways to lose your ship you could possibly imagine. It's like, yeah, it's a Kamikaze. You've shot it down. Congratulations. It's in the water. Okay, congratulations. It explodes underneath you. Well, yeah, we were talking about the mining effect. Like relating to Yamato had like a specially designed shell for the mining effect.
01:54:37 Hier ist es in action.
01:54:41 You did everything right, but you're also the Willy D, and so of course it's going to go wrong. Yeah, mining effect is a real thing. You break the keel and that's kind of it. Yep, very few ships come back from having their keel broken. Samuel B. Roberts and the frigate Samuel B. Roberts is one of the few I can think of off the top of my head. Belfast.
01:55:07 Just about. And she takes a hit in basically the same kind of way. It's an undermining, it's a mining effect from a mine impact. And an aircraft exploding under your ship is basically the same. It's the same forces, in fact, at play as mine. First fight had some damage to the keel from the Fritz exit, if I remember. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
01:55:32 I need to do a video about the Fritz-X and the HS-293 at some point, because my working theory is that the Fritz-X is actually too good a bomb. Because some ships are sunk by it, but you look at the number of ships that get away with quote-unquote only being damaged, like Warspite and the Savannah. And in almost all of those cases, it's because the bomb goes straight through the ship.
01:55:59 Und dann geht es tief genug, dass wenn es explodiert wird, dass es etwas wie eine Mining-Effekt ist, aber die Warhead ist eigentlich weit genug entfernt, dass es etwas, aber nicht mehr als viel damage würde, wenn es die Warhead hätte eigentlich noch in den Schiff gewesen wäre. Aber in poor old William D. Porter's case, das Warhead war etwas closer zu der Kiel und was gut für its health. Ja.
01:56:26 Und so, I think, looking, we obviously, the one big thing that we haven't talked about yet, because we've been talking a lot about the British and the American efforts here, is what the Japanese were planning. And obviously the most famous element of, this is the point of fanatical Japanese resistance, there are banzai charges on the island conducted by Japanese troops.
Operation Ten-Go und die letzte Fahrt der Yamato
01:56:49
01:56:49 um but you have one of those classic cases of someone high up in an organization realizes that they might be in trouble and so they twist the words of their superior to their to their subordinates to do something that in theory will make them look good regardless of how it goes because during all of the discussions about the japanese coordinating the defenses of okinawa the emperor asks and what is the navy doing and the navy
01:57:18 Das ist nicht so gut, dass wir uns nicht so viel vorbereiten für die Defense der Home Islands haben, weil die Imperial-Japanese-Navy ist 8 Dudes in Yamato an diesem Punkt. Ja, ja, ja. Ja, ja, ja. Ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja,
01:57:45 Technically still above the water, purely by the fact they were in very shallow waters when they were sunk. Also, yes. Yes, and so the Navy higher-ups want a safe face, so they take the kamikaze concept as it is, a one-way trip to destroy superior forces, and decide to commit the last fully operational.
01:58:11 Kapital ship the Japanese still have, Yamato. They have Nagato and one of the Kongos are also considered for this mission. Nagato, however, is too slow. She just simply isn't fast enough at this point in the war to make the run. The Kongo has got the speed, but she isn't a threat to any of the mainline US Kapital ships at this point.
01:58:38 The US have basically all their fast capital units present here. So Congo isn't going to stand up to a North Carolina, a South Dakota and Iowa. Even Alaska is now in play here. So the US... Can you imagine USS Washington going, ooh, time to add another one to this tally? Oh, I know. Yeah, and so Yamato is the logical and only option. She is fast enough.
01:59:06 dass sie, wenn sie lucky sind, mit dem Wetter oder einfachen US-Patrollen kann, sie kann es in guter Zeit machen. Und sie hat die Feuerwehr und die Protektion, dass sie ja, sie ist zu sein, egal ob die Sprengung der Plan, um sie zu bewegen, um sie auf den Islanden zu bewegen. Even wenn sie nicht machen, sie sollte, in theory, nehmen sie alle US-Schips mit ihr.
01:59:34 so they commit to sending Yamato, Yahagi and I bet you leave 8 Destroyers
01:59:45 um along with her and while and this is this is probably like the when you get to the first myth about her route is that she's only given enough fuel to make a one-way trip because the navy higher-ups want to make sure that she actually she can't come back because if she returns then they'll all lose face and that's not true the navy the navy base gives them as much fuel as they can give them
02:00:12 Ja, sie haben es nicht, sie haben Bunker Oil. Und was ich würde sagen, ist, dass... Es ist einer solchen Situation, wo wenn man das zu tun hat, die Frage ist, ob man wirklich das zu tun hat. Und... Wenn man ein Plan ist, auf das viele, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die...
02:00:36 Das ist wahrscheinlich nicht ein Plan, das sollte man eigentlich machen. Das ist nicht eine gute Planung-Philosophie. Wir sollten, wenn das hier geht, wir können das, und wir können das hier erreichen. Das ist nicht ein Plan, das ist ein Hopel-List. Das ist ein List-List für Santa Claus. Das war der rub, mit der Japanese-Navy. Das ist das gleiche...
02:01:04 in Pearl Harbor, you see that as much to their detriment at Pearl Harbor, sorry, at Midway, where they have these incredibly complicated plans. They're like, look great. And the moment something goes wrong, the moment you start taking air attacks from Midway that delay your aircraft from launching and delay you recovering aircraft, it's over. And it's kind of the same thing here. They're like, hey, yeah, we might be able to pull this off. And it's like, realistically,
02:01:29 You're going to get something with the amount of submarines we have out there. Your ASW is not good enough to carve a path through the submarine picket. You're going to be seen just like what happened with Masashi. One of the things that's actually in some ways darkly amusing about all of this is it kind of loops back to the logistics discussion we were having earlier.
02:01:56 Compare the two sides. On the one hand, you have the single most important deployment of the Imperial Japanese Navy for this campaign, using their single largest asset. And all they need to find is essentially crude oil, because that's essentially what they've been pumping into their warships for a while. And they can't find enough crude oil to fill the tanks. Meanwhile, over on the Allied side, they're going, yeah, oil.
02:02:24 Wir haben so viel davon. Ich weiß, wir nehmen einiges Rohstoffstoffe, nehmen sie in Bomben, inventen Napalm, und liberally spread es über unsere Enemies, denn wir haben nichts besser zu tun. Ich liebe es, dass du nicht falsch bist, hier. Die meisten Amerikaner Dinge kannst du machen ist, wir haben zu viel Öl. Wie können wir sicher, dass wir noch Öl brauchen in der Zukunft?
02:02:53 Das ist das, was das Ultimate Flexer macht. Das ist die Chocolate Cake Red Cross Messages. Oh, ja, ja. In Germinate. In Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate. Ja, in Germinate.
02:03:14 I still maintain what happened was a lot of US Armed Forces personnel heard about the British Home Guard's plan to set the sea on fire. Yes, we were going to do this. And they have gone, you know what, that's a good idea, can we top it? And there is probably at some point a British Army colonel sitting between the two groups going, who in the world connected you to?
02:03:41 Who? Who let you talk to each other? Why? It is quite funny. When Spruance first sees the demonstration of napalm a few months before Okinawa, he just kind of looks at it and sees this cascade of liquid flame rolling over the landscape and seeping into trenches and bunkers. And his only question is basically, how much more of this stuff do we have?
02:04:08 Und er hat gesagt, ein lot. Und er hat gesagt, gut. Es ist eine Liberal-Application über da. Es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist, es ist,
02:04:37 Es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Aber es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Aber es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Aber es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Aber es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Aber es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Aber es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon. Aber es ist ein HORRIFYING Weapon.
02:05:03 Spruance is greatly in favor of a large number of people dying heroically for their country, as long as they're on the other side. Yeah. And anything that... He's like, if you want to die heroically for the Emperor, I will do everything in my power to facilitate that. Yeah. But at this point, you have on the Japanese side, Admiral Ito, who by all accounts is a competent and capable officer. When he's told that this is the plan, he finally says, no, this is suicide.
02:05:32 Like, I'm not against dying for my country, but I would like to die in a practical and useful way. Doing this will just get me, my crew, and my ships killed for no appreciable gain. He was one of the open detractors, right? He was basically like, we can use these, let me use these in a more useful way. Yeah. Because the resource waste here was...
02:05:58 Dramatik, und ich meine, ich nicht nur mit dem Schiff, 3,000 Sailors lost? Für... Ein paar Aircrafts von den USA haben wir schon getrennt. Ja, ich denke 12 Aviators killed total. Ich denke, es kommt von, und ich war zu sagen, das ist, dass die Trouble ist für die Japaner ist Toga Hayichiro und die Battle of Tsushima von 1905.
02:06:24 Denn Hayatschiro macht sehr kompliziertes Dinge in einer sehr einfachen Art. Und es sieht toll aus.
02:06:32 Aber das Problem ist, dass die Japaner die Politik, die es weitergeht, ist, dass man sehr kompliziert ist, um ein Krieg zu gewinnen, und das ist wie man gewinnen, ein Krieg zu gewinnen. Das ist wie man einen Krieg zu gewinnen. Das ist wie man einen Krieg zu gewinnen. Und die Sache ist, Togo hat es sehr einfach gemacht. Und was Menschen oft vergessen hat, ist, dass er in der Barsche von der Krieg war, die Hauptbasis, die die Infrastruktur und die Logistik- und Supply-Basen, die er dann in der Krieg zu unterstützen hat.
02:07:00 und die ganze Politik ist, dass ich die Supplieren und Logistik operiere in der Umgebung und die Supplieren, so dass ich, wenn der Krieg kommt, ich werde frisch sein und sie werde nicht sein. Oh, und dann muss ich sie. Es hat funktioniert. Es ist ein sehr kompliziertes Assessment, weil es um den Krieg zu machen, was man will, aber er macht es in einem sehr einfachen Weg.
02:07:20 But the thing is, after that, that sort of leads to a very convoluted and very complicated idea process for Japan. Their plans, they've got to be these complicated, ever more complicated and almost fanciful ideas in some regard. Miller's Breeze often get...
02:07:36 der Kult der Maschine in US-Tank, der Kult der Offensive in der World War I-French-Armee. Die Japanese haben die Kult der Kult der Kult der Komplexität. Ja. Wenn wir eine Komplexe Plan machen, dann wird es funktioniert. Ja. Das ist die Kult der Kult der Komplexität nicht funktioniert. Das ist ein ziemlich dramatisch.
02:08:03 Die Eisenhower quote rings true, I find plans useless but planning essential.
02:08:32 Ja, und das ist warum wir meistens eine 1-3rd, 2-3rd split haben. Du hast 1-3rd als Planung und 2-3rd als Rehearsal. Ich kann nur vorstellen, wenn Japan nur 2-3rd als viel Zeit zu verhörtert, was sie machen würden, als wie viel Zeit sie verhörtert haben. Ich meine, Pearl Harbor würde es in 1947 sein. Weil es die ganze Zeit der Planung, die in dieses Jahr ging, ist einfach eine der doom-to-failure moment.
02:09:00 I think it comes back to the old summary of when you talk about it when you say it sort of various things that sort of amateurs taught tactics, professionals taught logistics and really the important thing for planning and the important thing about plan is making sure you have the resources in the right place so that the people when they're there can make the decisions which is why once you get to a certain level of command in the armed forces you're basically a massive shopping lister.
02:09:26 Oh, yeah. Basically, just producing lists of shopping lists of, we've got to have these rules immediately. We've got to have these rules coming down the road. We've got to have this. And it's, if you've never had this experience, I highly recommend it. If you end up with a former senior officer from any of the armed services of your country, and you end up going shopping with them in a supermarket, they will almost always have a little black book and a massive list. And they will go around ticking things off.
02:09:57 Und du wirst sofort herausfinden, dass dies wie es in einem Planungsprozess ist und in Planungsprozess ist. Sie haben ihre Liste, und sie werden von ihnen gehen. Und ich habe... Das ist die wunderschöne Sache, dass ich so viel Oral-History gemacht habe, wie ich habe, in Bezugreifen, die Leute in den Banken und dann haben sie später als eine Geschichte, wenn die Leute weitergehen. Und ich habe viel Zeit mit vielen Senior Officers, und du manchmal musst du dich kennenlernen, und du manchmal musst du dich kennenlernen.
02:10:25 Es ist der erste Mal, es geht, oh, du hast das. Der zweite Mal, der dritte Mal. Der dritte Mal, du hast es gesagt, oh Gott, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es, du hast es. In einem Supermarkt, du produzierst diese kleinen, kleinen Diaries und starten auf deine Liste. Ja. Ja, es ist sehr unterschiedlich von den Junior Soldaten, die einfach nur zu kaufen. Ja. Ja, ich denke, ein paar, ein paar, ein paar, ein paar, ein paar, ein paar, ein paar...
02:10:54 A lot of you can see in the pre-war planning, the pre-war fleet exercises of the three big navies, because you have the Japanese Navy, and most of their pre-war fleet exercises are, okay, here is the hypothetical enemy fleet. This group will attack this way, then this group will attack this way, then this other group will attack this way, and then this group will attack this way, and then we will have the final battle.
02:11:21 Und das ist das wir uns trainieren für. Das ist eine Multi-Layer-Multistage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-Tage-
02:11:49 Where in a lot of their fleet problems, it's kind of like, here is the list of objectives. We're going to put you here and we're going to put you there. Now here's your objective list. Have fun. So the officers on the ground, I mean, they're at CB, you know what I mean? They have a bit more operational freedom in how to actually do the things that they've been told to do. And not necessarily in the order that the higher-ups would prefer. And then you have the Royal Navy's fleet exercises.
02:12:18 Ich will start and then you can run with it. A lot of the Royal Navy fleet exercises aren't even really fleet exercises in the manner that you would think of in the US or Japanese Navy. Here's a scenario. And divorced from anything else. And the reason for that is... It's actually even worse than that. Usually it's...
02:12:43 Take the Atlantic fleet, or home fleet, depending on what it's called, to the Mediterranean for a holiday, have them go to their corners, ring the bell, and shout, FIGHT! And that's literally it! Here's the scenario, one of you's got a convoy. Ding, ding, ding, FIGHT! See who wins. Whoever wins, and this is the Vegas, whoever wins gets cases of champagne.
02:13:04 bragging rights and other copious amounts of alcohol so they really do go for it hammer and tong but there is very little planning there is even the scenarios are literally sometimes half a page long and they literally have fleets of battleships carriers cruisers destroyers running charging at us and engaging in a massive battle
02:13:30 I'm just thinking, actually, you actually get a perfect encapsulation of these three ways of thinking all around the start, the early part of each Navy's respective campaigns, because you have the Japanese around, say, the Guadalcanal campaign. Both sides are running out of ships. They're feeding the ships into the meat grinder, and a lot of them are getting sunk. And the Japanese have Yamato.
02:13:59 Nagato, Mutsu, weil sie noch nicht explodiert haben. Sie haben diese großen, heavy-hitteren aufhanden, aber sie schauen auf die Doctrine und die Doctrine sagen, dass es nicht, dass sie keine Battleships gibt. Vielleicht können Sie ein paar von den Kongos senden, aber alle vier Kongos sind dabei, aber die Doctrine sagen, dass zwei von diesen Kongos müssen für Antiaircraft-Escorten sein. Also, Sie haben vielleicht vielleicht sechs oder acht Kapital-Units, und sie senden nur zwei.
02:14:26 Because the doctrine says no. You've got the Americans on the flip side of that particular campaign. They don't want to send battleships in because the doctrine says battleships and confined waters are going to have a very bad time of things. But when they run out of everything else, there's not a huge argument of doctrine says no. Halsey just goes, well, if that's what we've got, that's what we've got. Off you go. Which obviously leads to Washington nailing Hiroshima.
02:14:56 Und dann haben wir die Royal Navy, auf Darvik, wo sie sagen, dass sie einen German Destroyer in da sind. Und Warspite rocksen, und sie sagen, dass es da enemy nearby ist. Ja, sie sind da. Okay, kann wir kommen, too? Ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja, das ist ja,
02:15:23 Ja, das ist nicht fair. Aber es zeigt, dass die verschiedenen Fähigkeiten, die alle denken, wie close du solltest mit Doctrine und wie viel tactical freedom du gibst. Und, ja, unfortunately für die Japanese, jetzt nicht nur sie senden Yamato, aber...
02:15:50 They don't really have all that much freedom to maneuver. They're told, you will go here and you will do this. So they were going to go there and they were going to do that. About the most freedom they had was, well, you can occasionally change course if you come under air attack to deceive the enemy. That's the full extent of their capability. Incredibly limited freedom of maneuver, not even just from leadership role, but the fact that submarines by that point in time were choking that gas.
02:16:19 Yes, they absolutely were. Between Japan and Okinawa. So it's just, you have to make a plan that is so rigid, you are ignoring the fact that you will have to adapt to the enemy. The enemy always gets a say in your plan as well, whether you know it or not. And that's one of those things, like, just incredibly unlimited.
02:16:45 I've got a beautifully laid plan. It's got all my ideas down. It will go perfectly. Why are you telling me the enemy needs to get to have a vote? Here's a submarine with radar. That's impertinence. That's discourteous. That's ungentlemanly. Ito, at the end of the day, what he's been told is like, this is your plan. He's like, okay, I don't like it.
02:17:12 I fundamentally and professionally disagree with this, but he sets the crew to training their anti-aircraft guns, their damage control. He tries to get the crew as well trained for this as they possibly could. Anyone who has seen a surplus to requirements is put ashore. So the SIC and the cadets that are on board Yamato for their training, they're all put ashore because...
02:17:38 They're not going to help, and Ito doesn't want to risk any more personnel than he has to. Then his force consists of, you would assume, like we're going into a fight with a massive anti-aircraft, a massive air threat. So we need as much anti-aircraft weaponry as we can. But most of the Akazuki-class destroyers built specifically for this purpose at this point have been used up in surface actions. So I think only two of the destroyers are Akazukis, and you've got Yahagi.
02:18:07 The rest of the destroyers, I don't even think, had dual purpose guns. They had dual purpose in the sense they could elevate a bit, but these are twin five inch destroyers. If someone came after you with a particularly anemic B-24, you might be able to aim and fire in its general direction.
02:18:30 But that's about it. If you're going to be swarmed by a high-performance carrier, single-engine carrier aircraft, the mid-interwar Japanese 5-inch gun is not going to be doing you many favors. I mean, even the engagement ceiling for the Japanese 5-inch. So even a B-24. The good news is a B-24 is not going to be able to hit you either. Yeah, and so the force puts to sea.
02:18:58 And they're basically immediately spotted. Because the US is doing everything in its power to know if anything's coming from this direction. And so the force is detected.
02:19:12 And the US set about dealing with it. What is often claimed but actually doesn't happen is the fast capital ships, the Iowas, the South Dakotas, they are not sent to intercept Yamato. They're still back with the carriers because the US Navy thinks this is a ploy to pull heavy escorts from the carriers in case of a mass kamikaze attack, which they're correct in the sense that the Japanese...
02:19:39 Want a major kamikaze strike to coincide with Yamato attacking the US fleet. But it also means that when the US spot her with aircraft, it's a couple aircraft at a time. And even though the Japanese can send aircraft from the home islands to Okinawa and hit the US fleet, Yamato doesn't get air cover. Zeros accompany her for the first leg of the voyage, but they eventually have to turn back because they're not on a one-way trip.
02:20:08 So Yamato, Yahagi and the Destroyers are all by themselves. And when the US Navy noticed that it is a Japanese battleship, at this point in the war, they don't know how powerful Yamato is. They think she's more Iowa spec than what she actually is in terms of her capability. And so the US plan is twofold. They detach, I think it's still Oldendorf's, slow battleships.
02:20:37 und es unterstützen Cruisers, zu machen eine line, um und zu Endeffekten Yamato zu bekommen. Das ist wahrscheinlich eine bessere Fichte für Yamato, als sie die Sorte sie hat, um sie zu nehmen. Ja, das ist die Fichte Yamato hätte preferiert. Granted, sie ist unnummern, wenn ich die Nummer richtig finde. Es ist 5 oder 6 zu 1. Ja, sie hat sich auf jeden Fall aufgewachsen. Ja, das ist die Fichte hier.
02:21:05 Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja.
02:21:29 ...prepared to receive Yamato... ...if by some miracle she gets past the carriers. Because there's this debate in the Force at the time. Do they leave it to the surface ship so the battleships can have their last hurrah? Or do the carrier officers finally hammer home that the carrier is superior to the battleship?
02:21:49 And you don't need battleships to deal with enemy battleships anymore because air power has gotten to the point where it can sink a battleship at sea when it's fighting. And there's this whole should I take them or should you discussion between the US admirals and the fact that the US send more aircraft at Yamato than Japan sends at Pearl Harbor. Yeah, by quite a margin. Yeah. I do think, again, it's this kind of...
Analyse der Kräfteverhältnisse und Taktiken in der Operation Ten-Go
02:22:17
02:22:17 Hilarious dichotomy of, on the Japanese side, it's not even a full-strength flotilla of destroyers in one battleship. That is the sum total of everything they can throw at the Allies. Meanwhile, for Spruance, he's like, well...
02:22:33 Ja. Ja. Ja.
02:22:56 Ja, genau. Wie kann ich 50 Fletchers auswählen? Ich habe so viele Optionen. Und bei diesem Zeitpunkt, sie waren bereits praktisch gegen ein Ship wie Yamada. Sie haben bereits Sankt Musashi. Und ich glaube, ihre Taktik hat sich verändert. Aber ich habe mich, dass sie sich nicht einfach auf den Kiel schiefen.
02:23:22 Ja. Ja. Ja.
02:23:48 Weil du kannst etwas capsize, wenn es tatsächlich noch einiges hat. Und dann wird es sehr schnell wiederholen. Ja, und Drowning asked, wie die Carrier-Force launchen auf ihre eigene, während das Debate war still kind of ongoing. Ja, da ist die Theorie, dass Arleigh Burke, die Airstrikes launchen, ohne seine immediate superiore's knowledge. Die Sache ist, dass du kannst, die Carrier-Strike, oder...
02:24:15 Or have them orbit if the final orders come down and say, no, let the battleships have them. I think, was it Mitya? Like, he was at the point unavailable for some reason. But the Spruance hears from the carrier force, like, he hears from Mitya that the aircraft have been launched. But as far as we know, Mitya did not give the order to launch the airstrike. And so... One of those pieces of history where it's...
02:24:43 Ja. Ja.
02:25:12 So it's basically, you launch the aircraft, is sort of the scenario in discussion. Yeah, and so the airstrike deploys, the battleships are positioned just in case, because they still remember that they don't know exactly what Musashi's specs are, but they know that she took a hell of a beating prior to the battle off Samar. And so you have, if I get my numbers right, because this is the kind of thing that people will correct me if I get it wrong.
02:25:40 You have 280 aircraft. 15 Carriers launch aircraft against Yamato. The way you say people, when you have Legionnaire here, have Drak here, you have me, who my actual PhD thesis was on the Naval Aviation in 1920s and 30s. Well, technically published version was the Royal Navy, but the version I wrote before I was told it was...
02:26:08 200,000 words, and it could only be 100,000 words long, including USN and IJN as well. There are three people here who will correct you very quickly. Oh, I'm well aware of that. In the nicest way. Yeah, so the Airstrikes launched. The first thing that arrives are the fighters, the Corsairs and the Hellcats, who realise that there is nothing there.
02:26:31 They're expecting to have to sweep the sky clean so the bombers and torpedo bombers can attack unmolested. But there's nothing there. They also, at this point, notice that Yamato is firing her 18.1 Type 3 Special Shells, the San Shiki Rounds, which pilots determine...
02:26:54 ...are very impressive to look at, but relatively ineffective as an anti-weapon. And they also note that Yamato doesn't appear to have radar-directed gunnery. Because she's shooting at planes that she can see, not the groups forming up in the cloud banks. So, but because there's no enemy fighters, and yes, an 18.1-inch gun can fire an anti-aircraft shell a very far away...
02:27:21 The fighters can basically orbit and organise and corral the strike aircraft as they arrive from the 15 aircraft carriers. And it's like, right, so you guys get it all together. Now you go and attack and then you attack and they start attacking. They start strafing Yamato and the destroyers to clear the decks of anti-aircraft guns. And so, because Yamato at this point, if you include the main guns, it's about 150 barrels that she can point at aircraft in total.
02:27:48 So, she is a floating fortress in every sense of the word. She's bristling with guns. Her crew are well trained, if lacking in practical experience. Theory can only take you so far, but they've done all the drills they can. The ship has been stripped of anything that can burn that they can get rid of. As much equipment as they need for damage control that they can carry has been brought on board. She's as ready for this fight as she could possibly be.
Die Zerstörung der Yamato und die strategische Bedeutung der Operation
02:28:17
02:28:17 But there are 280 aircraft coming for her. No warship in the world at this time could survive an attack like that. You put an Iowa, a King George, even a Montana or something like on that scale in this situation and the result is the same. There's no aircraft today, a carrier ship today, which could survive that strike of 280 aircraft coming in for it. Yeah.
02:28:41 Ja, sie werden alle von den Missilen lang bevor sie rausgekommen. Ich denke, es ist schlecht zu sagen, aber ich denke, die besten Air-Defense-Ships wir wahrscheinlich haben in der Welt. Das ist wahrscheinlich eine Debatte zwischen den Amerikanern, den letzten Flugzeugen. Ja. Und dann haben wir 120 Improved Sea Sparrows in VLS.
02:29:07 Yeah, even if you're against 280 World War II aircraft in an Arleigh Burke, they will not have a good chance of sinking you. Let alone 280 modern F-35s or something like that coming at you. Then you're just going, okay, fine. Is my will written? This is just... It's logistics again. It's infrastructure again. It's construction again. It's basically the Americans aren't...
02:29:36 Sie gehen für die Prise der Nisest, Fairest, Kindest kill. Sie gehen für, wir wollen diese Fret down, bevor wir sie geteilt haben. Weil Yamato ist noch ein sehr Fret. Wenn es um die Amphibische Fortschritte geht, dann wird es ein vieles Schmerz. Es wird ein vieles Schmerz. Especially wenn sie einen Schmerz hat, wie sie wollen. Wir haben einen Schmerz, die die Amphibische Fortschritte sind. Wenn du siehst, sie sind nicht die Schmerz, die Sie wollen.
02:30:05 Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja.
02:30:34 Take a leaf out of Admiral Cochrane's book and just sail up right next to it so you're close enough it can't depress its guns, then board. And so obviously Yamato, the strike forms up and they attack basically unopposed.
02:30:53 And because the Americans have learned from Musashi, she takes eight torpedoes all on the same side. She takes 15 bomb hits of various sizes, 1,000 pounders, 500 pounders. She's hit with rocket hits and all of that. And the crew are actively attempting to counter flood because they pretty quickly figure out what the Americans are trying to do. So the Yamato class had...
02:31:20 um compartments onboard specifically designed for counter flooding these ships were designed to take hits and keep going um but eventually they flood all the all their intended compartments uh that they can then they start having to flood compartments that are not designed for this they're just regular compartments and then we have testimony from survivors that at points they have to
02:31:45 ...seal bulkheads, with crew still in parts of the ship that is flooding, because they need to close the bulkhead doors so that the entire ship doesn't sink and have to... ...mean that they have to lock their colleagues and comrades in to drown in a pitch black metal box. Again, like, war is hell in every sense of the word.
02:32:10 And eventually all this damage accumulates to the point where she finally rolls over and capsizes. And then almost poetic, you could say, is the last battleship sunk in combat. Her magazine goes off. We don't know exactly what causes it to explode. It could have simply been some shells falling in the magazine as she rolls over and a fuse being activated. But she...
02:32:37 Und dann die US-Auerkraft, die nicht expended ihre Ordnance auf Yamato selbst, gehen nach den resten der Task Force. Und dann die US-Auerkraft, die nicht expended ihre Ordnance auf Yamato selbst, gehen nach den resten der Task Force. Und dann haben die Schicksale auch gesunken. So für die Erlösung von 13-Auerkraften auf den US-Auerkraft, die letzten Major-Fighting Units der Japanese-Imperial-Navie sind für...
02:33:05 Nothing, no reason, essentially. Yeah. The explosion too of this magazine, this was so big, it was allegedly they could see it from the picket ships. Yes, which gives you an idea of roughly how close she got. The picket ships could see evidence of the battle. Yeah. So she did get most of the way, but the picket ships are...
02:33:31 The bulk of the US fleet is several dozens of miles south of Okinawa. The most northern picket ship is 30 miles north of Okinawa. So she still had several hundred miles to go before she reached the fleet and a good hundred or so miles before she reached Okinawa proper. And the thing is, you've got to remember, it's like during this attack, I mean, there are multiple waves of US aircraft, but they're kind of too rather big.
02:34:00 Sie hat die erste Waffe, und dann die zweite Waffe, und dann die zweite Waffe, und dann ein bisschen später. Aber es ist einfach, dass sie einfach ground down ist, weil sie starten mit vollen Antiaircraft-fähigkeit, mit all ihren Escorten, und von einem den Escorten, die Erkorts getrennt, oder gesunken, oder getrennt, und jederzeit, dass eine Strafing runn oder eine Bombe hit, auf die Oberdecke, weil sie nicht ausgesprochen wurde, mit großem Antiaircraft-fähigkeit, sie hat
02:34:29 oder 6-6-inch guns. Und sie haben zwei von denen, um mehr AA zu tun. So viele Antiaircraft-Mounts sind einfach nur Open-Mounts oder sehr Lightly-Shielded. So every time ein Attack-Wave of Hellcats kommt, oder ein paar Bombs hit, das sind mehr Antiaircraft-Gunst offline, das macht die nächste Waffe weniger Oppos, das bedeutet, dass sie mehr Hits in werden. Und es ist einfach...
02:34:56 und es wird leichter und leichter für die Amerikaner Piloten, und weiter und weiter und weiter für die Jappenzeiten. Und dann ist es, dass das Schiff einfach in und sagt, ich bin über, ich bin über. Ja.
02:35:11 And so, at the end of the day, the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the most powerful battleship ever built, is thrown away so some senior officers who don't have to put their own lives at risk can sit in a meeting and go, the Imperial Japanese Navy did its utmost for the Empire.
02:35:31 And several thousand young men died for their ability to say that. And to them... In the meeting. Yeah. Like, there is a follow-on attack by... There are kamikazes that do attack at this point as well, and they do damage Hancock, Maryland, and Bennett. It was like 100 or something. By this point, they were basically spent. Yes, because... But by this point in the overall campaign,
02:36:01 They know that Okinawa is going to fall. The reports from the army on the island, as jingoistic and patriotic as they are, they just know it's a matter of arithmetic at this point. And so especially the navy is husbanding whatever it has left for the expected invasion of the Japanese home islands expected later in 1945 and more likely in 1946.
02:36:26 I would say one thing about those officers who made that decision it wasn't necessarily a good decision for them longer term because they all seem to have either died before the war ended or shortly thereafter in various ways or
02:36:46 Das ist von uns, die wir uns auswählten. Oder diejenigen, die, um... ...decided zu spontanisch plead guilty zu all charges... ...wenn sie mit den Amerikanern gesprochen haben.
02:37:00 Und es ist wertvoll zu erkennen, dass Mitsumasa Yonai, einer der Föhr-Opponenten von der Art und Weise, und natürlich, er ist eine der Leute, die die Post-War-Agreemen organisiert, mit den Amerikanern und den Briten und alles, das Japan setzt. Und ja, ich bin ziemlich sicher, er war sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr, sehr.
02:37:25 in a meeting for a short while, it didn't guarantee a long life expectancy day. Yeah, and obviously the fighting eventually on Okinawa mostly ends, I think the US term is conventional regular fighting ends around the time that the atomic bombs are dropped on Japan, and so Okinawa becomes the last major engagement between US and Japanese forces.
02:37:53 in World War II and obviously a lot of the theory and what ifs about had Operation Downfall and Operation Olympus gone ahead about the expected casualties because Okinawa was used as the case study to calculate all of that
02:38:11 You might be able to correct me if I'm wrong on this Legionnaire, but if I recall correctly, the US military hasn't had to make any new Purple Heart medals since World War II because of how many were made for the expected invasion of Japan. Yes, I believe that's correct. I think my Purple Heart is actually one that was manufactured in that time period. I don't know if that's just a popular myth that has basically gotten so much traction it's hard to undo it, but that's kind of the common...
02:38:39 Die Statement ist, dass jeder von meiner Generation von Purple Hearts ist, dass es für Okinawa ist. Eine wilde Sache ist, dass wir noch nicht darüber gesprochen haben, ist, dass wir die Fragfathers 2 haben. Das ist alles über die Fragfors, die wir geholfen haben.
Erinnerungen an die Frogmen und die Vorbereitung der Landung auf Okinawa
02:39:04
02:39:04 The enormous efforts needed to basically clear those coral reefs to even get to the shore in the first place. Absolutely. The UDTs. Yes, the underwater demolition units and such. Prog Fathers 1, which we made in conjunction with our partners, which was mostly about the European theatre. Arguably, the guys who were doing it in the Pacific, because if the Germans take you prisoner when you're off a beach off France...
02:39:32 Ja, du hast eine sehr gute Chance, wenn du eine Kommando gettet hast. Ja, das war ein Problem mit Operation Freshman. Ja, aber wenn die Japaner gettet werden, die Germans will zumindest den Dignity der Shooten. Ja, das ist fair.
02:40:00 And so, like, these guys going onto these beaches at night with no backup, checking that can the Marines even get through this reef before, and then once that's determined, it's like, okay, now we need to go in, okay, we're at the tip of the spear when we're doing demolition, because you're going to have to do that basically just before the landings begin, because if you blow a hole in a coral reef and then don't do anything for two weeks, the Japanese are going to be like, hmm, that was weird.
02:40:28 Die Amerikaner haben gelernt eine Lehre von den Britischen Gallipoli. Ja. Sie müssen die Angelegenheit sein, wo du gehst und wann du gehst, um, das nicht hilft. Es ist eigentlich ein Bad Idea. Ja. Es ist definitiv nicht advised. Ja, so diese Leute müssen in kleinen Gruppen gehen, um, zu den shore. Und sie müssen...
02:40:57 Demolition experts and geology experts, because they need to know, A, can they blow this reef up? Can they just drive an LVT over it? Do they need to blow it up? How much do they need to blow up? So these guys, the underwater demolitions teams that eventually became the Navy SEALs, if I'm remembering correctly, like these guys were, you don't hear enough about them, frankly.
02:41:24 Das ist Teil der Grund, warum wir diese Frogfellas sind, um ihre Geschichte zu erzählen. Weil, du willst du auf die Koste der Japanese-Held-Ireland mit einem C4... Was ist es C4? Cop B. Ja, wir sind Cop B. Ja, Serious Putty. Und ein Colt 45 und ein Knife?
02:41:48 Do you want to be off the shore of Okinawa and that's all you've got? Yeah, and it's one of those things too. You're fairly practiced in the Pacific by then, but in the Atlantic, sorry, for the river crossing onto Normandy, yeah, they're just immensely difficult. You're looking at incredibly high attrition rates.
02:42:13 I don't remember, I was just talking to Jim and Gonzo from Force Blue, the non-profit we partnered with to make Frog Brothers 1 and 2. It was like 7 out of 10. That's worse than paratrooper numbers in Italy. That's worse than 8th Air Force, Bomber Command. That's a higher attrition rate than the U-boats. It's just wild.
02:42:40 enormity i believe the attrition rates were much lower by this point in okinawa because we we've sort of had this sorted by okinawa yeah but it didn't make it any easier no it did not we we learned kind of the hard way in some of these other landings that um aerial reconnaissance for what the reefs actually looked like was incredibly important we i don't want to say gotten it completely nailed down
02:43:08 Aber es hat begonnen, was wir zu tun, was wir zu erreichen können. Ja, es ist wie, bei diesem Punkt, du könntest, dass es ein Reef ist, da. Ja. Whereas in den ersten Landen, die Landen-Craft würden einfach stoppen, weil sie etwas haben, weil sie nicht wissen, dass die Reefs waren. So, es war ein learninges Effort. 55% von Losses. Danke.
02:43:28 Und so you have this learning process, so yes, by Okinawa, they know the ropes, the guys who are doing it have had experience, they've done it before, or they've trained the guys doing it now, so the trainers have experience. Yeah, that's actually an interesting question, if El Fructini still has the trailer for that, but they're, I believe, on their way to dive Okinawa.
02:43:56 Ja. Ja.
02:44:24 Oh, yes, we know you like your long ones, don't worry. I did a 36-hour stream. Do we have the trailer? Yes, we do have the trailer. I will play it as the last thing, so basically as the outro before we are all going home. Yes, so I mean, speaking of, because we've gone over by about 40 minutes longer than usual, so I guess we'll do a quick bit of question and answers if anyone has any questions.
02:44:51 So, Chat, this is your time. If you've got any questions, throw them our way. This is where you need to talk to Runon about getting one of those comment bots that takes in questions. Yes. It's a really useful thing I have. One of my admins has made a bot that literally will take questions and I have a Steam Deck button and I just press it and it goes bop, bop, bop out. How is it going? It goes, Tanatoy.
02:45:20 We do have a question. Drac, have you managed to hit 12 hours for a five minute guide yet?
02:45:30 Ich denke, wenn ich nicht extrem streit mit mir für die Patreon-Drydocks bin, dann könnte ich das längst. Ich denke, dass du sie auf die Videos gespielt hast. Ja, die Hauptsache, dass ich die Patreon-Drydocks in drei-Hour-Segments habe, ist, dass das ungefähr so viele Fragen wie man in den Charakter-Limit der Chapter-Marker und der Video-Description. Aber theoretisch, ich denke, wenn ich...
Diskussion über Trägerrollen und japanische U-Boot-Taktiken
02:45:59
02:45:59 Every single Patreon question and all the alternate history questions all in one long video, I think some of the longer ones could run into that kind of time. I don't want to do that. The first question we have is, compare the role of the, I guess I'll translate it to fleet carriers, with the escort carriers at Okinawa. So the escort carriers are providing close air support to the troops on the island.
02:46:28 They're carrying the marine airwings that will fly from captured airbases on the island. And some of them are also carrying replacement aircraft for the fleet carriers. Yeah, the replacement aircraft was a big piece of it. Well, the fleet carriers are providing additional close air support for the invasion. They're providing interdiction efforts against Japanese airbases in the surrounding theater.
02:46:55 Und auch bereit zu reagieren, zu irgendwelche Angelegenheiten zu werden, von den Escort-Carrieren zu werden. Und sie können nicht mehr aufhören, denn sie haben größere Munition bunkers und so weiter. Ja, größere Munitionsbunker, größere Fuelbunker, Abgas und Fuel Oil. Ja, die Escort-Carrieren sind...
02:47:22 In the Atlantic, I mean, they're largely just anti-surmarine warfare, protecting everything in that area, projecting air power through the Atlantic corridor. In the Pacific, they really were kind of the multi-role when you didn't need a fast ship to respond or large concentrated air power. So kind of every role that you need to move or shuffle or support, like, that's kind of what they're doing. They're closest to the role they're used for in the Mediterranean Indian Oceans.
02:47:50 Basically, in Mediterranean, you have to remember, Vian had commanded from HMS Unicorn a fleet of strike carriers supporting the invasion of Italy and the operations and forces there when they'd actually gone into Italy. This was quite a normal thing, especially with using escort carriers, because again, if you're putting carriers to support, aviation access to support a Phibius operation, they're going to be far easier to find. So you want to have a level of, not something you necessarily want to lose.
02:48:17 Aber es ist etwas, was man besser zu verwendet ist, um die Tied-Down-Seite zu sein. Ja. Du hast die Fleet-Carriere so Tied-Down, sie können nicht manövren, und sie können nicht manövren, sie können nicht manövren, sie können nicht mehr, um ihre Abilities zu ihrer Bestandacht. Ja, der Air-Group also... Ja, ich würde sagen, der Air-Group also lends sich mehr zur Shore-Support, weil es sehr wenige Shore-Target haben, die 50-Strike-Aircraft brauchen. Ja. Aber es gibt viele, die 4 oder 5.
02:48:46 So an escort carrier can just go, okay, we'll send off three or four bombers there, three or four bombers here, a couple of fighters for some support, and then basically maintain a constant cycle of half a dozen or so aircraft out at any one time. Yeah, they're kind of accidentally perfectly suited for that. Because they're slower, they can stay on station a decent amount of time. Yeah.
02:49:12 They're not horribly expensive. If one runs aground, you're not out a major fleet asset.
02:49:20 If they get found by the enemy and they get pounced, then you don't want to lose them. But if you do, you can replace them. They are Ballwasser Carriers. More question for Legionnaire here. Speaking of the teams, how much did the training change over the war years for the UDT teams? Oh, that's a hard question for me to answer. Just because...
02:49:47 Ich weiß nicht wirklich. Ich kann dir viel über die Surface-Aktions mit Sniper und alles, weil wir in der Geschichte sind, um das zu sein. Aber UDT, das beste kann ich sagen, ist, wahrscheinlich zu sehen, Frogfathers 1 und 2, wenn es rauskommt. Es gab, ich weiß, eine dramatische Veränderung in scouting und zu finden, wo sie in der ersten Zeit waren.
02:50:13 und dann wie zu gehen, aber die specifics der actualen Training für die Teams, ich weiß nicht. Okay, hier ist ein easy one. Was war der worst mistake der IGN in World War II? Convincing die Regierung zu gehen mit den USA? Ja, touching our boats. Just, don't touch our boats. Listen to the Barbary Pirates, don't touch our boats. Did British carriers survive kamikaze strikes better than the Essex's?
02:50:43 Yes. Technically, yes.
02:51:11 Because the British are hitting the Sakashima fields, there are plenty of angry Japanese aircraft coming after them. Where people get a little bit muddled up is because the American fleet carrier is often off Okinawa itself, they're dealing with the mass kamikaze strikes that are coming for them, the fast battleships, the slow battleships.
02:51:32 Amphibious groups, the marines of the army troops on shore. Collectively, the US fleet of Okinawa gets a lot more kamikazes, but the numbers directed specifically at each set of carriers is on a per carrier basis. It's not equal, but it's within the same ballpark. Ultimately, I think the best way of looking at it is casualties.
02:51:59 Denn die Summ-Totale von allen Britsch-Carrieren verletzten von Karmel-Karzy in der gesamten Pacific-Kampagne ist weniger als die Zahl der Menschen, die von Franklin verletzten wurden.
02:52:12 Das sagt es alles. Das ist nicht die Bunker Hill, das ist nicht die Enterprise, Hancock, Ticonderoga oder ein paar andere Carriere, die in ein paar kleineren Fälle sind. Wie viele Leute kommen nach Hause, nach dem Ende des Tages wäre es besser auf einen British Carrier gewesen, wenn man in Essex war.
02:52:37 Ja. Das ist, wie wir gesagt haben, das ist, warum sie die Midways mit einem Humboldt-Flightdeck war, um andere Reasons zu tun. Es ist ein Case, die Leute versuchen und sagen, es ist ein E-Berall-Szenario, das ist besser, das ist besser. Nein, beide Navies würden gerne haben, aber es ist nur, wenn die Briten waren es, pre-World War II, mit der Treaty System und der Bildung, sie waren, wir müssen in der Mediterranien und der South China Sea, um zu Japan zu kommen. So, our likely threats sind, Japan ist die höchste, und dann Italy.
02:53:05 They are the two big threats. They're dimmer in most of the 20s and 30s. Germany rises a lot later. And Japan is the one that they're pointing guns and guns are being pointed at them throughout the 1930s. So Japan is the highest likely threat. So if you're thinking about supporting a fleet the other side of the world from your home base, you want to have ships which are as difficult to damage as possible and hopefully as easy to repair forward as possible so that they will provide you with ships available.
02:53:34 Und es ist besser zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu haben, zu
02:54:02 Das ist die Unterschiede in der Analyse. Die Amerikaner können die Wettbewerbs auf die größere Angriffe auf eine größere Angriffe und die Briten müssen sie eine größere Angriffe, aber auch eine größere Angriffe Angriffe, um die Angriffe in dieser Box zu halten. Und die andere Sache muss man sich daran erinnern,
02:54:21 Pre-war, eigentlich, both navies are guilty, to a certain extent, of the same thing, which is that they're a little bit too obsessed, as it will turn out, with protecting their carriers against enemy cruisers getting uncomfortably close. And when you're looking at the four primary protection systems for an aircraft carrier of that period, torpedo defense, defense against surface ships, defense against air attack, and your air group, within the limits of treaty displacement,
02:54:50 You can have two of those four, and the other two will have to suffer. You either have to eliminate them or massively reduce them. Both navies in the end choose to go with what is a minimal torpedo defense system compared to what they want. The difference then is that the British go, we're going to have protection against horizontal attack from surface ships, and we're going to have protection against air attack. So armored sides, armored...
02:55:19 So you get the armored box. The Americans go, but obviously then you have to sacrifice air group size. The Americans decide we have to protect ourselves against cruisers and we don't want to sacrifice air group size, which means we must sacrifice protection against attack by bombs. That's essentially the decision that they have to make. Theoretically, it is possible to.
02:55:45 um etwas mit einem Midway oder Malta zu bauen, um eine Yorktowne oder Illustrious zu haben, um ein Armored Flight Deck und ein Large Air Group zu haben. Und es gibt auch die Designs in den Yorktown- und Essex-Class-Designen-Hertages, die tatsächlich zeigen, dass das. Die Problem ist, dass wenn man das so macht, man kann nichts mehr als Splinter-Protection gegen die Schnells von Kruisers kommen, von der Seite.
02:56:12 In der US-Navie, die Essex und die Yorktowne waren, war zu viel obsessiv, dass wir uns gegen die Kruisers zu protegen haben. Sie wollten das nicht akzeptieren. Also, das Design, obwohl es möglich war, es nicht möglich war, durch die Design-Commissionen.
02:56:30 And the closest you can get, the implacables are interesting because they come from 27,000 tonnes of all the design studies that British put together. They also have a 27,000 tonne variety, which is theoretically the maximum vessel you could build. But if you build 27,000 tonne sand displacement vessel, you can only get five of them on the treaty allowance, which is not enough carriers to have for the operations you need to do. So you can't ever actually build a 27,000 tonne ship. But on a 27,000 tonne ship, you can get an implacable, which is...
02:56:58 Okay, still not the same size airgroup as an American carrier group, but it's a lot bigger than the other British carriers, and it's still got the arm production. It's a sort of, it's a 80% solution, but you can't get enough of those on the treaty display elements. But that's one reason why the impact was come out the way they are, because they are, treaty's over.
02:57:16 Das ist das Design, wir haben bereit zu gehen, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es, dann haben wir es. Ja, also, ja, in, in, in, to be fair, to be completely fair, um, you know, both navies are thinking in terms of attacks by torpedoes, attacks by shells, attacks by bombs, although, as it turns out, um,
02:57:45 Die Armored Flight Deck ist eine wirklich gute Formulierung, wenn die Leute schlägt, wenn die Leute in den Krieg schlägt. Let's be fair, pre-war no one in any Navy was thinking, you know what I think the other side is going to do? Commit mass suicide. No. Kamikazes waren nicht auf den Karten. No, they certainly were not. The British waren, für some reason, considering the idea of plunging shells.
02:58:10 und Divebombing. So, das ist, wo sie sie geteilt sind. Aber das ist... Ja... Es gibt eine große Unterschiede zwischen Divebombing und Divebombing mit der Human Guidance-System. Ja. Eine Frage über die UDT-Teams. Bei diesem Punkt in der Krieg, waren sie meistens auf US-Submarinen?
02:58:31 So, it kind of depended. I know there's a lot of cases, Burfish was, I think, one, where they deployed off of submarines for a lot of different activities. I don't know specifically Okinawa. But, yeah, typically, not typically, but UDTs would utilize submarines. That's part of the ongoing kind of mission profile of American Attack Submarines.
02:59:01 still to this day is to deploy UDTs. If I recall, Jimmy Carter has extra stuff that they don't talk about that they think might be revolved around getting someone on a beach you're not supposed to be on.
02:59:17 Ja, das ist ein Klassified. Tannatoi, das confirm Okinawa-Sum were indeed deployed through submarines. Thank you. Do we have any other questions? Would Japan have had a better success if they had used their submarines to target U.S. logistical routes? Probably. Wouldn't have changed the outcome. The U.S. would have just kept building ships. Yeah, it's also a question of numbers there.
02:59:47 Die Amerikaner Militär war so großartig an anti-Summer-Marie-Warfare, dass wir wenigstens zurückkehren haben. Wir haben nicht viel von ASW, aus dem Atlantik, nach dem Pacifischen, weil wir nicht wirklich brauchten. Daher die Japaner nicht hatten die Ressourcen und Investitionen in das. Sie waren immer noch ein Threat. Obviamente, sie in Indianapolis sankt.
03:00:15 und viel mehr von anderen Shippen. Aber ich denke, dass sie nicht genug von einem Konzert, genug von einem Effort zu entwickeln. Ja, und Japan's Submarine Doctrine war nicht commerce-focused. Ja, es war eher der Japanese Doctrine der Problem, als nichts anderes. Ja, es ist ein Matter...
03:00:40 Es ist eine Frage, wer geht über sie. Eine der Gründe der Doctrine ist, wie es das Fokus ist, nicht auf Commerce Welfare ist, wenn du denkst, was die größte Betrachtung ist, in den 1930s? Es ist Amerika, Japan.
03:00:59 And if America is not a war with Japan, that route's not going to be running. And so then you go, well, what about their trade routes in Australia? They go a long way south. And they can always divert further south. Or they could go around the other way if they really have to. And this is the trouble for the Japanese. Going for a commerce warfare doesn't really help them. The only thing they could have done is if they developed submarines kind of like the I-400s earlier and had them able to sit with a huge torpedo stockpile.
03:01:28 off the west coast and east coast of the united states and basically attack the ships as they left america with supply ships that is their only real option that could have really helped them with the submarines because of the sheer scenario they have going on because there's this look what's the trade routes going past them what are the supply routes going past them or within a viable range that they can engage with in a submarine warfare to actually actively contest
03:01:57 Und das ist der große Problem für die Pacific Campaign. Es ist also ein Thema der Timing, weil, bei der Zeit von Okinawa, es geht nicht darum, was die Japanische Submarine targett, es wird nicht helfen, in der slightest. Aber early in der Krieg, ich denke, da ist ein Argument zu sein, dass eine bestimmte Japanische Submarine Campaign Targeting Logistik könnte haben eine Signifikante Outcome auf die Pathway, nicht necessarily die Outcome, aber die Pathway auf die Krieg.
03:02:26 In der ersten Halten von 1942, und sogar in der Gwadalcanal-Kampagne, wenn man zwei oder drei Fleet-Oilers in den ersten Jahr 1942 verletzten, dann hat man die US-Facific-Fleet zu operieren. Wenn man einen oder zwei von den Supply-Convoys in der Early-Midpart der Gwadalcanal-Kampagne und die Troops ashore nicht getrennt, dass man die Food und Ammunizierung braucht, dann das Lack von Supply was die Hauptsache, was die Hauptsache, die die Japanischen Effort verletzten.
03:02:54 Und die Japaner waren diejenigen, die auf Guadalcanal waren in der ersten Zeit. Die Amerikaner, ihre initiale Toehold war sehr genügend. Das ist warum die Battle von First Savo Island war so nahe und so gefährlich. In 1942, ein Kampf gegen die US-Fleet-Logistik, könnte wirklich ein Krimp in die US-Navy's planen.
03:03:23 But you have to do it then, when the US Navy has relatively few logistics ships and not particularly great experience with anti-submarine warfare and not a huge amount of anti-submarine warfare escorts. If you turn around Okinawa and say, okay, we're going to target one of the logistics formations. Well, the logistics formations have like half a dozen escort carriers and two dozen destroyer escorts.
03:03:45 wenn man sie nicht weit entfernt ist und wenn man mit einer Magik macht, dann sagt man, okay, dann werden wir die nächsten 3, zwei Destroyer-Eskorten für den nächsten Logistik-Forten. Wenn man sich auch auf die, wie ich gesagt habe, bei Okinawa, die japanische Navi ist oft verwendet worden. Die japanische Navi hatte mehr als 200 Submariner in total durch die ganze Zeit der Krieg. Wenn man sich an...
03:04:12 Even their lighter submarines. So they have less than 100 ocean-going fleet submarines. Germany, by comparison, had over 1,000 U-boats through basically the entirety of the war in the Atlantic. And you're looking at a bigger ocean, even though it's kind of concentrated. America has adopted island hopping, so you don't necessarily know where they're going to be. They have immense shipbuilding by the time you get to Okinawa. So early on, you could probably delay. You would have...
03:04:40 Sie haben immer ein Problem, wenn Sie eine Blockade oder eine Invading-Force auf einem Islanden sind, es ist die opposite der Siege. Sie sind die Gefängnis, die die Gefängnis versuchen zu warten, weil Ihre Läden sind sehr fragiles in der Ozean. Aber wenn Sie einfach mit vollem Commitment senden all Ihren Flugzeugen werden, Sie müssen zurückkommen und reifizieren. Und Sie haben nicht die Staying-Power oder die Abilität zu coveren all das.
03:05:09 They tried to do some different things with the 400 series, with the aircraft onboard. But it's just, they're massive, they're enormous. But realistically, by that point in time, by the time they're making that stuff, it's in such few numbers that, okay, cool, you've got those aircraft in the air. Each one of them, maximum efficiency. Every single aircraft that's launched sinks the supply ship.
03:05:38 But there are that many supply ships being finished at a Kaiser Shipyard that day. And that's your maximum, the best you can do in that moment. You're stretched so far thin that I don't even know if a change in Doctrine would really affect the outcome here. Because you do not just have the sheer numbers. And you have Destroyer Escorts. We talk a lot about Destroyers. They get all the love from me because I love my Fletchers. But there's a ton of Destroyer Escorts.
03:06:07 Wir haben schon gesagt, dass die Avengers schon wieder die Radar haben, zu detecten. Und es ist einfach... Es ist schwer. Der Industrie zwischen Japan und den USA kann nicht überstattet werden. Die US bauen in einem Jahr, was die Japanese können in einem Jahr bauen.
03:06:32 In terms of military equipment and on a warship scale, the disparity is almost inconceivable. Yeah. Right. Are we ready with the teaser, sir?
03:06:48 Indeed, I would say we are saying our goodbyes now. Yes, we've been going for three hours. Yes, indeed, we have been going for three hours. We have almost 3,000 people watching now. And I would say we will give everyone now about two minutes of a teaser for Frogfighters 2. So stay tuned, look forward to it, releasing later this year. And with this, we will see each other in the next Armchair Admirals in June.
03:07:15 I forgot the topic, to be honest. June? Midway? Is it Midway? I don't think so. Did we get that far ahead with the planning when we planned these? I think we have it set down for the whole year. Let me quickly check. You can say your goodbyes in the meantime.
03:07:36 I will do it from us here in the Prague office. I hope you've all enjoyed. Thank you to Drac, Clark and Legionnaire. The first time Legionnaire has joined us on one of these streams. Perhaps you will become a more regular guest. Token American idiot in the group. No, I think it's good. Eventually we'll get Killer Bin to have a beard. No, I shave. I shave regularly.
03:07:55 Eventually, we will impress on him the need for a beard to be a true naval British model. I can only offer a big part for him. The best thing I can offer you is slight stubble. But thank you everyone from us here. I hope you all have a pleasant weekend. And obviously we'll be back again next week for the regular...
03:08:15 World of Warships streams, and obviously next month in June we'll return with our next episode of Ancher Admirals. Operation Dynamo. Oh, we're doing Dynamo. Topical. Yeah, yeah, because it's... Right now in-game. Yeah. So thank you very much from us, and we hope you have a pleasant time. Thank you. Bye-bye.
03:08:49 My name is Steve Gonzalez, retired Navy Master Chief and Special Project and Events Director for Force Blue. Last summer, to honor the 80th anniversary of D-Day,
03:09:01 Die Warships haben mich und drei von meinen Navy SEAL-Brothers zu teilnehmen, in einem sehr speziell trip in Normandie, France. Daher, mit der Hilfe der Navy SEAL-Museum und der Produktion von Force Blue, haben wir die Fortschritte und erzählen die Geschichte von unseren Forefathersern, die Naval Combat Demolition Units, die mit dem Weg für die Allied-Invasion geholfen haben.
03:09:25 Hier, von der National WWII Museum, in meinem Hometown von New Orleans, bin ich froh, dass World of Warships, wird bald sein, um unsere Team auf eine andere Mission zu senden. Diesmal, auf der Island of Okinawa. Wo von April 1 bis June 22, 1945, 183,000 Americans, 100,000 Japanese und 300,000 Okinawa Civilians suffered durch die Pacific Theater's bloodiest campaign.
03:09:55 Japanes sind ein level von disciplin, dedikation und zehltrie, das niemand hätte gesehen haben. Wir wissen, dass wir die Schmerzen wissen, und wir gehen hin zu hin. War ist man's common enemy. Für einen Grunde genommen haben wir diese Lehre. Der Preis bezahlt für die Leben wir heute leben, wenn wir es nicht weitergehen, wenn wir es nicht weitergehen. Wir tun die Verteidigung so ein grosses Schmerzen.
03:10:22 Wenn wir dann wiederholfen, ein Reef in den gleichen Ort, fast 80 Jahre später, als ein Frogman war da, zu dem Demos. Ich denke, das wird ein sehr surrealer Moment sein. Wir freuen uns auf dich mit uns, als wir die Fallen beteiligen, und weiterhin die Service und Sacrifice von Amerika's Greatest Generation.