How did nations encourage people signing up for submarine service in ww2? Judging by the low chance of survival if the boat was hit, I can't imagine recruitment was really easy, especially later in the war.

Talking about the SMS Hohenzollern: was it common that the stateleaders yachts were equipped with guns? Were those guns just for representational tasks or were they to be used in a possible war?

At 3:15 in the video you show a picture of the ship in what is presumably the northern-balic sea channel. There is a "textbox" in left lower left corner, stating: "Zensiert Paul Hoffman & Co Berlin-Schöneberg" Since the german word "zensiert" does translate to the english word "censored", I'd like to know, what was censored in specific on this picture and why this wsa done by a private contractor, rather than a member of the Navy or the military in general. I'd also like to know how common the practice of the censorship of publicly released photographys of warships and naval infrastructure was in ther german navy an others and how this would have been done in a time in which photoshop had jet to emerge.

How much coal did one of these ships burn? That might make an interesting topic (as if your backlog isn't large enough). 'The evolution of fuel consumption and the supply-logistics involved.'

Drach you did a video on the evolution of boilers. Are you going to make a vid on engine evolution from single expansion machines to turbines?

AntonioBeltran TheSumoSnipe similar to the German troops in Africa at this time. The German general tied up approx 3 times as many troops as he himself had.

Mugdorna if you have three times the resources then it’s a stalemate.

@@timsytanker unfortunately for the Germans, the allies have more than 3x the resources.

AntonioBeltran..u should read the story of an amazing ship. "KMS KORMORAN" a German auxiliary cruiser.A Freighter bristling with guns and torpedos.u will be amazed about the ingenuity and skills of its crew and what kind of havoc it did in ww2.even managed to sink an australian heavy cruiser HMS PERTH in a gun duel.both were sunk actually and sadly HMS PERTH crews suffers the most.

It wasn’t the HMAS Perth, it was HMAS Sydney and she is a Leander-class Light Cruiser

And no air conditioning.

@@Boxghost102 Well, no one had a/c in 1915, but they also didn't have to shovel tons of coal every week. I don't know if men were stronger then or just used to more hard work, but I would have died the first week.

Still better than the trenches.

I read somewhere that RN ships had their loaders do 3 hours in the boiler room, then 3 hours upon deck to recover. Temps were up to 50 Celsius in the boiler room. Those stats are based on North Sea/Nth Atlantic deployments.

@@Mugdorna I wouldn't be surprised. My dad served as a motor machinist mate on PT boats in the Pacific. In theory, he was supposed to be spelled every two hours so he could get off sitting on those three big Merlins and recover. This wasn't always possible when they were in combat while barge hunting, and there were several times members of the crew had to drag him out nearly unconscious from heat exhaustion. I have no idea how he stood it.

The amount of ships and material tied up by Konigsberg far exceeded what she could have ever actually fought. Mission accomplished! Or: How charts and information can be as powerful as a battleship

​@@polygondwanaland8390 and good leadership, innovation, and a good crew

Cool

She was the model for the Königin Luise, in the film The African Queen. The actor Peter Bull, who played the captain of the Königin Luise, had actually served as an officer in the British Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in WW2 where he had achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Commander and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

The battle of Lake Tanganyika is one of those awesome stories that you just can't make up

BHuang92 Fingers crosses that when the MV Liemba retires, she is restored as a museum ship.

Michael Palin; of Monty Python fame and movies like A Fish Called Wanda, took a trip on the MV Liemba for his 1992 TV series Pole to Pole; where he traveled from the North Pole to the South down the 30 degree longitude line through 17 countries using airplanes as little as possible. It took him about 5 1/2 months of travel time. I haven't watched this series since it aired in the U.S. back in the early 1990's, but I do remember Mr. Palin saying the MV Liembe was still an important; perhaps the most important and modern means, to ship cargo up and down Lake Tanganyika as of the time he was on it in 1992. Lake Tanganyika is huge, something like 1,100 miles long. The MV Liemba had some renovation done in 2014 and major work in 2017, and you can travel on it today. $40 per person for a !st class cabin. (That price was as of several years ago.) Two people only per cabin. One way travel only, from Kigoma, Tanzania to Mpulungu, Zambia. When Michael Palin sailed on the MV Liemba, it hadn't seen a major overhaul since the 1950's. He filmed the fixtures within the ship and in his cabin and you could tell they were from the early 20th century by their look. The only other thing I remember was that water in his cabin didn't work at all. He could turn the faucet knobs but nothing would would happen. The MV Liemba's engine may have received a major overhaul in the 1950's but the Graf von Goetzen had been underwater for 10 years before it was salvaged in the 1920's and it showed. Hopefully, it's a bit better now.

He did tell Hitler to go fuck himself. And that was still too polite.

He was based

He was also a massive racist and caused an insane amount of misery and death to the region. But sure, great dude.

@@Tyggis777 Yes, the man who told Hitler to go fuck himself (only less politely) and who many years after the War returned to Namibia and was warmly welcomed by the African troops who fought under him, was a racist. But sure, great dude.

​@Tyggis777 Well, i guess it once again reinforces just how bad they were if even this guy couldn't stand them

I guess their one mistake would have been not to follow up and sink the 2 monitors when they had the chance.

@@chaz000006 They had a Skeleton healthy Crew and two Cruisers waiting for them which were shelling the oberservation Posts. So the didn't know if there was a push from the Navy into the river or not. The Königsberg would have risked to be caught by Weymouth and Pyramus which had been there to attack the Groundforces and safeguard the Monitors.

Like the Tirpitz -- just its presence was a threat that had to be dealt with.

@@chaz000006 they probably didn't even know they had or hadn't sunk them based on how little information they probably possessed

@@Elkarlo77 Who dares, wins.

That's the thing about the "Fleet in Being" concept - containing them involves disproportionate resources. The major units of the Home Fleet could not be redeployed east until Tirpitz was accounted for since, to ensure one battleship capable of dealing with it required at least three ships, and preferably more: one to fight, one in transit, one in refit - and oceans are big places in which to find small ships. The original idea of Force Z was to be a "Fleet in Being" aimed at the Japanese with Prince of Wales, Renown and a modern carrier to provide air cover. It may well have worked, but no carrier was available to provide the essential aircover, due to battle damage in the Mediterranean.

@@alecblunden8615 don't forget destroyers and/or cruisers as escort as well as resupply ships etc. The amount of resources the Brits used was quite large

@@alecblunden8615 i agrees with u alec. A 'FLEET IN BEING' is a very dangerous and unpredictable terms and situations.u never know what the enemy can do and thats why the Brits are so paranoid and went kookoo crazy with this terms. especially after british has lost so many good ships in the european and pacific thaeatre.

@@alecblunden8615 OT, but the aircraft carrier (HMS Indomitable) ran aground in the Bahamas on its way. It was too new to have battle damage.

@@kenoliver8913 According to contemporary accounts, Indomitable was never assigned to Force Z . That story is post war fiction. It would have been one of the other armoured carriers if any were available.

What else did you expect!? More, and better, ships and you Brits *STILL* had to outnumber then 4:1, just to make it fair.

The entire East African campaign was inventive. Von Vorbeck was on the offensive for the entire war. He wrote his memoirs after the war. There is also a book on the history of the Konigsberg

You get a thesaurus for christmas man? give it a rest lmfao

As long as they had enough luck not to go near Falklands.

@@tokul76 That wasn't the cruiser captains, but Admiral von Spee. The Emden which split off did quite well (for a while).

Probably ran out of other targets.

Massively obsolete Canopus class ship was not that useful, Konigsberg could easily out run that out in the open. Suggest you look at the battle of Coronell

Battleships are not expected to chase cruisers, and a cruiser that has let itself be cornered by one has to be rather funny.

@@giupiete6536 And not in a good way I suppose?

@@edwardteach3000 Definitely in a good way, if it wasn't cornered it would be sinking civilian ships and cargoes. Just think, in two world wars, how much work of how many people german raiders sent into the deep. But no, there's nothing good-funny about a guy mocking the RN for saving people's lives & livelihoods. The irony is I suppose that Germany, Japan, USSR & Italy all sought Empire because they saw it working for the British Empire, just like generations before them and generations after them, thinking if they can steal it for themselves it would magically do something without management & effort. Plebs, the lot of them ;-)

The Emden story would make a great Drachtale.

Bogart stipulated in the contract for that movie that there was to be a large cooler filled with ice and Corona beer on set all the time for him to use.

The Konigsberg story was also the basis (very, very loosely) of the terrible and racist movie "Shout at the Devil" starring Roger Moore.

@@spejic1 shout at the devil. Not familiar with that RM movie. I'm familiar with the mid 1950's version again with Humphrey Bogart. I'll watch the former. Thank you

@Jurassic Aviator it is long for a shell, must have weighed quite a bit as the casing is very heavy as it is empty with out it's charge and the shell. Lugging this lot across the country side would have been very demanding, but an incredibly strong gun once out of the ship. Yes it is me that owns it

@@clubwho Isn't it fun to work with 'brass polish'? (insert 'eye-roll' here)

@@clubwho That is *awesome*. Is it a conversation starter?

the DH Mosquitoes of the RAF had the same problem after ww2 with several aircraft falling apart with deadly results..

Glues of the period tended to be based on natural sources, eg horse glue or as tropical bacteria call it, lunch!

The story really (puts on sunglasses)... sticks with you.

Not just the glue that was the problem....the wood used in some aircraft would warp in the constant heat and humidity..... the HF27s had to be modified to use metal tubing in their structure.

Making a guess, casein (milk solids) based glue was used back then. With som moisture present it becomes a food stuff for mould and bacteria. I think Cascamite was originally based on this. I have a recipe but never made any (I grew up and got an income). I can just about afford resourcinol formaldehyde red glue now minus one kidney.

It is more like a sharp s.

@@civishamburgum1234 Sure, tell me more about the pronunciation of my native language.

Just turn around pronounciation for s and z as you Are Used to and it Sounds quite ok most of the time

I was going to ask about that but you have answered the question already for me! Thanks.

One of my favourite authors

What a bucket

@@benbaselet2026 Its pronouced Boo-Kay dear...

I feel terrible for getting that right away...mom loves that series.

It's the Bucket woman again!

When I heard "Hyacinth" my mind went there immediately. Some good memories of watching that with the first wife. :)

Forget that, they also contributed in getting the Goeben to savety due to confusing the daylights out of the admiral in the med with contradicting orders

@@santiago5388 And the gallant Admiral Craddock and his men. So far as I can tell Churchill was a brave man, but his war experience was a cavalry junior officer and what he knew about naval warfare was not worth knowing.

Bringing to mind the famous statement a German general made about the British - "Lions led by asses."

@@John-ru5ud There is evidence that statement was invented by a 'historian' in the 1960s. Unfortunately I don't have the reference at hand.

@@astiwine2354 Its actually of Sevastopol 1855 vintage, Alan Clarke transposed it onto WW1 to increase sales and because its a good line!

Forester did write The African Queen- a great read as well as a great film.

No he surrendered two weeks after the Armistice on 25 November 1918..

There was no need to do it. He could have established an own african empire. King Paul I.

Didn't back away from her duty tho

@@joweeqc98 I'm more or less quoting Jackie Fisher. He got rid of a lot of older ships using that description as an reason. While Pegasus may have made a reasonable convoy escort, It never should have been left alone (potentially) against Konigsberg.

As far as i remember in the case of graf spee the buying of fuel was more about pretending Ark Royal and Renown were on their way than stranding the germans

- KMS

@@peterkapunkt6783 German ships had no prefixes after WW1. Its just "Admiral Graf Spee"

@@535phobos I know, hence the "-" (which is supposed to be a minus). :)

@@peterkapunkt6783 Alright, I thought you were correcting the other commenter. My bad.

Who doesn't?

I enjoyed a book, Utmost Fish! This was the history of the British efforts to move motor gunboats to be moved across Africa to Lake Tanganyika. Grueling work.

Welcome to the future.

To me 2010 seems like yesterday. Then you pause for a moment and realize how much time has actually passed. It's a werid feeling that is for sure.

Just to illustrate the difference in German and English thinking in Africa and about Africans I read the following in a book about WWI in German East Africa. A German noncom who was taken prisoner by the British was talking to one of his guards. They got to talking about women and the German said that he had some pornographic pictures of some women and would the British guard like to see them. The guard enthusiastically said sure. The German then proceeded to show him pictures of naked African women. The British guard got all upset and walked away in disgust while the German was like "What's the problem? They look hot to me". (Obviously paraphrased but you get the gist). I guess the Germans were not as professional colonizers as the British were.

Depended which colony, believe it is present day nabia the Germans were as bad as the Belgians, Gorings father was the governor

Flower class corvettes lend themselves to this, e.g. HMS Peony, HMS Gladiolus, etc. Would rather have had a number than a name like that!

@@glennsimpson7659 British ship names are - mostly - amazing! There was an HMS Buttercup as well...

@@glennsimpson7659 Spare a thought for the unfortunate sailors who had to walk around Portsmouth bearing "HMS Pansy" ribbons on their caps.

Chris Bilham Wisely the Admiralty decided to rename Pansy as HMS Heartsease before commissioning!

Just don’t call HMS Hyacinth a bucket!

There was a Ballantine War Book series on the German efforts in East Africa. Remarkable successes in the face of greater numbers.

Well, there was a sailing ship that served as a Q-Ship in WW2, but she didn’t see action. Still agree completely

Or the battleship was still there, not to mention the rest of the squad

Von Lettow Vorbeck is a minor hero to me just for telling Hitler to "fuck himself" when offered the ambassadorship to the Court of St George. His relatives said the reply wasn't that polite. After reading things like that and recalling Drach's video about The Battle of the Texel one wonders how the Germans ever got the reputation of being so subservient.

@@sundiver137 is there something like "the exception proves the rule ".? The attempts by the Kriegsmarine U-boats to rescue the passengers of a ship they had just sunk off the Atlantic coast of Africa. The Royal Navy was going to use the opportunity to save lives Only for the surfaced boats to be attacked by the American long range bombers. Depth charges and crowded life boats don't mix.

Someone has posted that Wilber Smith based his book Shout at the Devil on this tale and the movie www.imdb.com/title/tt0075214/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Shout at the Devil 1976 Lee Marvin, Roger Moore.

Gunninator *piqued

Nice name