More Things I've Learned

Thing 1:
Battle of Fredericksburg. A frontal assault across open terrain, uphill, against an enemy behind sturdy fortifications (a thick stone wall) with artillery in the heights behind. Might as well have called it a sneak preview of WWI.

Thing 2:
Lee's operations in the Battle of Chancellorsville was a brilliant demonstration of using speed and maneuvers to defeat a superior enemy. It probably made him overconfident going into Gettysburg 8 weeks later, though.

Thing 3:
The Dornier 335 Arrow was a surprisingly big-ass plane - about the size of a P-61. Wonder how maneuverable it was.

Thing 4:
The Arado 234 was a tiny thing, for a bomber. Looked smaller than the Me 262.

Thing 5:
The Mars rovers are tall enough to look me in the eye.

Things I've Learned

Thing 1:
The Hunley was supposed to have been a crude device built from a boiler tank. This was based on the recollections of a former Confederate lieutenant 40 years later. Turned out he didn't know shit. It's obvious from looking at the actual submarine that Mr. Hunley knew what what he was doing - his boat looks like a miniature U-Boat.

Score 1 for the engineer.

Thing 2:
The HL Hunley sank three times. The first time it was swamped by a passing ship. Three guys got out, the rest drowned. The next time two times all 8 crewmen died. Mr Hunley himself was at the controls the second time.

Score 21 for Mother Nature.

Thing 3:
The Enterprise (CV-6) was about the same length as the Essex-class carriers, but the flight deck was much more slender. This probably contributed to her getting scapped in the 50s instead of getting the steam catapult/angled flight deck upgrade.

Thing 4:
The South Dakota-class BBs were clearly more compact than the North Carolina BBs. At the same time, the engines were bigger (130 kHp vs 120kHp). No wonder they were more crowded inside.

Thing 5:
The North Carolina had nine captains in six years of service. Apparently the XO ran the ship and the Captain was just there to get his ticket punched so he could get promoted to Admiral.

Thing 6:
The Navy is still stripping the Wisconsin of anything that can be used for spare parts. Until they're done the interior of the ship is off-limits. And there's a really ugly crane on a barge blocking the view of the port side of the ship.

Thing 7:
Tropical storms bring a lot of rain with them.

Well Earned Vacation

I've got a week all to myself. No family, no work, no house selling or buying. So I've taken the Battlewagon out on the open hiway and we're gonna check out some classic warships. On tap for today are the USS Yorktown, a WWII Essex class carrier (named after the one what was sunk at Midway) and the CSS Hunley. The Hunley was built by the Confederates during the Civil War and was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship. Unfortunately, it was lost with all hands while returning to its base and spent the next hundred-odd years on the bottom of Charleston Harbor. I'm curious to see how the restorations are going.

Tomorrow's agenda: the battleship North Carolina.