The World War 2 Obscure Trivia Thread

On its distant cousin the Sea Fury perhaps, but the Typhoon’s not a naval aircraft.

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Lots of people had battleships named after them, but who was the only person to have 2?

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The “H-block” is referencing the engine. “Fish plates” refers to the stop-gap solution to strengthen the tail, which had broken off due to flutter during a test flight.

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King George V, whose namesake battleships both were lead ships of their class.

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What period film inspired, almost shot for shot, the movie scene that goes with the following music?

Listen to: Mystery Soundtrack #11.

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Is that Triumph des Willens? I think I read something about the similarities of this scene to that film.

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Almost shot for shot at times.

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A well made film is a well made film even if its depicting something or someone reprehensible.

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When the war in the Pacific started everyone quickly realized battleships were a thing of the passed and the focus was put on the aircraft carrier. Subsequently the US Navy cancelled several battleships and scrapped some under construction. Because of this, one of the 48 States that made up the USA at that point never had a battleship named after itself. Which one?

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Montana? Would have been an absolute monster of a ship if they ever built it, but ships like that were just obsolete.

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That is correct. Montana would have been the name of two ships that ended up being camcelled so im the end no BB was named after the state. In contrast to the North Carolinas, South Dakotas and Iowas, the Montanas would heve been true battleships opposed to fast battleships, emphasizing protection over speed. They would have been the only ships close to rival the Yamatos and were so wide they would not be able to fit through the Panama Canal. In fact, enlarging the Canal was part of the budgeted costs for the ships. In the end they were cancelled before any ship was laid down in favor for aircraft carriers and fast battleships to protect them. The final two Iowas (BB65 and 66) were actually planned as Montanas but then laid down as Iowas and were scrapped after construction on them was halted when they were partially complete.

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Due to the Lexington-class being battlecruiser hulls, most US carriers were named for battles. Which aircraft carrier was named after a joke answer given by FDR?

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When asked where the Doolittle raid aircraft had come from, FDR replied that they must have come from Shangri-La. The idea must have stuck in somebody’s brain somewhere because the name was later given to an Essex class carrier.

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In WW2, which class of battleships at least had a hand in sinking more enemy capital ships than any other?

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What classifies as a capital ship? Are Cruisers and Destroyers still considered capital ship? Assuming no, this should limit the list as Battleships in general didn’t see that much surface action. You had the confrontation between Bismarck and the Royal Navy where battleships sunk an enemy battleship (Bismarck sunk Hood, Homefleet sank Bismarck), there was action in Surigao Strait where US Navy battleships went head to head with a Japanese force that included a battleship. At Guadalcanal the Washington and South Dakota also duked it out with a Japanese fast battleship. But it’s hard to pinpoint one class that had a hand in sinking the most as Washington and South Dakota were not present at Surigao Strait I believe. Those were mostly ships that were initially sunk at Pearl Harbour.

EDIT: I just recall the German battlecruisers (or fast battleships, whatever you would like to call them) Gneisenau and Scharnhost sank at least one British Aircraft Carrier.

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A capital ship in this context is a battleship, battlecruiser or aircraft carrier. A number of battleship classes were involved in the sinking of one enemy capital ship, but I can only think of one that managed to have a hand in the sinking of two.

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All good examples.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau (Scharnhorst class) bagged the carrier HMS Glorious between them off of Norway.

The Washington (North Carolina class) and South Dakota (South Dakota class) sank Kirishima off of Guadalcanal.

At Surigao Straight, Yamashiro was engaged by the US battle line so Maryland, West Virginia (both Colorado class), Tennessee, California (both Tennessee class), Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania class) and Mississippi (New Mexico class) can all get at least some credit for a kill but as Fuso had been sunk by torpedoes before coming into contact with the battle line, those again all get credit for a single capital ship only.

So which class of battleships got the two-fer?

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King George V-class. HMS King George V was part of the sinking of the Bismarck, while HMS Duke of York took part in the sinking of the Scharnhorst.

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That’s the one. The class is much derided at times but they were there when it mattered and did the business when needed.

Prince of Wales got an important hit on Bismark too.

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Good one. I didn’t know or recall that Scharnhost was sunk by gunfire. I thought both Scharnhost and Gneisenau were either sunk by aircraft or scuttled by the Germans. That’s what I love about this thread.

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Nope. Her sister ship, Gneisenau succumbed to the attention of the RAF but Scharnhorst was pounded to scrap by Duke of York’s guns then finished off with torpedoes from British cruisers.

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