EARLY EPISODE: The Death of PQ-17

David "Stringbean" Akerman was a musician and comedian who was a regular on TV's "Hee Haw." As detailed in Wikipedia: On the night of November 10, 1973, Akeman and his wife were shot and killed after returning home from a performance at the Grand Ole Opry. The two killers had learned that the Akemans never kept their money in banks, preferring to hide it in their home, and Akeman always kept a large amount of cash on him. The killers listened to the live Opry broadcast on Akeman's radio so they would know when the couple would be returning home. The following morning, their bodies were discovered by their neighbor, musician Louis "Grandpa" Jones. FWIW: During WWII the U.S. Merchant Marine suffered the highest death rate per-capita of any branch of the U.S. military.

I can't believe no one (hosts or commenters) has mentioned the Tom Hanks movie "Greyhound." It's practically based on this story.

TBF, I skip the intro of the podcast because those bagpipes are fucking obnoxious.

“DER ANGREIF SEGER WAR EIN BEFEHL!”

Poor Prinz Eugen, eternally doomed to a life of mispronunciation.

An episode you guys should do is Crawfords defeat, a American expedition to Ohio in the Revolutionary war gets absolutely obliterated and the commander dies real bad.

Dear god, Nate accidentally described my wretched ex-housemate with the room turned into a studio that has a console and a folding chair.

Knight's Move <<< Night Smoove

"the lend lease agreement of context" fried me bruh

Liberty Ships sound awesome. I feel like I could build one.

TFW my pants are already up way to high and I'm very hungry 👀💧

See Spot run. Sea Lord Pound.

Son of a bitch. Here we go with the FF references again. How much Patreon bucks do I need to pay to get you guys together and play some old PS games on a stream.

As an American I owe my lend lease to the monarchy of nick not to the state of LLBD

As ingenious as riveted construction was, once we figured out welding (after the liberty ships were built, see the T2 tankers and how the steel used at the time became brittle when welded) and given how time consuming rivets are to install, ship builders never looked back. Most, if not all, modern ships are built in a similar fashion to liberty ships, Individual sections built separately then welded together (correctly this time though).

A note about the "uboats machinegunning allied crewmen" not saying this is the case, but if it was more common, how would we even know? We know about the times when they rescued people because survivors lived to tell the tale. If you have no survivors - only victims and perpetrators - with no witnesses - we'd only know what a guilty conscience has to say.

My favorite WW2 supply route is The Hump - flying literally over the Himalayas to get supplies to the China.

It is blasphemy to the eastern horseodoxy to skip the introduction. Did not expect to be adding to the Steve Harvey “thinking bout killing mah self” soundboard but there it is. On a serious note today was a rough day at work and I finished to find my car battery dead. The podcast boosted my mood immensely thank you.

Did they over look Lewis Hamilton with the same name of the f1 driver

The Channel Dash when Scharnhorst and Gneseinau managed to sneak past the British in their own channel was more or less the dumbest plan that actually worked.

y'all should do an episode about the siege of Malta (WWII edition) where at one point a cargo ship was actively sinking while going into Valletta harbor. for some reason when you plop down an island in the middle of the mediterranean, everyone wants to have a piece of it. even the tiny elephants

Btw, the liberty ship they built in 4 days pretty much immediately broke apart, luckily before it was put to work.

It's funny that I first heard about this from World of Warship's Armchair Admirals livestream some years ago.

Don’t lie to us, we all know Tom is a POW left behind in Vietnam!

Goring refused to provide planes for an aircraft carrier because he was a petty bitch.

The Prinz Eugene was named for Eugene d’Savoy, who light be a good candidate for a future episode if he hasn’t already been in one.

Playing as much Azur lane as I have, I cringe internally every time he mentioned one of the many boats I wish I had pin-ups of.

Joe out here giving out pissing secrets. The council of dudes are deploying an extraction team to his location at this point now.

Oh I feel Nate so hard about Rick and Morty. It was my fave show when I was like 17... That quickly faded when s3 hit lol

To be fair to the Soviets, the Free French did this too. When the US Navy was doing the Pacific campaign and would capture formerly French territory, they would submit formal requests to use the facilities available for their sailors or command. Charlie repeatedly said 'No' and the French governors would basically shrug and say, 'Dad said no'

For context. I never skip the intro the show.

Funko-Pop Stalin has gotta be a thing

The strength of rivets is a neat thing. Because they are hot when they go in, they can fit into a narrow hole. As they cool, they contract at both ends and form an incredibly strong, tight seal on both sides. Simple but amazing at what they do.

Yay, random Irish guy shows u— wait, no, not that one, ew

I had the pod to listen to Stringbean. Worth it

Had a friend serve on the USS Emory Land. It was a sub tender. Not sure if its still in service. Always wondered how that ship got its name. Thought it was named after a piece of antarctica

I just realized that the New Deal was just the US' version of the 5 Year Plan, but privatized and with less likelihood of you getting shot.

The WTYP episode with Tom where they talk about the SS Pendleton and SS Fort Mercer is a good companion piece to this, as they talk about exactly why the engineering on Liberty Ships sucks so bad and why welding back then was shit. Plus, you get president Boonhauer slapping his dick on the Resolute Desk.

Was sea lord Pound friends with Commisar Ruble and Colonel Dollar?

I am in the merchant marine, I can tell you that 60 years old is still not too old today, not by far…unfortunately And yes Merchant Marine pay is whipping today, with a Bachelors degree at a cheap college I made ~150k first year after graduating. I did however, miss my mothers funeral and the birth of two nephews, and frequently have skin contact with chemicals so it’s blood money

Lots of convoys were done to Vladivostok but they mainly used soviet cargo ships because of there neutrality with the Japanese for 99% of WW2.

I used to work for a shipyard that built carriers and built a shitton of liberty ships. Safety was barely a vibe from the stories I heard.

Freelance hating

The letters in the convoy code werent just made up by whoever organised them. There was a set code determined by the route as detailed here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Allied_convoy_codes_during_World_War_II

Letter letter number number? Letter number letter. -Squid

PQ-17 sounds like a rating

Landing hardstyle is the funniest fucking way to describe a VA disability rating