Battle of Drøbak Sound - Sinking of the Blücher 

The hits made by the 15CM guns were important for damaging the fire fighting ability and an engine room. At such short range they could easily penetrate a heavy cruisers armor.

Norway has lots of to be proud of past and present.

47 liters....in perspective....that is maybe 6 jerrycans....ffs

Why is it unreachable?

@@yuurichito1439 probably steel collapsing and corroding over the years

not 47 liters. 47 fuel bunkers. Unknown number of liters per bunker, may even be empty.

Wow, 10 1/3 imp gallons! How much comes ashore every hour from the North Sea oil fields?

Yeah sad that a Hipper class and all the crew "got lost" because of smth dumb like this

@@yuurichito1439 Norwegians and democracy lovers all over the world disagree with you.

And German torpedoes from WW2 was in use by the Norwegian navy at least up to 1980. The Argentinian was sunk by ageing torpedoes.

No different than the shit-ton of soviet weapons kicking around. Whatever russia is today, its not the ussr.

The torpedoes used were driven by air pressure, which funny enough was more reliable than the more modern torpedoes at the time

@@ulflyng The issue was more on the magnetic exploders than the electric engines of the torpedoes, the British, German and US magnetic torpedoes had issues at this time and they solved them later on. The contact exploder that the Whiteheads had was more reliable, which was proven to be true when they hit the Blücher.

And an old, still working M2 browning was found on Okinawa, dated to 1942 I think

But do they feature it?

@@chimerathrawn5875 Yes they do

«Either i will get Court Marshalled, or i will get Decorated.» «Fire!» The most Badass Words from a Norwegian Officer. Also, i Like that this is featchured! (Also, King Haakon IIIV Actually a Day before the Invasion, he Curled up in a Ball, and was hella Tired.

I was just watching the episode

thank you for reminding me of the name of that show. I was trying to find it for so long.

Nice one,sir ,617 Squadron ,Dambusters were the brave men doing the deed...

as someone from Denmark we only hold six hours against the Germans

Denmark has no natural barriers to speak of and very little ground to give up. To their credit, though, when the Germans started rounding up Jews, they were able to get virtually all of them to Sweden.

@@krystal20delight61 Thank you

@@djolley61 I know

@@krystal20delight61 a fair few Danes joined the Royal Marines/Commandos, and many Danish seamen played their part in the Battle of the Atlantic...Jan Molby ex Liverpool great Dane has a great Scouse accent..

He sounded like an excellent commander overall. Very jealous of your visit to Oscarsborg. Would love to check it out one day.

“Act without orders”. That is only partly true. Under the regulations his standing order was to block the passage to anyone trying to pass in anger. One can understand that he sought support from higher ranks, but his orders where there.

So much respect his house still is in power

Oh do check it out. Norway has a number of great movies. Thanks for checking out the video as always M.

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Mr. Johnson, I look forward to them, I get all smiley when I see the notification! You have a gift and I'm glad you share it.

Remember that the Norwegian merchant marine greatly contributed to the allied victory, carrying 40 % of the oil prioducts to UK during the first critical month of the war. Without that the RAF wouldn't have been able to resist the Luftwaffe. During the 1000 ships strong Nortraship fleet continued to carry vital supplies for the Allies, with the loss of many lives and ships.

there's written thousands of books on various figts and battles during WW2 in norway. and domestic documentaries and films have been made in hundreds. keep looking )=

Norway fought militarily for two months, with allied help. Of all countries that wound up being occupied, Norway fought the longest.

@@einarbolstad8150 👍

Bismarck: 9months. Also, sailed 19 May and blasted into flaming wreckage 27 May. No glory here either.

Give me just one reason WHY germany should have invaded sweden! and from denmark to sweden isn`t such a big distance.

@@billyponsonby Bismarck was more like 2 weeks of active service: most of those months were spent in shakedowns, IIRC.

@@michaelpielorz9283 Same reasons Germany invaded Norway, likely, plus a few more. 1 - To take control of the local industrial potential and infrastructure, and use it to bolster the German war effort. 2 - Propaganda reasons related to justifying their claim as rightful heir to the Viking warriors. 3 - To have more land for Germans to settle in, furthering their eugenics programs using their ideology of Lebensraum. 4 - To further secure supply lines between Scandinavia and mainland Europe. 5 - *(This one is speculation on my part, take it with a pinch of salt)* To aid in the upcoming Operation Barbarossa, by both cutting the USSR off from Allied support in the Baltic Sea and Arctic, and setting up a second major front for the advance by betraying the Finnish too, invading Russia from the north AND the east.

I don’t remember the name of the ship (too lazy to find it) but there was an American destroyer that was sunk about a month after being commissioned

Thanks man! Glad you liked it

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Thx for the great videos :D

Yes! Goodness I tried my best to find some Blucher footage but no luck so sometimes I'm just stuck with "General Kriegsmarine footage" and I kind of hope most people understand that.

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Yes, of course, it's a common tactic... Furthermore it's not like the Germans filmed every single launch of their ships XD It was more common to film the big boys (Scharnhorst, Bismarck, Graf Spee etc) and do those big ceremonies they did with the flowers, flags and stuff... I'm not sure if i have ever seen footage of any of the Admiral Hipper class cruisers being launched generally.... After i wrote this i searched for AH class launch footage and there was not a single one so yeah....ahaha

Thanks so much 🙏

Probably too much fire.

I think it mainly just relates to the fact the Anglo-French alliance did virtually little to nothing whilst Germany pressed hard into Poland and then bided the time until Norway and Denmark too fell and France thereafter. Much of allied planning just seemed to fall apart at first contact I wouldn't say it wasn't that there was no war being fought in those 8 months, its just that very little initiative was shown in the face of German Aggression. Also I want to remind that this isn't necessarily malice contextualized strictly by post-WW1 thinking but rather the result of opening actions of both the of War of 1870 and August 1914 saw French advances into Germany hindered and the resulting immediate engagements of maneuver thereafter, one which proved disastrous, and the latter resulting in a severe loss of life to prevent utter and total destruction. And just like in 1870 and 1914, French offensives stalled in the Ruhr or approximate, and the German army's counter offensive (or offensive for most) was weightily decisive in the course of the conflict thereafter. The only difference here is that the Allied Command could not appropriately act in time with the exploitation that the tanks took through Sedan.

@@TchaikovskyFDR There was the mighty Saar Offensive!?

Love the story of the Glowworm. Would love to do a video on her at some point.

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Yeah, isn’t it! I really like the fact that the VC citation was from the captain of the Hipper and the award was based on his testimony. There are some who claim the Glowworm was out of control at the time but frankly that’s cobblers. She may have not been under control immediately prior to collision but the fact remains that she was steered towards with the intention of ramming. Pretty bloody flukey to hit the enemy ship by accident when steering randomly. No. She was aimed at the Hipper. There is nothing a RN officer strives for more than ramming the enemy. He may have guns and torpedoes and depth charges but ‘sod them!’ If you can ram the enemy then crack on! Actually, there’s a great line in ‘Battle of the River Plate’ where captain Bell of HMS Beef Pasty says the immortal line “ If I get a chance I shall ram the begger. It’ll mean the end of us but the end of her too - and that’s all that matters!” Glorious! (Oh no - she was sunk by the Gniesenau and Scharnhorst off Norway.) ‘Battle of the River Plate’ would be a great film to cover, thinking about it. I can see you making a very decent job of that.

@@geordiedog1749 Battle of the Rive Plate was an idea in contention with this video so I think it will be on the list 100%. Though I got a British project I'm working on this week already :)

Thanks man! Wanted to switch things up. Will do a few more in the future.

I think the torpedoes had been kept a secret

@@jefferynelson even better for the fort and worse for any ship

Not easy to avoid that. The Drøbak Sound is extremely narrow and difficult to navigate. It is also partly blocked by a very shallow underwater wall, 3-4 feet deep, to force shipping to pass in front of cannons and torpedo batteries. This wall was constructed as early as 1879 to prevent enemy naval forces to attack the capital Oslo. It proved to work well.

Oberst (Colonel) Eriksen was commander of the whole Oscarsborg fortress including gun batteries at the Main battery (3*28 cm Krupp), the Kopaas batteries at the east Drøbak shore and the torpedo battery. He stood out, taking the political risk kommanding to open fire, but what capitated the Bücher (“Blycher”), was two midship hits from the torpedo battery. The sights being “state of the art” where one had to guess the speed of the target! Kommandør (comander) Anderssens guesses proved adequate!

I have visited the torpedo batteri swveral times, the time when it was still a restricted area. It still is like it was in 1940, torpedoes and all. Fascinating.

Well thanks for leaving some kind feedback 🙏

I'm sure there's more to come. You have an excellent channel based on real world experience. Yeah.

Thanks man I really appreciate the feedback

Thanks man really appreciate it 🙏

Thanks for leaving some support 🙏

Would love to one day

Thanks man I really appreciate the kind words

Thanks brother! They did a fantastic job on the scene relying on sound and darkness to set the atmosphere. Great scene on a low budget.

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq No Probs Johnny, all in a Days Work! And Oh they most certainly did a Good Job alright! A Damn Good Job Indeed! in a Low Budget no less! simply shows that in some cases, that a Large Budget to make an Excellent Film! and there are a lot of Movies to prove that! Simply Amazing!

Glad you enjoyed it 🙏

No, the ships were identified as German at Filtvet and Obeerst Eriksen was informed at about 03:38. He knew they were German. Deutschlandlied was probably not heared during the battle, but later at about 06:20 as the ship sank.

Would love to one day

I appreciate that but honestly there are so many sources, even German sources, which seem to disagree on the pronunciation. Funny, I live next to the Hamlet of Blucher in Canada and no one can agree on it's pronunciation here either lol. But I did give it a shot knowing I was most likely wrong however I tried it.

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Thanks for the feedback, no worries. For me (as a German), it sounds strange that there are disagreements on how to pronounce it. Anyway, keep up the good work!

@@FlyWithMe_666 Thanks man! I'll keep working on my German :)

Ja....

some more irony is that the one of the 28 cm Krupp canons got accidentally dropped in the water during shipping so they decided to name it Moses and the other canons therefore got similar Jewish names Aron and Josva.

The cannons were Krupp Model 1889, serial Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Thanks so much. I hope to do more like this in the future.

Aye Aye Captain...

It's no KING GEORGE V

Blücher is pretty far off from a battleship, she's a heavy cruiser

Yeah i didn’t know at the time it’s a Prinz Eugene class heavy cruiser with 203

@@jackwayne3333 Not a Prinz Eugen class heavry cruiser, its and admiral hipper class heavy cruiser

This movie about the Norwegians?

@@piney4562 oh yeah maybe I saw it years ago I also saw a movie about danish soldiers during the invasion and likely got them mixed up

that would be the bicycle unit if i recall

@@joshuajoaquin5099 yeah it was

@@rbr528 about the invasion of Denmark? Sounds fascinating, I will have to see if I can find somewhere to watch it.

Absolutely

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq such a fan of clarity and brevity, particularly when it really does matter

The "obsolete" part refered mainly to whether the weapons would actually work or not (old stuff, like gun optics and torpedo ignition systems, tends to fail with age); Turns out, _both_ the guns' optics and the torps' ignition systems wew _perfectly_ maintained, thank you very much.

Thanks for leaving some support 🙏

Glad you enjoyed it 🙏

What a silly thing to say.

@@snorrelenes9175how so?,they bought time for the government to evacuate,coordinate resistance efforts and more importantly, not surrender to berlin

This was not the only thing that "secured" Norways honor. There were many many people who fought against the nazis during the war. And they also in their own right deserves the honor of fighting in the war. @@jeanmatthews3899

Absolutely

1. The Germsn didn't know about the Torpedo battery 2. The Germans assumed the fort was used only for training and deactivated. 3. They expected only the 15cm guns to be active 4. The assumed they could run the guns with the Norweigians hesitating and not getting many shots off. Those 15cm guns at that short a range did serious damage to the Blucher and Lutzow. So #4 was wishful thinking, and a bad plan. #1 and #2 were faulty intelligence, I don't think the Germs would have tried running the battery ha they known. The Germans didn't know their intelligence was faulty. I can image the captain of the Blucher thinking "This invasion is going great, we will soon be in Oslo, just have to pass these few 15cm guns on the right". Boom. Boom. Explosion. "Hey WTF is happening? Why is my ship on fire? Where did those shots come from?" "Keep on heading towards Oslo, fire on the 15cm guns. Put out those fires." Boom. Boom. Explosion. "WTF was that? Did we hit mines" "Oh oh, 2 torpedoes! I hope we can make it to Oslo".... glug , glug , glug

​@@IntraFinessehe knows it was his fault, he shoulded have never ever put his ship Blucher and his crew and the landing troops in danger, he shoulded waited until he gets the right Intel before ordering the fleet to continue, that was bad decision he made taking big as slow Blucher up the fjord and knowing that the Norwegian were lying and waited, they were doomed right from the start, when that patrol boat spotted them.

That would be an enjoyable project!

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq my son is currently up to 700 out of silliness numbers on some battleship stuff..as you can imagine not one for the maritime life...despite being a maritime metropolis..

But for many Norwegians this is the one battle they have ever heard of besides the actions involving Heavy water at Rjukan.

Thanks E! I still owe you a bomber I think.

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq excellent...Bomber Command had an undeserved barrage of criticism ,when to quote John Cleese in Fawlty towers quipped...well they started it...people don,t always realise that a lot of Bomber Command, s aircrew were from the Commonwealth and of course Ireland ,North and south, brave men all.....on a happy note Mrs C has been knocking out Platinum Jubilee afternoon tea...how has the Jubilee gone down in Canada..??..best wishes from Mrytle corner/Wirral..E

Still much love for the Queen and commonwealth over here. At least at my door.

Yah! Good suggestion. I'll try to include more battles in coming videos.

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq thx Johnny your videos are awesome. You should really talk about the M4/M4A1 Carbine assault rifles on your channel as they are the standard issue rifle of the US military. Also do the M27 IAR the new rifle of the US Marines

I believe that tid bit! I was going to include it but I heard some debate over it and I can only argue so much minutia in life.

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq poignantly I think of HMS Birkhenhead sinking off the wild Namibia shore...where women and children first was shouted ...

@@eamonnclabby7067 Yep. At the point the ship is sinking and they are on the water, they no longer are German or Swedish or British "soldiers"; they are shipwrecked sailors and you are perfectly entitled to cheer on their defiance of the sea claiming them no matter your nationality or theirs.

@@notfeedynotlazy good point well made...

There is a long discussion regarding Deutchlandlied. It is not likely that in the midle of a battle with heavy shells arriving every 60 second anyone starts singing. Who should that be? The Wehrmacht locked up under deck? The boiler stokers under the armoured deck? Magazine personell? Turbine personell? Cunners in their turrets? Trorpedo med atanding at high allert on their torpedo guns? Signal men in the Vormarsch (Crows nest in the main mast). Ship officers and Wehrmacht high brass on the bridge? What is more likely is reports that as the Blücher sank. Deutschlandlied shall have been sung by survivors, mainly at Askholmene skeries, shivering in wet cloths seeing their proud ship going under.