The video highlights the surreal intersection of cozy domesticity and overwhelming military force, where "proportionality" is redefined through the lens of absolute dominance. It serves as a stark reminder of how history’s most lopsided conflicts are repackaged into digestible, lighthearted entertainment for the digital age.
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British Dad Reacts: America Wipes Out Half of Iran’s Navy in 8 Hours (The Fat Electrician)Added:
This is my big moment. The single most requested video since I started YouTube two months ago.
>> You don't know that I'm gonna even do it. You You don't know. I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do.
>> I cannot believe the journey so far.
We're going to watch it. The Fat Electrician proportional video. This guy is probably the best historian storyteller on the internet.
>> History began on July 4th, 1776.
Everything before that was a mistake.
and this is his most viewed video. So before we do this, I got two things I would like to say. I think I have the most respectful comment section on YouTube, but also every one of them is an absolute badass. Just look in the chat, you'll see what I mean.
>> Allergies, >> cowardice, and weak-willed men, >> and I am very grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you so much for being here. Number two, I made a little bet with an American friend. If I can hit 50K before the 250th anniversary, I'm going to get a 1776 tattoo.
>> That's not funny, Proctor.
>> No closer.
>> Going to be a British gentleman with a 1776 tattoo. To be honest, I kind of think we need our own 1776 over here at the minute, if you know what I mean.
>> What's going on here?
>> Sir, I'm simply just a dad that found a hobby.
This is not my job.
>> I will take this. Uh, we don't accept American currency, sir.
>> Of course you do. That's the most wonderful piece of paper in the world.
Accept it.
>> Very sorry, sir.
>> I just am really enjoying doing it.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you all.
Let's check out this guy. I know it's going to be good already.
>> Today we're talking about Operation Praying Mantis. All right, important background info. 1980 Iraq decided to invade Iran. Why? Don't really care. Not pertinent to the story.
>> I love that he adds background info, but also as a bit of that American, hey, I don't really care. just hold my band.
>> However, at the end of that war, Iran decides, hey, we're going to pull a page out of the old Art of War by Sunzu.
We're going to cut off the enemy supply lines, deprive the enemy of nice things.
It's going to work out great. Iraq's got a weak navy. We're going to wipe out their navy, and then every time they send out an oil tanker through the Persian Gulf, we're going to blow that up. So, they can't sell any liquid dinosaur, they can't make any money, they go broke, we win the war. Hooray.
It's a solid plan. So, the Americans can do all of that in 8 hours, but the British government can't stop a rubber dingy in 12 years. So they do exactly that. Then Kuwait comes out of left field and they're like, "Hey, we've been financially backing Iraq through this entire war for the past seven years. We need to make sure they win so we can get our money back. So we're going to go ahead and let Iraq use our oil tankers to export oil." So Iran is like, "Well, that's an easy problem to solve. I'll just blow up all the Kuwaiti oil tankers as well," which is exactly what they do.
But here's the catch. Kuwait at this point in time is like the one major exporter of oil that wasn't really part of OPEC, meaning that they were selling oil on the global market significantly cheaper than everybody else, driving down the entire oil market. And now that their oil tankers are getting blown up as well, it means that Kuwait can no longer sell oil on the cheap cheap.
Meaning that Iran has now inadvertently committed the cardinal sin of the late 20th century, raising gas prices.
>> Same thing's happening today. NATO wants nothing to do with it, but as soon as the prices start going up or maybe maybe you can use our base. We should should we let them use our base, they do not speak for the people.
>> Now the entire Western world looks over at the Persian Gulf like the [ __ ] The ghost of Sunzu is sitting there shaking his head like that's that's the one exception. I would have messed with any supply line except for that one because we all know what happens next.
Ah, >> yeah. America then proceeds to assemble the largest naval convoy operation since World War II. That's the part everyone seems to forget. Everyone always talks about explosions, but logistics wins wars. If you've got the capability to put all of this together in such a short time, then you've already got a massive advantage. Send them into the Persian Gulf to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers. It is at this moment that Iran should have been like, "Well, that's unfortunate.
Time to figure out plan B because this obviously is not going to work out."
However, they decide that they're going to double down. What they're going to do is they're going to take a bunch of magnetic underwater mines and they're just going to spread them out all over the Persian Gulf in international waters. And that's not going to have any consequences >> at all. So, fast forward April 14th, 1988. The USS Samuel B. Roberts, a guided missile frigot, which is basically brand new at this point. This is like its first big operation, is out there escorting a Kuwaiti oil tanker, and it runs into a minefield, hits a mine, blows up the keel of the ship. The keel is this bottom part right here. It like supports and stabilizes the structure of the entire ship and it gets blown completely in half. At this point, the only thing holding this boat together is the actual deck. One second everything's fine. The next second there's a 15t wide hole in the bottom of your ship. Everything's on fire and water is rushing in. The USS Samuel B.
Roberts took on half of its weight in water in the first minute. This is a catastrophic amount of damage that would sink 99% of ships. But as fate would have it, the crew of the USS Samuel B.
Roberts had already been winning competitions for having the best damage control crew in the Navy.
>> That's not look, that's training.
Bravery is not always charging straight forward. Sometimes it's staying calm while your ship's taking on half its weight in water and it's on fire.
>> So the entire crew gets to work. They're putting out fires. They're plugging holes. They're literally cinching the hole together with steel cables trying to stabilize it because the only thing holding it together is a deck at this point. Over the course of the next 5 hours, the entire crew fights their ass off and somehow manages to get the situation under control and limp the ship all the way back to Dubai where they can get it to a port. And the most incredible part of all of it, not a single American was killed. Only 10 men were injured during the fire and the initial explosion. That's actually quite miraculous that nobody was even killed in that. All credit goes to the crew.
But like look at even now a day and age in the past year like when you went and got Manduro and then you came out of all of that massive operation and zero American casualties that shocked the world. You know the planning and precision that went into that genuinely shocked the world. And what more can I say? So the crew survived the boats basically completely destroyed. Then America sends in an underwater crew figure out what happened. They find the remnants of the mine. They check out the other mines.
Yep. They're Iranian at this point. Now, somebody has to inform the president because this is a big deal. And the president at this point in time is, let me check my notes. Uh, [ __ ] Ronald Reagan.
>> I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
>> So, they go ahead and they brief Ronald Reagan on everything that happened. He's super happy that everybody survived. And he's like, "Okay, well, here's what we're going to do. We're going to issue a proportional response." I love the way that in every American history story when the word proportional is used, it always means actually we're going to go way overboard so that they never even consider doing that ever again. And what the US Navy heard was >> I >> All right, so here's the plan. Iran currently has three oil rigs in the Persian Gulf that are not being used for drilling oil, but is military bases for their naval operations. So the US Navy is going to go ahead and take out all three of those. Now, I don't really know what the guided missile frig to oil rig exchange ratio is, but we're going to go ahead and air on the side of caution and say that it's not quite proportional enough yet.
>> Not quite. Not quite.
>> So, Iran also really only has like two modern naval vessels. That's the Iranian frigot Sahand and the Iranian frigot Sabatond. They're going to go ahead and take out at least one of those, maybe both. We'll see how proportional they want to get. And then by the time they get all that done, that should be a nice 8 hour workday. it'll be time to clock out and go get some ice cream. So, in order to get all this done by quitting time, they're going to go ahead and establish three different surface attack groups. Each group is going to have two destroyers and one bonus ship. That bonus ship is either going to be an amphibious landing ship or a frigot.
Either way, they're all going to be identified as Bravo, Charlie, and Delta.
Bravo group is tasked with taking out two oil rigs. Charlie group is tasked with taking out the one remaining oil rig. And Delta's mission is to go hunt down those two frigots and take them out. And then just for insurance purposes, we're also going to have the USS Enterprise parked right outside the Persian Gulf to provide air support, you know, in case we need it.
>> You got all that, but then you got the USS Enterprise in the Gulf. Like, it was kind of like having an argument when you were a kid and your dad stood behind you. He's not involved, but everybody knows he's there.
>> So, April 18th, 1988, 4 days after the mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts.
Operation Praying Mantis goes into full swing and Bravo Group shows up at their oil rig first, at which point they radio over to the oil rig and inform them that they will be blowing it up in 5 minutes and that they should all leave. So, a bunch of people start leaving. They hop in tugboats and take off. Bravo Group, seeing that they're making an honest effort to actually evacuate, agrees to give them 15 more minutes. So, fast forward 20 minutes later, they send out another radio message. Hey, time's up.
They then fire the 5-in guns right over the top of the oil rig with the rounds set to air burst, hopefully scaring off any stragglers. And it is at this point that some Iranian military member decides that he is going to audition to be the main character of this story because he hops on a 23mm anti-aircraft gun and opens fire on Bravo Group.
>> Bro, now is not the time to try and be the main character in this story. You have no idea. Just get off. Just get off the thing and just go, bro. like you've got door in this. And without skipping a beat, one of the 5-in guns on one of the destroyers just goes poof and just [ __ ] direct hit smokes. This dude barely touches the rest of the oil rig.
This guy definitely not the main character. But the silver lining, he at least made it into the credits as bologoney miss cloud number one. Now, sometimes you might think the line is blurred a little bit, but trust me, there is a difference between bravery and stupidity. That guy totally made the wrong choice. Now, obviously I'm paraphrasing here, but at this point, Bravo Group radios over to the oil rig one last time. Something along the lines of, "Hey, does anybody else need to find out what it's like to chew five gum? Are you [ __ ] ready to quit?" The oil rig finally radios back and is like, "Yeah, >> yeah, please cease fire. We're going to leave." So, all the Iranian military members leave. Bravo group decides to open up on it for a little bit with the 5-in guns before sending over a couple of Hueies full of Marines. The Marines hop out, place some demo charges, hop back on the helicopters, take off. The entire oil rig blows up, and already things are getting more proportional.
This >> is getting there. It's getting there.
>> And while all that was happening, Charlie Group made it to their first oil rig as well. And pretty much the exact same thing played out. The only differences were Charlie Group didn't have Marines to place the demo charges.
They had Navy Seals. And when the Iranians opened up with the 23mm anti-aircraft guns, they just decided to keep firing 5-in shells at the oil platform until it burst into flames and burnt the entire thing to the ground. At which point, the commander of the destroyer kind of looks over at the Navy Seals and is like, >> "Sorry, I guess you guys get to sit this one out."
>> Oh, mission got cancelled.
>> Good. Imagine all the years of training those Navy Seals have had. And then someone comes over the radio like, "Hey guys, um, we got a little bit excited.
We kind of did your job for you." And while all that's going down, Bravo Group's already making their way over to the third oil rig, at which point they pick up something on radar, and it's definitely another enemy ship headed right towards them. And at this point, you have to remember this is the late 1980s. None of the American sailors have seen naval warfare on this scale. The pucker factor is on. They are getting harpoon missiles ready, and they are about to get in like one of the biggest naval fights since World War II. At which point, whoever's in charge of Bravo Group decides to take a deep breath, and they're like, "Okay, let's just let's send up a helicopter real quick just to verify that it's actually an enemy ship." So, the helicopter goes up, radios back to Bravo Group. It's definitely a warship, but it's a Soviet destroyer. At which point, everybody's like, "What? What is happening right now?" So, they radio over to this Russian destroyer, and they're like, "What are your intentions?" And the Russian commander radios back in broken English, I swear to God, this is a real quote.
I'm just here to take pictures for history.
>> It's geopolitical bird watching. They're taking pictures and when they get home, they're making slideshow. And this is what it's supposed to look like. Look, I know that I bash on the Soviet Union and communism every single chance I get. But this time around, I got to give it to them. These guys know how to party. Just straight up rolling into the middle of the largest naval operation since World War II to eat popcorn and watch. It's incredible. At this point, Iran finally figures out that there's something going on, but they don't really know what. So, they just begin attacking any ship they can find. And the first ship they found was a civilian cargo ship called the Willie Tide. And that's where every possible sympathy disappears because as soon as you start attacking civilians, you're the bad guy in every possible scenario that they begin attacking with boghammer style speedboats. So, the Willy Tide radios for help. The USS Enterprise responds by sending up a bunch of A6 intruders as well as F-14 Tomcats. The A6 intruders show up, start dropping cluster bombs. They end up hitting one of the speedboats and scattering the rest. The civilian cargo ship is saved. Hooray. Cutting back to Charlie Group. Now there's an Iranian fast attack ship coming right at them.
So they radio over like, "Hey, yeah, we're kind of going around blowing up all your stuff, but also we've got a very specific list. You're not on it, so how about you just go away and we'll forget we saw you." The Iranian fast attack ship messages back.
>> Sounds good. We'll do that.
>> And then they just keep driving right towards them. Bro, what are you doing?
And then this Iranian fast attack ship gets within like 15 mi of Charlie Group, which is like point blank range for a naval battle. Charlie Group radios again, "Dude, what are you doing?" To which they respond, >> "I'm following orders."
>> And then they proceeded to lock their radar on Charlie Group, which Charlie Group can see. At which point Charlie Group immediately launches five missiles directly at the Iranian vessel. The Iranian vessel fires a harpoon missile back at Charlie Group. Both groups now have missiles in the air screaming towards one another. The Americans launched countermeasures, shooting up Chaff rockets that'd end up catching the Harpoon missile, detonating it in midair. The Iranian vessel, on the other hand, did not have any countermeasures capable of stopping the newer technology behind the American missiles, and it would end up getting sunk pretty much immediately.
>> Both sides threw a punch. The only difference is the Americans brought a shield and a calculator and a one-way ticket to the bottom of the ocean, and they personally delivered that to you.
Then before anybody can really even fully digest what just happened, radar picks up three Iranian F4s screaming towards Charlie Group. Charlie Group then turns, fires a bunch of surfaceto-air missiles at the F4s. The F4s see him coming. They're like, "Oh shit." They pop a U-turn and try to outrun them. F4s, while they are extremely fast, can't outrun missiles.
So, one of the missiles ends up blowing a wing off one of the F4s. Now, America has taken out a entire naval vessel and an F4 that they did not plan on taking out and it's throwing off all of our proportions >> proportions.
>> And because of that, American leadership orders Bravo Group to stand down. We're not going to go take out that third oil rig. And right as soon as that order gets given out, Delta Group chimes in as like, "Hey, we found that frigot we were looking for." So now nobody knows what to do because on one hand, things are already getting out of control, but on the other hand, we really want to take out these frigots. So, American leadership decides, well, we might not even have to make a hard decision. Maybe that's not even the frigot and the radar is wrong. Why don't you go ahead and send a couple A6 intruders over, do a flyby, they can verify that it's actually this new modern frigot, and if it is, we'll make a decision from there.
Or so they thought, because the A6 pilots are about to decide that they are in fact the main characters of this story. You see, the USS Enterprise and its aircraft aren't really supposed to be doing a whole lot. They're more or less just there for insurance. In fact, they're only allowed to engage the enemy under one of two conditions. One, the president of the United States signs off on it, which is actually what happened with the speedboats earlier. Or two, they get fired upon first. So, they got told to go fly by this boat to verify that it is in fact the new Montered Frigot, but they didn't get told how to fly by the boat. So, they drop down 50 ft above the water and just gun it, and they buzz the entire ship. So, the ship opens fire with its AA guns, but these planes are so low to the water, the AA guns can't actually aim down low enough.
So, all the anti-aircraft fire goes right over the top of them.
>> That's actually really clever. It's not just bravery, it's the knowledge of knowing what the enemy is capable of and using that to your advantage.
>> They continue to stay low enough till they get out of anti-aircraft gun range and then they pull up at which point the ship launches a bunch of surfaceto-air missiles at them. They drop chaff as a countermeasure. Takes care of those. No big deal. They then go around, do a U-turn, send a radio message to this frigot. I'm going to sink you now. At first, I actually laughed because I thought, wow, like telling someone, I'm going to sink you now. That's that's just badass. But when you think about it, right, he's just giving them a chance to jump overboard, like just swim for it. He actually, instead of threatening them like I originally thought, he's giving them a chance like, "Hey, man, you just just jump, bro."
which they can now legally do because remember the ship fired on them first.
>> You fell victim to one of the classic blunders.
>> So the A6 fires an anti-hship harpoon missile and the second they pull the trigger on that the fire control team from the USS Enterprise is like what the [ __ ] are you doing? We're not supposed to be killing things yet. And the A6s are like, "Look, they fired at us first.
Them's the rules." And the USS Enterprise is like, "Holy [ __ ] Okay, I guess let him have it." Then the haroon missile finally makes impact. It's a bullseye. The A6s do a U-turn, go drop another 500lb laserg guided bomb right through the deck of this frigot, fly past it, do another U-turn, come back, drop a,000lb bomb on it. Then they radio over the Enterprise and like, "Yeah, it's definitely going to sink. We're going to head back." So the A6s take off, headed back to the Enterprise, and like 5 minutes later, Delta Group shows up with their warships and begin firing on the already sinking frigot. They hit the magazine. The frigot explodes, rapidly sinks to the ocean floor. At this point, naval leadership is like, "Okay, Jesus Christ, everybody stop killing things. We need to figure out what all happened. We got to keep this proportional." Remember, hey, bro, I'm getting more and more concerned about the American version of proportional.
Like, you guys are already firing on a ship that, you know, is sinking. You know, it's already sinking. They They've already confirmed this ship is sinking and you're still firing on it. And your own leadership has to tell you like, "Hey guys, can can everyone just stop killing things? Just give me give me one second. Just everyone just stop killing things, okay?
>> Propulsion.
>> So they start radioing back and forth.
Everybody's figuring out what everybody did, if anybody's hurt, what's going on, the whole story. And then as the A6s are making their way back to the USS Enterprise, guess what? They happen to fly past the other modern frigot. So now the entire US Navy is looking at this last frigot like Spongebob looking at a jug of water.
>> I don't need it. I don't need it.
I NEED IT.
>> But also, like, realistically speaking, the A6s are pretty much out of ammunition. The only thing they have left are 2,000lb bombs, and those just aren't going to be enough by themselves without a harpoon missile to take down this ship anyways. So, they really are just going to fly by and verify that it's the modern frig. So, the A6 intruders go ahead, they do their flyby.
It is in fact the new frigot that they thought it was, and it does in fact open fire on the A6s. A6s make it out completely unscathed, at which point they pop a U-turn, and one of the A6 pilots is like, "Hm, >> the bullseye wamp rats in my T16 back home."
>> So the A6 pulls up, gaining altitude, and then dives down, aims its nose right at the frig at like a 35° angle. They're doing a good old-fashioned dive bombing run like it's [ __ ] World War II.
>> An old school dive bombing run in 1988 is wild. It's like old school courage with modern-day consequences.
>> The AA guns start firing. And there's bullets whizzing past the plane, but they're committed now. They're closing in. Closing in. The bombader behind the pilot lets the pilot know, "Hey, I'm locked on." At which point, bombs away.
The pilot pulls up and the bomb goes right down the [ __ ] smoke stack of this boat. Blows up, completely destroying the entire engine room. That frigot is now dead in the water with no power.
>> What? Down the smoke shack. That's not a bum. That's a military version of Santa going down your chimney with a special delivery. The A6s go ahead and radio in that they have completely disabled this frigate, at which point the American leadership calls a complete ceasefire.
They're going to go ahead and let that frigot survive, get towed off, potentially be repaired. With the US Navy having effectively disabled or destroyed over half of Iran's functioning navy, the US military decides to call it a good day. Ends operation praying mantis. We all get to live happily ever after. Except later that night, Iran decided that they wanted to fight a little bit more and they launched a bunch of silkworm anti-ship missiles at American vessels.
>> Have you not learned Don't touch the boats. Okay, just just just leave the boats alone, man. Why are you still going?
>> Luckily, no American vessels were actually hit. However, this is now a huge political problem because America has been mad at the fact that Iran even had silkworm missiles for years at this point. And the American government has made it very clear to Iran that if they ever used them, they would be going to war with America. Period. That's set in stone. So the Reagan administration not wanting to kick off World War II in the 1980s reaches out to the Iranian government and is like, "Here's what's going to happen. You're going to go ahead and admit that that was an accident. I'm going to sweep it under the rug and we're never going to talk about it again because if this makes headline news and the American people find out, I'm going to have to get real proportional around here." So Iran's like, "Okay, fine. Whatever. It was an accident. and let's sweep that whole thing under the rug. But I am still going to take America to international court to try to prove that it was a war crime to take out my oil rigs. That way I can get reparations and make America pay for it. So they go to international court. They lay out the case. The international court is looking at America like, "Okay, well first of all, you're the fraction people. I don't know how you think that this is proportional, but it definitely wasn't. Second of all, according to the Amity Act, you absolutely should not have attacked their oil rigs. This is probably a war crime." At which point the representative for America is like, "Well, actually, if you read the Amity treaty between Iran and the United States, it only talks about ships and boats. It don't say [ __ ] about oil rigs." Meaning, I wasn't obligated to not attack those oil rigs. I'm going to quote a British air chief here, Marshall Douglas. Rules are the obedience of fools and guidance for smart men. Seems the American military definitely understands that. At which point the court is like, "Hold on, hold on.
>> You found a way around it. You found a way around it.
>> [ __ ] He's right. Son of a bitch."
Okay. Well, I guess >> America's innocent because I said it once and I'll say it again. It's never a war crime the first time. And now for the best part of the entire story.
America now proceeds to go over to Dubai, pick up what's left of the USS Samuel B. Roberts. Tow it all the way back to Maine. Then take the ship out of the water, get it in dry dock, cut out the entire damaged section of the ship, including the engine compartment. Build another module to fit in its place. This thing weighs like 300 tons. They jack it up, weld it right where it's at, get everything rehooked up, reconnected.
This boat is back out on the ocean one year later on April 1st, 19. It then goes on to get recommissioned and serves in the Navy until it's back. I mean, playing battleship against America's got to suck, right? Like, haha, I've sunk your frig and America's like, first of all, no you didn't. Second of all, [ __ ] your entire navy as it picks up your board and just throws it at the wall.
So, in conclusion, if you do ever find yourself being the leader of a foreign nation one day, the best advice that I can possibly give you is A, do whatever you can to not raise gas prices and b, whatever you do, do not [ __ ] with America's boats. We do not like that [ __ ] Thank you for watching. The best way to support the channel is like, comment, subscribe, maybe go watch electric bang out.
>> Well done.
>> I completely understand why this was the most recommended video. Like, yeah, it's very funny. But underneath all of that, there's like a really big lesson about restraint and discipline in very intense moments. There's multiple times in this video when you could have just instantly reacted, but actually these people thought about it. Not just the top level people. I mean, all the way down to the individuals. And you did an amazing job.
Like to the point where the Russians even came just to take photos for history. Like, hey guys, we're just here because we want to witness it, you know?
Like, it's very, very badass. Uh, thank you so much for watching this with me.
It's been an absolute pleasure. Please go and support the Fat Electrician on YouTube because he's so kind to let us react to his videos. I appreciate you all. I'll have all of his links in the bio. I hope you have a wonderful day.
Much love and God bless. Thank you.
What are you doing? Okay, come on then.
Say hello.
>> Hi. This is Ila. I'm busy making a video. Do you want me to take the cat?
Okay. Hello. Thank you. I appreciate.
Don't leave me with the cat.
>> Okay. The cat's coming back to you. All right. Thank you. Thank unnecessary. I will be planning a proportional response to you and the
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