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News
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Robert Morien said:However the Official Web Site of the HMS
Association does not mention
this as a possibility.
Perhaps you could post a link to this theory.
Pretty well vox pop. Been on many TV documentaries. Only 3 men survived
from the Hood, and I don't think they knew either.
NOt likely. The subs had a better chance
of destroying the fleet and couldn't do it.
U boats could only hit slow ships, or if they got a fast one at the right
angle. The Wolf packs attacked on the "surface" at night. Against fast
men-o-war, they had little chance. 5 British carriers were sunk by U boats.
2 converted slow WW1 cruisers, 2 slow escort carriers (converted
merchantmen) and the only decent one being the Ark Royal in a smooth
Mediterranean.
The German capital ships were "very" fast and had big guns - they were state
of the art. The British had virtually suspended new ship building and
development: Versailles and all that. If the the Germans ran amok amongst
US capital ships left in the Atlantic they would have made mincemeat of them
..they had numbers on their side. In any event the
British Fleet would have joined the hunt in the
western atlantic, just as they did in the eastern atlantic.
Not to mention the Germans would never have
operated so far from reliable support.
Bismark was 2/3 into the Atlantic.
Of course it was only in 30 or so feet of water as it had been "docked"
by pumping dredge tailings under the ship.
And there were several air attacks prior to
the lancasters by carrier based planes that
caused some damage.
Tirpitz was an obsession. The fact was, as the war went on and carrier
aircraft improved, together with radar, Tirpitz was a sitting duck. Only
in ship to ship engagements would it be of any use.
The X-class subs caused about 9 months of repairs
Seems like Hood was pretty much of a hollow threat also. Inferior armor
to protect it from Bismarck...the captain knew this.
The Hood was. The Hood was old, commissioned in WW1, with advantage to the
Bismark. The manoeuvrability and rapid and more accurate fire of the Bismark
was enough to at least shake the Hood off. The Hood did have big guns that
could smash the Bismark to bits, but it was catching her and getting her
into a position that the guns could be of any real use. Bismark had
superior modern armour, which Hood never. Hood was still a design not too
far removed from the original Dreadnought class - the first modern
battleships.
In hindsight, the German capital ships were not of much use - I suppose all
of them in all countries were too. The sub and carrier - mainly the advances
in planes - made all these ships obsolete. Yet, the US was still using them
into the 1990s. Tirpiz and Bismark were sunk on their first voyages - none
made it back to Germany. The rest were bombed and mined continuously. The
Scharnhorst came out a fjord and was chased by a pose of RN ships and sunk -
surprisingly no carriers were involved, and the UK finished WW2 with 59 flat
tops with 17 still being built. Graf Spree, on her first war tour was sunk
too, the Gneisenau was crippled and decommissioned. British fighting ships
could roam the Atlantic, German ships could not.