“Lessons from the Bismarck”, TIME Monday June 9, 1941

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

TIME Magazine: “Lessons from the Bismarck”, Monday June 9, 1941

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,795338,00.html#

It is interesting that on Thursday 9 November 1941 the Kriegsmarine “Sonder-Pressedienst” distributed a very good translation of the TIME article, marked “Secret”": Was lernt man aus dem Fall ‘Bismarck? If my memory serves me right, this translation is part of the attachments to the Bismarck's reconstructed war diary draft that was sent from Marinegruppenkommando West to the Seekriegsleitung.

[Gerard Heimann]

Ulrich, thanks for digging this up. I am struck by how many of the conclusions stil have merit after these ensuing 68 years. Of course, with the benefit of some intensive study during these years, many things have come to light, including the ship itself, but some of the article could have been written yesterday.

Gerard

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

The German text is at http://picasaweb.google.com/urudofsky/B ... directlink#

[paulcadogan]

Thanks Ulrich! It's always interesting to read commentary from the same historical time period.

Interesting too the comments on Taranto with Pearl Harbor almost exactly 6 months away...

Paul

[RF]

An interesting commentary, but one that needs qualification.

The German paratroop assault on Crete came close to complete failure. Losses were so heavy (from ground fire) that Hitler forbade further such operations, meaning the projected assault on Malta was never attempted.
The torpedo hit that crippled Bismarck was a fortuitus hit. Given reruns of Rheinubung Bismarck would have got away most times.

And remember that the Scheer was sighted in the Indian Ocean by a seaplane from HMS Glasgow. Scheer got back to Germany.