"Yeah, about that air cover..."

[Rick Rather]

I have read in several places that, at the time of Ark Royal's attack on Bismarck, the latter was only 12 hours from the safety of air cover from occupied France.

Assuming that the battleship would be that close within a half-day's time,

Did the Luftwaffe actually have any plans or orders for providing such protection?
Did they have fighters available in Brittany with the range to screen the ship?
Were they scouting for British targets with intent of making anti-ship strikes?
Did they even know that Bismarck was approaching?

[alecsandros]

AFAIK, the Luftwaffe was preparing air strikes against British naval forces.

On the 28th of May, HMS Mashona was bombed and sunk off the coast of IReland, by Ju-88s...

[Thorsten Wahl]

Did they even know that Bismarck was approaching?

The hit wich undershoot the belt at compartment XIII/XIV took out powerplant IV and boilerroom BB2 and the shell perforated the side fuel tanks and also fragments pentrated into tanks at the double bottom.

From endurance figures it was clear that Bismarck had to go to France. You have to take into account also the high degree of readiness for using weapons.
Due to the loss of the boilerrom the result was a loss of steamcapacity of nominally 100 t out of 600 t.
maximum speed ~28 knots, wich is not enough to disengage from the cruisers and going to a supplier unseen.

[Dave Saxton]

JG26 was transfered to Brittany the last week of March 1941 to provide fighter aircover for Luftflotte 3 Ju-88 aircraft set aside to support upcoming naval operations. This was normally the territory of JG2, but the Luftwaffe saw fit to bolster fighter strength in that area for the navy. JG26 had few chances for combat from April through the end of May while on standby for the Navy. On the 26th (or was it the 27th but the 26th is recorded) of May the 1st Gruppe JG26 flew 100 miles out to sea to provide CAP for Bismarck, before they were then recalled.

[Rick Rather]

Thorsten, the context of the question was, "Did the Luftwaffe know that Bismarck was approaching?" The answer to that and my other questions all appear to be "Yes." I find this mildly surprising, since bad/no communications seems to occur so often, especially when different services are involved. Thank you all for your input.

Good scenario fodder...

[Mostlyharmless]

Not only did the Luftwaffe know that Bismarck was heading for France but a Luftwaffe signal was decoded at Bletchley on May 25th also informing the British http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9wqk ... ma&f=false.

[RF]

There was of course a Loftwaffe liason officer, a Major Grohe, on Bismarck, attached to Lutjens staff.

Raeder in his discussions with Hitler after the DS battle had specifically mentioned the need for air cover in the Biscay area, and the Fuhrer did have an order sent to the Luftwaffe commander Atlantik for full air cover to be provided.
However flying conditions were not ideal and the Luftwaffe were unaware of Bismarcks' exact position.

[Vic Dale]

The value of the Air umbrella lay in the threat to British ships and not in the Luftwaffe's ability to protect Bismarck from attack from the air. After Hood's sinking it is clear that there would have been one hell of an aerial battle to get her as she made her way to St Nazaire. However, after the drubbing, British carrier based aircraft had given the Italian fleet at Tarranto in November the year before and also the losses incurred due to aerial attack since the beginning of the war, no British heavy warships would have ventured near. So air cover for Bismarck offered a margin of safety only. She would probably be safe from surface attack, whilst the air would be thick with attacking aircraft for much of the time.

I believe also, having a single ship to identify and attack would make the job that bit easier for the RAF than trying to decide whether or not they were attacking their own ships. Sheffield nearly got taken out, by Swordfish crews who had exercised torpedo attacks against her only days previously.

I doubt very much that Bismarck would have failed to reach port, but I am sure she would have been a sorry mess.