Wadinga wrote: "The great step forward has been to to see how weak Pound's promulgation of the threat really was."
Hi Sean,
I applauded sincerely your fairness publishing the May 31 letter from Tovey, but it looks like
you are unable to see that it is already another "silver bullet" against your obstinate refusal of the "regrettable aftermath....
The letter confirms (if needed) that there was indeed a
very severe criticism against both Leach and Wake-Walker and that a
serious disciplinary action (please don't even try to say that a BofI is not such) was actually requested by the Admiralty to Tovey.
The letter confirms the
full reliability of Tovey, who has not invented both the criticism and the disciplinary action (as you were saying up to few months ago....
).
What you have posted also confirms that it was Tovey who refused to "obey" Pound request and stood up menacing his resignation in order to protect his subordinates, being consistent
both in 1941 and in 1961 in his accounts.
I admire your resilience, but
we have more than enough to publish the true story, supported of course by the
judgement of the historians (Roskill, Correlli-Barnett, Rhys-Jones), by
War Cabint minutes, by
Barnes answer to Tovey despatches, by
ADM 205/10 papers and subsequently confirmed by a very interested party,
Sir Henry Leach clear interpretation + all is proven by the
intentional alteration of the reports to close the matter.
you wrote: "the threat.....was in fact born out of ill informed premature reaction and was completely dead and buried by the 30th or 31st May at the latest. "
You are right ! The Court Martial / Board of Inquiry threat was dead by then, however the
investigation to clarify the "
aspects that prima facie required explanation" lasted until Churchill "Leave it" in September 1941.... It's evident from the papers, you only have to accept what is written,
or prove that the papers are FALSE.
you wrote:
"some minor irrelevant and inconsequential revisions made to initial reports"
Please be serious!
- Adding 12 minutes fight to PoW (out of her fire action that lasted less than 10 minutes) with the 6:13 retreat time,
inserting the jam of the Y turret (40% of PoW firing potential) BEFORE the disengagement decision,
saying that the 2 cruisers, at around 15 sm, were unable to join the battle when they were (at 5:41) at 9 and 13sm,
accepting a change of declaration from 10 sm to 15 sm for the Norfolk distance from Hood at 6:00,
lightly "ignoring"/"justifying" the responsibilities of Wake-Walker for the refusal to re-engage and for the loss of contact
are NOT minor modifications: they are building a different story,
a fairy tale instead of poor military actions.
This was the price Tovey (and the others)
had to pay for the defence of the two officers.
Bye, Alberto