Hello everybody,
let's fix the major errors in a recent post from Mr.Dunmunro:
Dunmunro wrote: "Maybe the fact that all 3 RN ships stated that the action ended at ~0613"
Which action ? The anti-aircraft one of PG ? PoW reports nowhere mention 6:13.
Tovey had ALREADY issued his preliminary report on
May 30 (that was
correct in this regard), declaring PoW retreat a couple of minutes after Hood explosion = 6:02.
He had
all PoW maps and salvo plot, clearly showing the time of her retreat, but he preferred to trust W-W ships (contradictory among themselves on the same ship
) observations (e.g. W-W: 6:13 (point 10 and 12) OR after 10 minutes engagement = 5:53 +10 = 6:03 (point 20 of his official report) ?)....
Dunmunro wrote: "Your own reconstruction, extensively discussed here, shows that the range was substantially greater than 20K yds"
22 to 23K yards, much substantially shorter than
30 K Yards....
Dunmunro wrote: "the 360d turn that he steered Suffolk through from 0542 -0550 which would have increased the range by ~15k yds (at a minimum) and for Suffolk to be at 18K yds at 0553 would have meant she was within a few thousand yards of Bismarck prior to the turn"
As per the same reconstruction, SF was at 9-10 sm from Bismarck before her turn away (between 5:35 and 5:42) (as per
Ellis autobiography + Busch observation) and at 15 sm after her turn to Nord due to the "mirage".
Fortunately, no objection at all to
the most intentional "error", the "Y" turret jamming, astutely inserted by Tovey among the damages received BEFORE the decision to disengage and supported by NOTHING solid he had at hand (possibly, just very partially, only by Pound speech at the War Cabinet on May 26 afaik...
).
Bye, Alberto