Hi Duncan,Dunmunro wrote: "Any observer with at least one good eye could determine when Bismarck opened fire"
no, the demonstration is that several German observers said Hood fired at Bismarck....
You cannot rely on British witnesses for Bismarck open fire time but ONLY on the German primary sources (PG KTB with Jasper and Schmalenbach reports). In addition almost all witnesses (both sides) established Hood exploded at 6:00 and this is totally incompatible with BS open fire at 5:53.
and it is BY FAR the best account of the DS battle available in a published book (under several aspects, albeit "diplomatically": distance of the heavy cruisers, timings, maps, PoW maneuver, etc.) for sure much better than Kennedy, who accepted blindly Tovey "official version".....you wrote: "The Baron's account was written decades after the fact"
In any case, we are still waiting for your battlemap + explanation of Bismarck firing (salvo plot and RoF), based on the absurd open fire time at 5:53 and Hood explosion at 5:56 ....while Antonio has reconstructed the battle (+ Bismarck and PG firing) matching not only PG KTB/GARs and PoW GAR/maps but mostly the PG film and photos (that cannot be contradicted by any British report/witness).
Good Luck for your work.
Bye, Alberto