Ciao Iankw and all,
no problems
, ... and thanks for providing me a chance to explain a bit better the whole situation and scenario, .. so I will not be misunderstood.
That phrase and orders were given by W. Churchill on May 1941, immediately after Bismarck was sunk, evaluating the ship status on that moment available by Royal Navy and Tirpitz readiness soon coming on the scenario,..as said 1941, .. so no radar superiority at night yet by the British,..otherwise I think Hood and PoW were going surely to engage Bismarck in the darkness as DoY did with Scharnhorst,.. if you have an advantage you will use it
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But things developed fast for British gunnery after, .. not for Germans, .. and they were the only one on late 1943 and 1944 been able to shoot over night precisely using the radar to direct precisely the guns, .... while any KM warship, .. so Tirpitz included cannot so well.
Now at North Cape DoY trapped the Scharnhorst knowing that radar superiority in the darkness,.. and also the inferior 280 mm guns Scharnhorst had, .. that enabled the risk to be taken by Royal Navy to push DoY so close to Scharnhorst.
280 mm of Graf Spee did not sink the Exeter,..while the 380 mm of Bismarck sunk the Hood,... this was the difference they evaluated.
Neither Adm Fraser expected that Scharnhorst would became also radar blind ( because of a Norfolk previous hit ,.... and Scharnhorst only had 1 good radar highly positioned,..no other one fwd .. one only back low and outdated ) and was consequently caught completely unprepared by the DoY able to close in unnoticed till 9000 meters only before DoY opened fire on Scharnhorst ,..that even responding was not going to be able to score devastating hits on DoY anyhow,.. no KO possibilities,... because of the 280 mm guns only.
Tirpitz was having 380 mm devastating guns,.. and the Royal Navy Admirals knew it,.. 3+1 last version radars and not only 1+1 old like Scharnhorst,.. so I think that unless under desperate situations and strong intention to sink the Tirpitz at any cost at sea,.. no one was thinking to get close to Tirpitz especially on daylight and with all radars and guns well working,.. despite the fact that she could not fire so precisely over night,... surely it could not be expected to get close to 9000 meters from Tirpitz unnoticed and she could sail away very fast,....... and in fact no trap was prepared for Tirpitz on late 1943, .. like happened to Scharnhorst after Tirpitz was damaged.
Tirpitz had no engines problems,... good radars and devastating guns,... could sail as fast as Scharnhorst could sail over 30 knots,... so I do not think it was a good idea to prepare a trap for her, .. she can shoot and sail away.
You are assuming,.. if I read correctly your statements,... Tirpitz could not target DoY, .. that to me is reading a bit too much positively what happened in reality, .. as Scharnhorst did target DoY anyhow, .. but did not score at all on her, .. and even if was going to score on DoY,.. not much damages were expected,... while with Tirpitz it was going to be a complete different story,.....
Do you think this is enough to make them ' different conditions ' ??
I think so, Tirpitz had more options that Scharnhorst even at night .....
So I suppose my same evaluations were the ones Royal Navy Admirals made and in fact they waited X-Crafts to damage Tirpitz before restarting the Artic convoys and felt confortable to prepare that trap for Scharnhorst, .. been sure that Tirpitz could not sail on the open sea
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But in theory, .. if you were going to be able to place Home fleet all around Tirpitz, .. maybe a couple of torpedoes on her,... and than close with many ships while she was damaged,.... than the story could become different, .. like for Bismarck, ... and in fact they tryied with Op. Sportpalast on March 1942 to do that too,.. as said before.
There are no unsinkable ships,... it was only a matter to create favourable conditions and get the trap well organized,.. and reduce the speed of faster ships that normally would have sailed away if they could, ... so you need to hit them,..damage them reducing speed,.. and finish them off with torpedoes, ......
Ciao Antonio