hey
if the PE would have not been dispatched, would the Bismarck made it home to France???
miro
BS + PE = save return to france????
Certainly not! Even if the Prince Eugen had stayed with Bismarck they were outnumbered in ships against the British, for example hms renown a british battlecruiser was lying a short distance from Bismarck during the last battle and viewed the scenario with orders to not take action unless it was really necessary, she had probably sunk the Prince Eugen or at least make her escape, i don´t think Prince Eugen would have like the taste of 15 inch shells!
What if BS hadn't damaged her radar firing at the British cruisers? Then PE would have been behind BS, Hood would have been targetting correctly from the get go. Maybe Hood wouldn't have gone kaboom. What then? Does BS survive the concentrated fire of two British capital ships? Do the cruisers close on PE and engage? Interesting questions, I think.
In this case i wonder if it had made any difference if Prinz Eugen had been behind Bismarck, this based on how bad Hood was finding the range, she fired 5-6 salvoes without a hit, then it doesn´t matter what position Bismarck had, i wonder why Hood had trouble with finding the target when POW with untrained crew and guntrouble managed to hit Bismarck several times.
Having PE in front made a huge difference imo, simply because it stopped the British cruisers being able to enage PE. Why did Hood have trouble? I don't know. There was some trouble with spray, I believe. Also, and I'm guessing here, if they thought PE was BS (which they apparently did), would they assume a longer range because of the smaller outline? Maybe the old fashioned range table was giving false solutions? I guess we will just never know!! Sad really.
Anyone else got any ideas?
Anyone else got any ideas?
Knowing Sods Law there is also a chance that PE gets torpedoed instead of Bismarck. Remember that Ark Royals Swordfish in their first attack went for the Sheffield!miro777 wrote:hey
but don't u think the prinz eugen could have made a difference when the swrodfishs from the ark royal attacked the bismarck???
if the PE would have been there, there would have been more AA guns and the possibility of a torpedo hit would have decreased!
wat do u think?
miro
If PE does get immobilised by torpedo hits does Bismarck stay with her or is PE sacrificed in order that Bismarck scurries safely to port?
I think that if the two German ships hadn't parted they would both have been sunk.
The question of AA support is a valid point however. IF the Germans had operational 'Atlantic' long range destroyers to escort Bismarck they could have provided the AA backup - but these vessels served their duty on the drawing board, yet another lost opportunity by the Kriegsmarine.