Bey was in an unfortunate position. He should have resigned. That would have been one action showing he had some naval savvy.
Instead he was rather being in the position of a small kid being forced by the school bully (Donitz, and Hitler behind him) to fight another kid he had no chance of beating.
downes51 wrote:
Just like poor Cradock at Coronel in fact.
tommy303 wrote:Kummetz's plan at the Barents Sea actually worked well enough. Kummetz with Hipper drew off the close escort from the convoy as he was supposed to do, leaving the convoy to be attacked by Luetzow and destroyers. Her captain, Stange, was hampered by poor visibility and although he had radar contract, the lack of IFF prevented him from attacking decisively as he was uncertain as to the identity of the contacts on his radar. Both Kummetz and Stange, though, were hampered by Hitler's no unnecessary risks order, as would be Bey later on at North Cape.
On a closing note, Bey at North Cape was deputizing for Kummetz who had gone on leave.
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