Well, it was the storm... KGV and Rodney were also suffering from it...tommy303 wrote: BdU reported use of weapons was barely possible.
This is probably why the Luftwaffe couldn't intervene in force on May 27th...
Bismarck used as bait
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alecsandros
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Re: Bismarck used as bait
This is probably why the Luftwaffe couldn't intervene in force on May 27th...
Re: Bismarck used as bait
Precisely. It would have been very nearly mind-numbing on a U-boat in the weather conditions prevailing on the 26th and 27th.Well, it was the storm...
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood and Earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned these defended;
And saved the sum of things for pay.
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alecsandros
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- Location: Bucharest, Romania
Re: Bismarck used as bait
Maybe with great luck, if a capital ship would pass close enough to a submerged U-boat... But it would require great skill nonetheless...tommy303 wrote:Precisely. It would have been very nearly mind-numbing on a U-boat in the weather conditions prevailing on the 26th and 27th.Well, it was the storm...
Now that I think of it, do you know why force H wasn't attacked by Luftwaffe on May 26th ?
Re: Bismarck used as bait
Well, Captain Martin on HMS Dorsetshire was sufficiently concerned about U-boat attack that he immediately stopped picking up survivors from Bismarck when his lookouts reported a suspicous object in the water. Had U-boats with torpedoes and Luftwaffe aircraft arrived two hours earlier Tovey would have been faced (considering his fuel position) with a potentially sticky situation.....tommy303 wrote:Precisely. It would have been very nearly mind-numbing on a U-boat in the weather conditions prevailing on the 26th and 27th.Well, it was the storm...
With respect to aircraft I believe that HMS Ark Royal was ready for an air strike first thing on the morning of the 27 May but Tovey forbade it as an unecessary operation. If Swordfish could fly then so could FW's.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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