@ Bill Jurens,
Bill, even if we assume for a moment that the Hood First board of inquiry statement of Norfolk evidence was not clear enough to define the HMS Norfolk distance from the HMS Hood at 06.00, ... don't you think that by the simple use of the 2 tactical plots of the HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk were going to be more than enough to satisfy any new need of the Hood Second board of Inquiry ?Bill Jurens wrote:There has been a lot of discussion here on whether or not "The Plot" is incorrect. Of course it's incorrect. The technology of the time simply did not permit more precision than shown, and -- perhaps more importantly -- it is clear from the full transcript of the Board hearings that it was considered only of general interest to begin with. The purpose of the Board(s) was not to reconstruct the tactical development of the Bismarck Chase, it was to determine the cause of the loss of HMS Hood. In that regard, nobody really cared about the exact positions of ships much prior to the action -- it was not of real concern because clearly the British tactical maneuvers were able to keep track of Bismarck's position during the time leading up to the engagement, and that was really the important thing. Contact was obtained and maintained so that Hood and POW could arrange an interception. The details of previous activity, though of auxiliary interest, were not of primary concern.
In that regard, my guess was that Pinchin, and perhaps a few others were given the task of quickly putting together some sort of rough plot which would give the members of the Board some sort of perspective on how the tactical situation developed, in fairly broad terms, before the engagement began, and to present some idea of where, approximately, various observers of the explosion, etc. were likely to have been. In that regard, it's not surprising that The Plot did not match actual testimony exactly -- it just wasn't seen to be more than a rough general guideline in the first place. There was no need to produce a complete and accurate plot because there were, apparently, no significant problems taking place during the hours leading up to the final action, i.e. the British forces engaged, by whatever means, clearly had been doing their job of shadowing properly. The precise details of exactly HOW they were shadowing were simply not of interest.
Bill Jurens.
Surely they were going to provide the absolute real situation evaluated by the 2 heavy cruisers on that precise moment, ... like the one's of PoW I have copied in Kew-PRO do show ... with no doubts.
Not having the need to evaluate the whole action, ... but just a snapshot of the real distance at 06.00, ... I was going to ask for the tactical plot of that moment or the gunnery reports if available ( like Schmundt asked to Brinkmann when he judged badly the PG battle map ), ... not for a redone battle map showing all the approach to the battle.
We all agree now that " The Plot " is incorrect, ... and who received/accepted it did incorrect evaluations too.
What about this bearing re-construction between 05.35-05.43 ?
NOTE : It is done utilizing the available information on that timeframe from several sources.
I like to have your evaluation of it, ... since I know you are good about battle maps, ...
... and thanks in advance.
Bye Antonio