German battleship Bismarck in August 1940, bow view
Posted on 01/17/2020 10:52:34 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
In May 1941, the new German battleship Bismarck was a huge, state-of-the-art warship, equipped with the latest long-range heavy cannon, new stereoscopic range-finders that promised unprecedented accuracy, new ship-based radar, and an intricate system of armor-plating and honey-combed water-tight compartments that rendered her virtually unsinkable. If Bismarck broke out into the vast, indefensible shipping lanes of the North Atlantic, it could wreak catastrophic havoc with the war-sustaining convoys coming across the ocean [from the U.S.]
In 1941 England, it was believed that this single weapon might determine the very course of the war in Europe. Where the entire Luftwaffe had been unable to cripple Britain’s warfighting capability with its aerial assault in the summer of 1940 and bring her to the negotiating table, now—in the spring of 1941—a single warship was threatening to do that very thing.
As the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen headed towards the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, they were intercepted by the British battleships Hood and Prince of Wales. Those two ships were all that stood between Britain’s invaluable but vulnerable shipping lanes and what they thought was national survival. In the next few minutes, perhaps the most famous and consequential surface engagement of all time occurred. The big ships fired on each other, their 14- and 15-inch guns booming.
Hood — the pride of the British navy — was struck by a perfectly-aimed salvo from Bismarck and exploded violently, breaking in two and sinking with just three survivors out of a crew of more than 1,400. After 10 minutes of fighting, "The Mighty Hood" was gone. Prince of Wales, despite suffering significant damage herself from Bismarck’s guns, scored some telling blows of her own, such that Bismarck was forced to disengage and head to home for repair.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearhistory.com ...
There are some good videos on Youtube that explain exactly why our torpedoes sucked at the beginning of the war. If I were to summarize the problem I would say "Union Labor monopoly on torpedo manufacturing."
They were highly specialized machinists and nobody was going to be allowed to tell them anything.
Today, that translates to "Holy ________ " (fill in the blank.)
From Wikipedia:
“In service, it received the nickname Stringbag; this was not due to its biplane struts, spars, and braces, but a reference to the seemingly endless variety of stores and equipment that the type was cleared to carry. Crews likened the aircraft to a housewife’s string shopping bag, common at the time and which could accommodate contents of any shape, and that a Swordfish, like the shopping bag, could carry anything.”
Its ultimate payload was a torpedo delivered by flying in on the deck to its target at an attack speed of 105 m.p.h.
No Stringbags were lost in both attacks on the Bismarck; the movie depicted Swordfish aircraft being shot down just to add dramatic effect.
As noted, the biplanes were too slow for Bismarck’s AA to acquire & engage them.
The problem was that the USN wouldn’t even admit that there was a problem for a long time.
Germans scuttled the ship. They've looked at her on the bottom and founded holes blown through the bottom of the hull.
There were stories about it many years ago.
I’ve heard it described that the best weapon the allied forces had against Germany was Hitler.
I still don’t understand (except as historical hindsight) how in the world the Germans thought they could continue to make war once they had lost air superiority. Unless they just failed to realize how important it was until too late. Once they reached that point they should have started folding things up and start a peace process. “Never give up the con” ain’t always the best advice.
German battleship Bismarck in August 1940, bow view
I thought that it was from Heinlein but am unable to find it.
The problem was that the USN wouldn’t even admit that there was a problem for a long time.
I know torpedos are expensive, but didn’t the Navy test them before sending them out to the fleet?
The U.S. produced a thousand Shermans a month.
I agree with you glorgau. The Tripitz was completely disabled at the end and in a Fjord. The British continued expending resources, men and effort on destroying it even though the Germans knew it would never sail again.
Plus, the air attack on the Bismark was still before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Our Pacific battleships were taken off the board. At the time, only Yamamoto and Halsey understood the extent to which the day of the large capital ships had passed.
Had the Italians not been his allies he would have won.
The Italians invaded Greece without telling Hitler and they were getting their @$$es kicked by the Greeks, so Hitler had to detach a division and send it down to help the Italians subdue the Greeks. That division would have turned the tide at the battle of Stalingrad, and Hitler would have had his fuel. He would have taken Russia.
A mere 40 operational U-boats in WW I almost starved England out of the war. Germany did not build more than about a hundred because they though they had enough.
True, but irrelevant - Hitler could not avoid declaring war on the US. He would have lost face if - as he expected, based on publicly leaked Rainbow plans - the US declared war on him. First.You might as well argue that Germany could have easily defeated the USSR by the simple strategem of liberating Russians from Communism. Perfectly true - and, if you read Mein Kampf, perfectly beside the point of who/what Hitler was. The whole point was to turn Eastern Europe into part of Germany. On the basis of race.
explains why America had minimal military inventory upon entering WWII, but very quickly dominated the military logistics equation. FDR initiated industrial mobilization upon the Fall of France at the end of May, 1940. He asked his main man in that effort how long it would take to make the machine tools and factories required, and was told eighteen months. Amazing the coincidence between “eighteen months after May 1940” and “December 7, 1941” . . .
- Freedom's Forge:
- How American Business Produced Victory in World War II
Arthur Herman
A error the British themselves made at the start of the war and learned the hard way
I take a slightly different view to the early resistance to convoy-strategy early in the war...
1. The USN, like everybody else, was short on destroyers needed to guard the merchantmen.
2. Those we *DID HAVE* were already convoying Lend-Lease over to the UK (or as far as the mid-ocean gap if you prefer).
3. It seemed unreasonable to conclude that German Type VII’s had the range to reach the US East Coast. The Germans created re-fueling, re-arming submarines, the so-called “milch-cows” that were analogous to USAF air tankers. I doubt the USN was aware of them or realized the implications.
4. Adm. King takes the hit for this. He hated the Brits and the feeling was mutual. So when the mistake got made he was the logical guy to pin it on by virtue of the politics of it as much as his position as CNO.
Here you go.
Superiority - by Arthur C. Clarke
http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Clarke_Superiority.html
And the Shermans worked while the Tiger frequently broke down, ran out of gas or could not find a bridge strong enough to hold their weight
Yes it does!
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