Naval History Forums

Dave Saxton wrote: "These are really not highly repeatable results in terms of seriously hurting Bismarck later on. The turrets are vulnerable for both opponants at those ranges. The really important factor is that POW's vitals are exposed at these ranges, while the Bismarck's are not, and Bis...

Antonio Bonomi wrote: "Battle time 06.01 and 30 seconds - The PoW starts her turn away 160 degrees to port. The other hits were all received after this point." :clap: I fully agree on your battle times ! I would just add one point, relevant for this discussion: as you say, PoW had already...

Dunmunro wrote: " I don't understand why there has been such an effort to correlate the timing of ship movement with the film and photos but then such a willingness to ignore such evidence when it doesn't support PoW making a smoke screen before ~0605." Let's stay in our opinion: for me t...

Wadinga wrote: "There is no evidence of an order for a smoke screen at 06:01," Sean, in my opinion 2 statements from Leach himself : 1) " The sinking of "Hood" obviously changed the immediate situation.......... I did not consider it sound tactics to continue single handed ...

Dunmunro wrote: "Leach ordered the turn at ~0603; why?" Clearly to hide behind his own smoke screen (ordered just after 6:01) that was drifting to West, as it's clearly visible in all the photos. NEVER Leach mentioned ANY intention to re-engage: such an hypothesis is just speculation. How...

Dunmunro wrote: "Leach states that the hit on the compass platform was at 0602:30... " Hi Duncan, I don't want to use Leach as a source for exat timing or any detail, I think Anonio timing, built with exact sources from both sides, photos and evidences is quite reliable :clap: . However w...

Dunmunro wrote: "I think that I have established a very reasonable case" Duncan, I'm not saying here that your hypothesis is not reasonable on paper. I say that it is simply not what Leach himself says. And a Captain of a British warship would have never overlooked such a manoeuvre for re...

Wadinga wrote: "Later, Leach was at Wake-Walker's disposal, and that's when they had to answer questions about "re-engaging". Catching up with Bismarck from behind would be no 5 minute business." I agree, and if I can understand (not justify) Leach decision at 6:01 after the sho...

Wadinga wrote: "I don't consider he says that at all. If he wanted to disengage he only needed to turn 90 degrees to port so as to put maximum distance and speed between himself and the enemy" Hello Sean, I'm sorry , just turning 90° to port at 6:01 would have put PoW on a course almost p...

Tom17 wrote: "Alberto's 30 seconds may be a little short to give the smoke time to make an easily visible screen." Hi Tom, thanks for your answer re. how smoke was generated (thanks to Duncan for confirming). I meant 30 seconds minimum to have the order passed to engine room, setting the ...

Dunmunro wrote: "Therefore one of the three conscious "Retreat orders" Leach is supposed to have given immediately after the Bridge Hit did not happen until later" Sean, without entering in a complex timing evaluation and fully trusting the fair analysis you and Duncan are doing...

Wadinga wrote: " I don't believe he told anyone to "turn 160 degrees to port" or to turn to a heading away from the enemy, he just didn't countermand the last order he had given" Hi Sean, nice to hear from you again! I was long time of your same opinion after reading several err...

Dunmunro wrote: We can both read the navigation and salvo charts, and it is clear that PoW turned onto a course roughly parallel to Bismarck at 0603:30" I'm sorry, if you read the charts you will see that at 6:03 Bismarck turned onto a West course (270) and was on this course until 6:05. There...

Dunmunro wrote: "Leach's, and the G.A.R., narrative simply glosses over some of the finer details." I would not say that the point that would have made the difference in the judgement of his actions is a "finer detail": and Leach never mentioned any re-engagement. He was honest ...

Sorry, just an error posting my previous one.....this one was a copy as it was posted twice.