Naval History Forums

Dunmunro wrote: "Leach was concerned about the morale of his ship and I believe that he didn't want to pin the blame on anyone within PoW except for himself,"

For sure he couldn't blame McMullen whose morale was much higher ....

Bye, Alberto

Dave Saxton wrote: "The straddles and hits only occured coincidently as they crossed Bismarck's path on the way down in terms of the searching range. Leach was painfully aware that this was the likely course of events, and it could only get worse." While I fully agree with you that BS was...

@Paul: I agree with all you have written !
However, we still disagree about the goodness of the decision to disengage at 6:01 from a military and strategical viewpoint.
Bye, Alberto

@Paul: I have to admire your clear analysis of the situation, just keeping in mind the behaviour of a Captain on his (wrecked) bridge, and I fully agree on your conclusion. :clap: Dunmunro wrote: "I believe that Leach was a very honourable man. The responsibility for breaking off the action lay...

Alberto Virtuani wrote: "@ Dunmunro: don't you think that IF Leach just wanted to "open the range" (albeit in a very strange way) at 6:01 and was back to engage BS at 6:04, until the jam in Y turret convinced him to retreat, he would have mentioned it in his 8:00 message (even if sho...

@ Dunmunro: Hi, thanks for posting these interesting accounts. @ Antonio: Hi, impressed by your accuracy matching both sides evidences. @ Dunmunro: don't you think that IF Leach just wanted to "open the range" (albeit in a very strange way) at 6:01 and was back to engage BS at 6:04, until ...

@ Dan,
sure, you are right. My mistake !

Dunmunro wrote : "Leach's report at 0800 is merely a very short summary of the battle and a short summary of PoW's damage and never gives any timing for his decision to withdraw. The only timing given that is pertinent to that question is that he states that the Compass platform hit was at 060...

Dunmunro wrote: "We can see that Leach had to order a turn around Hood, and then another turn at ~604-0605 where he decides to turn away. " Hi, if Leach ordered two turns as per your hypothesis (one to open range at 6:01 and the second to retreat at 6:04), why didn't he mention them in hi...

RNfanDan wrote: "The outstanding "rub" with this statement is that Holland's orders, instructing the cruisers to close and join battle, apparently never reached W-Walker. " Hi Dan, even if we assume that Holland's orders never reached Wake-Walker, he was "de facto" eng...

Alecsandros wrote:" isn't it obvious that Prince of Wales COULD have continued the fight against Bismarck at 6:03 ?" Yes, it is ! :clap: Alecsandros wrote: "So, isn't it obvious that the commander disobeyed his order ?" Yes, again. That's why he (and Adm.Wake-Walker as well in m...

Antonio Bonomi wrote: "The reality is that both Rear-Adm F. Wake-Walker ( within few seconds ) and Capt J.C. Leach ( in less than 2 minutes ) ordered the retreat from the action they were both engaged while Vice-Adm L. Holland and Capt R. Kerr were probably still alive on Hood and not yet unde...

RF wrote: "The conduct of Rheinubung was in the hands of Lutjens and Lindemann on Bismarck, and Raeder in Berlin above them. Any war crimes that you have insinuated here, the deliberate killing of civilians, is down to the German perpetrators, as per the Perleus war crimes case." First of...

Hi Paul, thanks for these info ! I'm not sure that we can consider the 2 gums in Y turret as "out of action", but they were temporarily unable to fire due to loading problems, you are correct. However shortly after the battle PoW was able to fight again with 9 guns and both 5.25" batt...

Paul Cadogan wrote: "PoW had 7 guns working when she turned away (before the shell ring jammed), not 9 and no functional starboard secondary directors" Hi Paul, you already raised this point, but I can't find any confirmation. In one of my previous posts I said that the forward secondary ...