Naval History Forums

If the Bismarck is within 160 km when the String bags attack ,then the LW would shoot them out of the sky before they got there. They were still competant at that point in the war. If every RN RAF asset is out for blood then its likely so too is every KM/LW asset out to protect the Bismarck. At 160k...

The editing function on this forum is really limited! What I was trying to add to my post was ... The Oil crisis for the allies lasted from 1940-43 reaching several peaks during that period. In Early 1942 the loss rate on tankers was reaching 200,000 tons per month and the allies concluded they woul...

LWD on that link I gave you , you will see that convoying ends up with 1/2 capacity after year since the accumulated delay adds up to that much ....compared to unescorted shipping, so when the WORLD WIDE shipping is 32 million tons the actual amount through conovys is only going to be about 16 milli...

What matters is the ship tonnage, not the numbers of ships sunk. And more importantly, the cargo of the ship - oil, food, weapons. The Germans didn't have to sink all the merchants, just enough to stop Britain from being able to carry out the war. Cheers, Yes this point is driven home in the Group ...

If one looks at: Losses in 39 are almost insignificant ~200 with ~half or less due to U-boats so hardly close in 29 In 40 the numbers go up ~1,000 with again around half due to U-boats and in 41 they increase to ~1,200 It's only in 42 that we see a spike to ~1,600 with 2/3 due to subs but by then U...

Try this site , although you may already have it....

http://www.warshipsww2.eu/tridy.php?lan ... GER&typ=DD

The british northern battle fleet was low on fuel and had to return to port within days. Likewize the same evasive maneuver that got the Bismarck away from the cruisers could very well have been used to slip detection and double back to DS and back to Norway. All it would take would be a deception m...

Or maybe Hitler will try not to risk them and lost that boost? Kayser-like... Well Hitler avoided navy issues until he was forced to intervene. He put increasing restrictions as operations failed. After the Bismarck loss, he forbade any surface raider sortie into the Atlantic. So I doubt a wild suc...

Lets say for argument sake that Lindemann's decisions are choosen and PoW is finished off , followed by a dash back to Bergen. This is going to have a huge morale boost for KM and Hitler would not turn against surface ships so badly, if he can boast that one German BB is better than two RN BB. I wou...

Lindemann actually requested Lutjens to let him return to Norway since his ship was damaged and the basis of the mission had failed. Can you tell me where you obtained this information? I remember some one posting that remark on another forum, but I can't find that posting. Heres a clip from a Disr...

Lindemann actually requested Lutjens to let him return to Norway since his ship was damaged and the basis of the mission had failed. To achieve a surprise break out into the Atlantic. Detecting a ship on the high seas is next to impossible unless you have signals int and massive air survaillance. Th...

This is one that impressed me. Single tiny Italian Torpedoboot charging a Squadron of British Cruisers and Destroyers driving them off to protect small convoy of barges with German troops. Some one remarked that the quality of these Italian skippers were inversely proportional to the displacement of...

Como83 I'm impressed with your writing and make the assumption that you, like my father was in the war. He sometimes speaks of his experiences but since he has spent most of the decades blocking out his memories, they are no where near as detailed. Thank you for sharing this with us. I'm intrigued b...

I think it's generally accepted that the 5.9" guns were too heavy for a ship of that size, which contributed greatly to the poor seakeeping. So it's hard to hypothesize how it would be possible to have the same armament with good seakeeping. If you take away the 5.9" guns, then it's proba...

Seems like there is no easy answer here and alot of this could be seen as a 'design choice'? Heres a comment from another board. It applies to all ships to different extents. RN ships were generally very poor sea boats due to a requirement that they could fire over the bows at zero elevation. The KG...