2) but the action started 10 minutes later, and AFAIK, Holland never signalled Wake-walker with instructions so Wake-Walker continued his shadowing mission, which required him to keep clear of Bismark's guns, and to keep clear of any attempt by Lutjens to escape to the north after overwhelming one of Wake-Walkers cruisers.Alberto Virtuani wrote:2) Antonio Bonomi already demonstrated that both heavy cruisers at 5:40 were able to join action without manoeuvring away at 5:41 and 5:42, so they did not all they could.Dunmunro wrote: "2) the cruisers did all they could but they could not possibly achieve the needed concentration to assist PoW.
3) The "Nelsonian spirit" was bold action to achieve localized concentrations of force, to win battles during the age of sail. Nelson would have been the first one to censure one of his captains who let the enemy escape or achieve victory through foolhardy blundering, no matter how much bravery (rather than intelligence) was involved.
3) yes Leach was justified in retreating, as he was clearly at tactical disadvantage but his mobility was intact and Wake-walker/Tovey could then decide on how best to achieve the needed concentration of force to destroy Bismarck and/or thwart Lujten's mission.
4) If Leach commanded a light cruiser would his mission be to suicidally attack Bismarck after Hood's loss? Leach's mission, after the loss of Hood and Holland, was to assess the tactical AND strategic situation and then act to minimize the overall threat to the Allied cause by Lutjen's sortie.
5)Holland's mission, with his superiority of force, was to destroy Bismarck if possible but if, for example, Hood and PoW both suffered fire control damage and it was clear that they could not sink Bismarck then Holland, in all probability, would have retreated and attempted to shadow Lujtens as Wake-walker did. You want to create scenarios where Leach and PoW must commit suicide rather than follow a sensible military strategy."
3) We have a VERY different view of Nelson spirit, but this is ok as it is an opinion.
3b) Leach would have been justified to retreat after receiving some serious damage (thus probably inflicting some damage to BS as well). He retreated when NO other concentration of forces could be seriously foreseen. In open Atlantic WW was going to loose BS (in the Denmark Strait there was very limited way to escape a chase and WW already lost BS for a while, in open sea, just a poor chance to keep contact, as it happened !)
4) Well, if he was on a heavy cruiser, in range for torpedoes, I would expect so from a pure hero (like Commander Glasfurd in HMS Acasta)....... However he was in command of the most modern British battleship, sent there to destroy BS (not to shadow her), he was in range to hit and damage the German battleship , his ship was still efficient and he retreated just after receiving one salvo onboard. Here again I think we will disagree forever.
5) It's not the way Admiralty was thinking even after Hood blew up, when they asked WW about his intention to re-engage........
Bye, Alberto
3b) Leach was outnumbered and facing a deadly concentration of gunfire, and possibly torpedoes, while inside his immune zone - his actions show that he attempted to open the range and re-engage but was unable to do this due to the loss of Y turret. In any event by keeping his mobility intact he was able to shadow Bismarck until Lutjens decided to abort his mission. The odds of 3 ships including 2 cruisers and and fast battleship losing Bismarck were very low and lutjens was very lucky to break contact.
4) Glasfurd continued to engage because Glorious was still afloat and his duty was to protect her - he managed, almost miraculously, to score a torpedo hit before being sunk but I suspect that if Glorious had sunk previously that he would have turned away to shadow S&G instead. Similarly, Wake-walker would have either had to risk both cruisers to try and protect PoW, if Pow had become crippled, and this could have allowed Lutjens to destroy all the RN ships in the area - leaving the sea lanes completely open to attack.
5) and W-W had the option to re-engage (and did - twice) because PoW and the rest of his force retained their mobility and firepower.