Alberto Virtuani wrote:
Had Bismarck reached Brest, or worse, started her raider mission, I would guess that the consequences for him (and for Wake-Walker) would have been quite tough......
Bye, Alberto
In the summer of 1941, yes.
But the Germans would very quickly find that having Bismarck in Brest or St Nazaire would be a poisoned chalice, far more so than having simply Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen there. Churchill would have diverted the whole of Bomber Command to the destruction of these ships, I can imagine the commando raid on St Nazaire being brought forward and quite possibly be carried out with Bismarck inside the dry dock.
At that time German ships were safer out on the high seas (unless they were caught by radar equipped ships) than being in port, especially a port close to British bases.
A court martial in late 1941 would have been interesting, as by that time the problems would be with the Germans and the defence for Leach and Wake-Walker would be accumulating evidence to suggest that the outcome was not completely detrimental.
How far Bismarck remains a threat to Britain would be debateable, Ghurchill would be obsessed with both Bismarck and Tirpitz, but the reality, as any chess player can appreciate, is that a threat is often more dangerous than its implementation.
I suspect also that Churchill would have based some battleships at Plymouth, possibly at Falmouth, with the idea of catching the German ships in Biscay if they tried to break out. That makes the Channel Dash operation by the Germans very interesting and tips the scales towards the RN.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.