RNfanDan wrote:Short answer--NO.
This topic has been discussed from countless angles and hypotheses, but if one is willing to accept some reality i.e., that the battle proceeds in a historically-accurate fashion up to the point of "two blue" (Holland's signal to Prince of Wales to turn to port), even taking away the fatal magazine hit could not have allowed Hood and PoW to sink Bismarck.
I'll explain my opinion as succinctly as I can:
1) Hood was firing at the wrong ship. From the opening salvo of the battle, Hood's shells were of absolutely no threat to Bismarck, no matter how accurate the British gunnery.
2) While the Bismarck itself could arguably be accused of firing at the "wrong" ship---from the standpoint of #1, above---Hood was already in a bad way, even before the magazine explosion. From the evidence presented in many posts to this forum over the past year or so, especially it would seem that Hood never actually shifted targets. I think this would have continued, at least for several more critical minutes, until someone realized the targeting error and effected a change in fire control procedure.
Even without the fatal hit, the ship was afire, had lost a key gunnery-control function (the hit on the upper control facility), and would have been delayed in re-acquiring a target after the turn to port was executed. With then two additional turrets requiring target information from a disabled control system, changes would have to be made very quickly to bring these turrets to bear. Once Holland's turn had been completed, Hood's fire control may well have been forced into a divided, fore-and-aft local configuration. In any case, Hood's effect is only to allow PoW more time to range her guns.
3) Based on these circumstances, it is safe to assume that German gunnery would have boarded numerous additional shellhits on Hood, while the latter was still getting its own rapidly-deteriorating affairs sorted-out. Had Hood not been destroyed by that point, she may well have been forced to disengage (as PoW later did) or could have suffered other crippling blows sufficient to compel her to alter course away temporarily, leaving PoW to hold the line until clarity had been restored.
4) None of this affects Bismarck thus far, except that PoW would now be much more effective, having enjoyed the luxury of German fixation upon Hood even longer, and without the detriment to her gunnery of having to wildly manuever to avoid Hood's wreckage. Historical accuracy has already established, even before the magazine hit on the flagship, that PoW had found the range and scored three hits. Given additional time, even with Hood's problems, the Germans could easily have suffered more serious hits from PoW.
5). With this in mind, even a withering fire from PoW's guns would likely not have sunk the Bismarck. The German ship was simply immune from sinking by shellfire, alone--as was PoW, I believe--and, despite the likelihood that she would have suffered the effects of accurate fire from both German ships, possibly even being forced to disengage (as she later was, anyway), there is no reason to believe that Hood's presence would either cause Bismarck's sinking, or save PoW from still having to disengage.
Conclusion: The battle would have turned out much differently, had Hood not exploded. However, there is no possibility of gunfire, in any combination, that would alone have sunk Bismarck. Hood's survival would likely have created only two alternative possibilities, the first being that the battle would have been prolonged and taken place in possibly two separate "actions"; the second being, that the Germans would have drastically altered their plans, possibly even abandoning the operation and reversing course, as Lütjens had done earlier with S&G.
Beyond this point, a whole range of possibilities exists, and I won't go further with these. But, in the scenario I just described, Bismarck floats---and as long as it stays afloat, the ship has a very hard time of things from an alert, determined Royal Navy, already gathering its forces together. Little else would have immediately resulted from a surviving but battered Hood, and neither side would have sufficient strength to overcome the other, at least not until the British were able to gain a more favorable position than a "running stalemate".
Vic,
Please read this post and tell me whether you disagree with the second paragraph of point 2) above.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.