Indeed it does. Despite the suggestion that a non-lethal deterrence was the primary object of AA fire, it remains true that both attacks, by relatively small numbers of aircraft, scored hits on a fast, radically manoeuvring target. Furthermore, due to heavy cloud, it had been impossible to co-ordinate those attacks in the classical, textbook, simultaneous "hammerhead" assault where it was hoped to overwhelm defensive fire with an excess of targets.Nevertheless the [in]effect[iveness] of Bismarcks AA-fire remain a mysterium.
These two separate attacks allowed the battleship to deploy her entire armament that would bear against only two targets. Still no splashdowns.Bismarck could repell subflights 5 and 6 (4 airplanes in total) almost completely
Prince of Wales and Repulse also manoeuvred radically under a far heavier air torpedo attack from more capable aircraft and were hit several times. Although the enormous scale of US AA installations by the time of the Kamikaze attacks makes comparison difficult, official policy then was for battleships to maintain course for best gunnery conditions and only small units to attempt evasion.
The combination of Atlantic swell conditions, Bismarck's rapid motion due to great metacentric height and her radical manoeuvring may have been beyond the synchronisation capabilities of the advanced, but experimental, gyro systems in the Wackelkopf AA directors and stabilised gun mounts. This seems to be Norman Friedman's opinion in his book Naval Anti-Aircraft Guns and Gunnery. In other attacks eg in the Channel Dash, there was no swell but light seas, and constrained waters and supporting screen limited manoeuvring, easing the stress on the system.
It is also surely true that the presence of a defensive screen of reasonably well AA equipped vessels which are not targets themselves, but engage torpedo bombers early, well outside effective torpedo range, is vital. PoW and Repulse had ancient toothless escorts, Bismarck not even this.
Actually a very specialised TBD. One that could operate at night, when no others did. One that could operate in weather conditions that kept contemporaries strapped down to the deck. One that deployed radar long before any contemporary. One that often brought its crew home after unbelievable damage.crippled by the worst TBD
I think the Swordfish was similar in some respects to helicopter use at sea. That is it can do things no fixed wing aircraft can do, but stands no chance in combat against them.One of them had 175 holes, a damaged longeron and had to written off after return.
All the best
wadinga