Why didn't Lutjens go all out to destroy Norfolk and Suffolk?

Discussions about the history of the ship, technical details, etc.

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Steve Crandell
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Re: Why didn't Lutjens go all out to destroy Norfolk and Suffolk?

Post by Steve Crandell »

What happened to Norfolk? She seems to have vaporized.

In any case, if Bismarck tried to take on both British BBs with Hood not able to make the historical targeting mistake, I don't like Bismarck's chances. In the real event PoW took a long time to find the range, but it's still two v. one, which should give the British a significant advantage. Of course in real life Hood took a golden twinkie, but just how likely is that to happen? I honestly don't know; maybe more likely than I imagine.

I think Bismarck would turn and successfully retreat back to Norway.
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RF
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Re: Why didn't Lutjens go all out to destroy Norfolk and Suffolk?

Post by RF »

Steve Crandell wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2021 6:55 pm
HMSVF wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2021 6:35 pm I suppose the one thing that could have made a difference would have been an operational Graf Zeppelin...


(If they could see the target)
I suppose, but do you realize how many years it took the US, UK, and IJN to evolve working naval aviation? You really need a training CV, for one thing, but in any case it's an evolutionary process and the Germans were very early on that curve. The Me109 had trouble enough not killing pilots landing on a grass field, let alone a CV.
Also there is the view of Admiral Halsey - he didn't want to work with battleships because they were too slow and got in the way of naval aviation.... I think the KM would have learned that as well, they don't mix in a surface action - GZ at the DS battle would have been just one large target inviting some target practice by the RN....
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
paul.mercer
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Re: Why didn't Lutjens go all out to destroy Norfolk and Suffolk?

Post by paul.mercer »

Thanks for your reply Steve, if Bismarck did turn and run she might be able to outrun PoW but would she be able to get away from Hood?
Whatever Lutjens decided to do in the aforementioned circumstances it would be a difficult choice to make particularly as he did not know if any more RN capital ships were out from Scarpa to stop Bismarck getting home.
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