dunmunro wrote:
Antonio states that PE began firing on PoW at 0558:30, therefore the first salvos would have landed around 0559:00. PoW's salvo 13 was fired at 0559:50 so PoW was definitely under fire at the time of firing salvo 13.
Source for either of these ?
From ANtonio's reconstruction, it's clear Bimsarck was hit at 5:59, so the salvo was in the air earlier than you would think.
I really don't understand what you're trying to get at here as it is pretty obvious from the timing and sequence of events that PoW's gunnery declined because of the loss of Hood.
It's obvious: Prinz Eugen was a cruiser, Prince of Wales a battleshp. I don't think it's that important or dangerous to be under fire from a cruiser.
However, PoW stoped scoring any straddles or hits immediately after Bismarck focused her attention on her.
It's ridicolous to say that the avoidance of Hood's wreckage made Prince of Wales stop obtaining hits: at 6:01 the wreckage was fully cleared, and the PoW had at least 10 minutes to try to score new hits. But... she didn't, of course, but that's just history, and who cares about it ?