Doesn't have to be the Denmark Strait, was just using it as one of the possible route they could've took.RF wrote:Why the Denmark Strait?Wordy wrote:Personaly I think this would be a bad idea.
If all the Kreigsmarine capital ships sailed in a task force then I'd imagine it would be easier for the Royal Navy to counter than the twins and BS/PE/GZ operating independantly. The RN would be well aware of what was going on and would have the ships in place to counter them, so the German squadron at the Denmark Strait
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You are overlooking that the RN would be in exactly the same situation as it was for the start of Rheinubung in the third week of May 1941.
The Germans have a choice of four (and if you add in the English Channel, five) entrances to the Atlantic coming from the Baltic Sea. All four entrances have to be covered which was why Tovey had to split his forces into Hood/POW and KGV/Repulse/Victorious and still have to rely on a cruiser line to gain initial contact with the Germans to identify which route is being used. And with Rheinubung Holland still came close to missing interception with Lutjens altogether. There is no guarantee that the cruiser line will detect German warships breaking out, even with radar.
The essence of my argument is that the RN would be unable to concentrate a force against all the German ships that would be capable of destroying them - the Germans would have a much greater initiative and freedom of action than under Rheinubung and the RN would be even more defensive, particulary with convoys to protect against battleship and carrier attack. This quite apart from the fact that the RN capital ships need to guard against attack from planes operating from carriers as well.
From what I can gather Tovey didn't use anything like the whole home fleet for the BS/PE task force, but given that he'd be facing all 4 German capital ships then he'd have absolutely everthing at sea waiting for them. Icluding Force H which (hopefully) would have been recalled back to Britian in time.
Of course it might not have worked and the German's might've got into the atlantic which would mean the RN would be in a bit of a pickle, But if I were Tovey I'd have everything at sea, including old/slow ships as this would be his 1 big chance.
I'm just musing really, I don't think that Tovey wouldn't use absolutely everything he had at his disposal.