Alberto Virtuani wrote:
The fact that Tovey said only after the battle about this "lament" is not very nice of him, he would have been much better to keep silent at that point...... He should just have ordered Holland to fly his flag in PoW, instead.
Bye, Alberto
With respect to the first sentence it perhaps wasn't nice or diplomatic, but there again the killing business that is war isn't very nice. I think that Tovey was honest in expressing his thoughts, he also said that he didn't think it necessary to interfere with so senior an officer as Holland, presumably meaning that Holland, in the situation he found himself in, would on his own volition have placed POW ahead of Hood. Had correct identification of the German ships positions been obtained at first sighting then Holland at least would have the example of Lutjens not being in the lead ship. The implied argument in placing POW ahead of Hood is that of cowardice, that the commanding admiral is scared of coming under fire personally, that the Flag always leads into battle. My own view is that if I was in Holland's shoes I would have switched POW in front of Hood at the start of the run in on the basis that all heavy guns bear on Bismarck and that POW was to target Prinz Eugen with its 5.25 inch guns as soon as they were in range - Hood didn't have a substantial secondary battery and I would be reluctant for the German cruiser to be left unmolested. I would also have ordered Wake-Walker to advance Norfolk onto Bismarck's starboard quarter and open fire as soon as in range.
That is my view as a bathtub admiral and I would like to think that I came to these command decisions without the benefit of hindsight.
With respect to the second sentence the order was given at Scapa Flow with no certainty that Hood would make contact with Bismarck - which was likely given the choice of Atlantic entry routes available to the Germans - and certainly without being able to anticipate the tactical positioning Holland was in when the DS battle commenced. Holland was the admiral on the spot, there to command and make his own tactical decisions. Shifting flag from one ship to the other takes time and when that order was given by Tovey there was no time to spare for such niceties. Perhaps when the Hood/POW force was decided earlier on that was the point to make POW flagship, but given that POW was so new viz the veteran Hood no such decision was countenanced.
As commanding admiral on the spot Holland should be able to position his ships as he thinks best. Going against the grain of normal command procedure may otherwise be frowned upon, especially where it fails.... but if Holland had won a famous victory and despatched both German ships by the method outlined in my previous paragraph, then his switching of POW ahead of Hood would have been seen as a brilliant tactical move.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.