Crew Exhaustion a factor in final battle?

[Djoser]

I tried a search for 'crew exhaustion', 'exhaustion', and 'general quarters', but couldn't find anything. I have read the Baron's book, and remember him describing how worn out they were after three days near continuous action stations.

Now I've seen claims that we shouldn't factor this in as influencing the final battle: '...and many of the smaller ships went to Russia were at action stations for days. When Bismarck lost the cruisers they had time to sleep at their posts. That excuse does not work.'

Of course, this was part of an argument made by someone else that the three days from DS to the final battle should NOT be construed as Bismarck having to take on a total of 4 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, and 4 cruisers, since they had time to 'take a break' in between attacks. Spoken like a true 'Armchair Admiral' haha!

Is there any record of how often the crew were called to action stations during those last three days, or allowed to rest?

[OpanaPointer]

Based on my own twenty years active duty I can picture them standing down whenever possible to allow for crew rest. I've slept on steel decks more than once. It does get tiring but 20 minutes shut-eye can work wonders. Or it can convince you that life at sea during war time isn't your cup of tea.

[Byron Angel]

General crew exhaustion, as a result of being held at constant battle readiness in the face of Japanese air attacks on the previous day, was cited by the USN as an important factor in the Savo debacle. My father, who spent three years on a DD in the PTO during the war, told me that his watch officer once found him at his post totally asleep with his eyes still open.

But ...... there is clearly no shortage of self-anointed experts on the wonderful interweb.

Byron

[José M. Rico]

Radio personnel was probably the most affected by exhaustion since they could not even sleep at their posts.
The following excerpt is from Prinz Eugen's Medical Field Report but applies to Bismarck as well.

"A stimulatory agent [Pervitin-metamphetamine] was administered only once to the almost exhausted radio personnel which was constantly on battle station watch; the radio personnel was particularly affected because of the extreme heat generated in the radio rooms and despite of that had to maintain a clear head. For this reason Pervitin was issued, which had the predicted invigorating effect.

After the heavy battle in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland each crew member was issued one pack of Schokakola for the strengthening of physical performance and for the elevation of mental concentrating power;"