The plan was to send a powerful battle group comprising the newly commissioned Battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz accompanied by the heavy battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau into the
The operation however began to fall apart almost from the outset as Scharnhorst was forced to undergo major machinery repairs and Gneisenau was seriously damaged by RAF torpedo and bomber strikes. The Tirpitz was then scratched from the operation as she had not yet completed her sea trials.
As a result the German force was greatly reduced to Bismarck and the newly commissioned cruiser Prinz Eugen. The Commander in Chief of the Kreigsmarine Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, believed it imperative to keep pressure on the hard pressed British supply convoys and decided to go forward with the revised operation.
What transpired instead of commerce raiding was the
http://www.greatmilitarybattles.com/html/battle_of_battleship_bismarck.html
My question is, What if the Germans were capable of launching their original operation, would they have succeeded in destroying the British convoy system for the year 1941?
BISMARCK vs HOOD
Destroy the British Convoy system, Probably not, no doubt the German’s would have completely destroyed any convoy’s they had come across including all their Cruiser escorts. The losses in vessels, war materials and trained seamen would have put the British back three months at best.
ReplyDeleteIf the pitched battle scenario had occurred, judging by the performance of the Bismarck at the battle of the Denmark Straight, the British Task Force would have been totally annihilated, where as the German Battle Group would have lost a few ships with the remainder been so severely damaged that they would have had to make for port to effect repairs. This would have probably taken the surviving German ships out of action for possibly over a year.