Posted on 01/17/2020 10:52:34 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
In May 1941, the new German battleship Bismarck was a huge, state-of-the-art warship, equipped with the latest long-range heavy cannon, new stereoscopic range-finders that promised unprecedented accuracy, new ship-based radar, and an intricate system of armor-plating and honey-combed water-tight compartments that rendered her virtually unsinkable. If Bismarck broke out into the vast, indefensible shipping lanes of the North Atlantic, it could wreak catastrophic havoc with the war-sustaining convoys coming across the ocean [from the U.S.]
In 1941 England, it was believed that this single weapon might determine the very course of the war in Europe. Where the entire Luftwaffe had been unable to cripple Britain’s warfighting capability with its aerial assault in the summer of 1940 and bring her to the negotiating table, now—in the spring of 1941—a single warship was threatening to do that very thing.
As the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen headed towards the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, they were intercepted by the British battleships Hood and Prince of Wales. Those two ships were all that stood between Britain’s invaluable but vulnerable shipping lanes and what they thought was national survival. In the next few minutes, perhaps the most famous and consequential surface engagement of all time occurred. The big ships fired on each other, their 14- and 15-inch guns booming.
Hood — the pride of the British navy — was struck by a perfectly-aimed salvo from Bismarck and exploded violently, breaking in two and sinking with just three survivors out of a crew of more than 1,400. After 10 minutes of fighting, "The Mighty Hood" was gone. Prince of Wales, despite suffering significant damage herself from Bismarck’s guns, scored some telling blows of her own, such that Bismarck was forced to disengage and head to home for repair.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearhistory.com ...
“Wonder how many more Uboats Germany would of had if they had not build a useless surface fleet?”
The Plan Z Fleet would not be ready before 1946. By pushing the war timetable forward, Hitler essentially screwed over his Navy planners. This kind of “shooting blanks” effect happens all the time in warfare. Hitler was born in Austria-Hungary. His concept of strategic distance was Vienna to Berlin. And so he had blinders on when it came to things like the true value of a long-range Navy and strategic bombing.
IIRC, the Third Reich put 800 U-boats to sea. They were wickedly effective against Allied shipping, but the various means to detect & engage them rapidly evolved.
600 U-boats were sunk during the war.
At least until the Allies had air superiority and blasted the moored battleships to bits — like eventually happened to Tirpitz.
Would the Germans have even built Tirpitz if Bismarck had not been sunk?
The military kept building one more “perfect” weapon, which grew so complicated and expensive that it couldn't work, and the Earth was defeated.
It mocked the US military, practically any time from the 50’s to the 90’s, but it made sense to me as completely possible.
The pursuit of the perfect weapon is often the start of a malaise that corrodes an organization from the inside out.
I downloaded a series called "War Factories" from a British torrent site. It is an excellent program that details the production between Germany, Japan, Britain, and the U.S.
This is the British network that aired the show, and episode information:
I remember Dad playing (and loving) all those Jimmy Horton songs on the radio. They were really good. Alaska, New Orleans, Bismarck. Great times!
“Perhaps if the Brits would have shared their torpedo technology with us, things might have turned out differently in the early years of the Pacific War. Their torpedos seem to work.”
Considering the range of technological assistance going both ways across the Atlantic I think the Brits would have helped in that area if asked. The problem was that the USN wouldn’t even admit that there was a problem for a long time.
"Ich bin ein Berliner"?
And don’t forget Big Bertha! Enormous in size, and cost in money and resources, but pretty useless.
Kind of like the snark I’m always making about the Empire in Star Wars. They keep building these enormous weapons that have to be galactically expensive, which then get destroyed by the equivalent of two guys with two screwdrivers and a wheelbarrow. They they do it again! Apparently the Empire suffers from the same shortcomings as the Reich, nobody’s analyzing bang-for-buck (and making sure high-value weapons aren’t vulnerable to cheap, low-tech attacks).
-—Victor Davis Hanson’s great book “The Second World Wars” has some comparisons of what the Germans could have had , had they not squandered assets on such as the Bismarck and the V-2 rockets-—
“Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II” by Arthur Herman, published May 2012 is a fantastic read and analysis about how we built materiel at an unprecedented scale. Highly recommended.
It’s amazing to think how that was accomplished with so many men off at war.
Tirpitz had already been launched and was fitting out.
I’ve always thought that Dornitz was right concerning the initial strategy of fighting England, namely that a large U-boat force would contribute to “strangling” the trade between the British Isles and everyone else.
U-boats (and minelaying) are the strategies when your navy is inferior to the surface fleet (and airpower) of the enemy.
Eventually, however, Admiral Raeder was right. In order to project power, you must have a surface fleet. While U-boats and naval-bombers could have obliterated trade between England and the rest of the world, a surface fleet would be need both to counter enemy submarine threats as well as escort amphibious forces across the channel and conduct shore bombardments. Aircraft carriers would also allow Germany to project air power to enemies across the Atlantic if necessary. At least, that was the ultimate naval dream. To achieve naval readiness, the war should have started much later. That was what naval high command wanted. Fortunately for the world, things did not work out that way.
The problem for German naval policy came from the fact that Dornitz was still a Commodore (I believe) and Raeder was much higher in rank (and thus seemed more of an expert). Raeder also had a naval vision that just happened to gel with what Hitler wanted, namely a navy comprised of a “loud and proud” surface fleet.
A war documentary stated that when the U.S. joined the war, U.S. naval officers rejected the idea of using convoys -- a tactic the Brits found indispensable years before.
After their hubris cost many lives and much cargo, they relented and started using convoys.
Their ships were beautiful though.
If Hitler hadn’t declared war on the US, he stood a chance of beating the Soviet Union, or at least securing a negotiated truce.
—
I watched a war documentary recently (I’ve watched so many in my life!) and this one had George Will (I know, *sshole) saying that Adolf Hitler “in a fit of thoughtlessness and contempt, declared war on the United States”.
I liked his wording there. A fit of thoughtlessness and contempt.
“A fit of thoughtlessness and contempt.”
Sounds kind of like Nancy Poolosi.
I read that story as mocking Hitler’s German since it exactly reflected what happened inside the 3rd Reich
That is very true
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