This also reminds me of one of my favorite ‘what ifs’ of the war. What if Hitler had allocated more resources to U-boat construction instead of large surface ships. After all KM Bismarck DID NOT fulfill its mission of disrupting convoys. Suppose that instead of building that ship, the resources were put to constructing fifty (or ever how many) additional U-boats?
Try this one. If Raeder had waited until TIRPITZ was ready, he would have had BISMARCK, TIRPITZ, PRINZ EUGEN, GNIESENAU, and probaly SCHARNHORST available for joint operations. Interesting problem for Tovey, no?