To: naturalman1975
He watched as the Bismarck, which had been under siege from the Royal Navy, rolled over. And he saw hundreds of German sailors leaping into the water as she started to sink. Only 115 of Bismarck's crew of 2,222 survived.
WTF? Had the Daily Mail reporter reread his own work, much less looked up the sinking, he would know this statement was false. Do they not have Copy Editors at the Mail?
The 18 inch torpedo from the Stringbag (nickname of the anachronistic Fairey Swordfish) did not sink the Bismark. It only crippled the steering mechanism. She was sunk days latter, when after the battleships HMS Rodney and and King George V pounded it to submission, and when HMS Dorsetshire fired a spread of 21 inch torpedoes into the Bismarck. Still today there is a debate whether these heavy torpedoes actually sunk the crippled, burning, and disarmed ship or if she was scuttled.
26 posted on
06/09/2009 8:49:22 PM PDT by
rmlew
( The SAVE and GIVE acts are institutioning Corvee. Where's the outtrage!)
To: rmlew
Mr Moffat pulled up before the torpedo hit and didn't see it strike. The following morning he flew to the ship for a second attack but there was no need.He watched as the Bismarck, which had been under siege from the Royal Navy, rolled over. And he saw hundreds of German sailors leaping into the water as she started to sink. Only 115 of Bismarck's crew of 2,222 survived.
I don't think the article makes any claim that the torpedoes from the Swordfish sank the Bismarck. It states that the following day he flew back, and was in place to see it sink after it had "been under siege from the Royal Navy."
The Mail reporter didn't describe all the details of that 'siege' because it wasn't relevant to the story he was telling.
That's my reading anyway.
28 posted on
06/09/2009 8:55:26 PM PDT by
naturalman1975
("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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