Word: bismarck
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...long-standing controversy of sea power v. air power was settled once and for all by the Hood-Bismarck affair and by the battle for Crete. The answer was not that air power had proved indisputably superior to sea power. The answer was rather that the whole controversy was meaningless. Any sea power worthy of the name must work with air power; air power over the sea is in fact sea power. The lessons of the Hood-Bismarck chase and of Crete, therefore, were lessons in the balance of these two powers as they team up to fight an opposing...
...first duties of air power used as a sea weapon are scouting, reconnaissance, keeping touch with the enemy. The Bismarck might never have been sunk had she not been stalked by U.S.-made Consolidated (PBY-5) Catalinas. These flying boats, which have a 104-ft. wing span and weigh 27,080 lb. but are called "sardine tins" by British pilots because of their compactness compared with the monstrous British-built Short Sunderlands, can cruise over 4,000 miles, and last week one of them set a British record by staying in the air for 24 hours...
This Tuesday morning at daylight or shortly after daylight the Bismarck was attacked by British pursuing battleships, including the Prince of Wales. Even in her crippled condition, the British battleships apparently had trouble sinking her with shell fire, for it was not until some 7 or 8 hours later that the coup de grace was delivered. If (as was at first reported) this was given by a torpedo plane, the Bismarck was the first modern battleship sunk from...
Said Mr. Alexander: "Great as is our loss in the Hood, the Bismarck must be regarded as the most powerful battleship in the world, and her removal from the German Navy is a very definite simplification of the task of maintaining an effective mastery of the northern seas and maintenance of the northern blockade...
...With the Bismarck gone, the German fleet now includes only three capital ships. These are the Tirpitz, 35,000-ton sister ship of the Bismarck, and two 26,000-tonners, the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst. Berthed at Brest, where they have been under steady attack by units of the Royal Air Force since mid-March, it is not likely that the latter two are in any condition to take a major part in the continuing Battle of the Atlantic...