Word: bismarcks
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Planes need bases. The Catalinas could fly from the Bismarck to Gibraltar, to Iceland, to Britain, and under ideal weather conditions might be refueled at sea; but shorter-range aircraft over the open sea would be helpless but for aircraft carriers. Britain has eight carriers, Germany has perhaps two, Italy has none. However, airfields ashore are "fixed carriers," and they are better than mobile carriers because they are not bound by sea carriers' limitations, and on the continent of Europe the Axis controls most of the fixed carriers...
Therefore, as the Bismarck and Crete demonstrated, British sea-air power becomes progressively effective as it moves away from shore. Two aircraft carriers, the brand-new Victorious and the still unsunk Ark Royal, were able to cripple the most powerful battleship in the world just before it came within danger range of land air bases in France. Conversely, the British did not dare expose vulnerable aircraft carriers, which they call "floating blocks of flats," in the confined waters of the Aegean; and ships without planes consequently took an unmerciful beating...
...Torpedoes played a greater part than shellfire in crippling and sinking the Bismarck. At Taranto, at Matapan and in this conflict, the British have shown great skill in using the torpedo-carrying aircraft, which was invented by a U.S. naval officer in 1912, which has surprisingly not been adopted by the Germans in the Battle of the Atlantic...
...Naval architects were astonished by the way the Bismarck stood up under punishment. Bismarck's crew were convinced she was unsinkable, and they were almost right. She absorbed at least 20 16-in. shells from the Rodney, 15-in. shells from the Hood, and 14-in. shells from the Prince of Wales and King George V; three torpedoes launched from aircraft, two from destroyers, one from a battleship and three from cruisers; and about three hundred 8-in. shells, 4.7-in. shells and other small stuff. PArtly this wonderful shock-worthiness was due to her thick, modern alloy-steel...
...more than 2% of rounds fired, the hit on one of Hood's magazines from extreme range of nearly 13 miles was fantastically lucky. And the British had their share of solid luck when one of their torpedo planes crippled a propeller and the steering mechanism of the Bismarck...