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Anonymous
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plan_D said:It's nice that you are both saying that the Bismarck couldn't stand up to the post-1943 US BBs (which is true) but the Bismarck sailed in 1941. To stop the Bismarck in 1941, the US would have had to do the same as the Royal Navy did.
You certainly are making the Royal Navy out to be useless. I'm sorry you fail to see that it had been spread from the across almost every ocean in the world.
And where was the USN in the Indian ocean, Dec 1941? Licking their wounds. See, we can all point fingers to say someone wasn't helping the other, so stop it.
How could the Ark Royal help during Midway? Battle of Midway - June 1942. H.M.S Ark Royal SUNK - 13th November 1941 while escorting Malta Conoys.
It'd have a job helping when it was at the bottom of the Med!
I said I thought it was the Arc Royal, apparently I was mistaken on that detail. In any case the British did have 1 carrier defending Madagascar, and the USA asked that it help with the battle of Midway after decoding the Japanese plan, but the British refused. I can look up which carrier if you like?
In Dec. 1941 the USA was just barely in the war after suffering a devestating sneak attack, that is an unfair comment to make. At Midway, Britain and the USA were both at war with Japan, so it is an entirely different situation.
The North Carolina class BB's were available in 1941. For ship-ship combat these were about equal to the South Dakota class (they lacked the AA capability until refit). Without the advanced fire control, it would have been a closer matchup, but the tougher armor and much bigger guns would still give the NC the advantage. While it lacked the computer aimed firing system, it still had radar ranging and aiming capability (though this was much improved when it was refit in 1943).
I'm not saying the RN was useless. Rather, they were slightly obsolete, and as you say they were spread thin. Also, their primary focus had to be on maintaining the capacity to repel a German invasion, so they could not afford to take too big a gamble to go hunt down one ship.
=S=
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