Why attack the Tirpitz?

[macleod01]

It doesn't really matter anyway and is silly german pride/fanbois thing.  I have a book by a survivor officer and he says scuttled, but honestly, the ship would have been sunk by direct fire soon anyway. It was wrecked.

Also go compare it with Brit and American BBs of the same period, it was a mediocre ship at best.

Ok I'm going to bite.

If it was only a 'Mediocre' Battleship, then why was there such a to-do about it? Why did it have the best part of the RN on her trail trying to stop her if she was nothing special? Surely a Mediocre Battleship isn't worth all that fuss to sink?


Or maybe I'm missing something?

[GtoRA2]

Ok I'm going to bite.

If it was only a 'Mediocre' Battleship, then why was there such a to-do about it? Why did it have the best part of the RN on her trail trying to stop her if she was nothing special? Surely a Mediocre Battleship isn't worth all that fuss to sink?


Or maybe I'm missing something?

Even a mediocre battleship is more then a match for anything smaller then it. It was a real threat to allied shipping. It just wasnt a very good BB.

Don't take my word for it, go read that link or any good book that compares them.

[BigKev03]

The Tirpitz was a serious threat to the Russian convoy lanes to Murmansk.  If she and her escorts could devastate a convoy and cause serious ship losses for the aliies.  Moral and proganda was a second factor.  But mainly the threat the Tirpitz posed to the convoys was the main point in sinking her. 

[Nemisis]

Wasn't mediocre. Bismark, sister to the Tripitz (both Bismark class battleships) sank the Hood, pride of the Royal Navy. Allies wouldn't have made such a big fuss over her if they could have sent a single battleship of their own, and sank her. Fact is that Tirpitz would have made a fight of it. I would have bet on her if the RN sent one of their battleships to hunt her.

[GtoRA2]

Wasn't mediocre. Bismark, sister to the Tripitz (both Bismark class battleships) sank the Hood, pride of the Royal Navy. Allies wouldn't have made such a big fuss over her if they could have sent a single battleship of their own, and sank her. Fact is that Tirpitz would have made a fight of it. I would have bet on her if the RN sent one of their battleships to hunt her.

The Hood was a horribly flawed ship. It was not a battleship and had no business taking one on. Battle cruisers were a stupid idea. So the Bismark taking her out isn't a very big deal, she was basically a fast battleship with no armor.

Compared to her contemporaries in the US Navy and Royal Navy the Bismark class was mediocre. Just go compare them on paper.

[Angus]

HMS Hood equalled Bismarck's speed and firepower at long range. Had Hood not been tracking Prinz Eugen instead of the much bigger Bismarck, things could have gone quite differently.
It took only one shell from HMS Rodney to disable Bismarck, and a shell from HMS Hood would have done very close to the same damage.
The luck of war.....and the bad luck of war....

[GtoRA2]

HMS Hood equalled Bismarck's speed and firepower at long range. Had Hood not been tracking Prinz Eugen instead of the much bigger Bismarck, things could have gone quite differently.
It took only one shell from HMS Rodney to disable Bismarck, and a shell from HMS Hood would have done very close to the same damage.
The luck of war.....and the bad luck of war....

The Hood had bite there is no doubt about it.  But her Armor would not have stood up for long even had the Bismark not gotten lucky.

That the Hood could give a BB the Bismark a challenge doesn't really say much for the Bismark.

Go check out the combined fleet link, they break down all the variables, like protection firepower speed, armor layout, etc.  There is a lot of detail in the breakdowns that is really interesting and it doesnt just compare the bismark to a few BBs, it compares it to all its competition including the other over rated BB the Yamato.

Or pick up Fleets of WW2 by worth cheap somewhere and read up on it.

[Angus]

I did study this quite a bit.
The bottom line with all the big guns was that a "KO" was always possible. Bismarck was very much better protected than the Hood. Yet it did only take one shot to knock Bismarck out when that time came. One 16 inch shell penetrated her fire control quarters and from that point on she was doomed. In that case HMS Rodney just beat her to getting that first hit.
So, it could have been the other way around.
BTW, Bismarck took hits from HMS Prince of Wales and it did some damage immediately. But POW was not ready for the battle, and had to get out once Hood was gone.

[GtoRA2]

I did study this quite a bit.
The bottom line with all the big guns was that a "KO" was always possible. Bismarck was very much better protected than the Hood. Yet it did only take one shot to knock Bismarck out when that time came. One 16 inch shell penetrated her fire control quarters and from that point on she was doomed. In that case HMS Rodney just beat her to getting that first hit.
So, it could have been the other way around.
BTW, Bismarck took hits from HMS Prince of Wales and it did some damage immediately. But POW was not ready for the battle, and had to get out once Hood was gone.

Going back and reading some of that page myself, mediocre may be a little strong, about the equal of POW, and far better then hood. Bismark was not really up to taking on any of the American BBs, well other then the older Colorado class. 

[Angus]

CC. And the RN KGV series were a good match for her as well.
The most amazing career would be the one of the old Warspite though

[Simba]

And the career of the Warspite's Swordfish floatplane wasn't dull either, eh?

 

[Angus]

That was an insane performance. What an aviator.
Warspite did put a record in the books in the battle of Matapan, now wasn't that a 15" hit on a moving targer from a moving platform at 26K?