When Japan Sunk The Royal Navy's Best Battleships, It Proved That Air Power Was King

As much as the Japanese enjoyed quite a bit of success at the very beginning of the war, they never really took the lessons of their own success. Between resource constraints and an inability to build an effective training pipeline for naval aviators, the Japanese once they started losing pilots in engagements, never realized the capabilities of carrier aircraft. Soon, they were squandering what pilots they could muster in aircraft that were never updated and pilots that were trained far better. Later, it became a numbers game. After the "great Marianas turkey shoot", Japanese carrier-based pilots were reduced to kamikaze tactics.

A few flaws in Nationalinterests' scheme...

1. POW did not hit Bismarck at all. Her guns failed after one salvo (all ten guns) which were fired at the lead ship "believed" to be Bismarck which was in fact, Prince Eugen. Next salvo suffered a failure and only one gun fired. POW signaled loss of power to all guns.

2. Bismarck is under orders to flee rather than fight. Task group commander is outranked by Bismarck's CO and arguments' abound as to whether to indeed stay or fight. As this transpires, Prince Eugen (fighting for its' life) is shooting back at its' only active foe - Hood.

3. Prince Eugen gets a hit on Hood's boat deck lighting ready-use AA and anti-ship ammo, killing 400 men outright and sending up a sheet of flame. As Hood turns, her next salvo brackets Prince Eugen. Next Hood salvo will hit Prince Eugen/next Prince Eugen salvo will hit Hood. Prince Eugen - being a cruiser - reloads quicker. Her next salvo hits Hood as Hood completes her turn.

AT THIS POINT IN TIME, BISMARCK JOINS THE BATTLE

4. Bis' first salvo goes into Hood's pall. Hood's last salvo jinks the water and holes Bis' forward fuel tank. Beyond the pall of smoke is POW. POW gets only one hit - a hit to the armored conn, wiping out most of the battle party except the skipper. This happens the same time Hood sinks, the same time Hood's last salvo happens, the same time Bismarck joins the battle. Could it have been POW?

Well...

5. In order for POW to have hit Bismarck, she'd have had to fire over sinking Hood, guessing at coordinates as Hood's pall is the predominant weather feature at the moment...

6. Nextly, POW's guns except gun 10 aft, are all dead. So not only does POW have to fire over Hood, but backwards. Also, in order to hole POW's conn, Bismarck has to be closer to POW, not Hood. Common lore puts POW's conn hit from Prince Eugen. Not likely that a weak 8inch round penetrated a hardened battleship conn. So Bismarck is the only one that could have holed POW. However, "pride of Royal Navy sunk" will be given to Bismarck by propaganda. Likewise, her pathetic first mission (one merchant sunk) will not be allowed to die pathetically. So credit for Hood is given to Bismarck.

POW...

7. Well...Churchill did not take loss of the "pride of the Royal Navy" lightly and commented loudly that Captain Leach should have rammed Bismarck or gone down as well. Leach never lives this down. Leach then embarks on a career of self-destruction taking silly/stupid/dangerous risks. Britain taught the Japanese Navy everything they knew. So the RN knew what airpower was.

8. The RN contingent sent Eastward to stem the Japanese tide consisted of two carriers, a battlecruiser, two hardened cruisers and the Royal Navy's fighting'est battleship, HMS Warspite with England's fighting-est admiral, Cunningham. POW was attached. As weather was bad, the RN - already night masters - were going to throttle the Japanese at night. The order therefore was to head to Trincomalee Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and link up, waiting for a prime moment. Cunningham was a master night killer and had the tools to do the job. Unfortunately, Warspite, two cruisers and the carriers were delayed by weather.

AT THIS JUNCTURE...

Leach takes it upon himself to sortie out to meet the Japanese. He does and as it's daytime, he dies. He actually survives the sinking and is seen letting go of his life vest. He never gets over Churchill's derision and never gets over the stigma of being the one that lost Hood. He wasn't but Churchill needed/wanted a skapegoat. Leach therefore, commits suicide.

Had Cunningham's force met the Japanese, they'd have been all of his students. Would he have successfully stopped the Japanese? Every one of his ships had gun-fighting experience and nightime experience. There's no reason why his ten ship force could not have bested/wounded/killed/crippled the Japanese twenty ship force.

Thanks for sharing.