Comments by "William Cox" (@WildBillCox13) on "Alternate History Special 001" video.
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The easiest What if might be: "What if that rudder killing torpedo had missed the Bismarck?"
Along with that we might ponder what would have occurred if KMS Bismarck had been able to take on her full load of fuel at the start. That Oil Processing system was a factor in KMS Graf Spee's fate, too, though in result of other factors.
After that, however, it all sort of falls apart. For Bismarck to achieve her brief (the guerre du course) she needed to reach her first operational area undetected. Part of the plan was to draw reaction into the wake of her sortie, to stay one move ahead. She was meant to follow the shipping lanes, finding convoys by code--breaking (back home) and patrolling, heading from operational area to operational area. Once she was "made" (detected) she was already trapped, being too close to coast to break through into the Atlantic.
The one chance, now that her cover was blown, was for Bismarck to run for the French coast. And that single torpedo ended that hope.
Even had she made it into the Atlantic with Tirpitz and the two Battlecruisers (yeah, yeah, I know-they're battleships with teeny little peckers), she could only survive one fight . . . before needing replenishment and refueling. And the Eleven Allied Battleships arrayed against her would've been in her way. Bismarck needed sisters, large and small, and really foul weather. And improved Seetakt.
Consider this idea: if Bismarck and her mates could draw off the whole of the capital ship roster into the south Atlantic, she would remove them from the map of Europe for at least a week and a half. If Hitler had launched Seelowe, while the Home fleet was gallivanting around elsewhere in a search for national prestige . . . but, of course, he was not ready.
Kampfgruppe Bismarck and the three Panzerschiffe were supposed to be in their operational areas when the war began. That would start the stern chase to bring them to "justice". That would draw off the Home fleet and pretty much everything else in a hunt for the raiders (The cost of that effort was incredible in the event). The warships would romp through the Atlantic, spreading havoc, splitting up to head for friendly bases in far away Nihon for scraping and a bit of topping off (in return for technical plans and schematics). And all of those allied pursuers would be low on fuel and worn out, too, needing refit and rotation of their crews. As they fell back on Home ports, Hitler's cunning plan would be revealed: his ten merchant raiders, already in position (and innocent as sleeping lions) would then begin their murderous cosplay along the "lone wolf" lanes.
Why this and not something better--say, Grosserkampf Ost--suited for a racial Gotterdfamurung? I have the secret.
If Hitler could cause maritime insurance premiums to rise high enough, his enemies would wither on the vine from lack of sea trade. Loyd's had come to a similar crisis in the Great War. The USA was interventionist only as long as her factories were exporting overseas. If the great manufacturies had lost money, they would have lobbied against further involvement in a "European War".
And, his other great geopolitical delusion was that he could "handle" France and Great Britain, while kicking in Soviet "Russia's" so-called rotten door. The only way I see he could've dealt with the strategic problems at his doorstep (widescale unemployment, runaway inflation, and national disunity in perilous times), was to charm France, CzechoSlovakia, and Italia, into joining a unified crusade against his greatest peeve . . . cigarette smokers . . . wait! I mean Jewish-Bolshevism. With the fleets of Italy and France in step with his policies of economic . . . er . . . rationalization, the Mediterranean would've been an Axis bathtub and all African Oil would be his.
Except: "I dunno, Yogi. Mister Poland's not gonna like this!"
But it would cover hairy Hitler's strategic arse.
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