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doveton sturdee
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Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "The Loss of Force Z - Why send battleships against aircraft?" video.
Force Z was lost in December, 1941. Bismarck was sunk in May, 1941.
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How would Churchill, former First Lord, not First Sea Lord, by the way, have known about Pearl Harbor before it happened? Taranto merely proved that warships were vulnerable in port, hardly a revelation by the way.
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Hermes was never intended to be part of Force Z. She was a small ship, more suitable as an escort carrier, equipped with one squadron of Swordfish. Moreover, her maximum speed of 25 knots was too slow. The point people seem to forget about Force Z is that it was not sent to an active war zone, but as a deterrent intended to prevent a Japanese attack on Malaya. Moreover, British experience against Italian and German air attacks in the west to date had led them to the conclusion that capital ships could still operate effectively. In fact, the largest RN warship sunk by either the Italian or German air force in the whole of the war was a light cruiser. Oh, and Hurricanes & Fulmars might well have been able to fight off the Japanese land-based torpedo bombers which sank Force Z. They were likely to have been outclassed by Zeroes, but at the time there were none anywhere near.
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Because the best time to destroy an assault landing is before it happens. Phillips sought to intercept a Japanese cruiser squadron which was screening the landing forces. Had he done so the assault ships would have been helpless. Ironically, he was at one point only minutes away from encountering the Japanese squadron, before changing course.
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@Rocketsong Indomitable carried two squadrons of Albacores and one each of Fulmars and Sea Hurricanes.
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@lllordllloyd Indomitable's air group at the time was one squadron of Fulmars, one of Sea Hurricanes, and two of Albacores.
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@_su0p Prince of Wales was not heavily damaged. She re-engaged later in the day, and only departed the scene in order when short of fuel.
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@_su0p What you would call the Denmark Strait really doesn't matter. What does matter is that the damage Prince of Wales inflicted upon Bismarck resulted in Lutjens abandoning his mission and making for St. Nazaire.
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The Buffalos would have been engaging torpedo and dive bombers, not high performance fighters.
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What mistakes do you consider Woodward made?
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@nowthenzen Not quite. One transport was sunk, and the other two left the area. Phillips was never in a position to prevent the Kota Bharu landing, but hoped to be able to attack Japanese shipping in the Gulf of Siam when he arrived there on the morning of 10 December. Indeed, he had already asked for aerial reconnaissance off Singora at first light, and for fighter cover off Singora during daylight, both on 10 December (ADM 199/1149). The bigger Singora landing had already commenced, but did not actually complete until the second echelon landed on 16 December. It was Phillips' intention to challenge the Singora landing to which I was referring. The Kota Bharu landing was, according to the available intelligence, a much smaller operation, and was a fait accompli in any case.
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You claim that Churchill 'didn't want to defend Singapore.' I assume you can cite a source for that allegation?
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@erichammer2751 A squadron would normally be 12 aircraft.
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HMS Suffolk after being badly damaged during Operation 'Duck' which was the bombardment of Stavanger airfield during the Norwegian campaign, 17 April, 1940. The photo. was taken in Scapa Flow.
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