Comments by "josh thomas-moore" (@joshthomas-moore2656) on "SMS Sankt Georg - Guide 263" video.
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@bkjeong4302 Well their were some very good reasons to do the raid, first the British didn't know Tirpitz wasn't going to sail out and even if they had the Germans could very quickly change their mind and Tirpitz did pose a major risk to convoy's if she got out even a small amount of time running around could have done a lot of damage.
Also it has to be born in mind that the situation had got worse for the UK when Chariot was launched in march 1942, first losses, the British had lost HMS Hood during Bismarcks sortie and while in need or repair Hood was still a significant loss in terms of fast capital units also later in 1941 the British had lost the Carrier Ark Royal so the Royal Navy was down two major capital units right off and they were keeping the fast units in the Home Fleet for exact theis reason to stop a major sortie byt the Germans.
Second was geography, when Bismarck sailed in 1941 the British had their fleets concentrated in the Med and Home Fleet now while stretched they could support each other as seen with Force H going out to hunt Bismarck, but in December 1941 and early 1942 the Med campaign was getting quite heated so pulling forces from there was a non-option and the Pacific war had kicked off which had taken two more of the Royal Navies fast Capital units and for a while one of its carriers so Royal Navy force were stretched even thiner, plus the US Navy was still smarting after Pearl Harbour and had yet to fight Midway so the US was fleet was worrying more a about the Japanese fleet and early successes the Japanese were having so support from the US would be tricky.
Also going back to point one the Royal Navy lost both Repulse and Prince of Wales soon after they were sent and a carrier was damaged before that, also in mid December 1941 the Italians sank HMS Valient and Queen Elizabeth in Alexanderia taking them out of the fight for a while stretching the Med forces even thiner, so they were now down four capital ships sunk permanently and two temporary and all of the permemant ones had been mustered to counter Bismarcks sailing in 1941 as they were the fast capitol unit.
So all it took was a bit of luck and maybe something pulling more Royal Navy forces to the Med or far east allowing the Tirpitz to get out and cause havoc and yes the British had and could have got the forces to deal with her quickly but that would mean either waiting till they had the forces freed to deal with her which wasn't an option if she was playing merry hell with the convoy's so they would have to risk weakening areas that really couldn't afford it.
So given that i would say yes Cariot was needed, yes a lot of this is hypothetical but its not outside the releams of possibility, but if St Nazaire was out of action the Germans wouldn't have sent her out which meant the Royal Navy didn't need to worry about her, but if they had risked it and Tirpitz had sailed and got out she could have been an almighty headache a short temporary one yes, but the force needed to put her down could have a negative impact on more vital fronts.
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