Quote:
Had Bismark made it into the North Atlantic in battle worthy condition the consequences would have been immense and cannot be underestimated. This was 7 months before Pearl Harbor, UK could conceivably have been forced to end the war.
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This is one of the great fictions of the Bismarck mythology, cruiser warfare by regular surface warships could never be decisive so any battle squadron sortie into the North Atlantic could never 'win the war' unless Britain just decided to up and quit.
The KM's ability to refuel at sea was vestigal, although better than the RN at least as far as big ships was concerned. Therefore all sorties were supported from ports where submarines, mines and aircraft could concentrate when the raiders returned to refuel. What tankers support there was staged several days steaming from the convoy routes and with ULTRA support killing them was relatively easy.
The probable fate of the surface raider was always that of Emden or Graf Spee (both the Admiral in 1914 and the ship in 1939). Some success might be expected and exploited for propaganda but they could never loiter in the sea lanes, so any stoppage of convoys would be at best temporary. Even the successful sorties of Admiral Scheer and the Scharnhorst twins failed to disrupt convoy traffic for more than a few days.
The German surface raider experiance in WW1 and to May 1941 should have taught them this but instead wishful thinking drove poor planning which created a raider doctrine that could only end in defeat and that defeat came when the war was still less than 2-years on.
Submarines on the other hand, could potentially be decisive because they could hide on the shipping lanes and remain on station for weeks, something no surface warship could ever do successfully.
Far from being nearly crippled
Prince of Wales had her fighting power intact (her damage was largely confined to her hanger and bridge) and the defects on all but one of her heavy guns was repaired before she was ordered home - due to a lack of fuel.
Hood was lost fighting a tactically mismanaged but doctrinally sound sea control battle whereas
Bismarck was destroyed chasing the fantasy of decisive cruiser warfare.
Bismarck (and
Tirpitz) would have served the Nazi's far better had she been melted down and turned into U-Boats.