Bismarck, Yamato or Arizona

[Cohaagen]

Originally Posted by Wulfmann

The fact some particularly in British circles having had a bug regarding Bismarck's success and in so doing made bias statements did not actually make them fact.
Wulfmann

Can you give an example, other than a hazy name-dropping anecdote? All the recent treatments of the Bismarck chase and Jutland by British authors (that I've read) have been pretty even-handed. A historian stakes his reputation on lack of bias and partisan thinking. And who was this "expert"?

The only thing that "bugs" the British is the tedious claim, carried out ad absurdum by the likes of Cameron, that Bismarck was scuttled and not sunk, thereby preserving some honour of the wistfully noble, faintly Imperial, not-in-the-least-bit-Nazi, German navy.

I can't think of any excuses over Jutland either. The main controversy was whether or not Jellicoe had been aggressive enough. In fact, the Royal Navy was ungrudging in their assessment of the Imperial German Navy's superiority in night-fighting, range-finding and so on. Read some Admiralty reports from the WWI thru Interbellum period - the findings on the qualities of KMS Baden's armour plate are practically fawning.

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Not many of them left I should imagine :hmm:

Not many at all. The Force Z and HMS Hood reunions are still well attended though.