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Dreadnought · 01-11-2007, 10:16 AM

IMO As soon as it was known Bizmark was at sea they would have scattered the convoys. Unless ofcoarse the convoys had a battleship or battlecruiser escort. Pending the year this happened would have dictated wether Hitler would have allowed Bizmark to chance hitting the convoy or not. Bizmark was well suited as a raider however if an RN battleship was encountered they were ordered not to engage as Hitler himself was fearful of loosing the Bizmark. In addition the majority of the time Bizmark sailed the RN already knew because of the "eyes" they had through out those areas that the Germans favored for entering the Atlantic. The destroyers that ran escort service could only do so much against the Bizmark outside of torpedo runs at her. Bizmark could sit in the distance and pick em off by gunfire without the hassel of torpedo evasion. And the liberty ships if im not mistaken had either 3" or 5" deck guns (pending the year) at the stern but alas could only do 8 knots wide open so pretty much a siiting duck even against a destroyer not to mention the shear speed advantage of Bizmark.

01-11-2007, 10:16 AM	#12 (permalink)
Dreadnought *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 05-12-05 Posts: 5,534 Country:	IMO As soon as it was known Bizmark was at sea they would have scattered the convoys. Unless ofcoarse the convoys had a battleship or battlecruiser escort. Pending the year this happened would have dictated wether Hitler would have allowed Bizmark to chance hitting the convoy or not. Bizmark was well suited as a raider however if an RN battleship was encountered they were ordered not to engage as Hitler himself was fearful of loosing the Bizmark. In addition the majority of the time Bizmark sailed the RN already knew because of the "eyes" they had through out those areas that the Germans favored for entering the Atlantic. The destroyers that ran escort service could only do so much against the Bizmark outside of torpedo runs at her. Bizmark could sit in the distance and pick em off by gunfire without the hassel of torpedo evasion. And the liberty ships if im not mistaken had either 3" or 5" deck guns (pending the year) at the stern but alas could only do 8 knots wide open so pretty much a siiting duck even against a destroyer not to mention the shear speed advantage of Bizmark. __________________ Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.