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Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay
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Ok first off, proudly defend? Hardly.
2nd - The Brits pretty much focused ALL of their attention in sinking the Bismark in retaliation for the Hood. When you have an entire nations armed forces out for blood looking for a SINGLE ship that is pretty much all by itself, it doesn't have much chance. Even at that it took an increcible amount of effort. Everything from the water line up was pretty much blown off the ship due to the massive bombardment it recieved. I could be wrong but I think they even had to get on board and plant charges to get it to go down.
It took the ENTIRE NAVY/AIRFORCE to sink it, the biplane you speak of did nothing but damage it's rudder. Had it been able to sail properly to port it would have made it back inot battle and God only knows what damage it would have done. If it truly was useless, why would Germany have launched it in the first place?
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It took a few obsolete bi-planes to render the Bismark a sitting duck for the British warships to finally catch up to.
Any other interpretation is ridiculous.
(Incidentally, the British lost the aircraft carrier Ark Royal in their pursuit of the Bismark. Submarine attack.)
Regarding escort carriers, the most famous engagement they were involved in was the Battle of Samar Bay near the Phillipines where a small force of American ships, including a few escort carriers, held off a much larger Japanese force bent on destroying a largely unguarded American supply fleet anchored nearby. This would have been a disaster for the Americans and a humiliation for Admiral Halsey who went off on a wild goose chase.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar
Cowperson