Happy and Glorious.

[PMN1]

Less than half a mile away the Invader was slewing round in a violent half-circle, her flight-deck tilted over at a crazy angle. It was snowing heavily again now, but not heavily enough to obscure the great gouts of black oily smoke belching up for'ard of the Invader's bridge.


Even as the crew of the Ulysses watched, she came to rest, wallowing dangerously in the troughs between the great waves.


"The fools, the crazy fools!" Tyndall was terribly bitter, unreasonably so; even to Vallery, he would not admit how much he was now feeling the burden, the strain of command that sparked off his now almost chronic irritability. "This is what happens, Captain, when a ship loses station! And it's as much my fault as theirs-should have sent a destroyer to escort her back." He peered through his binoculars, turned to Vallery. "Make a signal please:' Estimate of damage, please inform.'... That damned U-boat must have trailed her from first light, waiting for a line-up."


Vallery said nothing. He knew how Tyndall must feel to see one of his ships heavily damaged, maybe sinking. The Invader was still lying over at the same unnatural angle, the smoke rising in a steady column now.
There was no sign of flames.


"Going to investigate, sir?" Vallery inquired.


Tyndall bit his lip thoughtfully and hesitated.


"Yes, I think we'd better do it ourselves. Order squadron to proceed, same speed, same course. Signal the Baliol and the Nairn to stand by the Invader."


Vallery, watching the flags fluttering to the yardarm, was aware of someone at his elbow. He half-turned.


"That was no U-boat, sir." The Kapok Kid was very sure of himself.
"She can't have been torpedoed."


Tyndall overheard him. He swung round in his chair, glared at the unfortunate navigator.


"What the devil do you know about it, sir?" he growled. When the Admiral addressed his subordinates as "sir," it was time to take to the boats. The Kapok Kid flushed to the roots of his blond hair, but he stood his ground.
"Well, sir, in the first place the Sirrus is covering the Invader's port side, though well ahead, ever since your recall signal.


She's been quartering that area for some time. I'm sure Commander Orr would have picked her up. Also, it's far too rough for any sub. to maintain periscope depth, far less line up a firing track. And if the U-boat did fire, it wouldn't only fire one-six more likely, and, from that firing angle, the rest of the squadron must have been almost a solid wall behind the Invader. But no one else has been hit... I did three years in the trade, sir."


"I did ten," Tyndall growled. "Guesswork, Pilot, just guesswork."


"No, sir," Carpenter persisted. "It's not. I can't swear to it", he had his binoculars to his eyes" but I'm almost sure the Invader is going astern. Could only be because her bows, below the waterline, that is, have been damaged or blown off. Must have been a mine, sir, probably acoustic."


"Ah, of course, of course!" Tyndall was very acid. "Moored in 6,000 feet of water, no doubt?"


"A drifting mine, sir," the Kapok Kid said patiently. "Or an old acoustic torpedo-spent German torpedoes don't always sink. Probably a mine, though."


"Suppose you'll be telling me next what mark it is and when it was laid,"



Tyndall growled. But he was impressed in spite of himself. And the Invader was going astern, although slowly, without enough speed to give her steerage way. She still wallowed helplessly in the great troughs.
An Aldis clacked acknowledgment to the winking light on the Invader.
Bentley tore a sheet off a signal pad, handed it to Vallery.


"'Invader to Admiral,' "the Captain read. "'Am badly holed, starboard side for'ard, very deep. Suspect drifting mine. Am investigating extent of damage. Will report soon.'"


Tyndall took the signal from him and read it slowly. Then he looked over his shoulder and smiled faintly.


"You were dead right, my boy, it seems. Please accept an old curmudgeon's apologies."


Carpenter murmured something and turned away, brick-red again with embarrassment. Tyndall grinned faintly at the Captain, then became thoughtful.

[Astrodragon]

Originally Posted by usertron2020

Why would a British mine be anywhere outside German territorial (or occupied) waters? But a German mine, seving only to DELAY KGV's appearance...OK.

Depends what course KGV was on.
There were British minefields near Iceland, iirc, to reduce the available clear water for any German excursions.

[Devolved]

Happy and Glorious

continued


Admiral Holland recovered his composure very quickly. Even If King George V never arrives there is still the HMS Victorious with even more torpedo bombers. Force H was also coming up from the south with the Ark Royal. Personally, he thought bringing Force H was overkill but he wasn't going to complain too much. He would wait for the second Swordfish attack and then plan again.


The King George V was fine but was leaking water and her speed was down to 21 knots. Admiral Tovey waited for feed back from the repair teams before deciding whether to continue to the Denmark Strait or head back for repairs.

Admiral Raeder had planned 'Rheinubung' quite meticulously he thought. He expected that his force would be detected between Iceland and Greenland because of the Naval and air units based there. He anticipated that the British would send a force to intercept south of Iceland. So he ordered Donitz (who complained a lot)to dispatch 8 U boats to form a screen to act as lookouts and if possible attack. More importantly he had the supply ships adapted to carry mines. They were to seed mines in the locations determined by Raeder. He had put himself in the mind of a British admiral and tried to guess which routes he would take if he were trying to intercept a naval force emerging from the Denmark Strait. All the the paths plotted by Raeder were to be along the most likely paths between the south of Iceland and Scapa Flow.

The destroyers escorting Tovey's force were hampered by the heavy seas and he had to reduce speed. The heavy seas also hampered the U boats but one of them had sighted of King George V and tried to attack. A destroyer had spotted the periscope and moved to attack causing the U boat captain to forget the whole thing.

The periscope sighting alerted Tovey to the thought that there might be a U boat trap. He slightly altered course and zig zagged away from the U boat position. He reasoned that his escorts plus the weather conditions meant that he was safe. Three hours later he heard a wumph and the Battleship shook.

'Not possible' he thought. Initially the King George V believed it had been torpedoed but it hadn't. It was a floating mine. How many more mines there were was anyone's guess.

[Astrodragon]

Originally Posted by Devolved

Happy and Glorious

continued


Admiral Holland recovered his composure very quickly. Even If King George V never arrives there is still the HMS Victorious with even more torpedo bombers. Force H was also coming up from the south with the Ark Royal. Personally, he thought bringing Force H was overkill but he wasn't going to complain too much. He would wait for the second Swordfish attack and then plan again.


The King George V was fine but was leaking water and her speed was down to 21 knots. Admiral Tovey waited for feed back from the repair teams before deciding whether to continue to the Denmark Strait or head back for repairs.

Admiral Raeder had planned 'Rheinubung' quite meticulously he thought. He expected that his force would be detected between Iceland and Greenland because of the Naval and air units based there. He anticipated that the British would send a force to intercept south of Iceland. So he ordered Donitz (who complained a lot)to dispatch 8 U boats to form a screen to act as lookouts and if possible attack. More importantly he had the supply ships adapted to carry mines. They were to seed mines in the locations determined by Raeder. He had put himself in the mind of a British admiral and tried to guess which routes he would take if he were trying to intercept a naval force emerging from the Denmark Strait. All the the paths plotted by Raeder were to be along the most likely paths between the south of Iceland and Scapa Flow.

The destroyers escorting Tovey's force were hampered by the heavy seas and he had to reduce speed. The heavy seas also hampered the U boats but one of them had sighted of King George V and tried to attack. A destroyer had spotted the periscope and moved to attack causing the U boat captain to forget the whole thing.

The periscope sighting alerted Tovey to the thought that there might be a U boat trap. He slightly altered course and zig zagged away from the U boat position. He reasoned that his escorts plus the weather conditions meant that he was safe. Three hours later he heard a wumph and the Battleship shook.

'Not possible' he thought. Initially the King George V believed it had been torpedoed but it hadn't. It was a floating mine. How many more mines there were was anyone's guess.

Yes, I think this works better, with the same effect on the story.

BTW, there is no such thing as too much overkill....

[Devolved]

Originally Posted by Astrodragon

Yes, I think this works better, with the same effect on the story.

BTW, there is no such thing as too much overkill....

My best bet is to move swiftly on and hopefully the KGV will be forgotten.

Too much overkill, I was thinking of British sportamanship

[Astrodragon]

Originally Posted by Devolved

My best bet is to move swiftly on and hopefully the KGV will be forgotten.

Too much overkill, I was thinking of British sportamanship

A Hollywood myth.
Especially in the RN, who were a nasty bunch of bastards in a fight by anyones standards

[Devolved]

Happy and Glorious


continued


The dark sky was starting to get lighter and the lookouts on the Bismarck could see some darker spots in the sky.

"Here they come" he shouted.


There were eight Swordfish trying to get into position. Their plan was to attack with the Bismarck silhouetted against the grey dawn.

This time the target should be easier to hit. Bismarck was a larger ship and travelling at 22 knots due to the damage on the Geisenau.

It was the Gneisenau that opened fire first followed a few seconds later by the Bismarck. The Swordfish had not began their attack run yet.

Two Fulmars were circling above, waiting for a pre-arranged signal.

Then one of the Swordfish flew astern of the Bismarck and swooped down dropping a flare.

This was the signal. One of the Fulmars dived down on the Bismarck opening fire with its machine guns. The other Fulmar was a few hundred feet behind and about to begin its own strafing run.

As this point the first Swordfish made its approach and dived down to 80 feet. Lindemann ordered the 15" guns to fire into the sea in the hope that the fountains of water blasted into the air would bring down the Swordfish.

It was a good idea and it didn't work.

The first torpedo was spotted and avoided. The Prinz Eugen was now firing at the Swordfish too attracting the attention of a Fulmar.

In all the Bismarck dodged 7 torpedoes. One struck against the most armoured section. It did little damage but it did shake the ship and caused the engines to shut down for a brief few moments.

As the Swordfish left a Fulmar launched one more strafing run at the Bismarck. This time the AA guns had a target their guns were calibrated to hit. They caught the Fulmar and sent her crashing into the ocean. It was the first casualty Bismarck inflicted on the Royal Navy.

The cheers from the AA gunners made Admiral Marschall smile for the first time in hours.

[Sior]

For an idea of what it was like on a British Aircraft carrier watch Ships With Wings (1941).
It was filmed on Ark Royal when my dad was on board.

http://stagevu.com/video/qzpzyuewaruu

[Devolved]

Originally Posted by Sior

For an idea of what it was like on a British Aircraft carrier watch Ships With Wings (1941).
It was filmed on Ark Royal when my dad was on board.

http://stagevu.com/video/qzpzyuewaruu

Thank you.

[Devolved]

Happy and Glorious

continued

HMS Glorious recovered all its aircraft bar one Fulmar. This first loss at the hands of the Bismarck had an extraordinary effect on morale.

It raised it.

A renewed sense of determination gripped the Swordfish crew and they wanted to try again. Below deck repairs were carried out on damaged string bags and some of the pilots were told to take a quick lie down. They would get another chance.

Admiral Marschall felt his spirits rise at the failure of the torpedo attack but he was sure that the Swordfish would be back. It was now time to take action.

He ordered Captain Lindemann to set a course for the north east. He ordered the Gneisenau and Hipper to follow him.

Prinz Eugen was to detach and go south into the Atlantic and begin commerce raiding.



The failure of the second torpedo strike to disable Bismarck was relayed to Admiral Holland from a Fulmar acting as observer. He was also informed that the German forces had changed course and were now heading TOWARDS HIM. He now faced two choices, withdraw to the north east too, or give battle. He issued instructions.

[usertron2020]

EIGHT subs out of the U-Boat War will still mean a significant bonus for the UK regarding the number of merchant ships that will now survive. Thank you, Raeder.

[Devolved]

Originally Posted by usertron2020

EIGHT subs out of the U-Boat War will still mean a significant bonus for the UK regarding the number of merchant ships that will now survive. Thank you, Raeder.

Raeder was hoping (perhaps too much) that his surface ships would make up for it and spread a little more terror.

[Devolved]

Happy and Glorious

continued


Admiral Marschall had considered heading south towards Brest but he knew there was no way he could make it. If he tried he would have Admiral Holland plus a carrier on his tail plus a meeting with Admiral Tovey with another carrier and God knows what else.

His only hope was to try to blast his way through Admiral Holland's force and try to make his way to Norway and the protection of the Luftwaffe. Better face two capital ships and one carrier than three or four capital ships and two or three carriers.

He guessed that Gneisenau would never make it but perhaps Bismarck and maybe even Hipper could. There was also the likelihood of taking a few British ships down with them.

The Prinz Eugen turned and disappeared beyond the horizon. Many of crew of the Prinz Eugen had appeared on deck and raised their hats in salute. Some of them were crying and all of them felt grim.

Admiral Holland was faced with two options. Firstly he could just give battle. Secondly, he could maintain his distance and hope for the Swordfish to weaken the German force before moving in. The problem was that he couldn't guarantee that the Swordfish could do the job against such powerful ships. So far Glorious had launched two attacks and had done nothing to the Bismarck and merely reduced Gneisenau to 22 knots. Although he hadn't lost any torpedo planes he knew their numbers were limited and that some were damaged and needed repairs. Also the pilots would get tired if pushed too hard. If he doesn't stop them soon then they would get closer to Luftwaffe protection and then he would be known as the Admiral that let the Bismarck escape.

He decided to give battle.

Norfolk and Suffolk were positioned to the right of HMS Hood as they headed south. The Prince of Wales with one destroyer were on the Hood's left. The POW was now making 27 knots and the Hood maintained the same speed. Another Fulmar from HMS Glorious was launched to act as a spotter for HMS Hood as she lacked the targetting technology of the POW.

The Gneisenau catapulted an Arado to ascetain an exact fix on the British force. The plane flew low so as to reduce the risk of interception. Hipper's aircraft had been destroyed in the cruiser action during the night. The HMS Glorious was thirty miles behind Hood protected by four destroyers. One destroyer had been lost against the Hipper and another had been sent home with heavy damage. Admiral Holland hoped that 4 destroyers would be enough.

It was now daylight but the sky was grey. The Arado found Hood after a couple of minutes. The Fulmar was already looking down on him.

Five minutes later and Admiral Holland sent a message to the Admiralty.
It was short and to the point.

'Major fleet action imminent. God save the King'

[sharlin]

Hmm this is going to be bloody, with the gunnery correction provided by the fulmar, another role they were made for and one the RN practiced madly with in the interbellum the Hoods poor gunnery systems will benifit whilst it will help the PoW and should help with target designation.

[PMN1]

What's Glorious' torpedo load like...from what I understand, in 1939 Courageous carried 54 x torpedoes, 120 x 500lb SAP bombs, 72 x 250lb SAP/GP bombs plus a few hundred smaller.... I cant see Glorious' warload being much different.

[sharlin]

Probably not much higher, she's fairly small and with a full compliment of aircraft onboard as well as a full fuel load she'll probably not be able to carry much more than her load there.

[Devolved]

Originally Posted by PMN1

What's Glorious' torpedo load like...from what I understand, in 1939 Courageous carried 54 x torpedoes, 120 x 500lb SAP bombs, 72 x 250lb SAP/GP bombs plus a few hundred smaller.... I cant see Glorious' warload being much different.

Good point. I can't have the Glorious having unlimited ammunition that appears out of nowhere like Schwarzenegger with an uzi.

[sharlin]

Simply remember that RN carriers are not that big and the converted BC's will never be able to carry the ammount of ordinance of a purpose built vessel,due to their hull's size and the internal layout which is never optimal.

[Devolved]

Originally Posted by sharlin

Simply remember that RN carriers are not that big and the converted BC's will never be able to carry the ammount of ordinance of a purpose built vessel,due to their hull's size and the internal layout which is never optimal.

Thanks. 23 torpedoes dropped and no bombs used so far.

[sharlin]

Regarding bombs, the RN also had the idea of using lots of smaller bombs which would 'sweep the decks' of their targets and knock out things like AA Guns (IE their crews) and sensative things like rangefinders etc. When some Blenheim's attacked the IJN they used 500lb bombs and groups of 8 much smaller weapons with that idea in mind to cause damage and confusion.