Ark Royal Sinks the Bismark

What effect on British Naval strategy in the far east would enough of the torpedos lauched by the Ark Royals swordfish hitting the Bismark to sink her have? I know that the 18 inch torpedo was designed to slow down capital ships rather than sink them.
 
Nothing serious, I guess. Even if RN sees torpedo bombers as its main force and manages to get one or two carriers to Singapore, old Swordfishes are too weak against IJN planes. Force Z ships will be sunk, no matter what (theoretically speaking, British biplanes may sink a Japanese cruiser, but their carriers will be sunk meanwhile). Maybe, the Admiralty will refuse to send capital ships to the Far East? If so, then many of British sailors will survive 1941. Singapore, though, will fall according to the OTL schedule. That's all.
 
Did the British know about the torpedo bombers being in Vietnam? If so the recent sinking of the Bismark by the Ark Royal have shown that even Stringbags can sink a battleship and therefore Force Z would not have gone north to certain death. Force Z then becomes the focus of a RN dominated ABDA naval force and actually achieves something, perhaps winning a surface battle and turning back an invasion convoy.
 
Did the British know about the torpedo bombers being in Vietnam? If so the recent sinking of the Bismark by the Ark Royal have shown that even Stringbags can sink a battleship and therefore Force Z would not have gone north to certain death. Force Z then becomes the focus of a RN dominated ABDA naval force and actually achieves something, perhaps winning a surface battle and turning back an invasion convoy.
How do you propose to defend Force Z/ABDA against Japanese bombers? One may prevent these ships from being sunk on December 10, 1941, but they will be hunted down as the Japanese land in Malaya and build airstrips here for G4Ms. If Prince of Wales and Repulse flee Singapore for Batavia, they will be fine till Singapore falls or Nagumo's ships appear on the scene (in OTL, Kido Butai did so in February, 1942). I'm not sure that even all ships of RN-1942 combined will be able to fight off 6 Japanese carriers, and nobody will send all British ships to the Far East, so ABDA's chances against the First Air Fleet of Japan are too slim.
 
Last edited:
I would imagine that more effort would be put into developing the Barracuda, pig though it was. I doubt that Force Z would be sent north without some sort of air cover. Singapore was between a rock and a hard place but the Indian Ocean had potential.
 
The sinking of Force Z was the result of somewhat unique circumstances where important targets presented themselves close to Japnese bases before the Japanese had spread out among their widespread conquests. Later they couldn't bring such a powerful force to bear on a single target because of their widespread deployment of these planes. If Force Z was still extant the Japanese would not be able to disperse their combat power to cover their widespread operation because they'd need to keep enough combat power concentrated to be able to sink Force Z whenever it appeared to accept battle.

BTW I think the IJN would sink Force Z/ABDA but it would take losses while doing so, losses that history showed would not be made good.
 
British torpedoes were intended to sink ships but warhead technology hadn't improved until they noticed that German explosives made a bigger bang. British torpedoes launched on Bismarck carried 388 pounds of TNT. Torpedoes in Singapore were Mk XIV's which had 375 pounds of TNT. By 1943, aerial torpedoes were Mk XV which featured 545 pounds of the newly developed Torpex TNT/RDX/thermite (powdered aluminum) explosive which would have been much more effective against Bismarck's armored belts. Stringbags would be no more effective against the Japanese than the Vildebeasts on site without first gaining local air supremacy against Japanese fighters, not possible with Fulmars of the time, which faired poorly at Ceylon, as did the Hurricanes. The total lack of priorities for the FAA came with a price. The lack of knowledge or interest in Japanese equipment and capabilities at the time also carried a heavy price. Virtually nothing was known of any current Japanese shipboard aircraft at the time. The only known fighter was the type 96 with fixed undercarriage and the G3M was supposedly developed from the Junkers 86.
 
Top