If the FAA had been able to mount a successful carrier attack on Scharnhorst and Gneisenau while they were at Brest and sunk both at their moorings, what effect would that have?
It would have freed up X number of Home fleet ships for duties elsewhere that OTL would have been tied down waiting for them to make a raid into the Atlantic.
Basically it would leave just the Tirpitz as a threat
Force Z would be a lot larger, the Home fleet a lot smaller.
What about the implications of a successful attack before December 7th 1941...that's two attacks by carrier aircraft causing a lot of damage.......
Are you suggesting that Kimmel and Short Might take more notice?
I think the understanding that Pearl was too far away from Japan for such an attack would be the main belief to shatter.
The USN had after all convincingly 'attacked' Pearl Harbour during previous carrier exercises (one of the 'Problems' they exercised pre war).
So it wasn't like they were unaware of the threat.
They just did not believe that it could happen to them - shatter that misconception and yes 7th Dec or what ever date it now occurs on may very well be different
I wonder why you would employ a carrierforce against Brest, while the distance is easily covered from ground territory of the UK as well? Sending carriers in submarine and luftwaffe invested waters is asking for trouble, so don't do such a thing in the first place, when there is an easily available option.
Historically the FAA could deploy landbased strikes with the twin engined Bristol Beaufort and comparable strike aircraft, which it actually did in the OTL, but under RAF Coastal Command.
I wonder why you would employ a carrierforce against Brest, while the distance is easily covered from ground territory of the UK as well? Sending carriers in submarine and luftwaffe invested waters is asking for trouble, so don't do such a thing in the first place, when there is an easily available option.
Historically the FAA could deploy landbased strikes with the twin engined Bristol Beaufort and comparable strike aircraft, which it actually did in the OTL, but under RAF Coastal Command.
Nothing to stop them doing a night raid. Also, have to check what Radar the Germans actually had near Brest.
Nothing to stop them doing a night raid. Also, have to check what Radar the Germans actually had near Brest.
Yeah this is the real problem. Plus the RN didn't have anything like the strike capability of IJN? But the real problem would be u-boats, I think. Especially for recovery of the strike.
Didn't the RAF get its ass handed to it in costly fashion when it tried to operate over France in 1941-42ish?
The Germans unlike the Italians were completely aware of being within range of the enemy air attack and had been fighting an air campaign for a year or so by the point this comes about. Its hardly unlikely that the most strategic location in France (for the Germans) will not have plenty of AA and some fighters allocated to it. The FAA going in alone would probably be in for the fight of their life.
Are there any more suitable pods out there?
Maybe, a HMS Courageous surviving timeline with the Graf Zeppelin completed as a result, HMS Courageous lost and Ark Royal not being able to intercept Bismarck due to butterflies might do the trick.