Why Hitler failed to prevent the Bismarck's death voyage

I don’t know how Hitler reacted to the specific incident, but I know the general environment.

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After the beginning of World War II, the German submarine force made successive victories, causing huge losses to the British Navy. Correspondingly, the German Navy's surface ship force had no major achievements except sinking an old aircraft carrier. Therefore, Hitler became increasingly dissatisfied with the German Navy's surface ship force and stopped many surface ship construction plans.

In order to avert Hitler's dissatisfaction with the surface ship force, the German Navy had to dispatch the Bismarck, which had just been put into service, to carry out surface attack missions.

The goal is: to harass Allied ships as much as possible so that the British army can postpone sending escort convoys, so that the forces of both sides in the Mediterranean and North Africa are temporarily balanced; to divert the British Royal Navy power in the Mediterranean to order Rommel and his The risk of troops planning to invade Libya from Crete has been reduced.

This is also Bismarck’s first mission after entering service.

In this case, it was impossible for Hitler to stop the Bismarck from sailing, because it was impossible for Hitler to protect the warship and not allow her to perform her mission, thereby repeating the mistakes of the High Seas Fleet in World War I--- ---What's more, Hitler didn't know that the British Navy had long regarded the Bismarck as a mortal enemy and prepared many battleships to encircle and destroy the Bismarck.

Having said that, throughout World War II, the Bismarck and Tirpitz, which the German Navy invested heavily in building, did achieve very few results. Apart from playing a role in containing the British Navy, they had little other effect.

There are only two results that can be said, one is the Hood that was sunk by Bismarck, and the other is the PQ17 convoy that was scared to pieces by the Tirpitz.

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PS: The PQ17 convoy is a famous joke in the history of naval warfare in World War II.

The United States provided supplies and merchant ships, and the experienced British navy organized escorts to transport supplies to the Soviet Union, which was fighting a bitter war with Germany. The Soviet Union lacked industrial strength and eagerly looked forward to receiving support from its British and American allies. Material supplies.

The PQ17 convoy is part of the plan. It consists of 35 transport ships, 2 mail ships and 24 escort ships, carrying 297 aircraft, 594 tanks, 4246 trucks and tractors, and 15.6 tons of various supplies.

In order to protect the escort convoy from attacks by enemy surface ships, close cover forces (2 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, 3 cruisers, 14 destroyers) were dispatched, and they were deployed at enemy naval bases and Fourteen submarines were deployed in the Rock Island Group in northern Norway, five of which were Soviet submarines. The Soviet command assembled 287 combat aircraft at various airports on the Kola Peninsula, including 191 fighters, 69 bombers, and 27 reconnaissance aircraft.

Ordinarily, with such a powerful escort lineup, the German Navy’s remaining pitiful surface ships will never be able to threaten PQ17. The problem is that the British Admiralty believes that sinking the battleship "Tirpitz" is more important than the safety of any escort convoy. The British Admiralty was bent on "luring" the enemy's large surface ships, especially the "Ti", to keep them away from the base and destroy them.

As a result, the German Navy tried to send the Tirpitz out to attack the PQ17 convoy, and was then attacked by a Soviet submarine. The attack by the Soviet submarine had no effect, but it frightened the Germans. In order to avoid the fate of the Bismarck, Hitler sent the Tirpitz fleet back.

What Hitler and D?nitz never expected and were overjoyed was that the British Admiralty, which was always good at cheating its teammates, disbanded the convoy and allowed all merchant ships to rush through the blockade of the German submarine force to Moorman. Sk. The submarine captains of the German Navy ushered in a feast.

Why did the British Admiralty do such a stupid thing? Because in order to lure out the Tirpitz, the British Navy moved heavy surface ships (battleships, aircraft carriers, and heavy cruisers) far away from merchant ships. Merchant ships were only protected by light surface ships (destroyers and light cruisers) to deal with submarines. The great British Admiralty's wishful thinking was to use a convoy to lure out the Tirpitz, and then the heavy surface ships behind it would ambush and annihilate the Tirpitz.

However, when they heard that the Tirpitz was sailing, the British Admiralty found that the heavy surface ships were far away from the convoy, and there was a lot of floating ice on the road. The heavy surface ships might not be able to arrive in time to protect the convoy. Team.

Therefore, in line with the British principle of cheating their teammates, they believed that instead of losing both the light escort warship and the merchant ship, it would be better to lose only the merchant ship and retain the escort warship ------- The British Admiralty had returned to the Tirpitz In the case of Hong Kong, the PQ17 convoy was disbanded.

As a result, the PQ17 convoy lost 24 transport ships and 143,000 tons of materials (the larger the tonnage of the transport ship, the easier it is to be sunk by German submarines).

Afterwards, the U.S. Navy was furious and expressed its unwillingness to participate in joint escort operations again. Stalin wrote to Churchill: "The British decision (to disband the escort formation) is 'puzzling'"

Finally, saying that the British cheated their teammates is not a slander, but a fact. On the battlefield in Myanmar, everyone knows that the British tricked the Chinese army. The great British Royal Navy sank the most French warships in World War II, not German warships.