Der Zeit Faktor

[Wink]

Hi Antonio,

The three photographs showing the Bismarck coming up on the port side of the Prinz Eugen confirm my analysis of the Prince of Wales Salvo Plot.

Photo NH-69729 shows the Bismarck at about 0558, 3 minutes after Photo NH-69722, showing the Bismarck directly astern of the Prinz Eugen, was taken.  By that time, the Bismarck was about 280 meters closer to the cruiser.  Photo NH-69730 shows the Bismarck at about 0601, when she began firing at the Prince of Wales after the Hood had blown up.  That was 3 minutes after Photo NH-69729 was taken, and by that time the Bismarck was another 280 meters closer to the Prinz Eugen.

Bundesarchiv Photo 146-1984-055-13 was taken at about 0603, two minutes after Photo NH-59730 was taken and just before the Prinz Eugen began making her three hard turns.  Those three hard turns precluded any further photography for about 4 minutes until 0607 due to the rapidly turning deck, which was also steeply tilted, first in one direction and then the other.  By then, the Bismarck had closed another 180 meters on the Prinz Eugen for a total gain of 740 meters on the cruiser in the 8 minutes from 0555 until 0603.

These times and distances are far more realistic than the times shown by your placement of these three photographs on your map, all in the 2 minutes and 30 seconds between 0606:30 and 0609:10.  In the 1-minute separation between your photographs, the Bismarck could actually move up only 93 meters, little more than 1/3 ship-length, whereas it is obvious from just looking at the photos that distance must have been closer to a full ship-length if not more.

The photographs also confirm that the course of 215 degrees for the Bismarck that I determined from the Prince of Wales Salvo Plot was more realistic than the estimated course of 212 degrees annotated on the plot itself.

The sine of 8 degrees (220-212 degrees) is 0.139, and when applied to the total distance of 7410 meters that the Bismarck traveled from 0555 and 0603, it indicates that the Bismarck traveled 1030 meters also laterally during this period.

The Bismarck only gained 740 meters on the Prinz Eugen during the period.  That would indicate that the Bismarck was traveling faster laterally than gaining on the Prinz Eugen, and therefore the Bismarck would have been going away from the cruiser.

However, by using the course of 215 degrees, the sine of 5 degrees (220-215 degrees) is 0.087, which would indicate a lateral movement of only 645 meters in the same period that the gain was 740 meters for the Bismarck.  When compared against the 740 meter gain by the Bismarck over the Prinz Eugen during the same period of time, this would indicate that the Bismarck was gaining on the Prinz Eugen faster than it was moving laterally as hown in the photographs.

I hope that this is not too difficult for you to understand.  It seems that you have been having difficulty in following the math of my calculations.  They really are quite simple.

Regards,

Robert

 

[Wink]

Hi Olaf,

I do read everything that is written under my topics on this forum, but I can't possible reply to everything that is written by all of you due to time constraints, so unfortunately, I have to be very selective.  In this case, your comments do deserve a response, and I thank you for using English.

Regarding the "missing" photographs, they were really not missing at all, just improperly placed on Antonio's map.   They show the Bismarck coming up on the port side of the Prinz Eugen at the beginning of the battle, and Antonio had to show the Bismarck coming up on the starboard side of the cruiser to make his scenario come out.

Antonio therefore squeezed the photographs in between 0607:30 and 0609:10 when it really would have taken at least 5 minutes for the Bismarck to make up the distance shown.  That of course left the gap between 0555 and 0606:30.  You can come up with all sorts of excuses to cover that gap, but they still would not explain why those key photographs happened to show up after 0607:30 on Antonio's map.

You seem to imply that Antonio is above any criticism, even when I have pointed out major discrepancies on his map.  Perhaps the most significant discrepancy is his placement of the photographs showing the Bismarck on the starboard side of the Prinz Eugen from 0603:30 to 0606:30.  That is exactly the same time that the Prinz Eugen was in the process of making her three hard turns, first to starboard, then to port, and finally back to starboard again before straightening out.

Those photographs were taken at the same time as the battle film, which even Antonio acknowledges shows the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen traveling on parallel paths without either ship making any turns.  Therefore, the photographs and battle film could not possibly have been taken between 0603:30 and 0605:30, as Antonio claims.

You may say "so what," but that discrepancy goes to the heart of the matter.  If not between 0603:30 and 0605:30, then when were the photographs and battle film taken?  The only logical time left is between 0607 and 0610, right after the Prinz Eugen straightened out from making her three hard turns and returned on a course parallel to that of the Bismarck.

But that couldn't be true.  The Prinz Eugen's war diary clearly establishes that the Bismarck was already on the port side of the Prinz Eugen when she came between the Prinz Eugen and the Prince of Wales at 0609, causing the Prinz Eugen to cease fire.

If the photographs and battle film were actually taken between 0607 and 0610, that would prove conclusively that both the photographs and battle film had been reversed.  We of course couldn't let that happen, so better to fake it than face the truth.  That was Antonio's philosophy in arriving at his reconstruction of the battle of the Denmark Strait.

Contrary to what you say, I have always backed up my claims with real evidence and the facts, but you and a few others have consistently refused to believe them and preferred to blindly accept everything that Antonio says as being the absolute truth.  That is of course your privilege, but it is not the best way to evaluate intelligently both sides of an issue that affects German naval history.

If you want to believe that Admiral Lütjens deliberately sailed the Bismarck on the starboard side of the Prinz Eugen and exposed the cruiser to direct fire from an enemy battleship during the battle, against Kriegsmarine operaional practices in effect at the time, be my guest.  The real evidence does not support that view.

Regards,

Robert 

[harold]

..."we have exhausted all meaningful discussion"...
So ist es.
Thema geschlossen.