Tom Phillips was not a Fighting Admiral- Force Z was first time in WWII that Phillips had commanded a fleet. The Prince of Wales' captain John Leach though had been blooded (literally) in this war in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Prince of Wales' gunfire had damaged Bismarck enough to kill the mission and force Lutjens to head for Brest Phillip's Initial mistake was made when Repul.se was called back from her voyage to Freemantle, three days before. His fatal one was under-estimating Air Power (he's obviously never heard of Taranto) and then not requesting air cover
The strategy of symbolic deterant only made sense with the existence of the US Pacific fleet as alies. After Pearl Harbour, Force Z found itself confronting the entirety of the Imperial Japanese navy in a shooting war, which had not been the case when it set forth.
Tom Phillips was not a Fighting Admiral- Force Z was first time in WWII that Phillips had commanded a fleet. The Prince of Wales' captain John Leach though had been blooded (literally) in this war in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Prince of Wales' gunfire had damaged Bismarck enough to kill the mission and force Lutjens to head for Brest
Phillip's Initial mistake was made when Repul.se was called back from her voyage to Freemantle, three days before. His fatal one was under-estimating Air Power (he's obviously never heard of Taranto) and then not requesting air cover
The strategy of symbolic deterant only made sense with the existence of the US Pacific fleet as alies. After Pearl Harbour, Force Z found itself confronting the entirety of the Imperial Japanese navy in a shooting war, which had not been the case when it set forth.
24 inch anti aircraft guns?
That’ll be twenty 4-inch AA guns?
British Arrogance .
Brit Admiral Tom Phillips denied RAF support .