Just an off beat throught

[IronWolfV]

Just had an off beat thought, though I am sure some have thought about it before. I always wondered why the British didn't try to CAPTURE Bismarck, drag her back to a port, refit her, then call her Hood just to stick a finger in Hitler's eye.

 

You know the ultimate "Well you sunk our famous ship, so we're taking your big huge BB, remaking it as ours and naming it after the ship she sunk. So go screw yourself HITLER! HAHA!"  I know the practical reasons why they didn't. After the sinking, the ships were all VERY low on ammo, and there were reports of German U-Boats in the area so the Brits had to beat feet. But think about it, Capturing the Bismarck and hauling her back to a British port to be refit?

 

Ultimate slap in the face to Hitler.

[Doomlock]

Because they had no chance, the crew scuttled her. So in the end, the British did not sink the Bismarck, her crew sunk her. The ultimate spite.

[Nuk_]

The Bismarck was scuttled by her crew, so even if the Brits wanted to capture it, they probably would not have been successful .

[IronWolfV]

The Bismarck was scuttled by her crew, so even if the Brits wanted to capture it, they probably would not have been successful .

 

I know, but just kinda a what if.

[dbs1701]

I love the idea, agree it is very fitting, but... I think a few things made it something that would have been out of the question.

 

1. The practice of capturing ships was pretty much over with by the late 19th century, as ships fought beyond grappling range and were much better at sinking each other. By the time of the Bismarck battle, it not only wasnt part of doctrine but the ships literally had no good way to tie up alongside and move over enough crew to take her over. None of the ships would have had enough small arms, either, to make attack a likely thing. There were still around 1100 survivors on Bismarck when she went down who would have to be subdued, and how to hold that many prisoners?

 

2. The Germans were going to fight to the last shell. Perhaps in an alternate reality Lindemann and Lutjens would have surrendered rather than see the death of so many crew, but the pride of the German navy does not surrender. The British saw this with the Graf Spee earlier, where even if the captain wanted to surrender the crew he would never let the allies have the ship. Lutjens especially gets a bad rep from the treatment in stories and in media, he was no Nazi-obsessed martinet apparently (would insist on the old naval salute rather than the nazi salute, even to hitler himself and is one of the very few WW2 German leaders that modern Germany actually has honored by naming a ship after him), but naval pride would have still been in not giving up the ship even if it meant danger to the crew.

 

3. There is still debate on who find shed the job of sinking the Bismarck. The HMS Dorsetshire gets credit for the final hits but Bismarck survivors claim they'd already scuttled the ship by that point. The number of crew that made it into the water might corroborate their story, and a recent expedition by Ballard to the wreck scanned the torpedo damage and wasn't sure they penetrated the inner bulkhead at all. Even if it only hastened the inevitable this suggests that an attempt to seize the ship would have been doomed anyway.

 

4. Even had the Germans surrendered ear the end, the seas were still really rough and even getting survivors off and a prize crew aboard would have been no easy task. There is no guarantee that the ship could have easily been brought to port anyway with the damage, towing a ship even the size of a US Standard BB in the open ocean like USS Oklahoma was not a sure thing. We still don't know where SHE ended up going down!

 

I love the romanticism of the idea but I just don't see many real world ways for it to work. Perhaps an alternate timeline fiction is in order here!

 

[Rolkatsuki]

It will be a psychological effect on the German navy, I have actually toured a ship that's being turned against its owners

[Sir_Davos_Seaworth]

Sounds like a cool movie! No really, I'd watch it. I'm not sure they would ever be able to make the Bismarck battle worth again, as bad as she was shot up. But as a war trophy? Heck yes! Park her next to Victory, shoot a newsreal of Churchill walking her decks...yeah, BIG middle finger to Germany.

[RipNuN2]

Because Churchill ordered them to sink the Bismarck.

[Mavairo]

Even if she wasn't scuttled, she was described by both nations navies as a floating wreck that was beyond feasible repair (remember neither the UK or Germany had the US's industrial power to rebuild a Sunk Fleet, AND still pump 10 BBs, a bunch of CVs, CAs and over 150 Fletchers ALL AT ONCE so to speak.)

Even the US had ships they considered too badly damaged to repair, and scuttled, and they had much better facilities than anyone else. Bismark was so far gone it would be cheaper to build another.

[Wombatmetal]

Logistics aside, it is an intriguing thought. Sink the Bismark! but this time it would be the Germans trying to do it and prevent the PR coup. Would the Tirpitz come after her in pursuit? Wolf packs on the way back to Britain? How would the Germans react?