Placing the Fairey Battle.

[Juha]

"BC dropped 30 bombs on the Koenigsberg and missed. The FAA Skuas sank it. In my book it is evidence for the claim that BC lacked competence."


Tony
after all BC sank ½ of German battleships, Tirpitz
Knocked out for good ½ of German battlecruisers, Gneisenau.
sank 2/3 of German Pocket battleships, Admiral Scheer and Lützow.
Now the 2 pocket battleships were sunk during the last month of war but Lützow was still giving valuable gun support to hard pressed Heer when sunk. Halifaxes damaged Schanhorst badly at La Pallice on 24 July 41. Carpet bombing of La Havre sunk a number of torpedo and motor torpedoboats and forced others to move away from there during summer 44. There were also many failures and the bombings of Schanhorst, Gneisenau and Hipper at Brest were ineffective. But so were Luftwaffe's attacks on Scapa Flow, on Rosyth and on Loch Ewe or what was the RN's temporary base in NW Scotland.

BTW, how many sorties LW flew against damaged Illustrious at Valetta harbour, when it laid there during emergency repairs? IIRC they got only one hit. Was LW's anti-ship specialist Fliegerkorps incompetent? Was Ju 87 wrong plane against docked ships? To me the first question is ridiculous, what You think?

Juha