A ll material contained in this site is subject to copyright and must not be reproduced in any format without the consent of the relevant copyright holder. HMS Campbeltown , smouldering, abandoned and firmly wedged in the dry dock gate, makes a very convincing show of no longer being a threat.
James Dorrian Late in , Germany embarked on a plan - PLAN Z - which was designed to provide Germany with a battle fleet of such power that by the late s it would be able to challenge the might of the British Royal Navy. The proposed fleet of battleships and aircraft carriers looked very good on paper; however the war they were designed to dominate began almost a decade too soon, leaving the Kriegsmarine with only two of their battleships in building, these being the mighty Bismarck and Tirpitz , ships so powerful that no single adversary could be certain of defeating them in a one to one engagement.
In combination with the burgeoning U-Boat fleet, these two huge ships had the capacity, if used wisely, to sever the Atlantic convoy lifeline that effectively kept Britain in the war. But instead of setting sail as a single immensely powerful unit, Bismarc k, the first to become operational, was sent into the Atlantic in the company of only the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen - an error of significant proportions, as history would soon prove.
So great was the panic engendered by Bismarck' s solitary foray into the North Atlantic, that a major proportion of the Royal Navy's assets were diverted from already urgent tasks to bring her to book. In the event she was indeed caught and sunk, but only after the kind of loss and lengthy chase, that would later colour reactions to the prospect of her sister-ship following in her footsteps.
Perhaps only a minor consideration at the time was Bismarck' s intention, having been damaged by air attack, to steam for the occupied French Atlantic port of Saint-Nazaire for repair within the Forme Joubert, one of the largest dry docks in the world and the largest within reach of the Atlantic wastes. Later, however, in considering Tirpitz' s intentions, the presence of this huge dock would assume critical proportions, it having been judged that, were this dock to be destroyed, Tirpitz might not, after all, commit herself to a sortie whose only result might be her own destruction.
