Giftzwerg
11/22/2009 1:57:00 AM
In article <m4ogg5hdn48fk71tmq4vn72ehon11gnecu@4ax.com>,
this@isfalse.com says...
> >Instead, she encountered SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU, heaving out on a
> >raiding mission (her captain thought it was DEUTSCHLAND), and they
> >ordered her to heave to. The captain preferred to fight, and attacked.
> >The results were foreordained. Kaboom.
>
> Her Captain was the father of Loduvic Kennedy, author and broadcaster,
> who wrote "Pursuit" about the hunt for the Bismarck.
Yes. That fact was buried down there somewhere in my rat's maze of
dissociated thoughts.
I recall, also, that while Churchill mentioned him favorably in
parliament, he wasn't universally praised for what some called a
pointless suicide mission. No VC for him, either, IIRC.
> The OP may be
> thinking of Jervis Bay, another AMC that attacked the Scheer to try
> and save her convoy. Needless to say the end result was a similar
> Kaboom.
Yeah, this was almost certainly what he meant, the difference being that
JERVIS BAY was ordered to protect a convoy, while RAWALPINDI was simply
on patrol. Presumably, the latter was able to flee at captain's
discretion on being confronted with such a formidable foe as two
battlecruisers, since the mission was stopping and searching suspect
merchantment.
> Another example of unbelievable courage in the face of overwhelming
> odds. Which is why I have trouble believing that type of Captain, (and
> from everything I've read over the years, most of them in just about
> every navy were that type), scuttling away _against orders_ just
> because he's out of ammo.
Indeed, I'd love to see some examples where captains took otherwise
undamaged ships out of battle line simply because they were out of
ammunition.
And, as I mention in another post, I had a Japanese DD disengage with
all her turrets *hors de combat* ... and subsequently repair two of them
.... while still in contact. Can anyone imagine a Japanese skipper with
a watertight ship and two out of three main guns working *continuing to
flee*? Even if we believe he'd run in the first place?
--
Giftzwerg
***
"It really doesn't matter how President Obama divides the Afghan baby,
how he splits the difference between McChrystal and Biden. Because the
war has been lost. I say this because of one sad and simple fact. The
president does not have the will and determination to do what's
necessary to win it. His heart's not in it, and never has been. The
Taliban knows it. Al Qaeda knows it. Our allies know it. And the
American people know it."
- Fred Thompson