"Two Golden BB's" WI The HMS Prince of Wales is Sunk by the Bismarck?

[Fearless Leader]

When the HMS Prince of Wales pulled into Rosyth for repairs following the Battle of the Denmark Strait repair crews discovered a 15 inch undetonated shell that had penetrated the armor below the waterline and had embedded itself deep within the vessel. In addition during the battle an 8 inch shell punctured the round manipulation chamber of the aft 5.25 inch guns. Both shells failed to detonate, but WI they had?

Obviously this wouldn't be enough to result in a similar Hood-esque explosion, but they would have seriously impeded the vessel's combat ability and provided the Germans with an excellent opportunity to sink her.

This doesn't change anything about the Bismarck's ultimate fate. But I think it might butterfly away Force Z given the paucity of battleships available. How would a lack of Force Z affect the Pacific War or operations elsewhere?

 

[Shaby]

I think it wouldn't change all that much. The British lost those ships almost instantly and the Japanese would have used the same forces, with or without presence of those ships in Singapore.

Would the British send two other ships and which ones is ofc open question.

 

[AdA]

Would that make the Germans regard the loss of Bismarck after having sunk two Capital Ships as a "worthwhile investment" and would they be tempted to use Tirpitz more agressively?

 

[Blackfox5]

Would that make the Germans regard the loss of Bismarck after having sunk two Capital Ships as a "worthwhile investment" and would they be tempted to use Tirpitz more agressively?

Probably not. While a "2 for 1" exchange sounds good, the fact is the British retain their same naval power and mission capacity as before while the loss of the Bismarck is a severe blow to the Kriegsmarine. As a percentage of the forces available to them, the British easily asorb the losses while the Germans just loss a big chunk of their fleet. The German navy is just too small to keep losing big ships like this.

 

[brovane]

When the HMS Prince of Wales pulled into Rosyth for repairs following the Battle of the Denmark Strait repair crews discovered a 15 inch undetonated shell that had penetrated the armor below the waterline and had embedded itself deep within the vessel. In addition during the battle an 8 inch shell punctured the round manipulation chamber of the aft 5.25 inch guns. Both shells failed to detonate, but WI they had?

Obviously this wouldn't be enough to result in a similar Hood-esque explosion, but they would have seriously impeded the vessel's combat ability and provided the Germans with an excellent opportunity to sink her.

This doesn't change anything about the Bismarck's ultimate fate. But I think it might butterfly away Force Z given the paucity of battleships available. How would a lack of Force Z affect the Pacific War or operations elsewhere?

I think that this could be significant with a couple of changes. If the Bismarck takes out both the Hood and POW and then because of Damage decides to turn back around and slip back to Norway instead of continuing into the Atlantic this changes things. At this point the British would only be temporarily left with the KGV as the only fast BB to counter the Bismarck. However if the Bismarck goes forward into the Atlantic and is then sunk as historically happened then not much changes.