Explanation: During WW2, the pride of the Nazi navy, the battleship Bismarck, engaged and sunk one of the capital ships of the British Royal Navy. This was celebrated by the Nazis as a victory.
This resulted in the Royal Navy organizing a massive search-and-destroy operation to AVENGE BRITISH NAVAL HONOR, at which point the Bismarck was quite promptly sunk.
It was much more than just restoring lost pride, though. They couldn’t allow a modern full-size battleship loose on the Atlantic doing commerce raiding, because that would have meant escorting convoys with equally capable battleships, of which they had a very limited number, and needed them elsewhere. This is why they threw the entire Home Fleet and some more at the problem. They knew they couldn’t afford the Bismarck getting through, and took considerable risk preventing it from happening, including calling ships off convoys they were escorting.
A dilution of force was exactly what Nazi Germany intended to achieve by sending Bismarck out into the Atlantic to raid convoys and tie up British naval forces with escort duties.
Explanation: During WW2, the pride of the Nazi navy, the battleship Bismarck, engaged and sunk one of the capital ships of the British Royal Navy. This was celebrated by the Nazis as a victory.
This resulted in the Royal Navy organizing a massive search-and-destroy operation to AVENGE BRITISH NAVAL HONOR, at which point the Bismarck was quite promptly sunk.
Good riddance to Nazi rubbish!
It was much more than just restoring lost pride, though. They couldn’t allow a modern full-size battleship loose on the Atlantic doing commerce raiding, because that would have meant escorting convoys with equally capable battleships, of which they had a very limited number, and needed them elsewhere. This is why they threw the entire Home Fleet and some more at the problem. They knew they couldn’t afford the Bismarck getting through, and took considerable risk preventing it from happening, including calling ships off convoys they were escorting.
A dilution of force was exactly what Nazi Germany intended to achieve by sending Bismarck out into the Atlantic to raid convoys and tie up British naval forces with escort duties.