The aircraft carried a task that mattered to the ships still pursuing Bismarck: slow the enemy before fuel and distance forced British commanders to give up the chase. Tovey’s despatch places the carrier attack within that operational pressure. B11
The wrong target
Ark Royal’s first striking force mistakenly attacked the British cruiser Sheffield. Somerville’s report describes a failure to pass and decode information about Sheffield’s presence before the aircraft departed. In poor conditions, crews found a ship without knowing that a friendly cruiser was near their intended target. B04
The report also records premature torpedo explosions during the mistaken attack. The first force’s torpedoes had Duplex pistols and a reported running-depth setting of 30 feet. These are the recorded configurations, not measurements of each weapon’s underwater path. B04
A changed approach
For the second striking force, the report records contact pistols and a 22-foot setting. The crews also received an instruction to contact Sheffield before attacking. The change therefore involved both equipment and identification procedure. B04
The Swordfish profile places those settings beside the aircraft’s operational role. The torpedo profile explains why configuration needs to be attached to a particular attack, rather than treated as a permanent attribute of an aircraft type.
Making an attack possible
Weather, aircraft serviceability, preparation and target information belonged to the same problem. The ship could not simply order another identical attack into existence: it needed aircraft ready to fly and crews able to locate the intended enemy.
The later attack disabled Bismarck’s steering and made the final interception possible. Tovey’s report connects that result directly to his ability to bring Bismarck to action the following morning. The exact relationship between individual reported hits and the damage they caused remains a separate technical question. B11
What the report does—and does not—establish
Selected Somerville passages have been checked against the official printed edition. That establishes what this report says about the settings and instructions. It does not replace individual aircraft load records, identify the exact torpedo mark by itself, or turn every reported hit into confirmed damage.
The distinction matters when considering what might have happened if Bismarck had survived. Avoiding the disabling hit would change a crucial condition; it would not remove every other danger or constraint.
Continue with The Final Battle, following the night shadowing and the battleships’ approach.