I think as well that that Bismarck and Prinz Eugen could not have made it together IN BATTLE but there are still things that could have made the difference for escaping even without that :

Whta if the Bismarck ruddle had not been damaged it would had a much better chance of escaping if possible.

The Royal Navy was running out of fuel and were in a hurry to find Bismarck.

The U-556 had no torpedoes left and the others were still far away:

On the evening of the 26th May 1941 the U-556’s watch reported the approach of warships. Lt. Commander Wohlfarth crash-dived and then raising his periscope was just in time to see what must have been every U-boat commander’s dream. The HMS Renown and the HMS Ark Royal were streaming directly towards him, their massive grey hulls plunging repeatedly into mountainous seas.

Wohlfarth didn’t even need to manoeuvre; it was as though they were steaming straight into his torpedo tubes. All he had to do was press the firing button to send the Ark Royal and HMS Renown to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. But he had no torpedoes left. The last of them had been used on a relatively unimportant merchant ship.



http://www.ety.com/HRP/walshcomments/20010625.htm

But as well Bismarck had been earlier quite lucky as the Royal Navy lost its traces and then came the fatal error: Luthjens´ 30 minutes radio message to Hitler as he thought he was close to being finished thanx to which they were found and destroyed!


And:

http://www.ww2forums.com/cgi-bin/ubb...=000054#000008

[ 26. December 2003, 03:22 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

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