Sladists,
An entry in my father's Pilot's Flying Log has puzzled me:
1942. Feb 12. Daylight raid on the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau." 10/10 cloud.
Because I recognized neither of those names - unlike all the other targets in the book - I assumed from the quote marks that my dad didn't either, and so he had written them phonetically. Believing them to be lesser targets, I left it at that.
Since you armchair strategists did such a good job with the clues I've been dropping, I thought I'd feed you a red herring or two. What good's a mystery without a red herring? So I went back to the start of my dad's combat raids, and gave you his "1st ops," the attack on Nuremberg, the heart of the Reich.
Next, I went to his "2nd ops":
1941. Oct. 20. Ops to Wilhelmshaven. "Bags of fun" - Caught in searchlights, but not held.
When I typed "Wilhelmshaven" into Google for info on what that was about, it came back with a connection to the Bismarck. Thus, the song above. Actually, the hull of the Bismarck wasn't laid there, but the hull of the Tirpitz was. And as I followed the links, I came across this:
http://hmshood.com/ship/history/bshood/BSHood.html
Four paragraphs down in the preface, you'll see what caught my eye.
Okay, Strategists. Operation Cerberus. There's another hunt.
Slade