The Royal Navy's box system placed destroyers at the corners of a moving formation around the target, with reserve ships ready to fill a vacated position. Each commander had to recognize when a corner had opened and conduct an independent torpedo attack in darkness. Radio silence and the avoidance of signal lamps protected the formation's concealment. Piorun's conspicuous signals to Bismarck stand out precisely because the normal method depended on quiet coordination and individual judgment. The episode makes distributed command concrete by showing junior officers carrying out a major night action without continuous central control.
Notable Point · 29:37-31:16
Destroyer box tactics against Bismarck
A night attack formation around Bismarck depended on destroyer captains replacing one another and attacking without revealing their positions.