A deliberate Royal Navy ambush could have fitted HMS Rawalpindi with deck-launched torpedoes. The German ships initially took her for an ordinary merchant vessel and closed far enough for identification. A broad torpedo spread at that range might have crippled or sunk both raiders before they understood the threat. Rawalpindi carried no such ambush weapon and was never expected to defeat Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which further weakens the theory that Britain deliberately sacrificed her as part of a controlled trap.
Notable Point · 43:49-45:25
What a real Rawalpindi ambush might have looked like
Deck-launched torpedoes could have made the German ships' close approach to Rawalpindi a genuine ambush, showing how little the actual deployment resembled a planned trap.