The Bismarck

Named after the Great Prussian Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and commissioned on August 24, 1940 the Bismarck was along with the sister ship ' Tirpitz' the largest battleship that the Germans possessed at 50,900 metric tons maximum displacement. The pride of the Kriegsmarine.

Laid down 1 July 1936 - Launched 14 February 1939 - Commissioned 24 August 1940.

Standard displacement - 41,700 tons. Fully laden - 50,900 tons.

Overall Length was 241 meters with a Beam of 36 meters. The Draft (max) was 10.25 meters.

Armour thickness 14.5 cm Upper belt, 32cm main armour belt, upper deck 5 to 8 cm, Turret armour was 13 to 36 cm thick.

He was armed with eight 15 inch main guns ( 2 each in turrets, Anton, Bruno, Caesar and Dora ) he also had a compliment of twelve 15 cm guns, sixteen 10.5 cm and 3.7 cm anti aircraft guns along with eighteen 20mm cannon.

A good view of the forward main turrets ' Anton and ' Bruno ' with some of the crew assembled to the left of the picture. Photo taken circa 1940.

He was powered by twelve Wagner boilers into three Blohm and Voss turbine sets giving a total Horsepower of 150,000 at 30 knots.

The amount of fuel carried was 8,294 tons.

He also had onboard four Arado Ar 196 fixed wing airplanes.

It is traditional that ships are referred to as "her " or "she" but because of the Bismarck's size the ship was referred to by all aboard as "he or "him". The Captain, Ernst Lindemann had stated that anything as immense and powerful as the Bismarck is definitely a " HIM "

Computer Generated Image by Thomas Schimd

The main purpose to which The Bismarck what used was to attack British merchant vessels, especially the convoys that traveled between Halifax and the rest of the British Isles. Indeed Hitler had ordered that the ship was not to engage British warships if possible but just to concentrate on sinking merchant ships.

The Bismarck in Kiel September 1940. In this rare colour photo the Bismarck is seen ' made fast ' to a huge buoy to stop him from drifting.

The picture below offers a view of the other side of the ship taken at the same time.

Both of these photos were taken before any application of camouflage took place upon him, Namely a false bow wave a third up the side of the ship along with the Kriegsmarine's application of disruptive line patterns.

This type of camouflage can be seen clearly on the heavy cruiser Lutzow below.

The photo above was taken in Gotenhaven 12 April 1940. It is primarily of the heavy cruiser Lutzow but the Bismarck can just be seen to the left in the background. The front of the cruiser Numberg can also be seen on the right of the picture.

The above image is of the Bismarck as she sails majestically on the open sea during trials, before her false bow wave paint was applied. The picture is a computer rendition....but you can hardly tell !

Original photo by Peter Dorschoer, modified by Steve Nuttall.

The British Admiralty were aware of this new threat on the seas and did not like the idea of the Bismarck having freedom of any part of the sea. So the Admiralty wanted him found and sunk. Just two days on his maiden voyage the Bismarck was spotted by a coastal command Spitfire that was searching for it.


This is the photo that the Spitfire took of the Bismarck along with 3 merchant ships in Grimstadfjord, Bergen West of Norway.	This is the course the Bismarck took from Gotenhafen to Bergen

The Royal Navy sent HMS Hood, the biggest Battle cruiser and pride of the Royal Navy.

Computer Generated Images by Thomas Schimd

The Battleship HMS Prince Of Wales, cruiser HMS Norfolk and cruiser HMS Suffolk also poined in to catch the Bismarck and destroy him. On the 24 of May 1941 at a range of 10 miles and closing they engaged both the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen and a battle of the big guns ensued.

The Bismarck returned a salvo and on the third salvo the Hood was hit forward of her aft turrets by a single shell from one of Bismarck's 15 inch guns, the shell penetrated the thin armour plating atop of the decks and exploded in the main magazine the majority of the Hood's shells and charges were stored. The explosion completely blew HMS Hood apart and in a matter of seconds she sank with the loss of the entire compliment of crew totaling 1,418 with the exception of 3 survivors. Able Seaman R.E. Tiburn, Signalman T. Briggs and Midshipman W. J. Dundas.

At the time of writing this ( Jan 2002) Signalman Ted Briggs is the only living survivor from H.M.S Hood. The other two remaining survivors passed away in the not to distant past.

Below: The last moment of HMS Hood as she takes hits from the Bismarck. (rare photo)

The loss of HMS Hood was heard with total disbelief and shock by the British admiralty. very shortly after hearing the terrible news an enraged Churchill gave the order " Sink the Bismarck at all costs"

The Royal Navy sent a flotilla comprising of the Battleship HMS King George V, Aircraft Carrier HMS Victorious, Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, Nelson class battleship HMS Rodney, Battleship HMS Prince Of Wales, Destroyer HMS Dorsetshire, cruiser HMS Suffolk, Battle cruiser HMS Renown and Light cruiser HMS Sheffield out to get him.

The Bismarck was very elusive but with luck on the side of the British she was found, and a squadron of antiquated Swordfish torpedo bi-planes from the Ark Royal was sent to attack him.

One of the Swordfish's torpedo's hit the aft of the Bismarck and crippled his steering mechanism so that the Bismarck sailed at a constant 15 degrees port. ( around and around....in circles !) The Bismarck was trying to make port at Brest, France but now her progress was severely restricted, if not impossible. In fact the captain stated " Now we are going nowhere! ". On May 27, HMS Rodney, accompanied by the battleship King George V, caught up with the crippled Bismarck. They open fire at 20,000 meters.

Bismarck, painting by Ivan Berryman. Depicts the Swordfishes hit against the Bismarck's rudder.

HMS Rodney opened fire and a 16 inch shell burst in between the Bismarck's two forward turret guns severely damaging them. A little while later HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Norfolk joined in, blasting the Bismarck with their guns.

The Bismarck returns fire.

After one and a half hours of receiving hit after hit the Bismarck's guns fell silent. The Bismarck it has been recorded had been hit with over 400 shells from the 2876 shells fired at it also hits from 12 torpedo were accredited.

380 of 16 inch from Rodney
339 of 13 inch from King George V
527 of 7.5 inch from Norfolk
254 of 7.5 inch from Dorsetshire
716 of 5 inch from Rodney
660 of 5 inch from King George V

The Germans knowing that the ship was lost scuttled him with explosive charges and at 10:39 the Bismarck sank into 3 mile deep sea. 115 men survived from a total compliment of 2200.

700 men were left to die in the sea after someone shouted " U-boat ! " and the Royal Navy ships had no choice but to depart the scene and could no longer continue to pick up survivors, because of the very real risk of getting struck by a torpedo or four.

One of the true real tragedies of War !