Pride Of The German Kriegsmarine
Computer Generated Image by Thomas Schimd
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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
Bismarck's Captain Ernst Lindemann 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.
Looking forward along the deck on the Bismarck
The Bismarck in color
The Bismarck in Kiel September 1940. In this rare color 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.
Find The Bismarck 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. |
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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 |
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Enter the scene: HMS Hood The Royal Navy sent HMS Hood, the biggest Battle cruiser and pride of the Royal Navy.
Computer Generated Image 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 picture above shows the Bismarck firing a salvo at HMS Hood 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. Had not the Admiralty previously decided to take off the thick armor plating from atop the decks then the shell may not have penetrated, but it did and the subsequent explosion completely blew HMS Hood apart and in a matter of seconds she was gone, sunk with the loss of the entire compliment of crew totaling 1,418 with the miraculous exception of just three survivors, and they were, 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 peacfully, a few years ago. Below: The last moment of HMS Hood as she takes hits from the Bismarck. (rare photo)
In all of the confusion, smoke and fire the Bismarck made good his escape.
Sink The Bismarck The loss of HMS Hood was heard with total disbelief and shock by the British Admiralty, and very shortly after hearing this terrible news, an enraged Churchill gave the now famous order " Sink the Bismarck...at all costs " The Royal Navy sent a flotilla of warships, specifically to avenge the Hood with the intention to sink the Bismarck. This search and destroy flotilla was comprised 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.
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. During the attack, one of the Swordfish's torpedo's hit the aft section of the Bismarck and crippled his steering mechanism so that the Bismarck sailed at a constant 15 degrees port. he could only sail 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.
The Bismarck's Final Encounter HMS Rodney opened fire and a 16 inch shell burst in between the Bismarck's two forward turret guns, a massive explosion severely damaging them. A little while later HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Norfolk joined in, blasting the Bismarck with their huge main guns.
The Bismarck suffers and enters its death throes. After one and a half hours of receiving hit after hit, the Bismarck's guns fell silent. The Bismarck was recorded to have been hit with over 400 shells from the 2876 shells fired at it also hits from 12 torpedo were accredited. It is actually a testimony of how tough a Battleship really was and more specifically the Bismarck that was able to withstand being hit time and time again by huge 16 inch shells, the amount of shots actually fired was accurately recorded and is presented below. 380 of 16 inch from Rodney The Germans knowing that the ship was too damaged to continue, finally scuttled him with explosive charges and at 10:39 the Bismarck sank to a depth of 3 miles under the sea. Only 115 men survived from a total compliment of 2200. Such was the price of War. 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 torpedos. Both the sinking of the Hood and the Bismarck was one of the true real tragedies of War ! a total waste of men and material for relatively no gain whatsoever.
Artist Bernt M Schroter's painting of the Bismarck titled "The Last Moments"
The final moment of the Bismarck was also captured by artist Charles E Turner. |
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