3 Miles beneath the Atlantic Ocean a Nazi Warship once feared and revered now rots silently in its watery grave.

The Bismarck is found

Dr Robert  D. Ballard and his team had taken two years to discover the wreck of the Bismarck. It was the same Dr Robert Ballard that discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.

The first expedition to find the wreck on July 1988 ended in failure. A second expedition was staged in late May 1989, and on 8 June, 1989, after covering hundreds of square miles of ocean sea floor Dr Robert Ballard and his team finally found the wreck ,some 600 miles west of Brest at a depth of 4,790 meters (15,700 feet).

Standing on the side on an underwater mountain range, at the bottom of a vast landslide that occurred exactly 50 years ago, (at the time of writing this) when the 50,000 ton Battleship hit the seabed. Most of the secondary battery gun emplacements still point defiantly to the skies and the Nazi Swastika's still adorn the decks.

Here the exact position of the wreck is indicated

The wreck of the Bismarck is standing upright on the sea bed embedded in mud and silt. Remembering that the ship received heavy damage from British shell fire and torpedo attacks the Bismarck's remains are in surprisingly good condition and we must remember too that the ship hit the sea bed with some considerable force, similar to a speeding train running into a mountain side.

Below is the sequence of how the Bismarck actually sank.

The wreck as it is today, 3 miles at the bottom of the sea

Most shipwrecks around the world are badly deteriorated but the Bismarck has stood the test of time quite well. Except for a piece of the stern that broke away the hull is intact. All of the main turrets fell off when the ship capsized as it sunk ( they were held in by gravity) and some other parts of the superstructure such as the foremast and the funnel are missing too. But the secondary battery turrets and most anti-aircraft guns are still there. The forward conning tower and bridge, though heavily damaged are still there too.

There is still a surprising amount of woodwork and paint still adorning the wreck and it is likely that the wreck will remain in a solid condition for several hundred years to come.

Below are some accurate renditions of the Bismarck are presented here, based on the surveying and photo's that was taken of the ship in its grave in 1989 by the Ballard team.

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A War Grave

According to  international law, the wreck of the Bismarck that is resting in international waters is still the property of Germany, and is considered as a war grave. After the discovery of the wreck, the German government gave the following statement regarding future diving expeditions to the wreck site:

"The Federal Republic of Germany considers itself the owner of the former sovereign Battleship Bismarck. Diving excursions to the interior of the wreck as well as recovery attempts require consent of the Federal Government. This has been categorically denied in other cases of sunken ships of the World Wars, because one must expect to find remains of the dead in the wreck. The Federal Republic feels it is its duty to protect the seamen who went to their death in the sinking of the ship. Following international customs, we view the wreck of the Bismarck as a seamen's burial site that must be accorded proper respect."

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This page is yet another testimony to the total waste of lives and material that war destroys. I often ask myself the question..... why ? It appears that it was all for nothing. maybe one day we will learn the reasons.

Copied from  http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk

Bismarck sinking commemorated
Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday May 23, 2001
The Guardian
More than 100 war veterans yesterday commemorated the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck on May 27 1941 in one of the most epic naval battles in modern history.

Accompanying the veterans at the Imperial War Museum, in south London, was Heinz Steeg, rescued from the water after the Bismarck, which was launched by Hitler and said to be "unsinkable", went down.

Harry Cuffling, 82, from the Isle of Wight, was one of the men who dragged Mr Steeg on board the cruiser, the Dorsetshire. "The German sailors were huddled together in a crowd", he said. "The sea was very rough and they looked extremely cold. They couldn't talk. We felt no animosity towards them. It's human nature."

Mr Steeg said he wanted to do the same after the Bismarck shelled the British battleship, HMS Hood, which sank in just three minutes. "There is never any great feeling of joy or celebration when a ship is sunk because a ship is a beautiful thing. But I remain thankful that the men of the Dorsetshire could come to my aid," he said.

Sir Ludovic Kennedy, a sub-lieutenant on HMS Tartar during the battle and author of a book on the sinking of the Bismarck, paid tribute to what he called his "band of brothers".

He described the naval engagement as one of the most "memorable, important and dramatic events" of the second world war.

"The damage she could have done to us and the whole war effort was incalculable. That was why she had to be eliminated and she was eliminated by a good share of luck, skill and courage. The fate of the Bismarck proved that the era of the battleship was over, he added, killed by air power and left "as dead as a dinosaur".

George Bell, 77, who was a 17-year-old captain's messenger on the Dorsetshire at the time, told how he watched the Bismarck capsize. "I remember seeing her turn over completely. All you could see was her huge keel lying in the water before it went under."

Leslie Sayer, from Col Chester, Essex, who flew a Swordfish biplane on a torpedo mission against the German warship, said: "We were apprehensive, concerned and bloody frightened, in that order."