The Bismarck

The greatest German Battleship ever built

At the treaty of Versailles in 1919 Germany was prohibited to construct any naval ships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons with no more than an 11 inch main armament , During the early 1930's the German Kriegsmarine did consider this treaty and only constructed the so called pocket battleships . But according to the German plan Z which called for a number of much bigger battleships including an aircraft carrier the Graf Zeppelin and the huge H class battleships , which would have been as big as a modern US aircraft carrier , the plan also called for a number of ships in the Bismarck class . On the 1^st of July 1936 the keel of the then battleship 'f' was laid down at the Blohm und Voss shipyard in Hamburg construction continued until on the 24^th August 1940 the KM Bismarck was officially commissioned . She was the most powerful German battleship ever built with her main armament of 8 15 inch guns as well as a secondary armament of 12 5.9 inch guns combined with numerous other lighter anti aircraft guns .

Operation Rheinübung

The German High command was certain that the only way to beat Britain was to cut off her supply routes and slowly starve her into submission , it was essentially the same tactic that they had tried in world war one , although they now relied more on submarines than their surface fleet . Due to the successes of the German heavy cruisers and pocket battleships which sank almost 300,000 tons of allied shipping up to the end of winter in 1941 . Due to his part in the raid's Admiral Lutjens was given command of operation Rheinübung which originally called for the battleships Bismarck , Scharnhorst and Gneisenau supported by the cruiser Prinz Eugen and numerous destroyers . This plan was reduced to just the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen when both the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau were damaged in RAF bombing raids while docked in Brest . The plan was for the Bismarck and her escort's to sneak quietly through the narrow Kattegat straight between Denmark and Sweden and then pass through the equally narrow Skaggerak straight between Denmark and Norway . On the 20 May 1941 the Bismarck weighed anchor and by that afternoon she was heading through the Kattegat . It was here that she was spotted by a neutral Swedish warship which radioed her position to the Swedish secret service which passed on the message , although very unofficially to the British military attaché Captain Henry Denham who passed the information on to the Admiralty who did not waste any time informing the British fleet based at Scapa flow who immediately dispatched a fleet consisting of the HMS Hood and the HMS Prince of Wales , which had only just been completed and was still experiencing problems with her main 14 inch guns , these two ships were escorted by a close escort of 6 destroyers . In addition to these on the 22 May a further 2 battleships followed the HMS King George V and HMS Rodney as well as the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious . When the first reports of the Bismarck were received the British cruiser HMS Suffolk was already patrolling the Denmark straight and was due to be relieved by another cruiser HMS Norfolk . These 2 cruisers were given the task of finding the Bismarck and trailing her until support could arrive in the form of the British battleships .

Sinking of the HMS Hood

On the 22 May at about 1922 hours the HMS Suffolk sighted the German ships about to leave the straight and head out into the Atlantic , she immediately started to tail the two German ships and was soon joined by the HMS Norfolk . At one point in the evening the cruiser's closed in on the German's and the Bismarck opened fire on them although no damage was done . Shortly after this the British cruisers lost sight of the German's and headed in the direction that they though the German's would take . During this time the two German ships exchanged places , with the Bismarck dropping back to take care of any escorting cruisers , a move which would dramatically affect the later events of the battle . Meanwhile the Hood and Prince of Wales were closing in on the Germans and at about 0550 hours on the 24 May the two fleets closed to firing range and opened fire on one another . With the course that the British were approaching from they could only bring there fore turrets effectively halving there firepower . The British made 2 mistakes , the first was that the lightly armored Hood was leading the ships and the second was that they mistook the Prinz Eugen for the Bismarck and concentrated there fire on her . Almost immediately the German ships scored hits on the Hood . The British then changed course to bring all there guns to bear , but at 0600 hours the Hood blew up killing all but three of the 1,422 men on board . The exact cause of her destruction is not known but the most accepted is that a 15 inch shell from the Bismarck had penetrated a magazine . During the battle both the Bismarck and Prince of Wales had scored hits on each other , the Bismarck disabling half of the Price of Wales guns and the Prince of Wales damaging the Bismarck's fuel system . The two fleets disengaged with the Bismarck heading for the French port of St Naziere .

Sinking the Bismarck

Soon after the battle the HMS Victorious launched an airstrike on the German battleship scoring one hit which failed to damage the Bismarck . The British then lost the Bismarck and only managed to find her some 31 hours later and only 700 miles from the safety of Brest . By this time the British force 'H' had closed in to about 300 miles of the Bismarck , this consisted of the 2 battleships HMS King George V and HMS Rodney as well as the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal which launched an airstrike to attempt to slow the Bismarck down . The first airstrike went horribly wrong with the planes attacking the HMS Sheffield by mistake , the only thing that saved the Sheffield was the faulty magnetic fuses on the torpedo's . The second airstrike was more successful with two torpedo's hitting the Bismarck and although one did little the other was a lucky shot and wrecked the Bismarck's steering gear allowing her only to turn in large circle . British destroyer's then launched there own raid firing torpedo's which further damaged the now crippled battleship . At dawn the next day the British closed in with the 10 14 inch and 9 16 inch guns of Admiral Tovey's 2 battleships . They scored hits almost immediately putting the Bismarck's forward turrets out of action as well as wrecking her control tower . The Bismarck however did not give up and continued to fight using her aft turrets , but soon these to were out of action . Germany's finest battleship was a flaming wreck . At this stage British cruisers closed in and fired torpedo's which combined with the Bismarck's crew setting scuttling charges caused her bows to lift up and to sink stern first .

The Aftermath

With the sinking of the Bismarck the German high command stopped sending out her battleships against the British convoy's in the Atlantic and turned her attention to the Russian convoy's which left the British free roam of the surface of the Atlantic . The British also learned some valuable lesson's about leaving important decision's to the men on the spot .