What It Took to Kill Nazi Germany's Super Battleship Bismarck Is Truly Astounding

Famous Battle, Great Battle. I don't how Cool and Powerful You Think You are, Wait until someone knocks out your Rudder and all you can do is go in circles.

Just a few inaccuracies.

1. Bismarck's damage at Denmark Strait was a lone hit (not three) to her forward fuel bunker by HMS Prince Of Wales. We know it was a lone hit as all but one of POW's guns had jammed. Likewise, while the task force admiral (Lutjens) was arguing with the captain (Lindemann) over whether to flee or fight, her escort, Prince Eugen was duelling with HMS Hood. It was Eugen that got the deadly hit on HMS Hood. By the time Bismarck finally got in to the fight, POW was the only target. And Eugen, being a cruiser, could not have pierced POW's battleship conning tower armor. So her only hit came from Bismarck.

2. The Swordfish aircraft hit Bismarck's rudder with a solitary torpedo. The fact that bi-planes were able to best a modern battleship is Bismarck's second and third weakness: her guns were not geared to independently fire. Nor was her fire control. Her secondary weapons were unable to depress low enough to handle slow bi-planes. Hence, the Royal Navy ate her for breakfast. The weaponry never envisioned slow aircraft. So the high speed mountings and fire control were arrayed to deal with high altitude/high speed threats. Poor design.

3. The Royal Navy had the best gunnery in the known world. Any of the battleships present could have sank Bismarck. HMS Rodney had thicker armor and additionally, had more powerful 16 inch guns. Nine of them. Versus Bis' eight 15 inch guns. And while people craw over numbers ("16 is only 1 more than 15"), the British powder was actually more explosive/destructive. British 15" MK-1 guns were pulling off 23 mile hits while American 16" guns were barely getting 18 miles. So the two British battleships were more than capable of hole-ing Bis and sending her down. Within the first minutes, HMS Rodney landed a 16" shell between Bismarck's first two turrets, knocking both of them out.

4. Design flaws. Fire control could not talk to each other. The forward FC could not talk to the aft FC. This meant that fully working forward FC was unable to assist the aft guns when the aft FC was taken out. The secondary guns were also three different calibers making resupply a nightmare.

5. Bismarck's "lasting" as long as she did was actually quite tragic and deliberate. Her torpedo belt did its job. But torpedo damage ON THE OUTSIDE does not always match torpedo damage ON THE INSIDE. Just because you don't have a hole on the outside doesn't mean stuff inside escaped damage. Most of Bis' shutters and vents were either welded shut by explosive or bent inwards. So although the Germans are correct that they blew the scuttling charges, the doors the charges were supposed to open, were jammed/welded shut from torpedo damage. This is why Bis did not sink after being pronounced dead. The heavy loss of life was simple too. Churchill ordered as few survivors as possible. "Grab an officer or two and a handful of seamen and let the rest drown." As many 900 made it into the water. Less than 200 were picked up and even the Germans say that the British figure of 200 is "too high."

Great History Lesson!