Top Ten Fighting Ships: Bismarck Class Battlship

This ship took on the might of the British Navy and fought its way into history! Find out where the Bismarck Class Battleship places on our top ten list!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Bismarck
• Class
• Battleship
• Top
• 10
• Fighting
• Ships
• Military
• Cha

[MsAchmedtheterrorist]

@mrbones652 The Bismarck get scutled by her own crew.

[MsAchmedtheterrorist]

This is a big Lie typical american im not anti america but everything that isnt americanscores low firepower was the highest mark protection too but the service length thats right. but it was a mordern ship with much inovastions.

[sthill1993]

@knutgordon But you claim that it was pure luck that the Bismarck's rudder was disabled, rather than looking at the very slow speed of the Swordfish (guns had trouble calibrating to such slow speeds) and the inexperience of the crew. Also the Swordfish pilots weren't stupid, they placed and timed their runs in a way that allowed most torpedoes to run successfully. It's not just about luck, it's about skill and training as well. (So Repulse did well). Tirpitz had a better crew than Bismarck.

[knutgordon]

@sthill1993

............Back in the days thousands of rounds was fired for each downed aircraft, and the great majority of aircraft launched weapons hit nothing but water. I think most would agree that a combination of assorted conditions, applied firepower, and (un) luck played a rather large part in such engagements.

[knutgordon]

@sthill1993

Some will say Prince of Wales also played a role in the Repulse incident. Less than one year later Bismarck's sister ship Tirpitz avoided all torpedoes and her AA battery shot down two of the attacking planes. While none planes were lost against Bismarck it wasn't the case that they were not hit by AA fire............

[sthill1993]

@knutgordon Why were the crews worn out? 9 days into a voyage, with the last 2 days before the sinking undetected. HMS Repulse was sunk in Dec 1941 by the Japanese. But it shot down 3 planes, damaged 5, dodged 19 torpedoes, and was only brought down by a pincer attack. Repulse had less AA guns, and it was from WWI. The planes were also better than the Swordfish. For Bismarck, the numbers are 0 downed, 0 damaged, then 8 and 11 torpedoes dodged in 2 engagements. I think Bismarck didn't deliver.

[knutgordon]

@sthill1993

27 Swordfishes that is, in addition to 27 fighters. Dense clouds. Evening darkness, Heavy sea, Worn out crews, these things matter for AA efficiency. Most of the torpedoes launched missed, though two found their mark. One amidships doing little damage, the fatal second one hit the rudder, badly jamming it and causing severe loss of steering and speed. At current speed and course, Bismark would have reached the protection of the Luftwaffe umbrella in less than a day.

[sthill1993]

@knutgordon Then why did Bismarck never shoot any planes down? And why would a historian say that? Was it not the hit from Prince of Wales that made her go back to Brest instead of continuing her commerce raiding mission? In any case, Ark Royal launched the strike and dealt a knockout blow in one fell swoop. It wasn't the only hit, and it would have been attacked again if it had not worked. Ark Royal carried 60 aircraft.

[knutgordon]

@sthill1993

They was cut up into fillets by the cruisers and escorts flaks. Shooting at slow planes that approaches in a straight line and need to release their weapons relative close on is not difficult either. Those pilots had spectacular bad survivability rate at times. If you can look beyond your display of IF nonsense, I think you will find that most historians will agree that Bismark's fate on that trip depended on whether the launched air strike from Ark Royal succeeded.

[knutgordon]

Being a 1 on 1 match, is totally useless when even at the worst point of the war, the allies could could send 5 or 6 battleships after each of them. One can admire them from a technical perspective, but that doesn't change the fact that these two ships was little more than floating wastes of resources in high demand that never accomplished what they were built for, nor anything else of significance. Their mission was to sink allied merchant shipping, not obsolete WW1 battle cruisers.

[sthill1993]

@knutgordon The German cruisers had something Bismarck didn't; AIR COVER. Shooting at a biplane held together with string is not difficult. But then again, IF Germany had launched its invasion of Russia earlier, they might have won. IF Germany had kept pressure on Britain by airpower and submarine power, they may have won. IF Britain had fallen, maybe Germany would have dominated Europe. All German capital ships had weak stern assemblies, and if there is a weakness, it is there to be exploited.

[knutgordon]

@sthill1993

Not exactly, when the German cruisers made their English Channel run, the attacking swordfish were cut up into fillets without scoring a hit. if it hadn't been for that lucky Torpedo disabling the rudder and a propeller shaft, Bismarck would likely have reached friendly airspace with fighter support - And then he probably would have spent the rest of the war bottled up in some harbor before eventually ending bottom up there like his sister ship did.