morality. Battleship Bismarck
"An unsinkable battleship"
Before exploring today's battle, let's first introduce the "Bismarck" class battleship of the Nazi German Navy, which is known as the largest battleship in Europe during World War II, which has a standard water volume of 420,000 tons, the ship is 270 meters long, 36 meters wide, 330 meters thick armor, and has 8 380 mm guns, which is the most powerful battleship built by Germany during World War II.
And this ship is also named after the famous German iron-blooded chancellor Bismarck, the Germans called it an "unsinkable warship" "Bismarck" fully embodies the German artillery giant ship doctrine, trying to use it to dominate the Atlantic.
The emblem of the Bismarck
On 24 August 1940, bismarck was commissioned. On 19 May 1941, Bismarck, accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, quietly sailed out of the port of Gdynia and headed for the Atlantic In an attempt to intercept allied merchant ships, but to everyone's surprise, this was its first and last attack.
As readers may say, perhaps "Bismarck" was vain, or the Germans were over-bragging about the ship. If you think so, you can't be wrong, looking at the sinking process of this super battleship, its ability is beyond doubt, after all, its opponent is also a "super battleship." Next, let's take a look at the sad song of "The Hero's End"!
Frontal photo of the Bismarck
Chess opponent: British Super Battleship to fight
The Bismarck fleet at the time was commanded by the German admiral Gunther Lütjens, which the Germans named "Operation Rhine". However, the Germans' counter-intelligence capabilities were so poor that at the same time that Operation Rhine was finalized, Admiral John Tovey, the new commander of the British Home Fleet, received a telegram from the Admiralty stating that he had mastered everything about the German Navy.
So "the robber became the robber, and a good drama was staged." ”
Main gun protection
At dawn on 24 May, two German super-battleships began to set off in a mighty way through the cold waters of the North Atlantic, with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the lead, followed by the mighty Bismarck. Unbeknownst to them, about 48 kilometers to the southeast, 2 British warships were coming at full speed, ready to intercept.
Using the Prince of Wales
USS Hood
Decisive battle of the Atlantic
These two warships are Britain's newest Prince of Wales and the HMS Hood, which claims to be the most powerful. At 5 o'clock, the Hood spotted the German ship, and Captain Holland ordered preparations for battle. The captain of the Bismarck, Lukins, also saw the Hood through the telescope, so Lukins ordered a turn to avoid the British ships. But it was too late, and the British ships had already pounced!
Because the British at that time mistakenly regarded the "Prince Eugen" as the "Bismarck", so the British ship "Hood" preemptively opened fire, and the "Prince of Wales" then opened fire on the "Prince Eugen", until after two rounds of salvos, it was found that the target of the attack was wrong, and the British ship immediately turned its fire to the "Bismarck", just as the "Hood" and the "Prince of Wales" turned. Bismarck's eight 380mm guns also opened fire, its rangefinder locked on the Hood, a 1700-pound armor-piercing shell hit the main ammunition depot of the Hood, the mighty battleship instantly broke in half, and in less than 10 minutes, Hitler's superweapon sank the pride of the British Navy, which was really shocking.
Bismarck main gun
After the sinking of the "Hood", the German ship immediately pointed its gun at the "Prince of Wales", after a salvo, the ship was incapacitated under heavy damage, at 6:13, the "Prince of Wales" fired a smoke screen shell to escape the battlefield, "Bismarck" only paid a slight price to win the victory, although it was also shot, but the loss was not large.
Embattled: The Hunt for "Bismarck"
When the news of the defeat came, the shocked British Navy immediately sent a large number of warships to encircle and suppress, on the same day, the "Bismarck" was attacked by a swordfish torpedo from the aircraft carrier "Victory", hit by a torpedo, but only caused minor changes, and then the "Prince Eugen" continued to advance into the Atlantic, while the "Bismarck" was loaded to Saint-Nazère in France to repair the damage, and turned to Brest halfway due to insufficient fuel.
British torpedo aircraft
Soon, the British quickly determined the location of the "Like Somai", the British Navy was determined to kill the "Bismarck", and the new commander of the fleet, Tovey, sat on the "Prince George V", Britain
Several fleets pulled a large net around bismarck.
Bismarck radar
Fire control system
On 26 May, 16 Swordfish fighters flying from the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal began a surprise attack, this time Bismarck hit 3 torpedoes, 2 of which did not cause major damage, but the 3rd hit the steering device, which was its only weakness, the rudder was blown up and could not turn, and the battleship began to spin constantly at sea. These aircraft destroyed the rudder of the Bismarck, and its fate was in the hands of the British surface ships.
On the morning of 27 May, the main British fleet arrived, including the battleships King George V and Rodney, cruisers and destroyers, who attacked the failed Bismarck with shells and torpedoes, and Bismarck resisted the British army several times larger than itself, and because the rudder failed and could not control the course, it was hit by a hundred small-caliber shells.
Oil painting of the Anglo-German Naval Battle
Subsequently, the British heavy cruiser "Dorset" then fired 3 torpedoes at a distance of about 2000 meters, all of which were left. At 10:40, Bismarck finally sank 300 nautical miles west of Brest. The "unsinkable battleship" sank, and the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean became its underwater grave.
During the war, the British Royal Navy sent a large number of warships to intercept bismarck, including as many as 9 battleships and battlecruisers and 2 aircraft carriers, that is, about half of the royal navy's strength, before finally sinking bismarck. On the night of June, after a few days at sea, the Prinz Eugen fled back to the port of Brest. Operation Lai Camp ended in failure.
Bismarck carrier aircraft "Arador" 196
The myth of bismarck was based on the sinking of the Hood, the world's largest warship before the appearance of bismarck and a symbol of the British Navy. Hitler said that bismarck was a ship of revenge, and it did accomplish this mission, sinking the Hood, releasing the pain that had been suppressed in the hearts of the German Navy for 20 years, and bringing the whole of Britain into sorrow, but it also ended with a self-sinking ending, and it drifted with the wind not only the pride of the British Navy, but also the oceanic dream of the German Navy.
Reference: History of Modern Warfare
《World History》
"World Classic Battle" and so on