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Battleship Bismarck of the German Navy
The battleship Bismarck (German: Bismarck) was a German battleship known worldwide in World War II. Bismarck was the first of the Bismarck class battleships and the fourth German warship in history named after 19th-century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, construction began in 1936 and entered service in August 1940, with a full load displacement of 49,972 tons, making it germany's largest warship at the time.
Bismarck was a symbol of the German Navy at the time, a well-armed and well-protected ship that sank after its first combat mission. On the morning of 19 May 1941, Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen secretly left the port of Gdynia, Poland, to launch Operation Rheinübung, preparing to break through the Royal Navy's sea blockade and enter the Atlantic Ocean to intercept and destroy transport convoys to and from Britain and North America, cutting off British sea supply lines. However, the two ships were then discovered by Swedish cruisers and British reconnaissance planes on the coast near Bergen, Norway, and in order to block the German ships from entering the Atlantic, the British mobilized a number of warships to encircle and annihilate. In the early morning of 24 May, the German warship engaged the British in the Danish Strait in a naval battle in the Danish Strait, and in a brief and fierce exchange of fire, Bismarck sank the battlecruiser HMS Hood, known as the pride of the Royal Navy, less than ten minutes after the battle began. The sinking of the Hood caused great shock in Britain, and then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill subsequently gave the order to "sink the Bismarck" by name to improve the morale of the British army.
Schematic diagram of naval warfare
On Saturday, 24 May, at 5 a.m., as the German fleet prepared to leave the Danish Strait, the sonar of Prinz Eugen detected two undivided ships on the starboard side. The German ships were immediately ready for combat. The British interceptor fleet consisted of the newly completed battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood, commanded by Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland. The British formation was led by HMS Hood and reared by the Prince of Wales. HMS Hood was considered the pride of the Royal Navy and the world's largest battlecruiser at the time, but its weakness was the weakness of its horizontal armor.
Lieutenant General Holland ordered his own ship to be aimed at the German ship in an attempt to shorten the distance between the two sides as soon as possible. Because he knew that the horizontal armor plate of the Hood was weak, and if the distance between the two sides exceeded 10,000 yards in the artillery battle, the enemy shells were likely to fall on the deck of their own warships, and vice versa. At 5:49, Holland ordered fire on prinz Eugen, the leading German ship, and the British mistook Prinz Eugen for Bismarck. Hood opened fire at 5:52 a.m., and Prince of Wales then opened fire on Prinz Eugen. It was not until after 2 salvos that Holland realized that the target of the attack was wrong and immediately ordered the fire to be turned to bismarck, but much time had been wasted and some confusion had been caused. The distance between the two sides was about 12.5 miles, or about 10.9 nautical miles.
At 5:55 a.m., the German formation returned fire and concentrated its fire on the Hood. Due to the wrong judgment of the British ships, the initial shelling did not hit the German ships, while the German ships did not make this mistake, so the shells continued to shoot accurately at the British ships. Although Holland had more firepower than the German ships, the situation on the battlefield was more difficult for Gunter. Lütjens was advantageous – since the British warships were facing the German ships, Hood and the Prince of Wales could only use four and six front guns respectively, while the German warships were able to return fire on the British with full firepower. At this time, Bismarck fired a third salvo, hitting the middle of the Hood, causing a fire on the deck of the lifeboat, which spread rapidly. Lieutenant General Holland now realized that he was at a disadvantage and ordered the left rudder twenty degrees to unleash his full firepower. At exactly 6:00 a.m., the Hood had just completed its turn, and Bismarck made its fifth salvo, with one shell (one said 2 rounds) penetrating the Hood's weak deck armor, detonating the main ammunition depot. The Hood split in two in an instant, sank into the sea eight minutes later, killing only 3 of the 1,419 officers and men, including Lieutenant General Holland. The Germans immediately pointed their guns at the Prince of Wales. The bridge was hit by a 15-inch shell, killing all but the captain and a signal soldier. In addition, it was hit by 4 15-inch shells and 4 8-inch shells, although the hull was relatively lightly damaged, but several main guns could not be fired due to malfunction and war damage, and were forced to withdraw from the battle, and after repairing, they continued to track and exchange fire with the Bismarck, and finally withdrew from the pursuit due to lack of fuel.
The Germans also paid some price for the victory. Bismarck was shot three times, one of which destroyed the carrier-based aircraft catapult, preventing the ship from flying the seaplane; the other destroyed the fuel tank no. 2, causing about 1,000 tons of heavy oil to leak; and the other through the 60 mm armor belt on the starboard side of the ship (from the Prince of Wales), destroying the No. 2 boiler, and then penetrating the starboard, causing the No. 2 generator cabin to be flooded, the hull tilted 3° to the left by 9°, and the right propeller tip out of the water, reducing the speed to 26-28 knots. But the damage seemed insignificant compared to the heavy losses of the British—two capital ships, one sunk and one badly wounded. In this battle, Bismarck sank one of the Royal Navy's most proud warships in less than 10 minutes. However, the fuel leak affected bismarck's speed and endurance to a considerable extent, exposing the ship's whereabouts and casting a shadow on Bismarck's future fate. On balance, Lütjens, out of the interest of preserving strength, ordered Bismarck to interrupt the "Rhine Exercise" operation and return to France.
The British soon identified bismarck's location and assembled a large number of warships to encircle them, including the Home Fleet commanded by Admiral John Tovey and the Mediterranean H Force commanded by Vice Admiral James Somerville. On 24 May, Bismarck was attacked by a Swordfish torpedo aircraft taking off from the Aircraft Carrier Victory of the Radiance class, hitting 1 torpedo but causing only minor damage. Prinz Eugen then continued its advance into the Atlantic, while Bismarck turned to Saint-Nasai, France, to repair the damage. After Lütjens performed a clever radar evasion maneuver, the British nearly lost the Bismarck's whereabouts. But on 26 May, after being spotted by a Katarina water patrol aircraft, Bismarck was attacked by the Swordfish aircraft of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, hitting three torpedoes, one of which hit the stern, and the heavy structure was damaged and pressed downward to the steering gear, causing Bismarck's rudder angle to get stuck at 15 degrees. This made it difficult for Bismarck to avoid the attack of the British fleet, and its speed was reduced again, making it difficult to control the course.
On the morning of 27 May, the main British pursuing fleet arrived, including the British King George V and Rodney, and entered range at about eight o'clock, and the two ships quickly approached and bombarded Bismarck with their 16- and 14-inch main guns. Due to the failure of the steering gear, the Bismarck was uncertain, and the design control system was destroyed by stray bullets in a more dramatic engagement, and the return fire was not effective. Bismarck was hit by a handful of dozens, if not hundreds, of large-caliber armor-piercing shells and hundreds of small-caliber shells, plus at least one torpedo. The last 16-inch shell was fired at extremely close ranges (about 3,000 yards). But bismarck was still unsinknished until 10:25 a.m., and even the engine was still running. The British battleships were also running out of fuel at this point, and considering that they might be attacked by submarines, they withdrew from the battle. Leaving the heavy cruiser Dorset at close range, the heavy cruiser fired multiple torpedoes and 3 hits. But Bismarck did not sink at 10:40 a.m. until its crew detonated the ship's explosives to blow open the bottom of the ship, and finally sank 400 nautical miles west of Brest. In addition, its 19-minute sinking speed is not at all what some places say the self-sinking of the sea valve can achieve. The Royal Navy sent a large number of warships to intercept Bismarck, including as many as 8 battleships and battlecruisers and 2 aircraft carriers, about half of the Royal Navy's forces, before finally sinking Bismarck. British commander Admiral Tovey said after the battle: "Like the German Imperial Navy in World War I, Bismarck fought one of its bravest battles, resisting an enemy several times larger than her own, so much so that her flag was still flying when she sank." ”
After this battle, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill also made a high evaluation of bismarck, calling it "a masterpiece in the history of human shipbuilding"