An odd thing to ask, especially when talking with a German and I am not quite sure of what he actually means. But since it's a day of triumph, defeat, cruelty and heart-wrenching humanity all at the same time, let me remind you that today, 78 years ago, KMS Bismarck was sunk on her first and last "Feindfahrt" (literally "enemy journey", meaning a "journey to face the enemy" in the german naval jargon).BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 10:45 amWell it'd be nice if you and the rest of the EU could bring some nationalism to the global table.Madner Kami wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 10:26 amFuck America. Let's appreciate the beauty of every nation fucking up, for just one moment. I'm sure Fuzzy will draw us back in the regular cesspit, as soon as he wakes up.BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 10:24 am Europe is boring. Let's talk about American politics for a change.
3 days prior, Bismarck and her escort, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, engaged the british battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy and also the first and only victim of Bismarck. Bismarck's moment of glory and the moment that sealed her fate just as much as a fateful aerial torpedo-drop is, a hit to one of Hood's aft magazines on her fifth salvo, which resulted in the total loss of Hood.
The magazine erupted in a several houndred meters high pillar of fire and simply broke the ship in two. The ship's momentum and the force of the explosion allowed the forward section to continue on it's way for a few moments, before the rushing-in water first forcefully raised the prow high into the air and then dragged it beneath the waves, just as the stern had done seconds prior. 8 minutes after having opened fire and not even a minute after being hit, 47,430 tons of steel and 1,415 people had almost completely vanished from the face of the Earth. Only 3 crewmen somehow survived.
Prince of Wales had to disengage due to a combination of finding itself suddenly being completely outgunned, battle-damaged and damage sustained prior, due to Prince of Wales being a brand new ship essentially being on it's shake-down cruise, not the mention the rather disheartening effects on morale from seeing the pride of your nation evaporate in a blink of an eye and being showered by parts of Hood and her crew (yes, that happened...).
As soon as the British Admiralty got news of this horrific loss, they mobilized literally everything they could, to follow the Prime Minister Winston Churchill's simple but striking three-word command: "Sink the Bismarck!". Four Battleships, two Battlecruisers, two Aircraft Carriers, three Heavy Cruisers, ten Light Cruisers and twenty-one Destroyers converged on this Juggernaut of the Seas and they only knew this one goal: Sink! The! Bismarck!
It took the british forces 2 agonizingly long days to catch up and land the decisive hit, during which Bismarck was constantly shadowed via ship-born radar and air patrols. On May 26th, 1941, 7:10pm in heavy sea and bad weather, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal launched several strike-groups of outdated Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers, in order to damage or even just slow down the Bismarck, which was going as fast as it could towards the conquered french coast and was just outside of the range of german air support. At 8:47pm, these slow-moving, fragile planes threw themselves desperately into a hailstorm of fire and steel.
And somehow they all came through alive.
Battered, bruised and riddled with holes by FlaK-shrapnel (FlaK being a german abbreviation for "Fliegerabwehrkanone", anti-aircraft gun, for those who thought that the war only resulted in importing rocket technology to the US) they managed the impossible and out of countless drops, 2 torpedoes hit at 9:15pm. One doing minimal damage due to hitting the main armor belt, the other jamming Bismarcks rudder while she was trying to evade, resulting in the ship being incapable of proper steering and being locked onto a course towards the British Fleet. At 11:40pm on May 26th Admiral Lütjens signaled to the Kriegsmarine's command: "Schiff nicht steuerbar. Kämpfen bis zur letzten Granate. Lang lebe der Führer!" (Ship unmaneuverable. Will fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer!).
And so history took it's course. Bismarck was continously engaged during the night by british destroyers, as well as one polish destroyer, who taunted the steel giant by light-signaling "We are Poles!", not letting her or her crew get to rest. On the following morning, at 8:47am, HMS Rodney and HMS King George V opened fire, joint shortly after by the guns of the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire and the secondary batteries of the battleships. Bismarck answered at 8:50am, but her accuracy was lacking, due to the ship's unpredictable maneuvering in the heavy seays. At 9:02am a shell from Rodney struck the forward superstructure, razing the bridge and along with it the entire senior command staff, as well as the forward fire-director. Not that the loss of this hampered the accuracy further, because a second shell from the same salvo also penetrated the second forward turret, exploding inside the structure with a blast that was strong enough to blow out the back armor plating of the 2nd turret, as well as knocking out the forward turret. The crew of the forward turret managed to get off one last salvo at 9:27. The rear fire-director got taken out fairly soon as well and so the rear turrets were ordered to fire independently, but by 9:31 all main battery guns were out of action and silenced. Fire from Bismarck's secondary battery continued erraticly.
Rodney closed to a range of 3km and continued to pump point blank shots into Bismarck and by 10am, both british battleships had fired over 700 shells at Bismarck, reducing the giant steel beast to a husk burning from stem to stern, clearly listing and sinking, the superstructure being barely held together by spit and a stubborn refusal to go down. Sporadically german sailors tried to contact the british ships by flags, light signals and semaphores and offered surrender, while whenever the british ships paused their salvo for a reload, streams of survivors erupted from the belly of the beast and went overboard.
Yet still, despite pleads by their own command staff and even a chaplain, the british commanders ordered to continue firing, as their orders were clear and a surrender could only be accepted if the ship struck it's ensigns or was clearly being abandoned, but as Bismarck was completely out of control by this point in time, nobody could give those commands, every now and then a secondary gun fired a single shot and thus, the shelling continued. At 10:20am, the british ships had fired over 2,800 shells, but yet, Bismarck was still there, refusing to go down. And so Admiral Tovey, the commander of the flotilla ordered to cease the fire. The ships were running out of fuel and ammunition and the continued shelling produced stress-damage on their own ships. Reportedly, most windows on board of Rodney were shattered and it's hull opened up to leak in places, for example and so Tovey ordered Dorsetshire to torpedo Bismarck in order to finally send her to the bottom. At 10:35 Bismarck, already heavily listing, capsized and disppeared under the waves at 10:40am. During the ship's capsizing, the waves crashing against the hull fizzled and the water evaporated, as the hull plating had in places became so hot from internal fires, that the metal already began to glow red, as she sank beneath the waves.
Dorsetshire began to rescue the surviving german sailors, estimated to be somewhere between 400 and 800 men in the water, but had to abandon this duty of mercy, due to a periscope being spotted. Later investigation revealed that the closest submarine, U-74, could pick up the engagement and the sinking on it's microphones, but wouldn't arrive until the next day. Out of the 2,200 men, only 114 were rescued, 3 by U-74.
youtu.be/Bfu2fTghUOE
So let's take a step back and think about those 3,501 people and what they died for. And while I recognize nationalism as a driving force for unity between otherwise very different people, I also have to point out that one always has to stay vigilant and be on the lookout for those, who abuse the concept of a nation for nefarious ends and who want to create an "us versus them"-mentality, because in the end, both the sailors on Hood and Bismarck died for the exact same reasons. They fought and died to protect their country, their people and their way of life and despite all the differences, they were much more similar to each other than they were different. We all are one.
Footage taken from:
*World of Warships - German Battleship Trailer
*Sabaton - Bismarck Music Video
Music taken from:
*World of Warships Soundtrack - Unforgiven
