Bismarck battleship, the pride of Germany

by Havre/Hill County Historic

Preservation Commission

The Blohm and Voss Shipyard built the German battleship Bismarck in Hamburg, Germany. Work started on July 1, 1936; it was to be 823 feet, 6 inches long, 118 feet, 1 inch wide, with a top speed of 35 miles per hour. It had 70 guns, some reaching 22.6 miles; there were no torpedo tubes or torpedoes. The iron belt (sides) was 12.6 inches thick, and gun turrets were 14.2 inches in the front, with 8.7-inch sides. The upper deck was 2 inches thick, and the main deck was 3.9 inches to 4.7 inches; all this was in iron and steel. Bismarck weighed 52,600 tons and had 22 watertight compartments. The ship was named after Otto von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of the German Reich. His granddaughter christened the ship on February 14, 1939. Adolph Hitler was also there and gave the christening speech. Bismarck was illustrious to Hitler and Germany.

The Bismarck was launched, and the “fitting-out” process was started. The inside of the hull was done, which included the main deck. On August 24, 1940, Bismarck was commissioned into the fleet. Then, on September 15, 1940, the sea trials were started; this was to test everything. Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, starting WWII. Two days later, Sept. 3, 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. On May 19, 1941, the Bismarck made its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic Ocean; it was to be three months long. The Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, a heavy cruiser built in 1936, was heading to the North Atlantic to target supply convoys going to Great Britain. Previously, in one month, the German U-boats and surface raiders sank over 600,000 tons of food and war supplies going to Great Britain. The thought was that Britain would have to surrender if they cut food and supplies. There were four ways to get to the North Atlantic; two were on each side of the British Isles, where they could be seen. One was south of Iceland, where they could also be seen. They chose the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland; this route would get them to the North Atlantic Ocean. The Bismarck was still noticed, and the British were notified. Two of the British ships that went to the Denmark Strait were H.M.S. (Her or His Majesty’s Ship) Hood, a battlecruiser commissioned in 1920, the “Pride of the Royal Navy,” nicknamed “The Mighty Hood,” and the H.M.S. Prince of Wales, a battleship commissioned in 1941.

The H.M.S. Hood and H.M.S. Prince of Wales went to the Norway Strait and spotted the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. On May 24, 1941, the battle was started. The H.M.S. Prince of Wales shot and hit the Bismarck in the oil section, causing it to leak oil into the water. One of the shots the Bismarck made was an armor-piercing shell that hit the H.M.S. Hood. It went through the two-inch deck into the ammunition magazine and detonated the cordite propellant. It blew over 800 feet in the air and caused the ship to break in two. Within three minutes, the H.M.S. Hood was sunk, not even giving some of the crew enough time to jump ship. There were three survivors out of a crew of 1,419. This shocked and bothered the people of Great Britain, especially Winston Churchill, who was Prime Minister of Britain. He ordered the navy to have ships and search planes look for the Bismarck. There were six battleships and battlecruisers, two aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers, and 21 destroyers, all looking for the Bismarck. Not knowing the British could decode what the Germans would say on the radio, they discovered that the Bismarck was going to German-occupied Brest, France, for repairs instead of German-occupied Bergen, Norway. With the Bismarck losing oil, an observation plane followed the oil slick to the ship. The plane then gave the Bismarck’s location, and the British ships came for the fight.

The Fairey Swordfish Torpedo Bomber was nicknamed “Stringbag.” It was a biplane with a metal frame wrapped in a tight canvas and carrying one torpedo. It came out in the early 1930s and was discontinued in 1944. A torpedo hit the stern (back of the ship). The blast made the rudders jam, causing the Bismarck to lose its steering and slowly turn to port (left). They tried to fix it with divers but failed. The steering was jammed, and the Bismarck could not go straight. British torpedoes and shells then hit it. The Bismarck was slowly sinking when the crew was told to scuttle it so the British could not control it. Scuttling charges were set, sea valves and waterproof hatches were opened, and then they abandoned the ship. 2,131 of the crew perished, and 115 were saved. The Bismarck was nine days into its maiden voyage.

The Bismarck wreck now sits 2.84 miles in the Atlantic Ocean, about 370 miles west of Brest, France. Hitler would no longer let warships go in the North Atlantic, only U-boats. 1,100 miles from it, in the Denmark strait, is the wreckage of the H.M.S. Hood; it lies 1.74 miles down. A plaque was put on the wrecks with the name of each crew member who died. Aug. 7, 2015, the bell was recovered from the H.M.S Hood and restored. After a ceremony, it was given to the Natural Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, England.

The black-and-white movie “Sink the Bismarck” was released in 1960.

Motivated by the movie, Johnny Horton also came out with the song “Sink the Bismarck “in 1960