KMS Bismarck

Schlachtschiff Bismarck was one of two Bismarck-class battleships deployed by the Kriegsmarine in World War II. Its sister-ship was Schlachtschiff Tirpitz. Commissioned in 1940, Bismarck had four turrets of two 15" naval guns each, so she was slightly undergunned in comparison with the 16" and 18.1" guns of American and Japanese battleships.

Sortie

Commissioned in 1940, she had her only operational sortie, in company with the light cruiser Prinz Eugen, in May 1941. Admiral Günther Lütjens, Commanding Heavy Ships, German Fleet, was in tactical command of the task force; Captain Ernst Lindemann was commanding officer of Bismarck.

Once the British became aware of the sortie, they put heavy ships on each possible approach. In the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the German unit encountered the large battlecruiser HMS Hood (1920) and the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales which was still in shakedown with shipyard technicians aboard. Hood exploded and sank with only three survivors. Prince of Wales was severely damaged (this needs to be verified). Prinz Eugen returned home.

Most of the British Home Fleet gave chase. Torpedo bombers from HMS Ark Royal (1938) damaged Bismarck's rudder and left her steering in circles southwest of Ireland. Heavy ships of the Home Fleet engaged her and, while she was left sinking from battleship gunfire and torpedo hits from cruisers, chose her own end when the crew scuttled her (this needs to be checked too).

Bismarck demonstrated very bad, and very good, aspects of safety and survivability of naval vessels. Her rudder was unprotected, and key control and communications cables ran on the deck and were quickly cut. Nevertheless, her watertight compartmentation was superb and she took immense damage before sinking.