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My grandfather was in the German navy during WW2. He was on board of the old battleship Schleswig Holstein when it fired the first shots of WW2 at Polish positions near the city of Danzig, then he was part of a motor torpedo boat crew and he had successfully applied to becoming part of Bismarck's crew, but luckily for him (and subsequently me), he got wounded a week or so before transferring and was replaced with another unlucky sailor.
@@jamponyexpress7956 Not off the top of my head. I'd have to ask my uncle. He is the family history enthusiast and probably has all the documents and the medals and so on. I last saw that stuff as a kid, when my grandmother (Who actually was a girl from Danzig and met my grandfather when he was on shore leave from the Schleswig Holstein.) was still alive. Apparently my grandfather had a interesting life. He was the son of a rich land (mostly vineyards) owner family in the south-west of Germany. His mother was one of those classical grand dame type women who basically ran the valley. She had bribed the local authorities to exempt her 2 sons from the draft, but both ran away to join the army and navy. Her older son was KIA on the eastern front, (I think even in Stalingrad, but I am not sure) and she never forgave my grandfather, her younger son, for running away and then bringing a poor girl from East Prussia home as his wive instead of doing some arranged strategic marriage with some other rich land owner family. The most interesting thing about my grandfather was though that the crew of his MTB refused to surrender at the end of the war. Their commander convinced them to keep fighting for some reason. They broke into a Luftwaffe base that was already occupied by allied forces to steal ammo for their machine guns and then raided some allied freighters. They didn't kill anybody, which is why they were only sentenced to 20 years of hard labor for piracy when they eventually were caught. They were released early, after only a few years because they had volunteered to disarm sea mines. After that my grandfather became a globetrotting engineer, installing and repairing cocoa and coffee roasting ovens in Africa, South America and Asia. He basically was away most of the year, gallivanting around the world and leaving his wive, 5 children and his old mother alone in Germany, which finally broke the camel's back and his mother sold all her land to relatives for basically nothing to punish him. (Funnily, when the soap opera "Falcon Crest" aired on German TV in the late 80s and early 90s, a aunt of mine was obsessed with it and always talked about how the plot of the show was basically our family's history.) It always was my father's great trauma to be part of a kind of impoverished branch of a rich family. I remember how when I was a kid and we drove around in the family car, he would constantly point at places and tell me about which pieces of land or buildings ought to have been his inheritance but now belonged to some distant cousin or other relative. It was pathetic.
@@copter2000 Thanks. My grandfather didn't care about money or the land. He just wanted to travel the world and have adventures. His son, my father on the other hand is a weak man who never got over not getting something he didn't work for. I do get it to some extend. He grew up in a rural area where every family had at least some land. Being the only kid in school who wouldn't inherit at least one or two vineyards probably meant the others were looking down on him. I would like being rich too, of course, but not by inheriting stuff, but by building something myself.
Re Prince of Wales being identified as King George V., there was literally no way of telling the two apart at the ranges involved as they were by that time identical except for a few minor details. Re Victorious' losses, Manthey was a Gefreiter so he relied on tannoy announcements and the rumor mill but Bismarck had a B-Dienst detachment aboard which were experts in intercepting enemy communications so they might have intercepted the distress calls of the Fulmars and either they or the shipboard rumour mill drew wrong conclusions about it. Re the ranks, the Kriegsmarine enlisted ranks worked as those of the US navy that the function was included in the rank instead of today in the Verwendungsreihe. So a Matrosengefreiter would be a Gefreiter in the seamanship branch (today Verwendungsreihe 11) while for example a administration Gefreiter would be a Schreibstuben-Gefreiter. Same with petty officers. Today's Bootsmann and Maat were only seamanship ranks. The other branches would have other titles like Steuermann or Oberheizer etc
It is standard practice in the Royal Navy to court martial the commander of any ship that is lost, not simply to establish blame, but perhaps more importantly to discover what may be learned about enemy capabilities and what can be done in future to decrease further losses.
@@FranzAntonMesmer They amount to the same thing. Imagine a "court of enquiry" . In England 🏴 (and Wales 🏴) an 'inquest' is carried out under law by a "coroner's court' These courts are to determine Cause. Refusal to Cooperate can land a person in jail.
There is a TH-cam video of the Nazi era German Navy firing the 37mm anti aircraft guns. One sailor had a sort of divided basked on his front and he removed and passed single 2 pound shells which were loaded into the gun by hand. The equivalent of the fully automatic eight barrelled pom-pom or fully automatic twin or quad Bofors in the allied navies fired one shot at a time. Remarkable.
Actions at night, or when it is dark, often confuse the count as a single plane can be 'spotted' several times, particularly in and out of clouds. Also, they are torpedo planes which typically release their load at low altitude. A plane might drop down to 'the deck' during a torpedo run and be counted as 'shot down' because you lost track of it climbing back up. Dive bombers have to get close, but torpedo planes off in the distance a ways. Also, the torpedoes make a large splash when they hit the water, and at a distance you might think it was a plane. Again, you think it is 'shot down'. Note, the torpedo planes tend to turn and climb away from the anti-aircraft fire, so the rear gunner is the one who spots the result. You might see a splash in the ocean and not see the plane turn and fly away. We have already seen in previous episodes that tankers often miscounted the number of enemy vehicles they destroyed. Similar fog of battle.
One of the reasons so many of Bismarck's crew perished is that, due to reports of U-boats in the area, the British fleet quickly left instead of stopping to pick up survivors.
8:21 this is propbably speculation as at the time the Royal Navy was the only navy on the planet that could perform night time operations (in during the entire of WW2 it was the only one to have it's full carrier force capable of this). So I imagine that is a german naval air arms officer imagining it from their perspective of how many aircraft could could land with no training.
This is the first time I've read a survivor's account from Bismarck, thanks for finding and publishing this. At the risk of opening a can of worms, there is a question as to whether Bismarck was actually sunk by the various British attacks or was scuttled prior to abandoning ship. I've gathered that German policy on denying the use of ships or equipment to the enemy as a last resort was quite strict (see Graf Spee). I would think if a survivor recalled the word being passed to scuttle, that would be an important clue in this regard. I noted that this sailor's circumstances probably would have prevented him from hearing a scuttling order if one was given.
Most of the carriers lost at Midway were finished off by their own side when it became obvious the ship couldn't be saved, yet no one claims they weren't sunk by the enemy. Only in the case of the Bismarck do we get voices* shouting "Ah no! the Royal Navy didn't sink her! The crew scuttled her, Bismarck was not defeated!" We'll never know one way or the other the cause of her finally sinking, but it really doesn't matter, she's sat on the bottom of the Atlantic because the Royal Navy put her there. *Wehraboo's
I find it interesting when he says a wave washed their dingy off the deck, scuttled or not she was already clearly going down, and there would be no one onboard able to run pumps etc to reverse that.
"The ships are based on actual blueprints." Except the Soviet ones, which are based on Stalin's cocktail napkin drawings of ships in 1945 having 6 meter thick armor, 50 500mm guns, and a top speed of 60 knots.
Yeah, funny how the one major participant of the war that didn't actually have any battleships and didn't have any worth mentioning before that, somehow had plans for the smartest and best designed ones, according to that game. (Having super narrow superstructures that are easy to over-penetrate and stuff like that.)
That seems like a gross underestimation of Soviet industrial design. They were extremely competent when it came to designs they were actually able to put effort into. It just happens that the navy was their dump stat, and there was zero reason for the USSR to build ships on any significant scale during WWII.
On the discrepancy between the count of salvoes. Drachinifel mentioned in his video on Operation Rheinübung that the Bismarck fired half-salvoes to be able to close in faster on the enemy. If the seaman counted only a full salvoe as a salvoe that would fit, because salvoes 1 and 2 he would count as 1, 3 and 4 as 2, and 5 as 3 (i.e. the first half of three). In his position he did not have any chance to know what was going on and to count the fire of all guns as one salvoe makes perfect sense from his perspective.
From the Official Report. At 1030 on the 26th a Catalina of the Coastal Command sighted the Bismarck about 550 miles west of Land s End. The King George V, Rodney, and Renown were now converging on the Bay of Biscay. Reconnaissance planes from the Ark Royal took up the watch on the Bismarck, At 1500 an air striking force was dispatched from the Ark Royal, but its attack was ineffectual. The second and decisive attack was made by 15 Swordfish, armed with torpedoes, and lasted from 2055 to 2125, The 400 men assigned to the Bismarck's anti-aircraft guns maintained a furious barrage, but the crews, which had been on watch almost continuously for 5 days, were near exhaustion and their fire was not as effective as previously. The planes attacked simultaneously from a number of points, diving to the attack at an angle of about 50 . One torpedo struck amidships on the port side, one on the starboard quarter, and possibly a third on the port quarter; The torpedo which hit the starboard quarter wrecked the steering gear, jamming the rudders and causing the Bismarck to turn slowly in circles to the starboard. Frantic efforts were made to repair the damage: It was announced that the man who succeeded in freeing the rudders would be given the Knight Insignia of the Iron Cross. Divers succeeded in centering one rudder, but the other could not be freed, Efforts were made to steer the ship by her engines, but after a short period, instead of proceeding on her intended southeasterly course, the Bismarck was actually northwest of her position when the attack was made. There appears to have been further controversy among the officers. The captain, when asked by an officer whether he should try to blow off the jammed rudder, is reported to have replied, "Do what you like; I am through with it." The ship's best speed was now reduced to 10 to 12 knots. At 0857 the Bismarck sustained her first hit. Five minutes later a 16-inch shell from the Rodney apparently put the German battleship's A and B turrets out of action. C and D turrets were firing on the King George V when a shell from one of the British warships carried away the rangefinder and paralyzed the control position. These exchanges took place at a range of about 20,000 yards. By 0020 range had been narrowed to 11,500 yards; 10 minutes latter the Bismarck was on fire and virtually out of control, though her C and D turrets were still firing independently and her secondary battery was in use. Demoralization of the Bismarck's crew was now apparent. One officer is said to have drawn his revolver and shot several seamen who refused to obey him. Officers were reported to have committed suicide, and scores of the crew jumped overboard before the action ceased. Almost all of the 400 anti-aircraft gunners, for whom no special protection had been provided during surface action, became casualties.
There's a lot of errors in combat accounts. You can find cases in the Pacific Theater errors in identifying Destroyers as Cruisers, cheap little Escort Carriers like Casablanca-class being confused for the large Essex-class Fleet Carriers. This happened in the Battle of Samar, part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf in late 1944. In the Battle of Coral Sea, veteran scout aircrew spotted an American Carrier. Carriers Shokaku & Zuikaku got the report and immediately sent a large first strike. When the bombers got to the target area, there was no Carrier. Only a Destroyer and an Oiler ship. The bombers attacked anyways but the Japanese wasted their first strike. Historians get the fun job of taking note of these accounts, gather them from both sides, and check the records. Especially when it comes to casualties and equipment damage and losses.
For what it’s worth Macgruder’s principle might be what led to the aircraft difference, though not necessarily intentional deception by the British. When you can’t see much but you see the enemy going multiple ways multiple times you’re more likely to think it’s a different guy rather than one guy doing loopey-d-loops
In the History Channel series 'Dogfights,' they ran an episode about Bismarck - because the torpedo planes proved so vital to crippling it - and a surviving Bismarck crewman said that a torpedo hit early in the fight caused little damage, but threw a Machinist's Mate "headlong into the bulkhead," killing him. According to the veteran, this was the first casualty on the Bismarck.
A few other interesting facts the Prince of Wales also hit first and was the most accurate ship there. Even though it hadn't even been finished and still had workman on board and therefore only 5 of it's guns worked at one time.
@@Alex-cw3rzIts not true that PoW was the most accurate shooting ship in the DS battle, the Germans did not open fire until 3 minutes after the Brits thanks to Lutchens stupidity, in fact it was PE that scored a hit in the shortest time, followed by Bismarck! And both German ships scored hits on both Hood and PoW!
@@niclasjohansson4333 no it was the most accurate as well it fired less shells due to the issues with it's guns because it was brand new. Prinz eugen fired on it but it doesn't seem to have hit or it's shot was not powerful enough to effect Prince of Wales
@@Alex-cw3rz No you are wrong, The german ships opened fire 3 minuts after Hood and PoW and still PE hit Hood with a couple of shells, and Bismarck hit with at least one (even thou its gunnery radar was out of action) ! Than both PE and B switshed targets to PoW, Bismarck scored 4, and PE 3 hits on PoW, the Britsh BB did not score a single hit after she herself was under fire ! So the fact remains that both German ships scored more hits, in a shorter time, even after they both had to change targets !
Maybe because engine steering is not that effective all across the board. There's an example of a US cruiser in Guadalcanal that most people would argue should have engine-steered better than the Bismarck but was still helpless when sailing in semi-calm waters.
The Versailles treaty enforced warship design inexperience meant they designed the power plant with the outside propeller shafts turned in towards the ship’s centre of gravity. This was to reduce yawing due to differing propeller revolutions. Angling the shafts slightly in the opposite direction would have enhanced steering by the propellers. Four shafts would have been far better.
Re the Tannoy announcement about fighting and dying that lowered morale: The "commander of the fleet" (Flottenchef) was not Raeder but Lütjens aboard Bismarck herself. He seems to have been strangely untalented as a leader of men but of course he had far less freedom of decisionmaking than his grandiose title of Flottenchef implied.
An ironic thing is that the Spanish heavy cruiser Canarias, which was searching for survivors, was both the heaviest ship in the Spanish navy and the lightest ship present in the area (not counting destroyers)
I am sure you know the book of KKpt. von Müllenheim-Rechberg. I wonder if he or Kaleu (Ing) Junack (the only surviving officers) provided any details in their letters home from POW camp. As far as I know Müllenheim is the only survivor to ever have written a book about it, though others might have contributed articles in periodicals such as Köhlers Flottenkalender or Marine Arsenal after the war. Maybe even some Landserhefte ;)
German reports vs Allies: "We hit dozens of planes in two days!" - Duh, never confirmed by the reports German reports vs Soviets: "We hit dozens of planes in two days!" - OMG, what a score!!!
Wow, I never knew that most of the sailor wouldn't know about the radar. does it have any correlation with the fact that radar is a new thing back in early 1940s?
I believe that all nations' radars were classified equipment during the war, especially in the early years. I can readily believe that sailors not involved with fire control weren't informed about it.
But if on deck you would be more protected vs muzzle blast at the barbette and behind the muzzles than 100 meters to the side of the muzzles. But as others have said, the barbettes were a main target for enemy fire. In short - being on Bismarck was a bad hair day...
@@steffenb.jrgensen2014 Yeah, but after B turret had got hit I would have thought they would keep away. The armour failed to stop a shell which then blew the back out onto the bridge killing a lot of people. Although I agree, there weren't any good places to stand!
@@MrEddieLomax IIRC they were at the after turrets and knew nothing about the fate of the forward turrets. All the survivors from Bismarck were from the aft ship. I guess they were scared and perhaps first of all of being trapped inside if/when the ship would go down?
@@steffenb.jrgensen2014 There was an account of someone who survived from inside the ship, it was hellish, a mixture of fire and fumes from the shellfire. I guess its just human instinct to go to the big solid armoured thing, we see the same in Ukraine where Russian soldiers crowd around a tank. I think (competenmt) armies train soldiers to disperse, but ths isn't something anyone trains for on a battleship...
That was a failure in the design of the ship, not a failure on the sailors' part. The architects and engineers should have noticed this flaw and corrected it before even building the ship.
@@ToddSauve I mean really, think about it. Consider how much more likely it is that the *flying* target is going to appear above 0 line (horizon) than below it? Yes of course its a flaw, but a radically niche one.
@@johnmcpudding857 Well, when it completely disables your battleship and allows it to be sunk, is that really niche? I don't think so. But suit yourself ...
@@ToddSauve I think you missed my point a bit. Yes of course torpedo bombers are incredibly dangerous and should be prepared to fight against, but out of all of the possible angles AA has to cover, aircraft flying at sea level are the least likely, thus mandating the least priority of coverage.
Been wondering that as well. Probably wouldn't have made much of a difference to the actual final battle, but maybe she could have take Bismarck in tow?
Yeah, there actually was a very detailed video about this exact polemic. Even if Bismarck was towed and hit by other torpedoes, there was like 80-90% chance they both would make it to France.
@@niclasjohansson4333 Not really, the royal navy fought most of ww2 with ww1 and pre ww1 battleships. The US navy did build some but built so much that it was a minuscule effort. I wonder if the best tactic for Germans would have been to seek to tie up our resources, although with all authoritarian regimes they don't do the logic and prefer willy-waving tactics. Hitler loved big ships so they built big ships...
For the German war effort the capital ships were a waste of effort, but I would say they were most valuable for the Japanese. As long as German capital ships were afloat the RN had to keep a sizeable part of its strength in NA waters - just in case. That very much prevented the British from keeping a creditable force in the Far East, where the future of the Empire was decided.
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My grandfather was in the German navy during WW2. He was on board of the old battleship Schleswig Holstein when it fired the first shots of WW2 at Polish positions near the city of Danzig, then he was part of a motor torpedo boat crew and he had successfully applied to becoming part of Bismarck's crew, but luckily for him (and subsequently me), he got wounded a week or so before transferring and was replaced with another unlucky sailor.
wounded, i imagine while he was still part of the MTB crew? do you know where his MTB unit was stationed?
@@jamponyexpress7956 Not off the top of my head. I'd have to ask my uncle. He is the family history enthusiast and probably has all the documents and the medals and so on. I last saw that stuff as a kid, when my grandmother (Who actually was a girl from Danzig and met my grandfather when he was on shore leave from the Schleswig Holstein.) was still alive.
Apparently my grandfather had a interesting life. He was the son of a rich land (mostly vineyards) owner family in the south-west of Germany. His mother was one of those classical grand dame type women who basically ran the valley. She had bribed the local authorities to exempt her 2 sons from the draft, but both ran away to join the army and navy.
Her older son was KIA on the eastern front, (I think even in Stalingrad, but I am not sure) and she never forgave my grandfather, her younger son, for running away and then bringing a poor girl from East Prussia home as his wive instead of doing some arranged strategic marriage with some other rich land owner family.
The most interesting thing about my grandfather was though that the crew of his MTB refused to surrender at the end of the war. Their commander convinced them to keep fighting for some reason.
They broke into a Luftwaffe base that was already occupied by allied forces to steal ammo for their machine guns and then raided some allied freighters. They didn't kill anybody, which is why they were only sentenced to 20 years of hard labor for piracy when they eventually were caught.
They were released early, after only a few years because they had volunteered to disarm sea mines.
After that my grandfather became a globetrotting engineer, installing and repairing cocoa and coffee roasting ovens in Africa, South America and Asia.
He basically was away most of the year, gallivanting around the world and leaving his wive, 5 children and his old mother alone in Germany, which finally broke the camel's back and his mother sold all her land to relatives for basically nothing to punish him.
(Funnily, when the soap opera "Falcon Crest" aired on German TV in the late 80s and early 90s, a aunt of mine was obsessed with it and always talked about how the plot of the show was basically our family's history.)
It always was my father's great trauma to be part of a kind of impoverished branch of a rich family.
I remember how when I was a kid and we drove around in the family car, he would constantly point at places and tell me about which pieces of land or buildings ought to have been his inheritance but now belonged to some distant cousin or other relative.
It was pathetic.
damn that's sad.
@@TrangleCI'm sad for him. But I kinda understand his mother's actions. Life suck :(
@@copter2000 Thanks.
My grandfather didn't care about money or the land. He just wanted to travel the world and have adventures.
His son, my father on the other hand is a weak man who never got over not getting something he didn't work for.
I do get it to some extend. He grew up in a rural area where every family had at least some land. Being the only kid in school who wouldn't inherit at least one or two vineyards probably meant the others were looking down on him.
I would like being rich too, of course, but not by inheriting stuff, but by building something myself.
Re Prince of Wales being identified as King George V., there was literally no way of telling the two apart at the ranges involved as they were by that time identical except for a few minor details. Re Victorious' losses, Manthey was a Gefreiter so he relied on tannoy announcements and the rumor mill but Bismarck had a B-Dienst detachment aboard which were experts in intercepting enemy communications so they might have intercepted the distress calls of the Fulmars and either they or the shipboard rumour mill drew wrong conclusions about it. Re the ranks, the Kriegsmarine enlisted ranks worked as those of the US navy that the function was included in the rank instead of today in the Verwendungsreihe. So a Matrosengefreiter would be a Gefreiter in the seamanship branch (today Verwendungsreihe 11) while for example a administration Gefreiter would be a Schreibstuben-Gefreiter. Same with petty officers. Today's Bootsmann and Maat were only seamanship ranks. The other branches would have other titles like Steuermann or Oberheizer etc
It is standard practice in the Royal Navy to court martial the commander of any ship that is lost, not simply to establish blame, but perhaps more importantly to discover what may be learned about enemy capabilities and what can be done in future to decrease further losses.
I was wondering if there is a navy where it was common practice to court martial the capitain after the ship was lost. Turns out there is, lol.
@@FranzAntonMesmer They amount to the same thing. Imagine a "court of enquiry" .
In England 🏴 (and Wales 🏴) an 'inquest' is carried out under law by a "coroner's court' These courts are to determine Cause. Refusal to Cooperate can land a person in jail.
There is a TH-cam video of the Nazi era German Navy firing the 37mm anti aircraft guns. One sailor had a sort of divided basked on his front and he removed and passed single 2 pound shells which were loaded into the gun by hand. The equivalent of the fully automatic eight barrelled pom-pom or fully automatic twin or quad Bofors in the allied navies fired one shot at a time. Remarkable.
Actions at night, or when it is dark, often confuse the count as a single plane can be 'spotted' several times, particularly in and out of clouds. Also, they are torpedo planes which typically release their load at low altitude. A plane might drop down to 'the deck' during a torpedo run and be counted as 'shot down' because you lost track of it climbing back up. Dive bombers have to get close, but torpedo planes off in the distance a ways.
Also, the torpedoes make a large splash when they hit the water, and at a distance you might think it was a plane. Again, you think it is 'shot down'. Note, the torpedo planes tend to turn and climb away from the anti-aircraft fire, so the rear gunner is the one who spots the result. You might see a splash in the ocean and not see the plane turn and fly away.
We have already seen in previous episodes that tankers often miscounted the number of enemy vehicles they destroyed. Similar fog of battle.
Nice ad, no lies, just dry facts, no luring into bad game, just doing your job. Well done!
One of the reasons so many of Bismarck's crew perished is that, due to reports of U-boats in the area, the British fleet quickly left instead of stopping to pick up survivors.
8:21 this is propbably speculation as at the time the Royal Navy was the only navy on the planet that could perform night time operations (in during the entire of WW2 it was the only one to have it's full carrier force capable of this). So I imagine that is a german naval air arms officer imagining it from their perspective of how many aircraft could could land with no training.
This is the first time I've read a survivor's account from Bismarck, thanks for finding and publishing this. At the risk of opening a can of worms, there is a question as to whether Bismarck was actually sunk by the various British attacks or was scuttled prior to abandoning ship. I've gathered that German policy on denying the use of ships or equipment to the enemy as a last resort was quite strict (see Graf Spee). I would think if a survivor recalled the word being passed to scuttle, that would be an important clue in this regard. I noted that this sailor's circumstances probably would have prevented him from hearing a scuttling order if one was given.
From the answers it seems that the scuttling question was asked, since I think all 5 mentioned something along: we lost sight, we did not hear, etc.
Most of the carriers lost at Midway were finished off by their own side when it became obvious the ship couldn't be saved, yet no one claims they weren't sunk by the enemy. Only in the case of the Bismarck do we get voices* shouting
"Ah no! the Royal Navy didn't sink her! The crew scuttled her, Bismarck was not defeated!"
We'll never know one way or the other the cause of her finally sinking, but it really doesn't matter, she's sat on the bottom of the Atlantic because the Royal Navy put her there.
*Wehraboo's
I find it interesting when he says a wave washed their dingy off the deck, scuttled or not she was already clearly going down, and there would be no one onboard able to run pumps etc to reverse that.
"The ships are based on actual blueprints."
Except the Soviet ones, which are based on Stalin's cocktail napkin drawings of ships in 1945 having 6 meter thick armor, 50 500mm guns, and a top speed of 60 knots.
I wonder if those count as blueprints by the Soviet standards, though.
Yeah, funny how the one major participant of the war that didn't actually have any battleships and didn't have any worth mentioning before that, somehow had plans for the smartest and best designed ones, according to that game. (Having super narrow superstructures that are easy to over-penetrate and stuff like that.)
That seems like a gross underestimation of Soviet industrial design. They were extremely competent when it came to designs they were actually able to put effort into. It just happens that the navy was their dump stat, and there was zero reason for the USSR to build ships on any significant scale during WWII.
@@TrangleC They had 3 vintage battleships from the Tsar days, reasoanably modernized
On the discrepancy between the count of salvoes. Drachinifel mentioned in his video on Operation Rheinübung that the Bismarck fired half-salvoes to be able to close in faster on the enemy. If the seaman counted only a full salvoe as a salvoe that would fit, because salvoes 1 and 2 he would count as 1, 3 and 4 as 2, and 5 as 3 (i.e. the first half of three). In his position he did not have any chance to know what was going on and to count the fire of all guns as one salvoe makes perfect sense from his perspective.
From the Official Report.
At 1030 on the 26th a Catalina of the Coastal Command sighted the Bismarck about 550 miles west of Land s End. The King George V, Rodney, and Renown were now converging on the Bay of Biscay. Reconnaissance planes from the Ark Royal took up the watch on the Bismarck, At 1500 an air striking force was dispatched from the Ark Royal, but its attack was ineffectual. The second and decisive attack was made by 15 Swordfish, armed with torpedoes, and lasted from 2055 to 2125,
The 400 men assigned to the Bismarck's anti-aircraft guns maintained a furious barrage, but the crews, which had been on watch almost continuously for 5 days, were near exhaustion and their fire was not as effective as previously. The planes attacked simultaneously from a number of points, diving to the attack at an angle of about 50 .
One torpedo struck amidships on the port side, one on the starboard quarter, and possibly a third on the port quarter; The torpedo which hit the starboard quarter wrecked the steering gear, jamming the rudders and causing the Bismarck to turn slowly in circles to the starboard. Frantic efforts were made to repair the damage: It was announced that the man who succeeded in freeing the rudders would be given the Knight Insignia of the Iron Cross. Divers succeeded in centering one rudder, but the other could not be freed, Efforts were made to steer the ship by her engines, but after a short period, instead of proceeding on her intended southeasterly course, the Bismarck was actually northwest of her position when the attack was made. There appears to have been further controversy among the officers. The captain, when asked by an officer whether he should try to blow off the jammed rudder, is reported to have replied, "Do what you like; I am through with it." The ship's best speed was now reduced to 10 to 12 knots.
At 0857 the Bismarck sustained her first hit. Five minutes later a 16-inch shell from the Rodney apparently put the German battleship's A and B turrets out of action. C and D turrets were firing on the King George V when a shell from one of the British warships carried away the rangefinder and paralyzed the control position. These exchanges took place at a range of about 20,000 yards. By 0020 range had been narrowed to 11,500 yards; 10 minutes latter the Bismarck was on fire and virtually out of control, though her C and D turrets were still firing independently and her secondary battery was in use.
Demoralization of the Bismarck's crew was now apparent. One officer is said to have drawn his revolver and shot several seamen who refused to obey him. Officers were reported to have committed suicide, and scores of the crew jumped overboard before the action ceased. Almost all of the 400 anti-aircraft gunners, for whom no special protection had been provided during surface action, became casualties.
Thank you for the detailed review of contemporary German documents.
There's a lot of errors in combat accounts. You can find cases in the Pacific Theater errors in identifying Destroyers as Cruisers, cheap little Escort Carriers like Casablanca-class being confused for the large Essex-class Fleet Carriers. This happened in the Battle of Samar, part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf in late 1944. In the Battle of Coral Sea, veteran scout aircrew spotted an American Carrier. Carriers Shokaku & Zuikaku got the report and immediately sent a large first strike. When the bombers got to the target area, there was no Carrier. Only a Destroyer and an Oiler ship. The bombers attacked anyways but the Japanese wasted their first strike.
Historians get the fun job of taking note of these accounts, gather them from both sides, and check the records. Especially when it comes to casualties and equipment damage and losses.
Thank you.
For what it’s worth Macgruder’s principle might be what led to the aircraft difference, though not necessarily intentional deception by the British. When you can’t see much but you see the enemy going multiple ways multiple times you’re more likely to think it’s a different guy rather than one guy doing loopey-d-loops
The 3 hits from Prince of Wales, is something I've never heard before.
In the History Channel series 'Dogfights,' they ran an episode about Bismarck - because the torpedo planes proved so vital to crippling it - and a surviving Bismarck crewman said that a torpedo hit early in the fight caused little damage, but threw a Machinist's Mate "headlong into the bulkhead," killing him. According to the veteran, this was the first casualty on the Bismarck.
A few other interesting facts the Prince of Wales also hit first and was the most accurate ship there. Even though it hadn't even been finished and still had workman on board and therefore only 5 of it's guns worked at one time.
@@Alex-cw3rzIts not true that PoW was the most accurate shooting ship in the DS battle, the Germans did not open fire until 3 minutes after the Brits thanks to Lutchens stupidity, in fact it was PE that scored a hit in the shortest time, followed by Bismarck! And both German ships scored hits on both Hood and PoW!
@@niclasjohansson4333 no it was the most accurate as well it fired less shells due to the issues with it's guns because it was brand new. Prinz eugen fired on it but it doesn't seem to have hit or it's shot was not powerful enough to effect Prince of Wales
@@Alex-cw3rz No you are wrong, The german ships opened fire 3 minuts after Hood and PoW and still PE hit Hood with a couple of shells, and Bismarck hit with at least one (even thou its gunnery radar was out of action) ! Than both PE and B switshed targets to PoW, Bismarck scored 4, and PE 3 hits on PoW, the Britsh BB did not score a single hit after she herself was under fire ! So the fact remains that both German ships scored more hits, in a shorter time, even after they both had to change targets !
During sea trials, it was noted that Bismarck did not steer well on engines alone, a factor which may have played its part.
Maybe because engine steering is not that effective all across the board. There's an example of a US cruiser in Guadalcanal that most people would argue should have engine-steered better than the Bismarck but was still helpless when sailing in semi-calm waters.
The Versailles treaty enforced warship design inexperience meant they designed the power plant with the outside propeller shafts turned in towards the ship’s centre of gravity. This was to reduce yawing due to differing propeller revolutions. Angling the shafts slightly in the opposite direction would have enhanced steering by the propellers. Four shafts would have been far better.
Re the Tannoy announcement about fighting and dying that lowered morale: The "commander of the fleet" (Flottenchef) was not Raeder but Lütjens aboard Bismarck herself. He seems to have been strangely untalented as a leader of men but of course he had far less freedom of decisionmaking than his grandiose title of Flottenchef implied.
Interesting.
An ironic thing is that the Spanish heavy cruiser Canarias, which was searching for survivors, was both the heaviest ship in the Spanish navy and the lightest ship present in the area (not counting destroyers)
It was a modified British County class cruiser not very different from the shadowing Norfolk and Suffolk and the final action Dorsetshire.
They jinxed it by bringing exactly one dude to few.
I am sure you know the book of KKpt. von Müllenheim-Rechberg. I wonder if he or Kaleu (Ing) Junack (the only surviving officers) provided any details in their letters home from POW camp. As far as I know Müllenheim is the only survivor to ever have written a book about it, though others might have contributed articles in periodicals such as Köhlers Flottenkalender or Marine Arsenal after the war. Maybe even some Landserhefte ;)
Trench Diaries here on TH-cam is reading the book in sections. Very interesting.
German reports vs Allies: "We hit dozens of planes in two days!"
- Duh, never confirmed by the reports
German reports vs Soviets: "We hit dozens of planes in two days!"
- OMG, what a score!!!
…I mean there’s was only recovered wreckage
Mind boggling that two civlized European countries with near identical interests fought twice. 😢
Wow, I never knew that most of the sailor wouldn't know about the radar. does it have any correlation with the fact that radar is a new thing back in early 1940s?
I believe that all nations' radars were classified equipment during the war, especially in the early years. I can readily believe that sailors not involved with fire control weren't informed about it.
Survivor Report: “Naval gunfire hurts”
I cannot even imagine being on deck with the main guns firing...
I did find it strange that they tried to shelter next to the intact main guns, which were the primary targets...
But if on deck you would be more protected vs muzzle blast at the barbette and behind the muzzles than 100 meters to the side of the muzzles. But as others have said, the barbettes were a main target for enemy fire. In short - being on Bismarck was a bad hair day...
@@steffenb.jrgensen2014 Yeah, but after B turret had got hit I would have thought they would keep away. The armour failed to stop a shell which then blew the back out onto the bridge killing a lot of people.
Although I agree, there weren't any good places to stand!
@@MrEddieLomax IIRC they were at the after turrets and knew nothing about the fate of the forward turrets. All the survivors from Bismarck were from the aft ship. I guess they were scared and perhaps first of all of being trapped inside if/when the ship would go down?
@@steffenb.jrgensen2014
There was an account of someone who survived from inside the ship, it was hellish, a mixture of fire and fumes from the shellfire.
I guess its just human instinct to go to the big solid armoured thing, we see the same in Ukraine where Russian soldiers crowd around a tank.
I think (competenmt) armies train soldiers to disperse, but ths isn't something anyone trains for on a battleship...
I know I should probably respect veterans, but at a deep level I want to mock the no gun depression of Bismarck's AA
That was a failure in the design of the ship, not a failure on the sailors' part. The architects and engineers should have noticed this flaw and corrected it before even building the ship.
@@ToddSauve I mean really, think about it. Consider how much more likely it is that the *flying* target is going to appear above 0 line (horizon) than below it? Yes of course its a flaw, but a radically niche one.
@@johnmcpudding857 Well, when it completely disables your battleship and allows it to be sunk, is that really niche? I don't think so. But suit yourself ...
@@ToddSauve I think you missed my point a bit. Yes of course torpedo bombers are incredibly dangerous and should be prepared to fight against, but out of all of the possible angles AA has to cover, aircraft flying at sea level are the least likely, thus mandating the least priority of coverage.
Was this the first time CV strikes led to the loss of a Capital ship?
Some of the Taranto battleships were never repaired.
Wonder if the prinz eugen would have stayed with bismarck , she would have not sunk ?
Been wondering that as well. Probably wouldn't have made much of a difference to the actual final battle, but maybe she could have take Bismarck in tow?
@@simon4781 well , less of a chance of it being crippeled by a torpdeos
Yeah, there actually was a very detailed video about this exact polemic. Even if Bismarck was towed and hit by other torpedoes, there was like 80-90% chance they both would make it to France.
@@MrBejkovec Had Prinz Eugen stayed with Bismarck, the overwhelming probability is that both would have been sunk.
@@MrBejkovec That sounds really interesting. Could you drop a link?
🇭🇲 Appears German capital ships were a waste of money and resources. Should have just built more submarines.....⁉️
My thoughts also.
They also needed destroyers and effective light cruisers.
And the allies built a lot more battleships, an even greater waste of resources.....
@@niclasjohansson4333 Not really, the royal navy fought most of ww2 with ww1 and pre ww1 battleships. The US navy did build some but built so much that it was a minuscule effort.
I wonder if the best tactic for Germans would have been to seek to tie up our resources, although with all authoritarian regimes they don't do the logic and prefer willy-waving tactics. Hitler loved big ships so they built big ships...
For the German war effort the capital ships were a waste of effort, but I would say they were most valuable for the Japanese. As long as German capital ships were afloat the RN had to keep a sizeable part of its strength in NA waters - just in case. That very much prevented the British from keeping a creditable force in the Far East, where the future of the Empire was decided.