bismarck (battleship)

Battleship of the Kriegsmarine in World War II, named after German statesman Otto von Bismarck.

History

The historical Bismarck's best known action was the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 25 May 1941, in which her and Prinz Eugen were engaged by the Royal Navy. However, they managed to fend them off, famously detonating the magazines of HMS Hood in the process. This defeat prompted Royal Navy to launch a manhunt campaign against Bismarck, who had been ordered to head to occupied France due to the damage suffered during the battle.

On 28 May 1941, 3 days after the sinking of the Hood, Bismarck suffered a hit to her propulsion system from a biplane torpedo bomber Fairey Swordfish launched from HMS Ark Royal, which allowed British battleships HMS King George V, HMS Rodney, heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk, HMS Suffolk, and destroyers Cossack, Sikh, Maori, Zulu and Polish destroyer ORP Piorun (the latter repeatedly flashing "I AM A POLE" to her via signal light) to catch up with and ultimately sink her. On the morning of May 27, at 0847 hours, HMS Rodney, followed quickly by King George V, opened fire on Bismarck, which had been more or less completely immobilized by this point, by 0931, all of Bismarck's guns had been silenced and she had been reduced to floating wreck incapable of fighting back. Ultimately Bismarck started to capsize around 1035 hours and disappeared beneath the waves a few minutes later with few survivors.

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