sorry gunner-B!!. wasn’t the bismark blown up by the crew after the rudder damage?
Hey is that youre real name paul.
SS Ouche-Vittes
No. She was smashed to a mass of scrap by King George V, Rodney and the Cruisers Suffolk & Dorsetshire. She ‘May’ have been scuttled, not ‘blown up’ as you say.
SS Ouche- Vittes
Yes, Paul is my real name…
aly j
Yes, Paul is my real name…
Most of us sign with our user name. Feels like i know you.
Are you guys still talking about bismarck or the british ships?
Dear old Ted Briggs, the last survivor from the Hood/Bismarck Denmark Strait engagement, has died over the weekend, at the ripe old age of 85. Rest in Peace.
At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them…
Paul
Yes the rudder was damaged bye a Sword fish.
Yes i know that already, I just added that part in so people know that I’m saying the ship was damaged first but then blown up. My question was, if it was blown up by its crew. bleh!:roll:
Doesn’t much matter - it was a barely floating scrapheap by the time the order was given to scuttle it. Indeed, IIRC there is some evidence of 16" shells from Rodney going straight through the Bismarck by the end of the engagement.
By the way, definitions of German WW2 naval victories in WW2 are as follows:
Strategic Victory: Captain survives long enough to order the scuttling of the ship.
Tactical Victory: Senior officer left alive gives the order to scuttle before abandoning ship.
Moral Victory: Any member of the crew yells “scuttle” while diving over the side.
But no one really knows who blew it up.
The Germans with there prized ship Bismarck are automaticly going to take the credit if really the English destoyed the Bismarck, the Germans wont amitt it.
If the Germans did have the final say with blowing up Bismark,the English wont amitt it either.
NO one knows.
Germans saying they blew it up.
The English say that there battle ships had the final say.
I have no idea who had the final say with Bismarck.
Cheers
“The English” largely see the argument as irrelevant. No matter whether or not it was scuttled, it is now as the bottom of the Atlantic as a result of RN action.
It doesn’t matter that the Bismarck was scuttled because she was no longer a Battleship, just a “floating” wreck, only fit as a deep sea fishing platform.
Paul
Apparently, the decisive blows were struck by the slow, unglamorous Rodney in the opening 5 minutes: a 16" shell from her opening broadside went straight through the face of Bismarck’s A turret. In other words, she found the range with her very first shots. Thereafter, it was what our US cousins would call a “turkey shoot”. The shiny new KGV apparently fell victim to the teething troubles inherent in the new quad 14" mounts, and played only a minor role in Bismarck’s destruction. Rodney was long overdue for a refit at the time, and firing her heavy armament sorely damaged her comparatively light (35,000t) hull. If the Germans want to claim they scuttled her, OK. The outcome is unchanged: 1 x German battleship less, courtesy of the RN.
Cheers,
Cliff
After the Bismarck sank the Hood, the English basically ganged up on Bismarck and left Bismarck with little or no hope of survival due to the sheer number of English ships brought against her. The Swordfish hit was a lucky hit and was the beginning of the end for Bismarck.