The symbol of the "thousand-year" Reich

The battleship "Bismarck" became, perhaps, the most famous warship of World War II. He, according to Hitler's plan, was supposed to symbolize the invincible power of the German spirit and weapons. Initially, this monster was intended to play a decisive role not only in the battle for the Atlantic, but also in the entire fate of the war. But in fact, the age of this largest warship of its time turned out to be extremely short. He was never destined to become a real thunderstorm of British and American transports. The battleship Bismarck did not even have much success in its combat account, with the exception of the somewhat accidental sinking of the heavy English cruiser Hood. And yet, this largest ship, along with the Tirpitz, the Kriegsmarine, which had more psychological and propaganda significance, became a real ace in the deck of the naval policy of Nazi Germany. By the very fact of its existence, it had a tremendous impact on the balance of power in the European theater of World War II, holding back the actions of the Allied fleets for several war years.

Design and specifications

In 1936, the construction of the largest ship of the Second World War began. The battleship Bismarck, whose photo was once reprinted many times by almost all the periodicals of the world, had the elegance and grace of a large predatory fish that glided across the water surface in search of prey. After almost three years of the most difficult work, German shipbuilders showed the world a powerful warship with a displacement of 41,000 tons, equipped with the most amazing and advanced weapons of its era. Two thousand of the best sailors were specially selected for the crew of this sea armored monster. "Bismarck" - a battleship that surpassed in its firepower and technical parameters any ship of the British Royal Navy. There was no beast in the expanses of the seas and oceans, more elegant and dangerous than the Bismarck. With a length of 241.6 m and a width of 36 m, it had a traditional spindle shape for the German fleet. The most powerful 380-mm Krupp guns served as the main caliber on it. In addition, it was equipped with powerful anti-submarine and anti-aircraft artillery, as well as the most advanced fire control systems and radar at that time. And on February 14, 1939, this giant was launched.

fatal raid

Hitler believed that the Bismarck should only be used as a threat and should not be risked. But Grand Admiral Raeder managed to persuade the Fuhrer to agree to the raid he had planned in the Atlantic. And on May 18, 1941, the battleship Bismarck, accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, under the command of Vice Admiral Lutyens, set off on a fatal raid. Raeder believed that the battleship would distract the enemy battleships, and heavy cruiser in the meantime, be able to destroy several British convoys. In London, with the help of radio interception on May 21st, they learned of German warships heading north. Powerful British squadrons were advanced to the Danish Strait. In the North Atlantic, despite bad weather, two British cruisers, the Suffolk and Norfolk, were discovered by German raiders. On May 23, the Bismarck opened fire, which forced the British ships to withdraw, continuing to maintain radar contact.

The sinking of the Hood

Admiral Holland's squadron was already running across the raiders. In the early morning of May 24th, naval battle English battlecruisers "Prince of Wales" and "Hood" with two German raiders. The very first volleys of the main caliber of the Bismarck covered the Hood, causing a fire on it, followed by a monstrous explosion. Then he rolled over and disappeared under the water. In Berlin, this victory caused rejoicing. But neither Hitler nor the leaders of the Navy knew yet that the Bismarck was also damaged. Two large-caliber British shells pierced the battleship's fuel tank, and she moved, leaving a thick visible trail. Admiral Lutyens decided to stop the raid and go southeast towards the French ports under the protection of the Luftwaffe.

Chase

For the Bismarck, a real hunt began in accordance with all the rules, just like greyhounds drive a wounded beast. The British fleet mustered all its available forces. First, at the end of the day on May 24, the battleship, which alone went south, separated from the Prince Eugen, which continued the raid, was attacked by nine torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier Victorias. Only one torpedo hit the Bismarck, but it did not cause serious damage either. Then the battleship was lost, and the British Admiralty did not know where and on what course she was moving. The next day, the Catalina flying boat accidentally discovered the wounded ship. From that moment on, the fate of the German marine giant acquired a purely tragic connotation.

The death of the battleship

In the evening of the same day, a strike group from the aircraft carrier Victorias damaged the propellers of the Bismarck and disabled the steering. After that, the battleship was doomed. The denouement came on the morning of the twenty-seventh. The Bismarck was surrounded by English ships of the line, which continuously covered her with volleys. After an hour and a half of merciless beating, the German battleship stopped snapping, turning into a huge funeral pyre. The British finally finished him off with torpedoes. Recently it became known that the commander of the Bismarck, Ernst Lindemann, ordered the sinking of the ship as soon as all possibilities for resistance were exhausted. The battleship, without lowering the flag, went to the bottom. Of his crew of 2,200 people, only one hundred and fifteen sailors escaped ... The news of the death of the Bismarck aroused in Britain a sense of indefatigable imperial pride and somehow sweetened the bitterness of the Mediterranean failures.

The larger the cabinet, the louder it falls. This applies not only to people, but also to cool ships. Being aboard one of the next ten monsters during a crash is the worst thing that could happen. After all, history remembers the passengers and the names of the giants who turned into fish food.

Titanic

Why, if not from the Titanic, start the steel drowned chart. On April 14, 1912, the most unsinkable ship in human history collided with an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic, taking 1,517 passengers with it. Only in 1985, the wreckage of the ship was discovered. Today they are under the protection of UNESCO.

Source: deevad.deviantart.com

Andrea Doria

The crew of the elite Italian liner Andrea Doria on July 26, 1956, due to impenetrable fog, did not consider that they were sailing directly to the Swedish cargo ship Stockholm. As a result, in the coastal waters of New York ( Atlantic Ocean) collided two huge ships, one of which went to the bottom.

Andrea Doria did not give up. Therefore, she drowned for eleven hours. During this time, they managed to evacuate all the passengers of the liner.

Source: plus.google.com

Rhone

The Rhone is an old ship that did not survive a hurricane in 1867. So he went to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea in the British Virgin Islands. Today Rhone is an underwater entertainment center for divers.

Source: 3quarksdaily.com

General Slocum

On June 15, 1904, the paddle steamer General Slocum took on board 1,388 people and set off towards Long Island Sound. But the ship never reached its destination: a fire broke out on board, because of which Slocum and his passengers had to endure a lot. It all ended with the death of over a thousand people.

One possible cause of the fire: an unextinguished cigarette butt. The fate of the ship: some historians claim that it was turned into a barge that sank a few years after the incident. Others believe that the ship was stuffed with dynamite and blown up immediately after the crash.

Source: travelblog.org

Mary Rose

Mary Rose is an English three-deck ship that survived the Italian wars and the attack on Brest (France) in the 16th century. In 1545, the British improved the ship and sent it to the Isle of Wight to fight against King Francis I. But due to a gust of wind, the ship overloaded with artillery suddenly began to list to starboard. Result: the gun ports filled with water and pulled the military monster along with four hundred crew to the bottom. Only 35 soldiers survived.

Source: www.pbs.org

Lusitania

On May 7, 1915, 13 kilometers from the coast of Ireland, a German submarine attacked the British passenger liner Lusitania. Together with the ship, 1198 people out of 1959 who were on board sank. Interesting fact: the liner went to the bottom in just 18 minutes. No less intriguing is the second hole, which appeared in the bottom of the hull from nowhere.

Source: brushes.oraculace.info

Bismarck

Bismarck is one of the most famous ships times of the Second World War, for which the whole of Britain was hunting. All because his team in the Danish Strait in May 1941 sank the English battle cruiser Hood.

On May 27 of the same year, the enemies overtook the thunderstorm of the German fleet 690 miles northwest of Brest (Atlantic Ocean). The two thousandth Bismarck crew did not give up and fought to the last. Therefore, all the sailors, along with the ship, ended up at the bottom of the ocean.

Bismarck-class battleships (Russian: "Bismarck") - a type of battleships that were in service with the Kriegsmarine. The most powerful and largest warships in Germany. were further development battleships of the Scharnhorst type and the subsequent Type H. Only two ships were built: Bismarck and Tirpitz. They took an active part in World War II.

In June 1935, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was signed, in fact, removing the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 and expanding the tonnage of German ships to 35% of the corresponding one in the Royal Navy of Great Britain.

However, from the very beginning of the design, the Germans did not pay attention to the displacement limit of ships. German designers used all their experience in creating heavily armored ships, design work was carried out in the design department of the Shipbuilding Directorate under the direction of Herman Burkhadt. After considering a number of projects, the lead ship of the Bismarck series was laid down on the slipway of the Blohm + Voss shipyard on July 1, 1936 in Hamburg.

The project of the battleships "F" and "G" (in Germany, the ship, when it was laid down, received a letter designation, while each class had its own "letter" line) was approved on November 16, 1935. From their predecessors, the Scharnhorst-class battleships, the Bismarck-class battleships differed fundamentally only in their main battery artillery.

Structurally, the Bismarck-class battleships resembled their Scharnhorst predecessors, but differed greatly in their main battery artillery. When launched, the length of Bismarck'a at the waterline was 240.2 m, total length - 248 m, width 36 m, draft at standard displacement - 8.7 and 10.2 m at full displacement. The heavier Tirpitz had a draft of 9 m at standard displacement, and 10.6 m at full displacement. In the underwater part, the bow contours had a bulbous thickening to reduce wave formation. When designing, German designers paid great attention to the contours and reducing the resistance of the hull.

Dimensions are given below:

Length - 241.6 m - along the waterline; the greatest length is 251 m.
Height - 15 m (from keel to upper deck amidships)
Width - 36 m
Tonnage - 41,700 tons - standard; 50 900 tons - fully equipped.
Draft - 9.3 m - standard; 0.2 m - fully equipped.
Before commissioning, both battleships were equipped with new rounded bows, after which the length of the battleships increased to 251 m, and the length at the waterline - up to 241.5 m.

Booking

The armor belt was 5.2 m high. It covered 70% of the waterline and had almost no slope. Compared to Scharnhorst, the thickness of the armor belt has been reduced from 350 mm to 320 mm, while the thickness of the upper belt has increased from 45 mm to 145 mm. Both belts were closed by a traverse, 145 mm thick on the battery, 220 mm main, and 148 mm on the lower deck. Parallel to the belt there was a bulkhead having a thickness between the upper and lower decks from 20 to 30 mm, below it passed into an anti-torpedo bulkhead 45 mm thick.

The extremities were protected quite traditionally, the bow - 60 mm, the stern - 80 mm. There are two armored decks - 50 mm (over the cellars with ammunition it was 80 mm), the upper and main thickness of which was 80 mm with 110 mm bevels (over the cellars 95 mm with 120 mm bevels), which did not reach the lower edge of the belt. The total weight of the armor was 18,700 tons (this is 44% of the displacement of the entire ship).

Power plant and driving performance

Fundamentally, the power plant has not changed, it still remained three-shaft, consisted of 12 Wagner steam boilers and 3 TZA (turbo-gear units). Blohm + Voss TKA was installed on Bismarck, and BrownBoweri was installed on Tirpitz.

As on all German ships used power plants on a pair of high parameters, the power plant was distinguished by low reliability and rather high fuel consumption. So on the battleship Tirpitz, the actual fuel consumption exceeded the calculated one by 10% at full speed, and by 19% at economical speed. This led to the fact that the cruising range was sharply reduced. On sea trials, Bismarck developed 30.12 knots. at 150,070 hp, Tirpitz: 30.8 knots at 163026 hp

The cruising range was 8525 miles for Bismarck, 8870 miles for Tirpitz at a speed of 19 knots. Unlike foreign counterparts, the Bismarck-class battleships were distinguished by their high speed at full speed - 29 knots. The Bismarck-class battleships were designed with a turbo-electric propulsion system in mind. the installation had a number of advantages, for example, it had a large throttle response, due to the fact that the turbine did not have a rigid connection with the propeller, while there were quite big drawbacks, such a power plant had significant dimensions and weight. In the end, the designers settled on the traditional steam turbine.

Steering gear

The maneuverability of the battleships was provided by two balancing rudders. They had the shape of a truncated trapezoid with a size of 6480 × 4490 mm, a maximum thickness of 900 mm and a longitudinal section area of ​​24.2 m, anti-corrosion zinc plates were attached to their surfaces.

The lower edges of the rudders were on the horizontal axis of the central shaft, in the middle between the middle and side screws. The axes of rotation of the rudders were inclined inward at an angle of 8 ° and connected to the steering machines by a transverse shaft and a paired drive. Each servo could control both rudders in case the second servo failed. The steering gear consisted of left and right axles attached to a central shaft controlled by a Ward-Leonard electrical system. The steering device in the wheelhouse was originally decided: rational Germans abandoned the traditional steering wheel, replacing it with two buttons, by pressing which, the helmsman shifted the rudders to the right or left.

Crew and Habitability

The crew of the battleships consisted of 1927 people and could increase to 2016 people when the ship acted as a flagship. Living quarters could additionally accommodate up to 2,500 people, but only for one day, out of these 2,500 people, only 1,600 people would be provided with sleeping places.

Upon commissioning, the Bismarck's crew consisted of 103 officers and 1962 sailors. During the operation "Teachings on the Rhine" (German: Rheinübung), there were 2221 people on board the Bismarck`a, of which 65 officers were the headquarters of Admiral Lutyens. At Tirpitz in 1943, there were 108 officers and 2,500 sailors in the state. The entire crew was divided into 12 divisions, 150-200 people each. The divisions themselves were divided into "marine" (from the 1st to the 9th) and "technical" (from the 10th to the 12th), in turn, each division was divided into departments of 10-12 people, headed each section was a non-commissioned officer.

Main caliber

The main battery guns on the Bismarck-class battleships were represented by 8 380 mm SK/C34 guns. They fired 800-kg projectiles at a range of 36.5 km, and at a distance of 21 km, the projectile of this gun could theoretically penetrate armor 350 mm thick.

The Germans had experience in creating 380 mm guns, so, before the end of the First World War, two Bayern-type dreadnoughts with SK L / 45 cannons of the 1913 model managed to enter service. These guns are often referred to as prototypes for the SK/C34 guns, but they were Krupp's original designs.

The SK / C34 guns were tested already during the construction of battleships, after which they were put into service. The barrel design was typical for art. Krupp systems - an inner tube, inside which a replaceable liner was installed, which was replaced from the side of the bolt, four fastening rings, a protective casing consisting of four parts (each part of the casing was mounted on about two thirds of the previous one), a breech and a wedge horizontal sliding gate.

Characteristics of the SK/C34 gun:

The guns had 90 right rifling (rifling depth: 4.5 mm; width 7.76 mm); cutting step variable, from 1/36 to 1/30). The ballistic characteristics were chosen so as to have the maximum flat trajectory projectile flight, and this meant a small dispersion in range, tk. it was believed that this gave an advantage in the conditions of the North Sea. Shooting, main caliber guns were carried out with three types of shells, armor-piercing Pz.Spr.Gr. L / 4,4 (mllb), semi-armor-piercing Spr.Gr. L / 4.5 Bdz (mhb) and high-explosive Spr.Gr. L/4,b Kz (mhb).

Auxiliary/anti-aircraft artillery

The division of artillery weapons into anti-mine (SK / C28 guns with a caliber of 150 mm) and large-caliber anti-aircraft weapons (SK / C33 guns with a caliber of 105 mm) has been preserved. Unlike their predecessors 10.5_detail01_C37_0002.jpg Scharnhorst, 150 mm guns were placed in turrets. Anti-aircraft artillery was also represented by 16 37-mm SK / C30 cannons and 12 single 20-mm Flak 38 anti-aircraft guns.

mine artillery

In terms of the composition of anti-mine artillery, the new battleships repeated the composition of their predecessors Scharnhorst, carrying 12 SK / C28 guns, but unlike Scharnhorst, they were placed in twin turret installations. Taking into account the experience of the First World War, the placement of towers was chosen, three on each side, and the bow towers were pressed as close as possible to the superstructure so that the central towers could fire directly at the ship's course. The designation of the towers was carried out from bow to stern, separately for each side, left BI, BII, BII, right - SI, SII, SIII. Each tower I weighed 110 tons, towers II 116.25 tons, tower installations III - 108 tons.

Towers I had 5 working levels, of which the gun platform was located inside the tower. Inside the barbette there was a mechanism platform, a turret rotation platform and an intermediate platform, under the armored deck there was a reloading platform for shells and their charges. Towers II and III did not have an intermediate platform, and the transfer platform was located inside the barbette. The loading of the guns was manual, after firing, the cartridge case was thrown under the turret. The main and auxiliary turret rotation motors were electric, and the vertical aiming mechanisms of the guns were hydraulic with the possibility of a manual drive. A characteristic feature of the installations is the presence of a single rammer turret for both guns.

The middle turrets were equipped with 6.5 m rangefinders, the rest of the turrets were equipped with C / 4 periscopes with the ability to rotate 90 ° from the axis of the guns. The horizontal aiming angles for the bow turrets are 135°, for the rest from 150° to 158°, the vertical aiming angles of the guns for all turrets are from -10° to +40°. The ammunition for the project is 105 shells per gun, in total 1288 high-explosive shells were accepted (622 of them with a bottom fuse, and 666 with a head fuse), and a certain number of lighting shells, the total capacity of the cellars was 1800 shells. At the stern, between the towers "Caesar" and "Dora", two training machines of 150 and 105 mm guns were installed to train the skills of loading and unloading.

Flak

Bismarck and Tirpitz carried 16 105mm SK/C33 AA guns on board. Eight twin installations were placed, four on each side, were designated similarly with 150 mm towers, on the left side of the BI-BIV, on the right side of the SI-SIV. The location of the installations on Bismarck`e and Tirpitz`e differed, so, after the death of Bismarck`a, on Tirpitz`e two installations near the catapult were shifted 3 m to the stern and 5 to the outer side.

The units themselves were of different models. Bismarck had four Dop.LC/31 bow mounts, which were originally designed for 88 mm guns, they were installed in June-July 1940 when Bismarck was at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The remaining mounts were mounted on November 4-18 during Bismarck's stay in Gottenhafen, they were Dop.LC / 37 models, specially designed for 105 mm guns. Their main difference from Dop.LC/31 is that both guns were placed in a single cradle, which simplified the design and increased reliability. The installation was 750 kg lighter, and outwardly, it slightly differed in the shape of the armor shield. The total ammunition for 105 mm guns is 6720 shells, 420 per gun.

Air defense near the ship was provided by sixteen 37 mm SK / C30 cannons and 20 mm Flak 30 or Flak 38 anti-aircraft guns. The ammunition load for them in the Kriegsmarine consisted of 2000 rounds per barrel. The total number of shots for 37 mm anti-aircraft guns is up to 34,100 shots. The total stock on the battleship Tirpitz for 20 mm anti-aircraft guns by the end of 1941 was 54,000, and by 1944 - 99,000 rounds.

Quadruple 20-mm Flakvierling 38 anti-aircraft guns were installed on Tirpitz during the war. During the service on the battleship Tirpitz, the number of anti-aircraft guns changed more than once, so, in July 1944, there were 78 anti-aircraft guns on board the battleship 20 mm caliber.

Mine-torpedo and aviation weapons

Initially, Bismarck-class battleships were designed without torpedo tubes, but in 1942 Tirpitz received two four-tube 533 mm torpedo tubes. Previously, they were installed on destroyers that were sunk in 1940 at Narvik. The torpedo tubes fired standard G7a combined-cycle torpedoes. In total, the battleship carried 24 torpedoes on board.

The aviation group consisted of 6 Ar-196 seaplanes, two aircraft were on catapults, four others were in hangars. All aircraft belonged to the 196th airborne group (Bordfliegergruppe 196). The pilots and maintenance personnel were not from the fleet, but from the Luftwaffe, and therefore wore aviation uniforms. The armament of the aircraft consisted of two 20 mm MG FF cannons in the wings, one MG 17 machine gun, and a coaxial MG 15 machine gun in the turret. Also, two 50-kg bombs could be suspended under the wings.

Communications, detection, auxiliary equipment

Both Bismarck and Tirpitz entered service with the FuMO-23 radar, antennas were mounted on both masts and on the bow superstructure above the optical rangefinder. The dimensions of the FuMO-23 antenna were 4 x 2 m. During the war, Tirpitz radar equipment was repeatedly upgraded. So, in January 1942, the FuMO-27 radar was installed on the nose optical rangefinder instead of the FuMO-23. Ahead of the FuMO-27 antenna appeared the FuMB Ant-7 electromagnetic radiation warning system antenna, the three Sumatra dipole antennas of the FuMB-4 system and the Palau two-dipole antenna (FuMB Ant-6).

In 1944, a new FuMO-27 antenna with dimensions of 4 x 3 m was installed on the Tirpitz battleship. commissioned by the Luftwaffe. Also on the battleships of the Bismarck type there were five optical rangefinders with a base of 10.5 m, one each at the bow and stern, and one more each on three of the four main battery turrets, according to the idea there was also a sixth one on the bow turret, but it was dismantled because , at high speed, it is flooded with water, which rolls over the bow of the ship. The main rangefinders were supplemented by auxiliary ones with a base of 7 m.

Service History

Bismarck-class battleships took an active part in the war. In May 1941, the battleship Bismarck took part in Operation Rheinübung together with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. During the Battle of the Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941, a direct hit on the main ammunition depot, the battleship Bismarck sank the British battlecruiser Hood, while she herself was damaged by fire from the battleship Prince of Wales. During the pursuit of Bismarck by the British, torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal damaged the battleship, Bismarck died in battle with the British battleships King George V and Rodney 400 miles from the Kriegsmarine naval base in Brest (France).

Despite the fact that Tirpitz hardly participated in the hostilities, his presence in Norway threatened the Arctic convoys in Soviet Union and fettered quite significant forces of the British fleet. The battleship tried several times to intercept the Arctic convoys, but all of them were not successful. On September 22, 1943, Tirpitz was damaged by demolition charges from the midget submarines X-6 and X-7 in Altenfjord; It was also damaged by aircraft from British aircraft carriers on 3/4/1944 and 24/8/1944. Then on September 15, 1944, it was damaged by Lancaster bombers; On November 12, 1944, she was finally sunk by Tallboy superheavy bombs dropped from Lancaster bombers in Tromsø Fjord - as a result of two direct hits and three close explosions, she capsized and sank.

Operation "Rhine Exercises" provided for the exit of the battleship "Bismarck" and the heavy cruiser "Prinz Eugen" into the Atlantic Ocean through the Danish Strait. main goal the operation was an exit to the sea lanes of the British merchant fleet. It was assumed that the Bismarck would tie up the escort of convoys, while the Prinz Eugen would sink merchant ships. Admiral Günter Lutyens was appointed commander of the operation, who asked the command to postpone the start of the campaign so that the Tirpitz being tested or the “pocket battleship” Scharnhorst being repaired in the port of Brest could join it. However, the commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, Admiral Erich Raeder, did not support Lutyens, and on May 18, 1941, Prinz Eugen and Bismarck went to sea.

On May 20, German ships were seen from the neutral Swedish cruiser Gotland, on the same day representatives of the Norwegian resistance reported about a squadron of two large warships. On May 21, Great Britain received a message from its military attache at the Swedish Embassy about the discovery of two large German ships in the Kattegat. From May 21 to May 22, the ships stood in the fjords near the Norwegian Bergen, where they were repainted, and the Prinz Eugen was refueled. The Bismarck did not refuel for unknown reasons. While the ships were in the parking lot, they were photographed by a reconnaissance aircraft of the British Air Force. Now the British admirals had accurately identified Bismarck.

The commander of the English Home Fleet, Admiral John Tovey, almost immediately sent the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood, escorted by destroyers, to the south-west coast of Iceland. The cruiser "Suffolk" was supposed to connect with the cruiser "Norfolk" located in the Danish Strait. Light cruisers "Birmingham", "Manchester" and "Aretuza" were supposed to patrol in the strait between the Faroe Islands and Iceland. On the night of May 22, Admiral Tovey himself, at the head of a flotilla of the battleship King George V and the aircraft carrier Victorious, with an escort, left the base of the Scapa Flow fleet. This flotilla was supposed to wait for German ships to the northwest of Scotland, where they were supposed to meet with the battlecruiser Repulse.

Battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen

On the evening of May 23, in the Danish Strait, in dense fog, the cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk made visual contact with German ships. The Bismarck was forced to open fire on the Norfolk, after which the British ships retreated into the fog and conveyed to their command the location of the enemy, continuing to follow the Bismarck on radar at a distance of 10-14 miles.

Battle in the Danish Strait

The flagship of the English fleet "Hood" and the battleship "Prince of Wales" established visual contact with the German ships early morning On May 24 and at 5:52 in the morning they began the battle, being at a distance of more than 20 km. Vice Admiral Holland, who commanded the unit, ordered to open fire on the first ship, mistaking it for the Bismarck. On the "Prince of Wales" they quickly figured out the mistake and transferred the fire to the second ship. Soon Holland himself realized this, but apparently his order never reached the fire control center, since Hood continued to fire at Prince Eugen to the very end.

At 05:56, the sixth salvo from the Prince of Wales hit the Bismarck, the shells damaged the fuel tanks and caused fuel to leak and fill them with water, the ship began to leave the oil shelf. A minute later, the Hood took hits from the third volley of the Bismarck and the second volley of the Prinz Eugen, fires began on the ship. At this time, the Bismarck received two more hits from the Prince of Wales below the waterline. By 6:00 o'clock, the ships approached 16 km., At this time, the "Hood" covered the fifth salvo from the German battleship, there was a terrible explosion and the pride of the English fleet, breaking in half, went to the bottom in a matter of minutes. Of the entire crew of 1417 people, only three were saved.

The battleship "Prince of Wales" was forced to continue the battle alone, and it developed extremely unsuccessfully for him. The ship was forced to approach the German ships up to a distance of 14 km, avoiding a collision with the remnants of the Hood. After receiving seven hits that disabled one of the main caliber towers, the battleship left the battle, hiding behind a smoke screen.

The captain of the Bismarck, Lindemann, offered to continue the pursuit and sink the wrecked battleship, but Admiral Lutyens ordered the campaign to continue. On the Bismarck, as a result of the battle, one generator failed, outboard water began to flow into broiler room No. 2 with two boilers, two fuel tanks were pierced, the ship was trimmed to the bow and rolled to starboard. Admiral Lutyens decided to break through to the French port of Saint-Nazaire for repairs, after which the battleship could freely enter the communications of the Atlantic.

Bismarck fires on the battleship Prince of Wales

The pursuit

The cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk, as well as the damaged battleship Prince of Wales, continued to pursue the Germans, relaying their position. The death of the flagship of the fleet of the battlecruiser "Hood" made a very painful impression on the British admirals, later a special commission was even created to investigate the circumstances of the death of the "Hood". Now most of the warships in the North Atlantic were involved in the hunt for the Bismarck. To pursue the battleship, escort ships of many military convoys were involved. So for this operation, the battleship "Rodney" and three of the four destroyers were involved, which accompanied the former passenger liner "Britanic" turned into a military transport. Additionally, 2 more battleships and 2 cruisers were involved in the operation. Fleet Force H stationed at Gibraltar was put on alert in case the Bismarck went in their direction.

Around 6 p.m. on May 24, the Bismarck suddenly turned around in the fog and attacked its pursuers. After a short battle, the ships did not achieve hits on each other, but the British ships were forced to hide, at which time the Prinz Eugen successfully broke off contact with them and reached the French port of Brest 10 days later. At half past nine, Lutens reported to the command that the Bismarck, experiencing a lack of fuel, was ceasing attempts to shake off the pursuers and was moving directly to Saint-Nazard.

In the evening of the same day, Admiral Tovey orders the Victories aircraft carrier to get close to the battleship, and already at 22:10, 9 Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from it, which, under heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire, attacked the battleship and achieved one hit from the starboard side. At the same time, the ship did not receive serious damage, since the torpedo hit the main armor belt. In this incident, the crew of the ship lost one sailor (the first loss since the beginning of the campaign). At night, the Bismarck managed to break away from the pursuers, taking advantage of the fact that they, fearing submarine attacks, began to perform anti-submarine maneuvers.

Detection

It was only at 10:10 am on May 26 that the ship was discovered again, when the American-British crew of the Catolina flying boat, flying from the Loch Erne base in Northern Ireland, was able to detect the battleship. By this time, Lutyens still had 690 miles to Brest, and soon he could call on the Luftwaffe bomber aircraft to protect the ship.

At that moment, the only British formation that could slow down the Bismarck was the H formation, commanded by Admiral Sommerville, which went to intercept from Gibraltar, having the Ark Royal aircraft carrier in its composition. At 14:50, Swordfish torpedo bombers flew from its deck to the place where the battleship was found, by this time the Sheffield cruiser, which had separated from the main forces, was in the area, trying to establish contact with the Bismarck. The pilots who did not know anything about this mistook him for a German and carried out a torpedo attack, fortunately for them, none of the 11 fired torpedoes could hit the target.

At 17:40 Sheffield discovered the Bismarck and began its pursuit, a second raid of 15 torpedo bombers at 20:47 bore fruit, the British pilots achieved two or three hits on the battleship, while one of them became decisive, the torpedo hit the stern part of the vessel and damaged the steering mechanisms. "Bismarck" lost the ability to maneuver and began to describe the circulation, the attempts of the team to restore the controllability of the vessel were not successful.

The last battle of the battleship

sinking

May 27 at 8:47 am from a distance of 22 km. The Bismarck was attacked by ships from the formation of Admiral Tovey, the battleships King George V and Rodney, and then the cruisers Dorsetshire and Norfolk, began shelling the ship. The battleship snapped back. However, the British quickly achieved hits on the Bismarck in half an hour, he received damage to the gun turrets of the main caliber, many superstructures, including fire control posts, were destroyed and burned, the ship received a strong roll. At 09:31, the last fourth gun turret of the cruiser fell silent, after which, according to the stories of the surviving crew members, the captain of the ship, Ernst Lindemann, gave the order to flood the ship. "Bismarck" did not lower the battle flag to the end, which allowed the "Rodney" to approach a distance of 2-4 km. and point-blank to shoot a defenseless ship. However, the fuel on the British ships was running out, realizing that the Bismarck would no longer reach Brest, Admiral Tovey decides to return to base. Cruiser "Dorsetshire" in the period from 10:20 to 10:36 fires 3 torpedoes at the German battleship, each of which hits the target. At 10:39 a.m., the Bismarck fell aboard and sank, only a little more than 110 crew members managed to escape, more than 2,100 people shared the fate of the lost ship.

One of the most iconic events of the Second World War: the English fleet destroyed the most powerful warship of that time - the German battleship Bismarck.

Destroyed after a long, adventurous chase, while losing "the pride and symbol of the British Empire" - the heavy cruiser "Hood" The man who played the main role in the destruction of the Bismarck is not only still alive, but also perfectly remembers those events like they happened yesterday.

The Scottish village of Pitlochry is famous for its distilleries. Tourists are brought here to show them how whiskey is made. Pitlochry is also famous for its scenic views and famous residents. Rather, one, but what!

Pitlochry is home to 95-year-old John Muffot, a former ace Air force His Majesty. In less than three months, on May 26, it will be 74 years since he actually sank battleship Bismarck, the largest warship of the time. The length of this steel island, bristling with powerful guns, was 251 meters, width - 36, and height - 15. The displacement of this giant warship in running order, quite a bit did not reach 51 thousand tons.

In 1938, the air, as they say, smelled of a thunderstorm. Political situation in Europe was heated to the limit. It was obvious what was coming big war. At the very end of 1938, John Moffatt, then in his twenties and working as a clerk in the bus depot, against the wishes of his father, went to the Navy and enrolled in military pilot courses.

The attack of German troops on Poland, which became the beginning of the Second World War, found him in a flight school. Already in the 40th year, the young Lieutenant Commander John Moffat practiced landing and takeoff from the Ark Royal aircraft carrier on the Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber.

Late in the evening of May 26, 1941, the Ark Royal was in the North Atlantic. That spring evening, a very strong wind blew, knocking down. The alarm was announced, as always, suddenly. Moffat went up on deck. The pilots lined up about a dozen and a half biplanes that were on the aircraft carrier.

Battleship Bismarck: on deck

The senior officer read the order. Despite the terrible weather, John Moffat and his people had to find and destroy or delay the infamous German battleship Bismarck until the British ships approached.

The honor of the British Navy was at stake. Just two days before the events described, Bismarck sank pride in the Danish Strait between Iceland and Greenland. Royal Navy battlecruiser Hood. Moreover, he actually did this with a single shot from one of his eight terrible 15-inch guns. A shell with a diameter of 38 cm landed in an ammunition depot. Terrible force explosion of a huge cruiser was torn into two parts. Together with the ship, the entire crew went to the bottom in a matter of minutes. Of the 1417 people, only three survived.

The sinking of the Hood was the strongest slap in the face for British sailors. They were burning with a thirst for revenge. The Bismarck was hunted down...

Jumping out of the clouds, Moffat saw that the raging sea was some three dozen meters away, and ahead, two miles away, he could see the hulk of the Bismarck, firing from all guns at the ships of the British squadron attacking him.

Approaching despite the dense fire of the enemy to the German battleship at 800 meters, John Moffat fired torpedoes. He actually fired at random, because the torpedo aiming device was out of order.

The torpedoes hid in the foam of the waves, and the one who got rid of excess weight John's plane shot up like an arrow. Of course, it was pure luck, but luck, as they say, chooses the strong and the brave. The American historian Mark E. Horan, for a decade and a half, carefully studied the circumstances of the sinking of the Bismarck and conclusively proved that it was the torpedo of Lieutenant Commander John Moffat that hit the steering control of the German battleship, located directly under the heat exhaust. This was perhaps the only weak point of the Bismarck.

Having lost its rudder, the most powerful warship turned into a helpless heap of metal. British ships completed the work started by Moffat.

The Bismarck capsized keel up at 10.39 am and went to the bottom three hundred miles from the French Brest. Of the 2220 crew members of the battleship, only 116 people were saved.

Of course, John Moffat knew all along that it was his torpedo that was the beginning of the end of the Bismarck. However, this did not bring him much joy. They returned to the aircraft carrier in complete silence.

“The mighty ship lay on its side,” recalls John Moffat, who, despite his advanced age, does not complain about memory. “I will never forget what I saw that day. Hundreds of heads swayed on the waves. We all knew that none of them stood a chance of being saved."

Bismarck before the descent.

The battle with the Bismarck was the climax of the war for John Moffat. Soon after, he was transferred to the Grozny ship in Indian Ocean. He no longer participated in hostilities, but delivered food. In 1946, John retired from the British Navy.

After the war, John Moffat had a successful career in hotel business. In retirement, he opened an antique shop and also prospered.

John does not particularly complain about his health. Considering his age, he is in good physical shape. Moffat still goes to the pool twice a week. Until the age of 90, he also regularly went on his favorite hunt. Now, by the way, he still occasionally sits at the helm of light aircraft.

Fairly faded interest in the Bismarck returned in 1989, when its remains were discovered on seabed John Ballard, the one who found the Titanic.

John Moffat

John Moffat still remembers the gusts of wind hitting his face like whips; the suffocating smell of cordite and the crackle of anti-aircraft shells. He described this story in the book "I sank the Bismarck".

You can read about the destruction of the twin brother of Bismarck, the battleship Tirpitz, in the novel by Valentin Pikul