Probably a good thing the Bismarck was sunk when it was instead of later or the war probably would have went on longer than it did. That MFer would have brought the supply chain to a dead stop...Funny that the Brits take credit for sinking it because I think just about every Allied plane and ship was involved.
Wouldn't have extended the war a single day.
The Kreigsmarine wasn't in the same class as the Royal Navy.
The Bismarck may have been a match for any British battleship in 1941 in on-on-one combat, but the Germans only had two battleships (Bismarck and her sister Tirpitz). The Brits had many battleships.
The Bismarck had four turrets with two 15" guns each (total of 8 guns). Older British battleships (dating back to the early 20s) were armed with 9 16" guns. Bore isn't everything, firepower includes the weight of the shell, the muzzle velocity, and the fire control systems; however, the point is the British had lots of ships that could go toe-to-toe with the Bismarck and the Tirpitz. Bismarck had good guns and great fire control, but she didn't outclass everything else out there. I'll so so far as to say the US Navy's North Carolina Class commissioned before Pearl Harbor (with 9 excellent 16" guns and great fire control) were clearly superior to the Bismarck class. The Germans didn't have a whole lot of experience building battleships. Their guns and engines and radar were good, but their naval architecture wasn't great. Anti-aircraft armament was lacking and it was slow-flying obsolete Swordfish biplanes that drew first blood on Bismarck by jamming her rudder. Even with a jammed rudder, a well-designed battleship should be able to steer a little using her propellers. Bismarck couldn't. After that torpedo hit, all she could do was go in a big circle. That's two major design fails.
Not only did the British have lots more battleships, they had aircraft carriers (the Germans had none) and they had bases and logistics ships the Germans lacked. That obsolete biplane was launched from a British carrier.
Bismarck became famous for blowing up the Hood. The Hood wasn't a real battleship. She was a battlecruiser. That means she was armed like a battleship but armored like a cruiser. The concept was that you could run away from anything that could match your guns and outgun anything that could catch you. In the interwar years, Hood's armor belt at the waterline was upgraded, but they never got around to upgrading the deck armor making Hood vulnerable to plunging fire.
In the battle, the Hood initially mistook the smaller Prinz Eugen for Bismarck and focused their fire on her leaving the Bismarck unmolested for a time. By the time Hood figured out which German ship was which, Bismarck had the range. Looks like Hood tried closing with Bismarck, hoping to avoid the plunging fire but a lucky shot (and we don't really know if that lucky shot actually came from Bismarck or Prinz Eugen) penetrated the thin decks of Hood and set off an explosion in one of her powder magazines. It was a little like the bomb that destroyed the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Only 3 of Hood's compliment survived.
Bismarck (steaming in a big circle) was caught by the Royal Navy battleships Rodney (9 16" guns) and the newer George V (10 14" guns) and pummeled to death.
As for Bismarck's sister, the Tirpitz, did she bring the supply chain to a dead stop? Nah. She hid. She spent most of the war in a Norwegian fiord under camouflage netting surrounded by torpedo nets until she was sunk by the RAF.
The Germans would have been far better off building more submarines instead of Bismarck and Tirpitz. At the time, Hitler was given a choice. Build a powerful surface fleet that could challenge the likes of Britain and France (but that would take a long time and cost a lot of money) or focus on submarines. Hitler didn't think war with Britain was imminent so he chose the powerful surface fleet option. War came before that fleet could be built. One of the interesting "what ifs" of WWII is what if Germany had chosen to focus on subs and had more and better subs available at the beginning of WWII?
Alex.
