German Battleship BISMARCK COBI 4841 - World War II

You know that:

• The ship is named after the Prussian minister and later German chancellor Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen.
• Construction of the ship began on July 1, 1936 and the launching ceremony was witnessed by Adolf Hitler.
• People are simply unteachable and this ship was also declared unsinkable by the manufacturer Blohm & Voss. As we know today, again this was not true.
• The work on the Bismarck cost a total of 200 million Reichsmarks, which is approximately € 820,000,000 today.
• Germany falsified the actual displacement, which was 50,900 t, by putting only 35,000 t in the official documentation so as not to violate the German-British treaty.
• The vessel was fitted with eight 380 millimetre calibre guns, which could fire a projectile weighing 750 kg at a distance of 36 kilometres.
• Some parts of the ship were armoured with Wotan chromnickel steel up to 360 mm thick.
• The British pilot who seriously damaged the Bismarck with a torpedo on the Swordfish was Jock Moffat.
• The battleship Bismarck was sunk at 10:45 a.m. on 27 May 1941 after a fierce battle with the Allied fleet and air force.
• The sinking of the Bismarck on the orders of W. Churchill was very important in boosting the morale of the British Army and changed the Allied mindset about Germany's supposed invincibility.
• In 1989, R. Ballard discovered the wreck of the Bismarck at a depth of 4800 m and photographs taken show an almost undamaged hull and so the ship went down probably after the bottom valves were opened to prevent the ship falling into Allied hands.

Technical parameters:

• dimensions: length 241.55 m, width 36 m, draught 9.3 m
• displacement 41 700 t, maximum 50 900 t
• armour plating with chromium-nickel steel sides 145-320 mm, deck 110-120 mm, conning tower up to 360 mm
• powered by 12 Wagner steam boilers supplying 3 Blohm & Voss turbines of 150 170 hp
• power transmission to 3 propellers with a diameter of 4.7 m
• fuel - fuel oil
• maximum speed 56 km/h
• maximum range 16 430 km
• crew 2220 men
• armament 8x heavy guns L47 SK C/34 of 38 cm calibre + 12x guns L55 SK-C/28 of 150 mm calibre + 16x guns of 105 mm calibre + 16x guns of 37 mm calibre and 20x anti-aircraft guns of 20 mm calibre
• airborne aircraft 4x Arado Ar 196

From the letters of Otto von Bismarck 1853:

"If the British army appeared on the other side of the canal, I would send a policeman to arrest them.

By order of Winston Churchill, 1941:

"Your mission is to sink the Bismarck. Nothing is more important at the moment. I order you to take every step to see that this task is accomplished."