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To: DarthVader

What punishment? It only took a lucky hit from a British plane to disable the Bismarck by knocking out her steering. She went in circles until all those "400 shells etc." sank her.


323 posted on 04/16/2005 7:48:51 PM PDT by ww2eto (WWII: the second half of the 30-years War of the twentieth century)
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To: ww2eto

The Bismarck may not have been sunk by the British but been scuttled by her own crew. What point are you trying to prove? Muse this: Had those other BB's ran out of fuel or gave up the chase, the Bismarck would have been towed home, given a hero's welcome (for sinking the Hood and pummeling the Prince of Wales) and had her damage/defects repaired. What propaganda does that give the Nazis? She may have then sortied again with her sister Tirpitz or with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and maybe the War in the Atlantic turns out different. We are fortunate that the KGV and Rodney got to her. If she didn't sink she was so badly damaged and finished as a fighting ship.

German armored ships throughout history have been of stout construction. Nearly all of their heavy units survived severe attack or were tough to destroy. Many of their captital ships at the WWI Battle of Jutland survived shellings that would have sent many other ships to Davy Jones locker. Do some research and see what happened to the battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz and see the condition she was in when she returned Wilhelmshaven after the battle. The Bismarck is simply a product of the naval engineering school of thought and culture that the Germans followed. Their designs for the most part were sucessful, technically sound and survivable.


328 posted on 04/16/2005 10:40:27 PM PDT by DarthVader (Liberal Democrat = Fat, drunk and stupid is a hell of a way to go through life)
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