Technically, I understand one reason the lightweight, cloth-covered, VERY slow Brit Swordfish planes COULD attack the Bismark is that they were "stealthy" and were poorly tracked by German radar/fire-control, and they were so slow the German fire-control computers didn't track them properly: the "analog" computers of the day were geared (literally) for higher-speed fighters!
The gears were designed for 300-400 knot fighters overhead, and the Swordfish were coming in low and at much less than 100 knots, less than stall speed for WWII fighters.
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http://www.usni.org/proceedings/articles98/digiorgio.htm
Discusses (very animatedly!) the failures in recently NAVSEA "thought" and damage control in FFG-7, DDG-963, CG, DDG-51, MHC class "targets."