Written by
James Davies

24th May, 0600 hrs. Bismarck, in the company of Prinz Eugen, opens fire with her forward 15-guns on the Hood and the Prince of Wales. Within seconds Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy was hit and blown apart in circumstances that remain controversial today.

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Overview

The Bismarck class was originally conceived as a 35,600-tonne (35,000-long-ton) battleship, to fit within the Washington (1922) and London (1930) treaty limits. It was found early in the design process that the specified requirements for speed, armour, and main armament could not be met within this displacement and, as the preliminary design work progressed, standard displacement crept up to its final figure of 42,369 tonnes (41,700 long tons).

There was considerable debate over the choice of main armament. Initial specifications called for eight 330-mm (13.0-in) guns but this was increased to 350-mm (13.8-in) guns in early 1935. A March 1935 proposal to deploy eight 380-mm (15.0-in) guns was initially rejected for adding too much weight (the ships would not be able to use the largest lock at Wilhelmshaven due to their draft), but was finally adopted in May. These guns were designed for action in the North Sea, where they could penetrate the belt armour of ships built within the treaty limits at the short engagement ranges likely to occur in that sea’s typically poor visibility conditions.

Following normal practice in Germany, the Bismarck would also mount secondary and tertiary armament. The secondary armament, intended for use against surface targets, comprised 12 150-mm (5.9-in) guns in six twin turrets (three port and three starboard). The tertiary, anti-aircraft armament consisted of 16 105-mm (4.1-in) guns in eight twin mounts (four on each side). Although this arrangement allowed surface and air targets to be engaged simultaneously, the latest designs from France and Great Britain incorporated dual-purpose secondary armament and no tertiary armament, which reduced weight and allowed more guns to be trained on air and surface threats if these threats appeared separately. The Bismarck class’s close-range defence against aircraft was provided by 37-mm (1.46-in) cannon in eight twin mounts and 12 single 20-mm (0.79-in) machine guns, armament comparable to contemporary warships. The Tirpitz eventually mounted 78 of the 20-mm guns. 

Bismarck’s armour (the armour was modified on the Tirpitz) gave that ship a theoretical immunity zone of 11,000 to 21,000 m (12,000 to 23,000 yd) for the machinery spaces against a 16.0-in (406-mm) gun, meaning that at ranges below 11,000 m a 16.0-in shell could be expected to penetrate the side armour, and above 21,000 m a 16.0-in shell could be expected to penetrate the deck armour. The deck armour was actually split between two decks; alone, the upper deck’s armour’s immunity zone was a maximum of 11,000 m, which meant as soon as the ship was far enough away to resist strikes to the side, the shells could penetrate the upper deck. The magazines had a maximum immunity zone of 25,000 m (27,300 yd), and although the minimum range is unknown, it was certainly very short. It must be stressed that the immunity zones are theoretical calculations. In practice, several factors - particularly the sea state - affect the actual resistance to shells at the instant they hit, and the practical immunity zone constantly changes as the ship heaves, rolls, and pitches.

The Bismarck class was designed for a maximum (trials) speed of 30 kt (56 km/h), and was powered by geared steam turbines fed by 12 boilers. The Bismarck and her sister ship were slightly slower than modern French battleships but quicker than the latest British designs. Hangar space could accommodate four Arado Ar 196 floatplanes, the standard aircraft for German capital ships at that time.

The Bismarck class was a fundamentally sound design that never lived up to its potential. As with all ships of that time, Bismarck could put up only a poor air defence, although this capability improved on the Tirpitz as the war progressed. The propulsion arrangement, with triple screws, made the ship slightly directionally unstable and meant that the rudder had to be worked more than in contemporary ships, particularly in a following sea, reducing speed and increasing fuel consumption. Nevertheless, these were relatively minor defects and the ships showed themselves capable of absorbing considerable damage and possessed considerable firepower.

While Bismarck was lost on her first sortie and Tirpitz never engaged enemy warships, these ships profoundly influenced the naval war. In particular, the Tirpitz, simply by her presence close to the Arctic convoy routes, forced the British to devote considerable resources to ensure her containment.

The potential threat posed by Tirpitz once brought results just as well as her guns. The British Admiralty was convinced on July 4, 1942 that the Tirpitz was sailing to intercept convoy PQ17 and ordered that convoy to scatter. Consequently, German aircraft and submarine attacks badly mauled the convoy ships, sinking many. Much of the value of  Tirpitz lay in her threat as part of a “fleet in being”, and that restricted her actual operational use.

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Units

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Specifications

Note 1: Emergency full load (or “war full load”) displacement and draft exceeded this.