Today we’ll be covering the legendary Bismarck! One of the most famous battleships of all time with a fascinating story.
Bismarck: A Battleship for Germany at Rank VII
At a glance:
- 380 mm (15 inch) guns
- Strong all-around armor layout
- High accuracy
- Limited anti-air protection
Vehicle History
Work on Bismarck began on July 1st 1936 at Blohm & Voss in Kiel, after several years she was launched on February 14th 1939. On May 18th 1941, she was sent out on her maiden voyage to the Atlantic together with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in Operation Rheinübung. Several days later, the pair would encounter HMS Hood and the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales, along with heavy cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk. Hood as the pride of the Royal Navy was famously sunk by Bismarck after only five salvos, with Prince of Wales able to disengage after several hits.
The sinking of the Hood ignited a fierce pursuit by the entire Home Fleet of the Royal Navy. Despite the victory Bismarck was not unharmed, one of her boilers was in critical condition and she was listing starboard, which forced her to head back towards occupied France for repairs. After an inconsequential attack from the aircraft of HMS Victorious, the British lost contact with Bismarck. Only two days later however, she was detected again by a PBY Catalina. Shortly after her position was relayed, HMS Ark Royal launched several Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers to attack Bismarck, these old biplanes suffered no losses and scored several hits, with the most pivotal being to Bismarck’s rudder.
Unable to sail straight, Bismarck was cornered a British fleet of 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers and 8 destroyers. The battleships King George V and Rodney opened fire on Bismarck, which could not fire effectively due to her damaged control systems and crippled handling, rendering her useless. The British battleships fired around 700 shells of their main batteries at Bismarck, with the entire fleet firing around 2,800 shells in total. This onslaught turned the German battleship into a floating wreck within 90 minutes, but still did not sink. After orders were given to attack the German behemoth with torpedoes, it was already listing to the side and the deck was partly under water. At 10:40 on the May 27th Bismarck sank stern first. It’s still highly debated if the ship was ultimately sunk by scuttling from her own crew or from the damage. In 1989 the wreck was found in a depth of 4,800 m.
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Introducing Bismarck!
The time has come to talk about Bismarck, perhaps Germany’s most famous ship and one of the most famous in history, ultimately being a true household name. This epic ship is joining the top ranks of the German Bluewater fleet in the next major update, so let’s take a look at what she can do.
First up, let’s talk about the guns! Bismarck is equipped with eight 380 mm guns, known for their high power and accuracy. While they aren’t as large as many contemporary main batteries, their accuracy even at long range is particularly impressive, her reload speed is great too, up to 2.6 rounds per minute — the fastest reload for the caliber!
Interesting: Bismarck gets her iconic name from German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck!
Bismarck can equip four primary shells, AP, and three HE types, regular, base fuse, and timed fuse for anti-aircraft. The AP rounds will be able to punch through just over 700 mm of armor max, with a decent helping of explosive filler. The base fuse HE will also form a nice middle ground between the AP and standard HE, with over 500 mm of penetration and around 32kg of explosive filler! These main caliber guns are complemented by twelve 150 mm guns in six mounts, able to provide shorter range fire against soft targets.
Much like real life, Bismarck is somewhat lacking in regards to anti-air protection, with only a handful of large caliber 105 mm AA guns, and a complement of older, smaller 37 mm and 20 mm cannons — effective in the right circumstances, but lacking the volume of fire necessary to form a strong air defense.
Interesting: Despite her strength, Bismarck’s rudder was disabled by old Swordfish aircraft, allowing the Royal Navy to finish her off.
Like all big ships, Bismarck is very well protected, there’s a lot of detail here but we’ll just give you the quick version! Bismarck is protected by about 320 mm of armor around the belt, the turret face and barbettes are similarly well defended at 360 mm and 340 mm respectively. While Bismarck may not have the thickest armor on paper, its protection is notable as it is very well defended across the board, with few areas that could be considered as pivotal weakspots. Although the standard armor plates are not angled like her contemporaries, the angling of the armored deck provides an extra 110-120 mm of internal protection.
In terms of speed and maneuverability, Bismarck is fairly effective. With a max speed of around 30 knots (56 km/h), this lets her traverse the map quickly. Her turning circle is also surprisingly good, being able to change direction relatively quickly for such a large battleship. This maneuverability is key to the playstyle, adjusting your heading and responding to new threats quickly is vital when cannons are this powerful, so keep this in mind and make sure to keep your armor effective against the enemy!
That’s all for today, thank you for being with us for another blog! Bismarck will be making her way to the German tree in the Leviathans major update, until then, we’ve still got more to share, see you back here soon for more devblogs!
Please note that this vehicle’s characteristics may be changed before it is added to the game.
You can greatly speed up the research of the Bismarck with this preorder pack:
The Kit Includes:
- KMS Gneisenau (Rank VI, Germany) (available after the next major update)
- Premium account for 30 days
- 3000 Golden Eagles
- Pre-order bonus: unique “Glorious Hit” title
- Pre-order bonus: unique “Gneisenau ship crest” decoration (available after the next major update)
