The Wreck of DKM Bismarck − A Marine Forensics Analysis 1 The ...

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The Wreck of DKM Bismarck − A Marine Forensics Analysis The 105mm battery on Bismarck was flawed in several other aspects. Due to the diversion of four new mounts to be used in a trade arrangement with the Soviet Union, four of the older Dopp LC/31 type being used forward instead of the more modern Dopp LC/37 type, which were mounted aft. The 105mm mounts, interestingly, were unable to fully depress to engage very low-flying targets, such as enemy biplane torpedo bombers. The 37mm guns mounted on Bismarck were single-shot, semi-automatic weapons, capable of a maximum rate of fire of about 30 rounds per minute per gun. The comparable 40mm Bofors machine guns mounted on modern American warships were capable of firing about 160 rounds per minute per gun. The antiaircraft armament on Bismarck was fatally flawed, as events were to show on the evening of the 26 th of May. PRINCE OF WALES AND HOOD ENGAGE BISMARCK Bismarck left Gydnia (Gotenhafen) at 0200 on 19 May 1941 and was joined by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen off Cape Arkona later that day. This was to be Bismarck’s first operational mission. The purpose of the sortie was to attack British convoy shipping in the North Atlantic. The German ships eluded British forces until detected by HMS Suffolk at 1922 on 23 May during their attempt to break out into the North Atlantic through the Denmark Strait, between Iceland and Greenland. Hood was the largest warship in service in the Royal Navy in 1941. This beautiful ship, completed at the end of World War I, was typical of battle cruisers of that era, with high speed attained at the cost of inferior armor protection. Hood had adequate side armor protection, but her inferior horizontal protection doomed the ship during her brief engagement with Bismarck. 4
The Wreck of DKM Bismarck − A Marine Forensics Analysis The newly-commissioned Prince of Wales and the older battle cruiser Hood engaged Bismarck early on the morning of 24 May 1941. Hood was hit and destroyed only 9 minutes after opening fire. Hood was utterly destroyed by the fifth salvo fired by Bismarck. A single 380-mm shell, possibly two, did the job. This was the consequence of stunningly accurate gunnery coupled with a flawed protective system − Hood was the last of the World War One-era battle cruisers, ships designed and built with an emphasis on speed and gun power at a time when such could only be achieved by sacrificing protection. Prince of Wales managed to hit Bismarck with three 356-mm shells, two of which caused serious damage and the loss of critical fuel 5 . (In turn, the British battleship was damaged by seven shell hits, four 380-mm from Bismarck and three 203-mm from Prinz Eugen.) Although the Hood design was modified to marginally improve her armor protection, the ship remained fatally vulnerable to long-range, plunging shellfire from heavy guns. (The Bismarck’s modern 380-mm guns fired 800-kilogram shells at a substantially higher muzzle velocity than the older 381-mm guns on the Hood. The German guns out-ranged the Hood’s 5 This was confirmed during an extensive correspondence with two officers who served on Prince of Wales, the spotting officer, CDR Arthur Skipwith (RN, Ret.) and the gunnery officer, CAPT Colin McMullen (RN, Ret.). CDR Skipwith recalled that he had his binoculars trained on Bismarck during the entire engagement and was able to follow the fall of shot for each salvo fired from his ship. At no time did he note the fall of any rounds fired by Hood. 5
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