The explosives question

[tommy303]

Given the gravity of the situation, even with water surging in and out of the torpedoed compartments, one has to wonder why blowing the thing off was not done.

If you mean the whole stern and rudder assembly, that would have required a very extensive bit of work, probably more time than they had to do it in before the Home Fleet showed up. The stern in that area was quite stoutly constructed with an armoured deck and armoured scarps forming a turtle back box over the steering compartment, and it would probably take several days for the dockyard personnel to do the job with the ship in drydock. The DC personnel would have to try and cut through the armour to allow for a clean separation when the explosive charges were detonated to disconnect the stern. Again, there was also the worry that too much explosive might cause more damage, and if the stern did not cleanly separate from the rest of the ship, it could collapse onto the propellors and completely disable the ship.

As something of an aside, it should be noted that the portion of the stern which broke off during the sinking of the Bismarck appears to have detatched aft of the armoured bulkhead forming the after-most boundary of the steering compartment. It would appear that the rabbetted and welded seam which connected the modular-constructed stern failed at some point as the ship went down.

On the other hand, if charges were placed around the rudder foundations on the inside of the hull and attempts made to blow them free that way, there was still the worry that too much explosive could still collapse the stern or spread the damage farther forward than it already was.. As to placing the charges on the rudder posts, well, chances were the divers assigned to the task would be battered into pulp against the ship's hull by the very heavy seas before they could even get oriented, let alone get the charges in place and armed.

To a degree, one can always question if everything that could possibly have been done was tried or not, but given the amount of damage, the sea conditions, and the close proximity of the enemy, I would suggest that the DC personnel did their best until Vian's destroyers showed up. Thereafter, they seem to have finally given up when faced with the failure of their direct efforts and the rejection by the command staff of some of the more far-fetched ideas as being too dangerous or impractical.

[30knots]

tommy thanks for your comments

Bismarck, already hit once in the stern, an underwater hit AFAIK, which i understand has a greater destructive effect, still resulted in all three shafts functioning correctly.

Now i'm thinking about the damaged rudder, a charge from above, in the dry, just above the area.

Were not Bismarck's outers (propellers) quite some distance from the rudders ?

[tommy303]

You might want to take a look at:

http://www.navweaps.com/index_inro/INRO_Bismarck_p2.htm

The damage to the stern structure in the area of the rudders and steering gear rooms was very severe with serious buckling of decks and structure. A goodly portion of the structure forming the counter under the stern had been blown in, and under the conditions prevailing that evening, there was no dry area in which to work. It was probably feared, rightly, that any extreme measures might make things worse. Given the nature of the damage, however, it is only remotely possible that the rudders might have been uncoupled if the seas were calm and the crew had enough time without being attacked. However, it is still possible that they might not have been able to put the rudders into midships position, particularly if the rudder shafting and fundations were severely distorted. If that was the case, only cutting the rudders loose would have any effect and that would have required some very calm seas.