How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Discussions about the history of the ship, technical details, etc.

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rick43515

Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by rick43515 »

I remember My father and older brother and I going to the Drive in to see the movie Sink the Bismarck. When I was in the Army I was stationed in Germany for 6 yrs. and the German lady a Frau Helma Glaab who ran the bowling ally told me her Uncle had been stationed on the Bismarck and survived the sinking. She introduced me to him his name was Karl and told me about the sinking. He told me it was hell on board because the ship couldn't maneuver and was a setting duck. But he said the worst thing was that as he got aboard the HMS Devonshire the ship took off leaving over a thousand German sailors in the water to drown. It was revenge for the Hood.
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wadinga
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by wadinga »

Hello Rick,

Did "Karl" express his heartfelt thanks to Captain Martin and the crew of the Dorsetshire for his own life being saved, I wonder?

The ships at the scene were aware that Bismarck had been sending homing signals for U-boats for some hours and the naiivity of those who believe a U-Boat would avoid torpedoing a stopped, juicy target on the off chance those being picked were fellow Germans is not borne out by the real evidence of "total war". Destroyer HMS Maori had Bismarck survivors on board, but the Luftwaffe pilots who attacked and sank her sister Mashona did not know or care if their countrymen were aboard any of the ships. Rescuing German survivors conferred no invulnerability to attack.

Captain Martin, in his tall-sided heavily rolling cruiser had his own men's lives to think about plus those survivors he had already picked up when a sighting was made of a possible U-Boat in position to attack. He made a difficult decision based on this incomplete information.

This allegation of "revenge" is most often made in the darker parts of the Web and has no place being revived here, since it has been discussed before.

Incidentally I built Bismarck as an "Eaglewall" 1/1250 plastic model kit along with Suffolk and the Tribals many, many years ago.

All the best

wadinga
"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today!"
November_SSN
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by November_SSN »

Hello everyone, I'm using this thread to introduce myself. I'm November, 29, from France although I live in Russia now, and I've been fascinating by naval warfare, especially battleships, since I've been aware that such things exist.
I joined this forum because the Bismarck is one hell of a legendary battleship in history, like the Tiger or T-34 in the tank domain, or the Spitfire for planes. Of course, I couldn't miss the opportunity to discuss one of the most influent ships of WW2 (because no matter how WW2 already happened in the aircraft carrier era, the chase of the Bismarck was a crucial point in the battle for the Atlantic) along with other fans!
Apart from the Bismarck, my favourite battleships are the Japanese Fuso-class and the French Richelieu.

Have a nice day!
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wadinga
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by wadinga »

Hello November_SSN,


Welcome to the Forum.

The Richelieu's escape from France in the dark days of 1940 are a very interesting subject. There had been a plan for her and Jean Bart to sail to Britain to be completed, but on the change of government, instead they went to African ports where there was no possibility of completing them. Are there any French language books with details of the escape from the advancing Germans, especially if further perhaps politically sensitive details are emerging? We should start a thread in the 1922-1945 section.

The political arguments over Mers-el-Kebir and Dakar attacks have been discussed many times, and Churchill's merciless policy towards former friends debated and frequently condemned, but the motivation and decision to put these potentially very powerful ships beyond the reach of both enemies and current British allies is something that has always fascinated me. I believe it strongly influenced Churchill's attitude to subsequent French assurances and sowed distrust. Shall we start a thread?

All the best

wadinga
"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today!"
Paul L
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by Paul L »

Back in late 1960s I bought an Airfix Model of Tirpitz & HMS Hood, as well as others, so even as a kid I was interested.
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lightyear
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by lightyear »

Hi everyone
I have been crazy with models since I was a child. My first ship model is Grafe spee, and them came New Jersey, Yamaton, Kongo, Bismarck, PE...I got a 1/700 fleet in my cupboard.
It is only 15 years ago that I started to know some real Naval knowledge and focus on Bismarck. I say real naval knowledge because China locked itself up for too long and even magzines(almost your only source for ship's knowledge) gave you nonsense like New Jersey's bow was damaged by artillary fire from North Korean army :stubborn:
Anyway...in 2004,it was a online game named Navyfield 2 caught me in. I chose German line and it was impressive at the beginning because of good accuracy. Z1 destroyer was my favourite start up ship. However, it was debuffed with every upgrade until it was unbearable. In the game, German armour is the heaviest and the second worst quality. Ships' structural strength is poor and shell damage like a snowball. There was intense discussions about wether the setup was far too outrageous. I was in the brawl and start to collect information about the Bismarck which is a symbol of German surface warships.
After that I knew many people in the circle and discussed with many of them. The discussion in Chinese forum back to 2005 was...very offensive. I left the forum for many years and I found the forums is much quieter nowadays. We have very capable people who read German and English and studied a lot of first hand material on armour, shell, decapping and radar system. Some of them are as intellegent as they are biased. I feel the overall atmosohere now is Bismarck mediocre theory. It is a pity that people are too easy to follow if you show them you know a lot however biased you are. Worst of all they feel content on what they've heard and doesn't care the conclusion is reliable or not. :whistle:
RayGrant
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by RayGrant »

Mostly for historical reasons. It was involved in the most* famous sea battles of the second world war.

Yes, there were other far more impactful battles (eg in the pacific) but for some reason, the sinking of the Bismarck is the best known.
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Ata
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by Ata »

I married into a 'Naval' family: my father-in-law finished WW2 commanding an aircraft carrier, his father commanded a battle squadron at Jutland, various cousins/relations had similar RN posts, including a young lieutenant who was spotting officer in Prince of Wales at DS, and with my own background in defence systems development, naval engagements and ship performance were frequent topics of conversation. I have found these discussions quite illuminating, feel it about time i introduced myself.
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hans zurbriggen
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by hans zurbriggen »

hi,

im new to this interesting forum.
my interest for Bismarck comes from a beautiful 1/350 model of DKM Bismarck that my uncle has built some time ago.
since then, i have read "Schlachtschiff Bismarck" from V.Baron von Mhullenhaime-Rechberg.

I hope to learn a lot here.

hans
novicebutnice
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by novicebutnice »

To be quite honest I don't know how to answer the question.

In that it's not like for example the F16 which I started to like after watching the movie Iron Eagle, or the F14 after watching TOPGUN etc.

Yes there was a movie called Sink the Bismarck, but my interest in the Bismarck started before I had seen the movie.

I honestly can't explain where my fascination came from, maybe the first time I saw the ships very fine lines in a book?

Maybe it's my German heritage?
JSpencer
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by JSpencer »

I had never heard of the Bismarck. My mother took me to see the film "Sink the Bismarck" in 1961. I was astounded. I also got my facts wrong. I was seven years old. I associated biplanes with WWI. I insisted the action described in the film happened in WWI.

Next, I read the C.S. Forster novel. What really did it for me was the 1962 Landmark book, "The Sinking of the Bismarck" by William L. Shirer. The real story fascinated me, but the film left me with images that have stayed with me all my life: Suffolk slowly dodging into the fog, Prince of Wales attacking amidst towering columns of near misses, the composite shot showing the Swordfish pilot closing to launch his torpedo, and Admiral Tovey flinching as he sees Bismarck capsize. The superlative animation was superior to most slapdash CGI done for the vapid contemporary WWII films.
Francis726
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Re: How did you come to be interested in Bismarck?

Post by Francis726 »

Great to read such different stories. A little bit about mine:

I'm interested in ships and warships since I was maybe 2, 3 years old. At the time, my dad was in a motorcycle accident and was in the hospital for a few days. I send him a drawing of the Graf Spee, and my mom says it's one of her most precious treasures of my childhood. A couple of years later, my dad was organizing his library and I was looking around, when it came to my attention a Third Reich encyclopedia and that famous picture of Bismarck in Kiel. I asked: "Dad, which ship is that?" "The Bismarck", he repplied (ships names are often Males in Spanish). Then I started to build ships with Lego-type bricks, drawing and eventually reading about ships and History. The first Bismarck focused text was the chapter on Churchill memoirs, which blew me away. I found a Reader's Digest Condensed Book. The first book was Frederick Kramer's novel, also the first Second World War book I finished. By my teen years I was reading and saving all the websites I could find... including this one.
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