Would what Sunk Bismarck have Sunk an Iowa Class Battleship? 

400 hits of naval gun fire, 4 torpedoes, and finally scuttling charges. Yes I’d say an Iowa would have sunk under these conditions

Bismarck actually had two rudders. the torpedo that disabled her actually hit the steering gear room and forced the rudder back into the center line propeller and jammed both.

Bismarck during the final battle was : - all alone, no escorts or hope of support - getting low on fuel - steering damaged - nobody on board had any decent amount of sleep for 72 hours and all were feeling doomed/demoralized - surrounded by enemy ships with well rested crew eager for a fight Can't see an Iowa class BB in the exact same situation doing a whole lot better.

How good is this guy ! I'm British and so often when I hear a US commentator talking about US ships you practically hear Stars And Stripes Forever start to be be blended in in the background half way through but Ryan is a real straight shooter and whenever you have a caveat to what he says he inevitably brings it up 30 seconds later himself. Great no nonsense delivery on every video, I never doubt a word he says.

Rodney put 378 16" shells and 706 6" secondary shells into Bismarck and needed a lot of light bulbs, windows and toilets replacing after the battle due to concussion from repeated full 9-gun broadsides into the Bismarck at close range. It was also the only time a battleship torpedoed another battleship. KGV fired 339 14" shells and over 700 5.25" shells as well. That's quite a paddling (in the words of a salty gnome), and it says something about the Bismarck's design that it had to be scuttled by its own crew after taking that amount of damage.

The Swordfish was slow and looked antiquated but was capable of operating from heaving decks in the North Atlantic. At that time there was nothing else more capable of doing the job than the “Stringbag”.

Also, one of the best verbal explanations I've heard in a long while of the actual historical battle. The Bismarck Chase remains one of those Naval events that would have been thrown out by any editor if turned in as fiction.

I just wanted to say that I'm really impressed with how balanced and impartial you are, objectively judging each ship fairly. Great job!

Immobile and getting pounded into a burning wreck by multiple battleships, several heavyweight torpedo hits, and scuttling charges? _Nothing_ would survive all that.

I dont think amy battleship would have survived that onslaught

If we germans had used the resources that went into failed projects like ships, rail guns, rockets and so on for tanks or u-boots, it would not have made any difference as we allready had way more equipment then we were able to fuel or supplie ;)

Great content and video. Thanks to all who helped put this together and Ryan for his captivating, informative and as always, fun level headed delivery. Cheers guys, keep up the great and entertaining work that keeps this old boat alive.!

The swordfish thing reminds me of the Simpson's gag where Sideshow Bob steals the Wright brother's plane and the jet fighters pursuing him are going too fast to acquire the target!!

".......Fire all of your guns at once and explode into space.........."

I think you do a great job of presenting as honest outcomes approach as possible. Your ability to keep any bias's in check is commendable.

Well presented and well explained. To understand the state of US Navy AA in early 1941 we need only look to the two North Carolina Class ships, which were armed primarily with 1.1 inch and .50 cal BMGs. The Swordfish might have faired better, but certainly no worse because of this. I'm glad I found this channel; one of the few where the presenter actually knows what he's talking about. I must add that the British Swordfish air crews must have expected to die on every mission they flew. I salute these brave men.

Bravo Ryan and Libby! A really well-balanced and detailed video. Appreciated by all. And the use of 'Crapulent' is notable. Thanks!

Excellent breakdown and wonderful job of explaining the real details in a way that's easily understood. I've been a big naval buff my entire life, and learned a lot I thought I'd already known. BWT, I'm the artist who did the colored ink drawing used as a poster for the NJ for the 50th (?) Anniversary of the ship. I haven't been back to Philly in years, but would spend a full weekend on the NJ and the Olympia if I could! ;-)

Impressively detailed information! I feel like I've learned a lot more about the design of the systems involved, thank you!

Wow! A facinating runthrough of the comparisons between my two favorite battleships. I built models of both when I was a kid.

Apples to oranges. A late-war outfitted US battleship is a totally different critter than at the beginning of the war. A better comparison would be swapping the Bismarck for North Carolina and its weapons suite in May 1941. So no 40mm Bofors, 5” mounts do not have VT fuses. In 1941 NC had nine 16”/45 with optical range finders, no radar. For anti-aircraft there are ten 5” dual mounts that are capable, but not as deadly as they will be later on, only four 1.1” quad mounts and and 12 .50 cal machine guns. North Carolina had more range (similar to the Iowas) so the fuel considerations would not be the same, but max speed is only 28 knots. If the engagements go the same way PoW is hit and maybe knocked out of the chase, Hood may still go down, but maybe not. The US shells might have performed differently - or not at all. The US Ordinance Dept covered up defective torpedoes, and may have had a problem with naval shells too, ie Jean Bart was hit several times and most failed to explode. Fuel loss may not have caused the ship to need to run for port, but County class cruisers wouldn’t have trouble keeping pace with a North Carolina. Anti-aircraft fire would have been equally abysmal as the Bismarcks. Hull/rudder/screw design may have not caused the loss of steering, but In the end a North Carolina gets sunk too. It just isn’t fast enough to escape, even before being damaged.

This is very quickly becoming one of my favorite channels !

A very knowledgeable, unbiased review.......enjoyed that!

One point not often remembered about the last fight of Bismarck is that Rodney and KGV weren't the only heavy Royal Navy assets nearby. Force H with Ark Royal, Renown and the cruiser Sheffield was just over the horizon, and the crew on Renown could hear the sound of heavy gunfire. There were two simple reasons why Renown didn't join the Home Fleet in that battle: 1) Admiral Somerville was under direct orders from the Admiralty that Renown was NOT to engage Bismarck in a gun duel 2) Sheffield was still returning from its shadowing of Bismarck during the night, and so Somerville was not going to leave Ark Royal unescorted. Once Sheffield rejoined Force H then Renown took off like a startled gazelle and got about half-way to the battle when Tovey signaled Somerville that Bismarck had finally sunk. All of which is a long-winded way of getting to the point: even *if* the German's hadn't set the scuttling charges Bismarck was still going to sink: Force H had no problems with fuel, Renown had six 15" guns, Sheffield had eight 21" torpedoes, and Ark Royal still had all its Swordfish. Bismarck's guns had been silenced, so any or all of those three British ships could have taken their own sweet time taking turns at Bismarck. And it doesn't matter how thick the belt was, a brace of 21" torpedoes and dozens of 18" aerial torpedoes is going to send you to the bottom.

I've been waiting for this comparison, glad you finally did it! However, there were a couple errors and some additional details I'd like to point out. Firstly Bismarck did have two rudders. The torpedo hit completely sheared off one of the rudders and jammed the second into the central propeller. The 2002 expedition to Bismarck's wreck was able to view the damaged stern and determined that it would have been impossible to repair (outside of a drydock) even if the crew had managed to access it. While you did mention that Iowa BB's had some maneuverability using only their props I'm wondering if this capability was only tested in calm seas. If so then trying to do the same in the rough seas Bismarck was in might have extremely difficult or impossible. Next in the Battle of the Denmark Strait Prince of Wales scored a few hits on Bismarck. The one hit through the bow as you mentioned, however the second actually did far worse damage. This shell hit below the armor belt and damaged the torpedo bulkhead which caused a boiler room to partially flood robing the ship of its top speed and causing a slight list. I'm not sure if New Jersey's armor scheme would have prevented similar damage though. The third shell from Prince of Wales hit Bismarck's seaplane catapult but caused only minor damage. Lastly the 2002 expedition also found the likely impact site of a torpedo from the final battle on the wreck. The torpedo bulkhead behind was completely intact and thus they concluded that these torpedoes could not have sunk the ship.

The Bismark was just one toughly built ship, but like any battle ship, still vulnerable in some ways.

Ryan, Johnny Horton's "Sink The Bismarck" is one of my favorite tunes too. I like you and Drachinifel's channels. You guys do a thorough expose' on the history and technical aspects of the ships you are talking about. Keep up the good work!

Really good deep dive lecture of strenghts and weak points of Bismarck. And I read dozens of books on this topic. I even met one of the sailors hunting down Bismarck in Portsmouth 1994...........

Interesting fact. when given the stats of the Nelson class and given the fact that they existed USN constructors stated that such a ship could not be built. Further HMS Rodney though designed for 23kts proved capable of 25kts during the Bismarck chase(on less than 50k SHP not bad hydrodynamics at all)

@22:00 It's also worth noting that _Bismarck_ - in common with other KM ships of the period - had something of a weak stern. The KM ships _Lutzow_ and _Prinz Eugen_ both later suffered significant damage aft from torpedo strikes - _Prinz Eugen_ to the point of having to cut her stern clear and proceed under a jury rig. Not that KM ship designers were inept but because the three-shaft layout required a shallower stern with less buoyancy and because the centreline shaft has to drive through the keel. _New Jersey_ - without a centreline shaft compromising her integrity aft - might have survived a torpedo hit better than _Bismarck_ did, as _Bismarck's_ issue was the structural collapse of that area of the stern dropping the deck above down into the steering room.

I love your commentary Ryan, the way you stop and think and speak truthfully is wonderful - a lot more people should do that.

"Crapulent." That, my friend, may be the greatest word I have ever heard! And it just rolled off your tongue, like you use it every day! I had to back up several times to hear it, and then put on closed captions to be sure. You, Sir, are magnificent, not just in your field of naval architecture or naval engineering (whichever one it must be), but you should also have an honorary doctorate in the English language, I am guessing! I love it! Thank you! And by the way, I am riveted by your battleship videos! I am a battleship sailor, having served on the Mighty Mo from 1989 to the end of 1991 (her last voyage under her own power, returning from the Pearl Harbor 50th memorial). Your videos make me proud once again to have served on such awesome ships! Thank you!

First carrier strike in Bismarck was from HMS Victorious

Something I read about the final dinking of Bismarck. The book claimed that critical power and communication lines ran above the turtle deck. Alternatively the turtle deck was placed low, but either way turret power and ship communications were exposed outside the armoured citadel. It's a vulnerability carried forward form the first world war Baden's design. Thus when the Royal Navy silences the ship during the final battle, it isn't necessarily a series of lucky/accurate hits. It could equally be the volume of bangs severing the Bismarck's central nervous system. I've not visited an Iowa, but was fortunate enough to visit the USS North Carolina at Wilmington. Many aspects of the NC's design impressed me, but I (an electrical engineer) was hugely impressed by the facilities for damage control teams to re-route critical cable paths in the event of damage.

A lot of good information in this vid! In a final confrontation with multiple ships more-or-less her equal, the New Jersey would've succumbed just like the Bismarck. However - based on the information you provided -- I believe the New Jersey would have avoided the final confrontation because her superior air defense system would have annihilated the Swordfish torpedo planes which were able to launch all their torpedoes against Bismarck with impunity. In the final analysis, the German surface fleet of World War II was too small and thus too weak to present a challenge to the British unlike the Imperial German Fleet of the First World War. "Commerce raiding" was best left to submarines.

Excellent dissection, well worth the time to listen to.

This is a very good and remarkably unbiased consideration. I have only one caveat, and that's just how slow the new jersey would be if the shot had blown her bow off? Failing that, I would think that NJ would have made it home. Fun fact, HMS Rodney was carrying about half of our gold reserves to be sent to Canada. If she had been sunk, it would have been a total disaster for the UK

29:22 HMS Rodney was not that ‘ancient’ after all. She was newer than HMS Hood, had impressive armour, and the issues with her nine 16” (same calibre as New Jersey) guns had been sorted by then. She was slow indeed, but boy didn’t she wreck KMS Bismarck before leaving it to the cruisers to finish the job

Ryan, this is a fantastic analysis. Thank-you.

Love this study, would like to see it expanded to other engagements, including putting New Jersey in Hood's place. Plus some real war gaming aspects with Draq commanding the opposing forces. Yes sir!

As many others has already pointed out, Bismarck had two rudders and three screws. One between the rudders and the two others outside the rudders.

so My two fav WW2 channels are battleship NJ and Drachinifel. on his Sunday Dry Dock he said that he was really looking forward to visiting the BB NJ. I hope you reach out to him. Seeing you two on the same pod cast would be wonderful.

This is a fun one. Thanks for putting in the time Mr. Ryan!😊

I have family in San Pedro, ca and once visited the USS Iowa. she's a proud fixture in my old hometown, and is very loved. She is quite a big ship, and I was amazed as to just how steep some of her areas are. At the time I visited, she was fairly new to the area, having just arrived. Not many areas were open yet, but I did get to see her many areas still, notably, the eating area for the crew. I could see how escaping a sinking ship would be tough, since corridors are tight, and many. Glad she is in my old hometown, and loved.

Thanks much for a great analysis, that adds to advancing the understanding of events. One correction: Bismarck had/has TWIN rudders, centrally coupled, and close to central propeller. Torpedo hit under stern bent strbrd rudder into arc of central prop rotation, causing Bismarck to travel in port-wise circles--not good for escape, let alone fending off RN warships. Port rudder is missing; the rudder stock--cast steel--completely fractured, but it's not entirely certain whether this is directly attributable to torpedo, or subsequent events. Excellent online reference is "The Wreck of DKM Bismarck; A Marine Forensic Analysis" by J. Cameron, et al, based on May 2002 wreck survey. One additional thought on the 1941 Iowa/Bismarck vs RN scenario: Iowa, being a latter-half WWII capital ship, derived all the evolving thinking based on everyone's experiences, esp. in '41 & '42 (Bismarck, PoW, Repulse, Houston, Coral Sea, Midway, etc.) Germans were also learning--Tirpitz had much more formidable AA, with mucho & better 2cm & 3.7cm Flak. The 3 converging stream props/closely arranged & coupled rudder system made Bismarck almost impossible to maneuver by props alone, even in smooth seas, and was it's "glass jaw". Design "clairvoyance" would now become crucial for an AA protection, not yet proven by experience, RN got lessons from Stukas starting 1940. Once one is steaming in slow circles, the term "shooting gallery" comes to mind. By their count, RN expended 2,876 shells on Bismarck, most at point-blank ranges. BTW, Bismark had two fuel bunkers contaminated with sea water from PoW's hits, but was carrying sufficient fuel, in fact, extra, in case of special needs for this cruise. Lutjens, no Patton/Halsy/Rommel, had orders NOT to tangle with RN--recall his reticence, even after straddled, to engage Hood. Immediately after, he went for the safety/air cover of Brest, & not because it was a filling station.

The Spirit of Johnny Horton compels you!

This is a very detailed and honest assessment. What is key is the sinking of the Hood. Once that happened there was no way the Bismark could have survived, and, interestingly, one of the survivors of the Bismark claimed that after the euphoria of the sinking, it quickly dawned on the crew that their days were numbered. Churchill wanted the Bismark sunk, it was top priority, but once Hood is sunk motivation to get the job done is greatly heighten.

Very fair and balanced analysis. I think however it's also unintentionally indicating what most people, including the narrator, realised about World War II is that larger Iowa, Hood and Bismark class battleships were mostly relegated to a support role rather than as decisive weapons of war in their own right. Americans managed their warships better but far too many (in general) were sent to the bottom unless they were embedded in larger scale fleets capable of all round support. Individual or small groups of warships could mostly be picked off from the air if they were not properly escorted. The larger remaining German warships (i.e. Tirpitz, etc.) were mostly relegated to ports or Fjords after this incident. The German U-boat campaign was generally a lot more successful initially although allied technology (i.e. sonar, Enigma cracking, convoy system, improved depth charges/hedgehog, shortwave radar) eventually made this a nightmare for them.

This channel is great! Keep it up lads

Another thing not mentioned is that during both battles in which Bismarck fought the weather was appalling and during exercises with the RN and others post war the Iowa class proved to be unable to use their forward barbette in heavy seas meaning that in either fight the Iowa would have been reduced to a six gun ship a serious disadvantage

I love all your videos, please keep them coming.

I loved watching this. Fascinating to hear the comparisons and how similar these two warships were. I just wanted to drop a note about the CIWS/Phalanx. I don't know about 1980-era, but mid-2000s these were used successfully on pirate skiffs off Somalia, so would have been fine on the slow-but-still-faster-than-a-skiff planes. Needed upgrades to train down to waterline so it's not a rebuttal especially as torpedo planes come in low anyway also, but it's an interesting data point.

The simplicity design of the Swordfish and the fewer complex features required for later planes actually mean that you had to kill either the either the engine or the pilot to down the plane... Comparatively the late early 30s design of the Hawker Hurricane was superior to the Spitfire in regards to repairing battle damage due to the wood and cloth construction as opposed to the Aluminum and metal construction of the Spitfire.

Its like the movie "The Final Countdown" Taking modern warships back to 1941.

You, sir, are incredibly knowledgeable! 👍

A couple of suggestions for swapping an Iowa in the place of Scharnhorst at the Battle of the North Cape, and Kirishima vs South Dakota and Washington. Thank you again for the interesting content.

HAHA! “...truly crapulent...” You have expanded my vocabulary, sir.

Thank You for that thorough analysis. But I think that the determining factor would have been gun accuracy and which ever battleship lands the first salvo on the other battleship. If your fire control is put out of action early, there is not much hope in scoring a hit. You would be firing your guns blind. But that is my opinion.

In the days, I build a replica on scale of the Bismarck, and she was a sexy ship. The model is still here displayed, but I'm happy that she got sunken. Although, it wasn't easy for the allied fleet. Btw, in my opinion, the IOWA class battleships are also my favorites, You have great content, and I'm following you for a time, thank you very much for sharing this info.

A point to note about the battle of the Denmark strait is that Prince of Wales also landed an underwater hit on Bismarck which dove under her belt, punched through the compartments of the SPS and finally exploded against her main torpedo bulkhead. This caused the flooding of a generator room and part of a boiler room on the other side of the bulkhead, further reducing Bismarck's speed (than just the damage to the bow). I wonder how New Jersey would have dealt with such a hit? Also, with regards to protection against ships, not only like New Jersey are the missiles not going to penetrate the armour belt, King George V's is thicker and made of better armour steel., but they are mounted on the outside so the missiles are less likely even to do external damage.

I’d like to see a video about New Jersey as a part of Force Z, either as a third ship or replacing either Prince of Wales or Repulse

Put them in the same situation, rudder jammed and the ship doomed into a constant turn to port, here is the difference. The MK-8 Rangekeeper on the New Jersey could develop a firing solution against a closing ship of the British Navy. She could fire accurate salvos and hit her targets even locked into a constant turn, the analog fire control computers would compensate fir it. The Bismarck's much simpler fire control could not so because of her constant turn the Bismarck could not achieve a firing solution and were locked into firing blindly and having to guess range. This is seen when the Bismarck was not able to score a single hit against the British ships in the final engagement.

Now that's scary . I am truly glad that none of these hit any allied ships . At a guess , I think the resulting explosion would have been like the USS Arzona from Pearl Harbor .. with catastrophic results . another amazing episode .

I Really appreciate your knowledge, Dedication and true Warrior spirit! Thanks for running a great simulation of possible outcomes to show how NJ would have fared at each stage! I was watching and remembered a book I forgot I owned, and dug it up. its an autographed copy of "Battleship Bismark" it was inscribed to Rear Admiral Quiqley in 1981 and signed by Count Reichberg. I just found it in an old box a few days ago! I do wonder though about a certain few of the myriad outcomes (Butterfly Effect). That, being able to see and target at night even to a limited ability and with those bigger 16" guns, Jersey could have possibly kept some or all cruisers out of effective range. Also probably has good a chance of stopping or slowing the British battleships. Further, it seems that mabey the R.N. (Running on Nothing) fuel wise, would have either been disuaded from further persuit by a feint to seaward or at least not gotten as many shells on target since New Jersey wasn't steaming in a circle! I can imagine that she would still have given a fair turn of speed for Rodney if "given her head" for awhile for evasion. Did the range close enough for Jerseys 5in guns? Also its probably totally laughable for any swordfish, let alone the 1 out of the twelve that actually managed a hit to penetrate a faster more manueverable WW2 Jerseys trained Defences and score. Also by swinging her tail radar she would probably have known that she had evaded (and at a faster speed and far greater range remaining than Bismark.) The British fleet although this probably would give her away, however because at this point there's no fuel panic and She's a more powerful vessel retaining good speed, I doubt radio silence would be broken at all anyway. In short I see no feasible way that NJ goes down the same outside of incompitence. However, I am most certainly no expert on this, so please feel free to correct my ignorance! And certainly, I mean no disrespect to any person or ship involved in the conflict! Thanks to you all!

In the final engagement Bismarck flodded uncontrallable and listed 20° befor its scuttling. After a few hours the ship would capsized on its own.

New Jersey's 5" 38 guns with proximity fuses would have devastated the British aircraft as well as her superior radar directors fire control.

Thanks for a wonderfully thought provoking analysis and "what if?".

You are a good man. You remember Johnny Horton's Sink The Bismarck

Bismark, a great and mighty combat vessel, was an enlarged design of the old German WW 1 Battleship Baden. Its short-comings was the secondary 5.9" twin gun turrets that were not multi-purpose. These guns were only used against other warships and not aircraft, the real threat to Bismark. The battleships of WW 1 did not have aircraft to fear, so even at the end of the war just a minimal presence of anti-aircraft guns were put on these ships. This WW 1 design, with weak anti-aircraft defense, was a definite short coming for Bismark. When those British Swordfish bi-planes attacked, the few anti-aircraft armament was not able to put up the defensive screen needed to avoid torpedo hits. That one torpedo hit in the rudder by one of these torpedo bombers doomed Bismark. The rudder damage kept Bismark in a circular pattern, unable to make it into port, and met the over-whelming number of British Battleships (Rodney, King George) and cruisers with great bravery. Bismark took massive damage before turning turtle and sinking. The topside of Bismark was beaten and battered by the big shells of the Rodney and King George. The number of hits on Bismark defied belief and it wasn't until the surviving crew members were given orders to open the sea cocks within the ship to sink it. The Brits destroyed Bismark, but the crew of Bismark actually sunk their own vessel.

Wonderful presentation. Now Im having to my split my time between you me Drachinifel. I have a slight disagreement though, not that the Iowa would have survived against that British task force, largely unable to maneuver, because any batteship, if it cannot maneuver, is going to be pounded to death, one vs. a task force, eventually. The Kreigsmarine ships apparently had a critical design flaw. This extended from their light cruisers all the way to the Bismark. Several German ships suffered critical damage to their Stern's in WW2. Reports indicate the Bismark's stern was pretty mangled. Also, and I cannot remember the cite off-hand, but supposedly surviviors claimed they could have cut the stuck rudder free if they had the same damage control equipment as the u-boats sailed with. The US Iowa class had a much deeper and more robust stern. I would strongly suspect with two, or maybe three, screws in operation she could have made it to Brest before the Rodney caught up with her, i.e. cutting the second rudder free and steering with engines only. The 14" guns on the KG5 would have required closing to under 10,000 yards to penetrate the 17.3" armor on the conning tower, barbettes, or 19.5" turret faces. The Bismark will ironically be able to defend better against a KG5 led task force, due to her split secondary armament. The 15cm 55 caliber guns are going to be much more dangerous to heavy cruisers than the US 5" dual purpose guns. Of course that assumes equal fire control, and I don't know enough to compare the systems versus multiple surface targets. Lastly, against the US there would have been Naval Air assets deployed at Brest. Within 200 miles the British would have had totally different issues. If General Werner had not died in 1936, Goering might not have nerfed the proper development of German anti-shipping aviation.The He111 turned out to be an excellent torpedo platform, but like the US the Germans struggled with the development of a good aerial torpedo, and ended up borrowing heavily from the Italians. This came in time for the Murmansk convoys, but not for the Bismark.

The Bismark's armor consisted of KC n/A (Krupp cementite, neue Art) and Wh (Wotan Hart) for armored deck and some hull plate. 60mm teak wood was sandwiched in between the armor plating and hull plates for shock absorbency. (Anatomy of the Ship / The battleship Bismark by Stefan Draminski page 11)

I think Ryan consistently underrates the guns of the IOWA class. The Mark 7 naval rifle firing the 2700 lb AP shell was a tremendously destructive weapon-Significantly more so than the BISMARK’s 15” guns which fired a 1700 lb AP shell. The ballistics of the Mark 7 firing the 2700 lb “Super Heavy” shell were so good, they were comparable to those of the YAMATO’s 18” guns. The destructive impact of an IOWA’s 16” AP shell decisively exceeds that of any of the ships that participated in the battle.

I know little enough about said marine warfare but what you said sounds feasible. One thing you may have stressed a little more at the end is the anti-aircraft capabilities would have saved her from the final conflict and she could have ran for home.

The question I want to know is would the USS Johnston be brave enough to go up against an Iowa class battleship. Unresearched answer; Yes, and 50% of the displacement of that ship is the brass balls of the sailors and thier captain Evans.

Decent but a few things: a) Prince of Wales like all the KGVs was armored to defeat 16" shells. While Bismarck did finally score hits the bridge one went through a window and the one that lodged in the bottom was a dud - had it been live it would have detonated upon hitting the water. b) Prince of Wales scored more than one damaging hit. They not only holed the bow but also wrecked the fuel distribution system from the forward tanks and holed a boiler room. c) Bismarck had three screws and 2 rudders. The torpedo hit wrecked the steering room and jammed the rudder.

I love learning new stuff. I don’t know why, but I have always thought all these battles happened in the North Sea to the east of Britain. No idea this was all out in the Atlantic.

An Iowa would have been able to run away from Rodney and KGV if undamaged, because they are much faster ships. But if it had stood and fought, it would have been sunk unless very lucky. It's just down to numbers: The KGV and Rodney have 19 guns aiming at one ship. An Iowa has 9 guns and must distribute its fire over 2 ships, both of which are extremely well armoured with significantly thicker main belts. So an Iowa would be receiving 19 shells a salvo, each of the British ships would be getting an average of 4.5. The Iowa's best hope would be to concentrate fire on one ship and try to knock it out, but that leaves the other ship to fire unmolested.

25:20 - “a truly crapulent antiaircraft gun system”

Excelent comparison well done sir

I lived aboard the USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) for 2 years. Awesome ship. Still can’t describe 16inch guns volume of sound enough to do her justice.

Agreed. The NJ is a hell of a ship and was / is light years ahead of the Bismarck in terms of design. However, after the sinking of the Hood (pride of the Royal Navy at the time) the battle to sink the Bismarck became much more of a matter of service pride. Whatever ship was responsible, nearly any amount of resources would have been thrown at it to make damned sure that the ship never saw port again. There's only so much punishment that any ship can absorb, no matter how well designed & constructed. She would have put up a hell of a fight but ultimately NJ would have suffered the same fate. Great video!

Bismarck´s armor was made from a layer of hardened steel (Wotan hart) and a layer of soft steel (Wotan weich) which was extremly effective at close range. Armor sheme was outdated but the armor itself was revolutionary.

thank you for your analysis.

Interesting comparison, thanks!

That shot from the Bismark at the hood was a 1 in a million shot

That title is a bit messed up. It conveys the proper meaning I just had to read it like three times because the words seemed to be in a random order. I think I briefly experienced what it's like to be dyslexic.

I would love to see a spare no expense, John Hammond type video of your top repairs / enhancements you would make to the ship as part of her preservation where cost / manpower completely out the window. Your own private grave/dry dock? Reactivate propulsion and do chartered cruises? how wild could you possibly go?

I believe that Lutjen's decision not to refuel had more to do with not wanting to delay the mission. Which sounds strange since they are just sitting there anyway, but when you consider: - Prinz Eugen NEEDED fuel and so had to be re-fueled first (highest priority) - Bismarck left port 200 tons short of it's max fuel load due to a fuel hose breaking (which killed some people) which caused a delay When you factor in how many times the mission was delayed (like when Prinz Eugen hit a mine, replacing a crane etc), all of which pushed the operation to a time that was not optimal for breaking out (increased daylight hours), you can understand his attitude of just wanting to "get there", since every delay meant less chance of success in breaking out. He knew he had been spotted by the Swedish destroyer, that the British thus knew that they would try to break out, That while PE was being refueled he was heavily focused on waiting for the updated aerial surveillance of Scarpa Flow, shows he wanted to see if he still had the initiative and so whether to continue the mission. He knew that there were tankers waiting for him at set points (that after the loss of Bismarck were all hunted down by the British and sunk, leading to a further loss in ability of the German fleet to resupply Submarines etc) meaning that if he could break out successfully he could refuel later on. Given how un-worked up the ship was (the AA training is almost laughable), how many things needed rectifying, Bismarck should never have even gone on that mission (but as much as Bismarck is my favorite ship, the ship served an evil cause, so it is for the best that Bismarck was sunk). One of the many key things was: "The radar system instrumentation and it's implementation with the fire control system needed to be further developed"

RE: Denmark Strait; I don't think the Iowas historically performed very well in heavy sea states did they? I don't see much of a reason to suppose they'd be any quicker than Bismarck was historically regardless of whether Prinz Eugen was in attendence or not. I'm aware that Vanguard was a much better ship in rough seas than the Iowas and I would actually thing the relationship, so to speak, of Bismarck and NJ would be the same. Bismarck was designed to deal with those sea conditions and the Iowas weren't - especially if we assume she ends up down at the bows following Denmark Strait. I'm also not convinced that the silhouettes of PE and NJ are similar enough to assume that Hood would make the same mistake that it did historically. -What I would suppose is that NJ would come under fire from both British ships fairly quickly, but that, range, light, and weather being what they are, this wouldn't necessarily result in any more likelyhood of shells landing on NJ than they did on Bismark statistically speaking. Maybe Hood gets a hitin extra at most, but her 15" shells performed slightly worse than the 14" shells of the KGV class so thats much of a muchness. I'm quite comfortable with the notion that NJ would cripple Hood, but that the particular fashion in which Hood was destroyed (I've always erred towards a shell plunging beneath her vertical protection, and the Drach video you allude to has frankly only convinced me further) is less likely. I'm fairly sure NJ could simply punch through Hoods defences at almost any range, but that this would likely cripple her rather than destroy her in the spectacular fashion we saw historically. The nub of the thing is that if we assume Holland knows he's facing 16" guns, would he still send Hood in before Prince of Wales, or would he transfer his flag to the newer ship? PoW's protection is specifically designed to face down 16" fire within her intended engagement ranges and between thickness and quality the KGVs are the best protected battleships ever to have existed against gunfire; excepting only the cyclopean monstrosity of the Yamato, and so she should, theoretically at least, be relied upon to tank NJ's fire for long enough for the engagement to play out differently. But only, of course, if Holland puts PoW front and center. I'm not sure he would have done even if he knew the particulars of NJ, because even if most of Hood's crew had been replaced with greener and less well trained recruits, the ship was still more reliable than the completely green Prince of Wales - at least from his point of view. But I think it's still worth keeping in mind as a possibility RE: the Swordfish attack from Ark Royal; an important factor in the historical event, that i honestly don't know whether or not it is even relevant, is that the weather that evening was extremely poor, both in terms of sea state and ceiling; part of the reason for the Swordfish' success is that they were able to get close enough to attack before Bismarck could even see them. Now, the thing I'm pondering, is whether or not New Jersey's air defence suite could have dealt with the Swordfish even in these poor weather conditions; I'm fairly sure that they would at least have been able to get a rough approximation of the Swordish' speed and bearing on their attack run, but would that be decisive? Bismarck was pretty much literally firing blind until the stringbags dropped below the low cloud ceiling, at which point they were already pretty much ready to drop their torpedoes thanks to their having their own surface search radar. On a sort-of similar note; such an attack, with NJ being considerably longer than Bismarck; wouldn't the torpedoes be a bit more likely to hit NJ in or near the propeller shafts, rather than the rudders? That could prove considerably more of a problem than being hit in the rudders if so.

I believe he is in error on the Bismarck rudder. Several sources that I have state, and pictures show, 2 rudders. So the comments about the difference in rudder susceptibility is in error

Thorough Report. Thanks.

Hi - Bismarck had two rudders as others have pointed out here. Now, the situation Bismarck found herself in when May 27th, 1941 dawned - unable to maneuver and surrounded by two enemy battleships, several cruisers and destroyers - no ship would have survived that. The only option would have been to surrender somehow, but I can't recall any capital ship surrendering as happened during the age of sail..? Anyway - the crucial issue is the torpedohit which put Bismarcks steering out of action. The torpedohit opened the steering gear compartment to the sea and jammed the rudders 12 degrees to port. For a thorough description of this I recommend Mullenheim-Rechbergs (the senior surviving officer from Bismarck) book Battleship Bismarck. To make a long story short: The crew on Bismarck was unable to rectify this during the night - keep in mind that they faced gale force winds and the ship rolled and pitched violently. For me the interesting question is: How would an Iowa-class have done with her rudders jammed at 12 degrees to port..? In gale force winds... During seatrails in the Baltic Sea the germans had found that Bismarck was very hard to steer and keep on course using her propellers only - the Bismarck having three props versus Iowa's four... would this have made any noticable difference? Are there any trail reports from an Iowa testing out maneuvering with propellers only? I guess nobody predicted that the rudders could jam at a fixed setting with the crew being unable to free them.. But with the Iowas being active in the 1980's, the Bismarck story being well known - maybe some adventurous CO tried out something like this..?

It seems like an Iowa still shares most of the disadvantages Common to Battleships, but almost all of her advantages over Bismarck, are negated by pairing her with Prince Eugen.

Between the radar direction of Iowa's guns and the longer range, at least over the 14" guns, wouldn't the Iowa have been able to damage the British ships to some extent before the British were in effective range? And, with he 1980's era Iowa, would the tactic of sending the harpoons against the British cruisers and destroyers and doing a lot of damage at long range have allowed the Iowa to then ignore them as a threat and then focus only on the British battleships when the range closed? The video of how the Iowa might do against the air attacks on the Japanese battleships would be very interesting, especially if proximity fused AA fire were included.

An interesting and fun thought experiment. A correction: it was neither Formidable nor Illustrious, but rather Victorious, that launched the first Swordfish attack on Bismarck. Victorious had sailed with King George V.

As always, I am thoroughly impressed with your knowledge of the subject matter. Guess that’s how you got that neato job, right😉

Just think if That Bismarck shell exploded in the Prince of Wales! Two magic BB shots in one battle! Beatty's famous line would have certainly applied! Now assuming a jammed rudder on the New Jersey, can the ship steam in a straight enough line using only propellers and make enough speed to get within air cover range off the coast of France? Even damaged, wouldn't the New Jersey dictate the early terms of the battle, having better main gun range, and better fire control? Wouldn't the British battleships have to split their force in order split New Jersey's main battery fire? Not sure if they did that with Bismark. I also wonder how well the secondary 5 inch guns would have contributed as the range decreases. The rate of fire from those ships would have been hell on the upper works of any ship.

Iowa would likely have sunk earlier as she has less subdivided watertight compartments. That very long slim bow built for speed is a liability when water gets into it. No ship would have survived what Bismarck took, but maybe the closest match would be the Littorio class or the KGV's. Yamato would have done better, as in lasted longer, but she would still go down. No ship was ever built to take 16" shells into the hull at 3,000 yards.

Ryan, the information about just how incredibly weak KMS Bismarck’s anti-aircraft compliment was is really staggering. I did not know this.

Regarding refueling - The Prinz Eugen refueled in Norway, and Captain Lindemann wanted to refuel when Eugen refueled. 9 x 16” instead of 8 x 15” means the Iowa probably sinks or disables the Prince of Wales as well as the Hood. It should be noted that USS Iowa did have more range at 30 kn than Bismarck did at 19 kn. It is my opinion that Iowa’s AA takes out at least 4-5 swordfish based on the AA’s performance against the Japanese in 1944. Bismarck was 8-12 hours from air cover. The increased speed the Iowa could maintain (30 kn instead of 26 kn) means the swordfish attack that jammed Bismarck’s rudder would’ve been met with Luftwaffe fighters as well as the more effective AA of Iowa.