Schlachtschiff Bismarck-Klasse
The Bismarck class was a class of two German battleships during the Second World War. It consisted of the lead ship of Bismarck, named after the former German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Tirpitz and her sister ship, named after the former State Secretary in the Admiralty Baron Alfred von Tirpitz. The German Schlachtschiff [battleship] Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. The class' ships were the third-largest battleships ever completed by full-load displacement, behind the Japanese Yamato class and the Iowa class. They were built not to fight the British battleships but to threaten and attack merchant shipping as commerce raiders. Both ships were sunk during the Second World War, one in combat with the Royal Navy and the other by attack from RAF aircraft.
The Construction Office began preliminary and contract design work on Battleships "Schlachtschiff F" and Schwesterschiff [sistership] "Schlachtschiff G" in 1934. By 1936, Nazi Germany was in a program of rapid weapons construction and this led its Navy to design capital ships that were to be superior to any in the world. Along with the submarine fleet, Germany began construction of two state-of-the-art capital ships, battleships "F" and "G", which became BISMARCK and TIRPITZ. On 01 July 1936 was the keel of "Battleship F" was laid down at the shipyard of Blohm & Voss in Hamburgd. In November 1936 they began work on her sister ship Tirpitz (Battleship G ") at the Navy shipyard in Wilhelmshaven.
Both ships corresponded to the same design, which is oriented primarily to the French Navy's battleship Dunkerque as an opponent, which was placed into service in May 1937. The Dunkerque and the ships of the Royal Navy were highly significant for the specifications of the two German ships, in particular the speed and armore protection was given great emphasis. Despite the fact that 16-inch (40.6cm) guns were permitted by the 1936 London Naval Treaty, 15-inch batteries (38cm) were considered more than adequate for penetrating the armor of any ship that would be encountered. Weight thus saved could be placed in more armor, higher speed and/or shallower draft. One of the primary design factors for these ships was the depth of the Kiel Canal, the route from building ways in Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven to trials in the Baltic, which averaged 36 feet.
They were a follow up to the Scharnhorst battlecruisers, being quite similar in design, armour, and outward appearance; however, the Bismarcks had an additional turret and were armed with 38 cm (15 in) guns at the onset, making them full fast battleships, as opposed to the 28cm (11 in) guns of the Scharnhorsts. In reality, both were considerably heavier weighing in at 42,000 tons. Although Bismarck and Tirpitz were nearly identical insofar as basic configuration and dimensions, Bismarck has become something of a naval legend while Tirpitz led a comparatively unglamorous life. A rough maritime comparison might be made between the White Star Line's sister liners Titanic and Olympic, the former, like the Bismarck, going down on its maiden voyage and into popular mythology, while the latter, like Tirpitz, served much longer and with far less excitement.
The Bismarck class embodied much of what made Germany's World War I battleships outstanding combat vessels, and their design was broadly influenced by the last German battleship classes of World War I. The general disposition of the main battery and machinery was similar to the Bayern class.
However, the Bismarck also represented the limitations of practical design experience, as well as the compromises forced by designing warships for a guerre de course style of warfare against a numerically superior adversary. The most serious problems were the location of fire-control systems, particularly for the anti-aircraft battery, the inability of the Germans to develop a suitable diesel propulsion system (a problem not limited to the German Navy), and the general weakness of the mixed-calibre secondary battery against aerial attack (which was mirrored in contemporary Italian, Japanese, and Soviet capital ship designs). While the preceding Kaiserliche Marine of World War I had an established institution of expert designers, it was effectively disbanded following Germany's surrender. The reformed Kriegsmarine was thus disadvantaged, but the Bismarck and Tirpitz were generally well-regarded ships, being a reasonable example of design compromise, and suited to the European theater of operations.
The main weapon was the heavy artillery combined (SA), which consisted of eight 38 cm rapid-(SK) L/52 C/34, two were on a rotating mount C/34 within one of the four twin towers. The supply of ammunition for each of the four towers amounted to 240 shots. The weight of every four towers - "Anton & Bruno" in the bow, and "Caesar and Dora," in the stern - amounted to 1064 tons without ammunition.
The armament of the Bismarck class is sometimes criticized as being less devastating than it ought to be for a ship of its size. For instance, the Iowa class American battleships had approximately the same standard displacement (45,000 tons) but had more and heavier guns, nine 16-inch (406 mm) guns in three turrets, to eight 38 cm (15 in) guns in four turrets, while a similar armament to the Bismarcks was carried by British ships of smaller size (the Revenge and Queen Elizabeth classes). In addition, the Nelson class mounted nine 16-inch guns on eight thousand tons less displacement. However, the Nelsons were of a much earlier design, subject to extensive weight-saving compromises, and limited to a top speed nearly seven knots slower than the Bismarcks.
The secondary armament of the Bismarck class was a split-battery system, and was criticized for being unnecessarily complex, and incurring a severe weight penalty, while still providing an inadequate aerial defense. The secondary battery (MA) consisted of twelve 15 cm SK L/55 C/28, two each on rotating mount C / 34 in a twin tower. Each tower had 300 rounds of ammunition. Each tower had a weight from 114 to 120 tons. The barbette had a diameter of 4.8 m and the recoil came to 0.37 m. Each tube was assigned a service life of 1100 shots. The flak was heavy, with 16 10.5 cm tubes and a total of 6720 rounds of ammunition carried.
The large Hangar behind the smoke attack accommodated two Arado 196 seaplanes, one each in each of the two hangars on the flanks of readiness of the stack. Between the large hangar and the ready hangar ran right through the deck to both sides, operated by compressed air, propelled by about 16 meters in length, with off has surpassed it by almost 7 m, the lateral edge of the hull.
The Bismarck class protective arrangements provided extensive close-range protection, while leaving the ship more exposed to plunging fire. The immune zone is defined as the range band, within which the armor of a ship is theoretically immune to penetration. In this example, at ranges of less than 20,000 meters, shells will have sufficient energy to penetrate the vertical armor plates, but will strike at too shallow an angle to penetrate the horizontal deck armor. At ranges greater than 30,000 meters, shells plunging at steep angles will have sufficient energy to penetrate horizontal deck plates, but will bounce off vertical plates. Within this zone, neither plates can be penetrated (again, theoretically). The basic layout of the horizontal protection was questionable in light of lessons learned in World War I, particularly at Jutland. This emphasised that multiple thin layers of horizontal armor were less effective than a single thick layer. This vulnerability was accentuated in long-range plunging fire. Bismarck's main armored deck was penetrable at any distance greater than 11,000 metres by the USN's 16-inch (406 mm) / 45 caliber gun.
The main fire control system was located above the (comparatively thin) main armor deck of the vessel. This made it more vulnerable to shellfire from large and intermediate caliber guns than comparative British and American vessels. British and American capital ships mounted their main fire control systems underneath the main armor deck.
The underwater protection system was built around a single torpedo bulkhead of 45 mm thickness, coupled to an outboard void space; no bulges were fitted. This system was design to prevent critical damage from a 250 kg torpedo warhead. A multiple-bulkhead system, a staple of US capital ship design, could not be accommodated on the Bismarck class because of beam restrictions.
After the start of construction work on the sister ship of Bismarck were still making changes that were incorporated into the construction of which began later Tirpitz. These improvements were mainly in the bunkers cells in the hull, which were allocated differently. Thus, the Tirpitz could carry more fuel than the Bismarck. In Bismarck, these changes could not be included because its construction had already progressed too far.
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