Was the battleship Bismarck useful?

[historyofeverythingpodcast]

hi all, important note: when I edited and captioned the video I mistook the stock video used in the beginning to be a video of the Bismarck and it isn’t. I’m not the expert on the military side of things as that is Stakuyi, I’m sorry for not catching that mistake. -Gabby

[rinconusmc]

USS Texas: “ hehehe. Here you go youngster. Let me show you how it’s done.”

*Gangster leans entire battleship just to shoot further inland.*

[someprotogenonYT]

The swordfish with it's navigator hanging out the side: I'm about to destroy this man's whole rudder

[kanyeedigit]

We learned fast that mobility is more important than armor and this is especially true for ships. It doesn’t matter how well armored your battleship is if the bomb hitting it can take out a town

[kamidesu]

Yamato: i like you're tactics Bismarck... One vs all.... I like those od- *gets blown*

[wilwa]

"It's not like they were developing another super ship."
Plan H and Grosser Kurfirst: "Allow me to introduce myself."

[chrisg]

If the axis were to win in WW2 how would they have split up their territories? Such as when Japan would run into the Germans.

[eazy]

The Bismarck is somewhat overhyped; battleships were already obsolescent, and her armor and gun layout where outclassed by the types developed by the British, Japanese, and Americans, and by the time she actually saw combat, the Iowa Class was already entering service, an entire class of ships that was more capable in every regard, but happened to be slightly smaller.

[AmericanOdyssey]

Every battleship is vulnerable from the air. The one thing almost every enemy battleship in WWII has in common is the knockout blow came from the sky. The allies knew this even in May of 41.

[robertpayne]

If the Bismarck has got into the atlantic and into the shipping lanes it would have diverted British Admiralty from working on antisubmarine warfare to deal with her. The Tirpitz just by being holed up in Norwegian fjord for the majority of the war did hold valuble resources up that could have been more effectively against Germany proper

[SkyTreeStudio]

I think that, best case senerio, she would have been a pain in the Royal Navy and US Navy's ass for like a year or two at best, battleships were being more and more sidelined as aircraft carriers became more and more vital to fleets success. Hell if I remember correctly while ships sunk the Bismarck, fucking interwar biplane damaged the rudder enough to prevent it from successfully fleeing. Even if it didn't die as fast as it did, it would have just kept being priority number one till something did it

[shademournthepegasi]

A friend of mine had a great uncle who served on the Bismark. The Germans actually sunk the ship themselves. The allied forces couldn't sink it and they threw everything minus the kitchen sink at her, she was dead in the water and still refused to go under. The crew sunk it just to get it over with and basically told the the French or brittish you can have your false victory over us if it makes ya happy

[christopherg]

While the Bismark Class was classed as a Battleship, I always felt both ships were more of a "oversized cruiser".
"Outgun anything you can't outrun, outrun anything you can't outgun."
It could easily outgun any allied cruiser, by virtue of just being that big and heavily armed for a cruiser. And outrun the RN battleships of the time, by virtue of having a cruisers speed.
A lot of factors aid this:
Weak Deck Armor to preserve speed and range.
Commerce Raiding Focus.
High Range
Ability to operate solo
The Tirpitz even had torpedoes.

[dragonsaint]

Definitely agree with you on this one, a single ship, no matter how powerful would not have been able to lock down the Atlantic shipping routes effectively enough to really change things, even if the Royal Navy weren't as dominant as they were at the time.

Plus if the Bismarck had started a ruckus in the North Atlantic the USA would probably have taken exception to that, even during the nominal non-committal years. Good luck dodging two naval super powers at once.

[dardell]

The German Command were scared of losing the Bismarck because they saw it as a symbol of power etc, IF they had completed her sister ship and gotten both out with escort ships they could have done a lot of damage to Britain, like firing on the British coast and such. By escort ships I'm referring to destroyers, subs, and everything else they had. Move them in a large group that would also be well trained to fight the British Navy should they (Germans) encounter them (British) en route to the Atlantic. Wouldn't have been a game changer per say but would have hurt the UK far more than it did historically.

[zachaldrich]

🎶HE WAS MEANT TO RULE THE WAVES ACROSS THE SEVEN

[PaulfromChicago]

The Battle of Denmark Straits when Bismarck sunk Hood was 1941. Kind of hard to argue Bismarck was kind of a good idea, but BBs were obsolete by 1941.

(Let alone Washington vs Kirishima in '42.)

[bella_ciao]

No. Undergunned by 40s standards, would’ve been murdered by carriers, especially more modern ones. She’s one ship without proper logistics. Easily pinned down, look at tirpitz.

[nonamenoname]

Love the videos, learning something new all the time

[FireStar-gzry]

Even if the Bismark survived the face off against the royal navy, there would be the U.S navy that would have joined in to sink the ship