Look at what Germany had to work with, the Bismarck was a floating time bomb, built on a outdated and outmoded thinking of the Bayern class only larger. They wanted a force-multiplier of sorts and came up with this "Bismarck" class as a possible candidate, and built 2 examples of it. There were many flaws with the boat, and they are legion!
Poor seakeeping boat, a wet ship. Turret Anton had no independant fire capability. Secondary guns were unheated and most without good optics and rangefinders. AAA guns were of only little value and of no real use.
The Bismarck failed many tests and even left port on its fatfull mission with cranes that were worthless, a seaplane/spotter plane launcher full of steam leaks and 26% of the portholes cracked or broken, the list goes on and on.
Sunk by gunfire and torpedeos...NO!
Skuttling charges...YES!
With all these problems waiting to happen and the express order that any German ship never to fall into allied hands...of course you would skuttle the thing. It was in the blueprints when she was launched and fitted out to add them!
Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to this interesting video - simulation of her sinking
The stern fell off during it's sinking due to the damage caused by the torpedo hit. The rudders were jammed because the stern had failed and had partially collapsed on top of them.
Sure, the Germans scuttled their vessel; I don't think they're just lying about it. It's a moot point, though. Bismarck would have never made port even if the charges hadn't been set. So the British did sink Bismarck.
Sgt.
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