Naval History Forums

Mistery solved.
I can now confirm that Admiral Raeder visited the Bismarck on 21 November 1940, sometime between 1500 and 2055 hours.
He also visited the auxiliary cruiser Kormoran on this day.

Sad news. I first corresponded with Bob Winklareth when he published his Bismarck book back in 1999, and although I never agreed with his "reversed photo" theory which I consider baseless and without evidence, I always respected the man as the WW2 veteran that he was. My condolences to family and fr...

I wrote such a long response to this that took hours to write giving armor values, effective armor at ranges, and armor penetration values showing how Iowa had the advantage in almost every scenario save for storms and the stupid site deleted it because it wanted me to sign in to post it even thoug...

Without the fatal torpedo hit in the evening of the 26th, then Bismarck gains about 10 hours until Ark Royal's Swordfish can launch another strike at first light on the 27th. Difference is that now Bismarck would be about 240 miles closer to Brest (at approx. meridian 10º west) and well within Luftw...

Hello all, Since last week nobody has been able to log on to the forum. I wouldn't have noticed if it were not for some you who let me know about it. It seems there was a problem with the mysql database and for some reason the sessions table crashed. I believe It has now been rapaired, so everybody ...

wadinga wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 23, 2019 6:40 pm

Gentlemen can we just confirm these "famous" speed trials took place in the Baltic?

Yes we can.
All speed trials took place in the Gulf of Danzig, in 65-meter deep waters off Neukrug, in the Vistula Spit, not far from Pillau (today Baltiysk).
Why?

Herr Nilsson wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 20, 2019 7:03 am

@José

8,8/4 = 98,8 dm = 9,88 m

Thanks, my mistake.
That gives a mean draft of 9.865 meters which corresponds to a displaced volume of approx. 48,000 m3 = 49,200 mt in seawater.

Marc, Thank you very much for posting this. So, if I understood that correctly, for the famous speed trial of 29 October, 1940, we have the following data: Draft forward: 8.5 / 4 = 9.85 meters. Draft aft: 8.8 / 4 = 9.80 m meters. Mean draft: 9.825 meters, which corresponds to a displaced volume of a...

For Bismarck the volume of the 6 boiler rooms + 3 turbine rooms is 10,250 m3 (9,835 m3 without the cable alley). The turbine rooms alone are 4,660 m3 (4,520 m3 without the cable alley). boiler rooms + turbine rooms: 11,003 m^3 turbine rooms: 4,517 m^3 Marc, I calculated the max. enclosed volume: Ce...

I made some rough calculations of machinery and boiler room volumes from Bismarck (from Brower´s) and Richelieu (from Duma´s). The results are: -Bismarck: 10044 m3 -Richelieu: 8363 m3 I have those spaces lenght and helght of KGV (from Burt´s), if anyone has the widths we can add to the comparision....

Sorry, I have been away for a couple of days and didn't have time to read the latest posts.
Because of the most recent exchange and before everything gets out of hand, this thread is temporarly locked until I find the time to revise everything and provide a proper answer.
Best.

However I do correct myself, since the turrets are all-over grey as repainted in Kors Fjord on 21st May 1941, there is a strong likelihood the photo was taken during the mission. Sorry, I hadn't seen this. IF you accept that photo #2 was taken during Rheinübung, what action could that be other than...

OK guys let's not begin to divert the conversation.
Your points are taken.

Next question:

Question #4.
Do you agree that the three smoke puffs shown in this photo originate from Bismarck's secondary battery?

YES
NO

Anyway. No. There is no evidence in this still , that it was even taken at the Battle of the Denmark Straits. With no enemy shell splashes there is no evidence it was even taken during a battle. Well, then I guess you could say the same about at least half a dozen other photos taken by Lagemann "du...

dunmunro wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 06, 2019 8:39 pm

I have to say no, I cannot agree, because we have no reliable method of time stamping the images.

Would you say then that the battle film scenes are from an EARLIER period of time than the photo in Question #2 ?
I'm really interested in your opinion.