Naval History Forums

This book series are great but I still have to get Volume IV first!!!

Hello,

Does anybody know what was the magnification of the "Zielgeber C/38 S" target indicators which were in the different fire control stations? What about their field of view? I'm attaching a photo to illustrate the device I'm talking about.

José

TAKOM Model Plastic Company will be releasing Bismarck's Bruno turret in 1/72 this November.

That straight line at 8.5 m is interesting.
It is not a plate weld, and it is not the lower edge of the 60mm belt either since that was located at 7.9 meters and was riveted.
The color seems to be the same as the upper part but darker, so perhaps is just an optical effect due to surface being wet?

My mistake! I read the draft marks wrong. You are correct, the top edge of the waterline is more between 10.50-10.55 m. I had no idea there was an "official" 10.52 figure, so that should be fine. As for the bottom edge, I just made a guess assuming the draft marks go from 8 to 13 meters, but since t...

Herr Nilsson wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 17, 2020 8:52 am

What’s the source of these figures?

Photos of the ship in Hamburg, August 1940.
The lower edge is certainly below 8.5 m, and the top edge is closer to the 10.4 mark than 10.6.
Did they change the position of the waterline when the ship was repainted in early 1941?

Hello and welcome to the forums!
The waterline is located between 8.0 and 10.45 meters from the keel.
Color RAL 7016.

Hi Francis, Yes, you are probably correct, but I was basing the hypothetical scenario where Bismarck had been stopped for long enough to allow the two RN ships to catch up, but by then Bismarck had overcome some of the problems caused by the torpedo hit and was then capable of going at 20-23 knots ...

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.