Naval History Forums

Hi Antonio, I have not seen sufficient other evidence to indicate whether the railings on the Prinz Eugen were up or down. I know exactly from where NH69730 was taken as shown in my diagram which Jose has not yet posted. I can only assume that Lagemann went over to the port side and began taking pic...

Hi Antonio, Thanks for sending me the side and top views of the Prinz Eugen, They were a lot more detailed than the views I had, but mine were adequate to determine the location of Lagemann when he took the photographs of the Bismarck in action. The top view was the most important for making that de...

Hi all, In my last post, I mentioned Bundesarchiv (BA) Photo 90/61/27 as a look-alike to NH69729. A couple of years ago, John Asmussen alerted us to the existence of the Bundesarchiv photo, and it was then that I realized that Chatham had used that picture instead of NH69729 in my book “The Bismarck...

Hi all, We appear to be in the same ball park again as with NH69730. Using my glossy print of NH69729 and adjusting the height to correspond with the 2 x 3 format, i calculated the distance to the Bismarck as being 647 yards. When rounded off, the distance is 650 yards. I am happy to see that Antoni...

Hi all, I have a scale drawing of the Prinz Eugen showing the location from which Lagemann took NH69730 (left station) and subsequent photographs (right station). Note that the muzzles of the aft twin 105mm AA guns on the port side of the Prinz Eugen are just included within the scope of the photogr...

Hi all,

In my post of 24 February under the topic of Determining Distances in Photographs, I reported a calculated distance of 504 yards after adjusting the height of the image to correspond with the 2 x 3 format. I believe that we all have this one nailed down.

Bob

Hi all, As reported earlier, Antonio provided me with a new large-scale map compatible with his overall map of the battle published in “Storia Militare.” I have completed my analysis of Antonio’s latest map and I herewith provide the results of my analysis. I am including information on the measurem...

Hi Ian, We know that the speed of the Prinz Eugen was 27.0 knots up until 0610 from her official Speed Plot. We don’t know the speed at which the Bismarck wass traveling during the battle, but we do know that her maximum speed was 30.1 knots as stipulated by her builder. Blohm & Voss. It is not ...

Hi Matthias and Ian, I may not have made myself sufficiently clear about my methodology in my last posting. If you have a small section of a map showing the tracks of two ships with their respective minute marks and you know the speed of one ship, you can easily determine the speed of the other ship...

Hi all, First I would like to address the concerns raised by Matthias and Rick regarding my methodology for comparing the tracks of the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen on Antonio’s new map published in “Storia Militare.” I did not Xerox Antonio’s map on a commercial printer as suggested. I scanned the key ...

Hi Antonio, Sorry, but I could not acquire the map that you were referring to in your last post. The latest large-scale map that I have is the one you posted on the Bismarck-class forum that shows the Bismarck 1275 yards astern of the Prinz Eugen at 0556 and which you now call “obsolete.” I asked yo...

Hi Miro, See my posting of 27 February under the topic "Bismarck Propaganda?" While it does not answer your question directly, it relates to it. The sinking of the Bismarck was of paramount importance to the British government and the entire weight of the Royal Navy was thrown into that ef...

Hi all, No one would argue that photographs taken with a 35mm camera are of equal quality as those taken with a professional large-format camera like the Linhof camera, or that a 35mm camera is suitable for aerial photography. All that I said was that a 35mm camera, such as the Leica and Contax II, ...

Hi Martin, Your posting was very thought-provoking, and I had intended to get back with you as soon as I had taken care of some other matters. At the time of the Bismarck operation, I was still 16 years old and a junior in high school in the New York City area, but I was already deeply interested in...

Hi Antonio,

What speed are you using for the Bismarck from 0602-0609? The maximum speed of the Bismarck, according to Blohm & Voss, her builders, was 30.1 knots. It appears that your spacing of minute marks between 0602 and 0609 is somewhat greater than that.

Bob