Naval History Forums

In my opinion, the evidence regarding a hit on Hood's high director seems slim -- about the only evidence we have is that Ted Briggs reported that someone else had reported that contact with the foretop had been lost. The reports of falling bodies all were timed AFTER the large explosion. It seems u...

I am commencing some detailed survey work on the damage to the sides of Bismarck for an upcoming paper. In that regard, it appears that the best way to map the video and photographic images together is to use the vertical joints of the armor belt as reference lines. To that end, can anyone on this b...

By coincidence, I just completed a rather involved computation of Bismarck's righting moments at angles from 0-30 degrees. In reality, as the deck edge is immersed at about 18 degrees, figures above that value must be considered highly approximate at best. Figures below 18 degrees should be really p...

I visited the wrecks of both Hood and Bismarck as part of the 2001 ITN expedtion to locate the wreck of Hood. I had, some years before, written and published a fairly long paper analyzing the loss of Hood, and in addition had edited and illustrated several paper on the loss of Bismarck. My status as...

I can try to find a couple of turret images, but it may take a while. The forward part of the turret was usually not very visually interesting, and so was passed over quite a bit.

Bill Jurens

I think you may have misunderstood (which means that I did not write clearly enough...) One does not see a gun barrel six to ten feet long, one sees a 'hump' in the mud -- and sometimes the actual exterior of the gun tube -- extending outward from six to ten feet from the faceplate. The rest of the ...

Hello Martin: My general views on debris field analysis -- or attempts at same -- are given in the previous memo. That being said, if you would like to send me pictures of the items you are trying to identify, I might be able to help. The ROVs give you a lot more bottom time than the MIRs do, which ...

There has been, so far as I know, no real attempt to map the debris fields. I don't think that such a survey would reveal anything of real value; even if one could identify and locate each piece in the debris field individually, it remains unclear -- at least to me -- exactly what useful information...

I don't have any good images of the gun tubes at hand, although I could probably find something by plowing through five or six hours of videotape. Honestly, there is nothing much to be seen; one sees at best perhaps the upper (actually lower) quarter of the tube for a distance of perhaps six to ten ...

The lower portions of some of the gun tubes close to the turret proper can be seen above the mudline on one or two of the turrets. All four turrets have been found.

Bill Jurens

Yes, each of the secondary gunmounts has at least one 'clean' hit, often through the face plate. Some have exit holes while others do not. Some have been hit more that once.

Bill Jurens

Your description of images of a particular mounting with an associated caption do not indicate exactly where you saw the material in question. Sometimes these things are not very reliable. The source counts for a lot. I've looked at most -- actually all -- of the Bismarck tapes in detail over the ye...

I examined parts of the holding bulkhead etc. during the 2001 expedition, and was able to examine that same area in much more detail using tapes from the Cameron expedition, once in 2003 and once in 2006. The Cameron tapes are much more detailed, as his small 'bots' could swim right inside the side ...

The referenced paper, though now some what out of date, remains a fairly good summary. Many of the drawings are incorrectly attributed to Thomas G. Webb, when I actually did them myself. This includes the detailed plan of the inside of the conning tower.

Bill Jurens

Why would the magazines be flooded BEFORE an impending action?

Bill Jurens