Color of Bismarck turret tops

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Herr Nilsson and all,

I obviously agree with you about the Black and white picture.

But, I think this photo shows very evidently that the colours on top of the turrets are NOT the same, as well as the gun barrels end of B and C turrets that go on top of A and D turrets.

Now anybody can have his own opinion about which colour this can be, I have my one and as I told you is RED.

Why is the RED the selected colour ? Because all othe KM ships with Baltic camouflage on that period had RED top turrets "Fliegersichtzeichen".

This is NOT the only scheme Bismarck used with RED air recognition marking, there are others visible on other photos, were only A-Anton top turret was fully painetd on RED.

Other KM warships on same period on same area had RED air recognition markings.

After the YELLOW now officially proved, ... now we have the RED,.... so Bismarck had both colours on her on different periods.

Ciao Antonio

[Herr Nilsson]

Hi Antonio,

sorry, but I couldn't resist yesterday. I was kidding. Don't take it amiss.

There're so many explanations for the different shade of the turret top and red is only one of them. If red is your opinion, it's absolutely OK, but in my opinion red makes no sense in the middle of Kiel-channel.

Apropos yellow:
Please explain this picture. I myself see dark grey, light grey and maybe even red, but no yellow.

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Herr Nilsson and all,

no problems my friend, .... jocking is only making life better ...

You are right, on spring 1941 they were making air recognition trials on Bismarck and RED was one of the options.

This photo was taken as somebody correctly dated on March 7th, 1941.

In my personal opinion the top turret colour was not done only for KW Kanal passage, but was still on the Bismarck during top turret colour trials on going on that period.

There are other photos ( I know of a set of 5 photos all of them well known and printed and one of them is the Nh 69721) taken during April 17th, 18th of 1941 during Bismarck and Prinz Eugen joint manoeuvre exercises were we can see only A-Anton was full RED on all top turret ( including inclined sides ).

If you recall my explanation at the end the scheme used during Op. Rheinubung was a kind of a mix of those colour trials.
To be noticed on this photo and confirming the previous statement is the colour on the hood od D-Dora rangefinder, as well as the flat surface unique utilization surrounded by dark grey, and the gun barrel end of top main turrets colour too.
All those schemes were used also during the YELLOW scheme for Op. Rheinubung as we saw.

Moving to your 38 cm barrel which I imagine is a photo of a Bismarck main gun, we must know which turret is this gun from.

In fact A and D did NOT have barrel end coloured while B and C did.
Still remember that into Grimstadfjord all of them have been painted over with dark grey to go into atlantic as all photo shows.

Ciao Antonio

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,

here one of the photos taken of Bismarck on April 17th or 18th 1941 during her exercises with Prinz Eugen on the Baltic sea.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... Ostsee.jpg

Notice the A-Anton turret on full RED dress while the other 3 main turrets are darker on dark grey.

One of the other photo on this sequence is Nh 69721, but all of them are well known.

The crane on starboard side oriented backwards will tell you which other photos are into this day sequence.

Of course the Bundesarchiv caption is wrong, it is April and not May 1941 : the photo was taken from Prinz Eugen ( notice the PG extended bridge visible ).

Enjoy and let me make a joke, here one photo with A-Anton in RED, as I said Nh 69721 is another one of the 6 photos I know as far as today, .....

... so lets see who will be able to find and post here the other 4 photos taken on this day .

Ciao Antonio

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,

here following the Nh 69721 as said, ..... notice the starboard side crane oriented backwards, .. and A-Anton RED turret, ...... now lets add the other 4 ...

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/imag ... 69721c.htm


Ciao Antonio

[celticmarine10]

I have just bought the New Vanguard/Osprey book by Gordon Williamson titled: German Battleships 1939-45.
There, right on the front cover, is a computer rendered 3d picture of Bismarck with red turret tops on all main turrets and also the six secondary turrets!
Looking through the book I found this passage:
"During their training and trials, both (Bismarck & Tirpitz) used the so-called 'Baltic' scheme of bold black/white angular stripes across the hull and superstructure and with darkended forward and stern hull portions intended to give the impression of a shorter hull length, emphasised by the addition of false bow and stern waves. The turret roofs of the main armament and principal secondary armament were painted red during this period

Unfortunately the book does not provide any references or a bibliography.

Bought the same book! Maybe someone could get in contact with Mr. Williamson and Mr. Palmer?

[celticmarine10]

Hi everyone!
As I posted earlier, with no citations on that book, I'm trying to get in contact with Mr. Williams about where he got the info.
.......wish me luck!

[RNfanDan]

I am of the opinion that the Osprey/New Vanguard naval "books" should be treated as nothing more than introductory-level primers on their subjects. I feel they are the print equivalent of an Internet Wiki article, with pretty graphics added. I have yet to see a single one of their naval series booklets reveal anything in the way of new material, other than their CAD illustrations.

My advice is not to take them too seriously.

Respectfully,

Dan

[celticmarine10]

Probably a good idea not to take one source to seriously. Thanks for the advice! I figure I might as well try though, maybe he can lead to a good source?