Talk:German battleship Bismarck

It was not Captain Lindemann who foolishly sent the long signal, but Admiral Lütjens. [Arthur Morgan] i agree. i changed it

1-Can we cut down the size of this image, it's taking up the whole page and slopping into the margins. 2-Why isn't this article just called Bismarck or Bismarck (battleship)? -- Zoe

I still question the title of this article. -- Zoe

I would support a move to Bismarck, with pointers to Otto and that cold place. As far as I know, nothing of encyclopedic-article importance is called simply "Bismarck" except the battleship -- and if someone really wants to write about the the pastry, it can be disambiguated. --the Epopt 01:51 Mar 19, 2003 (UTC)

Does no-one realise that the ship was named after a 19th Century German statesman of great historical importance? Otto von Bismarck should definately have priority over the battleship.

I had somewhat of a preference for German battleship Bismarck, partly because it looks better; to me the parenthetical disambiguators look like an unplanned afterthought ("oh yeah, I guess there is more than one kind of Bismarck"). But more importantly Bismarck (battleship) goes against the naming conventions that have already been set down in Wikipedia:Naming conventions (ships) (I mention that instead of Wikipedia:WikiProject Ships because this particular point is still only described in the naming conventions article...), and a consistent naming scheme is a big timesaver for those of us trying to get all the ship articles to link together correctly. Stan 01:04 Mar 20, 2003 (UTC)

I left this question here for weeks and nobody commented. I go ahead and change it, and it gets attacked. -- Zoe

Your question was answered at length in the naming standards article and in the WikiProject. If you are interested help write about the navies of the world, please join us there. --the Epopt 01:19 Mar 20, 2003 (UTC)

How am I supposed to keep up with all of these Wikiprojects? A link here might have been nice. -- Zoe

I'll take a little blame; I didn't think about advertising the new wikiproject because I thought only the couple of enthusiasts would care. To paraphrase the esteemed Dr Wirtiglieben, "Vut gut eez a Vikiproject eef nobuddy knowz about eet!?" Stan 06:12 Mar 20, 2003 (UTC)

Please only place "adverts" for WikiProjects on talk pages. --mav

Oh, sure, I totally agree. -- Zoe

I'm not sure about this new title, I think most people searching for "Bismarck" are looking for the chancellor and that this should redirect to him. - SimonP 01:32, Aug 9, 2003 (UTC)

There is really no need for the extensive discussion about the name of the article, "DKM Bismarck" was its official designation. "German battleship Bismarck" is clumsy. --GeneralPatton 03:31, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Says what authority? You never responded to my query on your talk page, so I'm moving them all back. Stan 15:15, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

BTW, I think it's rather interesting that the German WP doesn't use "DKM" at all. Stan 15:18, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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"though alternate scenarios are available as to the cause of the cordite fire. Hood burned catastrophically,..."

Really? First notice that a explosive like cordite is refered has caugth fire, also Hood burned? it looks like more a explosion ! Cuye 21:07, 3 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Ironically, part of what sank Bismarck was the fact that the Fairey Swordfish and Albacore biplane torpedo bombers were too slow for her guns to adequately track.

This, I believe, is a myth. It is the case that some British pilots noticed AA fire bursting in front of them, presumably not believing how slow they were going. However, I had a discussion about this point on an internet discussion group about WW2, never got a clear answer. Nobody was able to give an authority for this, or even explain what technical feature of an AA gun would make it incapable of hitting a plane below a certain speed. PatGallacher 14:17, 2005 Feb 8 (UTC)

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Because the Bismarck outgunned the obsolete Hood, the Hood needed to close quickly to bring its inferior guns to bear. However whilst doing this the Hood was fatally hit and quickly sank. I'd take issue with this. Firstly, the Hood was not obselete, thought it was not cutting edge. Secondly, the Hood and the Bismarck had very similar firepower (although German gunnery was more accurate of course). The issue was the Hood's thinner armour (particularly its deck armour), and it was this which lead the hood to try and close with thee Bismarck as quickly as possible, not a disparity in firepower. Cadr

No comments, so I've edited the page. Cadr

Contents

1 HMS Minerve 2 U-Boat 3 number of survivors from Hood 4 U-Boats were in the area.

HMS Minerve

The order of battle includes HMS Minerve. I can find no evidence of such a ship in World War II. Could this have been the Free French submarine of that name? Gdr 17:57, 2004 Nov 21 (UTC)

U-Boat

An anonymous user has deleted the word "wrongly" where it said that the British thought they had detected a U-Boat, so calling off the rescue of Bismarck survivors. Do they have any authority for this? I will check my source, Kennedy's "Pursuit", but if nobody responds in a reasonable time I will revert. PatGallachertalk 16:56, 2005 Jan 31 (UTC)

I am not a regidtered user. I am not quite sure what the whole article said. However, the British did not wrongly assume the presence of a U-Boat and in fact there was two U-boats in the area. One, even though I can't remember its u-boat designation, was sent to retrieve Bismarcks war diary, but never made it.

number of survivors from Hood

In this article it says only 3 survived when Bismarck brought down Hood, and the article Cruiser says it was 4... Does anyone knows what the correct number was?

It was definitely three. PatGallacher 14:17, 2005 Feb 8 (UTC)

U-Boats were in the area.

As far as it has been ascertained, U-74 (Kptlt. Kentrat) and U-556 (Kptlt. Wohlfahrt) were in the area. U-556 was Bismarck's "guardian" so to speak, and during the battle found himself with a perfect firing solution on both Ark Royal and Renown, but he was out of torpedos. U-74 took over from U-556 and at 10:36 heard the Bismarck sinking. They found a lifeboat at 19:30 with 3 Bismarck men in it. U-74 continued the search for 2 days then returned home.

I am not a registered user and I am adding to what the above user has put down. U-556 was assingned to retrieve Bismarcks war diary, but didn't reach the ship in time. The captain of the U-boat was in visual range of the Bismarck when she sank and saw the ship go down through his pariscope. Both the U-556 and U-74 were lost later in the war.