During World War One the navy’s of the world confirmed the belief that who ever has the biggest guns still decides the battle and wins control of the sea. Following World War One everybody was looking for the ultimate weapon, a battleship that was bigger, faster, more powerful, and more survivable than his opponent. By the time the stage was set for the next war battleships had reached a new level of destructive capability. This is the story of one of the most feared, hated, and despised battleships to ever put to sea. This is the life and death of that great ship, the German battleship Bismarck. In 1932 the German Navy began an unofficial study into the feasibility of a 35,000 ton battleship. Because of treaty limitations German ships had to be faster and more heavily armed than her foreign counterparts. When all the designing was done the battleship weighed in at a little over 45,200 tons. Well over treaty limitations. Hitler however order construction of the ship to begin immediately. The keel of the then unamed battleship was laid on July 1, 1936 at the Blohm shipyards in Hamburg. The ship was christened by Frau Dorthea von Loewenfeld, the granddaughter of Otto Von Bismarck and was launched on the fourteenth of Febuary 1939. The work on the Bismarck continued on even with the war and was commissioned on August 24, 1940. From information being smuggled out of Germany the British were aware of the battleship and its presence in the Atlantic concerned them greatly. They feared that a battleship of the Bismarck’s size could completely disrupt the shipping lanes vital for their war effort if left unchecked.On May 19, 1940 the Prinz Eugen sailed into the Baltic and the Bismarck followed later on. At 2215 on May 22 the British sent the battleship King George, aircraft carrier Victorious, Five light cruisers, and six destroyers from Scapa Flow To the North Atlantic. The battlecruiser Repulse was order to join t...
