The last battle of the Bismarck changed the tides during World War II. The Bismarck was Germany’s most famous battleship during World War Two, and was sunk on May 27, 1941. The Bismarck had already sunk the battleship HMS Hood before being sunk herself. For many, the end of the Hood and Bismarck symbolized the end of the time when battleships were the dominant force in naval warfare, to be replaced by submarines and aircraft carriers and the advantages these ships gave to naval commanders.
The Bismarck weighed over 50,000 tons and about half of this weight was armor. This amount of armor gave the Bismarck many advantages in protection but it did not slow her down. It was able to go a speed of 29 knots in normal conditions. When launched in 1939, the Bismarck carried a vast array of weapons. The ship carried 8 15-inch guns, 12 5.9-inch guns, 16 4.1-inch Anti-Air guns, 16 20mm Anti-Air guns and 2 Adaro 96 aircraft. The Bismarck had a crew of 2,200 to make this vessel functional. In comparison this ship to the HMS Hood, which was built about 20 years prior, it weighed 44,600 tons. It was considerably faster than the Bismarck, reaching a maximum 32 knots. The ship did not need nearly as many men to make the ship functional and had a crew of 1,419. The Hood was launched in 1918 and was equipped with 8 15-inch guns, 12 5.5-inch guns, 8 4 inch-AA guns, 24 2-pounder guns and 4 21-inch torpedoes. Even with all these advantages, the Hood had one major problem; it did not have the same amount of armor as the Bismarck. Within two minutes of being hit by the Bismarck, the Hood had broken her back and sunk.
On May 18, 1941, the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen secretly escaped out of the Baltic port of Gdynia to attack allied convoy...
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...e attack had hurt the Bismarck. Through the night, the Bismarck was annoyed by destroyers under the command of Captain Vian.
The destroyers followed the Bismarck and sent her position back to the Norfolk. On May 27th at 08.47, the Rodney opened fire on the Bismarck. At 08.48, the King George V followed. The Bismarck tried to fire back but a salvo from the Rodney took out the two forward gun turrets. By 10.00 all the Bismarck’s main guns had been destroyed and her mast had vanished. By 10.10, all her secondary guns had been destroyed and the Bismarck sat in the water like a sitting duck. At 10.15, Tovey ordered the Dorsetshire to finally sink the Bismarck with its torpedoes. Three of the torpedoes were fired at the Bismarck causing massive amounts of damage. She sank into the ocean at 10.40. Out of a crew of 2,200, there were only 110 survivors and 4 were officers .
Before the landings were to begin, the coastal German defenses had to be adequately prepped, and softened by a combination of a massive battering by United States ships, and bombing by the United States Air Force. Between the hours of 0300 and 0500 hours on the morning of June 6, over 1,000 aircraft dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs on the German coastal defenses. As soon as the preliminary bombing was over, the American and British naval guns opened fire on the Normandy coastline (D' Este 112). A British naval officer described the incredible spectacle he witnessed that day: "Never has any coast suffered what a tortured strip of French coast suffered that morning; both the naval and air bombardments were unparalleled. Along the fifty-mile front the land was rocked by successive explosions as the shells of ships' guns tore holes in fortifications and tons of bombs rained on them from the skies. Through billowing smoke and falling debris defenders crouching in this scene of devastations would soon discern faintly hundreds of ships and assault craft ominously closing the shore.
Research will be drawn from many sources including several historical studies and online articles. The sources used revolve around Bismarck's attitudes and actions toward German unification and general policy. Sources include works by historians A.J.P. Taylor and James Wycliffe Headlam. The policies of Bismarck during the interwar period were researched as well, through several scholastic journals and written works.
The USS Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser. She did not have heavy armor which made her vulnerable to torpedo attacks. She had been ordered to sail on July 16, 1945, to deliver a bomb that would end the war. Unfortunately, it sank before it arrived.
... Harbour on 19 February: in total, 45 Allied warships and merchant vessels were in the harbour at the time of the raids. The warships included the United States Navy destroyer and seaplane tender . The RAN ships in port were the sloops and, corvettes and, auxiliary minesweepers and, patrol boat Coongoola, depot ship, examination vessel, lugger, and four boom-net ships. Several USN and Australian troop ships were in the harbour along with a number of merchant vessels of varying sizes. Most of the ships in the harbour were anchored near each other, making them an easy target for air attack. In addition to the vessels in port, the American Army supply ships Don Isidro and, Philippine vessels acquired as part of the South West Pacific Area command's permanent Army fleet earlier in February, were near Bathurst Island bound for the Philippines on the morning of the raid.
All power all lights were lost forward. The fact that the [torpedo] hits were there, at least we think they were up forward, are borne out by the fact we have almost no Marines who were reported in that section of the ship. We have not a single steward's mate and their compartment was up there and we have very few officers that were in their rooms at the time of the explosion. So we believe all of those people were killed almost instantly.
With World War II lasting six years, there were many battles that had taken place. Three major events that are famous from this war are D-day, Pearl Harbor and Battle of Iwo Jima. D-day, which is where Saving Private Ryan begins, is known as the largest amphibious attack in history. Before the attack could take place though there was a lot of planning done. In months before the attack, General Dwight Eisenhower led allies in an operation to make Germany believe that their main target of invasion was Pas-de-Calais, along with a few other locations. The operation that led Germany to believe this was carried out by fake equipment, a phantom army located in England, counterfeit radio transmissions, and double agents. Once Eisenhower knew Germany was mislead, he led the troops into battle. This attack began with British, American, and Canadian forces landing on five different beaches all along the coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944. By the end of the first day approximately 156,000 al...
“The situation is grave… (and) is created by the German program [of building a battle fleet]… When that program is completed, Germany, a great country close to our shore, will have a fleet of thirty three dreadnaughts”
“The Battle of the Bulge, fought over the winter months of 1944 – 1945, was the last major Nazi offensive against the Allies in World War Two. The battle was a last ditch attempt by Hitler to split the Allies in two in their drive towards Germany and destroy their ability to supply themselves” (Trueman).
World War II was coming to an end in 1945. During the WWII and postwar many important events took place, however, there is one historical event that occurred towards the end of the war. An event that has not been talked about till decades after it happened. We are all familiar with the sinking of the Titanic and thousands of lives that were lost the day the ship sunk. A similar event took place in the Baltic Sea in 1945 of a ship called Gustloff. The sinking is considered to be one of the deadliest marine tragedies ever to happen in the world. The author of Crabwalk, Gunter Grass was one of the few authors who shed light on the sinking of Gustloff through the stories of the fictional character Tulla Pokrefke, a survivor of the ship. The little
After the first couple hundred troops went off the tanks and vehicles came off. This created space for the onboard medical personnel to make the boat a hospital. The ship was shooting at the enemies from the top and shot the mine bombs which helped a lot. The crew were supplying medical treatment and food to the soldiers. Everybody on the ship were fighting for their lives and were going a 110 percent like this was the last thing they were going to do which was a big reason Sword beach the Allied powers
World War II was filled with turning points, including Midway, El Alamein, and Moscow. Stalingrad, however, was not simply a turning point. It was the decisive battle of the most violent and destructive war ever fought. It is a fitting testament to the importance of Stalingrad that General Chuikov, the tough-as-nails commander of the 62nd Army that defended the city, would later lead his men in the final battle of the European war, the assault on Berlin.
Von Der Porten, Edward P. The German Navy in World War II. New York: Thomas Y.
The battle of Stalingrad may have very well been the most important battle over the course of World War II. Not necessarily remembered for its course of fighting, the battle is more known for its outcome. Not only did the battle turn out to be a major turning point in the war, it may have saved most of Eastern Europe from incomparable destruction. The battle included two of the biggest political and military icons of their time, Stalin and Hitler.
The two participants, SS Mont-Blanc and the Norwegian ship SS Imo were both doing their part for the war effort, the former transporting explosives to the Western Front, the latter helping the Belgian refugees. The two ships met in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the early morning of 6th December 1917, and just before 9 am, a small collision at 1 mph speeds occurred between the two. This collision, despite its scale, ignited benzole fastened to the deck of Mont-Blanc.
Thunderous booms and bangs sounded the evening of February 15, 1898. The battleship Maine exploded on the harbors in Havana, Cuba. Panicky passengers scurried frightened to safety, while some remained trapped, helplessly, with no possible escape. Startled survivors searched for crew members and friends. The battleship which detonated into several pieces sank to the ocean floor dragging rapt wounded and dead. Two-hundred and sixty-six of the three-hundred and fifty-five officers, crew members, sailors, and Marines on board died or drowned in the explosion or shortly after suffering from injuries or shock.