Happy Birthday Bismarck. Also, this post contains the usage of the words "Third Reich" "Furher" and other German words such as "Kriegsmarine" "Feuerlaubnis" and "wegschießen" but these are all used in a HISTORICAL AND EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT!!! If a historical quote relavent to the topic has the word "Furher" or another word you find offensive, know its being used in its historical context of history, if it hurts to read then that's a good thing as that means we are past being like that as a society but dont go blocking and reporting posts for educating people and using things in their proper historical context. If you go to the National Holocausts Museum your gonna find things about the Holocaust, like if you clicked on this post, your gonna find things about the Battleship Bismarck. So if your gonna not like this post, do so on reasons like "Its too long" or "LOL YOUR USING MINECRAFT" not because of stupid Cancel Culture, so leave a comment down below if you bothered to read this far and agree on making sure history can be taught and not be removed because the history you don't like happened. So with that over with, lets go do this.

Reality
The Bismarck Class was a class of 2 battleships built by the Germany just prior and during World War Two, consisting of the ships Bismarck and Tirpitz named for Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (United Germany's first Chancellor and Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz (Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office from 1897-1916). The ships were and still are the most powerful surface vessels constructed by Germany with the next closest ships being the Scharnhorst Class consisting of the ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Bismarck was the first of the class and launched on February 14th, 1939 from the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in direct violation of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 which imposed a limit of 36,000 Tonnes for battleships, of which the Bismarck and Tirpitz each broke 41,000 Tonnes standard and 50,000 Tonnes fully loaded. Bismarck would be commissioned into the Duetsches Kriegsmarine August 24th, 1940 while Tirpitz would be launched and commissioned April 1st, 1939 and 25th February 25th, 1941.

The Bismarck along with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen would sail into the Atlantic via the Denmark Strait on a convoy raiding mission, but when exiting the Denmark Strait was intercepted by the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Hood. The British opened fire at 05:52 at the Prinz Eugen (beliving at the time it was Bismarck) while the Germans crossed the British T, bringing the full broadside of the Bismarck's 8 38cm guns to bear on the British, yet the Germans did not open fire, Admiral Lütjens was set on his mission being convoy raiding, after a few salvos Bismarck's commanding officer Captain Ernst Lindemann proclaimed to his superior (In my opinion the greatest quote in naval history) "Ich lasse mir doch nicht mein Schiff unter dem Arsch wegschießen. Feuererlaubnis! / I'm not letting my Ship get shot out from under my Ass. Open Fire!" The German Rangefinders and Fire control quickly set the guns on the British ships, with a shell hitting the boat deck of Hood setting fire to 4 inch projectiles in a large fire but was controlled and prevented from spreading and was hit at the base of the mast soon after but reports are conflicting on which ship made the hit, as Captain Helmuth Brinckmann is reported to firing at Prince of Wales under orders of Lütjens but Paul Schmalenbach, Prinz Eugen's Gunnery Officer reported to be firing at Hood.

At 06:00 Admiral Holland ordered a turn to port for the British ships to bring the aft turrets to bear on the Germans, this would give the fire power advantage to the British, as they currently had the disadvantage of 6 14in guns on Prince of Wales, and 4 15in guns on Hood, compared to the 8 38cm guns on Bismarck. At this time, a salvo was fired from Bismarck from 14km that strattled the hood where it is likely Hood was struck between the mainmast and X turret (3rd turret). The shell most likely hit just under the armor belt of Hood as at the speed of the ship, a significant dip of the water leaves an area of unarmored hull open under the mainmast. A large spout of fire erupted from Hoods deck like a Roman Candle before a massive explosion ripped the ship in two sending both aft turrets into the ocean and forced the stern under water nearly instantly, in less than 2 minutes the bow was nearly vertical and as it sank fired off one last shot of British Defiance from A turret before slipping beneath the waves. The explosion was so large it was seen and heard from aboard Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. Prince of Wales would continue to fight for a few minutes before disengaging as its 2 quad turrets malfunctioned early in the battle, the Germans decided no to pursue as one of Prince of Wales' shell tore through some of Bismarck's forward fuel tanks causing the ship to leak fuel and take on water having her sit low in the water by the bow. of the 1,418 crew onboard only 3 would survive the sinking of HMS Hood (Ted Briggs who would go on to give many interviews, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas) and would be picked up 2 hours later by the destroyer HMS Electra.

Following the Battle of the Denmark Strait the Germans would split up, the Prinz Eugen would continue south on the original mission while Bismarck would make a run for Brest for repairs. The Germans still shadowed by the Prince of Wales would quickly and briefly engage the battleship to cover the retreat of Prinz Eugen before disengaging the British. The 2 ships split off and would never meet up again.

On the evening of the 24th HMS Victorious launched an attack with 9 Fairey Swordfish Torpedo bombers guided by HMS Norfolk, the attack while it landed hits had the torpedoes hit under the bridge of Bismarck where strong belt armor and anti-torpedo systems prevent any significant damage.

Later the next morning at 03:00 on the 25th, the British lost contact with Bismarck and believed it would run to the North Sea where they decided to head towards. However Lütjens who still thought he was under the British's eyes decided to break radio silence and sent a message to Germany, this brought Bismarck back on the map for the British where they had realized she had gained a large distance between the forces and by 23:00 had even evaded the battleship HMS Rodney, however with the leaking fuel Bismarck sailed at a slower pace, although this still allowed it to outrun the British Home Fleet, it put it on a direct intercept with British Admiral Sommerville's Force H, consisting of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, battlecruiser HMS Renown, and the light cruiser HMS Sheffield.

As the British thought the Bismarck would escape as they ran lower and lower on fuel themselves, an American built leased Consolidated Aviation PBY-5 Catalina spotted the Bismarck 1,100km west of Brest reestablishing contact with the Germans. The message was relayed to HMS Ark Royal where the carrier launched an airstrike of more Fairey Swordfish, however the presence of the HMS Sheffield near the Bismarck was unknown to them, causing them to mistake the ship, however with the fitting of influence detonators causing premature detonations and missed torpedoes no hits were scored on the HMS Sheffield. The information was relayed to the pilots upon where they identified the Sheffield and broke off the attack.

After returning to the HMS Ark Royal another attack of 15 Swordfish was launched 64km from Bismarck now with the standard impact detonators, this one engagement has been studied heavily of how Germany's most powerful and modern warship could shoot down even a single Swordfish, the debate remains, but a mixture of weather, the ability of such planes to take damage, the low altitude of torpedo attacks, the slo9w speed of the Swordfish, and certain choices of the Bismarck's design such as not using automatic 3,7cm cannons but single shot 3,7cm cannons. What ever the cause was, this attack was successful and landed 3 hits on the Bismarck in the midst of a turn where one torpedo was able to jam the rudder of Bismarck leaving her unable to return home. At midnight of the 27, Lütjens sent a message to headquarters reading "Ship unmanoeuvrable. We shall fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer."

The battleships HMS King George V and HMS Rodney moved into position in the night and waited for day break, at 08:47 began to open fire. The British soon closed distance with the injured Bismarck and within the an hour had shelled the ship so much to silence her guns, cause widespread fires and heavy listing to port, despite the immense damage to the Bismarck the ship was still afloat. With known U-Boats in the area, HMS King George V and HMS Rodney disengaged the Bismarck leaving the heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire to launch a salvo of torpedoes at the stricken ship of which 3 hit. Later at 10:40 scuttling charges were detonated onboard by the remaining crew to send the ship to its final resting place. After the Bismarck finally slipped beneath the waves the cruiser HMS Dorsetshire and the destroyer HMS Maori picked up 110 survivors and left under reports of U-Boats and later the U-Boat U-47 picked up an extra 3 survivors. The Bismarck would go down with over 2,000 crew onboard including Admiral Lütjens and Captain Lindemann.

The Prinz Eugen would return safely to Brest and survive the war before being captured by the United States and sunk at Kwajalein Atoll after the nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll part of Operation Crossroads as USS Prinz Eugen (IX-300). The underside of the stern still rises above the water today and in 2018 the last of the fuel oil was drained from her tanks.



AJoIH
Following the Battle of the Denmark Strait Admiral Lütjens decides instead of letting the Prinz Eugen travel alone to use the cruiser as extra protection and sail to Brest together, letting the Bismarck siphon fuel from the cruiser when needed, this allows both ships to maintain speed to the British. In an effort to slow the Germans down a air attack is launched on the Bismarck and Prinx Eugen from the HMS Ark Royal, the Swordfish do little damage and one is shot down by Prinz Eugen. Entering controlled airspace the Bismarck is sent in for repairs, here her Anti-Aircraft armament is bolstered to that of what Tirpitz would later have making the ships near identical. Returning back to service in early 1942 she would miss the initial invasion of Iceland and the Baltics and would once again escape into the Atlantic to raid commerce, before being scared off by the battleship HMS Rodney to Iceland where the majority of the German surface heavy hitters would sit for a majority of the war occasionally running raids into the Atlantic. By 1944 the Germans expected a full invasion of occupied Europe and pulled back the ships for defense of the European mainland. Finally in 1945 the invaision came, and the Germans raced out to meet the United Nations head on, by now Gneisenau had been upgraded to replace its 9 28cm cannons with 6 38cm guns sported by Bismarck and Tirpitz. Along the way the ships ran into part of the United Nations armada, consisting of the battleships USS Arkansas, USS Nevada, HMS Rodney, and HMS Warspite. The Engagement just off the Spanish coast lasted just over 2 hours resulting in heavy damage to both sides with only HMS Warspite sinking, with the UN reinforcements fast on their way the Germans were forced to disengage and return to France. The ships would remain in port until the UN neared the city of Brest where they would then sail for Wilhelmshaven where they would remain for the rest of the war aiding in the defense of the city with long range gun fire and Anti-Aircraft fire.

Following the end of the war in 1947 and the massive threat of the Soviet Union the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization needed as much support available and allowed Germany to rebuild its military in 1950 with the start of the Korean Conflict, with this the activation of a large amount of old WWII equipment, including Panthers, Panzer IVs, Bf-109s and reengined Me-262s, along with the Bismarck, Tirpitz, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen, and more. With German shipyards still recovering from the war the ships sailed to New York where they would be reequipped with better radars, advanced AAA suites, and rebuilt engines reentering the Atlantic in 1953 and sent to patrol the Baltic and North Seas. Prinz Eugen would be taken out of service in 1965 as it was deemed to old by then and with newer cruisers sailing would not be able to stand up to them enough to risk the lives of its sailors and is now on display as a museum ship in Kiel. Bismarck, Tirpitz and Gneisenau would under go yet another refit in 1985 in Newport News, Virginia after the Iowa and Montana class battleships received their modernizations. Under this modernization all guns smaller than the secondary armament was removed, radar systems were removed and replaced, the addition of chaff and decoy launchers, 30mm Goalkeeper CIWS, VLS for the array of standard NATO missiles, launchers for the Rolling Airframe Missiles, and was able to reduce the size of the crew significantly. It was during this time were the ships were repainted and received their pennant numbers painted on their sides (Gnesienau B111, Bismarck B112, and Tirpitz B113). One final upgrade would come in 2023 where all 3 would receive 4 AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapons Systems from the United States. Currently as of 2032 all 3 still patrol the North Sea and Baltic to counter Russian aggression in the area and prevent the escape of large surface ships into the Atlantic. A twist of irony as her and her sisters were the recipients of missions to prevent an Atlantic breakout.

Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Gneisenau are seen to stay in service with the German Bundesmarine until at least 2060

Main Armament: 4x Doppellafette Construktionsjahr 1934 (Drehscheiben-Lafette Construktionsjahr 1934) 38 Centimetre Schiffkanone Construktionsjahr 1934
Secondary Armament: 6x Doppellafette Construktionsjahr 1934 (Drehscheiben-Lafette Construktionsjahr 1934) 15 Centimetre/55 Schiffkanone Construktionsjahr 1928, 4x Mark 143 Armored Box Launcher Mounts for 32x BGM-109 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles
AA Defense: 4x EX-83 “Goalkeeper” 30mm Close In Weapons Systems, 2x AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon Systems, 24x Mark 57 Vertical Launch Systems for RIM-66 Standard ERAM, RGM-67 Standard, RIM-161 Standard Missile 3, RIM-174 Standard ERAM, RGM-109 Tomahawk, RUM-139 VL-ASROC Anti-Submarine Missile, RIM-7 Sea Sparrow Anti-Air Missile, and RIM-162 ESSM, 1x Mark 49 Launcher for 21x Rolling Airframe Missiles, 15x Mark 36 Super Rapid Bloom Offboard Countermeasures Chaff and Decoy Launching System, 2x Multi Ammunition Softkill Systems

Build is based off of Jagthunder1's Bismarck 1:1 build, I simply polished up the design and added the upgrades.
Read more about Exercise Rhein here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera.....hein%C3%BCbung
Read more about the Battle of the Denmark Strait here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battl.....Denmark_Strait
and
Read more about the Last battle of the Bismarck here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_.....eship_Bismarck



I know this was much longer than most of my other posts so I just want to say thank you so much for sticking around and reading to the end, every view and favorite helps and encourages me to continue work on AJoIH esspecially in this early critical phase, so please share this post and tell your friend and family if they use FA. Thank You Allfor the Support
-SgtSnake