Bismarck: How Britain Sunk The Infamous German Battleship | Full Documentary | History Hit
Launched on 14 February 1939, the German flagship and pride of the Kriegsmarine, Bismarck was launched. In the darkness of the early morning of the 19 May 1941, Bismarck slipped out of harbour on the Baltic coast and started making its way on its maiden voyage, Operation Rheinubung. The German Navy High Command's plan was to disrupt and attack Allied merchant shipping, to starve Britain of precious materials and food. Prinz Eugen (the ship accompanying Bismarck) had a film crew on board - Bismarck’s first action was going to be filmed. Desperate to protect its Atlantic trade routes, the admiralty of the Royal Navy sent her best battleships, including the mighty HMS Hood to intercept the German sortie and sink Bismarck.
This is a definitive account of the Royal Navy's ultimate success in sinking the Bismarck.
Featuring Andrew Choong, curator at the National Maritime Museum, naval historian Nick Hewitt and Angus Konstam, author of 'Hunt the Bismarck'. Presented by Dan Snow.
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12 year old me, skipping lunch to read Time Life WW2 books is in heaven watching this documentary. Thank you.
Bravo, keep studying. I'm 60 and have studied WWII since I was your age
Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. Never stop learning.
I have all those books. And I read them from cover to cover every chance I can get. I've loved world War II ever since I was in first grade. And I'm nearly 35 now lol
This should win an award. it's not only informative but very dramatic and expertly written.
It gives me similar vibes to when I was younger, chilling and watching History Channel when it was good. It's a pleasure seeing History Hit grow to where it is now.
relax.. its fine
That German Videography during the battle with Hood is nothing shy of completely fascinating and completly bleak. Seeing the flashes and realising 2 tons per shell of metal is flying towards you. That would be enough to put the shits up anyone and how all those crewman could be so brave like that is nothing short of completely courageous.
However, I take issue with presenting the speed of sound as being the same as the speed of light. A minor issue compared to the overall quality of this presentation.
@@andywomack3414 It would have been much better to delay the sound realistically.
@@namcat53 " Master and Commander" gets it right with the opening sequence. I wonder if a Bismark shell might arrive before the sound of the guns.
Each AP Bismacrk shell weighed 1764# not 2 tons which would be 4000 - 4400# depending on short or long tons. Yamato's shell weighed 3220#, yet still less than 2 tons.
@@ewathoughts8476 The weight is insignificant to my overall comment, the point is that it is a fucking heavy piece of metal hurtling towards you.
In the voiceovers Dan sounds like he's just been mauled by a dentist! Poor Dan. Brilliant video thanks, highly entertaining and educational, very nicely done.
Sounds like he's been punched 😆
I thought he was eating a cold toffee!
Curious!
He's struggling. The lisp has been getting worse the last few years.
Dentists have many sharp Claws and Fang's
I love the understated commentary from the old sailors who were there
Starting to enjoy the KZhead trend toward long format. Good to listen in the background.
Great isn't it, learning while working and getting paid
Excellent! Gripping report. Well done Dan Snow.
@@Lezzyboy87exactly what I do! 👍🏼😆
Same but these are so well put together I find that listening isn't enough, I really must watch.
it made me cry... a mix of pride and sadness, for all who died and their loved ones. great honour to both in the endeavors.
Dan Snow's material keeps getting better and better over time.
"Then you have problems"... understatement of the century. Gotta love British stoicism.
Andrew ,an aussie here . just want to compliment and thank you for your exceptional presentation and style in the bismark documentary . for me you really stood out .with your knowledge and your command and delivery of the english language .for me it was all class.
Agreed, although I take issue with presenting the speed of sound as being the same as the speed of light.
Just what the world needs, quality long videos on interesting subjects. Entertaining and relaxing. Thank you very much
Brilliant documentary, and amazing to see ones of this quality on KZhead considering they hardly get a look in on TV.
Completely agree 👍
I especially like the fact that the decryption also is mentioned, as that has often been missed in this epic story.
Navies all over the world should thank History Hit team for making these brilliant naval documentaries. Surely they will increase the fascination of navy in younger people and boost naval recruitment.
"in a minute we'll be getting our cutlasses and get out and board that" That would have been...EPIC.
They don't like it 'UP em! 😮
'Rodney' is such a good name for a Battleship..
Only if it has a brother ship called Del Boy.
However HMS Trigger keeps calling it Dave
You should have seen her sister ship, HMS Nelson.
Hood initially was supposed to have a sister ship named Rodney.
@@richdurbin6146 Hood was meant to be one of four Admiral-class battlecruisers. None of the others were constructed but their names were used for King George V-class battleships Anson and Howe.
I've been watching documentaries about the sinking of the Bismarck for a long time. Yup, I'm old. This is epic on top of epic. The ferocity. Kids who became people like my grandparents. On giant boats with massive guns. It's hard to get my head around. Absolutely fearless.
The most comprehensive and complete recounting of the sinking of the Bismarck yet produced. Very well done. 1:35:56
Excellent documentary! It’s so important to have this. Old stories, but new information and presentations, cultural changes in how history gets presented and shown, biases changes or lessening or disappearing- and making history accessible is incredibly valuable to society, I think. And- an extra thank you, from a personal perspective! This war is such a huge part of my family history and family creation on both sides- it’s just fascinating to learn more and more about what they were living with- the events and upheaval, survival tactics both physical and psychological- that helped form them and trickled down the family line. I’m quite grateful for History Hit and appreciate the wide range of things offered.
Thank you for the reminder of the thin threads that have kept us from oblivion, and the courage of the unsure yet determined young fighters who have pulled those threads to bring us to where we are.
:)
Having watched the Movie Sink the Bismarck and wondering whether it compared favourably with the actual events and accounts of the Navy. This brought home just how accurate a portrayal of events that took place. in the movies depiction of it. I thuroughly recommend watching it after seeing this documentary as i will be rewatching it here on YT in the next few days. Thank you time team for giving us the true accounts through survivors narration and the valuablle experts giving much needed cllarity.
A shame about the false and nonsensical sinking of a destroyer, however.
Agreed Sink the Bismarck is an excellent film, Kenneth Moore great British actor 👍
Prinz Eugen was a very good ship , Much underrated by the senior service.
It was, but at that time the size of the barrel was most important.
The American crew who had to sail it across the Atlantic thought it was a bag of bolts
@@barbararice6650Their ships were nothing and it took some sinking
@@barbararice6650 The ship was likely either sabotaged by the germans, or the american crew not properly instructed in her complicated high pressure steam turbin engines operation. That said tho, german surface ships were very inefficient, allied ships achieving the same amount of protection and armament on ships thousands of tonnes lighter.
A very well done telling of the tale...Kudos to History Hit !
What a wonderful exciting and gripping story of unbelievable circumstances. Your production was of massive professionalism. Thank you for the most exciting video I have ever seen.
I gave up my subscription to Hh last year because most of the programming, as excellent as it is, you can now get on KZhead ! Plus these are without the issues I continously experienced trying to watch these exact shows I was paying for!
thank you for breaking down the barriers to learning complex subjects!
This is just a wonderful show. The spine tingles at the British mastery of exposition. What a story!
my most sincere compliments to all involved to produce such a superb piece... 👏👏👏
You know this isn't a new History Hits production... Right? Drachinifel has a great YT episode on Hood's sinking. He favours the "short round" theory of the fatal strike. Due to Hood's hull design, at high speed the bow wave creates a water void just forward of X trurret. Thus allowing a 15" shell to strike below the armour belt, with easier access.
Drach did an excellent job with that video. Very convincing.
@@MrEnvirocatHe's a cool dude. He met up with that guy who does the New Jersey videos.
Drach does amazing content. I haven't found another naval channel that comes anywhere near what he does.
Excellent documentary, found it fascinating, thanks for posting. Please keep up the good work and keep them coming.
Massive congratulations. To start a project of this scale and to be here now is amazing.
Gosh my Grandfather was on the Hood. He was a young Marine. He never spoke about it. He was in hospital with pneumonia when it sank. This is fascinating
the torpedo did quite a bit of damage the area that the crew needed to get to fix the rudder kept flooding in the heavy seas
I'm a Dan Stan. I see him in a thumbnail, I click.
Same.
Wow, that was a very Impressive Informative video. Such a fascinating story of the legendary Bismarck. Very well put together. 10/10
Lutjens considered using explosive charges to blow the damaged rudder off the ship, but the possibility of damaging the propellers and hull put the kibosh on that idea.
There was more damage than simply to the rudder. Several compartments were also flooded and the entire stern, always a weakness in large German WW2 warships, severly compromised.
Another amazing video thanks Nigel I'm learning loads watching you build this lancaster thanks again
Well done, the oscilloscopic trace of the playback of eye witness audio superimposed on the horizon of the video of the grey unforgiving North Altantic backdrop adds a sobering artistic touch.
One of the best documentaries I have seen for a long time. Brilliant.
My Grandfather was on the Rodney, so i have a fond (if thats the right word!) attachment to this part of history, yes the Rodney put the last shells int0 the Bismark,but an almighty amount of work went into finding the Ship, sadly my Grandfather died when i was 2, in1962, so i never heard his side of the story, but i have all his paperwork, medals etc
HMS Rodney was a legendary ship. 🫡
As an Army Ranger, like any grunt, artillery and airstrikes were the things I feared most. You couldn't see em coming, and often had little if any warning. For us at least, we could seek/dig some kind of cover to protect ourselves. Naval combat is a whole nother kind of terrible. Nothing but flat sea and open sky, no mountains to shield you, no trees to conceal you, just an old school shootout at high noon on a wide open street. Those crews on WWII ships were the definition of brave, slinging steel at each other until one or the other emerged victorious. Sua Sponte you mad lads, Nothing but respect for the guts it took to sail the seas never knowing if you'd get wiped out by a sub or battleship just over the horizon.
Splendid treatment of the subject matter. Peerless presentation of the narrative by subject matter experts. An engrossing story. Thank you.
Great video, excellent, very informative Dan Snow always does a great job
Sorry to be pedantic, but the verb in your title should be "sank," not "sunk". Long live English grammar.
One of, if not, the best video I have ever watched on this channel. Very informative and detailed. Thank you so much for making this video.
Hooray! The full video😊😊😊
great experts! learned a great deal of details that were very interesting!
I was gonna say the same, the historians were excellent in this.
Damned fine vid! Thank You!
Amazing documentary. A must see video. Thanks to all those who made this possible. Thanks to KZhead too for making this possible for us to see.
Great documentary, thank you. May all RIP.
The Swordfish was an excellent, seriously nimble aircraft that could duck and weave
The Italians certainly thought so after the raid on Taranto.
Eeeeeeeeeeeyeah uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no. OK in it's time maybe I don't know but the "String Bag" was obsolete in 1941. Bob and weave initially but the torpedo run is die straight. This is not to impugn the obvious bravery and skill of the planes crew but the obsolete nature of the Swordfish. They managed to get one hit on the last few feet of an 800+ ft. ship.
I stand corrected on the number of hits. 😎
@@GregWampler-xm8hv The Fairey Swordfish was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
@@GregWampler-xm8hvthe most successful torpedo bomber ofWW2
Bismarck Bismarck Bismarck. When will we get documentaries of ships that are truly legendary, like Warspite, Ajax, or Illustrious?
Surely HMS Warspite is the most illustrious warship of WW2
@@barbararice6650 It wasn't even illustrious in the the war it was built in, let along WWII.
I guess we use the word legendary in two completely different ways.
A new Bismarck vid. It never gets old, even though you know what happened. You can't help but root for her too, she was so badass and cool-looking.
Dan been to the dentist?
Sniff comedown.
Have you been to a psychiatrist?
You’ve obviously not been to any etiquette lessons.
British people don't use dentists
@@Stitchwitchstitch I think you mean any etiquette class.
Kept my interest throughout Even after many WWII books and documentaries, I heard some facts I had not known before. Well done.
Great Wednesday night viewing
Loved this video! was waiting for it since the first part!
Very good documentary... keep it up Dan..
What a superb historical documentary, just the best!
Amazing video, top work all
These Time-Life documentaries really are the very best there are currently available, and WELL worth the investment of one's time.
Engaging, rich in detail and very interesting show!
2 things. 1, the slow W.W. 1 nylon winged planes they used were so light that the wind held them up, and 2, they got lucky in striking the rudder, jamming it, and the ship could only steer in circles.
The Swordfish wasn't WW1 plane, having been introduced in 1936. It was in service for almost all of WW2, sinking a greater tonnage of Axis shipping than any other Allied plane.
Odd that the torpedo hit was 'lucky' but the hit on Hood was entirely the result of skill, isn't it? Was the hit of the Italian battleship which led to Matapan two months earlier also mere luck?
Yeah, the 2 longest gun hits in battleship history were just "luck", because they were scored by the British. Cuz only Americans can intentionally score a hit with a gun, right? Unless you're a nazi fanboy, in which case the Germans can too, with their "most powerful" battleship ever built, which didn't get a single hit in its last battle, but that must have been because they sank their own ship too soon, as we all know the British couldn't have done it with more than twice the firepower.
The English had mobile radar towers mounted on trucks that could replace some of those bombed. But it is correct that the German high command failed to understand the importance of the technology. Oddly, much of the technology was of German origin, but Goring failed to comprehend it's correct usage and application. My mother lived next door to one of the scientists involved in setting up the radar towers, and she recalled him telling her a story of how on a cold day, he had worked in the tower, and a chocolate bar that should have been frozen had melted completely. He went on to speculate that one day food might be cooked by such a method.
The towers were remarkably resilient to bombing and the more vital buildings with equipment were generally missed. There was also a fair bit of redundancy in the system. The British were preparing for attacks. Another German waste was in their efforts to go after RAF airfields. Incorrect intelligence as to which airfields were active and a generous deployment of decoy models of aircraft meant German attacks were often pointless.
Utterly brilliant video.
Fantastic work. i settled in to watch this before seeing how long it was, and suddenly doubted i'd feel like holding on the whole way through. instead, i found myself pulled right into the drama (and occasional absurdity) of classic modern naval warfare. one thing i especially love about this production - and about History Hit as a whole! - is the profoundly humane sensibility that it offers. it doesn't feel like propaganda the way so many warfare documentaries do. it feels like an honest, material explanation of the events as they happened - good, bad, and ugly. thanks for making these, and definitely keep it up.
Ah the Graf Spee in the River Plate
Interesting directorial choice to record this mid root canal.
That was great. Thank you.
This really should be made into a movie.
It was.
kzhead.info/sun/Za-JcbSAjpF7nnk/bejne.html
Outstanding documentary making.
my 18 year old grandad was onboard ark royal. he told me they were scared of bismark unsurprisingly
German surface ships already sunk one British air craft carrier
@@tomhenry897 glorious? i dont know if he knew about that
Great post, thank you.
Quality educational entertainment. This took me right back to chilling watching documentaries on the History channel as a kid before the aliens took over. But even better in my opinion. Cheers!
Brilliant documentary
Greetings! Quite nice actually. Should have recounted the Destroyer action on the last night however. Philip Vian with some Tribals I believe, and a Polish crewed ship too. Should have been mentioned. Billi.
omg what a great video dan
Excellent!! Very interesting 👍🏻
Excellent.
It feels like yesterday when I was in my OACS interview to join the RAF. They asked, “Why the RAF, why not the army or the Royal Navy?” I replied, “the RAF can go anywhere in any plane. The army can only move on the ground. The navy can only move on the sea, and you can’t run over the sea.”
Loved this
A well produced and informative video. I take issue with presenting the speed of sound as being the same as the speed of light.
Wonderful work!
Excellent documentary!
This is what a documentary should look like! Thank you for posting! Keep up the great work, and a thank you to KZhead this might be the only history some can learn.
Extraordinary detail…..but such tragic loss of life
This should be a major motion picture - riveting
Not a bad video. But if you want to see an excellent video on Bismarck watch "Operation Rheinübung." kzhead.info/sun/oZpym7psnoild68/bejne.html Enjoy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sink_the_Bismarck!
Sink the Bismarck with Kenneth Moore excellent movie from the 1950s.
3,600 men + combined... what a terrible waste... the absolute absurdity of war. god bless these fine men.
Damn money folk
Just 3 of 1,418 surviving is horrendous. 41:12 And that explosion was terrifying.
Great video
When Germany built the Bismarck they built the biggest and best battleship their industry could produce paying no attention whatsoever to any treaties or agreements. In contrast the British KGV class had to be a compromise in every way in order to keep to a 35000 ton limit as dictated by international agreements. Despite this HMS Duke Of York went head to head with the scharnhorst and basically blew her out of the water!! The KGV class did magnificent service throughout the war and especially in the far East..
Bismarck was also limited to 35000 tons via the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. They just lied about her real deplacement, just like they lied brazenly about the displacement of the Hipper class which ostensibly were limited to 10000 tons.
Great documentary!
Wow!!!!!!! Fantastic. I like the sort quote "mind your own business". Indeed.
Excellent
I’ve fallen asleep three nights in a row watching this. Now attempting a fourth watch. I will get through it!
we need preserve to such information to make the next generation realise the horrors from the past and not to be done again
Thanks
Bismarck was such a beautiful ship and Captain Lindemann was a great captain.
Despite what seems to have been a nervous breakdown on his last night alive?
The German Navy was so small because Raeder had been told he had about 5-6 more years than he got to build up his Navy.
It didn't help that it suffered major losses in Norway 1940.
Also didn't help that the treaty of Versailles left Germany with a very small and obsolete navy. After the angry guy with the silly moustache took power and started rearming Germany there was only so much time to build it up again, steel and slipways were serious constraints.
very informative. would be nice to know who the experts are.
Brilliant ✌️