Everyone knows the story of the Bismark and the Hood. Before I get into this, I would like to point out a couple of things. Because of a 20 year age difference between the two ships, the Bismark grossly outclassed the HMS Hood. It had greater speed, firepower, fire control and armor. The shot that 'took out' the Hood was similar to the shot that took out the Arizona, a round landed at just the right spot and ignited one of the magazines.
Had the Bismark come up against one of it's few contemporaries, such as the USS North Carolina (the first of 12 'fast battleships' deployed by the United States, the North Carolina was placed into service in 1939), would the outcome of that first encounter have been different?
The USS North Carolina had at least the same armor as the Bismark, but had it out-gunned with nine 16 inch cannons, as opposed to eight 14 inch. The fire control would have been comparable, although the German crew probably had the edge in training and readiness. Both ships showed an enourmous capacity to absorb damage. The Bismark took a lot of damage before finally being sunk, and the North Carolina, while part of a carrier task force in the Phillipnes, took a torpedo hit amidships, and maintained its station with a speed of 25 knots, with a 40' hole in the side.
The North Carolina could do 33 knots, versus 30 for the Bismark, and when you are talking about 50K+ ton warships, that is a vast difference. A couple of other factors aon armament, the North Carolina would have been able to load, aim and fire as fast as the Bismark, but would have greater range and punch when it hit the target.
I personally feel that any one of the American fast battleships would have could have pummeled the Bismark and the cruiser Prinz Eugen to scrap by herself, but the battleship would not have been alone. American battleships always operated in pairs and would have an escort of one or two cruisers and three or four destroyers at all times. What say you?
Bismark had 15in Main Guns like Hood but fired faster. A fast battleship deals more with the shape then the thickness of the armor. Bismark was wide while the Fast Battleships would be more narrow. American gunners also had a computer onboard to help calculate the gun's firing position and angle and use radar to help with target marking and reaiming the guns because the radar would pick up the splash of the shell. With the NC verses Bismark, NC will probably hit first and offten. and would kill off Bismark.
There use to be a dos game that allowed you to match battleships like the Missouri against the best German.
New Jersey Nine 16" guns; twenty 5" guns
Among naval historians, the 5"/38 gun is considered the best medium caliber dual purpose naval gun of World War II. It had a nominal rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute per barrel; however, with a well-trained crew 18 rounds per minute per barrel was standard. There are many documented instances of 24 rounds per minute per barrel being attained for short periods of time during battle. The 5"/38 could project a 55 pound (25 kg) projectile for ranges up to 18,200 yards.
It is not just about the big guns but also about those five inches. You had 20 of those. The U.S had the best five-inch guns. The battle in the Pacifica, Taffy (5) destroyers going against battleships and cruisers, when in close those five-inch guns where putting hundreds of rounds on the bigger ships and the big guns of the larger ships could not elevate or track on the smaller ships at close range.
When I played that game, you got in close and opened up with those five-inched guns. You could reek havoc on the wheel house and upper structure.
You might not be able to sink it, but you could put it out of action.
Destroyers during the Normandy invasion when coming in close to shore and using their five-inches guns to support the troops they said they where more effective than the big guns of the battle ships.
Just think 20 five-inch guns firing 20 rounds a minute, ok 10 than on each side. In one minute you just laid down 200 rounds and you do that for five minutes, what that 1,000 rounds.
North Carolina by far, in open sea conditions. You have to consider the situation in which they meet. Best Bismarck can hope for, is a near point blank suprise engagement, in which they proceed to shred one another, and the ship with greater luck prevails.
Now, in an open sea engagement, it's pretty easy. North Carolina is going to detect the Bismarck from long range. Long before Bismarck is aware of her presence. Despite the firepower advantage, and lets not forget the super heavy AP rounds, fire control is the biggest advantage.
Mark 1 Fire Control Computer. Impressive analog computer for the time period. Basically uses radar information to aquire a firing solution, but it goes a step further. The North Carolina, can turn and evade as hard as he wants, and the Mark 1 will adjust the firing solution to stay on target. Same goes for the Bismarck. At Leyte Gulf US battleships armed with this system, engaged Japanese battleships from 22,800 yards, scoring hits in the opening salvo's. Bismarck's deck armor likely will not stop the plunging fire of super heavy 16" AP from that range, and lacks the capability to accurately return fire.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: volarion,
I've has this bismark vs discussions loads of times so i'll save myself this time seeing as people will stick with their origional opinion anyway no matter whats said.
I'll be the bad guy for the sake of arguement. All i have to say is 16inch v 15inch is largely redundant,a hits a hit. As for finding range 4 turrets are better than 3,first salvo the turrets all fire at different ranges,thats 4 splashes instead of 3.
Plus a 9 16inch will kick and roll much more than the bismarks 8 15in,add to this that more of bismark was in the water,it was longer,fatter and deeper.The upshot being the bismark will be ready to fire quicker.
Actually it is bad to fire all 4 turrets independently for ranging salvos. It was tried and eliminated during WWI. Spotting fall of shot of only 2 guns proved nearly impossible. Warships with 4 turrets fire alternate ranging 4 gun salvos from the forward and rear turrets paired. In the case of Bismarck vs. Hood the Bismarck fired 4 4-gun ranging salvos, getting a straddle and a possible hit on the 4th. When the gunnery officer saw the fire on the boat deck on Hood from the hit from Prinz Eugen he used that as an aiming point and went to a full broadside on the 5th salvo. That was the fatal hit. All warships with directors, whether mechanical, electronic, or aided by radar, have some kind of computers that can track course, speed, distance, direction and their own ships movements into a firing solution. They had at least mechanical ones since WWI. All the data from the ships optical rangefinders (directors plus the ones in the turrets) were fed into the computers. As for a North Carolina vs. Bismarck dual both ships had radar although Bismarcks was not tied to the guns. Also German ships had acoustic detection gear that could detect the propeller noise of ships beyond the horizon as they detected Hood and Prince of Wales before they came into vue from the masthead.
