Bismarck

Bismarck
Displacement:
41,700 tonnes standard50,405 tonnes full load (1943)
Length:
250.5 m overall241.5 m waterline
Width:
36.0 m waterline
Draft:
9.3 m standard10.2 m full load
Armament:
8 × 380 mm/L48.5 SK-C/34 (4×2)12 × 150 mm/L55 SK-C/2816 × 105 mm/L65 SK-C/37 / SK-C/3316 × 37 mm/L83 SK-C/3012 × 20 mm/L65 MG C/30 (Single)8 × 20 mm/L65 MG C/38 (Quadruple)
Armor:
Belt: 145 to 320 mmDeck: 50 to 120 mmBulkheads: 220 mmTurrets: 130 to 360 mmBarbettes: 342 mmConning tower: 360 mm
Aircraft:
4 × Arado Ar 196 A-3, with 1 double-ended catapult
Propulsion:
12 Wagner high-pressure;3 Blohm & Voss geared turbines;3 three-blade propellers, 4.70 m diameter150,170 hp (121 MW)
Speed:
30.8 knots (57.0 km/h)
Range:
8,525 nautical miles (15,800 km) @ 19 knots (45 km/h)
Complement:
2,092: 103 officers 1,989 men (1941)

Design of the ship started in the early 1930s, following on from Germany's development of the pocket battleship Deutschland class cruisers and the Gneisenau class "battlecruisers". Construction of the second French Dunkerque class battleship made redesign necessary, and Bismarck's displacement was increased to 42,600 tons, although officially her tonnage was still only 35,000 tons to suggest parity with ships built within the limits of the Treaty of Versailles. Fully laden, Bismarck and her sister-ship Tirpitz would each displace more than 50,000 tons. The prototype of the proposed battleships envisaged under Plan Z, Bismarck's keel was laid down at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg on 1 July 1936. She was launched on 14 February 1939 and commissioned on 24 August 1940 with Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann in command.
This formidable ship was intended primarily as a commerce raider, having a broad beam for stability in the rough seas of the North Atlantic and fuel stores as large as those of battleships intended for operations in the Pacific Ocean. Still, with eight 15 inch main guns in four turrets, substantial welded-armour protection and designed for a top speed of not less than 29 knots (she actually achieved 30.1 knots in trials in the calmer waters of the Baltic, an impressive speed when set against any comparable British battleship), Bismarck was capable of engaging any enemy battleship on reasonably equal terms. Her range of weaponry could easily decimate any convoy she encountered. The plan was for Bismarck to break through into the spacious waters of the North Atlantic, where she could refuel from German tankers and (the Germans hoped) remain undetected by British and American aircraft, submarines and ships, while attacking the convoys.