Great German Battleships Of WW2 - Full Documentary

Bismarck and Tirpitz were the last and largest battleships completed by the German navy, as well as the heaviest ever built in Europe. They were built according to the terms of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement signed in 1935, and ostensibly displaced no more than the 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) specified in the agreement. The ships were, in actuality, some 15,000 long tons (15,000 t) heavier at full load. The ships were built to counter new French battleships then under construction.

The Bismarck was deployed in May 1941 to raid British shipping in the Atlantic Ocean along with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. During the operation, Bismarck sank the battlecruiser HMS Hood and heavily damaged the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales and forced her to retreat. All of the available British naval assets were mobilized in a massive hunt to track and destroy Bismarck. Several days later, Bismarck was disabled by a torpedo hit from a Fairey Swordfish launched from HMS Ark Royal and subsequently destroyed by the battleships HMS Rodney and HMS King George V on 27 May.

Tirpitz's career was less active; she spent the majority of the war as a fleet in being in occupied Norway. The Royal Navy attempted to sink her with midget submarines, but these efforts were unsuccessful. In November 1944, RAF Lancaster bombers hit the ship three times with 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) bombs, which caused her to capsize and sink. The wreck was eventually broken up in 1948–1957.

The two Scharnhorst-class battleships were the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The ships were armed with nine 28 cm (11 in) SK C/34 guns in three triple turrets, though there were plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets.

The two ships were laid down in 1935, launched in late 1936, and commissioned into the German fleet by early 1939. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. The two ships participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious— in the engagement with Glorious, Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history. In early 1942, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany.

In late 1942, Gneisenau was heavily damaged in an Allied air raid against Kiel. In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined the Bismarck-class battleship Tirpitz in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy; the Germans were instead intercepted by British naval patrols. During the Battle of North Cape, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York sank Scharnhorst. In the meantime, repair work on Gneisenau had begun, and the ship was in the process of being rearmed. However, when Scharnhorst was sunk, work on her sister was abandoned. Instead, she was sunk as a blockship in Gdynia in 1945; the wreck was broken up for scrap in the 1950s.

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