About the Bismarck Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ernst Lindemann

Forste was the captain of the Gneisenau, Hoffman was the captain of the Scharnhorst, and Karl Topp was the captain of the Tirpitz. Ernst Lindemann entered the Imperial German Navy in 1913 and saw sea duty during World War I. He ranked second in his class at the Kriegsmarine and Reichsmarine.

In 1938 he became Chief of the Naval Training Section in the Naval High Command. Following this he was appointed to command the Naval Gunnery School. In 1940 he was given command of the newest, biggest, most heavily armored German battleship, the Bismarck.

Answer: May 1941

May 22,1941 the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen set sail from Bergen, Norway on Operation Rheinübung.

Answer: 380mm (15in)

The Bismarck carried eight 15 inch guns, HMS Hood also carried 15 inch guns and also had eight of them. The HMS King George V which participated in the eventual sinking of the Bismarck had ten 14 inch guns in its Main Armament. The USS Iowa class battleships had nine 16 inch and the Imperial Japanese Navy's battleship Yamato had nine 18 inch guns.

Answer: Caesar

As the Bismarck was taking a pounding, one by one the gun turrets were being knocked out. The first turret to go was the aft turret Dora. Six minutes later the two forward turrets Anton and Bruno fired their last shots. Then finally the aft turret Caesar was silenced at 0931 on the 27 May 1941. The Bismarck's mighty 15inch guns would fire no more.

Answer: Rodney

The Bismarck alone pitted against the battleships HMS King George V and the HMS Rodney. Also there were the heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Dorsetshire.

Answer: 30 knots

Not only was the Bismarck the most heavily armored battleship but it was also one of the fastest.

Answer: HMS Suffolk

On the morning of the 23 May the Bismarck was visually sighted by the HMS Norfolk. The Suffolk visually sighted the Bismarck an hour later. But it was the Suffolk's radar that first picked up the Bismarck group, the Suffolk having been just recently fitted with the most modern radar.

The Suffolk along with the Norfolk doggedly tracked the Bismarck for almost two days. The Bismarck tried to hide in storm squalls, laid a smoke screen but could not shake off the Suffolk. They even tried to go into a rain squall and did a U-turn and headed full-speed straight at where they thought the Suffolk would be.

But all for naught, as the Suffolk was nowhere in sight. The Bismarck again turned and continued on its regular course. Eventually once again the Suffolk caught up and was shadowing the Bismarck.

Answer: Off the coast of Norway

The Bismarck was sighted by the RAF on 21 May 1941 off the coast of Norway.

Answer: Tirpitz

The Tirpitz participated in the Norwegian campaign and was eventually sunk in 1944 by British bombs.

Answer: it sacrificed armored protection for speed

The HMS Hood was fast with a maximum speed of 32 knots. But to achieve this its armor was not as thick as the Bismarck's armor. This was especially hazardous in battle against long range, plunging fire, which was exactly the type of gunfire that the Hood was engaged in against the Bismarck.

Answer: False

The Hood sank so quickly it managed to get off only a few salvos from it Main Armament before capsizing.None of which found their mark. The Bismarck with its superb optical instruments established the range first. After firing its first salvo, which was close to the Hood.

It only took the second salvo to straddle the Hood and hit the ship in the magazine. In a short time the Hood was gone, along with 95 officers and 1,323 men and only three survivors.

Answer: Prinz Eugen

The third and last heavy cruiser commissioned by Germany during WWII. She was one of the few Axis warships to survive the war. Only to be used as a "guinea pig" during the US nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll.

Answer: Prince of Wales

The first of a total of three hits on the Bismarck. All of them from the Prince of Wales. The first hit striking the forward part of the ship above the waterline passing completely through the ship from port(left) to starboard(right).

Answer: HMS Victorious

Try as they might the planes from the Victorious inflicted no damage upon the Bismarck. Within six hours of the sinking of the HMS Hood the Royal Navy deployed four battleships,two battle cruisers,two aircraft carriers, three heavy cruisers,ten light cruisers, and twenty-one destoyers. All chasing the two German ships Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.

Answer: the rudder

Although the attack did not do much damage to the ship's structure one torpedo managed to hit the rudder, jamming the rudder in a 12 degree left turn. The crew tried desperately to fix the problem but due to amongst other things the heavy seas,they were unable to fix it.

The next day at 0847 on the 27 May, 1941 the final battle of the Bismarck started.By 1000 the Bismarck had ceased firing. The HMS Rodney was only 3000 yards away its guns almost level and firing almost point blank into the Bismarck for roughly 30 minutes.

The HMS King George V running low on fuel left the scene. But not before raking the Bismarck with its 14-inch guns. From 2700 yards away the Rodney's 16-inch guns fired straight into the Bismarck scoring many hits. The Rodney fired her last two torpedoes,the Norfolk fired its last four torpedoes but she was still afloat. Finally the Dorsetshire fired two torpedoes on the Bismarck's starboard side, then went over to the port side and fired one more torpedo. All of them hit according to one Bismarck survivor Capt. Lindemann was saluting as he went down with the ship. Out of a crew of more than 2200 officers and men only 115 survived.