Vet Reacts to Bismarck - Battle of the Atlantic - Sabaton History 012 [Official]
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3:42 Reaction Start
28:00 Outro - Zábava
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Germany did indeed start to build an aircraft carrier and even got the hull of it launched but were never able to finish it. The ships name was the Graf Zeppelin.
05:20 Yes, there were two Bismarck-class battleships built. The Bismarck was the first and the lead ship of the class and also acted as Flagship of the german navy, the Kriegsmarine. The Tirpitz, Bismarck's sister ship however was more modern and in fact slightly heavier because of it's larger amount of AA guns and the two Quad-Torpedo-Launchers which were missing on Bismarck. Unlike the Bismarck, the Tirpitz didn't see much action and was most of the time moored in a norwegian Fjord where it acted as a fleet in being. The british tried on multiple occasions to sink the Tirpitz inside of it's harbour, using both midget submarines and carrier aviation. Finally the british air force succeeded in sinking the Tirpitz by using large strategic bombers equipped with Tallboy bombs which were specifically developed for sinking the Tirpitz.
09:20 Because of the environment the german navy was fighting in (mostly the North Sea and the Mediterranean) using aircraft carriers were not that much of a necessity. Unlike in the vastness of the Pacific, where the closest islands were sometimes thousands of kilometres away, both of these areas were confined waters with land nearby. So it was easy for both the german and italian air forces to operate land based aircraft above these waters. However, specifically for it's operations in the open Atlantic, Germany was building the aircraft carrier "Graf Zeppelin", which was at the end, after construction was suspended several times, above 80% complete. Finally the construction stopped, because at this point Germany decided that it wasn't able to win a surface war against the british Royal Navy and so construction priorities changed to building more submarines. Also the invasion of the Soviet Union was in full swing, which meant that the army needed more equipment and materials. A second aircraft carrier (only called aircraft carrier B) had also started construction but only the keel had been laid. After work on Graf Zeppelin had come to a halt, the keel of aircraft carrier B was scrapped. The unfinished Graf Zeppelin was captured by the Soviet Union at the end of the war after they invaded Germany. It was then towed into Soviet Waters where it was most likely sunk as a Target ship in weapon tests.
14:20 I don't know the specific power of Hood's magazine detonation in kilotons but it was powerful enough to send one of it's aft main gun turrets flying. These turrets had a weight of around 860 tons.
Thanks for all the great info! I appreciate it.
@@AmericansLearn No problem! Keep up the good work.
There was a german carrier called KMS Graf Zeppelin though it was never entirely completed. There is a great video about it by Drachinifel called "KMS Graf Zeppelin - Guide 194 (NB)"
yes there was another one called tirpitz, Jeremy Clarkson has an hour long documentary on youtube called the greatest raid of all, which talks about the birth of the commado's and their mission to destroy a french dock to help neutralize the tirpitz in the atlantic, he mentions that it actually sank less than the bismark did (1 ship) before it was destroyed.
14:30 The rear main gun magazine at that time contained almost 500 tons of explosive materials (not including the metal parts of shells, and silk bags with the propellant, only including the propellant and explosives themselves). The explosive was mostly of the cordite type. British cordite contained about 2/3 nitroglycerine, 1/3 nitrocellulose and some vaseline, all dissolved in acetone, and the resulting jelly squeezed into spaghetti. These spaghetti (cords) were split into correct length, and stuffed into cartridges, or like in this case, propellant bags.
These propellant bags were struck by a German 38cm AP shell that likely bypassed through the hull under the main armor belt, and exploded in the rear magazine (under the rear two main turrets). The resulting explosion detonated nearby warheads for the British 38cm shells, and another nearby magazine with smaller caliber and anti-aircraft shells. The resulting explosion tore the ship in half (due to being contained in a huge enclosed metal box in a form of the ship´s hull). The front magazine likely survived the explosion, but the ship was absolutely devastated. Although it is speculated that some people in the front half survived the explosion, they all died later once the front part of the ship sunk. Only 3 people survived. All of them blown clear off the ship´s superstructure by the explosion and thrown into the ocean below.
If I remember correctly, at about half a kiloton of power, it's considered one of the top 10 non-atomic explosions in military history (number one being in WW1, when the Entente used the biggest sapping operation ever to vaporize one of the most defended German forts in the Western Front, and the sonic wave was heard even in London...)
@@josepsamarrafarre It was without a doubt a hellish bang, but its unlikely to be much bigger than the case of the HMS Barham, or IJN Yamato.
@@pavelslama5543 The Yamato ammunition magazine was much bigger than that of the Hood for sure, but even if I think you are also right that the Barham was similar to the Hood (more or less the same guns, both primary and secondary), the ship was smaller and the survivors were in the hundreds. What is more freaky about the HMS Barham is what happened to Helen Duncan because of it. If you haven't read about her, give it a try and wonder about the "WTF happened there". 🤯Mindboggling... (and quite a d*ck move from the Admirality 🧐)
Drachinifel did a deep dive analysis of what damage was caused to the Hood and what he thinks was the cause of the resulting explosion. It's a fascinating video with schematics and armor penetration measurements and ships logs. Highly recommend.
You should also react to Sabaton - Last dying breath and as well Lady of the dark. History behind those song is also amazing.
The Germans didn't build aircraft carriers because the Germans didn't have a big Surface fleet to support a aircraft carrier and land based aircraft where able to hit ships in the areas the Germans operated so that's why the Germans used more submarines. But in the Pacific land was far from each other so aircraft carriers were more suited for it and both the Japanese and Americans had big navy's to support the carriers
Also interesting thing to note is that British aircraft carriers were heavily armored, compared to US and Japan at least. Part of it was the distance between land, and also the fact the North Sea is pretty rough.
Well...they tried to build one...even managed to get the hull of the Graf Zeppelin launched, but they never were able to finish it.
Ah, gotcha
The Germans were planning to build aircraft carriers anyway. Four of them were part of their planned naval build, Plan Z, but the plan was to have them completed by 1945 and, well...
(Also, as usual for the Nazis, infighting got in the way. The Luftwaffe demanded control of every air asset belonging to Germany, and the Kriegsmarine wanted none of that.)
There was the Graf Zeppelin and from a technologial standpoint she was pretty much one of the more advanced ones, since she had catapults for starting the planes, not many other carriers at the time had implemented this tech which made it easier to get the planes safely off the deck. But yeah when you're not really swimming in resources you have to cut expenses xD
In the end she was scrapped down for parts and after the war the russians used her for target practice.
I believe there was also another one planned as a escort carrier, the Seydlitz class if I remember correctly
As one of the folks who has requested them, I am really glad to see the channel reacting to the Sabaton History videos...I hope this means AmericansLearn will be reacting to more in the series and to more videos made by Indy Neidell and crew.
And he is 'play/act' in two officell Sabaton track...'Seven pillars of wisdom and unkillable soldier'🇸🇪
That's the plan!
If you wish to better understand the Battle of the Atlantic, I must recommend the 1960 Movie "Sink the Bismarck" Free here on YT. It was one of my inspirations to enlist in the US Navy. I went on to serve in the Engine room of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier.
honestly if you what some cool Bismark story "I am a Pole by LazerPig" is one of the funniest and true accounts of a Polish vessel that chased and engaged Bismark disregarding their Orders just so they could get some revenge, honestly that's an amazing video to react to. and that here was an amazing video to watch
I agree, that little destroyer and her crew deserves to be more widely known
That ridiculously recklessly heroic Piorun.
the germans were underway to building the "Graf-Zeppelin" (btw both competing aerial war desingners DOnier and MEsserschmitt both already had designs in their pockets for Carrier-based landings), but resources went short and went to tanks instead
wikipedia speaks of 2 blueprints. what was actually laid down, i dont know.
Such a nice surprise your actually commuting to this channel. Hope it continues. : )
with regards to your question about why Germany didn't invest in aircraft carriers, it's because the naval warfare doctrine of the time, a hold over from WW1 was that you needed a massive battleship as the flagship surrounded by an escort of other cruisers and smaller frigates in a large imposing floating bombardment platform, it wasn't until the laters years of the war that the general consensus changed to having a massive aircraft carrier be the flagship surrounded by smaller battleships and cruisers for escort with overwhelming air and sea dominance, keep in mind the importance of aircraft prior to WW2 wasn't even a thing, it was a direct result of WW2 that saw the massive and rapid advancement in aerial combat capabilities.
There was a third Bismarck hull started that was being fitted out as a aircraft carrier, it was never completed. Graf Zeppelin, it was close enough that if there were naval fighters or naval stukas finished it was close enough to recieve them.
It was scuttled in the Baltic, raised by the soviet union and sunk again in A weapons test a few years later.
The Germans had plans on building aircraft carriers: the Graf Zeppelin class was supposed to include four aircraft carriers but in the end only one was partially built before the war. The ship never saw combat and was ultimately used as a training target by the Soviets after the war. The wreck was only found in 2006 by Polish researchers.
Please see history of rorkes drift
Thanks for your reaction! I'm glad you like Sabaton History Channel. Please, continue... :-)
that thing on the open atlanic would have been a nightmare!
Should've started with the first one 40:1 and watch them play it at Woodstock 2012 infront of 650,000 Poles. They pull out a larger than ginormous super huge Polish flag over the crowd, super cool. The Polish Polish Art Museum Of America in Chicago has some good stuff on the Waraw Uprising, where my great grandfather came from, Pulaski, Hussaria and other good stuff. 11C go army. Chicago Polska✌
Dang. I was awestruck at 350,000 people on the Plains of Abraham in Québec city. 650,000 is hard to imagine. I was not quite sober that night but I remember looking over the plain and thinking for a couple seconds that the grass looked weird. Then I realized it was a sea of people waving their arms. What a night.
@@rundownaxesounds awesome, it's a free festival too, which makes it even better.
the shoot from The Bismark hit one of The HMS Hood the ammo storage areas below causing the ammo store to blow up thus blowing the ship up from the inside It was a lucky shot from The Bismark
There is another interesting story related to the Bismarck, and that’s their relationship with the U-Boat U-556.
Ghost Division, Wolfpack and the History behind both is Awesome too, Really interesting
btw, the first attack by "Force H" went against their own ships, but no real damage was suffered
One One correction of the video, he said Bismarck was the Largest Battleship ever built.....in Europe. Yamato takes the prize of that title. However Bismarck for a brief time was built before yamato, a few months, so it was the biggest for a small window of time.
As for your question about why didnt Germany build Aircraft carriers? Simply put Germany didnt really need them at the time. Before Dec 1941, Carriers were considered support ships. Aircraft would support major naval operations but had little effect on maneuvering warships. Until then only the air raid on an italian port had any true success. Also the main Air Force of Germany didnt need carriers since their aircraft could easily take off from land bases and fly to wherever they needed to go. Needing a sea based flight strip wasnt really needed.
That being said, Germany did see some logistical and strategic use for carriers and began designing some. And even began building a couple. One, the Graf Zeppelin was 90% complete before the war took a turn. Desperate for materials and resources, the carrier construction was put on hold and cannibalized for parts and materials. Germany losing more and more to the war, the project was eventually cancelled and the ship was scuttled.
Basically only countries that needed the ability to launch and recover aircraft away from friendly land bases, invested in carriers, mostly the US and Japan while Britain also did to help patrol the atlantic and escort ships. The battle with the Bismarck actually changed how the British deployed their Carrier squadrons and how they were used.
Tirpitz was located in a Norwegian fjord and the mere presence of this monster caused England's navy to adapt and then German submarines could wreak havoc.
The construction of the Graf Zeppelin (Flugzeugträger A) began in 1936 in Kiel. The hull was launched in 1938 and it was planned that she would be completed by the end of 1940. In April 1940, however, all work on German surface ships was stopped and all shipyards were cancelled to build submarines instead. same with Flugzeugträger B and Germany also intended to rebuild some ships. The Jade class consisted of a pair of passenger ships intended to be converted into aircraft carriers and Seydlitz was the fourth German Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser,
There were many reasons why carriers dominated in the Pacific and were less of a priority in European/Atlantic waters.
One that gets overlooked is that carriers were not really capable of all-weather operations until after WWII. The North Atlantic, North Sea, and Arctic Sea are very often stormy or foggy or freezing.
The threat of land-based aircraft also led to the British designing armored flight decks on their carriers, which limited flight group sizes.
Tldr: carriers were just much more useful in the Pacific for geographic/climatic reasons.
The tirpitz was the second Bismarck class battleship . only a few monts away before beeing operationaly certifide . Both scharnhorst class battleships where still under repairs and weeks away from beeing back in action . Unfortunatly for Bismarck Admiral Reader got impatient and thought the war wil be over before we could have shown our worth . and send bismarck out to the atlantic for a glory hunt with heavy cruiser prinz eugen. .
And we all know what happend , if she went out with either scharnhorst or Tripitz . It would be a completely different event.
Germany didn't build any aircraft carriers because they were more focused on building up their ground and air forces where they thought most of the fighting would take place. The navy was more of a second thought for the Germans
The Germans did invest in Aircraft carriers, but war broke out and the materials were redirected to other branches of the military. There were other reasons awell but I can't remember them off the top of my head. Wikipedia has allot more info on the subject.
The Germans Had never heard of Mr. Murphy and his Law of the Universe.
The Germans did have one Aircraft Carrier during the Second World War. It was called the 'Graf Zeppelin' which was sunk during the War. They had plans to make a second Aircraft Carrier but it was scrapped.
As for you comparison between the Kriegsmarine and the Imperial Japanese Navy:
The European Theatre of the War was a more land-based war than the Pacific One.
The Germans used their U-Boats to attempt to cut-off British Supplies, so they invested much more into Submarines.
The Japanese had to fight across an entire ocean and invaded places hundreds of miles from their homeland, so they invested much more into their Navy, since they would need a good Navy (with Air-Support) to win Battles in the Pacific.
Awesome. more Sabaton history.
10:10
There were a few problems with that:
1) Airplanes at that times were kinda crap, and no one really believed that a strike group from a carrier would be able to sink a capital ship, like a battleship.
2) Germany planned almost exclusively for North sea and Baltic operations. North sea is famous for its bad weather, which throughout interwar era and WW2 (and even today it often does) prevented any air operations, especially from carriers.
3) Aircraft carrier requires a strong support group. Preferably a battlecruiser, or a fast battleship, a few cruisers and at preferably a dozen destroyers. And Germany simply didnt have the industrial capacity to build such a force in the time given.
4) Who controls a carrier? Is it a naval high command, or an airforce high command? Logic would dictate that its a naval matter, but Germany had a major problem called Göring, who was a close friend of Hitler (in fact, Hitler owed him for his life), and who was the highest representative of German air force. And Göring demanded his personal control over any forms of technology operating in the air. So it would likely require split command with both airforce and navy commanders present at the ship.
...
So in the end, they faced a dilemma - maybe try to build a carrier, which may not prove to be useful due to air technology, or due to poor weather, then build a huge support force, then solve the command problems, and then have to gather all their forces at one place, where the Allies would be most likely to eliminate them in one swoop.
...
But whatever, we are talking about Nazi Germany in the end, so of course they started building not one, but at least seven aircraft carriers.
1) Graf Zeppelin - a relatively big aircraft carrying cruiser, with strong armor and strong artillery, capable of both launching aircrafts, and fighting in a pitched battle (at least in theory). It was very close to completion even early on, and if Germany really focused on it, it could have been brought to service possibly even before 1942. But no, they finished 99% of it, and then left it to rot for years, until they decided to sink it in the Baltic without a fight.
2) Peter Strasser - a sister ship of Graf Zeppelin. Only the bottom part of the hull was ever completed. The name was mostly notional. It wasnt officially named.
3) Europa - a huge ocean liner, stripped down to its main deck, and converted into a big aircraft carrier. The work was halted midway through, after engineers found out that the conversion caused serious stability problems.
4) Seydlitz - a former heavy cruiser, a sister ship of Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Blücher, and Lützow. But Lützow was sold to USSR, Blücher was sunk by a Norwegian coastal fortress, and Seydlitz was stripped down to its main deck, renamed into Weser, and converted into an aircraft carrier. The work was halted midway through due to lack of materials and workforce, and once the war neared its end, it was sunk in the Baltic without a fight by the Germans.
5) Jade - formerly a passenger steamer SS Gneisenau. The carrier conversion was planned, but before it was started the ship got sunk by a mine.
6) Elbe - formerly a passenger steamer SS Potsdam, a half sister ship (same class, but with significant differences) of SS Gneisenau. The conversion works started, but were halted very soon due to lack of materials and work force. After the war the ship was seized by United Kingdom and converted back into a steamer, and it served as a steamer until 1960, when it was sold to Pakistan. There it served for another 16 years before it was scrapped.
7) De Grasse - to Germans known only as Flugzeugtragger II (Aircraft carrier II). A French heavy cruiser hull captured in the Lorient shipyard in 1940, after the fall of France. The ship was of very similar size to Seydlitz/Weser. The work was cancelled after about a year, due to many reasons. Most notably: French workers didnt want to bastardize their own unfinished cruiser for the German occupiers so they worked as slowly as possible, Germans lacked the materials, and werent even sure if the design was viable at all, and British bombers from southern England were just far too close for comfort.
...
In the end, only Graf Zeppelin was realistically available for swift completion. And only Graf Zeppelin, its sister ship, and the converted ship Europa were big enough to carry a non-negligible amount of aircraft. The rest were more like escort carriers, kinda like the US Independence class.
Thank you for all this info. I didn't know about some of these ships.
Oh wow. That's wild. Thanks for the extra info, especially about the ships not the Graf Z.
Defense of moscow next!
I highly suggest watching "I am a Pole" by Lazerpig. Its an extremely funny video which details the story of a Polish destroyer which joined the British in the battle against Bismarck.
Oh, you should react to midway both the song and The history Video of the battle. As its more naval warfare but between the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the United States Navy in 1942.
It would have taken approximately a "fuckton" (im sure this is the correct scientific term) of energy to split the Hood since if memory serves the armor was about a foot thick
@9:50 the germans did infact had thoughts on an aircraft carrier the "GRAF ZEPPELIN" there were even aircarft built like the BF109T "Theodore", with built in folded wings and such BUT, the germans were too slow overall, or dinnnnnnnnt NO comence.
Carriers were in the plans, how ever were scraped due to favoritism of the U boats
The Graf Zeppelin was laid down and they completed the hull enough to launch it, but they never finished the ship. I believe you are correct that a major part of the reason the carrier was never finished was due to the greater focus on U-Boats due to their effectiveness.
Were they scraped before or after they were scrapped?
The game company World of Warships who helped make the music video here also made a nice mini documentary about the Bismarck itself too. here's a link to it. czcams.com/video/7K9BJhlt0zo/video.html
❤
The debate on why the Hood died so dramatically is unclear. A lot of different arguments make sense. For instance, the Hood was designed sooner. Battlecruisers when they were introduced were exceptional ships, but when faced with more modern munitions from the Bismark, Hood's armor stood no chance. Another theory that has some merit cites the disasterous fates of battlecruisers during the 1st world war in battles such as Jutland. Its proposed that, according to British doctrine, for speed of loading and firing the doors to the ammunition stows were all left open. Dont quote me on that though Im still looking into the truth of that one
wait you dont know about the tirpitz? the " einsame Königin des Nordens" ?!.. sad XD
PS: the titel biggest ist wrong. bigges in the atlantic ok but the biggest by length and weight and Biggest Gunns was the Yamato class battleships.
This isn't accurate. The ship was scuttled. The torpedo hits weren't enough to sink the ship. They discovered on the wreck the torpedo bulkhead was still intact even after the three hits. The germans definitely scuttled their own ship. The turpitz story is a great testimony to the engineering of these ships. It was the biggest at the time Bismarck but the yamatto is the biggest ever built at over 70000 gross tons.
Well, he never really said that it was sunk by the torpedoes, just that it disappeared beneath the waves, after that final blow.
The music sounds very Jack Black
I,m a German Navy Soldier.
My Grandfather was Leutnant Commander Mühlheim Rechberg.
He was the third Artillerie Officer from Bismarck and He survided the Battle at this morning.
The Britian Navy Fights at this morning with 6 Battleships 6 Heavy Cruisers 5 Destroyers and one Aircraft Carrier against one German Ship.
The Britians are No Heroes.. After Bismarck sank from 2221 German Sailors in the Atlantic Ocean the british Fleet rescued only 115 Souls.
The rest of the Germans dies in the cold Wather.
Of course the Sabaton History about Bismarck is true.
But this Part of the Bismarck Sabaton didn't tell
How many sailors were rescued after their ships were torpedoed by German
submarines? There's your answer ....
i think the germans think they have enough firepower on these ships to destroy every plane....a fail....hehe