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Originally Posted by Saldiray
I think Yamato was far ahead of its time in both design and architecture. Yamato suffered enormous punishment from US aircraft and finally went down to her final grave, the ocean floor but Bismarck? It never gave me that gigantic look of a BB but thinking of her final battle, how she had been shelled at to death and still managing to stay afloat is a miracle. I was really shocked when the documentary "Expedition Bismarck" revealed that it was sunk not by British shells or torpedoes, but by her own crew's scuttling her. Yamato or Bismarck? Still can't decide, but i'm certain on one thing, Arizona is just like a joke when compared to the other two.
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German BBs had a reputation of having to be beaten into submission, some of those at Jutland came very near to sinking but managed to hold on long enough to reach Wilhelmshaven and safety, after suffering terrible damage. Take
Seydlitz in this picture here:
One of the reasons
Bismarck lasted so long in her final firefight with
Rodney and
KGV was that the RN ships closed the range so much that their shots were hitting
Bismarck at a flatter trajectory than normal. So hits tended to pass through the superstructure and sides of the hull rather than penetrating through the bottom of the ship or hitting vital areas. Some shots actually bounced off the surface of the water and up into the conning tower and funnel.