The Hunt for the Bismarck | Part 2: Sinking the Bismarck

After 7 months of work, I am proud to finally release the second half of my Hunt for the Bismarck project. It's been over a year since I started onto the first half of this project, and it's nice to finally see this project put to bed.
Special thanks to @Drachinifel for agreeing to narrate this project! If you haven't seen his videos I highly advise you to check them out! Absolutely fantastic content if you're interested in any kind of naval history!
I'd also like to give a shout out to ​⁠@99destroyer_ for creating the thumbnail and some of the animations that were used in this video. If you're a fan of World of Warships, World of Tanks, or War Thunder, definitely check out his channel! You'll also find some 3D animation there too!
I'll be doing a breakdown/behind the scenes of the making of this video, feel free to ask any questions you have about the Hunt for the Bismarck, my animation and video process, why certain details were left out, or anything related to this project! The behind the scenes video will mostly be covering technical aspects of the video.
I'm certain you'll be seeing more projects about various naval battles going forward, but probably after I take a break from the time and pressure crunch that these projects put me under haha!

[@SwankySpitfire]

Finally, part two is finished! Special thanks to @Drachinifel for agreeing to do the voice over for this video! I'd also like to give a shout out to @99destroyer_ for lending a hand in the animation process and helping to create the thumbnail for this project! After how large this project was I'm going to take a break to consider what battle I should do next, more details will be announced at a later time. I'll also be making a follow up video to this project something along the lines of "The hunt for the Bismarck: Un-simplified" where I'll be going through this video and delving into the details that I had to gloss over due to time limitations. I'll be explaining why certain things were cut, simplifications made in the project etc. If you have a question you'd like me to answer whether about history or about this project feel free to leave your question below. Thank you all for watching! Take care everyone!

[@j_mack1996]

Swordfish: Hey, I may be old, but I'm not obsolete.

[@the_uglysteve6933]

I recognise that voice! Great production!

[@GauzyGaming]

Absolutely love it! by far the best rendition of such a legendary battle I’ve ever seen, this clearly has been made with a lot of passion and dedication, can’t wait to see what you make next as this is FAB ❤

[@SwankySpitfire]

Thank you! I’m in discussions with my production partner about what we’re going to cover next. I’m thinking after this monster project of doing a smaller battle like the river plate, but we’ll see where it goes!

[@markalvinsantos1995]

IM WAITING FOR THS FOR YEARS NOW!!! THANK YOU FOR POATING!!

[@EpicJoshua314]

Great video. One thing to note is that when Bismarck turned around and the British ships lost radar contact, Lutjens thought the British still had radar contact of his ship so he sent a message to Berlin and Bismarck's position was re-established but then Admiral Tovey thought Bismarck was returning to Norway and when he realized his mistake they were unable to re-establish contact until the PBY found it.

[@manilajohn0182]

Those who plotted Bismarck's course based on that transmission made an error of approximately 180 degrees. This erroneous information was passed on to Tovey- so it was not Tovey who made the mistake. Just sayin...

[@dec_thesussy]

This animation is really good, much more of an improvement from part one

[@pepe_nat5199]

Underrated ,your animations are beathfull.

[@ImportantHistory]

Wow, this is awesome! I have been waiting for this since I found your channel a couple of months ago and it definitely delivered! I've tried to get into doing some sort of animation for my videos but it takes an incredible amount of time, dedication, and talent. Which I don't really have.

[@Johnny53kgb-nsa]

Johnny Horton Sink The Bismarck. Good video!

[@rudatkatzn9171]

The fact that the scuttling charges were set off was proven due to the fact that the ships only below water holes were from explosions from the inside to the outside. And I dare claim that a Torpedo doesn't warp into the ship and sets of several explosions on the inside. Also, torpedo Impact holes were found, not going further than the torpedo bulge. Still, great video. I knew the exact outcome already, but it still had me clinging to my chair in anticipation, like with a damn good movie, as if I didn't know the outcome

[@manilajohn0182]

There's no reason to doubt that Bismarck's crew scuttled the ship. The fact remains however, that they scuttled a ship which had been shattered and was going to eventually sink. Even though only a few 16" shells penetrated the armor, the ship had taken torpedo hits and was already flooding when the scuttling charges were fired. The British effectively sunk Bismarck- but the Germans did in fact scuttle their ship to ensure that the British would have no chance of boarding and possibly salvaging it.

[@rudatkatzn9171]

@@manilajohn0182 To my knowledge, the only holes which could've caused a flooding that were found were caused by explosions from the inside, the torpedos hit the torpedo bulge but did no damage to the integrity of the hull

[@manilajohn0182]

@@rudatkatzn9171 The aerial torpedoes which struck Bismarck all caused some flooding, and at least three 16" shell hits penetrated Bismarck's belt and did so as well. Since Bismarck is resting in the mud with a portion of her belt buried, the actual amount of flooding can't be known. That said, the ship sunk surprisingly quickly if it only sunk due to scuttling. To what extent that Bismarck was sunk due to scuttling and battle damage actually matters little- because, in all fairness, the British devastated Bismarck to the point where the Germans themselves felt the need to fire scuttling charges and ensure that the ship went down. So, either directly or indirectly, the British sunk Bismarck- because the ship was never going to make port.

[@ishmaelsykes9739]

this is the baddest ass color doctumentary I saw in years about Bismarck thanks

[@tristthetank]

Absolutely stunning mate, this is such high quality it's amazing! Critically underated channel!

[@SwankySpitfire]

I appreciate the kind words! Thank you! I’ll just keep on doing what I’m doing, and the rest should work itself out.

[@janjacobsen2815]

Amazing part.2 well done

[@casesully50]

Dude these are great animations. Subscribing for sure. Youre going to make it in the KZbin space if you keep this up man. Great work 👏

[@KrishivSisodia-dc7sm]

I can't wait to see this!!!!

[@KrishivSisodia-dc7sm]

That was bloody amazing, keep up the bloody good work!

[@oliverbenes6365]

Very good work very nice quality i am shocked

[@yveaux500]

This is brilliant stuff. Beautifully animated. Keep it up and you’ll be hitting 100k subscribers in no time!

[@TrickiVicBB71]

Well done work. Similar to spacepickshovel but with The Mighty Jingles narrating

[@99destroyer_]

oh it's beautiful 😍

[@SwankySpitfire]

It was great working with you! Looking forward to more!

[@Katzenkotze85]

I am awaiting Battle of Tsushima, Voyage of the russian japanese voyage - Midway! ❤🎉😅😊 your style is cool!

[@SG14ever]

Beautiful CGI!

[@thanksforchoosingthespicyside7]

Thus the countdown begins, see you on the other side fellas.

[@grandadmiralzaarin4962]

Would love to see the Battle of Cape Matapan

[@williampaz2092]

I have alway wondered why the British Task Forces did not take Fuel Oil Tankers with them. Or arrange to rendezvous with them.

[@SwankySpitfire]

Sorry about the late reply, wanted to ensure that my response was as accurate as possible. There’s a few big reasons why oil tankers weren’t summoned by the Royal Navy during the hunt for the Bismarck. Part of the reason is that during 1941 the Royal Navy was very alone in its fight against the German reich. With the RAF needing fuel to keep its aircraft operational, most fuel tankers were being used to transport fuel from the America’s to the UK to support the RAF. Additionally, when your opponent has a fleet of submarines looking to sink any merchant ship they could find, having tankers stationed in the middle of the Atlantic in the off chance you need to refuel a warship isn’t a great idea. Since a lone tanker is a very vulnerable target to Uboats. And while you could dispatch warship escorts, the UK was using any available escort to try and protect the convoys carrying war supplies. Additionally, the entire chase took place over a very short time. With only 3 days passing between the British engaging Bismarck in the Denmark strait and the sinking of Bismarck. This is compounded by the fact that the entire chase was a high speed chase. With most of it taking place at speeds of 25-30 kts. So even if the Royal Navy had dispatched a fuel tanker with its units, they would’ve been left behind as the battleships would’ve out run the tankers in their attempt to catch Bismarck.

[@gamersparadise7014]

Most detailed animation of Bismarck. Bismarck suffered hits from 3 torpedoes + more than 400 large caliber shells yet she didn't sink. i wonder if she would have ever sank if it wasn't scuttled

[@SwankySpitfire]

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words. To answer your question in short, yes. For a more detailed response about the nuances of the situation see below. While I was working on this project, I had spent a decent amount of time trying to ensure I was being as accurate as possible. Of course, in a 15 minute animation you don’t have time to dive into the nuances of the situation, so a lot of details are summed up to a 5 second sentences. To answer your question, the answer is yes. While I’ve seen a lot of people try to claim that “Oh Bismarck was so good, the German crew got tired of the British trying to sink their ship so they did it themselves” (paraphrased obviously) this idea that the Bismarck was impervious until the crew scuttled her is false. By the time the German crews had decided to scuttle the ship, Bismarck was already beginning to sink. The ship was without power, listing from floods created by the intense shell fire, and was also on fire in an uncontrolled burn. Bismarck was already sinking, it was a question of when. Would the minor flooding created from shell fire take it, or would it be burned to the keel first? The final torpedos sped up the flooding and the ship went under. Also, you may have noticed Drach's scepticism about scuttling charges sinking the Bismarck. There’s a couple big reasons why he’s sceptical about the scuttling charges actually taking down the ship. First, communication on the ship was nonexistent, all the power was down, the ship was burning uncontrollably, even the voice pipes couldn’t guarantee your message got through since a 16” shell through them tends to mess with their ability to function. Secondly, most of the claims about scuttling charges come from German sailors who claimed to hear them exploding before jumping into the ocean. How you differentiate between the sound of a scuttling charge and a torpedo exploding, or a shell impact or any number of explosion sounds that could be caused from a non scuttling charge explosion is a prudent question. In the end, the result I saw from most historians was “Does it really matter who sunk the ship?” Either way, it’s a British victory, who dealt the final blow doesn’t really matter since the end result is the same. And due to how Bismarck is resting we’re not able to see the underside of the hull to determine what was the final killing blow anyways.

[@gamersparadise7014]

@@SwankySpitfire Its right that it's a British victory but I think Bismarck was quite better than Royal Navy Battleships. This is to be noted that Bismarck and Scharnhorst was sunk because more than 3 Warships were involved to sink just 1 Damaged Warship. Poor decision of Günther Lütjens led to Bismarck's sinking. Prince of Wales was already a half wreck after only 1 torpedo hit it. So it clearly means that Bismarck was better than Other British warships at that time. And IDK if she was even scuttled but the royal navy couldn't sink her without the single lucky torpedo from Ark Royal's Swordfish which jammed her rudder.

[@manilajohn0182]

@@gamersparadise7014 It was poor decision- making on the part of both Raeder and SKL that resulted in the loss of Bismarck. With differing maximum speeds and different radii of action, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were not a homogenous force like Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were. Sending Bismarck out into the North Atlantic- where she could not outrun shadowing cruisers (he escaped them by a miracle) was an error.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@gamersparadise7014 What do you base nonsense such as "Prince of Wales was already a half wreck"? Also Bismarck was SO superior to RN battleships that she spent the entirery of her 9 days at sea running for her life !!!!

[@gamersparadise7014]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 You telling Bismarck was trash. You Comparing Bismarck with other HMS ships? Bismarck didn't have any other ships escorting it during it's sinking . While the Royal navy sent many ships to intercept it and destroy it. HMS King George V, HMS Rodney, HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Norfolk destroyed the Bismarck. And what can it do except running from Royal Navy Ships? They had the numbers while Bismarck was alone in the Open seas. You can't say that Bismarck was bad than HMS POW. You can compare HMS Vanguard with Bismarck but not HMS POW. Bismarck was hit by 9 torpedoes and it can be more. While HMS POW was sunk by 4 torpedoes to 5 only.

[@manilajohn0182]

A TRULY great video- with one glaring exception. It is unknown exactly what caused the loss of Hood. There are currently three still- viable possibilities on how Hood was destroyed. The theory that Bismarck inflicted mortal damage on Hood is simply the most popular one; it is not the most likely. Other than that, this is an epic.

[@Johnny53kgb-nsa]

What is the most likely?

[@manilajohn0182]

@@Johnny53kgb-nsa That is currently unknown- and will probably remain that way.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@manilajohn0182 No let me reassure you it IS the "most likely" explanation.

[@manilajohn0182]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 You're entitled to your opinion.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

@@manilajohn0182 Luckily for me its one shared by the vast majority of scholars and historians.

[@jmrico1979]

this is really good stuff, well done

[@SwankySpitfire]

Thank you!

[@historical_vehicle]

Very nice video, thank you!! 😊 I can't believe this video was made by WoWS!! How can you made searchlight scene in OP movie? How can you made bow wave movie in Bismark in 01:10 and 02:05? What an incredible movie ! !

[@Aelxi]

Nice work

[@Katzenkotze85]

Super Video! Keep on! ❤ 😮

[@alcatraz0643]

2876 shells 57 ships and 8 submarines participated there + torpedoes didnt sink Bismarck as they foun hits on upper side of superstructure and no air capses so no torpedo was able to get it down, Bismarck was scuttled, not saying it wouldnt go down after all of that and couldnt move so , but as interesting fact when Ballard and Cameron were down there. Bismarck was never sunk by Royl Navy, but own crew. So at least going down with head up and flag still standing.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Hahaha "Not sunk by the RN" ... comedy gold !!!! IF any scuttling actually took place then all that was scuttled was a 51000 ton mountain of sinking, flaming scrap metal. All guns silenced, her superstructure devastated, her main armour belt broken and penetrated in several places, her command staff physically obliterated, internally aflame from end to end, her stern and port gunwales already underwater, a thousand of her crew dead, and further hundreds of her crew already in the water behind her.... All that any scuttling did was to sink her a few minutes earlier than was already happening. In the world of boxing the crew's scuttling efforts are what is known as "throwing in the towel", submission of a boxer AFTER he has been punched senseless by a more skillful & powerful opponent, and only a deluded child would say, "the victor didn't win because his opponent killed himself before he lost.", when the truth is the loser had his arse ripped off by the victor and handed back to him on a plate. Imagine the ignominy of being forced to commit suicide by your opponent?

[@davidmccarter9479]

Maybe the scuttling resulted in a lot more German casualties. Sad.

[@michaelpielorz9283]

As usual, if you want to have a job done properly the germans had to do it (:-)

[@roysimmons3549]

The alleged scuttling very dubious..Already in sinking condition afore Dorsetshire gave it 8 torpedo's Sounds like fake news. How exactly was that achieved,? .

[@josephconleith9606]

Good. It please ditch the music. It adds nothing .