How a Group of Outdated Biplanes put Bismarck in Peril
When I asked you all to name an iconic battleship from WW2, many answered either Yamato or Bismarck. Today, I chose to talk about Bismarck because they have quite an embarrassing story. While being hunted down by the Royal Navy in the Atlantic, the terror of the Kriegsmarine, the German Navy, was crippled by a squadron of 15 (outdated) biplane swordfishes. The idea that the most advanced ship of the time was put in mortal danger by a group of biplanes seems to be ridiculous at first.
To be fair to Bismarck, she was put in an unfavourable situation. Indeed, WW2 saw the rise of naval-air combat, and the German battleship was ill-suited against aircraft. His AA defences consisted of eight twins mounted 10.5cm, eight twins 3.7cm and twelve 2cm flak guns. At first, this seems to be quite a remarkable firepower, but this isn't where the problem was. Bismarck remained vulnerable to air attacks because of its targeting systems and poor German radars. The targeting systems, on top of not being completely accurate, were also unable to handle big groups of enemies. As for the radars, they were old and short-range compared to their British counterparts. This means that it was difficult for Bismarck to spot an RAF air raid.
Finally, the biplane was actually more dangerous to the german battleships than the more modern Spitfire and Hurricane used by the British. The first one was a slow-moving plane made of a metal skeleton covered by some fabric. This might seem like “weaknesses”, but they were indeed the reasons why biplanes were so difficult to deal with for AA defences. Their slow speed ironically made them incredibly difficult to be hit by AA guns designed to shoot at rather faster planes. If hit, the shells would pass through the biplane’s fabric without causing significant damage; unless, of course, critical components were hit (pilot, engines, weapons, etc). So, in the end, Bismarck found his match in those outdated planes. On top of that, Bismarck tended to sail completely alone, making her rather easy prey for the British forces.
