One of the most formidable warships in World War II was the German battleship the Bismarck. She was a huge ship, massive in size, standing about 18 stories tall and nearly 300 yards in length, she was the pride of the German fleet prior to 1941.
She could travel up to 30 knots and was thought to be the most heavily armored warship of her time. She was in a 8 day hide and seek mission on her maiden voyage and chased 6 different British ships across the Atlantic.
The Bismarck, working with her sister ship worked to destroy many different British ships including the HMS Hood. The HMS Hood was the largest battle cruiser at the time, and she was sank by the Bismarck.
The Bismarck was perhaps the most hunted, and the most feared ships in the German fleet especially at the beginning of World War II. The British fleet ran scared from the mighty German battleship, and it was not until an all out assault was mounted by Britain that the warship was finally defeated.
The Bismarck was a ship that was feared, and it was the effort of an all out assault, to get the Bismarck and even was the subject of a popular wartime song. The Bismarck took heavy fire in what would eventually turn out to be her final battle, she is thought to have taken about 400 hits from surface British Warships, and at least 12 hits by torpedo bearing airplanes.
When the mighty Bismarck finally sank, only 115 of her soldiers survived, out of a crew of 2,200 German crewmembers. The Bismarck was discovered in 1989 in 15,000 feet of water off the coast of Cork, Ireland.