Comments by "Ben Wilson" (@benwilson6145) on "Operation Rheinübung - First and Last Voyage of the Bismarck" video.

U556 left the scene on midday on the 10th relived by U 74.
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At 0857 the Bismarck sustained her first hit. Five minutes later a 16-inch shell from the Rodney apparently put the German battleship's A and B turrets out of action. C and D turrets were firing on the King George V when a shell from one of the British warships carried away the rangefinder and paralyzed the control position. These exchanges took place at a range of about 20,000 yards. By 0020 range had been narrowed to 11,500 yards; 10 minutes latter the Bismarck was on fire and virtually out of control, though her C and D turrets were still firing independently and her secondary battery was in use. Demoralization of the Bismarck's crew was now apparent. One officer is said to have drawn his revolver and shot several seamen who refused to obey him. Officers were reported to have committed suicide, and scores of the crew jumped overboard before the action ceased. Almost all of the 400 anti-aircraft gunners, for whom no special protection had been provided during surface action, became casualties. The upper deck was being pounded into a mass of twisted steel. Hatches and doors were jammed in all parts of the ship. Crews in two magazines were drowned when it became necessary to flood the chambers because of fire. A direct hit crashed into a forward compartment where 200 men were trapped under jammed hatches. Fires on the gun deck cut off the forward half of the ship. The air was dense with smoke, fumes and the gases generated by the bursting shells. Paint was burning off the bulkheads and many men without gas masks were suffocated.
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@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 Its taken from an Official US Report thats available online.
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From the USN ONI Report. At 0857 the Bismarck sustained her first hit. Five minutes later a 16-inch shell from the Rodney apparently put the German battleship's A and B turrets out of action. C and D turrets were firing on the King George V when a shell from one of the British warships carried away the rangefinder and paralyzed the control position. These exchanges took place at a range of about 20,000 yards. By 0020 range had been narrowed to 11,500 yards; 10 minutes latter the Bismarck was on fire and virtually out of control, though her C and D turrets were still firing independently and her secondary battery was in use. Demoralization of the Bismarck's crew was now apparent. One officer is said to have drawn his revolver and shot several seamen who refused to obey him. Officers were reported to have committed suicide, and scores of the crew jumped overboard before the action ceased. Almost all of the 400 anti-aircraft gunners, for whom no special protection had been provided during surface action, became casualties. The upper deck was being pounded into a mass of twisted steel. Hatches and doors were jammed in all parts of the ship. Crews in two magazines were drowned when it became necessary to flood the chambers because of fire. A direct hit crashed into a forward compartment where 200 men were trapped under jammed hatches. Fires on the gun deck cut off the forward half of the ship. The air was dense with smoke, fumes and the gases generated by the bursting shells. Paint was burning off the bulkheads and many men without gas masks were suffocated.
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@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 The O.N.I. Weekly. The Cruise of the Bismarck
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@wolfsoldner9029 and your point is? Early in 1940, Standing Order 154 went to U-boats: “Do not pick up survivors and take them with you. Do not worry about the merchant ship’s boats. Weather conditions and the distance to land play no part. Have a care only for your own ship and think only to attain your next success as soon as possible. We must be harsh in this war. The enemy began the war in order to destroy us, so nothing else matters. [Signed] DOENITZ.” The records show that on 3 January 1942, Hitler discussed merchant shipping with the Japanese ambassador: “Merchant ships would be sunk without warning with the intention of killing as many of the crew as possible… We are fighting for our existence and our attitude cannot be ruled by humane feelings. For this reason he must give the order…that U-boats were to surface after torpedoing and shoot up the lifeboats. Ambassador Oshima heartily agreed… and said that the Japanese, too, are forced to follow similar methods…” The order of 17 September 1942. The order reads: “To all commanding officers: “1. No. attempt of any kind must be made at rescuing members of ships sunk, and this includes the picking up of persons in the water and putting them in lifeboats, righting capsized lifeboats, and handing over food and water. Rescue runs counter to the rudimentary demands of warfare for the destruction of enemy ships and crews. “2. Orders for bringing in captains and chief engineers still apply. “3. Rescue the shipwrecked only if their statements will be of importance to your boat. “4. Be harsh, having in mind that the enemy takes no regard for women and children in his bombing attacks on German cities.” On the same date this order is recorded in the war diary of the flag officer submarines: “The attention of commanding officers is again drawn to the fact that all efforts to rescue members of crews of ships which have been sunk contradict the most primitive demands for the conduct of warfare by annihilating enemy ships and their crews. Orders concerning the bringing in of captains and engineers still stand.” The Nazi's were so nice people.
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@wolfsoldner9029 All my points were from the trial of the Nazi Doenitz who was lucky not to be executed, I will add two more bits of his trial to show how much of a Nazi he was and why you are wrong. How far can Karl Doenitz be considered to have been a thorough Nazi, responsible for indoctrinating the half million officers and men of the navy with theories of racial pride and racial hatred which led to the enslavement of conquered peoples and the slaughter of Jews? Here again the record is not absolutely clear. Doenitz, faced with quotations from his own statements supporting the Nazi ideology, strove to picture his Nazism as no more than loyalty to his soldier’s oath to the Fuehrer, and a call for wartime unity in the service under his command. It is not easy to accept Doenitz’s explanation that he became the heir to Hitler’s mantle, not because he was a known and fanatical Nazi, but solely because he was the senior officer of an “independent service.” To grant this would be to doubt the Nazism of Hitler himself. Captain Moehle of submarine headquarters Kiel, whose duty it was to brief submarine skippers on current orders before their departure on patrol, testified that he himself was in doubt as to the admiral’s meaning, and when next in Paris asked clarification from the admiral’s staff. There he was told the story of an outward-bound U-boat which sighted British airmen on a raft in the Bay of Biscay. Unable to take them aboard for lack for time, the submarine avoided them and continued on her mission. Her skipper so reported to Admiral Doenitz on his return. He was told that he had acted wrongly. If he could not capture the flyers he should have killed them on the raft to prevent their rescue and return to duty to fight against German submarines. Capt Moehle testified he repeated this story to submarine skippers who asked whether the order of 17 September meant to kill survivors. Capt Moehle’s testimony was partially substantiated by a Lieutenant Heisig, who stated that Doenitz, lecturing to the graduating class of the submarine officers school, gave the order the same interpretation. There were three reported caes of UBOats machine gunning survivors in the water, though due to the lack of witness only one was used at his trial. If you kill everyone then there are no witnesses. Now on to your other lie. Bismark survivors At 2059 U 74 [commanded by Lieutenant Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat] rescued 3 survivors in BE 6142 and according to their statements the ship must have been sunk at about 1000 in BE 5330, i.e. N.W. of BE 6150. This agreed with B.d.U's assumptions. So they can pick up survivors?!!!!!!!!! This is another sign of your beloved Nazi's at work on the Bismark, from USN ONI report. Demoralization of the Bismarck's crew was now apparent. One officer is said to have drawn his revolver and shot several seamen who refused to obey him. Officers were reported to have committed suicide, and scores of the crew jumped overboard before the action ceased
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It was a destroyer
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I am a bit confused, USCGC Modoc was on ice patrol, but was rescuing torpedoed ships crews in the Bay of Biscay and yet saw the Bismark, none of this appears in the US Navy Report. This is the extract "Many anxious hours passed for the British, particularly as they assumed wrongly that Bismarck was retiring to the northeast. All hopes for finding her again rested on the many warships closing the area or in the long-range patrols by Coastal Command aircraft squadrons flying out of Britain and Iceland. In addition, many American patrol aircraft, including patrol squadron VP-52 out of Argentia, flew long search patrols in the waters of the western Atlantic. All these air patrols were made more difficult and dangerous by high winds, rain squalls, and low cloud cover. It was not until 1010 on 26 May that British luck changed. A British Catalina aircraft of No. 209 Squadron, piloted by US Navy observer Ensign Leonard B. Smith, USNR (US Naval Reserve), spotted Bismarck at a range of about eight miles. While Ensign Smith flew the aircraft and evaded accurate German antiaircraft fire, his British copilot radioed a report of the enemy warship's location."
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