A History Teacher Reacts | Extra Credits - Bismarck (Parts 1-2)

hey YouTube mr. Terry back you once again for another history teacher reacts video today I'm going to be watching a video series that won this week's poll on patreon patreon members get to choose a video about once a week too for me to watch and the one that one this week is extra history series on the Bismarck the world war ii german battleship so that's awesome I'm excited to check this out this again this was highly recommended and won the poll for the week if you'd like to participate in the poll all you gotta do is become a patreon Pledger of any financial level and you can have a little bit more influence on what this channel gets viewed so we'll go ahead start this just taking a glance it looks like this is a four part series so I'll probably do two videos a video with two videos each so today well we'll be doing is watching parts 1 and part 2 and then we'll do a follow up video with with three and four as always with react videos I encourage you that if you liked the original video that you make sure to go over to their channel there'll be a description in the description a link that you can go check out the original video give them a like and subscribe and if you haven't subscribed to this channel like the idea of rechtin 2 and watching history videos then definitely invite you to join us by subscribing all right I think we'll go ahead and get started it's like we're starting this video first video is so we got hunting to Bismarck the pride of Germany first scene right here May 20th 19 let's see where they start us okay let's check it out 1841 a restaurant in Stockholm it's 41 is part of the war the naval attache to neutral Sweden is having dinner alone when the waiter interrupts him with a telephone call from the embassy his eyes widened he slams down the receiver and rushes out waiting for him at the Embassy is a Norwegian Colonel the man Swedish intelligence leaks too when they want information to land in British hands he has a sighting report from a Swedish Cruiser they relay it to London via encrypted telegram it says at 1500 hours two large warships escorted by three destroyers five ships and 10 or 12 planes passed to the northeast the ships are German and the hunt is on yeah the hunt for the Bismarck is kind of legendary some of the real finite details I don't know I did not specialize in World War two history going through my education process so I got like kind of the I got the lot of the basic stuff and I'm learning a lot more because that definitely seems to be the most studied of you know all the times of history but if somebody like myself that really generalizes across history there are so many details of things that you know I didn't get and I know this one gets talked about a lot and I know about the of course the the naval battles of World War two for sure but getting some real specific details of this kind of legendary larger-than-life ship I'm really excited to to go ahead and look into all right let's see what they got this episode is sponsored by wargaming download world of warships and use the code extra one for free goodies link in makes sense they do this hunt for the Bismarck is one of the most battleships of World War two sponsored with the story of great ships clashing in frozen waters a tale of risk-taking heroism and a shocking loss and the blind luck that sometimes changes history so when wargaming contacted us again saying that they wanted to sponsor a series of episodes on the Bismarck we jumped on that right away but what make up is very interesting isn't elaborations in the battles it's the hunt for the Royal Navy the bigger play the world of warships games a Bismarck heard about them finding it this is a detective story really large an international manhunt that stretched from the icy seas of the Denmark Strait to the chattering computers of Bletchley Park it will begin with an interrupted dinner and end with the destruction of the largest battleship on earth allow me to set the scene 21st of May early morning a British naval base at Scapa Flow Vice Admiral John Tobey commander of the Home Fleet is aboard his flagship thinking that this might finally be it for days German reconnaissance planes have passed above him recording the position of his ships Scapa Flow is a hard station a barren Rock and freezing seas but it's also strategically crucial real estate from their base in Scapa Toby's fleet guards the watery expanse that stretches between Greenland and Nazi occupied Norway you know the chime in here the you'll battle kind of for the the Atlantic here is such a big deal especially early in the war too for the fact of trying to control the enemy supplies coming in and out especially ones coming out of like the United States and other places like that so yeah controllers regions if you're wondering like why the heck are people you know clear that clear up here you know what I mean and not just fighting right along the sort of seashore borders of the the nations at world war ii but you can see there's controlling this entire region is both militarily and economically important right so yeah you're talking vast expanses here to have to try to go over and you can see like with what the Germans were doing and trying to capture Norway you are capturing Norway you're getting them having more and more access to the Atlantic guards the watery expanse that stretches between Greenland and Nazi occupied Norway and securing that line was the only thing keeping written alive this is a crucial juncture in the war the previous year France had collapsed German forces had occupied Norway and Denmark and the Italians had entered the war a lot of control shorelines the Axis powers were now masters of Europe and Britain stood alone besieged in its own islands as Luftwaffe raids pounded its cities American supplies were the only thing keeping Britain in a fight this was a tonnage war measured in cargo delivered rather than ships sunk convoys raced through u-boat infested waters to get fortress Britain enough food bullets and oil to defend democracy you know Britain being a small country and an island nation is completely dependent I mean I shouldn't say completely but very very dependent more than anybody else on shipping so you could see why the Germans had invested so much and trying to basically capture as much of the northern Atlantic as possible I mean that is a key part of potentially having victory against them especially one with historically such a strong Navy like the British waters to get fortress Britain enough food bullets and oil to defend democracy tow fees nightmare was of a single ship the Bismarck British intelligence had been building a file on her for some time even attending her launch in 1939 and monitoring her sea travels via air and signals intercepts I'm before maybe they explained it I'm assuming the Bismarck was named after Otto von Bismarck I don't think that's that's there if I'm wrong correct me what was his name for specifically another one but very important person in German history I saw extra history did a ere series on Otto von Bismarck if that's um you'd like to see definitely suggest it if it's you feel like it's a good one they still didn't know everything they didn't know how fast she was her crew complement or what new text notes very glad but they didn't know that she was enormous and advanced outfit well that's from petty armor and 15-inch guns that could sink near anything the Royal Navy could throw at it British also knew that Bismarck was more than a ship she was a political statement Hitler had jump-started Germany's economy with public spending including a focus on military rearmament the Bismarck was a visible symbol of Germany's economic miracle and economic miracle and everything right now remember in World War one the Treaty of Versailles basically reduced the German Navy to nothing to nothing and he you know was building that up so they had kind of been behind I guess in a way and some of the naval development because of that but as we know the Treaty of Versailles was not very well liked like actually like protected in a way influenced and monitored as they were able to even develop a navy at all so yeah this is quite this has been a really massive rearmament very very quickly when you look at it from the big sense of what the Germans were doing in the interwar years terry rearmament the Bismarck was a visible that's not native or not an Air Force under a nation with very limited matter tanks until rate provided you didn't count the Jews and the women forced out of the workplace and at over 40,000 tons Bismarck was also a flagrant violation of post-world War one treaties that limited the size of Germany's naval vessels this ships celebrated the Nazi success and proclaimed their warlike intentions this was a new Germany an economically strong Germany that had military ambition and rejected any attempt to restrain it but so far this great ship was still bottled up in the Baltic operating out of ports in northern Germany and occupied Poland but if the Bismarck could stage a breakout slip between Denmark and Norway and cut north into the Atlantic it could plunge down into the Atlantic convoys and for sure rate into Britain's supply artery previous German raids had proved cause this could wreak havoc on their computer at the size of the Bismarck Toby's phone ring a direct line from the Admiralty in London the call passes on the Swedish Navy sighting but now it's corroborated with more information a Polish source reported that the Bismarck left port three days ago and the Norwegian resistance cells spotted a group of German ships passing between Norway and Denmark Royal Air Force reconnaissance planes they say are currently scouring the fjords Tovey issues an order to his fleet refuel and standby to sail 1315 hours in Norway an RAF pilot cruising the fjords spots and photographs a large ship with a heavy cruiser nearby back in Scotland and analyst confirms the silhouette while the photos are still damp from the dark room it's the Bismarck probably with the heavy cruiser Prinz organ the photos confirmed totally common you know for sure Travel weather is deteriorating with fog or smaller Bismarck had probably been hiding when its yards waiting for just such weather to cover its - to the Atlantic toby summons his subordinate let me challenge Anneka bit holland and details his plan Holland will take his squadron to southern Iceland and hold their staying in a position to intercept the Bismarck regardless of whether she sails down the east or the west coast of the island Toby will stay in Scapa in case the Bismarck tries to use the foul weather to sneak past the north side of Britain the cruiser is currently patrolling the Denmark Strait would stay on course with orders to spot and shadow the Bismarck then radio its course so Holland can intercept Holland squadron slips out at midnight 22nd of May at Oh 200 hours in Norway an RAF bombing raid hits the Bismarck's last-known position releasing their payloads blind due to the low clouds heavy fog no sighting further reconnaissance flights are futile for the next several hour you know it's pretty amazing that they were able at all to really hide it right something that big and be that big well-known but also have it accompany accompanying ships with them and so it's pretty amazing that they're able to do that at all to be honest befog no sighting further reconnaissance flights are futile for the next several hours 20 hundred hours in the Scapa Flow Admiral Toby who has been living next to the phone for the last 24 hours receives a report from the Admiralty a daring reconnaissance plane has flown low enough to break through the clouds the Bismarck is gone any further reconnaissance flights are grounded due to poor weather he ordered ocean ships to sail for Iceland immediately hoping to fill any gaps in their screen in the 30 hours since the last sighting of the Bismarck the German Raiders could have sailed 600 miles toward the Atlantic access points around Iceland as Tovey leaves port he radios Holland's to say that Bismarck is heading his way and that the fleet must maintain radio silence the Bismarck has slipped through the first net it must not shut up through another 23rd of May 1922 hours the Denmark Strait two sisters the tougher have been searching the icy mind not a real big straight mark straight for 50 hours ever since the Bismarck was last spotted when a lookout sees two ships emerge from a snowstorm he thinks they're British at first so it just had one accompanying ship with ramblin it's a German battleship and only seven miles away well within the killing range of its 15-inch guns action stations sounds although abandoned their pre-dinner sherry running feet pound the deck the cruiser turns hard over and makes for the fog 8-inch guns useless against the steel behemoths yeah for three agonizing minutes the crew waits for incoming shells as their little ship slowly takes cover in the mist the Bismarck shells never arrive reorienting herself the cruiser stalks its quarry through the fog and the rain may be the Bismarck at this point I found yes sir array these geezers may not have heavy guns but they're outfitted with advanced systems that allow them to track enemy ships solely by radio he's not told yet the cruiser radios its sighting reports to her sister ship 15 miles south who relays it to the rest of the fleet and rushes to join the pursuit an hour passes 20 30 hours the Denmark Strait overeager and heading at speed the second cruiser plunges through a fog bank to find itself nearly head-on with the Bismarck six miles away and closing at 30 knots they think they can take it orders the helm hard to starboard and deploys a smoke screen breaking for the mist this time the Bismarck is quick on the draw a salvo of 15 inch shells lands behind the vessel stern rattling it with metal splinters another shell lands 50 yards short and skips like a stone over the bridge but the cruiser escapes shrouded in mist the twin cruisers ellipse to father and a bit more careful fall in behind the Bismarck and the Prince organ staying out of sight but within the 10 mile range of their radar arrays quietly broadcasting Bismarck's position to the fleet 2100 hours the interception fleet at Denmark Strait Admiral Holland's battle cruiser force plunges towards the Bismarck there are rough seas and snow flurries in the strait with waves so high that their destroyer escorts are getting submerged whether or no ceases cold windy stormy this will be a two-on-two battle of capital ships at his disposal he has the newest ship in the British fleet the Prince of Wales and his flagship to the pride of the Royal Navy the HMS hood the hood has been called the my beautiful sworn to showdown between the wars she had circumnavigated the globe as a symbol of British invincibility she's the star of Fleet reverses and propaganda reels many of her crew got their first taste of Navy life by seeing her at holiday parades or through childhood tours of her deck she is the beloved the unsinkable the mighty Hood and she is steaming towards destruction join us next time for a clash of flagships a wounded giant and a three word order that will echo throughout naval history so you basically got here early on a head on head on head or head to head battle of like the two best ships in the fleet right so yeah that'll be interesting to see it to see it I mean it sound like the Bismarck really though is is kind of on paper the one that should win here so all right cool well yeah they were able to at least for this first episode kind of introduce it a little bit I'm glad they talked about how important how important the the sea trade routes and and it just controlling because the the coast was so important for the Germans against especially Britain because of their island nature and the need to be able to influence goods coming in and out of course here your enemy nations so okay very cool other than that yeah sounds good so far let's go ahead and jump over to video 2 all right so this is yeah the second video hunting to Bismarck the mighty HMS hood so we're gonna be talking British here so we got a real big heavyweight clash right here if you want to relate it to a boxing match let's see let's see what happens I think we know who's gonna win though you know and you gotta remember to the I mean the history of Britain has basically been of the greatest Navy history you know what I mean and and very rarely could see these you know big defeats before is it the German Navy you know German history just in general is not necessarily known for be able to compete that much with with a bigger Navy like like the history of the of the British Navy so this is um this is a big moment I think actually for showing military superiority on water you know and I mean for the British as they'd been very good with that since the first world war two so I mean being very innovative you know with with them innovating u-boats which are basically you know basically submarines so you're seeing that new stage of warfare here in the 20th century though where naval battles are really taking a new level and it become industrialized right none of this would be possible as without the result of the Industrial Revolution that happened just decades before all right so the yeah mighty Hood and Prince of Wales plow toward the Bismarck versus Bismarck once the best put money down who's gonna win this world of warships and use the code extra one for free good for nothing you know it's a four-part series a short seriously south through the Denmark Strait and with Admiral Toby and the rest of the home fleet still hundreds of miles away it was clear that the hood pride of the Royal Navy and Prince of Wales were the only ones that could possibly on your own Road in Wales and what's about to happen we need to understand the state of the Royal Navy in 1941 and how interwar limitations held back their naval development for that allow me to turn things over to wargaming's military expert Richard cutland cool cool cool one a series of merits on treaties constrained neighborhood development in the hopes of defusing an international arms race at first these treaties limited the number of new ships and set limits on the size and armament of new vessels but later agreements eliminated the possibility of building new battleships completely as a result in the interwar period Britain was forced to modernize old ships instead of building new ones for example the HMS are cheaper many outside observer but the British Admiralty was well aware this main drawback a weak horizontal defense especially at deck 25 which was Thursday 76 murder gothic head-on thanks to strength in the horizontal armor had been developed back in 1927 but these works were postponed due to financial problem so depression I mean they well found seven but this made this after lines at a long range plunging fire that fell directly down on its deck these treaties also constrain new battleships like Prince of Wales to quite conservative designs their armament consisted of two four gun turrets and one two gun turrets all in a 14-inch caliber that compliance so limitations meanwhile Germany's watch of the guides of these treaties with ships like Bismarck had 15-inch guns so even though Prince of Wales was brand new it was underpowered at launch in addition the brand-new Prince of Wales her teething present necessarily mean better eyes revealed revolutionary quadruple gun turrets were prone to break down under strain and this problem hadn't yet been fixed when she deployed with herd however Prince of Wales was more technologically advanced than the hood particularly since she had modern range finders and crucially both hood and Prince of Wales were fast and speed was what the Royal Navy needed an interception force see you Dan Thank You mr. Catlin see the fight situation the capable but vulnerable hood and untested Prince of Wales are about to take on the largest and most modern warships on earth 24th of May Oh 537 hours the Denmark Strait British sailors have gotten a little sleep knowing that they would intercept the Bismarck at dawn on the Prince of Wales civilian contractors have worked through the night repairing its turret guns whose hydraulic systems are acting up most of the Prince of Wales group are fresh recruits and they're nervous but the presence of the hood stills their jitters just then a lookout on hood sees smoke on the horizon the Bismarck and the Prince oaken Admiral Holland sends a ciphered message to the rest of the fleet from hood enemy in sight M engaging but Holland's running almost parallel to the enemy the four ships converging slowly as they head southwest that's no good not only does he need to get between Bismarck and the Atlantic but the hoods thin deck armor will be vulnerable to plunging fire unless he gets within nine miles well yeah and they said how these the British was of the hood or the whales they said that was not nearly as good as that the horizontal defense so not a good position you want to be you got to get your angle perfect in naval naval combat right otherwise you know it's all that so much of its geometrical right if you're coming at wide and that sort of thing you make yourself a bigger target right and especially for your how your ships designed what is your ship more width or able to withstand so they better get the maneuvers right by cutting a path directly toward the Germans he'll close the distance as fast as possible and be harder to hit but it'll also have his firepower since his rear turrets can't join the fight okay the Bismarck could still even kind of a drawback to an intercept pros and cons and orders full speed ahead @o v 52 hours holland orders prince of wales to target the lead ship but the gunnery officer on the prince of wales working with more modern optics makes a startling realization what the hood has targeted the wrong ship Bismarck and we can have similar silhouette you need to figure out her side Convention by sending the lighter armored heavy cruiser first he tries to communicate this to the hood but it's too late the hood you're wasting your evening is your first dirty Brown your your first shot is so important right I really can set the tone for the battle so if you mess up that that can I can mess up the whole thing so if someone got fired for that the hood but it's too late the hood opens fire reefing the vessel and dirty brown smoke seeing this the desperate gunnery officer defies the hoods order targets the Bismarck and fires on both ships the gunnery officers look at their watches waiting fifty seconds later pillars of water leap up in front of the German ships the Salvos falls short or so one of the guns in Prince of Wales B turret malfunction out of the action both ships are readjusting when flashes of light run up and down the German ships a long-range artillery duel has begun here coming minutes later a shell from Prince organ crashes into the hoods upper deck detonating an ammunition lockers right away flames anti-aircraft shells cooking off in bunches like firecrackers Direct Hit bridge the crew can hear the screams of their burning shipmates coming through the voice pipes Admiral Holland keeps calm but then huge columns of water leap into the air ahead of the bow and he finally realizes that he's been shooting at the wrong ship he hastily sends the order to retarget the bismarck and orders a turn to port in order to bring his aft turrets to bear it will expose him side on with the enemy but with luck the hoods turn will pass just inside the nine mile mark and shield him from plunging fire the turn comes just in time Bismarck's next salvo thunders down right where the Hood had been headed with all fire concentrated on Hood Prince of Wales has been free to get range on the Bismarck and at least one hit but her intricate four gun turrets aren't holding up to the strain and every few salvos another gun goes out of our guns to star not facing the German ships side on a salvo from Bismarck brackets the hood shells landing on either side of the vessel the Prince of Wales's commander captain leach knows that once a ship is bracketed the enemy has you he sees the Bismarck guns flash in double-time and trains his binoculars on the hood to see the result a shell plunges down on the hoods deck just aft of the main mast and disappears two seconds later the middle of the hood erupts like a roman candle spraying flames hundreds of feet in the air looks on horrified a colossal explosion tears the ship into the stern rising up out of the water as the bow sails forward under its own momentum yellow smoke blankets the carnage in all the smoke the hoods bridge crew don't know where they've been hit or how badly bodies begin raining down on the bridge thumping off the roof and landing on the wings from below the helmsman reports through a voice pipe that the steering isn't answering the ship begins to list first to port and then capsizing 45 degrees to starboard there's no need for an evacuation order the crew lines up single-file at the port side hatch waiting their turn to scramble out the squadrons navigating officer stands aside letting junior seamen go first one crewman glances back he sees Admiral Holland still sitting in his command down with the ship going down with his ship seconds later the Sailor steps off the hood and into the freezing water of the Denmark Strait above him he sees the majestic lines of the hood sinking in a v-formation a turret fires a last defiant salvo before it slips into the water and then the suction pulls him under on the Prince of Wales captain leech orders an evasive maneuver to avoid colliding with hoods rapidly sinking Stern it disappears underwater as they pass nothing remains of the Royal Navy's largest and most famous ship except a burning debris field its remaining because yeah they're saying it's the largest most famous ship and it goes down looks like pretty easily that's got to be devastating for this for this right here like if that's the best you got right now now it did it was just the two ships right so but nevertheless I mean that's that's a big loss and a big big prideful victory you know for the for the Germans there to be able to do this like that's the best you got well we took it down and we did it pretty easily it is now one malfunctioning ship against - right - the hoods former position the Germans barely have to adjust their rangefinders but just then a salvo from Prince of Wales straddles Bismarck leach nods approval now that Prince of Wales has the correct range she can bank to do something compartment below the bridge the navigation officer hears a crash above him he shouts into the voice pipe asking if everything's alright at first there's no answer so this all seems from the they've done all from the British perspective right I haven't heard a I haven't seen anything from the German perspective about this battle is there anything contrary that you know of from the ad from their perspective about this what did they what are the Germans think of those the other ships were they intimidated by them but they think they'd be stronger they'd be weaker have you interested to know that yes all seems British perspective and then a stream of blood dribbles out staining his charts Legion there's no answer and then a stream of blood dribbles out of the charts leech gets unsteadily to his feet one of the Bismarck shells has hit the bridge and passed through without exploding his entire bridge crew lies dead except for two wounded officers for three hellish minutes Shell's pound the Prince of Wales the armor belt takes multiple hits the boat deck catches fire in one of the turret magazines a shell punches through the deck and lands still live next to a sailors foot the magazine crew is told to hang on to it until Ordinance Disposal arrives but they're not waiting they lift the shell on or the finger don't gingerly carry it across the deck amid a full-scale battle with a sigh of relief they pitch it over the side captain leach knows he's been out fought he first to withdraw making smoke to cover his retreat the Bismarck's more seriously does not follow keeping well out of range leach brings the mauled Prince of Wales around to join the cruisers shadowing Bismarck he signals the Admiralty Hood has blown up one hour after the hoods sinking a destroyer arrives to look for survivors on deck they have rafts lifebelts and blankets lined up and ready the medical crew is prepared to treat hundreds instead they pull three oil slick survivors out of the water three the crew of 1418 1022 out you know you just assume that I mean the the ships that corridors are so small and getting out there's probably a ton of people that could just couldn't get out in the first place right also shows you a lot about the also just the the icy cold nature of the North Atlantic to here is brutal but that's incredible out of over a thousand people stationed on that ship that they're only able to pull out three that's um that also you know probably means a lot of a lot of people were killed on impact right that that weren't alive when the ship started going down anyways ours the Admiralty 1418 1022 ours the Admiralty faces are grim in the Admiralty's war room 200 feet below the streets of London the shock of losing the hood is compounded by the knowledge that German battleships were now in position to prey on vital convoys but as the news settles in bleak horror that's the long-term determined rage the phone rings its Prime Minister Churchill with a personal order for every able ship in the Atlantic it is direct and to-the-point Admiralty cipher officers broadcast the order wide the aircraft carrier Ark Royal receives the signal at Gibraltar and begins to unpack its torpedo bombers Toby's home fleet receives the message as they race to join the stricken Prince of Wales the battleship Rodney headed for a refit in Boston gets the signal and slowly turns its 16-inch guns back toward Europe the air waves are thick with this one message sink the Bismarck sink the Bismarck sink the business everybody go yeah they're in trouble right I mean they're in trouble they had the best there and now the Bismarck is far more freed up to go and do more damage again especially with the shipping lanes getting through the straits of Denmark that's kind of the most challenging thing and biggest obstacle they need to to get over now they're able to do this that could have a major implication on the war for sure yeah with that being able to happen so it looks like this I mean Bismarck just comes out and totally unscathed it's stronger again bigger it's got plenty of speed and it looks like right here specifically it's range is what's really helping it right now so that is a big help you wonder too if the British are afraid that there's more of these like are they sure that this is the only one in the fleet that is like this because think about that if that was the first one you've seen and what if you worry there's a fleet of those that would be frightening especially after you've just thrown out your best stuff okay well cool um so this was videos one in two of this series there are two more so stay tuned for another video from me covering the the last two there so be great like I said before if you like the original video make sure to go to the link in the description with the link to the original video so you can give them like and subscribe and support all of the ways that you can you can support them a few invitations for you from my side of things if you enjoyed this just kind of be able to see kind of a perspective you know on on these historical subjects invite you to subscribe we do a lot of live premieres as well so if you'd like to join those sometimes clicking that notification bells good for that I'll tell you when when things go live there are few ways you can support the channel too you can also join our patreon like I said at the beginning of the video this video one the week's poll for video for me to watch so patreon members they get to vote have a poll specifically for them with some suggested videos and they can they can choose which one we definitely watch other ways to support you can make donations through YouTube as through super chats as well as through stream labs so lots of ways to support the channel never never required but always appreciate it thank you very much alright and then the last thing that to plug in if you'd like to continue on with some more historical discussions whether it's the Bismark or anything with history invite you to join our discord community will be a link to that down below in the description as well alright with that I think we'll call it here stay tuned for the final video that I do on this series hopefully I'll be coming up soon and once again thank you for being here and we'll see you next time bye

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 131,682

Keywords: react, history

Id: OP-e1b6Q-JY

Length: 35min 7sec (2107 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 02 2019