Talk:Last battle of Bismarck

message: It would be a lovely addition if it still exists, but https://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=12723 ("Newsreel footage of Bismarck's last battle") is no more. It has ceased to be. It is an ex-link. 98.247.102.214 (talk) 05:03, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  External link is dead 

message: What about the allegations that the sinking was a war crime? Bismarck was sailing back to port and its crew tried to surrender: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1391220/Should-sunk-Bismarck-Tormented-sailor-reveals-German-sailors-tried-surrender-ship-destroyed-costing-2-000-lives.html  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.151.111.224 (talk) 15:38, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: The allegations are dubious, to say the least, and that's not a good source, see WP:DAILYMAIL1. Parsecboy (talk) 18:28, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: The fact that Bismarck was "sailing back to port" is unmitigatedly irrelevant.  She was an enemy naval vessel in time of war, full stop.Solicitr (talk) 00:57, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

text: That's decidedly false - if you machine-gun somebody coming out of a trench with a white flag and their arms up, you're going to the Hague. But more to the point, don't necro old threads from a banned user that have no chance of being added to the article. Parsecboy (talk) 09:28, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  War crime 

message: The Background section has an unsourced statement tht the Brits' reason for making Bismark such a priority was "to avenge the sinking of the "Pride of the Navy" HMS Hood in the Battle of the Denmark Strait".  My impression is different: tht Bismark was a strategic threat, to Atlantic shipping; this was a first-class problem for the Brits; the threat justified maximum response; and the RN command decision was on that basis not pride / revenge.
The propoganda benefit from the sinking would also be of obvious great value, on the Home Front and elsewhere; but my understanding is tht that was a secondary consideration (at every level - RN command and national political).  Any sources etc on this? - on the basis for the tactical, strategic and political decision-making? 84.9.118.19 (talk)  — Preceding undated comment added 16:39, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Churchill's 'Sink the Bismarck' signal was prompted by the sinking of HMS Hood, but it was in any case a British priority to sink the raider, preferably on its maiden cruise, to deter future German surface raiding in the Atlantic. In this the British were successful, the Bismarck's fate being a horrible lesson. The surviving raiders, Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, were penned up at Brest getting bombed by the RAF until the 'Channel Dash' in February 1942, when they ran for German home ports. Though this was considered a German success at the time, Scharnhorst was disabled long-term by hitting RAF mines during the voyage, Gneisenau was immediately written off by RAF bombing at Kiel and the Prinz was badly damaged by a British submarine. No German surface raider ever troubled the Atlantic sea lanes again. Khamba Tendal (talk) 19:46, 4 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Determined to avenge the sinking of ..  HMS Hood? or to neutralise a threat?