I ended up reading accounts of the sinking of some of those ships, including the Titanic. Rabbit holes I end up going down. But morbidly interesting.
Yeah I went down the rabbit hole as well, Bismarck specifically. According to examination of the wreck, a number of surveyers believe that the Bismarck would have stayed afloat had the crew not choose to scuttle her. None of the torpedoes fired were effective at sinking the ship and of the 719 heavy caliber shells fired at her, only two penetrated the side belt armour. Sure her rudder was knocked out, she was on fire, much of the command crew was dead, and her main guns all silenced. Other then that, she was still hopping around like the Black Knight yelling "Tis but a scratch".
She was always destined to be sunk, however, either by the Royal Navy or the Kriegsmarine sailors themselves. After the sinking of the HMS Hood, the vengeful British threw everything they had to sink the Bismarck. Meanwhile the Germans would never let her be captured.
The sinking of the HMS Hood and the hunt for the KMS Bismarck immediately afterwards is one of the most exciting events of WW2. I mean the thing writes almost like a movie. A flagship of the Royal Navy sails out to engage the flagship of the Kriegsmarine and is promptly sunk. What follows was a frantic chase across the Atlantic to take down one ship. In the end it took the combined efforts of 1 aircraft carrier, 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruisers, and 7 destroyers to sink the Bismarck. That was just the ships that actually took part in the battle, there were dozens more that couldn't make it there in time before contact was made. Incredible stuff.
Good thing the Royal Navy did just that (sank the Bismarck). An unchallenged Bismarck would have feasted on the Atlantic Convoys (The U-boots had to avoid Allied destroyers, the Bismarck would have swatted them away), starved Britain, and perhaps changed the outcome of the War.
You know that there was a time not long ago that Canada almost lost all 4 of it's brand new (i mean slightly used) Victoria class subs. We used to joke they were part of the Air Force while they were up on rails in dry dock getting repairs.
Oh yeah I remember that. At one point (when all the Victoria class subs were in drydock), the West Edmonton Mall had more submarines than the Canadian Navy lol.
