Italeri World of Warships – German Battleship Bismarck (1/700) 46501

THE BOX CONTAIN:1 MODEL KIT – 1 LIQUID CEMENT – 1 SHIP GUIDE – 1 WALL POSTER (29,7x42cm) – WORLD of WARSHIPS DECALS – 3 INVITE CODES – 1 BONUS CODEBased on the Bayern class of battleships from WWI, the Bismarck was the pinnacle of German heavy ship development- and probably the best known German ship of World War II. Laid down in 1936, Bismarck was launched in February 1939 and its outfitting proceeded quickly in the shadow of impending war. Even so, Bismarck missed the beginning of the war and the great offensive effort of the Kriegsmarine (KM) during the invasion of Norway. Commissioned in August 1940, Bismarck departed swiftly for sea trials which lasted until the end of the year.With Bismarcks sister ship, Tirpitz, nearing completion, a grand sortie of all the KMheavy units was planned for 1941, with the goal of disrupting British convoys in the Atlantic an expansion on the previous Operation Berlin. However, it was quickly found that the Tirpitz would be delayed and other ships were unavailable. As a result, the Bismarck departed on 19 May, 1941, for its only combat sortie escorted only by a heavy cruiser, the Prinz Eugen.First spotted by Swedish ships and then by a recon Spitfire, the Bismarck lost the element of surprise. Intercepted in the Denmark Strait by HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales on 24 May, it earned its fame by sinking the Hood by causing a spectacular magazine detonation.A combination of combat damage, mistakes and simple bad luck caused this success to be short-lived. The Royal Navy managed to quickly concentrate forces and locate the Bismarck again. As a twist of fate, a single lucky hit doomed the Bismarck when a torpedo from the Swordfish bomber damaged the battleships rudder on May 26.In the morning of May 27, battleships HMS King George V and HMS Rodney closed in and their gunfire caused critical damage to the Bismarck, which was abandoned by its crew and sunk within 2 hours of the first hit.Even though, its career was extremely short, as a highly decorated battleship due to a spectacular 8-day sortie, the Bismarck obviously deserves a place in our game.