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The Sinking of the Bismarck ... with LEGOs ...


uss frolick

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That absolutely fantastic.  Thanks for posting it.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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  'Found the following on-line:

 

Of the Bismarck's 2,200-man crew, only 115 survived. British ships picked up 110 survivors but left with hundreds of German sailors still in the icy waters after spotting what might have been a U-boat. German vessels later picked up only five more survivors.

 
 

 

Completed builds:  Khufu Solar Barge - 1:72 Woody Joe

Current project(s): Gorch Fock restoration 1:100, Billing Wasa (bust) - 1:100 Billings, Great Harry (bust) 1:88 ex. Sergal 1:65

 

 

 

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37 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

I'm even more impressed now!

I am too.  When I first saw this a few days ago, I thought it was team but even more impressive being a one-man operation.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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As an added note, one of the survivors was the Bismarck's ship cat, who the crew kept, and named Unsinkable Sam. When the cruiser was later torpedoed and sunk, the cat again survived. He then was put on another ship, which was also sunk, and survived again. After that he was sent to an old folks home, where he lived out the rest of his life comforting the patients.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I figured this was going to be pretty disrespectful but it wasn’t bad at all. I particularly liked the swordfish scene with Dusty Miller leaning out looking at the waves. Miller was yelling “not yet Jock, not yet!” Once he observed a wave trough, he yelled “let ‘er go Jock”. Jock Moffet dropped the famous torpedo right into the wave trough. Moffet then heard Dusty Miller say “Jock, we got a runner!” One of the most famous quotes of the battle.

 

As for Oskar the cat, this story is now widely believed to be false. Two photos of two different cats are often reported to be Oskar, but in all the very detailed accounts of the survivor recovery, there is no mention of a cat. The fact that most men were recovered drenched in oil Leads one to believe it would be almost impossible for a cat to survive. 
 

The reason the rescue was called off was because a UBoat had been sighted and Māori and Dorsetshire were sitting ducks. Many people believed for a long time this was a phantom sighting, however we now know U-74 (Krvkpt Kentrat) had been dispatched to the area, and was at periscope depth observing the recovery, trying to get a firing solution. Thankfully the weather was too rough, and to avoid being spotted, they went deep until the British ships left the area. They wouldn’t know the sounds they’d heard of a ship breaking up were Bismarck for some hours. The British, in turn, couldn’t take such a risk and had to abandon the recovery of survivors. The capital ships were all bugging out by this point, having lingered far, far beyond their fuel consumption range. There was even serious talk about what they’d have to do if some of these ships would need to be towed into port, having exhausted their burnable fuel. Some captains were reporting single digit fuel reserve percentages. To give you some perspective, at 60% remaining fuel, a British battleship would be considering a tanker or returning to port. 
 

Probably the biggest concern all across Rhine Exercise on both sides was fuel. It was the lynchpin of the whole mission. From Poland, the ominous explosion of Bismarck’s fuel hose, leaving her ~400 tons short, to the decision not to refuel in Norway (often regarded as a tactical error, but those who do rarely understand the positioning of the other tankers and the reason Lütjens decided not to), the hand-wringing by the Germans over Prinz Eugen’s ludicrous fuel consumption , her eventual detachment, Bismarck’s own fuel starvation issues, with her eventual return to France, and not to mention the above fuel crisis the British were facing. Fuel was the basis for almost every decision during Rhine on both sides. I can expand on this greatly if anyone is really interested. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Thanks for posting. It is amazing how this was done and the work that went into this. I like how all the figures were swimming a backstroke when the ship went down.  

Marcus

Current Built: Zeehaen 1639, Dutch Fluit from Dutch explorer Abel J. Tasman

 

Unofficial motto of the VOC: "God is good, but trade is better"

 

Many people believe that Captain J. Cook discovered Australia in 1770. They tend to forget that Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon landed on Australia’s northern coast in 1606. Cook never even sighted the coast of Western Australia).

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