3 Key Points: The Bismarck, Germany's pride and the largest battleship built in Europe, was launched in 1939 and commissioned in 1940, only to meet a tragic end within eight months of service.

Apart from the Japanese, the only serious competitors in the “super-battleship” weight class were the Soviet Sovetsky Soyuz class, and the German H-39 class.

Like most German battleships, Scharnhorst was under-armed for its size. The German eleven-inch gun was a very effective weapon, with a high rate of fire, but it lacked sufficient punch to ...

WESTFALEN BEATS CONTRACT.; New German Battleship Shows Greater Speed and Horse Power Than Required. Share full article. Oct. 12, 1909. Credit... The New York Times Archives.

While German U-Boats are the most deadly component of the Third Reich's naval arsenal, it had a sizeable fleet of battleships as well. The United States even used a surrendered German battleship ...

A fresh look at the life and death of the most famous German warship of World War II, by the authors of the well-regarded TIRPTZ: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship (2009)..

On May 27, 1941, after attacks by British ships and planes, the German battleship Bismarck sank 400 miles west of the French port of Brest.