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"Hunting the Bismarck" by Extra History


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Extra Credits is a Youtube channel that usually talks about videogame design and many other related topics. However, it has a sub-channel that is supported by its fans via Patreon and other means.

They've released the first of a video series about the hunt for Bismarck. I find it funny that an adversary is sponsoring this episode, though. Nonetheless, i'll chain all the episodes unto the opening thread so everyone can enjoy it, or have a quick link to them. Oh, and i should mention that the animation style is part of their style.

Enjoy, Bismarck fans!!! ;)

(P.S.: if there is a way to decrease the size of the video screen, please tell me so via PM so i can lower its size to a more fitting one)

 

Episode 1:

 

 

Episode 2:

 

 

Episode 3:

 

 

Episode 4:

 

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To be fair, these are Americans doing it with a sponsorship by a Russian Games Developer. I've never heard of ORP Piorun before now, I doubt many outside of Poland do.

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The Piorun spotted the Bismarck as first ship after the initial loss of contact in the chase. Because of that she (yes, "die Bismarck", it's female gottverdammt) got pinned down by the RN cruisers and the rest is history....

ORP Piorun was a british ship lended to the exile polish fleet. Don't know her name in the kings own navy, sorry.

Also guess what: Extra credits is one of my favourite youtube channels I watch every thursday.... so perfect timing Gerrion. :D

Edit: Kepp your cool Shiro. Something polish is mentioned around 4:40. ;)

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On 11.05.2017 at 8:22 PM, Wellington99 said:

To be fair, these are Americans doing it with a sponsorship by a Russian Games Developer. I've never heard of ORP Piorun before now, I doubt many outside of Poland do.

  You have not heard because of the history of the victory over Bismarck because the history of fight the ORP Piorun with the German battleship were rejected by British historians.  Not important and not significant.

On 11.05.2017 at 8:57 PM, Admiral Korky said:

The Piorun spotted the Bismarck as first ship after the initial loss of contact in the chase. Because of that she (yes, "die Bismarck", it's female gottverdammt) got pinned down by the RN cruisers and the rest is history....

ORP Piorun was a british ship lended to the exile polish fleet. Don't know her name in the kings own navy, sorry.

Also guess what: Extra credits is one of my favourite youtube channels I watch every thursday.... so perfect timing Gerrion. :D

Edit: Kepp your cool Shiro. Something polish is mentioned around 4:40. ;)

ORP Piorun was a ex. „HMS Nerissa

Although there is one Polish contribution in this story for now :D

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Added episode 3 and 4 to the thread. Enjoy the rest of the series!

 

P.S.: If they upload a "Lies" episode regarding their work, i'll place it here as well.

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2 hours ago, Gerrion said:

P.S.: If they upload a "Lies" episode regarding their work, i'll place it here as well.

The "Lies" episode is usually a follow up episode in which they explain the mistakes they were called out on by the community on the last history story.

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The fact that Polish destroyer ORP Piorun has been mentioned, but it does not correspond to what was historical truth.

Zero information about the dense fog hovering, at sea during a meeting of destroyers.

Zero information about re-losing the German battleship after a successful Fairey Swordfish attack in dense fog.

Bullshit and lie about I am a Pole was different and it was a distinctive signal to see how the ship flew in the fog, not during the battle.

Zero information about the duel of a Polish destroyer with a German battleship and an artillery exchange between ships.

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORP_Piorun_(1940)#/media/File:Bismarck_vs_Piorun.jpg

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I had been waiting for the Lies episode, but thanks to the D-Day episode they've just put up *hint hint*, I re-checked the 4th Bismark episode.  in the comments portion, they note that sponsored series don't get Lies episodes, so I'm posting what they wrote as footnotes:

[Long Post Ahead] Hi everyone! I’m Rob Rath, lead writer for Hunting the Bismarck. Because sponsored episodes don’t have a LIES episode, the EH crew decided the best thing would be for me to write them here in the comments.
 
EPISODE I: THE PRIDE OF GERMANY
 
• BRITISH PERSPECTIVE: After discussing possible approaches, we chose to tell the story from the British perspective as an hour-by-hour intelligence thriller. This approach had a few big advantages: it was tense, had a propulsive narrative, and allowed us to focus on the British intelligence effort that’s usually glossed over in other documentaries. It also let us communicate the “fog of war” and show how little the British often knew. The downside, though, is it gives short shrift to the Germans—but my hope is that the Bismarck’s side of this story is already well known to most naval history fans.
 
• WASN’T YAMATO THE BIGGEST?: Yes, the Yamato’s displacement was larger—but it was still under construction when Bismarck sank. Yamato had already been “launched,” but that merely meant that its hull was floating in the water with its superstructure and armaments still under construction. Only after being “commissioned” into active service did it count as a real battleship.
 
• CANADIAN SUPPLY CONVOYS: Several people pointed out that the Royal Canadian Navy and Merchant Marines played a large role in the Atlantic convoys. This is absolutely true, and I wish we had depicted that. As a form of apology, let me offer this: did you know that four Canadian midshipmen served at the Battle of the Denmark Strait? One served on the Prince of Wales, while three died on the HMS Hood. The Hood crew also included 20 men from Newfoundland, which was not (yet) a part of Canada.
 
 
EPISODE II: THE MIGHTY HMS HOOD
 
• WHY WAS PRINZ EUGEN OUT AHEAD?: It actually wasn’t a strategy. When Bismarck fired at the cruiser Norfolk in Episode I, the concussion of its own guns knocked out its radar array. Prinz Eugen was going first to act as a radar picket.
 
• DID ALL THAT STUFF IN THE BATTLE REALLY HAPPEN?: Many people thought we took artistic license, but the events in this episode are based on the accounts of veterans and Hood survivors. One caveat: much like the circumstances of Hood’s sinking, there’s significant debate over whether Hood’s B-turret fired one last salvo. Both British and German sailors reported seeing the shot, but that doesn’t necessarily mean someone intentionally fired the guns. It’s possible that ammunition cooked off in the barrel, or that an internal explosion made it appear the guns fired.
 
• DIDN’T MYTHBUSTERS PROVE SHIP SUCTION IS A MYTH?: Mythbusters used a 20-foot boat, which doesn’t reflect the fluid dynamics of a sinking battleship. A large ship going down very fast can experience “downflooding,” where water pours into the large spaces in the hull and ventilation shafts, pulling floating objects down like a drain. In addition, air escaping from the ship creates bubbles and foam at the surface, making the water less dense and able to support bodies. Oil and entangling debris also contribute to dragging sailors down—all three Hood survivors described being pulled down in some way.
 
 
EPISODE III: A CHANCE TO STRIKE
 
• WHY DID THE BRITISH KEEP ATTACKING ALLIES?: During most combat operations, ships tried to maintain radio silence so that listening stations on land didn’t triangulate their signal and inform enemy vessels of their position. This meant a ship’s location wasn’t always clear, and it was hard for pilots to recognize the size and silhouette of a ship when hurtling at it from several miles out. Mistakes were common.
 
• TIME TRAVELING SHIPS AND ENIGMA ROTORS: We accidentally depicted some ships with post-war modernizations like angled flight decks. We also used the destroyer HMS Sheffield (D80)—which the Argentine Navy famously sunk during the Falklands War—instead of the cruiser HMS Sheffield (C24). Also, we misstated the number of rotors on the Enigma: the standard version had three and the naval version had four.
 
 
EPISODE IV: SINKING THE BISMARCK
 
• WASN’T THE BISMARCK SCUTTLED?: Yes. The crew set scuttling charges, partially because regulations mandated that they be set before an evacuation could take place. But Bismarck was already foundering and most assessments agree that she would’ve sunk within a day or half a day—so really the British sank her, the scuttling just sped it up.
 
• WHY DID THE ROYAL NAVY KEEP SHOOTING?: According to naval procedure, Tovey couldn’t stop firing until Bismarck struck her colors, which she never did. The feelings about this were very mixed among the British sailors. The HMS Rodney’s chaplain really did beg his captain to stop the shelling.
 
• WAS THERE REALLY A U-BOAT?: The lookout on the Dorsetshire spotted U-74, which had come to pick up Bismarck’s war diary at the request of Admiral Lütjens. U-74 later rescued three men clinging to a raft.
 
WALPOLE In 1732, King George II gifted Walpole the residence at 10 Downing Street, where Winston Churchill lived and worked during WWII. Too easy? Ok! The Prinz Eugen was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an Italian-French general who served the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1731, Eugene was responsible for hammering out the Second Treaty of Vienna, which reoriented European politics by breaking Britain away from its ally France and instead aligning it with Austria. Who steered this on the British side? WALPOLE.
 

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Thank you for posting this Gerrion. I had already watched it and was contemplating posting it on here, but you beat me to the punch. Definitely worth checking out. Also they do a good job of giving all the information as well as the human side as well. Really well done.

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