Bismarck Battleship Kit

The launch of the Bismark took place on February 14, 1939 in Hamburg in the presence of Hitler, Raeder, Keitel, Göring, Goebbels, Hess, Ribbentrop, Himmler, Bormann and von Schirach, to underline the importance that was given to the event.

Ernst Lindemann was placed under his command, and sea trials began in the Baltic Sea. In March 1941 he conducted shooting tests in Gotenhafen and eventually began team training with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.

The commander of the OKM (Oberkommando der Marine), Admiral Raeder, decided to use the Bismarck to protect surface ships from interference from British battleships, as well as, of course, to attack merchant ships supplying Great Britain. For this reason, at the beginning of April the team was ordered to move to the Atlantic, where it would reunite with the Gneisenau to engage the merchant traffic bound for Great Britain. This was what the British Admiralty had long feared. The operation, called Operation Rheinübung, presented an extremely high potential danger to merchant traffic, which was the artery from which Britain, isolated from Europe, was fed. Admiral Günther Lütjens was placed in command of the naval group.