Talk:Sink the Bismark

Sink the Hippies
I heard a rather funny parody of this song, where the "plot" is that the US Cost Guard/US Customs must sink as many hippies, weed-smokers and "for-personal-use-only"-drug-smuggler "to the bottom of the sea". Sadly I neither know the label, artist or the song-title; but it sure ought to be mentioned here. Cours is possibly "Catch/Sink the Hippies to the bottom of the sea". July 4th, 2008 23:00 CET -Koppe —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.248.12.189 (talk) 22:36, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

So many factual inaccuracies!
I really like the song, but there are so many factual inaccuracies -- errors in nearly every line! Should that be mentioned in the article?

In May of 1941 the war had just begun

21 months earlier is hardly "just begun".

The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns

No, there were lots of bigger ships -- the liner Queen Mary was quite a bit bigger, as were a lot of cargo vessels. Even if we limit it to battleships, the Japanese battleships Yamato & Musashi were bigger than the Bismarck, and with much bigger (18.1" vs. 15") guns. If you discount them because they weren't actually at sea until after the Bismarck was sunk, then the German sister ship Tirpitz was still larger than the Bismarck.

The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea

No, again the Queen Mary was faster (30.9 knots to the Bismarcks 30.1) as was the Normandie. And those were recorded speed records, while the Bismarck's was not. Even if you limit it to just battleships, there were at least 4 faster battleships at the time: German Scharnhorst, French Richelieu, Italian Vittorio Veneto, and the antiquated British Hood, which Bismarck sunk.

On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees

Her largest guns (on the turrets, not on her decks) were 15"; most steers are quite a bit bigger than that. And many trees are much bigger. Obviously reversed here to make the rhyme work.

Out of the cold and foggy night came the British ship the Hood

May is springtime in the north Atlantic, not the coldest time of the year (though still pretty cold). But there isn't much fog at those temperatures. Also the battle with the Hood didn't take place at night, but at 6 in the morning. And it was the ship Prince of Wales that came out first, the Hood was behind.

The Hood found the Bismarck and on that fatal day

No, the British ships HMS Suffolk and Norfolk had found Bismarck the evening before, and had been following her ever since.

The Bismarck started firing, fifteen miles away

It was the Hood that started firing first, when they were about 12.5 miles apart. Bismarck didn't fire until 2 minutes later, when they were only 11 miles apart.

We gotta sink the Bismarck was the battle sound But when the smoke had cleared away the mighty Hood went down

The Hood was hit, exploded, and sank all within 3 minutes -- hardly time for the smoke to have cleared. In fact, it was the smoke that enabled Prince of Wales to escape from the battle.

For six long days and weary nights they tried to find her trail

HMS Suffolk was fitted with the new radar, so was able to continue shadowing Bismarck most of this time. It was only the last couple of days when Bismarck managed to get away. Even then, radio monitoring gave the British a fair idea of where Bismarck was.

Churchill told the people put every ship asail

Why he told the people instead of the Navy is curious. Would you really send people's sailboats or fishing boats into the North Atlantic to face the Bismarck? But in fact, only a limited number of British naval ships were sent after the Bismarck -- most were busy and could not be spared. Many of the ones sent were old, obsolete ships, like the carrier Ark Royal that was sent from the Mediterranean.

Cause somewhere on that ocean I know she's gotta be

Well, at least this line has no factual errors (but not much info content, either).

The fog was gone the seventh day and they saw the morning sun Ten hours away from homeland the Bismarck made its run

Bismarck was going toward the coast of France, hardly her homeland. And it wasn't much of a run, since an airplane bomb the evening before had jammed her steering, so she was only able to cruise in a circle.

The British guns were aimed and the shells were coming fast The first shell hit the Bismarck they knew she couldn't last

Not aimed very well -- only about 1 in 7 of the shells fired hit the Bismarck, and most of them just bounced off her armor. And she wasn't sunk by gunfire, nobody claims that. The British battleships were nearly out of shells and had been sent home before the Bismarck sank. She was hit by torpedoes just before sinking, but at the same time survivors have said they were ordered to open valves and scuttle the ship, to prevent her capture. Recent examination of the underwater wreckage seems to confirm the scuttling theory -- none of the shell hits below the waterline actually penetrated the Bismarck's armor. — Preceding unsigned comment added by T-bonham (talk • contribs) 09:05, January 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * The person who wrote all the inaccuracies needs to realize there is a lot of exageration in the song to make the song better and let listeners realize how important the battles were and how big the Bismarck was. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.239.200.57 (talk • contribs) 14:06, December 5, 2016 (UTC)

Novelty song?
The article proclaims that Sink the Bismark is a novelty song, but the article on novelty songs states that a novelty song "is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect." Sink the Bismark is not a humorous song, and I believe it would be more accurately re-categorized as a folk song. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ryandinho14 (talk • contribs) 00:20, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

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