[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by RN7

Bismarck did indeed have radars, 3 x FuMo23 and FuMO21 radars, and German rangefinders, and gunnery control in general, was highly regarded. However her main armor deck was too low in the ship, leaving her vital communications and fire control systems vulnerable, and her fire control systems were knocked out early in her final battle against British heavy units. While German machinery tended to be too complex, and unreliable throughout the war. There are also questions about how effective her armour was, as its intersting to note that the British Rodney was instrumental in her sinking, despite being built in the 1920's and being considerably slower. Rodney quickly overwhelmed Bismarck with her accurate 16in gunfire, and pretty much pounding her into a flaming junk with some help from King George V, while Bismarck never hit Rodney at all.

There were also a lot of concerns about Bismarck's underwater protection as well as her vulnerable rudder design, not mention the difficultly she had in using her engines to steer.