COBI Battleship Bismarck Set 4854

COBI's Bismarck at 1:700 is built from 590 blocks, 35.5 cm long, with moving propellers and armament, a display base and a collector's plate. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

A torpedo hit the rudder

Bismarck's entire career lasted eight days, and the reason it ended is one hit in one place.

After sinking the Hood on 24 May 1941 she broke contact and ran for occupied France. She was faster than most of what was chasing her, she had a head start, and she very nearly made it — by the evening of 26 May she was within a day of air cover from Brest.

Then Swordfish torpedo bombers from the carrier Ark Royal found her. They were biplanes, obsolete before the war started, flying at under 140 km/h. Most of their torpedoes missed. One did not: it struck right aft and jammed the rudders about fifteen degrees to port.

A ship that cannot steer cannot run. Bismarck could only circle, and the British battleships caught up overnight. She was destroyed the following morning.

Had that torpedo hit anywhere else on the hull, the armour would have held and the ship would probably have reached France.

In the COBI range

Set 4853 is her sister Tirpitz at this scale, so the two stand correctly together. Set 4830 is HMS Hood at 1:300 — the ship Bismarck destroyed.

Specifications

Pieces: 590 · Scale: 1:700 · No stickers · Display base and plate included
Model dimensions: 35.5 × 5.5 × 11 cm (14.0 × 2.2 × 4.3 in), 8.5 cm high without the base