Telegrams from the Sinking of the Bismarck.

The Bismarck is one of the most famous battleships in history, and there are good reasons it should be so. The sortie of the battlewagon and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen remains one of the most dramatic moments in naval history. It was even the subject of a Johnny Horton song, albeit one that is inferior to "The Battle of New Orleans."

And now several telegrams from one of the British ships that participated in the battle are up for auction.

As something of a dreadnought enthusiast, I always feel compelled to pour a little cold water on the enthusiasm for the German warship.

The Bismarck wasn't the top-tier ship of the era. Yes, she was superbly-armored--enough to shrug off most hits from the 14-inch main weapons that were the standbys of many British battlewagons. Indeed, it was a decidedly good thing that the HMS Rodney, a Nelson-class brawler with 16-inch guns, was present for the final showdown with the damaged German ship. The reconstruction of the battle shows that it was the Rodney's hits which did the most damage.

Also, she was agile, getting to a little over 30mph at top speed (the Rodney could make 23 on a good day, which made the rudder damage to the Bismarck fatal). Finally, the 15 inch main armament was quite effective.

But I flatly argue Bismarck wasn't the best battleship of its time. That would have been the USS North Carolina (the Yamato wouldn't be commissioned until December 1941), which was still going through some teething troubles. But had she been ready, she would have pummeled the pride of the Kriegsmarine. 

Which makes for some interesting speculation. You see, by April 1941, President Roosevelt had stretched our neutrality in some rather inventive ways, with the Navy taking on an increasingly-pro-Britain role in escorting convoys and reporting the presence of German boats.

Had it been the North Carolina instead of the Texas undergoing gunnery trials not too far from the Greenland Straits...go to it, alt-history scribes.