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| 70 years ago in April 1941 the German Battleship Bismarck
set off on a secret mission to break into the Atlantic and engage British
shipping. The threat of having this massive German raider running loose
sent alarm bells ringing all throughout the Royal Navy. Later in May when
the ship set out with Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen left their base in Norway
for the North Atlantic and British ships were immediately sent to intercept.
First to encounter them were the HMS Suffolk and Norfolk and later the
HMS Hood and Prince of Wales. The result of that encounter was the loss
of the Hood with most of her crew and a badly damage Prince of Wales forced
to return to base. The Bismarck was had it's fuel tank pierced and was
loosing fuel. The decision was made to head for France to make repairs
and Bismarck first turned back on the shadowing cruisers forcing them to
turn away while the Prinz Eugen steam on out of radar range. Bismarck then
turned back and worked toward the French coast and friendly air cover.
Swordfish from Victorious attacked and caused some minor damage, but causing
the prior flood damage to get worse. Bismarck was able to break away
and remained at large until a British PBY spotted the trailing oil slick
and reported the position.
Ships from all over plotted new courses to intercept and pretty soon
were bearing down on Bismarck. The carrier Ark Royal with her Fairey Swordfish
launched an attack but mistakenly targeted the Sheffield instead. No damage
was done, but the attack revealed that the torpedoes had defective magnetic
detonators. A second attack was launched late in the evening and caught
Bismarck in the fading light. A single hit by one of the Swordfish torpedo
bombers jammed the rudder and caused Bismarck to only be able to maneuver
in circles. One torpedo has sealed the fate of the Bismarck and soon the
other British ships closed and finished the once mighty ship off.
Dragon is reissuing their 1/700 Bismarck to coincide with the 70 year
anniversary of the Bismarck sinking. Instead of just reboxing like many
manufactures do, they have upgraded this kit with many new features.
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| Like the previously release Premium Edition Bismarck kit, this one features some photo etch radar's and railings. |  |
| A special bonus is the newly tooled Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers included in the kit. These can be built in an almost all plastic version or one with wings provided by relief etched brass. A separate torpedo is included to mount below the fuselage. |  |
| New DS plastic blast bags are now included for the main and secondary guns. The light anti aircraft are also newly tooled and are based on the weapons designed for the 350 Scharnhorst. |  |
| Another new feature are the new ships boats and launches also scaled down from the Scharnhorst. |  |
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| Pricing has not yet been confirmed. Details will be available here or at Dragon-Models.com soon. | |
