The Tirpitz was the second and last of the Bismarck class of battleships made by Nazi Germany. It’s sister ship, the Bismarck, is more famous and was sunk by the British after it sank the HMS Hood which was a prize ship of the British Navy. When the Bismarck was sunk Hitler wanted to protect the Tirpitz because it was a symbol of his power. The final dimensions of the Tirpitz were an overall length of 253.6 meters, a beam of 36 meters and a draft of 10.61 meters. It had a displacement of 44,000 tons. When construction was completed the ship also had a double hull and 22 watertight compartments. The outer hull was armor plating and the plating would end up being 40% of the total weight of the ship. The max speed of the ship was 30.8 knots and it had a range of…show more content… In an effort to prevent the ship from sinking during future attacks they put sandbags underneath the ship so that if it started flooding it would just rest in the sandbags and still be operational as a large gun platform which it essentially was anyway because it couldn’t handle the open oceans anymore. Unfortunately for the Tirpitz the RAF didn’t know the level of damage that had been inflicted to it and since the Tirpitz was still a symbol of the strength of the Nazis it remained a high priority target. On November 12, 1944 the RAF would destroy the Tirpitz by dropping three more tallboys that all landed on the port side of the ship. Other bombs missed the ship on the port side but loosened the sandbags underneath the ship. Because of these things the ship quickly flooded on the port side faster than the starboard tanks could be filled and the ship listed 35 degrees to port. In an attempt to evacuate the ship the watertight integrity in the doors was lost and the ship listed to 60 degrees to port. After one of the 1000 ton guns exploded and was apparently launched 25 yards out from the ship the ship
