Bismarck Intern'd

If might take anywhere from 9 to 12 months to strip her down and put in new equipment, wiring, power plants, comm lines that also might take anywhere from 6 to 9 months and then go to sea trials that might make her available by late 1943 early 1944??

Even if this wildly optimistic assessment was the case, that would have her commissioning alongside the Iowa's. If the US wanted another battleship for that time frame, they'd just build a fifth Iowa, or a Montana. The US didn't; BB65 and BB66 (planned Iowa class Illinois and Kentucky) along with the entire Montana class (those never got their keels laid) were canceled. The four OTL Iowa's were mainly completed because they were fast enough to escort the fleet carriers. Bismark was three knots slower.

The USN entered the 1940's with 15 battleships. Two more were commissioned before the war, and eight during it, all by the end of 1944.

The IJN never had more than 12 battleships and battlecruisers combined, and the German navy was more than countered by the RN.

The USN didn't need any more battleships for 1943-1944.
 
A target ship at Bikini atoll in 1946 would be more likely if she was not scrapped or used as a target ship during the war.
 
So in theory ... If America & the USN is willing to paid for the expenses and manpower to strip and replace everything to get the U.S.S. North Dakota of the Bismarck Class up to specs..

If might take anywhere from 9 to 12 months to strip her down and put in new equipment, wiring, power plants, comm lines that also might take anywhere from 6 to 9 months and then go to sea trials that might make her available by late 1943 early 1944??

kclcmdr if you're really dead set on having the Bismarck converted into a USN ship you're going to have to do so much twisting the scenario might as well be ASB.

Perhaps a time-travel/parallel universe scenario in which the Bismarck is across time to a parallel universe along with a good chunk of the tri-state area. There they are faced with an Evil British Empire (boo-hiss!) or something of the sort with advanced enough technology to require the Americans to keep the Bismarck in action long enough to fight off the baddies.

Not saying that such a scenario isn't interesting, I'd read it with interest, but it's not suitable for this forum. Sooner or later you'll have to face the facts, the US simply doesn't need the Bismarck, and it would be a gross misuse of resources to refit her rather than use the same resources to build 1, if not two superior vessels. The only way your "USS North Dakota" scenario can come about is if your POD leaves the US with no other choice than to incorporate the Bismarck into her fleet and that my friend requires nothing short of divine intervention. In which case I suggest you figure something out and post it in the ASB forum, I for one would follow it with interest.
 
Top