Yes, I believe the song was marketed in order to draw more viewers to see the movie. The song is unintentionally funny...it should be on a Ktel collection called: "Know-nothing Songs for No-nothing People"

Bismarck's Guns were considerably bigger than any steer. Her shells (15-inch diameter) were considerably smaller than any reasonable-sized tree, unless the lyric refers specifically and only to the diameter of the shell. Even then, you'll find a lot of trees that are wider than 15 inches.

The Bismarck wasn't "the fastest ship", although she was pretty fast as battleships went. The Hood was about a knot faster.

The Bismarck did not have the biggest guns. She had eight 15-inch guns (each firing a 15" diameter shell, in other words). One of her opponents in the final battle, the British battleship Rodney had nine 16-inch guns, making her class (Nelson and Rodney) the most heavily-armed ships in European waters in '41. The Americans and Japanese also had battleships with 16" guns in service and the Japanese were just completing two with 18" guns at that time.

The Bismarck's fame is probably mainly due to the fact that she sank the Hood, Britain's most famous and highly regarded fighting vessel of that era. That was bad luck for the Hood. Bismarck herself was brought down by bad luck of her own a few days later, when one torpedo from a British carrier plane jammed her rudders hard over, making the ship unmaneuverable. The British closed in the following day and pounded the Bismarck into a wreck with hundreds of hits from 2 battleships (King George V and Rodney) and several smaller cruisers.

In the final battle the Germans never had a chance. This lends a tragic aspect to the end of a long and desperate chase where one ship tried to elude many, and failed.

Bismarck's companion, the cruiser Prinz Eugen, did elude the British pursuers, made it to France, and survived the war, only to be expended in an American A-bomb test in the Pacific after the war's end. The oddest footnote of all is that it was Prinz Eugen which scored the first hit on the Hood, starting a big fire on the main deck amidships, and may have actually been the ship which sank the Hood as a result...with smaller caliber 8-inch shells. But that remains merely speculative...

- LH