So i have been recently reading up on the Bismark and her sinking, and when looking for pictures of her wreck, the pictures dont seem to line up to the written material I have read. In fact, most of the pictures that show anything beyond either the forecastle or superstructure of the ship are computer generated images or paintings. With the computer generated images and paintings showing that the stern is still attached and both bow turrets completely missing. Yet written material I have read said that the stern was detached from the bismark and still has yet to be found. And while the main battery armament was disabled during the battle which sank her, they also mentioned that the hull of the wreck was in rather decent shape so I doubt a magazine explosion occurred and blew the turrets off. So is the Bismark still relatively in one piece, or is a large part of her missing? (excluding the stern)
The wreck of the Bismarck is sitting upright on the bottom at a depth of roughly 4700 metres. Her turrets are missing, along with much of her upperworks. Her hull is in good condition, with two main exceptions. Firstly, much of her lower hull plating has been damaged by the collision with the seabed and following slide down the mountain on which she landed (though the extent of the damage is unclear as the lower part of the hull is buried by sediment). Secondly, ~35ft (10.6 m) of her stern is missing. It is a clean break, with the bulkhead forward of the break still intact. The cleanness of the break makes it appear like she has a flat 'transom' stern. A number of older illustrations show more of the stern being intact, but this is incorrect, and based on incomplete surveys of the wreck. Bismarck's wreck, like many others, is sitting in a debris field. This includes her masts, at least two turrets (the other two have yet to be located), and parts of her superstructure. Unusually, the debris field is rather compact. This is likely because Bismarck was barely moving forwards when she sank, meaning that wreckage that fell off her before she sank would sink in a similar place to her.
The loss of her turrets and upperworks is not unusual, and does not suggest a magazine explosion. While magazine explosions are not unknown aboard sinking ships (see the sinkings of Audacious or Barham), one is not needed to explain the damage done to Bismarck. Bismarck capsized as she sunk. Her turrets were held in mainly by gravity. As the ship inverted, they tore themselves free and sank independently. The ship then righted herself as she sank, and hit the seafloor upright. The upperworks tore free in a similar manner to the turrets, or were knocked off by the force of impact with the seabed. It's unclear what happened to the stern. Survivor testimony indicates that the stern was intact as she sank. As the stern is not part of the debris field, it is unlikely that it broke off as the ship hit the bottom. It is more likely that the stern broke away from the wreck near the surface, and has drifted to a more distant location.
Sources:
A Marine Forensic Analysis of HMS Hood and DKM Bismarck, Jurens, W. et al., Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
Battleship Bismarck: A Design and Operational History, Garzke, W. H. et al., Naval Institute Press, 2019