''Bismarck'' was the first of two s built for
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
's . Named after Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck, the ship was
laid down
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one o ...
at the
Blohm & Voss shipyard in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
in July 1936 and
launched in February 1939. Work was completed in August 1940, when she was
commissioned into the German fleet. ''Bismarck'' and her sister ship were the largest battleships ever built by Germany, and two of the largest built by any European power.
In the course of the warship's eight-month career, ''Bismarck'' conducted only one offensive operation that lasted 8 days in May 1941, codenamed . The ship, along with the
heavy cruiser
The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...
, was to break into the Atlantic Ocean and raid Allied shipping from North America to Great Britain. The two ships were detected several times off Scandinavia, and British naval units were deployed to block their route. At the
Battle of the Denmark Strait
The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement in the Second World War, which took place on 24 May 1941 between ships of the Royal Navy and the ''Kriegsmarine''. The British battleship and the battlecruiser fought the German battleshi ...
, the
battlecruiser initially engaged ''Prinz Eugen'', probably by mistake, while engaged ''Bismarck''. In the ensuing battle ''Hood'' was destroyed by the combined fire of ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'', which then damaged ''Prince of Wales'' and forced her retreat. ''Bismarck'' suffered sufficient damage from three hits by ''Prince of Wales'' to force an end to the raiding mission.
The destruction of ''Hood'' spurred a relentless pursuit by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
involving dozens of warships. Two days later, heading for
occupied France
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...
to effect repairs, ''Bismarck'' was attacked by 16
Fairey Swordfish
The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also us ...
biplane torpedo bomber
A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...
s from the aircraft carrier ; one scored a hit that rendered the battleship's steering gear inoperable. In
her final battle the following morning, the already-crippled ''Bismarck'' was engaged by two British battleships and two heavy cruisers, and sustained incapacitating damage and heavy loss of life. The ship was
scuttled
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
to prevent her being boarded by the British, and to allow the ship to be abandoned so as to limit further casualties. Most experts agree that the battle damage would have caused her to sink eventually.
The wreck was located in June 1989 by
Robert Ballard
Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942) is an American retired Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology o ...
, and has since been further surveyed by several other expeditions.
Characteristics
The two s were designed in the mid-1930s by the German as a counter to French naval expansion, specifically the two s France had started in 1935. Laid down after the signing of the
Anglo-German Naval Agreement
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) of 18 June 1935 was a naval agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany regulating the size of the '' Kriegsmarine'' in relation to the Royal Navy.
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement fixed a ratio whe ...
of 1935, ''Bismarck'' and her
sister
A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...
were nominally within the limit imposed by the
Washington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...
that governed battleship construction in the
interwar period. The ships secretly exceeded the figure by a wide margin, though before either vessel was completed, the international treaty system had fallen apart following Japan's withdrawal in 1937, allowing signatories to invoke an "escalator clause" that permitted displacements as high as .
![Bb bismarck](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Bb_bismarck.png)
''Bismarck'' displaced
as built and
fully loaded, with an
overall length
The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...
of , a
beam of and a maximum
draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...
of . The battleship was Germany's largest warship, and displaced more than any other European battleship, with the exception of , commissioned after the war. ''Bismarck'' was powered by three
Blohm & Voss geared
steam turbines and twelve oil-fired Wagner
superheated
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There are ...
boilers, which developed a total of , and yielded a maximum speed of on speed trials. The ship had a cruising range of at . ''Bismarck'' was equipped with three
FuMO 23 search
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
sets, mounted on the forward and stern
rangefinder
A rangefinder (also rangefinding telemeter, depending on the context) is a device used to measure distances to remote objects. Originally optical devices used in surveying, they soon found applications in other fields, such as photography an ...
s and foretop.
The standard crew numbered 103 officers and 1,962 enlisted men. The crew was divided into twelve divisions of between 180 and 220 men. The first six divisions were assigned to the ship's armament, divisions one to four for the main and secondary
batteries, and five and six manning
anti-aircraft guns. The seventh division consisted of specialists, including cooks and carpenters, and the eighth division consisted of ammunition handlers. The
radio operator
A radio operator (also, formerly, wireless operator in British and Commonwealth English) is a person who is responsible for the operations of a radio system. The profession of radio operator has become largely obsolete with the automation of ra ...
s, signalmen, and
quartermaster
Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...
s were assigned to the ninth division. The last three divisions were the
engine room
On a ship, the engine room (ER) is the compartment where the machinery for marine propulsion is located. To increase a vessel's safety and chances of surviving damage, the machinery necessary for the ship's operation may be segregated into var ...
personnel. When ''Bismarck'' left port, fleet staff,
prize crews
A prize crew is the selected members of a ship chosen to take over the operations of a captured ship. Prize crews were required to take their prize to appropriate prize courts, which would determine whether the ship's officers and crew had sufficie ...
, and
war correspondents increased the crew complement to over 2,200 men. Roughly 200 of the engine room personnel came from the
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...
, which had been lost during
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung (german: Unternehmen Weserübung , , 9 April – 10 June 1940) was Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign.
In the early morning of 9 Ap ...
, the German invasion of Norway. ''Bismarck''s crew published a ship's newspaper titled ''Die Schiffsglocke'' (The Ship's Bell); this paper was only published once, on 23 April 1941, by the commander of the engineering department, Gerhard Junack.
''Bismarck'' was armed with eight
SK C/34 guns arranged in four twin
gun turret
A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...
s: two
super-firing turrets forward—"Anton" and "Bruno"—and two aft—"Caesar" and "Dora". Secondary armament consisted of twelve
L/55 guns, sixteen
L/65, sixteen
L/83, and twelve
anti-aircraft guns. ''Bismarck'' also carried four
Arado Ar 196
The Arado Ar 196 was a shipboard reconnaissance low-wing monoplane aircraft built by the German firm of Arado starting in 1936. The next year it was selected as the winner of a design contest and became the standard aircraft of the ''Kriegsmarin ...
reconnaissance
floatplanes in a double hangar amidships and two single hangars abreast the funnel, with a double-ended thwartship
catapult. The ship's
main belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
was thick and was covered by a pair of upper and main armoured decks that were and thick, respectively. The turrets were protected by thick faces and thick sides.
Service history
![Bundesarchiv Bild 101II-MN-1361-16A, Schlachtschiff Bismarck, Indienststellung](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101II-MN-1361-16A%2C_Schlachtschiff_Bismarck%2C_Indienststellung.jpg)
''Bismarck'' was ordered under the name ("''Hannover'' replacement"), a replacement for the old
pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protec ...
, under contract "F". The contract was awarded to the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, where the
keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
was laid on 1 July 1936 at Helgen IX. The ship was launched on 14 February 1939 and during the elaborate ceremonies was christened by Dorothee von Löwenfeld, granddaughter of Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck, the ship's namesake.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
made the christening speech.
Fitting-out
Fitting out, or outfitting, is the process in shipbuilding that follows the float-out/launching of a vessel and precedes sea trials. It is the period when all the remaining construction of the ship is completed and readied for delivery to her o ...
work followed the launch, during which time the original straight
stem was replaced with a raked "Atlantic bow" similar to those of the s. ''Bismarck'' was commissioned into the fleet on 24 August 1940 for
sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s, which were conducted in the Baltic.
Ernst Lindemann took command of the ship at the time of commissioning.
On 15 September 1940, three weeks after commissioning, ''Bismarck'' left Hamburg to begin sea trials in
Kiel Bay. ''
Sperrbrecher
A ''Sperrbrecher'' (German; informally translated as "pathfinder" but literally meaning "mine barrage breaker"), was a German auxiliary ship of the First World War and the Second World War that served as a type of minesweeper, steaming ahead of ot ...
13'' escorted the ship to
Arcona on 28 September, and then on to
Gotenhafen
Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...
for trials in the
Gulf of Danzig
A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodies ...
. The ship's power-plant was given a thorough workout; ''Bismarck'' made measured-mile and high speed runs. As the ship's stability and manoeuvrability were being tested, a flaw in her design was discovered. When attempting to steer the ship solely through altering
propeller revolutions, the crew learned that ''Bismarck'' could be kept on course only with great difficulty. Even with the outboard screws running at full power in opposite directions, they generated only a slight turning ability. ''Bismarck''s main battery guns were first test-fired in late November. The tests proved she was a very stable gun platform. Trials lasted until December; ''Bismarck'' returned to Hamburg, arriving on 9 December, for minor alterations and the completion of the fitting-out process.
The ship was scheduled to return to
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
on 24 January 1941, but a merchant vessel had been sunk in the
Kiel Canal
The Kiel Canal (german: Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, literally "North- oEast alticSea canal", formerly known as the ) is a long freshwater canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal was finished in 1895, but later widened, and links the N ...
and prevented use of the waterway. Severe weather hampered efforts to remove the wreck, and ''Bismarck'' was not able to reach Kiel until March. The delay greatly frustrated Lindemann, who remarked that "
'Bismarck''had been tied down at Hamburg for five weeks ... the precious time at sea lost as a result cannot be made up, and a significant delay in the final war deployment of the ship thus is unavoidable." While waiting to reach Kiel, ''Bismarck'' hosted Captain Anders Forshell, the Swedish naval attaché to Berlin. He returned to Sweden with a detailed description of the ship, which was subsequently leaked to Britain by pro-British elements in the
Swedish Navy. The information provided the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
with its first full description of the vessel, although it lacked important facts, including top speed, radius of action, and displacement.
![Bundesarchiv DVM 10 Bild-23-63-41, Schlachtschiff](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Bundesarchiv_DVM_10_Bild-23-63-41%2C_Schlachtschiff_%22Bismarck%22.jpg)
On 6 March, ''Bismarck'' received the order to steam to Kiel. On the way, the ship was escorted by several
Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters and a pair of
armed merchant vessels, along with an
icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...
. At 08:45 on 8 March, ''Bismarck'' briefly ran aground on the southern shore of the Kiel Canal; she was freed within an hour. The ship reached Kiel the following day, where her crew stocked ammunition, fuel, and other supplies and applied a coat of
dazzle paint
Dazzle camouflage, also known as razzle dazzle (in the U.S.) or dazzle painting, is a family of ship camouflage that was used extensively in World War I, and to a lesser extent in World War II and afterwards. Credited to the British marine a ...
to camouflage her. British bombers attacked the harbour without success on 12 March. On 17 March, the old battleship , now used as an icebreaker, escorted ''Bismarck'' through the ice to Gotenhafen, where the latter continued combat readiness training.
The Naval High Command ( or OKM), commanded by Admiral
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder (24 April 1876 – 6 November 1960) was a German admiral who played a major role in the naval history of World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank, that of grand admiral, in 1939, becoming the f ...
, intended to continue the practice of using heavy ships as surface raiders against
Allied merchant traffic in the Atlantic Ocean. The two ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships were based in
Brest, France
Brest (; ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French m ...
, at the time, having just completed
Operation Berlin, a major raid into the Atlantic. ''Bismarck''s sister ship ''Tirpitz'' rapidly approached completion. ''Bismarck'' and ''Tirpitz'' were to sortie from the
Baltic and rendezvous with the two ''Scharnhorst''-class ships in the Atlantic; the operation was initially scheduled for around 25 April 1941, when a new moon period would make conditions more favourable.
Work on ''Tirpitz'' was completed later than anticipated, and she was not commissioned until 25 February; the ship was not ready for combat until late in the year. To further complicate the situation, was torpedoed in Brest and damaged further by bombs when in
drydock
A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
. required a boiler overhaul following Operation Berlin; the workers discovered during the overhaul that the boilers were in worse condition than expected. She would also be unavailable for the planned sortie. Attacks by British bombers on supply depots in Kiel delayed repairs to the heavy cruisers and . The two ships would not be ready for action until July or August. Admiral
Günther Lütjens
Johann Günther Lütjens (25 May 1889 – 27 May 1941) was a German admiral whose military service spanned more than thirty years and two world wars. Lütjens is best known for his actions during World War II and his command of the battleship d ...
, (Fleet Chief) of the Kriegsmarine, chosen to lead the operation, wished to delay the operation at least until either ''Scharnhorst'' or ''Tirpitz'' became available, but the OKM decided to proceed with the operation, codenamed
Operation Rheinübung
Operation Rheinübung ("Exercise Rhine") was the sortie into the Atlantic by the new German battleship and heavy cruiser on 18–27 May 1941, during World War II. This operation to block Allied shipping to the United Kingdom culminated w ...
, with a force consisting of only ''Bismarck'' and the heavy cruiser . At a final meeting with Raeder in Paris on 26 April, Lütjens was encouraged by his commander-in-chief to proceed and he eventually decided that an operation should begin as soon as possible to prevent the enemy gaining any respite.
Operation Rheinübung
![Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1989-012-03, Schlachtschiff Bismarck in der Ostsee](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1989-012-03%2C_Schlachtschiff_Bismarck_in_der_Ostsee.jpg)
On 5 May 1941, Hitler and
Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal and war criminal who held office as chief of the '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's Armed Forces, duri ...
, with a large entourage, arrived to view ''Bismarck'' and ''Tirpitz'' in Gotenhafen. The men were given an extensive tour of the ships, after which Hitler met Lütjens to discuss the forthcoming mission. On 16 May, Lütjens reported that ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' were fully prepared for Operation Rheinübung; he was therefore ordered to proceed with the mission on the evening of 19 May. As part of the operational plans, a group of eighteen supply ships would be positioned to support ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen''. Four
U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
s would be placed along the convoy routes between
Halifax and Britain to scout for the raiders.
By the start of the operation, ''Bismarck''s crew had increased to 2,221 officers and enlisted men. This included an admiral's staff of nearly 65 and a prize crew of 80 sailors, who could be used to crew transports captured during the mission. At 02:00 on 19 May, ''Bismarck'' departed Gotenhafen and made for the
Danish straits
The Danish straits are the straits connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea through the Kattegat and Skagerrak. Historically, the Danish straits were internal waterways of Denmark; however, following territorial losses, Øresund and Fehmarn B ...
. She was joined at 11:25 by ''Prinz Eugen'', which had departed the previous night at 21:18, off Cape Arkona. The two ships were escorted by three
destroyers—, , and —and a
flotilla
A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet.
Composition
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same clas ...
of
minesweeper
A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.
History
The earliest known usage of ...
s. The
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
provided air cover during the voyage out of German waters. At around noon on 20 May, Lindemann informed the ship's crew via loudspeaker of the ship's mission. At approximately the same time, a group of ten or twelve Swedish aircraft flying reconnaissance encountered the German force and reported its composition and heading, though the Germans did not see the Swedes.
An hour later, the German flotilla encountered the Swedish
cruiser ; the cruiser shadowed the Germans for two hours in the
Kattegat
The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden ...
. ''Gotland'' transmitted a report to naval headquarters, stating: "Two large ships, three destroyers, five escort vessels, and 10–12 aircraft passed
Marstrand
Marstrand () is a seaside locality situated in Kungälv Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 1,320 inhabitants in 2010. The town got its name from its location on the island of Marstrand. Despite its small population, for histori ...
, course 205°/20'." The OKM was not concerned about the security risk posed by ''Gotland'', though both Lütjens and Lindemann believed operational secrecy had been lost. The report eventually made its way to Captain Henry Denham, the British naval attaché to Sweden, who transmitted the information to the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
. The code-breakers at
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...
confirmed that an Atlantic raid was imminent, as they had
decrypted reports that ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' had taken on prize crews and requested additional
navigational chart
A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a sea area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land (topographic map), natural features of the seabed, details of the coa ...
s from headquarters. A pair of
Supermarine Spitfires was ordered to search the Norwegian coast for the flotilla.
German aerial reconnaissance confirmed that one
aircraft carrier, three battleships, and four cruisers remained at anchor in the main British naval base at
Scapa Flow, which persuaded Lütjens that the British were unaware of his operation. On the evening of 20 May, ''Bismarck'' and the rest of the flotilla reached the Norwegian coast; the minesweepers were detached and the two raiders and their destroyer escorts continued north. The following morning, radio-intercept officers on board ''Prinz Eugen'' picked up a signal ordering British reconnaissance aircraft to search for two battleships and three destroyers northbound off the Norwegian coast. At 7:00 on the 21st, the Germans spotted four unidentified aircraft, which quickly departed. Shortly after 12:00, the flotilla reached
Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...
and anchored at
Grimstadfjord
Grimstadfjord or Grimstadfjorden is a small fjord in the municipality of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. The long fjord lies on the western side of the Bergen Peninsula, and it divides the Laksevåg and Ytrebygda boroughs of the city of Berg ...
, where the ships' crews painted over the Baltic camouflage with the standard "outboard grey" worn by German warships operating in the Atlantic.
![Bismarck reconnaissance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Bismarck_reconnaissance.jpg)
When ''Bismarck'' was in Norway, a pair of Bf 109 fighters circled overhead to protect her from British air attacks, but Flying Officer Michael Suckling managed to fly his Spitfire directly over the German flotilla at a height of and take photos of ''Bismarck'' and her escorts. Upon receipt of the information, Admiral
John Tovey
Admiral of the Fleet John Cronyn Tovey, 1st Baron Tovey, (7 March 1885 – 12 January 1971), sometimes known as Jack Tovey, was a Royal Navy officer. During the First World War he commanded the destroyer at the Battle of Jutland and then co ...
ordered the
battlecruiser , the newly commissioned battleship , and six destroyers to reinforce the pair of cruisers patrolling the
Denmark Strait
The Denmark Strait () or Greenland Strait ( , 'Greenland Sound') is an oceanic strait between Greenland to its northwest and Iceland to its southeast. The Norwegian island of Jan Mayen lies northeast of the strait.
Geography
The strait connect ...
. The rest of the
Home Fleet was placed on high alert in Scapa Flow. Eighteen bombers were dispatched to attack the Germans, but weather over the
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, ...
had worsened and they were unable to find the German warships.
''Bismarck'' did not replenish her fuel stores in Norway, as her operational orders did not require her to do so. She had left port short of a full load, and had since expended another on the voyage from Gotenhafen. ''Prinz Eugen'' took on of fuel. At 19:30 on 21 May, ''Bismarck'', ''Prinz Eugen'', and the three escorting destroyers left Bergen. At midnight, when the force was in the open sea, heading towards the Arctic Ocean, Raeder disclosed the operation to Hitler, who reluctantly consented to the raid. The three escorting destroyers were detached at 04:14 on 22 May, while the force steamed off
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
. At around 12:00, Lütjens ordered his two ships to turn toward the Denmark Strait to attempt the break-out into the open Atlantic.
By 04:00 on 23 May, Lütjens ordered ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' to increase speed to to make the dash through the Denmark Strait. Upon entering the Strait, both ships activated their FuMO radar detection equipment sets. ''Bismarck'' led ''Prinz Eugen'' by about ; mist reduced visibility to . The Germans encountered some ice at around 10:00, which necessitated a reduction in speed to . Two hours later, the pair had reached a point north of Iceland. The ships were forced to zigzag to avoid
ice floes
An ice floe () is a large pack of floating ice often defined as a flat piece at least 20 m across at its widest point, and up to more than 10 km across. Drift ice is a floating field of sea ice composed of several ice floes. They may cau ...
. At 19:22,
hydrophone
A hydrophone ( grc, ὕδωρ + φωνή, , water + sound) is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potenti ...
and radar operators aboard the German warships detected the cruiser at a range of approximately . ''Prinz Eugen''s radio-intercept team decrypted the radio signals being sent by ''Suffolk'' and learned that their location had been reported.
Lütjens gave permission for ''Prinz Eugen'' to engage ''Suffolk'', but the captain of the German cruiser could not clearly make out his target and so held fire. ''Suffolk'' quickly retreated to a safe distance and shadowed the German ships. At 20:30, the heavy cruiser joined ''Suffolk'', but approached the German raiders too closely. Lütjens ordered his ships to engage the British cruiser; ''Bismarck'' fired five salvoes, three of which straddled ''Norfolk'' and rained shell splinters on her decks. The cruiser laid a smoke screen and fled into a fog bank, ending the brief engagement. The concussion from the 38 cm guns' firing disabled ''Bismarck''s FuMO 23 radar set; this prompted Lütjens to order ''Prinz Eugen'' to take station ahead so she could use her functioning radar to scout for the formation.
At around 22:00, Lütjens ordered ''Bismarck'' to make a 180-degree turn in an effort to surprise the two heavy cruisers shadowing him. Although ''Bismarck'' was visually obscured in a rain squall, ''Suffolk''s radar quickly detected the manoeuvre, allowing the cruiser to evade. The cruisers remained on station through the night, continually relaying the location and bearing of the German ships. The harsh weather broke on the morning of 24 May, revealing a clear sky. At 05:07, hydrophone operators aboard ''Prinz Eugen'' detected a pair of unidentified vessels approaching the German formation at a range of , reporting "Noise of two fast-moving turbine ships at 280° relative bearing!"
Battle of the Denmark Strait
At 05:45 on 24 May, German lookouts spotted smoke on the horizon; this turned out to be from ''Hood'' and ''Prince of Wales'', under the command of
Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland
Vice-Admiral Lancelot Ernest Holland, (13 September 1887 – 24 May 1941) was a Royal Navy officer who commanded the British force in the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941 against the German battleship ''Bismarck''. Holland was lost ...
. Lütjens ordered his ships' crews to
battle stations
General quarters, battle stations, or action stations is an announcement made aboard a naval warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the arme ...
. By 05:52, the range had fallen to and ''Hood'' opened fire, followed by ''Prince of Wales'' a minute later. ''Hood'' engaged ''Prinz Eugen'', which the British thought to be ''Bismarck'', while ''Prince of Wales'' fired on ''Bismarck''.
Adalbert Schneider, the first gunnery officer aboard ''Bismarck'', twice requested permission to return fire, but Lütjens hesitated. Lindemann intervened, muttering "I will not let my ship be shot out from under my ass." He demanded permission to fire from Lütjens, who relented and at 05:55 ordered his ships to engage the British.
![Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1984-055-14, Schlachtschiff Bismarck, nach Seegefecht](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1984-055-14%2C_Schlachtschiff_Bismarck%2C_nach_Seegefecht.jpg)
The British ships approached the German ships head on, which permitted them to use only their forward guns; ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' could fire full
broadsides. Several minutes after opening fire, Holland ordered a 20° turn to port, which would allow his ships to engage with their rear gun turrets. Both German ships concentrated their fire on ''Hood''. About a minute after opening fire, ''Prinz Eugen'' scored a hit with a high-explosive shell; the explosion detonated
unrotated projectile ammunition and started a large fire, which was quickly extinguished. After firing three four-gun salvoes, Schneider had found the range to ''Hood''; he immediately ordered rapid-fire salvoes from ''Bismarck''s eight 38 cm guns. He also ordered the ship's 15 cm secondary guns to engage ''Prince of Wales''. Holland then ordered a second 20° turn to port, to bring his ships on a parallel course with ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen''. Lütjens ordered ''Prinz Eugen'' to shift fire and target ''Prince of Wales'', to keep both of his opponents under fire. Within a few minutes, ''Prinz Eugen'' scored a pair of hits on the battleship that started a small fire.
Lütjens then ordered ''Prinz Eugen'' to drop behind ''Bismarck'', so she could continue to monitor the location of ''Norfolk'' and ''Suffolk'', which were still to the east. At 06:00, ''Hood'' was completing the second turn to port when ''Bismarck''s fifth salvo hit. Two of the shells landed short, striking the water close to the ship, but at least one of the 38 cm
armour-piercing
Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour.
From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many wars ...
shells struck ''Hood'' and penetrated her thin deck armour. The shell reached ''Hood''s rear ammunition magazine and detonated of
cordite
Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burn ...
propellant. The massive explosion broke the back of the ship between the main mast and the rear funnel; the forward section continued to move forward briefly before the in-rushing water caused the bow to rise into the air at a steep angle. The stern also rose as water rushed into the ripped-open compartments. Schneider exclaimed "He is sinking!" over the ship's loudspeakers. In only eight minutes of firing, ''Hood'' had disappeared, taking all but three of her crew of 1,419 men with her.
![Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1968-015-25, Schlachtschiff Bismarck, Seegefecht](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1968-015-25%2C_Schlachtschiff_Bismarck%2C_Seegefecht.jpg)
''Bismarck'' then shifted fire to ''Prince of Wales''. The British battleship scored a hit on ''Bismarck'' with her sixth salvo, but the German ship found her mark with her first salvo. One of the shells struck the bridge on ''Prince of Wales'', though it did not explode and instead exited the other side, killing everyone in the ship's command centre, save Captain
John Leach, the ship's commanding officer, and one other. The two German ships continued to fire upon ''Prince of Wales'', causing serious damage. Guns malfunctioned on the recently commissioned British ship, which still had civilian technicians aboard. Despite the technical faults in the main battery, ''Prince of Wales'' scored three hits on ''Bismarck'' in the engagement. The first struck her in the
forecastle
The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...
above the waterline but low enough to allow the crashing waves to enter the hull. The second shell struck below the armoured belt and exploded on contact with the
torpedo bulkhead
A torpedo bulkhead is a type of naval armour common on the more heavily armored warships, especially battleships and battlecruisers of the early 20th century. It is designed to keep the ship afloat even if the hull is struck underneath the belt ar ...
, completely flooding a turbo-generator room and partially flooding an adjacent boiler room. The third shell passed through one of the boats carried aboard the ship and then went through the floatplane catapult without exploding.
At 06:13, Leach gave the order to retreat; only five of his ship's ten guns were still firing and his ship had sustained significant damage. ''Prince of Wales'' made a 160° turn and laid a smoke screen to cover her withdrawal. The Germans ceased fire as the range widened. Though Lindemann strongly advocated chasing ''Prince of Wales'' and destroying her, Lütjens obeyed operational orders to shun any avoidable engagement with enemy forces that were not protecting a convoy, firmly rejecting the request, and instead ordered ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' to head for the North Atlantic. In the engagement, ''Bismarck'' had fired 93 armour-piercing shells and had been hit by three shells in return. The forecastle hit allowed of water to flood into the ship, which contaminated fuel oil stored in the bow. Lütjens refused to reduce speed to allow damage control teams to repair the shell hole which widened and allowed more water into the ship. The second hit caused some additional flooding. Shell-splinters from the second hit also damaged a steam line in the turbo-generator room, but this was not serious, as ''Bismarck'' had sufficient other generator reserves. The combined flooding from these two hits caused a 9-degree
list
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
to port and a 3-degree
trim by the bow.
Chase
![Map Rheinuebung](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Map_Rheinuebung.svg)
After the engagement, Lütjens reported, "Battlecruiser, probably ''Hood'', sunk. Another battleship, ''King George V'' or ''Renown'', turned away damaged. Two heavy cruisers maintain contact." At 08:01, he transmitted a damage report and his intentions to OKM, which were to detach ''Prinz Eugen'' for commerce raiding and to make for
Saint-Nazaire for repairs. Shortly after 10:00, Lütjens ordered ''Prinz Eugen'' to fall behind ''Bismarck'' to determine the severity of the oil leakage from the bow hit. After confirming "broad streams of oil on both sides of
'Bismarck''swake", ''Prinz Eugen'' returned to the forward position. About an hour later, a British
Short Sunderland
The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of Sunderland in North Ea ...
flying boat reported the oil slick to ''Suffolk'' and ''Norfolk'', which had been joined by the damaged ''Prince of Wales''. Rear Admiral
Frederic Wake-Walker
Admiral Sir William Frederic Wake-Walker KCB CBE (24 March 1888 – 24 September 1945) was a British admiral who served in the Royal Navy during World War I and World War II, taking a leading part in the destruction of the , and in Operation ' ...
, the commander of the two cruisers, ordered ''Prince of Wales'' to remain behind his ships.
When
Dönitz offered the assistance of all Atlantic U-boats, Lütjens requested to setup a patrol line on the extrapolated route of the ''Bismarck'' into the open Atlantic. Five U-boats, the ''
U-43,
U-46,
U-66,
U-94'' and ''
U-557'' were ordered to take up positions south of Greenland where they were expected to make contact in the morning of 25 May. Since Lütjens had intentions to make for a French port a second group of U-boats consisting of the ''
U-48,
U-74,
U-97,
U-98'' and ''
U-556'' was stationed in the
Gulf of Biscay. Three other U-boats ''
U-73,
U-93'' and ''
U-111'' were rushing to reinforce the trap and ''
U-108'' and ''
U-552'' were ordered to sail from port to reinforce the Biscay group.
Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
ordered all warships in the area to join the pursuit of ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen''. Tovey's Home Fleet was steaming to intercept the German raiders, but on the morning of 24 May was still over away. The Admiralty ordered the light cruisers , , and to patrol the Denmark Strait in case Lütjens attempted to retrace his route. The battleship , which had been escorting and was due for a refit in the
Boston Navy Yard
The Boston Navy Yard, originally called the Charlestown Navy Yard and later Boston Naval Shipyard, was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States Navy. It was established in 1801 as part of the recent establishment of t ...
, joined Tovey. Two old s were ordered into the hunt: , from Halifax, and , which was escorting Convoy HX 127. In all, six battleships and battlecruisers, two aircraft carriers, thirteen cruisers, and twenty-one destroyers were committed to the chase. By around 17:00, the crew aboard ''Prince of Wales'' restored nine of her ten main guns to working order, which permitted Wake-Walker to place her in the front of his formation to attack ''Bismarck'' if the opportunity arose.
With the weather worsening, Lütjens attempted to detach ''Prinz Eugen'' at 16:40. The squall was not heavy enough to cover her withdrawal from Wake-Walker's cruisers, which continued to maintain radar contact. ''Prinz Eugen'' was therefore recalled temporarily. The cruiser was successfully detached at 18:14. ''Bismarck'' turned around to face Wake-Walker's formation, forcing ''Suffolk'' to turn away at high speed. ''Prince of Wales'' fired twelve salvos at ''Bismarck'', which responded with nine salvos, none of which hit. The action diverted British attention and permitted ''Prinz Eugen'' to slip away. After ''Bismarck'' resumed her previous heading, Wake-Walker's three ships took up station on ''Bismarck''s port side.
![Swordfish on HMS Victorious before strike on Bismarck](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Swordfish_on_HMS_Victorious_before_strike_on_Bismarck.jpg)
Although ''Bismarck'' had been damaged in the engagement with ''Hood'' and forced to reduce speed, she was still capable of reaching , the maximum speed of Tovey's . Unless ''Bismarck'' could be slowed, the British would be unable to prevent her from reaching Saint-Nazaire. Shortly before 16:00 on 25 May, Tovey detached the aircraft carrier and four light cruisers to shape a course that would position her to launch her
torpedo bomber
A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...
s. At 22:00, ''Victorious'' launched the strike, which comprised six
Fairey Fulmar
The Fairey Fulmar is a British carrier-borne reconnaissance aircraft/fighter aircraft which was developed and manufactured by aircraft company Fairey Aviation. It was named after the northern fulmar, a seabird native to the British Isles. The F ...
fighters and nine
Fairey Swordfish
The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also us ...
torpedo bombers of
825 Naval Air Squadron
825 Naval Air Squadron is a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Naval Air Squadron which was re-commissioned on 10 October 2014 and currently flies the AgustaWestland Wildcat HMA2.
It was a carrier-based squadron that was formed on 8 October 1934 from the ...
, led by Lt Cdr
Eugene Esmonde
Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde, (1 March 1909 – 12 February 1942) was a distinguished Irish pilot in the Fleet Air Arm who was a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy awa ...
. The inexperienced aviators nearly attacked ''Norfolk'' and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter on their approach; the confusion alerted ''Bismarck''s anti-aircraft gunners.
''Bismarck'' also used her main and secondary batteries to fire at maximum depression to create giant splashes in the paths of the incoming torpedo bombers. None of the attacking aircraft were shot down. ''Bismarck'' evaded eight of the torpedoes launched at her, but the ninth struck amidships on the main armoured belt, throwing one man into a bulkhead and killing him and injuring five others. The explosion also caused minor damage to electrical equipment. The ship suffered more serious damage from manoeuvres to evade the torpedoes: rapid shifts in speed and course loosened
collision mats, which increased the flooding from the forward shell hole and eventually forced abandonment of the port number 2 boiler room. This loss of a second boiler, combined with fuel losses and increasing bow trim, forced the ship to slow to . Divers repaired the collision mats in the bow, after which speed increased to , the speed that the command staff determined was the most economical for the voyage to occupied France.
Shortly after the Swordfish departed from the scene, ''Bismarck'' and ''Prince of Wales'' engaged in a brief artillery duel. Neither scored a hit. ''Bismarck''s damage control teams resumed work after the short engagement. The sea water that had flooded the number 2 port side boiler threatened to enter the number 4 turbo-generator feedwater system, which would have permitted saltwater to reach the turbines. The saltwater would have damaged the turbine blades and thus greatly reduced the ship's speed. By morning on 25 May, the danger had passed. The ship slowed to to allow divers to pump fuel from the forward compartments to the rear tanks; two hoses were successfully connected and a few hundred tons of fuel were transferred.
As the chase entered open waters, Wake-Walker's ships were compelled to zig-zag to avoid German U-boats that might be in the area. This required the ships to steam for ten minutes to port, then ten minutes to starboard, to keep the ships on the same base course. For the last few minutes of the turn to port, ''Bismarck'' was out of range of ''Suffolk''s radar. At 03:00 on 25 May, Lütjens decided to abandon the plan to lure the pursuers in the U-boat trap and to head directly for France. He ordered an increase to maximum speed, which at this point was . He then ordered the ship to circle away to the west and then north. This manoeuvre coincided with the period during which his ship was out of radar range; ''Bismarck'' successfully broke radar contact and circled back behind her pursuers. ''Suffolk''s captain assumed that ''Bismarck'' had broken off to the west and attempted to find her by also steaming west. After half an hour, he informed Wake-Walker, who ordered the three ships to disperse at daylight to search visually.
The Royal Navy search became frantic, as many of the British ships were low on fuel. ''Victorious'' and her escorting cruisers were sent west, Wake-Walker's ships continued to the south and west, and Tovey continued to steam toward the mid-Atlantic.
Force H, with the aircraft carrier and steaming up from
Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
, was still at least a day away. Unaware that he had shaken off Wake-Walker, Lütjens sent long radio messages to Naval Group West headquarters in Paris. The signals were intercepted by the British, from which bearings were determined. They were wrongly plotted on board ''King George V'', leading Tovey to believe that ''Bismarck'' was heading back to Germany through the Iceland-Faeroe gap, which kept his fleet on the wrong course for seven hours. By the time the mistake had been discovered, ''Bismarck'' had put a sizeable gap between herself and the British ships.
![HMS Ark Royal h85716](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/HMS_Ark_Royal_h85716.jpg)
British code-breakers were able to decrypt some of the German signals, including an order to the Luftwaffe to provide support for ''Bismarck'' making for Brest, decrypted by
Jane Fawcett on 25 May 1941. The
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
provided the British with confirmation that Luftwaffe units were relocating there. Tovey could now turn his forces toward France to converge in areas through which ''Bismarck'' would have to pass. A squadron of Coastal Command
Consolidated Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wit ...
flying boats based out of
RAF Castle Archdale in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
joined the search, covering areas where ''Bismarck'' might head in the attempt to reach occupied France. At 10:30 on 26 May, a Catalina piloted by Ensign
Leonard B. Smith of the US Navy located her, some northwest of Brest. At her current speed, she would have been close enough to reach the protection of U-boats and the Luftwaffe in less than a day. Most British forces were not close enough to stop her.
The only possibility for the Royal Navy was ''Ark Royal'' with Force H, under the command of Admiral
James Somerville
Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville, (17 July 1882 – 19 March 1949) was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the First World War as fleet wireless officer for the Mediterranean Fleet where he was involved in providing naval suppo ...
. ''Victorious'', ''Prince of Wales'', ''Suffolk'' and were forced to break off the search due to fuel shortage; the only heavy ships remaining apart from Force H were ''King George V'' and ''Rodney'', but they were too distant. ''Ark Royal''s Swordfish were already searching nearby when the Catalina found her. Several torpedo bombers also located the battleship, about away from ''Ark Royal''. Somerville ordered an attack as soon as the Swordfish returned and were rearmed with torpedoes. He detached the cruiser to shadow ''Bismarck'', though ''Ark Royal''s aviators were not informed of this. As a result, the Swordfish, which were armed with torpedoes equipped with new magnetic
detonators, accidentally attacked ''Sheffield''. The magnetic detonators failed to work properly and ''Sheffield'' emerged unscathed.
![HMS Ark Royal Swordfish](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/HMS_Ark_Royal_Swordfish.jpg)
Upon returning to ''Ark Royal'', the Swordfish loaded torpedoes equipped with contact detonators. The second attack comprised fifteen aircraft and was launched at 19:10. At 19h50 the ''Ark Royal'' and ''Renown'' ran over the position of the ''U-556''. The U-boat was in an ideal shooting position, but had expended all torpedoes on previous operations and could not launch an attack. Before attacking, the Swordfishes made first contact at 20h00 with the ''Sheffield'' which gave them a direction to the ''Bismarck.'' They could however not find the German ship and at 20h30 asked again a direction from the ''Sheffield.'' Finally at 20:47, the torpedo bombers began their attack descent through the clouds. As the Swordfish approached, ''Bismarck'' fired her main battery at ''Sheffield'', straddling the cruiser with her second salvo. Shell fragments rained down on ''Sheffield'', killing three men and wounding several others. ''Sheffield'' quickly retreated under cover of a smoke screen. The Swordfish then attacked; ''Bismarck'' began to turn violently as her anti-aircraft batteries engaged the bombers. One torpedo hit amidships on the port side, just below the bottom edge of the main armour belt. The force of the explosion was largely contained by the underwater protection system and the belt armour but some structural damage caused minor flooding.
The second torpedo struck ''Bismarck'' in her stern on the port side, near the port rudder shaft. The coupling on the port rudder assembly was badly damaged and the rudder became locked in a 12° turn to port. The explosion also caused much shock damage. The crew eventually managed to repair the starboard rudder but the port rudder remained jammed. A suggestion to sever the port rudder with explosives was dismissed by Lütjens, as damage to the screws would have left the battleship helpless. At 21:15, Lütjens reported that the ship was unmanoeuvrable.
Sinking
With the port rudder jammed, ''Bismarck'' was now steaming in a large circle, unable to escape from Tovey's forces. Though fuel shortages had reduced the number of ships available to the British, the battleships ''King George V'' and ''Rodney'' were still available, along with the heavy cruisers ''Dorsetshire'' and ''Norfolk''. Lütjens signalled headquarters at 21:40 on the 26th: "Ship unmanoeuvrable. We will fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer." The mood of the crew became increasingly depressed, especially as messages from the naval command reached the ship. Intended to boost morale, the messages only highlighted the desperate situation in which the crew found itself. As darkness fell, ''Bismarck'' briefly fired on ''Sheffield'', though the cruiser quickly fled. ''Sheffield'' lost contact in the low visibility and Captain
Philip Vian
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Louis Vian, & Two Bars (15 July 1894 – 27 May 1968) was a Royal Navy officer who served in both World Wars.
Vian specialised in naval gunnery from the end of World War I, and subsequently received sever ...
's group of five destroyers was ordered to keep contact with ''Bismarck'' through the night.
These destroyers encountered ''Bismarck'' at 22:38; the battleship quickly engaged them with her main battery. After firing three salvos, she straddled the
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
destroyer . The destroyer continued to close the range until a near miss at around forced her to turn away. Throughout the night and into the morning, Vian's destroyers harried ''Bismarck'', illuminating her with
star shells and firing sixteen torpedoes in nine separate attacks, none of which hit. Between 05:00 and 06:00, ''Bismarck''s crew attempted to launch one of the Arado 196 float planes to carry away the ship's war diary, footage of the engagement with ''Hood'', and other important documents. The third shell hit from ''Prince of Wales'' had damaged the steam line on the aircraft catapult, rendering it inoperative. As it was not possible to launch the aircraft, it had become a fire hazard, and was pushed overboard.
![Rodney firing on Bismarck](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Rodney_firing_on_Bismarck.png)
After daybreak on 27 May, ''King George V'' led the attack. ''Rodney'' followed off her port quarter; Tovey intended to steam directly at ''Bismarck'' until he was about away. At that point, he would turn south to put his ships parallel to his target. At 08:43, lookouts on ''King George V'' spotted her, some away. Four minutes later, ''Rodney''s two forward turrets, comprising six guns, opened fire, then ''King George V''s guns began firing. ''Bismarck'' returned fire at 08:50 with her forward guns; with her second salvo, she straddled ''Rodney''. Thereafter, ''Bismarck''s ability to aim her guns deteriorated as the ship, unable to steer, moved erratically in the heavy seas and deprived Schneider of a predictable course for range calculations.
As the range fell, the ships' secondary batteries joined the battle. ''Norfolk'' and ''Dorsetshire'' closed and began firing with their guns. At 09:02, a 16-inch shell from ''Rodney'' struck ''Bismarck''s forward
superstructure, killing hundreds of men and severely damaging the two forward turrets. According to survivors, this salvo probably killed both Lindemann and Lütjens and the rest of the bridge staff, although other survivors stated that they saw Lindemann on the deck as the ship sank. The main fire control director was also destroyed by this hit, which probably also killed Schneider. A second shell from this salvo struck the forward main battery, which was disabled, though it would manage to fire one last salvo at 09:27. Lieutenant von Müllenheim-Rechberg, in the rear control station, took over firing control for the rear turrets. He managed to fire three salvos before a shell destroyed the gun director, disabling his equipment. He gave the order for the guns to fire independently, but by 09:31, all four main battery turrets had been put out of action. One of ''Bismarck''s shells exploded 20 feet off ''Rodney''s bow and damaged her starboard torpedo tube—the closest ''Bismarck'' came to a direct hit on her opponents. At 09;10 ''Rodney'' launched six of her heavyweight ''
24.5-inch torpedoes'' from a distance of 10 km and ''Norfolk'' launched four from 15km. All torpedoes missed.
![HMS Dorsetshire Bismarck survivors](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/HMS_Dorsetshire_Bismarck_survivors.jpg)
With the bridge personnel no longer responding, the executive officer ''Fregattenkapitän'' Hans Oels took command of the ship from his station at the Damage Control Central. Some near misses alongside the port side, and the fact that the ship was no longer able to fight back, caused Oels to decide at around 09:30 to scuttle ''Bismarck'' to prevent the ship being boarded by the British, and to allow the crew to abandon ship so as to reduce casualties. Bismarck was also slowly sinking due to an increasing list that allowed water to enter the ship via damage to the main deck, although the ship's very large metacentric height kept her afloat. At around 09:30 Oels ordered the men below decks to abandon ship; he instructed the engine room crews to open the ship's watertight doors and to prepare scuttling charges. This scuttling command ensured that down-flooding would start to descend below the gun deck, as the crew made their way up through watertight hatches that would thereafter be left open. This flooding would progressively cause the ship to list increasingly until it capsized. Gerhard Junack, the chief engineering officer, ordered his men to set the demolition charges with a 9-minute fuse but the intercom system broke down and he sent a messenger to confirm the order to scuttle the ship. The messenger never returned, so Junack primed the charges and ordered his men to abandon ship. They left the engine spaces at around 10:10,. Junack and his comrades heard the demolition charges detonate as they made their way up through the various levels. Oels rushed throughout the ship, ordering men to abandon their posts. On the gun deck a huge explosion killed him and about a hundred others.
By 10:00, Tovey's two battleships had fired over 700 main battery shells, many at very close range. ''Rodney'' closed to ,
point-blank range
Point-blank range is any distance over which a certain firearm can hit a target without the need to compensate for bullet drop, and can be adjusted over a wide range of distances by sighting in the firearm. If the bullet leaves the barrel para ...
for guns of that size, and continued to fire. ''Bismarck'' had been reduced to a shambles, aflame from stem to stern. She was slowly settling by the stern from uncontrolled flooding with a 20 degree list to port. Tovey would not cease fire until the Germans
struck their ensigns or it became clear they were abandoning ship. Overall the four British ships fired more than 2,800 shells at ''Bismarck'', and scored more than 400 hits, but were unable to sink ''Bismarck'' by gunfire. The heavy gunfire at virtually point-blank range devastated the superstructure and the sections of the hull that were above the waterline, causing very heavy casualties, but it contributed little to the eventual sinking of the ship. ''Rodney'' fired two torpedoes from her port-side tube and claimed one hit. According to
Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy (3 November 191918 October 2009) was a Scottish journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans an ...
, "if true,
his is
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
* Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company
* Honeywell Information Systems
* Hybrid intelligent system
* Microsoft Host Integration Server
Education
* Hangzhou International School, in ...
the only instance in history of one battleship torpedoing another".
The scuttling charges detonated around 10:20. By 10:35, the ship had assumed a heavy port list, capsizing slowly and sinking by the stern. At around 10:20, running low on fuel, Tovey ordered the cruiser ''Dorsetshire'' to sink ''Bismarck'' with torpedoes and ordered his battleships back to port. ''Dorsetshire'' fired a pair of torpedoes into ''Bismarck''s starboard side, one of which hit. ''Dorsetshire'' then moved around to her port side and fired another torpedo, which also hit. By the time these torpedo attacks took place, the ship was already listing so badly that the deck was partly awash. It appears that the final torpedo may have detonated against ''Bismarck''s port side superstructure, which was by then already underwater. ''Bismarck'' disappeared beneath the surface at 10:40.
Junack, who had abandoned ship by the time it capsized, observed no underwater damage to the ship's starboard side. Von Müllenheim-Rechberg reported the same but assumed that the port side, which was then under water, had been more significantly damaged. Some survivors reported they saw Captain Lindemann standing at attention at the stem of the ship as she sank. Around 400 men were now in the water; ''Dorsetshire'' and the destroyer moved in and lowered ropes to pull the survivors aboard. At 11:40, ''Dorsetshire''s captain ordered the rescue effort abandoned after lookouts spotted what they thought was a U-boat. ''Dorsetshire'' had rescued 85 men and ''Maori'' had picked up 25 by the time they left the scene. The
U-74 had been watching from a distance the last fights of the ''Bismarck'' with Vian's destroyers and Tovey's ships and rescued three men from a rubber dinghy in the evening at 19:30. The next day the German trawler ''
Sachsenwald
The Sachsenwald () is a forest near Hamburg, Germany. It is an unincorporated area in the amt Hohe Elbgeest. It derives its name (which means 'Saxon woods' in English) from being located in the former Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, earlier also calle ...
'' rescued another two from a raft at 22:45. One of the men picked up by the British died of his wounds the following day. Out of a crew of over 2,200 men, only 114 survived.
In 1959,
C. S. Forester published his novel ''
Last Nine Days of the Bismarck
''The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck'' (Little Brown, 1959), also published as ''Hunting the Bismark'' (Michael Joseph, 1959), was written by C.S. Forester (1899–1966), the author of the popular Horatio Hornblower series of naval-themed books ...
.'' The book was adapted for the movie ''
Sink the Bismarck!
''Sink the Bismarck!'' is a 1960 black-and-white CinemaScope British war film based on the 1959 book ''The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck'' by C. S. Forester. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and was directed by Lewis Gilbert.Weiler, A.H ...
,'' released the following year. For dramatic effect the film showed ''Bismarck'' sinking a British destroyer and shooting down two aircraft, neither of which happened. That same year,
Johnny Horton released the song "
Sink the Bismark
"Sink the Bismark" (later "Sink the Bismarck") is a march song by American country music singer Johnny Horton and songwriter Tillman Franks, based on the pursuit and eventual sinking of the German battleship ''Bismarck'' in May 1941, during ...
".
Wreckage
Discovery by Robert Ballard
The wreck of ''Bismarck'' was discovered on 8 June 1989 by
Robert Ballard
Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942) is an American retired Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology o ...
, the
oceanographer
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...
responsible for finding .
''Bismarck'' was found to be resting on her keel at a depth of approximately , about west of Brest. The ship struck an extinct underwater volcano, which rose some above the surrounding
abyssal plain
An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between and . Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface. ...
, triggering a
landslide. ''Bismarck'' slid down the mountain, coming to a stop about two-thirds of the way down. Ballard kept the wreck's exact location a secret to prevent other divers from taking artefacts from the ship, a practice he considered a form of
grave robbing
Grave robbery, tomb robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a grave, tomb or crypt to steal commodities. It is usually perpetrated to take and profit from valuable artefacts or personal property. A related act is body snatching, a term ...
.
Ballard's survey found no underwater penetrations of the ship's fully armoured
citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
I ...
. Eight holes were found in the hull, one on the starboard side and seven on the port side, all above the waterline. One of the holes is in the deck, on the bow's starboard side. The angle and shape indicates the shell that created the hole was fired from ''Bismarck''s port side and struck the starboard anchor chain. The anchor chain has disappeared down this hole. Six holes are
amidships
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th ...
, three shell fragments pierced the upper splinter belt, and one made a hole in the main armour belt. Further aft a huge hole is visible, parallel to the aircraft catapult, on the deck. The submersibles recorded no sign of a shell penetration through the main or side armour here, and it is likely that the shell penetrated the deck armour only. Naval historians William Garzke and Robert Dulin noted that the British battleships were shooting at very close range; the flat trajectory of the shells made it difficult to hit the relatively narrow target represented by the belt armour above the waterline due to the high waves, caused by gale force winds, which shielded the belt armour as shells that fell short would either strike the water and ricochet up into the superstructure or explode after striking the waves.
Ballard noted that he found no evidence of the internal implosions that occur when a hull that is not fully flooded sinks. The surrounding water, which has much greater pressure than the air in the hull, would crush the ship. Instead, Ballard points out that the hull is in relatively good condition; he states simply that "''Bismarck'' did not implode." This suggests that ''Bismarck''s compartments were flooded when the ship sank, supporting the scuttling theory. Ballard added "we found a hull that appears whole and relatively undamaged by the descent and impact". They concluded that the direct cause of sinking was scuttling: sabotage of engine-room valves by her crew, as claimed by German survivors.
The whole stern had broken away; as it was not near the main wreckage and has not yet been found, it can be assumed this did not occur on impact with the sea floor. The missing section came away roughly where the torpedo had hit, raising questions of possible structural failure. The stern area had also received several hits, increasing the torpedo damage. This, coupled with the fact the ship sank stern first and had no structural support to hold it in place, suggests the stern detached at the surface. In 1942 ''Prinz Eugen'' was also torpedoed in the stern, which collapsed. This prompted a strengthening of the stern structures on all German capital ships.
Subsequent expeditions
In June 2001, Deep Ocean Expeditions, partnered with
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering.
Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it ...
, conducted another investigation of the wreck. The researchers used Russian-built
mini-submarines. William N. Lange, a Woods Hole expert, stated, "You see a large number of shell holes in the superstructure and deck, but not that many along the side, and none below the waterline." The expedition found no penetrations in the main armoured belt, above or below the waterline. The examiners noted several long gashes in the hull, but attributed these to impact on the sea floor.
An Anglo-American expedition in July 2001 was funded by a British TV channel. The team used the volcano—the only one in that area—to locate the wreck. Using
ROVs to film the hull, the team concluded that the ship had sunk due to combat damage. Expedition leader
David Mearns
David Louis Mearns, OAM, M.Sc. (born 10 August 1958), is an American-born United Kingdom based marine scientist and oceanographer, who specializes in deep water search and recovery operations, and the discovery of the location of historic shipwr ...
claimed significant gashes had been found in the hull: "My feeling is that those holes were probably lengthened by the slide, but initiated by torpedoes".
The 2002 documentary ''
Expedition: Bismarck'', directed by
James Cameron and filmed in May–June 2002 using smaller and more agile
Mir submersibles, reconstructed the events leading to the sinking. These provided the first interior shots. Unlike the Ballard expedition, Cameron's investigation was able to examine parts of the sides of the hull. When ''Bismarck'' hit the bottom bow first, massive "hydraulic outburst" separated much of the shell plating of the hull along the line where it joined the bottom of the armour belt. The decks under the armour deck have been compressed by 3 to 4 metres. The most extensive damage, including the gashes Mearns observed, was thus due to impact of the hull with the ocean floor as opposed to directly due to battle damage.
Although around 719 large calibre shells were fired at Bismarck that morning, Cameron’s survey noted only two instances where the 320 mm main side belt armour had actually been fully penetrated in the visible parts of the hull. These were both on the starboard side amidships. One hole is forward of the 320 mm displaced armour belt. In the second case the explosion dislodged a rectangular segment of the 320 mm armour. Instead, the expedition argues long range plunging fire hitting the deck was almost completely responsible for the damage that directly contributed to the sinking of the ship. The later close-range shelling (including by secondary armament) "devastated the superstructure and exposed parts of the hull above the waterline, and caused massive casualties", but contributed little to the sinking of the ship. British gunnery accuracy was "mediocre at best", partially due to the "miserable" firing conditions and the ship's list to port, with only around 10% of fired medium calibre shots hitting.
The Cameron report stated that "The devastation caused by the shellfire combined with the effects of several torpedo hits to overwhelm and defeat the ''Bismarck'', causing the ship to begin sinking due to uncontrollable progressive flooding. The German crew sped the inevitable demise of their ship by initiating scuttling measures." It suggests the torpedoes may have increased the subsequent extensive damage to the ship when it hit the ocean floor. In some cases the torpedo blasts had failed to shatter the torpedo bulkheads., and some hits claimed may have been torpedoes that exploded prematurely due to the heavy seas. However the locations of other hits were buried in mud or were impossible to distinguish due to the extent of overall damage to the ship. Overall the report disputed Mearns' claim that scuttling was irrelevant to the timing of the sinking.
Despite their sometimes differing viewpoints, these experts generally agree that ''Bismarck'' would have eventually foundered if the Germans had not scuttled her first. Ballard estimated that ''Bismarck'' could still have floated for at least a day when the British vessels ceased fire and could have been captured by the Royal Navy, a position supported by Ludovic Kennedy (who was serving on the destroyer at the time). Kennedy stated, "That she would have foundered eventually there can be little doubt; but the scuttling ensured that it was sooner rather than later." The Cameron expedition's report asserts "Bismarck unquestionably would have sunk due to progressive flooding hours after the battle ended". In Mearns' subsequent book ''Hood and Bismarck'', he conceded that scuttling "may have hastened the inevitable, but only by a matter of minutes." Ballard later concluded that "As far as I was concerned, the British had sunk the ship regardless of who delivered the final blow."
See also
*
Unsinkable Sam – Cat which is said to have survived the sinking of ''Bismarck''
*
German submarine U-556 – Related U-boat
Footnotes
Notes
Citations
References
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Online sources
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Further reading
* Ballard, R. (1990). ''The Discovery of the Bismarck''. New York, NY. Warner Books Inc.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bismarck
1939 ships
Bismarck-class battleships
Maritime incidents in May 1941
Scuttled vessels of Germany
Ships built in Hamburg
World War II battleships of Germany
World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
1989 archaeological discoveries