From 'The Crucial Years, 1931-1941' by Hanson W. Baldwin:
The short cruise of the Bismarck and her consort, the 8-inch-gun cruiser Prinz Eugen, was the most dramatic sea chase of modern naval history. Bismarck, building when the war started, ready for sea in the spring of 1941, was in her time the stoutest ship afloat. A 41,700 ton (standard) mastodon of seapower, she was one of the last of the great armored leviathans. Her main battery was eight 15-inch guns—more powerful than any comparable British model—and she had a swift pair of heels (30 knots); but her great strength was her design: a honeycomb of cellular compartmentation to minimize and localize damage, strong and elastic torpedo inner skin, skillful placement of very heavy armor to protect vitals, and careful shielding of magazines and conning and engine spaces. She was more powerful than the ships that could catch her, faster than the ships that had roughly equivalent firepower. She was to need it all—and more—before her brief hour of glory had passed.

From 'Roosevelt and Churchill: 1939-1941' by Joseph P. Lash:
Roosevelt considered the commitment of the Bismarck to the Battle of the Atlantic as another warning to him. "I was in the White House during the whole career of the Bismarck," Robert Sherwood wrote an English friend, "and it was inexpressibly thrilling to hear the repeated bulletins that came from the Admiralty to Roosevelt. The belief is that Hitler sent the Bismarck primarily to scare the US with a tremendous display of Nazi might right on our doorstep..." If a strong line were taken, Ribbentrop had lectured Mussolini in Mid-May, "and if it were explained that American convoy protection meant war, the Americans would probably hesitate, for the American rearmament was the greatest bluff in history." But in their innermost councils, the Germans were less sure of Roosevelt's reactions, and Räder, after his interview, was reminded that Hitler's orders against attacks on American shipping still held. "The Führer wants to avoid everything that could lead to incidents with the United States.

From 'The Last European War' by John Lukacs:
...there was high drama in the Atlantic. Two German battleships, one of them Hitler's newest and largest, the Bismarck, sank the Hood, the largest battleship of the British, off Greenland, in a matter of minutes. An entire fleet of ships drove out for the Bismarck. Hunted down after four days, she was finally sunk. It was a thrilling naval episode—for onlookers. A fantastically successful German bull's-eye shot; the British inability to hit back in time; their maddeningly slow comeback; Churchill insisting and insisting that the German be tracked down, hell or high water; the undisclosed American participation in the search; 'Various Parties Converging on the Sea'; the assembly of overwhelming force; surrounded and pounded from every side, the burning and rudderless German still floats and floats; she sinks in the end. Few people knew that the course of the episode was to be a microcosm of the course of the entire Second World War.

From 'The Cruise of the Bismarck' by Francis McMurtrie:
There is a sort of crackling roar to port—the Rodney has opened up with her 16-inch guns, and an instant later, the King George V (above) lets fly with her 14-inch... Rodney...just sat there like a great slab of rock...and suddenly belched a full salvo. I actually saw these projectiles flying through the air for some seconds after they left the guns, like little diminishing footballs curving up and into the sky... There was only one great splash... The others had bored their way through the Krupp armor-belt like cheese; and pray God I may never know what they did as they exploded inside the hull... Bismarck...turned away, then back, writhing, it seemed, under the most merciless hail of high-explosive armor-piercing shells that any ship has, I suppose, ever faced...

From 'The Chase and Sinking of the Battleship Bismarck' by Ludovic Kennedy:
And as he left, Admiral Sir John C. Tovey, made a general signal to ships in company: 'Any ship with torpedoes to close Bismarck and torpedo her.' Only one ship, Dorsetshire, still had torpedoes, and when Tovey's signal reached her, Captain Martin had already anticipated it. Closing to a mile and a half on Bismarck's starboard beam, she fired two torpedoes, both of which hit. She then went round the other side, at just over a mile fired another, which also hit. Far off now in King George V, half-way to the horizon, Tovey saw, through his glasses, the great ship slowly heel over to port until her funnel was level with the water, go on turning until she was completely upside down. The stern dipped below the surface of the water, then the main keel: the great flared bows were the last to go.

From 'Bodyguard of Lies' by Anthony Cave Brown:
The disaster was...too much for Grand Admiral Räder, the C-in-C of the Kriegsmarine. The destruction of Bismarck, and later of the Etappe's supply ships, was too striking to dismiss the possibility that the Kriegsmarine's ciphers had been broken, or that there was a traitor somewhere in the Kriegsmarine's command organization. But in all cases, a Board of Inquiry dismissed the belief that Enigma had been compromised. 'It is not necessary,' the German board concluded in its report, 'to put the blame on a breach of security as regards the code and cipher tables.' Instead, the board preferred to place the blame upon the ubiquity of MI-16 and upon the probability of a traitor at Kriegsmarine headquarters. The report noted that the navy's telephone lines between Berlin and Paris ran through boosters that were not always manned by Germans. Therefore, the tapping of those lines by British agents was very probable. It was the same story throughout the war; the Nazis feared their own traitors more than enemy cryptographers. 'They had,' noted one British naval intelligence officer, 'more confidence in their own efficiency than in the loyalty commanded by their political system.' For that arrogance, the Third Reich would pay the ultimate price.

The Bismarck, probably Germany’s most famous battleship in World War Two, was sunk on May 27th 1941. The Bismarck had already sunk HMS Hood before being sunk herself. For many, the end of the Hood and Bismarck symbolised the end of the time when battleships were the dominant force in naval warfare, to be replaced by submarines and aircraft carriers and the advantages these ships gave to naval commanders. The Bismarck displaced over 50,000 tons and 40% of this displacement was armour. Such armour gave the Bismarck many advantages in protection but it did not inhibit her speed – she was capable of 29 knots. Launched in 1939, the Bismarck carried a formidable array of weaponry – 8 x 15 inch guns, 12 x 5.9 inch guns, 16 x 4.1 inch AA guns, 16 x 20mm AA guns and 2 x Arado 96 aircraft. The Bismarck had a crew of 2,200.

In 1940, both the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau came across a convoy returning from the UK to Halifax, Canada. However, the convoy was protected by HMS Ramillies and neither German ship could risk being hit by a ship that in other circumstances would easily be outgunned by both German ships.

To overcome the fear of damage at sea, Räder’s plan was for the German Navy to concentrate a powerful naval force in the Atlantic so that there would not be a concern about convoys and their protection. He intended for the Bismarck, the Prinz Eugen, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau to operate in the Atlantic fully supported with supply and reconnaissance ships – with such a force, no convoy would be safe regardless of how many naval protection ships they had. However, Räder’s plan, code-named “Exercise Rhine”, was severely hampered from the start when the Gneisenau was hit by bombs while in Brest and the repairs needed for the Scharnhorst would take much longer than Raeder had anticipated. Regardless of this, Räder ordered the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen to sail as planned. The ships sailed on May 18th – but on May 20th, they were spotted by the Swedish cruiser ‘Gotland’ off the Swedish coast and the admiral in command of both ships – Lütjens – knew that such information would be received in London before the 20th was out. He was right.

On May 21st, both ships docked at Kors Fjord, near Bergen. The Prinz Eugen needed to refuel. At night both ships left, and not long after this the area around Kors Fjord was bombed by the British.

To get into the Atlantic, both ships had to pass north of Scapa Flow – one of Britain’s largest naval bases. At this base was the battleship ‘King George V’, the newly commissioned (but not battle ready) battleship ‘Prince of Wales’, the battle-cruiser ‘HMS Hood’ and the aircraft carrier ‘HMS Victorious’. With these ships were nine destroyers and four cruisers of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron. At sea in the vicinity were the cruisers ‘Norfolk’, ‘Suffolk’ ‘Manchester’ and ‘Birmingham’. The battleship ‘Rodney’ was also on convoy duty in the Atlantic.

When the new reached the Admiralty that the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen had left Bergen, Admiral Sir John Tovey, Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet, ordered the ‘Hood’ and the ‘Prince of Wales’ to sail accompanied by six destroyers. The fleet left Scapa Flow on May 22nd. All other ships in Scapa Flow and some on the Clyde were put on short notice. On the same day, German reconnaissance for Lütjens, informed him that all the ships that should have been in Scapa Flow were still there.

This was incorrect as the Hood and Prince of Wales had already sailed – though Lütjens thought otherwise. He was also convinced that the weather was on his side as fog obscured many areas to the west of the Norwegian coast and Lütjens became satisfied that he could get into the Atlantic unseen. Such was his confidence that he failed to keep an appointment with a tanker, preferring to steam ahead to the Atlantic. To boost his fleet, Tovey ordered the ‘Victorious’ to sail on the 22nd May and on the following day the battle cruiser HMS Repulse sailed.

At noon on May 23rd, the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen entered the Denmark Strait, between Iceland and Greenland. Here, Lütjens met problems. The fog he had expected to cover his fleet did not materialise and his ships were squeezed between the Greenland ice field that extended 80 miles out from south-east Greenland to the north-west tip of Iceland itself. Lütjens was well aware that this whole area had been mined by the British and he had to select his course well. The Royal Navy also knew that the Germans would be forced to sail through a small area of sea and at 19.22 on May 23rd, the cruiser ‘Suffolk’ spotted both the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen. The ‘Suffolk’ reported her sighting and HMS Norfolk picked this report up. At 20.22, the Norfolk spotted both German ships.

The ‘Suffolk’s report had reached the ‘Hood’ and Admiral Holland, on the ‘Hood’ concluded that there were 300 miles between his ship and the Bismarck. Holland ordered that the ‘Hood’ should steer a course to the exit of the Denmark Strait and the battle cruiser steamed off at 27 knots. At this speed, the ‘Hood’ should have come into contact with the ‘Bismarck’ at 06.00 on May 24th. The ‘King George V’ and ‘Victorious’ also picked up the message but were both 600 miles away and would have been unable to support the ‘Hood’ on the following day at 06.00. The Admiralty remained concerned for the safety of the convoys in the Atlantic as there was always the danger the ‘Bismarck’ might slip away. Therefore the ‘Renown’, ‘Ark Royal’ and ‘Sheffield’ were ordered to sea from Gibraltar to give further protection to the convoys.

The ‘Bismarck’ had darkness on her side and for a couple of hours, the ‘Suffolk’ and ‘Norfolk’ lost touch with the Bismarck. Without their positioning information, the ‘Hood’ could easily have lost contact with the Bismarck. However, by 02.47 on May 24th, the Suffolk had regained contact with the Bismarck. The information sent back by the ‘Suffolk’ led the Hood to believe that she would be just 20 miles from the Bismarck at 05.30 on May 24th. At 05.35, the lookout from the Hood made out the Prinz Eugen and the Bismarck at a distance of 17 miles.

Holland ordered the Hood to turn to the German ships and at 05.45 they were only 22,000 metres apart. At 05.52, the ‘Hood’ opened fire and shortly afterwards was joined by the ‘Prince of Wales’. At 05.54, both the Prinz Eugen and the Bismarck fired their guns primarily against the ‘Hood’.

The Prinz Eugen hit the Hood and set alight some anti-aircraft shells kept on deck. The fire this caused was not particularly dangerous for the ‘Hood’ even though it produced a great deal of smoke. At 06.00 a salvo from the Bismarck hit the Hood. The Bismarck had fired from 17,000 metres and the elevation of her guns meant that the shells that hit the ‘Hood’ had a high trajectory and a steep angle of descent. The Hood had minimal horizontal armour and one of the shells from the Bismarck penetrated the Hood’s deck and exploded in one of her magazines. A massive explosion tore the ‘Hood’ in half. Those who saw the explosion said that the bows of the ‘Hood’ were raised out of the sea before they sank. The ship sank extremely quickly and only three men out of a total crew of 1,419 survived.

After the destruction of the ‘Hood, the Germans turned their fire onto the ‘Prince of Wales’. Her captain, Leach, decided that the best course of action was to turn away under the cover of smoke and, along with the ‘Suffolk’ and ‘Norfolk’ continue to tail the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.

However, the Bismarck had not escaped untouched by the battle. One shell had pierced two oil tanks. The damage it did to the ship was minimal but it did mean that 1000 tons of fuel was no longer available to the Bismarck as the shell had cut off this supply. Other senior officers on the Bismarck advised Lütjens to return to Germany buoyed by the success against the ‘Hood’. This advice was not listened to.

For reasons not known, Lütjens sent Hitler a message about his contact with the Hood which took 30 minutes to send by radio. This message was picked up by the Royal Navy. However, the information sent to Tovey was misleading as he was not in a position to interpret the bearing given to him by the Admiralty. The Admiralty also made another error. It failed to use gnomonic charts for its bearings and the King George V was given the position of the Bismarck but it was 200 miles out. This led Tovey to believe that the Bismarck was trying to return to Germany through the Iceland-Faeroes Gap. Through no fault of his own, Tovey was wrong.

The Admiralty did realise its mistake and informed Tovey that the Bismarck was, in fact, making for the Biscay ports. At 18.10 the King George V and other ships turned to the Biscay ports. Finally, the Royal Navy was given the correct course to follow but the Bismarck had a lead on them of 110 miles. The weather also favoured the Bismarck as it was deteriorating and visibility was reduced as the cloud as low. The Admiralty used Catalina flying boats to search for the Bismarck. On May 27th, the Catalina’s finally spotted the Bismarck. This information was given to the Swordfish crews from the Ark Royal which was steaming up from Gibraltar. They took off at 14.30 in rapidly deteriorating weather.

The lead Swordfish spotted a large ship on its radar and fourteen planes dived through cloud for an attack. Unfortunately, they attacked the ‘Sheffield’ as no-one had told them that the ‘Sheffield’ was in the same area as the Bismarck shadowing the giant German battleship. Luckily no damage was done to the ‘Sheffield’.

The Swordfish returned to the ‘Victorious’ to be re-fuelled and re-armed. By 19.10, they were airborne once again. At 19.40 they spotted the ‘Sheffield’, which gave the crews the direction of the ‘Bismarck’ -12 miles to the south-east. Fifteen planes attacked the ‘Bismarck’ and there were two definite torpedo hits and one probable. One of the torpedoes did considerable damage to the battleship by damaging her starboard propeller, wrecking her steering gear and jamming her rudders. Two observation planes saw the ‘Bismarck’ literally sailing in circles in the immediate aftermath of the attack and at less than 8 knots. The attack had crippled the ‘Bismarck’. The only saving grace for Lütjens was that the night had come and the darkness gave him some hint of cover. However, throughout the night the stricken battleship was harassed by destroyers under the command of Captain Vian.

The destroyers shadowed the ‘Bismarck’ and fed her position back to the ‘Norfolk’. The ‘Norfolk’ was joined by the battleships ‘Rodney’ and the ‘King George V’. On May 27th at 08.47, the ‘Rodney’ opened fire on the ‘Bismarck’. At 08.48, the ‘King George V’ did the same. The ‘Bismarck’ fired back but a salvo from the ‘Rodney’ took out the two forward gun turrets of the ‘Bismarck’. By 10.00 all her main guns had been silenced and her mast had been blown away. By 10.10, all her secondary armaments had been destroyed and the giant ship simply wallowed in the water. At 10.15, Tovey called off his battleships and ordered the ‘Dorsetshire’ to sink the ‘Bismarck’ with torpedoes. Three torpedoes were fired at the ‘Bismarck’ and she sank at 10.40. Out of her crew of 2,200, there were only 115 survivors. Only 2 officers out of 100 survived.

The ‘Prinz Eugen’ returned to Brest on June 1st and all but one of the supply ships sent out with the ‘Bismarck’ and ‘Prinz Eugen’ were sunk. ‘Exercise Rhine’ had been a dismal failure for the Germans as no convoy was attacked and her most feared battleship had been lost. For the British, there was much propaganda to make out of the episode even though the ‘Hood’ had been lost.

 

Should we have sunk the Bismarck? Tormented sailor reveals how Germans tried to urrender before ship was destroyed costing 2,000 lives By Daily Mail Reporter May 27, 2011 With her steering jammed and her speed slashed by torpedo attacks, the Bismarck and her crew of 2,200 were a sitting duck for the Royal Navy. And in two hours the German battleship was a helpless wreck of twisted metal, raging fires and dead and dying crew. But the ship’s agony was not over. After the bombardment by British battleships, she was finished off by torpedoes, slipping under the Atlantic with all but 200 of those aboard. For the Royal Navy it was a triumph – revenge for the Bismarck’s destruction of the pride of the fleet, HMS Hood, days earlier. But the son of one of the British sailors who saw Bismarck’s end 70 years ago today has come forward to claim that the battle might have ended very differently – because the German crew tried to surrender at the height of the bombardment. Tommy Byers, a sailor on the British battleship Rodney, maintained until he died that the ship, which was sunk hundreds of miles off the coast of Brittany, France, hoisted a black flag – the naval sign calling for parley. He and a second seaman also saw a Morse code flash, which they interpreted as surrender, along with a man waving semaphore flags conveying the same message. Royal Navy officers were made aware of the signs but were determined to follow Winston Churchill’s order to ‘sink the Bismarck’. The Prime Minister wanted to avenge the Hood, on which all but three of its 1,418 crew had died. Had the Bismarck been captured, the lives of hundreds of Germans could have been saved. The ship would also have been a prized catch, giving Navy engineers an insight into the design of Bismarck’s mighty sistership, Tirpitz. The revelation has been unearthed by author Iain Ballantyne for a book about the Bismarck which has been published 70 years after the sinking on May 27, 1941. One account he came across was an interview Mr Byers gave to his son Kevin before he died in 2004 aged 86. Mr Byers, a gunnery officer on Rodney, saw the battle unfold through binoculars at a distance of two miles. The Rodney had closed to what was point-blank range in gunnery terms because the Bismarck was no longer firing back. Mr Byers said: ‘Very early on men started jumping over board. They couldn’t stand the heat. One particular fella on top of B turret was waving his arms in semaphore. ‘I saw this and I told the gunnery officer, Lieutenant Commander Crawford. He said, “I don’t want to know about any signal now”. She then flew a black flag…but he (Crawford) wasn’t having any of it. ‘Then she started blinking with her Morse lamps on the yard arm and he (Crawford) said “Don’t report anything more like that”.’ Kevin Byers, 52, from Portaferry, County Down, said: ‘Dad knew what he saw. He felt guilty he didn’t do more at the time but he wasn’t of high enough rank to be heard. ‘Something like 2,000 men died and this nagged away at him for the rest of his life.’ The second witness was Lieutenant Donald Campbell, the air defence officer on HMS Rodney. In his account of the sinking he said he saw the morse signal. This was also reported by a sailor on the cruiser HMS Dorsetshire. The Bismarck had been hunted down relentlessly. Crippled by torpedo attacks from the carrier Ark Royal, she tried to limp towards France but was cornered by Rodney and another battleship, King George V. Terry Charman, of the Imperial War Museum, said the admiral on Bismarck had sent telegrams to Hitler that the ship would fight to the end. But he added: ‘It may be some of the crew wanted to surrender, they were in a hopeless position.’ Ian Ballantyne's book Killing The Bismarck is published by Pen and Sword Books Why We Couldn't Accept the Surrender There are strong arguments to support the Royal Navy's decision to ignore the attempt by some on Bismarck to surrender. According to Navy accounts, the Bismarck never stopped returning fire, so they were faced with little choice but to destroy it. Terry Charman, senior historian at the Imperial War Museum, said: 'The Bismarck's admiral was a fairly fanatical believer in Hitler and the telegrams he sent were along the lines of "we will fight to the end". 'It would have been very dangerous to take the surrender. 'HMS Devonshire picked up 200 survivors but had to leave a lot of men behind because there was U-boat activity in the area.'