Bismarck was the first of two Bismarck-class battleships
built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the
ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and
launched nearly three years later in April 1939. Work was completed in August
1940, when she was commissioned into the German fleet. Along with her sister
ship Tirpitz, Bismarck was the largest battleship ever built by Germany, and
the heaviest built by any European power.
Bismarck conducted only one offensive operation, codenamed
Rheinübung, in May 1941. The ship, along with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen,
was to break out into the Atlantic Ocean and raid Allied shipping from North
America to Great Britain. The two ships were detected several times off
Scandinavia, however, and British naval units were deployed to block their
route. At the Battle of Denmark Strait, Bismarck engaged and destroyed the
battlecruiser HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, and forced the battleship HMS
Prince of Wales to retreat with heavy damage, although in the end Bismarck
herself was hit three times and suffered an oil leak from a ruptured tank
following the hits.
The destruction of Hood spurred a relentless pursuit by the
Royal Navy with dozens of warships involved. Two days later, while steaming for
the relative safety of occupied France, Bismarck was attacked by Fairey
Swordfish torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal; one hit was
scored that jammed the battleship's steering gear and rendered her
unmanoeuvrable. The following morning, Bismarck was destroyed by a pair of
British battleships. The cause of her sinking is disputed: some in the Royal
Navy claim that torpedoes fired by the cruiser HMS Dorsetshire administered the
fatal blow, while German survivors argue that they scuttled the ship. In June
1989, Robert Ballard discovered the location of Bismarck's wreck. Several other
expeditions have surveyed the sunken battleship in an effort to document more
completely the condition of the ship and to determine the cause of the ship's
loss.
Construction and characteristics
Bismarck
was ordered as Ersatz Hannover as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought
Schleswig-Holstein, under the contract name "F." The Blohm & Voss
shipyard in Hamburg was awarded the contract, where the keel was laid on 1 July
1936. The hull was launched on 1 April 1939; during the elaborate ceremonies,
the ship was christened by the granddaughter of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck,
the ship's namesake. Fitting-out out work followed her launch, during which
time her original straight stem was replaced with a raked "Atlantic
bow" similar to the Scharnhorst-class battleships. Bismarck was
commissioned into the fleet on 24 August 1940 for sea trials, which were
conducted in the Baltic. Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann took command of the
ship at the time of her commissioning.
Bismarck
displaced 41,700 t (41,000 long tons) as built and 50,300 t (49,500 long tons)
fully loaded, with an overall length of 251 m (823 ft 6 in), a beam of 36 m
(118 ft 1 in) and a maximum draft of 9.9 m (32 ft 6 in). She was the largest
battleship built by Germany, as well as the heaviest battleship built by a
European navy. She was powered by three Blohm & Voss geared steam turbines,
which developed a total of 150,170 shaft horsepower (111,980 kW) and yielded a
maximum speed of 30.01 kn (55.58 km/h; 34.53 mph) on speed trials. Her standard
crew numbered 103 officers and 1,962 enlisted men. Bismarck was equipped with
three FuMO 23 radar sets, mounted on the forward and stern range-finders and
the ship's foretop.
She was
armed with eight 38 cm (15 in) L/52 guns arranged in four twin gun turrets: two
super-firing turrets forward—Anton and Bruno—and two aft—Caesar and Dora. Her
secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) L/55 guns, sixteen 10.5
cm (4.1 in) L/65 and sixteen 3.7 cm (1.5 in) L/83, and twelve 2 cm (0.79 in)
anti-aircraft guns. The ship's main belt was 320 mm (13 in) thick and was
covered by a pair of upper and main armoured decks that were 50 mm (2.0 in) and
100 to 120 mm (3.9 to 4.7 in) thick, respectively. The 38 cm turrets were
protected by 360 mm (14 in) thick faces and 220 mm (8.7 in) thick sides.
Service history
On 15
September 1940, three weeks after her commissioning, Bismarck left Hamburg to
begin sea trials in Kiel Bay. Sperrbrecher 13 escorted the ship to Arcona on 28
September, and then on to Gotenhafen for trials in the Gulf of Danzig. The
ship's power-plant was given a thorough workout; Bismarck made measured-mile
and high speed runs. Her stability and maneuverability were also tested; during
these tests, a flaw in the ship's design was discovered. While attempting to
steer the ship solely through altering propeller revolutions, the crew learned
that the ship 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. Trials lasted until December; Bismarck returned
to Hamburg, arriving on 9 December, for minor alterations and the final
completion of the out-fitting process.
The ship
was scheduled to return to Kiel on 24 January 1941, but a merchant vessel had
been sunk in the Kiel Canal and prevented usage of the waterway. Severe weather
hampered efforts to remove the wreck, and Bismarck was not able to make the
passage to Kiel until March. The delay greatly frustrated KzS 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 make the voyage to Kiel, Bismarck hosted a
visit by 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;
this gave the Royal Navy its first full picture of the vessel, although it
lacked specificity on important information, including top speed, radius of
action, and displacement.
On 6 March,
Bismarck received the order to steam to Kiel. While en route, the ship was
escorted by several Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters and a pair of armed merchant
vessels, along with an icebreaker. At 8:45 on 8 March, Bismarck briefly ran
aground on the southern shore of the Kiel Canal, though she was freed within an
hour. The battleship reached Kiel the following day, where her crew stocked
ammunition, fuel, and other supplies and applied a coat of dazzle paint to
camouflage her from aerial observers. British bombers attacked the harbour
without success on 12 March. On 17 March, the old battleship Schlesien, now
used as an icebreaker, escorted Bismarck through the ice to Gotenhafen, where
the latter continued combat readiness training.
The
Oberkommando der Marine (OKM, German: Naval High Command), commanded by Admiral
Erich Raeder, 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 at the time, having
just completed Operation Berlin, a major raid into the Atlantic. Bismarck's
sistership 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, however, and she was not
commissioned until 25 February; the ship would not be ready for combat until
late in the year. To further complicate the situation, Gneisenau was torpedoed
while in Brest and damaged further by bombs when in the drydock. Scharnhorst
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 on the heavy cruisers Admiral Scheer and
Admiral Hipper. The two ships would not be ready for action until July–August.
Admiral Günther Lütjens, the officer chosen to lead the operation, wished to
delay the operation until at least either Scharnhorst or Tirpitz would be
ready. Regardless, the OKM decided to proceed with the operation, codenamed
Operation Rheinübung, with a force consisting of only Bismarck and the heavy
cruiser Prinz Eugen.
Operation Rheinübung
On 5 May,
Adolf Hitler, Wilhelm Keitel, and 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 with Lütjens to discuss the upcoming mission. On the 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-boats 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, which 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. 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—Hans Lody, Friedrich Eckoldt, and Z23—and a flotilla of
minesweepers. The Luftwaffe 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, group of ten
or twelve Swedish aircraft flying reconnaissance encountered the German force
and reported its composition and heading, though the Germans did not notice the
Swedish aircraft.
An hour
later, the German flotilla encountered the Swedish cruiser HMS Gotland; the
cruiser shadowed the Germans for two hours in the Kattegat. Gotland transmitted
a report to naval headquarters, stating: "Two large ships, three
destroyers, five escort vessels, and 10–12 aircraft passed Marstrand, course
205°/20'." The OKM was not concerned about the security risk posed by
Gotland, though both Lütjens and Lindemann believed operational security 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. The code-breakers at Bletchley Park 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 charts from
headquarters. A pair of Supermarine Spitfires were ordered to search the
Norwegian coast for the German 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 confirmed to Lütjens that the British were at that point 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, though they quickly departed. Shortly after
12:00, the flotilla reached Bergen and anchored at Grimstadfjord. While there,
the ships' crews painted over the Baltic camouflage with the standard
"outboard gray" worn by German warships operating in the Atlantic.
While in
Norway, a pair of Bf 109 fighters circled over Bismarck to protect her from
British air attacks. Nevertheless, Flying Officer Michael Suckling managed to
fly his Spitfire directly over the German flotilla at a height of 8,000 m
(26,000 ft) and snap several photos of Bismarck and her consorts. Upon receipt
of the information, Admiral John Tovey ordered the battlecruiser HMS Hood, the
newly commissioned battleship Prince of Wales, and six destroyers to reinforce
the pair of cruisers patrolling the Denmark Strait. 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 had worsened and they were
unable to find the German warships.
Bismarck
failed to replenish her fuel stores while anchored in Norway, as her
operational orders did not require her to do so. She had left port 200 t (200
long tons; 220 short tons) short of a full load, and had since expended another
1,000 t (980 long tons; 1,100 short tons) on the voyage from Gotenhafen. Prinz
Eugen, meanwhile, took on 764 t (752 long tons; 842 short tons) of fuel. At
19:30 on 21 May, Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, and the three escorting destroyers left
Bergen. By midnight, the force was in the open sea and headed toward the Arctic
Ocean. At this time, Admiral Raeder finally informed Hitler of the operation,
who reluctantly gave his consent to continue the raid. The three escorting
destroyers were detached at 04:14 on 22 May, while the force steamed off
Trondheim. At around 12:00, Lütjens ordered his two ships to turn toward the
Denmark Strait to attempt the breakout into the open waters of the Atlantic.
By 04:00 on
23 May, Lütjens ordered Bismarck and Prinz Eugen to increase speed to 27 kn (50
km/h; 31 mph) 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 700 m (2,300 ft); mist reduced visibility to
3,000 to 4,000 m (9,800 to 13,000 ft). The Germans encountered some ice at
around 10:00, which necessitated a reduction in speed to 24 kn (44 km/h; 28
mph). Two hours later, the pair had reached a point north of Iceland. The ships
were forced to zigzag to avoid ice floes. At 19:22, hydrophone and radar
operators aboard the German warships detected the cruiser HMS Suffolk at a
range of approximately 12,500 m (41,000 ft). Prinz Eugen's radio-intercept team
decrypted the radio signals being sent by Suffolk and learned that their
location had indeed been reported.
Admiral
Lütjens gave permission for Prinz Eugen to engage Suffolk, though the captain
of the German cruiser could not clearly make out his target and so held his
ship's fire. Suffolk quickly retreated to a safe distance and shadowed the
German ships. At 20:30, the heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk 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 Bismarck. The cruisers remained in their stations
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 that morning, hydrophone operators aboard Prinz Eugen detected a pair
of unidentified vessels approaching the German formation at a range of 20 nmi (37
km; 23 mi), reporting "Noise of two fast-moving turbine ships at 280°
relative bearing!".
Battle of the Denmark Strait
At 05:45,
lookouts on the German ships spotted smoke on the horizon; these turned out to
be from Hood and Prince of Wales, under the command of Vice Admiral Lancelot
Holland. Lütjens ordered his ships' crews to battle stations. By 05:52, the
range had fallen to 26,000 m (85,000 ft) 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.[Note 3]
Adalbert Schneider, the first gunnery officer aboard Bismarck, twice requested
permission to return fire from Lütjens, who 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.
The British
ships approached the German ships head on, which permitted them to use only
their forward guns, while 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 20.3 cm (8.0 in) shell; the explosion detonated
Unrotated Projectile ammunition and started a large fire, which was quickly
extinguished. After firing three four-gun salvos, Schneider had zeroed in the
range to Hood; he immediately ordered rapid-fire salvos 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
and reported a small fire to have been started.
Lütjens
then ordered Prinz Eugen to drop behind Bismarck, so she could continue to
monitor the location of Norfolk and Suffolk, which were still some 10 to 12 nmi
(19 to 22 km; 12 to 14 mi) 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 shells struck Hood and penetrated her thin deck armor. The
shell reached Hood's rear ammunition magazine and detonated 112 t (110 long
tons; 123 short tons) of cordite 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 similarly rose upward 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.
Bismarck
then shifted fire to Prince of Wales. The British battleship scored a hit on
Bismarck with her sixth salvo, but the German ship also 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. Regardless, everyone in the
ship's command center was killed, save Captain John Leach, the ship's
commander, and one other man. The two German ships rained shells on Prince of
Wales, causing serious damage. Guns malfunctioned on the recently commissioned
Prince of Wales, which still had civilian technicians aboard. Despite her
problematic main battery, Prince of Wales scored three hits on Bismarck in the
engagement. The first struck her in the forecastle 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,
inflicting minimal damage. The third shell passed through one of the boats
carried aboard the ship and then went through the float plane catapult without
exploding.
At 06:13,
Leach gave the order to retreat; only two of his ship's ten 14 in (360 mm) 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 firmly rejected the
request, and instead ordered Bismarck and Prinz Eugen to head for the open
waters of the North Atlantic. In the course of the engagement, Bismarck had
fired 93 armour-piercing shells and had been hit by three shells in return. The
forecastle hit allowed 1,000 to 2,000 t (980 to 2,000 long tons; 1,100 to 2,200
short tons) of water to flood the ship, which contaminated fuel oil stored in
the bow. Lütjens refused to permit a reduction in speed to allow damage control
teams to repair the shell hole, and so the hole widened and allowed more water
into the ship. The second hit caused some flooding and splinters damaged a
steam line in the turbo-generator room, though Bismarck had sufficient
generator reserves that this was not problematic. The flooding from these two
hits caused a 9-degree list to port and a 3-degree trim by the bow.
The chase
After the
end of the engagement, Lütjens reported that a "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 St. Nazaire for repairs.Shortly after 10:00, Lütjens
ordered Prinz Eugen to fall behind Bismarck to discern the severity of the oil
leakage from the bow hit. After confirming that "broad streams of oil on
both sides of [Bismarck's] wake",Prinz Eugen returned to the forward
position.About an hour later, a British Short Sunderland 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, the commander of the two
cruisers, ordered Prince of Wales to remain behind his ships.
The Royal
Navy issued calls to all warships in the area to join the pursuit of Bismarck
and Prinz Eugen. Admiral Tovey's Home Fleet was steaming to intercept the
German raiders, but on the morning of 24 May, was still over 350 nmi (650 km;
400 mi) away. The Admiralty ordered the light cruisers HMS Manchester,
Birmingham, and Arethusa to patrol the Denmark Strait in the event that Lütjens
attempted to retrace his route. The battleship HMS Rodney, which had been
escorting RMS Britannic and was due for a refit in the Boston Navy Yard, was
ordered to join Tovey. Two old Revenge class battleships, HMS Revenge and
Ramillies, which were in Halifax and escorting convoy HX 127, respectively,
were ordered to join the hunt.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 the 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, all three of Wake-Walker's ships took up station on Bismarck's port
side.
Although
Bismarck had been damaged in the engagement with Hood and Prince of Wales and
forced to reduce speed, she was still capable of reaching 27 to 28 kn (50 to 52
km/h; 31 to 32 mph), the same maximum speed of Tovey's King George V. Unless
Bismarck could be slowed, the British would be unable to prevent her from
reaching St. Nazaire. Shortly before 16:00 on 25 May, Tovey detached the
aircraft carrier HMS Victorious and four light cruisers to shape a course that
would position her to launch her torpedo bombers.At 22:00, Victorious launched
the strike, which comprised six Fairey Fulmar fighters and nine Fairey
Swordfish torpedo bombers. The inexperienced aviators nearly attacked Norfolk
on their approach; the confusion alerted Bismarck's anti-aircraft gunners.Bismarck
even used her main and secondary batteries to fire at maximum depression to
create giant splashes in the paths of the incoming torpedo bombers.Nevertheless,
none of the attacking aircraft were shot down. Bismarck evaded eight of the
nine torpedoes launched at her.The ninth struck amidships on the main armoured
belt and caused minor damage. The concussive shock threw one man into a wall
and killed him; five others were injured.
The
explosive shock from the torpedo hit caused some minor damage to electrical
equipment, though it was the high speed, erratic maneuvers to evade the torpedoes
that inflicted more serious damage. The rapid shifts in speed and course
loosened collision mats stemming the flood from the forward shell hole.
Flooding increased, and eventually the port side number 2 boiler room had to be
abandoned. The loss of now two boilers on the port shaft, coupled with
decreasing fuel levels and the increasing bow trim, forced a reduction in speed
to 16 kn (30 km/h; 18 mph). Divers were sent into the bow to repair the
collision mats, after which speed was increased to 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph). The
command staff had determined that this was the most economical speed 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. Both ships failed to score any hits.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 turbine engines. The saltwater would have then destroyed the turbine blades
and thus greatly reduced the ship's speed. By morning on 25 May, the danger had
passed, however. The ship slowed to 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) 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 was transferred.
As the
chase entered the open waters of the North Atlantic, Wake-Walker's ships were
compelled to zig-zag to avoid any 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 Suffolks's radar.At 03:00 on
the morning of 25 May, Lütjens ordered the ship increase to maximum speed,
which at this point was 28 kn (52 km/h; 32 mph). He then ordered the ship to
circle away to the west and then north. This maneuver coincided with the period
in 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 merely broken off to the west, and so he took his ship west in an
attempt to locate the battleship. After half an hour, he informed Wake-Walker
of the situation, who ordered the three ships to disperse as soon as daylight
broke in order to conduct a visual search.
The Royal
Navy now embarked on a frantic search for Bismarck. 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. The situation
was compounded by the fact that many of the British ships were low on fuel.
Force H, centered on the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and steaming up from
Gibraltar, was still at least a day's steaming out from the area.Unaware that
he had shaken off Wake-Walker, Lütjens sent long radio messages to Naval Group
West, based in Paris. These signals were intercepted by the British, from which
bearings were determined. They were erroneously plotted, however, which kept
Tovey's fleet on wrong courses for seven hours. By the time the mistake had
been discovered, Bismarck had left the area.
British
code-breakers were able to decrypt some of the German signals, including an
order for Lütjens to make for the port of Brest, France. The French Resistance
provided the British with confirmation, as Luftwaffe units were being relocated
to Brest to provide support. Tovey could now turn his forces toward France to
converge in areas through which Bismarck would have to pass to reach port.A
squadron of Coastal Command PBY Catalinas based in Northern Ireland were
committed to the search, covering areas where Bismarck might be headed in her
attempt to reach occupied France. At 10:30 on 26 May, a Catalina piloted by a
US Navy aircrew located Bismarck, some 690 nmi (1,280 km; 790 mi) 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. There were no
British forces 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.Victorious, Prince of Wales, Suffolk, and Repulse were
forced to break off the search due to fuel concerns; the only heavy ships
remaining apart from Force H were King George V and Rodney, but they were too
far away to intercept Bismarck.Ark Royal's Swordfish were already searching the
area in which Bismarck was steaming when the Catalina made the discovery.
Several of the torpedo bombers also located the battleship, which was about 60
nmi (110 km; 69 mi) away from Ark Royal. Somerville ordered an attack as soon
as the Swordfish returned and were rearmed with torpedoes. He detached the
cruiser HMS Sheffield 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.
Upon
returning to Ark Royal, the Swordfish were armed with torpedoes equipped with
contact detonators. Fifteen aircraft comprised the second attack, which was
launched at 19:10. At 20:47, the torpedo bombers began their attack descent
through the clouds.While 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 launched their attack; Bismarck began to turn violently while her
anti-aircraft batteries attempted to destroy the incoming bombers. She evaded
most of the torpedoes launched, though two found their mark.One 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 was effected, which allowed minor
flooding.
The second
torpedo struck Bismarck in her stern on the port side, near the port rudder
shaft. The explosion caused serious damage to the port rudder assembly; the
coupling was badly damaged and the rudder was then unable to be disengaged. The
rudders were now locked in a 12° turn to port. The explosion also caused major
shock damage to the ship.The crew repeatedly attempted to regain steering
control. They eventually managed to repair the starboard rudder, but the port
rudder remained badly jammed. A suggestion to sever the port rudder with
explosives was dismissed by Lütjens, who stated "We cannot endanger the
ship with measures of that kind."He felt that the danger of damaging the
screws, which would have left the battleship helpless, was too great.At 21:15,
Lütjens reported that the ship was unmaneuverable.
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
signaled headquarters at 21:40 on the 26th: "Ship unmaneuverable. We will
fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer."In the growing darkness,
Bismarck briefly fired on Sheffield, though the cruiser quickly fled at high
speed. Sheffield lost contact in the low visibility; Captain Philip Vian's
group of five destroyers were now tasked with keeping contact with Bismarck
throughout the night.
The ships
encountered Bismarck at 22:38; the battleship quickly engaged them with her
main battery. After firing three salvos, she straddled the Polish destroyer
Piorun. The destroyer continued to close the range until a near miss at around
12,000 m (39,000 ft) forced her to turn away.Throughout the night and into the
morning, Vian's destroyers continually harried Bismarck, illuminating her with
star shells and firing dozens of torpedoes, 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, which
had hit the captain's motor launch, had damaged the steam line on the aircraft
catapult, rendering it inoperative. Unable to launch the aircraft, the crew
simply pushed it overboard.
After
daybreak on 27 May, Tovey, in King George V, led the attack against the crippled
Bismarck. Rodney followed off her port quarter; Tovey intended to steam
directly at Bismarck until he was about 8 nmi (15 km; 9.2 mi) away. At that
point, he would turn south to put his ships on a parallel course with his
target.At 08:43, lookouts on King George V spotted Bismarck, some 23,000 m
(75,000 ft) away. Four minutes later, Rodney's two forward turrets, a total of
six 16 in (410 mm) guns, opened fire. Almost immediately after, King George V's
14 in (360 mm) guns began firing. Bismarck returned fire at 08:50 with her
forward guns; with her second salvo, she straddled Rodney.
As the
range fell, the ships' secondary batteries joined the battle. Norfolk and
Dorsetshire closed and began firing with their 8 in (200 mm) guns. At 09:02, a
16-inch shell from Rodney struck Bismarck's forward superstructure, killing
hundreds of men and severely damaging the forward two turrets. According to
survivors, this salvo probably killed both Lindemann and Lütjens and the rest
of the bridge staff.The forward main battery was now effectively disabled,
though it would manage to fire one last salvo at 09:27.The main gunnery control
station was quickly destroyed. Lieutenant von Müllenheim 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 still active guns to fire independently, but by 09:31,
all four main battery turrets had been neutralized.
By 10:00,
Tovey's two battleships had fired over 700 main battery shells, many at very
close range; Bismarck had been reduced to a shambles, aflame from stem to
stern. She suffered from a 20° list to port and was low in the water by the
stern. Rodney closed to 2,700 m (8,900 ft), point-blank range for guns of that
size, and continued to hammer away at the battered hulk. Tovey could not cease
fire until the Germans struck their ensigns or it became clear they were
abandoning ship.Rodney fired two torpedoes from her port-side tubes (a shell
from Bismarck had exploded 20 feet off the bow and rendered the starboard tubes
useless — the closest Bismarck came to a direct hit on Rodney) and claimed one
hit — a claim which, according to Ludovic Kennedy, "if true, [is] the only
instance in history of one battleship torpedoing another".Hans Oels, the
First Officer ordered the men below decks to abandon ship; he instructed the engine
room crews to open the ship's watertight doors and prepare scuttling charges.Oels
rushed throughout the ship, ordering men to abandon their posts. After reaching
the deck, a massive explosion killed him and about a hundred other men.
At around
10:20, Tovey ordered Dorsetshire to close and fire torpedoes into the ship. The
cruiser 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. Around 10:35, the port list worsened significantly; Bismarck
capsized and slowly sank by the stern, disappearing from the surface at 10:40.Hundreds
of men were now in the water; Dorsetshire and the destroyer Maori moved in and
lowered ropes to pull the survivors aboard. At 11:40, however, 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.A U-boat later reached the survivors and found
three men, and a German trawler rescued another two. 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.
Namesake : Otto von Bismarck
Builder : Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Laid down : 1 July 1936
Launched : 14 February 1939
Commissioned : 24 August 1940
Fate : Sunk, 27 May 1941 in the North Atlantic
48°10′N 16°12′W
General Characteristics
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Bismarck
http://faisalicang.blogspot.com/2010/06/bismarck-kapal-perang-terbesar-wwii.html
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