Last battle of the battleship Bismarck

The last battle of the German battleship ''Bismarck'' took place in the Atlantic Ocean approximately west of Brest, France, on 26–27 May 1941 between the and naval and air elements of the British Royal Navy. Although it was a decisive action between capital ships, it has no generally accepted name.

On 24 May, before the final action, ''Bismarck''s fuel tanks were damaged and several machinery compartments, including a boiler room, were flooded in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Her captain's intention was to reach the port of Brest for repair. Late in the day ''Bismarck'' briefly turned on her pursuers ( and the heavy cruisers and ) to cover the escape of her companion, the heavy cruiser to continue further into the Atlantic. Early on 25 May the British forces lost contact with ''Bismarck'', which headed ESE towards France while the British searched northeast, presuming she was returning to Norway. Later on 25 May the commander of the German force, Admiral Günther Lütjens, apparently unaware that he had lost his pursuers, broke radio silence to send a coded message to Germany. This allowed the British to triangulate the approximate position of ''Bismarck'' and aircraft were dispatched to hunt for the German battleship. The battleship was rediscovered in the late morning of 26 May by a Catalina flying boat from No. 209 Squadron RAF and subsequently shadowed by aircraft from Force H steaming north from Gibraltar.

The final action consisted of four main phases. The first phase late on the 26th consisted of air strikes by torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier , which disabled ''Bismarck''s steering gear, jammed her rudders in a turning position and prevented her escape. The second phase was the shadowing and harassment of ''Bismarck'' during the night of 26/27 May by British and Polish destroyers, with no serious damage to any ship. The third phase on the morning of 27 May was an attack by the British battleships and supported by cruisers. After about 100 minutes of fighting, ''Bismarck'' was sunk by the combined effects of shellfire, torpedo hits and deliberate scuttling. On the British side, ''Rodney'' was lightly damaged by near-misses and by the blast effects of her own guns. British warships rescued 111 survivors from ''Bismarck'' before being obliged to withdraw because of an apparent U-boat sighting, leaving several hundred men to their fate. The following morning, a U-boat and a German weathership rescued five more survivors. In the final phase, the withdrawing British ships were attacked the next day on 28 May by aircraft of the ''Luftwaffe'', resulting in the loss of the destroyer .

Background

''Bismarck''s second sea battle was made unavoidable by the decisions of the Fleet Commander (Günther Lütjens), taken well before the encounter with ''Hood'' and ''Prince of Wales''.

Even before the breakout into the North Atlantic, Lütjens had decided against conducting an underway refuelling in the Greenland Sea with ''Weissenburg'', one of the pre-positioned German tankers, before his ships entered the Denmark Strait. And when, as a result of the battle with ''Hood'' and ''Prince of Wales'', ''Bismarck'' lost access to several thousand tons of fuel in her forecastle due to a shell hit from ''Prince of Wales'' (aft of the forecastle, in her anchor locker), Lütjens had to order his ships to slow down to conserve fuel. The decrease in speed made Force H's airborne torpedo attacks inevitable, and those attacks led directly to the final encounter with the Home Fleet.

Determined to avenge the sinking of the "Pride of the Navy" in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the British committed every possible unit to hunting down ''Bismarck''. The old was detached from convoy duty southeast of Greenland and ordered to set a course to intercept ''Bismarck'' if she should attempt to raid the sea lanes off North America.

''Prince of Wales'' and the cruisers ''Norfolk'' and ''Suffolk'' were still at sea in the area and tailing the German ships. A British force, the battleship ''King George V'', the carrier ''Victorious'' and their escorts, had set sail from Scapa Flow before the loss of the ''Hood''. The battleship ''Rodney'' was detached from escort duties on 24 May.

During the early evening of 24 May, an attack was made by a small group of Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers of 825 Naval Air Squadron under the command of Eugene Esmonde from the aircraft carrier . One hit was scored, but caused only superficial damage to ''Bismarck''s armoured belt.

For some time, ''Bismarck'' remained under long-distance observation by the British. At about 03:00 on 25 May, she took advantage of her opponents' zig-zagging to double back on her own wake; ''Bismarck'' made a nearly 270° turn to starboard, and as a result her pursuers lost sight of the battleship, thus enabling her to head for German naval bases in France unnoticed. Contact was lost for four hours, but the Germans did not know this. For reasons that are still unclear, Admiral Günther Lütjens transmitted a 30-minute radio message to HQ, which was intercepted, thereby giving the British time to work out roughly where he was heading. However, a plotting error made onboard ''King George V'', now in pursuit of the Germans, incorrectly calculated ''Bismarck''s position and caused the chase to veer too far to the north. ''Bismarck'' was therefore able to make good time on 25/26 May in her unhindered passage towards France and protective air cover and destroyer escort. By now, however, fuel was becoming a major concern to both sides.

The British had a stroke of luck on 26 May. In mid-morning a Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from 209 Squadron RAF had flown over the Atlantic from its base on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland across the Donegal Corridor. It was piloted by British Flying Officer Dennis Briggs and co-piloted by US Navy observer Ensign Leonard B. Smith, USNR. Smith was at the controls when he spotted ''Bismarck'' (via a trailing oil slick from the ship's damaged fuel tank) and reported her position to the Admiralty. From then on, the German ship's position was known to the British, although the enemy would have to be slowed significantly if heavy units hoped to engage outside the range of German land-based aircraft. All British hopes were now pinned on Force H, whose main units were the aircraft carrier HMS ''Ark Royal'', the battlecruiser and the light cruiser . This battle group, commanded by Admiral James Somerville, had been diverted north from Gibraltar.

The battle

Night of 26/27 May

At dusk that evening, and in atrocious weather conditions, Swordfish from ''Ark Royal'' launched an attack. The first wave mistakenly targeted ''Sheffield'' which had been detached from Force H under orders to close and shadow ''Bismarck''. Although precious time was lost by this incident, it proved beneficial to the British in that the magnetic detonators on the torpedoes used against ''Sheffield'' were seen to be defective and for the following attack on ''Bismarck'' were replaced by those designed to explode on contact. Despite the lateness of the day, it was decided to try again. The attack commenced in near darkness at around 21:00 but once again the Swordfish torpedo bombers found ''Bismarck'' with their ASV II radars. A hit by a single torpedo from a Swordfish, hitting her port side, jammed ''Bismarck''s rudder and steering gear 12° to port. This resulted in her being, initially, able to steam only in a large circle. Repair efforts by the crew to free the rudder failed. ''Bismarck'' attempted to steer by alternating the power of her three propeller shafts, which, in the prevailing force 8 wind and sea state, resulted in the ship being forced to sail towards ''King George V'' and ''Rodney'', two British battleships that had been pursuing ''Bismarck'' from the west. At 23:40 on 26 May, Admiral Lütjens delivered to Group West, the German command base, the signal "Ship unmanoeuvrable. We will fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer."

Throughout that night, ''Bismarck'' was the target of intermittent torpedo attacks by the destroyers , , and , and the Polish destroyer . One of ''Bismarck''s shells sheared off ''Cossack''s antenna and three other shells straddled ''Zulu'' wounding three men. The British destroyers didn't score any hits, but the constant worrying tactics of the British helped wear down the morale of the Germans and deepened the fatigue of an already exhausted crew.

The final action

As the British units converged on ''Bismarck''s location, Tovey instructed the commander of ''Rodney'' to close to within as quickly as possible, and that while he should in general conform to ''King George V''s movements, he was free to manoeuvre independently. The morning of Tuesday 27 May 1941 brought a heavy grey sky, a rising sea and a tearing wind from the northwest. Because of this northwesterly gale, Tovey concluded an attack on ''Bismarck'' from windward was undesirable. He decided to approach on a northwesterly bearing before deploying. For her part, ''Bismarck'' was still unmanoeuvrable; her crew made what preparations they could for the inevitable engagement, including pushing her Arado floatplane overboard to reduce the risk of fire.

At 08:43, lookouts on ''King George V'' spotted ''Bismarck'', some away; ''Rodney'' opened fire first at 08:47, followed quickly by ''King George V''. ''Bismarck'' was unable to steer due to the torpedo damage, and this was further complicated by the gale-force storm. The consequent unpredictable motions made the ship an unstable gun platform and created a difficult gunnery problem. However ''Bismarck'' returned fire at 08:50 with her forward guns, and with her second salvo, she straddled ''Rodney''. This was the closest she came to scoring a hit on any British warship in the engagement, because at 09:02, a salvo from ''Rodney'' struck the forward superstructure, damaging the bridge and main fire control director and killing most of the senior officers. The salvo also damaged the forward main battery turrets. The aft fire control station took over direction of the aft turrets, but after three salvos was also knocked out. With both fire control positions out of action, ''Bismarck''s shooting became increasingly erratic, allowing the British to close the range. ''Norfolk'' and ''Dorsetshire'' closed and began firing with their guns.

At around 09:31, the last of ''Bismarck''s four main battery turrets was put out of action. First Officer Hans Oels, the senior surviving officer, then issued the order to scuttle the Bismarck - for all the watertight doors to be opened, for the engine-room personnel to prepare scuttling charges, and for the crew to abandon ship. Oels moved through the ship, repeating these orders to all he met, until he was killed. Gerhard Junack, the senior surviving engineering officer, ordered his men to set the demolition charges with a 9-minute fuse. The intercom system broke down so he sent a messenger to confirm the order to scuttle the ship, but when the messenger never returned Junack primed the charges and ordered the engineering crew to abandon ship.Gaack & Carr, pp. 80–81

Once all four of ''Bismarck''s main battery turrets were out of action by around 09:31, ''Rodney'' closed to around with impunity to fire her guns at what was point-blank range into ''Bismarck''s superstructure. ''King George V'' remained at a greater distance to increase the possibility that her shells would strike ''Bismarck''s decks. During this period, ''Rodney'' launched a pair of torpedoes at ''Bismarck'', claiming one hit. By 10:00 the two battleships had reduced Bismarck's superstructure and decks to a shambles, aflame from stem to stern, though the Germans refused to surrender.

The Bismarck was settling by the stern due to uncontrolled flooding and had taken on a 20 degree list to port. The British battleships were running low on fuel, so at 10:20 Tovey ordered ''Dorsetshire'' to close and torpedo the crippled ''Bismarck'' while ''King George V'' and ''Rodney'' turned for 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. Based on subsequent examination of the wreck, the last torpedo appears to have detonated against ''Bismarck''s port side superstructure, which was by then already underwater. The ship began capsizing at about 10:35, and by 10:40 had slipped beneath the waves, stern first. The two British battleships fired some 700 large-caliber shells at ''Bismarck'', and all told, ''King George V'', ''Rodney'', ''Dorsetshire'' and ''Norfolk'' collectively fired some 2,800 shells, scoring around 400 hits.

Survivors

''Dorsetshire'' and ''Maori'' rescued 111 Bismarck survivors, but a U-boat alarm caused them to leave the scene, leaving the majority of ''Bismarck''s survivors from the 2,200-man crew (around 800) to the rough Atlantic waters. That evening, , dispatched to try to rescue ''Bismarck''’s logbook (and which heard sinking noises from a distance), picked up three survivors in a raft (Herzog, Höntzsch, and Manthey) and the following day the German weather ship picked up two survivors in another raft (Lorenzen and Maus) before finding another raft that was empty.

Aftermath

After the sinking, Admiral John Tovey said, "The ''Bismarck'' had put up a most gallant fight against impossible odds worthy of the old days of the Imperial German Navy, and she went down with her colours flying."

The Board of the Admiralty issued a message of thanks to those involved:

Unaware of the fate of the ship, Group West, the German command base, continued to issue signals to ''Bismarck'' for some hours, until Reuters reported news from Britain that the ship had been sunk. In Britain, the House of Commons was informed of the sinking early that afternoon.

After the battle, the British warships returned to the United Kingdom with 110 ''Bismarck'' survivors, as one survivor (Gerhard Lüttich) had died of his wounds the day after his rescue and was buried at sea on 28 May 1941 with full military honours by the crew of HMS ''Dorsetshire''. After a period of interrogation and processing, the survivors spent the rest of the war as prisoners. No British ship was sunk during this action, but the destroyer was sunk by the ''Luftwaffe'' during the withdrawal the following day.

While the British cruiser ''Dorsetshire'' was attempting to rescue survivors from the water, Midshipman Joe Brooks jumped over the side to help wounded Germans scramble up his ship's side. One German sailor had lost both arms and was hanging onto a rope with his teeth; Brooks tried to save him but failed. Brooks was nearly left behind when a U-boat was spotted in the area and the ''Dorsetshire'' began to pull away while he was still in the water, but he was thrown a line by his shipmates and was pulled aboard.

Order of battle

Axis

* German battleship

Allied

* The British battleships and .
* The British aircraft carrier
* The British heavy cruisers and .
* The British light cruiser .
* The British destroyers , , , , ,
* The Polish destroyer

Neutral

* Spanish heavy cruiser (attempted to rescue some survivors from ''Bismarck'')

See also

* Operation Rheinübung, the intended mission of ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen''
* ''Sink the Bismarck!'', a 1960 film based on C. S. Forester's book ''The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck''
* " Sink the Bismarck", a 1960 song by Johnny Horton inspired by the film of the same name.
* '' Computer Bismarck'', a 1980 computer game that simulates the battle.
* Unsinkable Sam, a ship's cat on board ''Bismarck'' who allegedly survived the sinking and was adopted by the Royal Navy; probably a tall tale.

Notes

References

* Bercuson, David J. and Holger H. Herwig. ''The Destruction of the Bismarck''. Woodstock and New York: The Overlook Press, 2001. .
*
* Cameron J., Dulin R., Garzke W., Jurens W., Smith K
The Wreck of DKM Bismarck A Marine Forensics Analysis
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* Chesnau, Roger (Ed.) ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946''. Conway Maritime Press, 1980.
* Dewar, A.D. Admiralty report BR 1736: ''The Chase and Sinking of the “Bismarck”''. Naval Staff History (Second World War) Battle Summary No. 5, March 1950. Reproduced in facsimile in Grove, Eric (ed.), ''German Capital Ships and Raiders in World War II. Volume I: From “Graf Spee” to “Bismarck”, 1939–1941''. Frank Cass Publishers 2002.
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*
*
*
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* Jackson, Robert (2002). ''The Bismarck''. London: Weapons of War. .
* Kennedy, Ludovic. ''Pursuit: The sinking of the Bismarck''. William Collins Sons & Co Ltd 1974.
* Jerzy Pertek, ''Wielkie dni małej floty'' (Great Days of a Small Fleet), Zysk i S-ka, 2011,
* Michael A. Peszke, ''Poland's Navy 1918-1945'', Hippocrene Books, 1999,
* Müllenheim-Rechberg, Burkard von. ''Battleship Bismarck: A Survivor's Story''. Triad/Granada, 1982. .
* Schofield, B.B. ''Loss of the Bismarck''. Ian Allan, 1972.
* Tovey, Sir John C
SINKING OF THE GERMAN BATTLESHIP BISMARCK ON 27™ MAY, 1941.
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External links

Newsreel footage of Bismarck's last battle

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Naval battles and operations of the European theatre of World War II
Last battle
Operation Rheinübung
Naval battles of World War II involving Germany
Naval battles of World War II involving Poland
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