Chapter Four
The failure to break Britain's air and naval forces led Hitler to postpone Operation Sealion indefinitely. In the mean time, Germany turned its attention to North Africa and the Mediterranean.
On November 11, the Royal Navy launched Operation Judgement, an attack on a Regia Marina anchorage at Taranto by Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from
HMS Illustrious. The bombers attacked at night with the aid of radar. One Italian battleship was sunk and two more were severely damaged, along with two heavy cruisers.
On May 18 1941, the Kriegsmarine began Operation Rheinübung, their latest plot to destroy British shipping and force the UK into surrender. Under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens, the battleship
Bismarck would sail into the Atlantic with the heavy cruiser
Prinz Eugen to conduct raids on Britain's merchant marine. Because the primary purpose of the mission was commerce raiding, the crew of the
Bismarck was instructed not to engage enemy warships unless they absolutely had to.
Bismarck sailed from Gotenhafen in the early morning hours of May 19, joining
Prinz Eugen at 11:25. On the afternoon of May 20, the Swedish cruiser
Gotland spotted the two ships in the Kattegat. The crew of
Gotland relayed their find to the Swedish Navy command. Their transmission was intercepted by the British Embassy, who relayed the information to the Admiralty.
On May 21,
Bismarck and
Prinz Eugen made a stop in Bergen for
Eugen to take on more fuel. As
Bismarck was sitting at anchor, a Royal Navy Spitfire flew overhead and took pictures of her. The pictures were sent to Admiral John Tovey, who ordered the battlecruiser
HMS Hood and battleship
HMS Prince of Wales under the command of Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland to the Denmark Strait to intercept
Bismarck.
On the night of May 23, the British cruisers
HMS Norfolk and
HMS Suffolk spotted Bismarck northwest of Iceland and began shadowing her. Admiral Lütjens, realizing his force was being tailed, gave the order to open fire.
Bismarck unleashed her 15-inch guns upon
Norfolk, scoring three hits.
Norfolk returned fire and managed to straddle
Bismarck before a shell took out her radar. Now essentially blinded,
Norfolk made smoke and disengaged, heading back to England for repairs, leaving
Suffolk to continue tailing the Germans. As
Norfolk retreated, a complication arose-the blast from
Bismarck's guns had disabled her radar. As a result,
Prinz Eugen was ordered to take the lead so her radar could take up the slack of scouting for enemies.
On the morning of May 24,
Hood and
Prince of Wales made contact with the German force. Because
Prinz Eugen was in the lead and looked similar to
Bismarck from a distance,
Hood opened fire on her first at 05:52 at a range of 28,000 yards, while
Prince of Wales opened fire on Bismarck. Lütjens-in accordance with the orders given at the start of the operation- did not give the order to return fire, hoping he could outrun the British ships. This did not sit well with
Bismarck's captain, Ernst Lindermann, who ordered the
Bismarck's First Gunnery Officer to open fire at 05:55, saying "I will not let the British shoot my ship out from under my ass!"
Bismarck fired her first salvo at
Hood, followed by
Prinz Eugen. The first hit on
Hood was scored by
Prinz Eugen, causing a large fire on her deck. To keep both of his opponents under fire, Lütjens ordered
Prinz Eugen to shift her fire to
Prince of Wales. Meanwhile,
Hood had switched her fire to
Bismarck, but had been unable to score any any hits. To maximize their chances of scoring a hit, Vice Admiral Holland ordered
Hood to turn to port to unmask her aft guns. As
Hood began her turn, a shell from
Bismarck struck her deck just aft of her mainmast. The shell penetrated
Hood's thin deck armor and exploded in one of her magazines, igniting 112 tons of cordite propellant. The resulting explosion destroyed everything aft of her funnels except for the rearmost 125 feet of her stern. The remainder of
Hood sank in less than three minutes. Out of a crew of 1,419, only thee survived.
HMS Hood explosion photographed from Prinz Eugen.
Prince of Wales now found herself alone against the two German ships. The lone British battleship continued to fire gamely at
Bismarck, but soon problems begin to develop with the ship's guns, seriously affecting her fighting ability. Finally, at 06:13,
Prince of Wales put up a smoke screen and retreated. Lindermann wanted to give chase, but Lütjens demurred, not wanting to put his flagship in any more danger than he already had.
With
Prince of Wales gone, Admiral Lütjens assessed the damage to his force.
Bismarck had suffered three hits during the engagement. The most serious was a hit to the forecastle that opened up her forward fuel tanks to the sea and reduced her speed. Lütjens decided the best course of action was to head to occupied France for repairs.
Prinz Eugen, which had come through relatively unscathed, was sent off to continue commerce raiding alone.
When the British learned of the outcome of the Battle of Denmark Strait, there was widespread shock.
HMS Hood was considered to be the Royal Navy's most powerful ship, and the seemingly effortless manner in which
Bismarck sank her cemented the German battleship as an extremely serious threat. Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave the order to all available Royal Navy ships to sink the
Bismarck by any means necessary. The battleship
King George V led the chase.
Bismarck proved to be an elusive quarry. On the evening of May 24, a group of Swordfish from
HMS Victorious found Bismarck and launched an attack. Only one torpedo actually hit
Bismarck, and it only did minor damage. In the early morning hours of May 25,
Bismarck managed to throw off her pursuers by turning 270 degrees to starboard. Just when it looked like
Bismarck had escaped for good, the British intercepted a message from Lütjens to Kriegsmarine HQ. The British were able to get a rough estimate of
Bismarck's position.
Force H; consisting of the aircraft carriers
HMS Ark Royal,
HMS Courageous, and
HMS Glorious accompanied by the battlecruiser
HMS Renown and light cruiser
HMS Sheffield, had set sail from Gibraltar under the command of Vice Admiral James Somerville on May 23. First contact was made at 13:00 on May 26. when a Swordfish from
Glorious spotted
Bismarck roughly 300 miles west of Brest. The lone torpedo bomber went in for the attack. The torpedo struck
Bismarck on her starboard stern, severely damaging her starboard rudder shaft. With the rudder damaged,
Bismarck found herself stuck in a perpetual turn to starboard. The three aircraft carriers launched the first wave of aircraft, consisting of 14 Swordfish. As they prepared for launch, the carrier crews inscribed "For the
Hood!" on the torpedoes as they were loaded onto the Swordfish. The aircraft reached
Bismarck and began their attack at 14:30.
Bismarck's AA gunners opened fire, but their guns' fire control systems proved ill-equipped to deal with the slow-moving biplanes, the shells exploding harmlessly far in front of the attacking aircraft. Unable to dodge due her damaged rudder, the
Bismarck absorbed five torpedo hits-three in her port side, two in her starboard side-along with eight 500-pound bombs, setting fire to her superstructure. The battleship began listing to port, as her bilge pumps had lost power. When the second wave arrived at 14:50,
Bismarck's speed had been reduced to 12 knots. The second wave consisted of 12 Swordfish and managed to put five more torpedoes into the battleship's port side and three more in her starboard side, along with four bombs. This proved to be too much, and
Bismarck capsized to port and sank at 15:02. Out of a crew of nearly 2,300, only 180 survived. Captain Lindermann was not one of them, having chosen to go down with the ship. Admiral Lütjens chose to escape, and was pulled from the water along with the other survivors by the crews of
HMS Renown and
HMS Sheffield.
Aircrew from HMS Ark Royal pose for a photo in Gibraltar after returning from the sinking of Bismarck.
With the sinking of
Bismarck, the officers and men of Force H became celebrities in the Royal Navy. The Fleet Air Arm found its prestige massively increased. But more importantly, the death of the Bismarck at the hands of the Fleet Air Arm marked the beginning of a paradigm shift in naval warfare...