The Sinking of the Bismarck (4 page)

There was a sharp argument between the Admiral and Captain Lindemann, skipper of the
Bismarck
. The latter, a determined man who was very popular with his crew, advised turning back. A few minutes earlier he had urged in vain that they pursue the
Prince of Wales
(which they still believed was the
King George V
) and sink her. Now again his advice was rejected. The German admiral ordered the course southwest to be continued.

It was a command that would lead him to disaster.

***

While the cruisers
Suffolk
and
Norfolk
, followed by the battered
Prince of Wales
, hung on to the
Bismarck
after the battle, the British Admiralty mobilized a powerful armada to avenge the
Hood
. “Sink the
Bismarck
!” was the watchword. And from all over the wide Atlantic His Majesty’s warships began to converge on the German man-of-war.

Sir John Tovey, commander in chief of the Home Fleet, had been some 500 miles southeast
of the
Bismarck
when she was first spotted in the Denmark Strait. From Admiral Holland’s reports, he had expected that the
Hood
’s squadron would intercept the German battleship about dawn. And he had waited confidently and calmly for the news of the meeting. When it came, he was shocked, as was every other British officer who heard the news. But the bitter blow only increased his resolution to get the enemy battleship. He therefore set an interception course for his flagship,
King George V
, with the battle cruiser
Repulse
and the carrier
Victorious
following in line astern. With luck, they thought they might meet the
Bismarck
at about dawn the next day.

But these were not the only British warships on the move. As soon as the
Bismarck
was sighted, the Admiralty had quickly ordered Force H at Gibraltar to speed out into the Atlantic. This fleet was under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir James Somerville and consisted of the battle cruiser
Renown
—sister ship of the
Repulse
—the carrier
Ark Royal
, the 6-inch-gun cruiser
Sheffield
and six destroyers.

The initial objective of Somerville’s fleet was to
race to the protection of Troop Convoy WS8B now well out to sea and bound for the Middle East. Detaching the
Repulse
and the carrier
Victorious
from the convoy’s original escort in order to strengthen Admiral Tovey’s squadron had left the troop convoy virtually unprotected. With the
Bismarck
at large, it was in a precarious position. The navy could take no chance of losing 20,000 troops at sea.

But as soon as the
Hood
was sunk, the navy desperately decided to take a chance. The Admiralty directed Admiral Somerville to abandon the convoy and proceed at high speed toward the
Bismarck
.

***

Some 500 miles off the Irish coast the battleship
Rodney
was escorting the liner
Britannic
to America. The
Rodney
, with her 16-inch guns, was a powerful ship, but she was badly in need of repairs. One of her engine rooms kept breaking down. In fact she was scheduled to put into Boston for refitting. Her decks were piled high with replacement materials. She was also jammed with 500 war invalids for Canada.

Her commander, Captain Dalrymple-Hamilton, realized he was scarcely in a position to do battle with the most powerful warship afloat. Nevertheless, shortly after noon on May 24 he received orders to leave the
Britannic
and make full speed for the
Bismarck
.

Far to the southwest the battleship
Ramillies
was instructed to abandon
her
convoy, HX127, in mid-Atlantic and steam at top speed to converge on the
Bismarck
. Two other cruisers, somewhere between the Azores and England, were also brought in on the chase.

It was a chase unique in modern naval history. Over a million square miles of stormy ocean three British battleships, two battle cruisers, two aircraft carriers and numerous cruisers and destroyers were steaming at full speed toward the
Bismarck
and the
Prinz Eugen
. Six hours earlier, their commanders and crews had learned by radio of the fate of the
Hood
. They were grimly determined to avenge her.

Chapter Five

The
Bismarck
Is Lost

The Germans were making their plans too.

At a quarter to two on the afternoon of May 24, Admiral Luetjens radioed naval headquarters in Berlin. After giving the
Bismarck
’s position he reported:

King George
with cruiser is maintaining contact. If no engagement, intend to attempt to shake off enemy during night.

Fleet Commander

A few minutes later he sent a message to Berlin elaborating on his plan.

Intend to shake off enemy as follows: During rain showers
Bismarck
will move off on westerly course.
Prinz Eugen
to maintain course…. Following
this she is to oil from
Belchen
or
Lothringen
and afterwards to engage in cruiser warfare independently…

Fleet Commander

Twenty minutes later the Admiral got off a third message about another plan. This was addressed to German submarines in the north-central Atlantic. He ordered them to assemble at a point south of him and to be there by dawn. He explained that he was approaching from the north and intended to draw the British heavy units shadowing him into this area.

The plan of the German admiral was for his two ships to separate. The
Bismarck
would elude her pursuers during the night, but in so doing she would lure the shadowing British warships into a German U-boat trap.

Actually this was exactly what Admiral Tovey on his flagship
King George V
feared. As the evening of May 24 approached, he was concerned that the
Bismarck
might put on high speed during the night and give him the slip. At the same time he might well be drawn into a nest of U-boats. His squadron was still some 200 miles almost due east of the German battleship.

But the cruisers
Suffolk
and
Norfolk
and the damaged
Prince of Wales
were still hanging on to her, just out of range. It was an increasingly difficult task in the foul weather. Several times during the afternoon one or the other of the shadowing cruisers lost sight of the
Bismarck
in the fog and mist. And there were anxious periods when the
Suffolk
could not even maintain contact with radar.

The commanders of the two cruisers had to be careful. Any moment the
Bismarck
, lost from sight in the fog, might turn suddenly on them and blow them out of the sea. Actually at 6:30
P.M.
the German battleship made just such a maneuver.

On his radar screen, Captain Ellis suddenly saw the speck that represented the
Bismarck
coming at him full speed. He could not see the enemy ship but he could spot her on his radar. Fearing an ambush he turned quickly to port. But, as he swung around, the
Bismarck
appeared out of the mist at only 20,000 yards. Captain Ellis ordered a smoke screen to be made. But before he could disappear behind it the
Bismarck
opened fire on him. Luckily her first shots were wide, and the
Suffolk
soon steamed full speed out of range.

The crippled
Prince of Wales
, in the meantime, opened fire with what guns she had, and a second battle between the two big ships seemed under way. But the
Bismarck
, after unlimbering a few shots, hauled off out of range.

Why? …The
Bismarck
had simply turned and opened fire on her pursuers in order to mask the getaway of the
Prinz Eugen
. Once that had been successfully accomplished she resumed course. She did not want to battle a British battleship in her present condition.

The British, however, knew nothing of her wounds. Not even the
Bismarck
’s avoiding battle that late afternoon made them suspicious. In fact they had assumed, after the sinking of the
Hood
, that the
Bismarck
had not been hit. Here, as so often during this drama on the high seas, a human error had played a role.

Actually, one of the two shells from the
Prince of Wales
which hit the
Bismarck
had penetrated deep down. It had exploded among some of her oil tanks and blown a hole in the ship’s side. This had not only let water into the damaged tanks, making the oil useless for fuel, but had resulted
in a loss of oil. Soon afterward both the cruiser
Suffolk
and a British Sunderland flying boat arriving on the scene from Iceland observed that the German ship was leaving a heavy track of oil behind her.

The
Suffolk
signaled this interesting discovery to the
Norfolk
, but the latter ship failed to get the message. Then the flying boat, circling above the
Bismarck
, radioed the Norfolk: “Losing oil.” But since the plane had been under the
Bismarck
’s anti-aircraft fire, the captain of the
Norfolk
assumed that it was the aircraft which was losing oil. Not until late in the afternoon did a report reach the various British ships from Iceland that the plane’s crew had definitely seen the
Bismarck
leaving a carpet of oil in her wake.

Even then Admiral Tovey did not take the report seriously. A rather unimportant small leak, he knew, could leave quite an oil track at sea. After all, the
Bismarck
had been making good speed all day. There was every likelihood that during the night she could even increase that speed and have a good chance of getting away. Therefore he must find some means of slowing up the German battleship before dark.

There was only one means of doing it—by torpedoes from the Swordfish planes aboard the carrier
Victorious
. Only by air could he get to the
Bismarck
and attempt to damage her. Sir John therefore ordered the
Victorious
to launch an attack with her torpedo-carrying planes. This could not be done until the carrier was within one hundred miles of the enemy since the range of the planes was very limited. Admiral Tovey calculated that the carrier would reach that point about 9:00
P.M.
—in the very last hours of the fading daylight.

This meant that after the attack the inexperienced pilots would probably have to land on the carrier deck in the darkness—a tricky feat that none of them had ever attempted before. Still, it was this attack by air, or nothing. The risk had to be taken. And it was.

The
Victorious
did not get within striking distance until after 10:00
P.M.
Her nine planes were clocked off the flight deck at 10:30
P.M.
Little more than two hours remained before sunset. (Because the British navy operated by double summer time and because of the position in mid-Atlantic,
the ships’ clocks were actually about four hours ahead of actual sun time. Sunset, by this reckoning, would not come until 12:52
A.M.
).

The Bismarck Is Lost

Chart showing the relative positions of the
Bismarck
and her British pursuers on May 24–25.

After an hour’s flight the Swordfish pilots sighted what they thought was the
Bismarck
about twenty miles away. But when they flew over the
Norfolk
, on the way to close in, the British cruiser signaled frantically that they were flying in the wrong direction. She gave them the correct bearings, and they again formed for the torpedo attack. Keeping cover in the clouds, they closed in on their target, which they could see on their radar screens.

But when they swooped down into the clear again to loose their torpedoes, they discovered that the target was neither the
Bismarck
nor any British ship. It was a mysterious vessel which apparently neither the German nor the British ships had noticed. Actually, as they learned much later, it was the United States Coast Guard Cutter
Modoc
, out on neutrality patrol.

The
Bismarck
, however, was not far away. Her lookouts saw the little Swordfish planes and gave the alarm. Thus when the torpedo-carrying aircraft finally attacked, the Germans were ready for them
with their anti-aircraft guns. Though the German fire was murderous, the Swordfish pilots pressed home their attack, skimming in just above the waves to launch their torpedoes against the German warship. They saw one torpedo hit home and explode.