German battleship Bismarck

CG images of Bismarck from several angles as painted for Operation Rheinübung. Included is the ship's shield (1), one of her Arado Ar 196 reconnaissance aircraft bearing squadron emblem (2) used by 1./BfGr 196 & 2./BfGr 196, and identification aid, a swastika (3), which was painted over prior to the operation
History
Germany
Name	Bismarck
Ordered	16 November 1935
Builder	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Laid down	1 July 1936
Launched	14 February 1939
Commissioned	24 August 1940
Fate	Sunk, cause disputed, 27 May 1941 in the North Atlantic, at 48°10′N 16°12′W
General characteristics
Displacement	41,700 tonnes standard 50,900 tonnes full load
Length	251 metres (823.5 ft) overall 241.5 metres (792.3 ft) waterline
Beam	36.0 metres (118.1 ft) waterline
Draft	9.3 metres (30.5 ft) standard 10.2 metres (33.5 ft) full load
Propulsion	12 Wagner high-pressure; 3 Blohm & Voss geared turbines; 3 three-blade propellers, 4.70 m diameter 150,170 hp (121 MW)
Speed	30.1  knots during trials (one work claims a speed of 31.1 knots
Range	8,525  nm at 19 knots
Complement	2,092: 103 officers 1,989 men (1941)
Armament	8×380 mm/L47 SK-C/34 (4×2) 12×152 mm/L55 SK-C/28 16×105 mm/L65 SK-C/37 / SK-C/33 16 × 37 mm/L83 SK-C/30 12×20 mm/L65 MG C/30 (Single) 8×20 mm/L65 MG C/32 (Quadruple)
Armor	Belt: 145 to 320 mm Deck: 110 to 120 mm Bulkheads: 220 mm Turrets: 130 to 360 mm Barbettes: 342 mm Conning tower: 360 mm
Aircraft carried	4×Arado Ar 196 A-3, with 1 double-ended catapult

The German battleship Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. The lead ship of her class and named after the 19th century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck displaced more than 50,000 tons fully loaded and was the largest warship then commissioned. Her chief claim to fame came from the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941 during which the battlecruiser HMS Hood, flagship of the Home Fleet and pride of the Royal Navy, was sunk within several minutes. In response, Prime minister Winston Churchill issued the subsequent order to "Sink the Bismarck", spurring a relentless pursuit by the Royal Navy. Two days later, with safer waters almost in reach, Fleet Air Arm aircraft torpedoed Bismarck and jammed her rudder, allowing heavy British units to catch up with her. In the ensuing battle on the morning of 27 May 1941, Bismarck took heavy punishment for nearly three hours before sinking .

Background

Design of the ship started in the early 1930s, following on from Germany's development of the Deutschland class cruisers and the Scharnhorst class "battlecruisers". Construction of the second French Dunkerque class battleship made redesign necessary, and Bismarck's displacement was increased to 41,700 tons. Officially, however, her tonnage was 35,000 tons to suggest parity with ships built within the limits of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935) that allowed Germany to build up to five 35,000-ton battleships, the maximum displacement agreed by the major powers in the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Fully laden, Bismarck and her sister-ship Tirpitz would each displace more than 50,000 tons. The prototype of the proposed battleships envisaged under Plan Z, Bismarck's keel was laid down at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg on 1 July 1936. She was launched on 14 February 1939 and commissioned on 24 August 1940 with Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann in command.

This formidable ship, the largest warship then commissioned, was intended primarily as a commerce raider, having a broad beam for stability in the rough seas of the North Atlantic and fuel stores as large as those of battleships intended for operations in the Pacific Ocean. Still, with eight 15 inch main guns in four turrets, substantial welded-armour protection and designed for a top speed of not less than 29 knots (she actually achieved 30.1 knots in trials in the calmer waters of the Baltic, a significant advantage over any comparable British battleship), Bismarck was capable of engaging any enemy battleship on reasonably equal terms. Her range of weaponry could easily decimate any convoy she encountered. The plan was for Bismarck to break through into the spacious waters of the North Atlantic, where she could refuel from German tankers and remain undetected by British and American aircraft, submarines and ships, while attacking the convoys.

Senior officers

• Fleet Commander: Admiral Günther Lütjens (for Unternehmen Rheinübung)
• Captain: Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann
• First Officer: Fregattenkapitän Hans Oels
• Navigation Officer: Korvettenkapitän Wolf Neuendorff
• Chief Engineer: Korvettenkapitän Dipl-Ing Walter Lehmann
• First Artillery Officer: Korvettenkapitän Adalbert Schneider

Operation Rheinübung

Main article: Operation Rheinübung

Breakout into the Atlantic

Bismarck completed preparations for her Atlantic sortie in the Bay of Danzig, refuelling almost to capacity and leaving the port of Gotenhafen (now Gdynia) on her first and only mission, codenamed Rheinübung (Rhine Exercise) in the early hours of 19 May 1941. She was accompanied only by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Other capital ships, including the battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, that were to have participated in the sortie were unavailable because of mechanical problems and war damage. Moreover, plans to use Bismarck's sister ship, Tirpitz, were shelved because she had not yet finished sea trials. Despite these setbacks, the mission went ahead under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens. The Germans had various objectives: destroy as much Allied shipping as possible and force the British to suspend convoys, even temporarily; compensate for their weak submarine presence in the Atlantic; divert British naval forces from the Mediterranean to reduce the risks of the planned invasion of Crete and to allow Rommel and his forces to cross to Libya. For the first part of the journey, as far as Norway, the route from the Baltic was chosen in preference to a North Sea breakout via the Kiel Canal.

The British Admiralty had already suspected that a breakout was likely and Bismarck's departure was confirmed for them from a combination of Ultra intelligence (deciphered Enigma code messages), a report from the Swedish cruiser Gotland that had sighted the battleship, and the Norwegian resistance. The latter sent the following message to the British: "A battleship, assumed to be German, passed by Kristiansand heading west, escorted by three destroyers". Three days later, she was photographed by a Spitfire reconnaissance aircraft while resting in a Norwegian fjord (Grimstadfjorden, near Bergen). A subsequent bombing raid by the RAF proved fruitless, as the Germans had already left. Royal Navy cruisers and other warships were deployed to watch the various routes she could take into the Atlantic.

Both German ships had intended to refuel in Bergen but while Prinz Eugen did so, Bismarck failed to. This was later to have very serious consequences for Bismarck, especially as she had sailed from Gotenhafen with tanks less than brimful and had already used up about one-ninth of her full load during the voyage to Norway. Lütjens knew that an oiler, the Weissenberg, was waiting for him in the Arctic at least a day's sailing away. It was strange that, even with this information, he did not take this opportunity to refuel Bismarck for what could be a hazardous voyage. Moreover, his decision to stop in Bergen overturned any previous decision to head straight for the Arctic and the Weissenberg. It also wasted a day and exposed him to detection by British air surveillance.

At 19:45 on 21 May Lütjens again put out to sea, detaching his destroyer escort early on 22 May. Heading north, then north-west at 24 knots, the German fleet made good and largely uneventful progress across the Norwegian Sea towards Greenland and the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland, the gateway into the Atlantic. This circuitous course went against Group North's recommendation to steam directly for the Atlantic between Iceland and the Faeroe Islands. It was also too far south to rendezvous with the Weissenberg to refuel Bismarck. Nevertheless, while in waters to the north of the Arctic Circle, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen remained undetected by British air reconnaissance, which was too far south. With a mind on convoy-raiding, Lütjens was hopeful of an easy breakout into the Atlantic, aided by foggy weather, but his plans were to be frustrated.

On the evening of 23 May, the German force was detected by the radar-equipped heavy cruisers HMS Suffolk and Norfolk, that had been patrolling the Denmark Strait in the expectation of a German breakout. The rival ships exchanged fire and Norfolk had a near miss when a German shell bounced off the water and struck the bridge of the ship, but did not explode or inflict any casualties. The heavily outgunned British cruisers sensibly retired to a safe range and shadowed the enemy while their own heavy units drew closer. However, Bismarck's forward radar had malfunctioned as a result of her heavy guns firing during this skirmish, and Lütjens was obliged to order Prinz Eugen to move ahead of Bismarck in order to provide the squadron with forward radar coverage. This decision later confused the converging British forces as to the identity of each German ship, their silhouettes being similar.

Battle of the Denmark Strait

Main article: Battle of the Denmark Strait

File:Bismark1040.jpg

Bismarck as seen from Prinz Eugen, firing at HMS Prince of Wales during the Battle of the Denmark Strait, shortly after the sinking of HMS Hood, 24 May 1941.

At approximately 05:30 on Saturday 24 May, as the German squadron was about to leave the Denmark Strait, Prinz Eugen's hydrophones detected the presence of two additional ships some distance to port. By 05:45 both were in sight, although the German force had not yet identified the enemy force. It turned out to be a British battle-group comprising the new battleship Prince of Wales, and the battlecruiser Hood, under the command of Rear Admiral Lancelot Holland. Prince of Wales had only recently been completed and was still being worked up (indeed, she sailed to meet Bismarck with about 100 civilian workers still onboard completing her fitting-out). Hood had been built as a battlecruiser and modified to give her protection more like a battleship, but still had relatively weak deck armour. That other British ships had detected them was not unexpected by the Germans but that they would turn out to be capital ships was a nasty surprise.

At 05:49 Holland ordered fire to be concentrated on the leading German ship, Prinz Eugen, believing it to be Bismarck. Fortunately for the British, the captain of Prince of Wales was soon to realise the error and changed his target. Holland amended his order on the correct ship to be engaged but this did not reach Hood's gunnery control before the first salvo. Hood fired the first shots of the battle at 05:52, in daylight, followed very soon afterwards by Prince of Wales. The range to the German ships was c. 12.5 miles. The first salvo from Hood landed close to Prinz Eugen, causing minor shell splinter damage near the aft turrets.

More than two minutes went by without a reply from the German ships, before Captain Lindemann ordered fire to be returned on the lead British ship. This was Hood, which the Germans had identified only when the British squadron made a turn towards them at 05:55. This manoeuvre was undertaken, it appears, in an attempt to place themselves in the "zone of immunity", an area inside which both plunging fire, in particular, and direct enemy fire is relatively ineffective. Closer in, Hood would be less vulnerable and the advantage of superior German gunnery control would be lessened. The disadvantage was that, during the dash, eight of the eighteen British heavy guns could not be brought to bear.

Both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen opened fire on Hood, at a range of 11 miles. The early gunfire from the German ships was very accurate and within two minutes Hood had been hit by at least 8″ shell from Prinz Eugen. Prinz Eugen hit Hood three times during the engagement. It struck the British ship near the mainmast and caused a large fire which Hood's crew tried to bring under control. However, Bismarck had also been hit by Prince of Wales, causing a fuel leak from the forward tanks; therefore Lütjens ordered his cruiser to switch its guns towards Prince of Wales, which his own secondary guns were now targeting.

At 05:54 the range was down to 22,000 yards, at 05:57 it was down to just 19,000 yards. Bismarck then fired a fourth salvo which was slightly long and astern of Hood. At the same time Holland had ordered " 2 Blue", a 20 degree turn to port. Before the ship began a turn to port Hood fired a fifth salvo at 05:59:30.

At 06:00 Hood, which was in the process of turning to port to bring her full weight of armament to bear on Bismarck, was hit amidships by at least one shell from Bismarck's fifth salvo at a distance of under nine miles (16,500 yards). Very shortly afterwards observers on both sides saw a huge jet of flame race skywards, followed by a rumbling explosion that split the huge ship in two. Splinters rained down on Prince of Wales, 400 yards away. Hood's stern rose and sank shortly before the bow, all within three minutes. Admiral Holland and 1,415 crewmen went down with the ship. Only three men (Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn, and Bill Dundas) survived. They were rescued about two hours later by the destroyer Electra. The British Admiralty later concluded that the most likely explanation for the loss of Hood was a penetration of her magazines by a single 15″ shell from Bismarck, causing the subsequent catastrophic explosion. Recent research by submersible craft suggests that the initial explosion could have been in the aft 4″ magazine, followed by the aft 15″ magazine and that it may also have spread to the forward 15″ magazines via the starboard side ammunition passage.

Prince of Wales turning to avoid the sinking Hood.

Prince of Wales had to turn towards the German fleet to avoid hitting the wreckage left by the flagship and was hit a number of times by gunfire from both German ships. Still, her own gunfire had caused damage to Bismarck. The British battleship turned away, laying smoke, her aft turret firing briefly under local control. She had received seven hits (three of them from Prinz Eugen) and mechanical failures had left her with all but one of her main guns out of action. At 06:03 Prinz Eugen, which at that point had fired 183 20.3 cm shells, reported propeller noises to starboard, bearing 279° and 220°. Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were forced into emergency manoeuvres and sighted a Sunderland flying-boat shortly afterwards . Although Captain Lindemann wanted to chase Prince of Wales and "finish her off", Admiral Lütjens ignored his suggestions since delay risked the possibility of encountering more Capital ships. Incredibly, in a battle lasting less than 20 minutes Bismarck, with her consort punching above her weight, had destroyed one capital ship and forced another to turn away damaged, something almost unknown in the Royal Navy and which was to cause the Admiralty to hold a special board of inquiry.

At 08:01 Bismarck made a transmission to Group North:

Sections XIII-XIV. Electric plant No. 4 broken down. Port No. 2 boiler room is making water but can be held. Maximum speed 28 Knots. Denmark Strait 50nm (Nautical miles) wide. Floating mines. Two enemy radar sets recognised. Intention: to put into St Nazaire

Faulty intelligence had led the Germans to believe that Prince of Wales was not yet ready for action, therefore reports from Bismarck referred to her as King George V, the first of that class, which had been active for some months.

Despite the jubilation onboard Bismarck, the battleship was not safe. The British knew her position, her forward radar was out of action and she had received three hits (Baron Burkard von Mullenheim said the hits were scored by Hood with her third salvo), one of which caused water to leak into and contaminate fuel oil in storage. From then on, she had to reduce speed to a maximum of 20 knots to conserve fuel. Lütjens eventually decided that he would have to head for the French coast (the dry-dock in St Nazaire) for repairs, while ordering Prinz Eugen to continue commerce raiding alone. The British continued to shadow her, Prince of Wales having rendezvoused with Norfolk and Suffolk. To enable his consort to escape, Lütjens turned on his pursuers and forced them to turn away, thus allowing Prinz Eugen to steam on out of British radar range. The plan was to be executed on the signal "Hood". Lütjens first attempt failed. However at 18:14 a second attempt succeeded, the two German ships parted and Bismarck signalled: "Good hunting".

The chase

Determined to avenge the sinking of Hood, the British committed every possible unit to hunting down Bismarck. During the early evening of 24 May an attack was made by a small group of Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from 825 Naval Air Squadron of the aircraft carrier Victorious. One hit was scored resulting in a single fatality (Bismarck's first); however, the blast caused only superficial damage to Bismarck’s armoured belt.

The effect of the attack reopened the Bismarck's earlier "wounds". The collision mats which had been used to block further flooding in the bow region had come loose due to constant jarring from evasive action and the firing of the anti-aircraft guns. The packing of the damaged bulkheads was also loosened leading to the complete forward flooding of the forward port boiler room, which was abandoned. This caused the bow to go down further, Lütjens thus ordered speed to be reduced to 16 knots while the mats were repaired.

For some time Bismarck remained under long-distance observation by the British. At about 03:00 on 25 May, the ship took advantage of her opponents' zig-zagging and performed an almost three-quarter clockwise turn behind her pursuers to escape towards the east and then south-east. Contact was lost for four hours; however, perhaps in awe of British radar capabilities, it appears that the Germans did not realise their good fortune. Lütjens, for reasons that are unclear but possibly believing that Bismarck was still being tracked (despite a communication sent by Group West telling him the opposite), transmitted a half-hour 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 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, though, fuel was becoming a major concern to both sides.

The British had a stroke of luck on 26 May. In mid-morning a Royal Air Force Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from 209 Squadron, which had flown over the Atlantic from its base on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland across Donegal through a small corridor secretly provided by the Éire government, spotted Bismarck (via her oil slick) 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 it out of range of German aircraft protection. All British hopes were now pinned on Force H, whose main units were the aircraft-carrier Ark Royal, the old battlecruiser Renown and the cruiser Sheffield. This battle-group, commanded by Admiral James Somerville, had been diverted north from Gibraltar.

At dusk that evening, and in atrocious weather conditions, Ark Royal launched its Fairey Swordfish for another attack at 19:25. The first wave mistakenly targeted the Sheffield that was by now shadowing the quarry. 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. In a final attack, almost in darkness at 21:05, a hit by a single torpedo (launched by Sub-Lieutenant John Moffat) jammed Bismarck's rudder and steering gear. This rendered Bismarck virtually unmanoeuvrable, increased her list to port and she was able only to steam in a large circle in the general direction of King George V and Rodney, two frontline battleships that had been in pursuit from the west.
After extensive efforts to free the jammed rudders, the fleet command finally acknowledged their by-now impossible position in several messages to naval headquarters. Lütjens promised that the ship would fight until the last shell was spent.The cost to the attacking British had been four Swordfish damaged, and another damaged beyond repair.

Throughout that night, Bismarck was the target of incessant torpedo attacks by the Tribal-class destroyers Cossack, Sikh, Maori, and Zulu, with the Polish Piorun. Bismarck inflicted some damage to the British destroyers. Aboard Zulu a sub-lieutenant in the gunnery control tower lost a hand to shell splinters while a shell landed on the destroyers forecastle, but did not explode. Cossack had its radio antenna sheared off by a shell. The constant worrying tactics of the British helped wear down the morale of the Germans and deepened the fatigue of an already exhausted crew.

Both Ark Royal and King George V had a lucky escape during the night. The British ships were unaware they had come within firing range of Kapitänleutnant Herbert Wohlfarth's U-556. However, U-556 was returning from a combat patrol and had spent its torpedoes. This was particularly galling for Wohlfahrt, as U-556 and Bismarck had exercised together in the Baltic,, Bismarck was dubbed the submarine's "big brother". U-556 continued to shadow the British forces, reporting their position and guiding other U-boats to the area.

Sinking

Main article: Last battle of the battleship Bismarck

File:Bismark039.jpg

The final battle, May 27, 1941. Surrounded by shell splashes, Bismarck burns on the horizon.

Around 08:00, Rodney and King George V closed to within 21 nautical miles of Bismarck, with their enemy well illuminated by the morning sun in the background. At this point visibility was only 10 nautical miles and the sea state at 4-5. High winds were blowing in 320 degrees from the North West at a force of 6-7. Rodney steered to the north so that her gunfire would work the length of Bismarck, while King George V took the side. They opened fire at 08:47. Bismarck returned fire, but her inability to steer, and her list to port, adversely affected her shooting accuarcy. Her low speed (seven knots) also made her an easy target, and she was soon hit several times, with heavy cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire adding their firepower. At 09:02 an 8-inch shell from Norfolk hit the main gun director, killing the gunnery officer, Adalbert Schneider, who had been awarded the Knights Cross the in the early hours of the same morning for his part in sinking Hood. At 09:08 a heavy shell from Rodney hit both of Bismarck's forward turrets, Anton and Bruno, disabling the latter; this was followed by another salvo which destroyed the forward control post, killing most of the senior officers. The aft turrets, Caesar and Dora, continued to fire locally. At 09:21 Dora was knocked out. The crew of Anton managed to fire one last salvo at 09:27. At 09:31 Caesar fired its last salvo and was then knocked out. This salvo straddled Rodney jamming the ship's torpedo tubes. Bismarck's salvoes throughout the battle were directed at Rodney, the older ship (perhaps in the hope of achieving a success similar to Hood). When Admiral Guernsey observed this, he remarked: "Thank heavens she's shooting at Rodney". The closest Bismarck came to threatening King George V was when Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg, under local fire control, zeroed in on the enemy but had his director blown away by a direct hit before fire could be directed at the British battleship.

Within 44 minutes, Bismarck's heavy guns were all silent. Rodney now closed to point-blank range (approximately three km) to pound the superstructure, while King George V fired from further out.

Survivors from Bismarck are pulled aboard HMS Dorsetshire on 27 May 1941

Bismarck continued to fly her ensign. With no sign of surrender, despite the unequal struggle, the British were loath to leave Bismarck. Their fuel and shell supplies were low, a demonstration of how difficult it was for a battleship to sink a similar unit, even in an unbalanced engagement. However, when it became obvious that their enemy could not reach port, Rodney, King George V and the destroyers were sent home. Norfolk had used its last torpedoes; therefore, Dorsetshire launched three 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes, which may have hit Bismarck at comparatively short range. The battleship's upper works were almost completely destroyed but her engines were still functioning, although Johannes "Hans" Zimmermann (a boiler room stoker who survived) confirms salt water had entered the boiler feed lines causing the engineers to reduce speed to seven knots, fearing an explosion, and the hull appeared to be relatively sound; therefore, rather than risk her being captured, survivors have said the order to scuttle and then abandon ship was given. Many of the crew went into the water, but few sailors from the lower engine spaces got out alive. As Captain Lindemann was presumed killed with all officers after the bridge was hit by a 16-inch shell, it is unclear whether he could have given the order to scuttle. Some of the survivors, though, strongly believe they saw him going down alive with his ship.

Bismarck went under the waves at 10:39 that morning. 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.

Dorsetshire and Maori stopped to rescue survivors, but a U-boat alarm caused them to leave the scene after rescuing only 110 Bismarck sailors, abandoning the surviving crew in the water. The next morning U-74, which had heard sinking noises from a distance, and the German weather ship Sachsenwald picked up 5 survivors. In all of the 2,200 crew, 1,995 German sailors had lost their lives.

After the sinking John Tovey wrote in his memoirs, "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 Admiral had wanted to say this publicly but the Admiralty replied: "For political reasons it is essential that nothing of the nature of the sentiments expressed by you should be given publicity, however much we admire a gallant fight".

War diary

At 07:10 on the morning of the final battle, Lütjens, with Bismarck now doomed, requested that Group West send any U-Boat in the area to retrieve the ship's war diary. U-556 was now low on fuel and had passed its shadowing duties and communication with Group West to U-74 which had just arrived (albeit damaged by depth charges and unable to fire torpedoes). Thus U-556 was underwater when Lütjens sent out the request to retrieve the war diary. An earlier attempt to send the diary via the Arado Ar 196 float aircraft had also failed, due to the damage the catapult had received from Prince of Wales at the Denmark Strait battle (the Arado was dumped overboard and its floats pierced to ensure it sank). However, by this point (08:00) it was far too late for a U-Boat to reach Bismarck.

Role of the Luftwaffe

The Luftwaffe came under heavy criticism from Hitler for failing to help Bismarck on the morning of her final battle. Luftflotte 3 had been apprised of Bismarck's intentions as early as May 24, and its units, mainly equipped with Heinkel He 111s, could have been positioned to help the ship. On May 26 Bismarck was within 700 miles of the French coast (as reported by Flying Officer Dennis Briggs flying a Catalina of No. 209 squadron). An attack by the He 111s, with a maximum range of 1,750 miles, could have slowed down Ark Royal and prevented the Fairey Swordfish attack which crippled Bismarck. As it was, the Luftwaffe appeared over the battle area an hour after Bismarck had sunk. 17 Kampfgeschwader 28 He 111s attacked Ark Royal but their bombs missed. Only 218 sorties were flown by the Luftwaffe in support of Rheinübung with KG 100, KG 1, KG 54 and KG 77. The only casualty of these raids was the destroyer Mashona, which sank on 28 May off the west coast of Ireland. A Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor had sighted Rodney but was unable to communicate the position accurately without radar, reporting her as 200 miles further from the French coast than was the case. Thus a possible chance for the Luftwaffe to attack the British battleship was lost. Meaningful missions did not start until 03:00 on May 27, by which time Bismarck's fate was sealed.

Aftermath

Over the years, the ship achieved near mythological status and was popularised in 1960 by the film Sink the Bismarck! and Johnny Horton's hit song of the same title. The wreck of Bismarck was discovered on 8 June 1989 by Dr. Robert Ballard, the oceanographer also responsible for finding the Titanic. Bismarck rests upright at a depth of approximately 4,791 m (15,700 ft) about 650 kilometres west of Brest, France. The Bismarck struck an extinct underwater volcano, which rose some 1,000 metres (3,300) feet above the surrounding Abyssal plain, triggering a 2 kilometer (1.25 mile) landslide. Bismarck slid down the mountain, coming to a stop two-thirds down.

Analysis of the wreck showed extensive damage to the superstructure by shelling and some minor damage to the hull by torpedo hits, but also suggested that the Germans scuttled the ship to hasten its sinking. This has never been proven by marine investigators but is confirmed by survivors. Ballard has kept the exact location of the wreck a secret to prevent other divers from taking artefacts from the ship, a practice he considers a form of grave robbing.

A later dive on the wreck also identified the location, and brought back further images, as part of a documentary sponsored by the British Channel 4 on Bismarck and Hood.

The documentary film Expedition: Bismarck (2002), directed by James Cameron and filmed using MIR submersibles, reconstructs the events leading to the sinking of Bismarck. His findings were that there was not enough damage below the waterline of the ship to confirm that she was actually sunk by shells and torpedoes. In fact, upon close inspection of the wreckage, it was confirmed that none of the torpedoes or shells penetrated the second layer of the inner hull, supporting the Germans' story of having scuttled their own ship.

Controversy

The second Bismarck expedition in 2001 was Anglo-American and funded by a UK TV channel. It followed-on from the same team's prior discovery of the long-lost wreckage of Hood which was located and filmed for the first time. An Anglo-American team, consisting of David Mearns, Bill Jurens and Professor Eric Grove, used the information that Bismarck was resting at the foot of the only undersea volcano in that area, to locate it. They then used ROVs to film the hull externally and concluded that the ship sank due to combat damage, having received numerous artillery and torpedo hits. David Mearns claimed significant gashes were found in the hull , "My feeling is that those holes were probably lengthened by the slide, but initiated by torpedoes."

A new American expedition visited the site using smaller and more agile ROVs. These provided some interior shots of Bismarck for the first time, which were aired as part of a one-hour documentary film on the National Geographic Channel (NGC). James Cameron, the leader of the expedition, put forward a theory for the "gashes". Cameron suggests that Bismarck suffered a "hydraulic outburst" when it hit the bottom. Cameron said the belt held, but inner forces caused the sides to bulge out and break in places. Cameron sent small ROVs into the gashes and into the ship's interior. Twice they came upon torpedo holes at the ends of long gashes. But upon sending the tethered robots even deeper into the ship it was discovered that the torpedo blasts had failed to shatter its armored inner walls. All that was destroyed was an outer "sacrificial zone" of water and fuel tanks that German engineers had created to absorb torpedo hits and keep interior spaces flood free. "The inner tank walls are untouched by any explosive force", "So the armor worked." Cameron concluded that the torpedoes caused "no significant flooding."

The third survey found no underwater penetrations of the ship's fully-armoured citadel. Eight holes were found in the hull, one on the starboard side and seven on the port side, all above the waterline. One of the holes is in the deck, on the starboard side of the bow. The angle and shape indicates it was fired from Bismarck's port side and struck the starboard anchor chain. The anchor chain has disappeared down this hole. Six holes are amidship, three shell fragments pierced the upper splinter belt, and one made a whole in the main armour belt. Further aft a huge hole is visible, parallel to the aircraft catapult, on the deck. It is unclear whether this was a result of a internal magazine explosion due to a shell penetration of the ship's armour. The submersibles recorded no sign of a shell penetration through the main or side armour that could have caused this. It is likely that the shell penetrated the deck armour only.

Huge dents showed that a considerable number of the 14 inch (356 mm) shells fired by King George V bounced off the German belt armour. Interior ROV footage showed that the "terrible destruction" the Anglo-American expedition reported was in fact the torpedo bulges, which were designed to absorb the energy of torpedoes and plunging shells. Underneath the torn bulge sheeting, the ship's 320 mm (12.6 inch) thick main belt armour appeared to be intact. Of the shell holes pictured in Bismarck's armour, it cannot be confirmed by Ballard that they were full penatrations.

Furthermore Ballard's expedition revealed there where no signs of the implosions that occur when an air-filled compartments succumb to outside water pressure. This suggests that Bismarck's compartments were flooded when the ship sank, supporting the scuttling theory.

The American expedition's final conclusions were strikingly different from the findings of the Anglo-American team estimated that Bismarck could still float for at least a day when the British vessels ceased fire and could have been captured by the Royal Navy, a position supported by the historian Ludovic Kennedy. Ballard found the hull sound, adding: "we found a hull that appears whole and relatively undamaged by the descent and impact. They concluded the direct cause of sinking was due to scuttling: sabotage of engine-room valves by her crew, as claimed by German survivors.

In all 2,876 shells of various calibres were fired by the British ships. Approximately 300-400 hit. In all 714 14-inch and 16-inch shells were fired by the two battleships, of which about 80 hit Bismarck.

When senior Bismarck survivor the late von Müllenheim-Rechberg was asked for his opinion on the controversy in a British television interview he simply replied, "Both sides sank the Bismarck."

Criticisms of ship's design

While Bismarck was a powerful ship, the long hiatus in German capital ship building from 1919 until 1933 led to a conservative design that was to some degree flawed and outmoded. It has often been claimed that the ship's design borrowed from the design of the World War I Bayern class battleships and the incomplete Mackensen class battlecruisers, as the ship was completed with some of her vitals above her armoured belt.. However the only two features the designs had in common were their armament and three-shaft propulsion plant. This particular weakness left many communication systems, including her main damage control centre and foretop fire control director, open to destruction which contributed to her relatively rapid silencing in her final engagement.

A close study of the ship's layout, however, reveals that all fire-control and damage-control rooms are doubled and beneath the main armour deck and the cables from bridge and range finders were all leading through the three armoured shafts between these stations and the rooms beneath the main armoured deck. It was through one of these narrow communication shafts that Adolf Eich, Franz Halke and Heinz Jucknat escaped from their post in the aft computer room, to the aft fire control station.

A further example of outmoded design was the provision of both a secondary armament of twelve 5.9-inch guns and the inclusion of a separate battery of sixteen 4.1-inch high-angle (anti-aircraft) guns. This fitting of two types of weapons lagged behind the dual-purpose secondary armaments of Allied ships that allowed them to engage both air and surface targets, thereby saving on weight used elsewhere in their designs, eliminating the need for carrying two sizes of secondary ammunition and facilitating superior fire-control systems.

A critical weakness of Bismarck was the seeming fragility of its stern section. On discovering the wreck, it was discovered the whole stern section had broken away. Due to the fact it was not near the main wreckage, and has not yet been found, it can be assumed this did not occur on impact with the sea floor. The missing section came away roughly where the torpedo hit was made, raising questions of possible structural failure. The stern area had also received several hits increasing the damage caused by the torpedo hit. This coupled with the fact the ship sank "stern first" and had no structural support to hold it in place suggests the stern became detached at the surface.

In 1942 Prinz Eugen was also torpedoed in the stern, after which Eugen's stern collapsed. After this event the stern structures on all German capital ships were strengthened.

References in the Wehrmachtbericht

Date	Original German Wehrmachtbericht wording	Direct English translation
Saturday, 25 May 1941	Wie ebenfalls durch Sondermeldung bekanntgegeben wurde, stieß ein deutscher Flottenverband unter Führung des Flottenchefs Lütjens im Seegebiet um Island auf schwere britische Seestreitkräfte. Nach einem kurzen schweren Gefecht versenkte das Schlachtschiff "Bismarck" den britischen Schlachtkreuzer "Hood", das größte Schlachtschiff der britischen Flotte. Ein weiteres Schlachtschiff der neusten englischen "King George"-Klasse wurde beschädigt und zum Abdrehen gezwungen. Die deutschen Seestreitkräfte setzten ohne Verluste ihre Operation fort.	As also mentioned in a special report, a German task force under the leadership of chief of fleet Lütjens encountered, in the sea area of Iceland, heavy British sea forces. The battleship "Bismarck" sank the British battlecruiser "Hood", the largest battleship of the British fleet, after a short and heavy battle. A further battleship of the newest English "King George" class was damaged and forced to retreat. The German sea forces continued their operation without loss.
Wednesday, 28 May 1941	Wie schon gestern bekanntgegeben, wurde das Schlachtschiff "Bismarck" nach seinem siegreichen Gefecht bei Island am 26. Mai abends durch den Torpedotreffer eines feindlichen Flugzeuges manövrierunfähig. Getreu dem letzten Funkspruch des Flottenchefs Admiral Lüdjens ist das Schlachtschiff mit seinem Kommandanten Kaptitän zur See Lindemann und seiner tapferen Besatzung am 27. Mai vormittags der vielfachen feindlichen Übermacht erlegen und mit wehender Flagge gesunken.	As reported yesterday, the battleship "Bismarck" was hit by a torpedo from an enemy aircraft and left unmanoeuvrable. True to the last radio message from chief of fleet Admiral Lütjens, the battleship was defeated by overwhelming enemy forces and sank with flag flying together with its commander Kaptitän zu See Lindemann and its brave crew, on May 27 before noon.
Thursday, 29 May 1941	Das Schlachtschiff "Bismarck" schoß am Abend des 24. Mai fünf britische Flugzeuge ab, versenkte in der Nacht zum 27. Mai einen der angreifenden feindlichen Zerstörer und schoß einen weiteren in Brand.	The battleship "Bismarck" shot down five British aircraft on the evening of May 24, sank an attacking enemy destroyer on the night of May 27 and shot up another until it burned.

See also

• Tirpitz, the second ship of the Bismarck class battleships
• List of ship launches in 1939
• List of ship commissionings in 1940
• List of shipwrecks in 1941
• Last battle of the battleship Bismarck
• List of battleships of Germany
• List of naval ships of Germany
• List of Kriegsmarine ships

References

Please note: Some titles appear next to citations. This is because some authors have more than one source cited and published in the same year.

• Ballard, Robert D. (1990). Bismarck: Germany's Greatest Battleship Gives Up its Secrets. Toronto: Madison Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7858-2205-9.
• Ballard, Robert D. (1990). The Discovery of the Bismarck. Toronto: Madison Publishing. ISBN 978-0-3405-2976-8.
• Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg, Burkhard (1980). Battleship Bismarck, A Survivor's Story. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0870210969.
• Barrett, Corelli (1991). Engage the Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02918-2.
• Brower, Jack (2005). The Battleship Bismarck. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1591140501.
• Chesneau, Roger (2002). Hood - Life and Death of a Battlecruiser. London: Cassell Publishing. ISBN 0-304-35980-7.
• Garzke, William (1990). Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-8702-1101-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Jackson, Robert (2002). The Bismarck. London: Weapons of War. ISBN 1-86227-173-9.
• Muller, Rolf-Dieter (2003). Germany and the Second World War: Organization and Mobilization in the German Sphere of Power, Wartime Administration, Economy, and Manpower Resources 1942-1944/5. Vol. IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1982-0873-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Preston, Antony (1982). Battleships (Warships). Hollywood: Lifetime Books. ISBN 0-8119-0462-8.
• Rico, José M. (2004). The Battleship Bismarck. The Complete History of a Legendary Ship. KBismark.com. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
• Roberts, John (2001). The Battlecruiser Hood. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-900-x.

• Admiralty report CB 04039(2) Immune zone analysis of Tirpitz, KGV, Nelson, and QE
• Most recently (in 2006), the Bismarck was featured on an episode of the History Channel's "Dogfights" entitled "Hunt for the Bismarck".
• The Special Bond between the Bismarck and U-556
• Bismarck Portrait of the Men Involved

Further reading

• Ludovic Kennedy, Pursuit: The Sinking of the Bismarck
• C.S. Forester, Hunting the Bismarck (first published by Michael Joseph Ltd in 1959)
• Ulrich Elfrath and Bodo Herzog, The Battleship Bismarck: A Documentary in Words and Pictures (Schifer Publishing; Atglen, Pennsylvania; 1989) (originally published in German as Schlachtschiff Bismarck, Ein Bericht in Bildern und Dokumentation, Podzun-Palles Verlag, Friedberg, 1975).
• Per Hansson, Det Største Spillet, Gyldendal, 1965
• Robert Jackson. The Bismarck. Weapons of War: London, 2002. ISBN 1-86227-173-9
• Paul J. Kemp, Bismarck and Hood: Great Naval Adversaries (Arms and Armor Press, London, 1991)
• Siegfried Breyer, Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970 (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970, J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970).
• David J. Bercuson and Holger H. Herwig The Destruction of the Bismarck (Stoddart Pulishing, Toronto, 2001).
• Graham Rhys-Jones The Loss of the Bismarck: An Avoidable Disaster (Cassell & Company, London, 1999).
• Antonio Bonomi, Stretto di Danimarca, 24 maggio 1941, "Storia Militare" magazine, December 2005.
• Die Wehrmachtberichte 1939-1945 Band 1, 1. September 1939 bis 31. Dezember 1941 (in German). München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, 1985. ISBN 3-423-05944-3.

External links

• KBismarck.com - The Battleship Bismarck
• Battleship Bismarck & Tirpitz - English
• Bismarck Legend Lives
• Maritimequest Bismarck photo gallery
• Underwater footage of the Bismarck wreck
• A detailed article about the armour protection of the Bismarck

48°10′N 16°12′W