Famous Battles -- The Sinking Of The Bismark

After WWI, the victorious Allies, besides dictating crippling reparations from Germany, also imposed severe limits on future German armaments.

The Germans, under the Weimar Republic, almost immediately began devising ways to circumvent these limitations.

Then in 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power.

Hitler accelerated the process of rearmament, and among other things drew up plans to create a large German navy. In order to be able to challenge the formidable British navy, he needed among other types of ships, large battleships. He set up a plan "Z" to create a huge class of these ships.

One of these was the Bismark.

The design of Bismark was begun in 1930, and was commissioned on August 24th, 1940.

Up to that time, Bismark was the largest, and fastest battleship the world had ever seen. It had eight 15 inch guns and numerous other smaller caliber weaponry.

Hitler's original intent was to create several of these ships to be used to challenge the British navy. But the outbreak of WWII forced him to change priorities. Only one other ship in Bismark's class was built - Tirpitz.

Bismark was to be used as a commercial raider against the convoys in the North Atlantic. It was also hoped that she (ships were female) would also be influential in the Mediterranean. If any British capital ships were to be so foolish as to get in Bismark's way, the German High Command figured that Bismark would be more than up to the challenge.

Quite naturally, the British were very interested in the location and intentions of Bismark.

After completing preparations for her mission, Bismark and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen left Gotenhafen (now Gdynia).

The two ships planned to hug the southern coast of Norway and from there, make a wide circle north for the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland (see map). From there they planned to head south in search of convoys coming from America.

A Swedish military intelligence source spotted the 2 German ships off the coast of Norway, This was confirmed by the British, but the British Admiralty wasn't sure what route they would take in the North Sea, and the North Atlantic. So they dispatched their own capital ships to cover the various likely routes.

The battleships Hood, and the Prince of Wales were sent to the Denmark Strait.

The Bismark was commanded by Captain Ernst Lindemann. The fleet commander on board was Admiral Gunther Lutjens.

The Germans reached the Denmark Strait without being detected, but as they turned south, at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday May 24th, Prinz Eugen spotted the British Battle group. Lutjens had not expected to see British capital ships there.

Hood fired the opening shots followed shortly after by the Prince of Wales. The range to the German ships was 12.5 miles.

The first salvos landed close to Prinz Eugen causing minor damage.

The Hood now made a tactical error. She attempted to close the gap to the Bismark to render the German superiority in firepower and range to better odds. Close-in, they would be evenly matched.

But the maneuver, in turning into the Bismark to close the gap, rendered most of her guns useless during the maneuver.

A shell from Bismark's 5th salvo smashed into the Hood amidships at a range of about 9 miles just as the Hood was turning to re-engage.

The Hood blew up and sunk within 3 minutes.

The Prince of Wales had to withdraw after receiving several hits. But she also scored several hits on Bismark.

Bismark's fuel storage system had been damaged and it was decided that it would be necessary to reduce speed. Prinz Eugen was ordered to look for Allied shipping, but it was decided that the Bismark would head for France to be repaired before continuing with her mission.

The chase was now on.

The British pinned their hopes on "Force H", which included the aircraft carrier Ark Royal,the battlecruiser Renown, and the cruiser Sheffield.

As darkness closed in on the evening of May 26th, Bismark was spotted and a torpedo plane from the Ark Royal managed to score a hit on her rudder and steering gear. This rendered Bismark virtually unmaneuverable, causing her to only be able to steer in a large circle.

Other British ships were now able to close in and soon, Bismark was under incessant torpedo attacks from British destroyers. Bismark returned fire and did some damage to the destroyers,but it became clear to Lutjens that the end was near.

Around 8:00 on May 27th, the British Battleships Rodney, and King George V closed on Bismark and opened fire. Within 45 minutes,all of Bismark's heavy 15 inch guns were silenced.

Bismark refused to surrender. Captain Lindemann may have ordered the scuttling of the ship, but this is unconfirmed as he was killed by an explosion on the bridge by a 16 inch shell.

Bismark slipped beneath the waves stern first at 10:39 that morning and slipped into history.