The Hunt for the Bismarck
Learn about the historic hunt for the German battleship Bismarck during World War 2!
CHASING THE BISMARCK
During World War I, the German empire was one of the Central Powers that lost the war. A half-century of land consolidation, the emerging of the empire, the efforts of the Iron Chancellor, and the outcomes of numerous wars of the second half of the nineteenth century were literally wasted. At the end of the war, the German empire disappeared. After a number of revolutions, a new Germany had been born as the Weimar Republic. It lost all of its colonies and about 10% of the mother country, distributed amongst the six victorious nations. Being formally German territory, the Rhineland zone was occupied by Allied troops for over ten years under the Treaty of Versailles. The German armed forces were imposed with a number of strict limitations. The country’s economy was devastated by the war and revolutionary outbreaks, and in addition, it was suffering the burden of strict reparations to the victorious nations.
However, along with the U.S.S.R., Germany still remained the largest country in continental Europe, with a qualified and laborious population. It could also boast the best education system in the world — at that time, German was considered the international language of science. The provisions of the Treaty of Versailles were considered neither reasonable nor fair by some. More often than not, they were recognised as “chains”. After the defeat in the Great War, many Germans felt they had to avenge their losses and become a great power again; history has shown many examples of the importance of a strong navy in making a country a great power.
At the time, most nations believed the strength of a navy lay in its battleships — the combination of near-indestructible armour and devastating guns, and some of the largest human works ever created, built to deal destruction to all in their path. Many countries longed for these powerful ships, but never succeeded due to economic reasons — this kind of production would drain their budgets. Later though, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party came to power. On March 18, 1935, Germany officially denounced the Versailles treaty. In the summer of 1935, the first Scharnhorst and Gneisenau battleships were laid down.
These ships had a moderate tonnage and were equipped with a relatively weak armament, but still, they were the battleships — some specialists often alternatively describe them as battlecruisers. Right after their laying, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was signed, which completely revised the restrictions on the development of German naval forces. From now on, the tonnage of German naval forces, excluding submarines, could not exceed 35% of British naval forces in each class of ships. Unlike the previous restrictions, this provision allowed Germany to construct its own fleet — it was unlikely to exceed the provision due to economic reasons.
Later, on 1 July 1936, on the wharves of the Blohm & Voss company in Hamburg, one of the world’s largest battleships was laid down. It was named Bismarck, in honour of the Iron Chancellor, who united Germany. In four months, its sister ship Tirpitz was laid down in Kiel.
The battleship had quite impressive characteristics: powerful armour, four main-calibre double-gun turrets with 380mm guns, a speed of 30 knots, an overall length of 251 metres, three steam turbines with a total power of 150,000 horse power, and a complement of 2,200 crewmembers. At the moment of floating, it was the most powerful battleship in the world. However, later, it was surpassed by the Japanese Yamato-class and American Iowa-class battleships.
Bismarck was launched in February 1939. During the official ceremony, witnessed by Adolf Hitler, the ship was christened by Dorothea Sibylle Katharina Von Loewenfeld, born Gräfin von Bismarck-Schönhausen, the granddaughter of the famous Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The battleship was commissioned into the fleet in August 1940. Captain Ernst Lindemann took command of the ship at the time of commissioning. By the summer of 1941, Bismarck was ready to join the war.
It is necessary to mention that despite having two of the most powerful battleships, the German fleet could not compete in an open fight with the Royal Navy, which consisted of fifteen battleships and battlecruisers. The commander of the German fleet, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder understood this clearly, and kept on reminding Hitler about the general strategic importance of the fleet, as well as about the weakness of the fleet in particular. In fact, in conditions of full-scale warfare with Britain, the only thing the German fleet could do was to keep to raiding tactics, which proved effective in the previous war. The main objective of the German fleet was not naval supremacy, which was hardly possible given the current balance of powers, but rather to disrupt crucial supply lines to Britain. The first combat mission of Bismarck was intended as a raid — operating in the Atlantic and attacking escort vessels. It was imperative that the ship avoid a direct showdown with powerful enemy battleships.
Still, there was a strong probability of such a direct showdown, and initially, for this mission, it was planned to send a convoy of several vessels. In theory, Bismarck had to be escorted by almost all of the German battlecruisers: Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Tirpitz. However, Tirpitz was undergoing sea trials and was not yet ready for combat missions. Gneisenau was severely damaged by British aerial attacks and had to undergo lengthy repairs. Scharnhorst was also going through repairs of its engines in dry dock. After some corrections, the final date of the mission was scheduled. The operation was named Rheinübung: Exercise Rhine.
On 18 May 1941, under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens, Bismarck, escorted by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, sailed from Gotenhafen (now Gdynia, Poland). On the next day, the escort ships Z-23, Z-10 and Z-16 joined them near Rügen Island.
When looking at a map of the North Atlantic, one can notice that Germany has quite an unfavourable geographic position for performing any naval operations. The direct route was to sail through the English Channel. However, any attempt to pass the larger vessels through the channel would result in their inevitable detection, followed by an instant attack from all available vessels of the Royal Fleet. The Bay of Biscay looked more promising, since it was occupied by German forces after the capitulation of France, but it was too far away. Bismarck’s route lay along the coast of Norway, and went on to the North, along Iceland.
After passing through the Denmark Strait, between Iceland and Greenland (out of reach of allied air forces), the ships were supposed to enter the North Atlantic and had to act according to the situation, which was trying to raid and intercept the supply. The destination point was in France, in Bay of Biscay, where Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were supposed to join the Bismarck in the Brest Port. The next raid was intended as a cooperative mission, with participation of all ships.
On May 20, the squadron passed the Kattegat Strait, but the ships were sighted by the Swedish aircraft-carrying cruiser Gotland at around 13:00. Gotland forwarded the report to Stockholm, where the information was delivered to British attaches. By evening, the information about the German squadron in Kattegat was delivered to London. However, Bismarck intercepted the Gotland’s message, and Admiral Lütjens sent a radiogram to inform the German Command. From the testimonies of contemporaries, Admiral Lütjens wad a qualified and skilful naval man, although he had an old-fashioned attitude; he was not a great fan of radio silence during battle missions.
When leaving the strait at sunset, right near the Kristiansand, the squadron was detected by the Norwegian partisan, Viggo Axelsen, who sent this valuable information on to the British forces. The squadron’s position was disclosed. On May 21, a British plane took a reconnaissance photo of the powerful ships anchored in Bergen Port. The analysis of the photos correctly identified the enemy ships. The Norfolk and Suffolk cruisers were sent to patrol the Danish Strait, while the battlecruiser Hood, battleship Prince of Wales and six torpedo boat destroyers were ordered to reach Iceland.
On the same evening, the German squadron left the supply ships and sailed from Bergen. During the stand, the Vollin tanker refuelled the Prinz Eugen, however, due to reasons still unbeknownst, Bismarck did not replenish its fuel stores. Many historians assume that Admiral Lütjens made a mistake when he refused to refuel Bismarck. On the morning of May 22, the last destroyers left the squadron.
After Hood and Prince of Wales engaged Bismarck, Prince of Wales was left alone as Hood was sunk. It received seven hits altogether and had to lay a smoke screen to cover its rapid withdrawal. Admiral Lütjens opted not to chase and destroy the Prince of Wales. On the one hand, the German squadron had a good opportunity to destroy another British battleship, which was quite an achievement. On the other hand, spending more time in the Danish Strait would increase the chances of facing the other ships of the British fleet: this was too risky, taking into account Bismarck was already damaged and the allied German bases were too far away. Bismarck received three hits and its speed had fallen down to 28 knots, a considerable amount of fuel was lost, and incoming water was flooding the ship. After considering the situation, Admiral Lütjens made the decision to make for Saint-Nazaire for repairs.
The Norfolk and Suffolk battleships started chasing Bismarck. Later, Prince of Wales joined the pursuit. From the west joined the main forces of the British fleet under the command of John Tovey: battleship King George V, aircraft carrier Victorious, escorting cruisers, and six torpedo boat destroyers. The aircraft carrier Ark Royal, battle cruiser Renown, and cruiser Sheffield were approaching from the direction of Gibraltar. All in all, eight battleships and battlecruisers, two aircraft carriers, fourteen cruisers, and twenty seven torpedo boat destroyers were committed to the chase.
At 23:27, the Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from the Victorious aircraft carrier attacked Bismarck — alone, now that Prinz Eugen had slipped away during the confrontation with Wake-Walker’s ships — and made a successful hit with one torpedo, which did not cause much damage. On May 25 03:10, Bismarck changed course and, thanks to the worsened weather, the chasers lost contact and could no longer sight the ship. However, at 07:00 and 09:00, Lütjens sent two radiograms which allowed the British ships to detect the location of Bismarck. Visual contact was only established on May 26 10:30, when the Catalina aircraft located the battleship. For more than 24 hours Bismarck was moving in the direction of France at varying speeds, attempting to fix the caused damage on the move. When Bismarck was detected, there remained about 700 miles and 35 hours to reach Saint-Nazaire.
The Swordfish planes resumed the attack on the battleship only at 20:47. During this attack, Bismarck was hit with two torpedoes, one of which locked and jammed the ship’s rudder. The battleship lost control. The repair teams spent half the night trying to repair the rudder, but with no success. Lütjens sent the last telegram: ship unmanoeuvrable; we will fight to the last shell. At 21:15, the Kriegsmarine issued the directive: all submarines that have the required torpedo ammunition must immediately move to Bismarck at maximum speed to the BE-29 square net.
The powerful ships of the Allies were approaching and preparing for the last battle. From late evening to early dawn, the British torpedo boat destroyers were continuously attacking the damaged battleship, but with no success.
On May 27, 08:47, the battleships opened fire. At 10:39, Bismarck was torn with point-blank torpedo firing. At that time, the battleship had no active guns that could provide return fire. Bismarck capsized to port and slowly sank at 10:39; and with no other options, the team opened the ship’s watertight doors. The Bismarck sank with its colours up. British ships managed to save about 116 crew members, but neither Lütjens nor Lindemann were found among the survivors.
The Bismarck’s raid is rich on a number of coincidences, accidents, mistakes, and strokes of luck. For instance, on the evening of May 26, the first wave of torpedo carriers accidentally attacked not Bismarck, but the British cruiser Sheffield. Luckily, Sheffield emerged unscathed and the eleven torpedoes did not cause any damage. Some hours earlier, Ark Royal and Renown passed before the U-556 submarine, which was in perfect position for a torpedo attack. Unfortunately, all torpedoes were already fired.
Hitler was disheartened by such a catastrophic result of the very first mission of the largest German battleship. It was the second heavy loss of the German fleet, following the loss of the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, which belonged to the unique class of “pocket battleships”. It was blocked in the port at Montevideo in December 1939 and destroyed by the crew; however, the fate of Bismarck was hard to compare with the other ships. All operations, involving the surface ships, were discontinued for quite a long period of time. In fact, they only continued in the North, where they also were of little success. Hitler was obsessed with the fear of losing such expensive toys, which later dominated any common sense. During the course of the war, this fear resulted in the famous order: refusal to engage powerful battleships in battle missions.
In 2002, the Expedition: Bismarck documentary, directed by James Cameron, was filmed. The film group used small and agile Mir submersibles, carried by the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh research vessel.
Ship’s 3D Model
Originally published on the official World of Warships website.
