Operation Rheinübung - First and Last Voyage of the Bismarck

[Music] [Music] seventy-eight years ago the largest German battleship built up until that point began its first and last voyage the mission would take less than two weeks but would catapult the ship into naval history as one of the most recognizable names of any warship to sail the seas it would of course also spark generations of ferocious debate in scholarly articles and online about practically every detail of the ship its crew its mission and its opponents well today we're going to tell the story of Operation Rhine the final voyage of the battleship Bismarck and I say we for good reason because today we're going to tell the story slightly differently part story part battle report and told by two different people 78 years ago we might very well have been on opposite side slinging shells at each other over the icy waters of the Atlantic but today we're working together to bring you the main part of a series of related videos about this a very important piece of naval history so it is high time to welcome my co-host for this video 1 napalm rata hello hello there my name is not over then I'm a gamer slash youtuber from Bavaria that's the southern part of Germany that produces the good beer amongst the very first we'll do two stories that I heard as a little boy was the first and last voyage of the Bismarck what a fascinating story it was and still is and also what a name Bismarck not only the name of the iron Chancellor but also of that one ship that there to fight the British and nearly got away with it nearly the more I read about the ship and the more I saw on TV and on the internet the more realized that the story of the Bismarck was bigger and many aspects in one documentary or book weren't really covered in the next one the whole story and more details had to be brought together years later games such as war thunder and while the warships revived my interest in this topic and I went on the internet and one day came across Turkey me files YouTube channel I convinced him to make a video together on this topic a match made by the gods a British and the German guy doing a video together about one of the most famous battles and chases in naval history so now let's run out what are facts what are lies and or propaganda persisting for decades so we'll start with a bit of background the Germans were very well aware that the UK depended on imports of all sorts of materials both mundane and warlike to keep itself supplied both world wars had seen determined efforts to break these supply chains and thus force the British Empire out of the war the British equally aware of this risk had developed or rather redeveloped the convoy system during World War one and had made significant advances in the field of anti-submarine warfare during the interwar period Admiral Donuts had wanted hundreds of submarines to do this job but at the start of the war he had far fewer than this many of which were coastal submarines that would never be able to operate in the deep Atlantic although more u-boats were being built they were also being sunk at an increasingly worrying rate so they clicks marina had to try and inflict further damage on Allied shipping using other tools at its disposal disguised merchant ships so called whose code sir heavy cruisers hunter ship fair and the two battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau all had been deployed to this purpose with varying levels of success one of the major issues the German Raiders were facing was that with the Royal Navy being significantly larger than its opponents whilst the Germans had to consider which use they were going to put their few battleships to the British was simply deploying their old and less modernized battleships as convoy escorts and still keeping the modern battleships in play in operational theaters this proved to be a highly effective deterrent against surface Raiders as even an old revenge or queen elizabeth-class was still more than a match for anything the Germans had sent out so far if it came down to a gunnery duel even the two Shaun horst's had shied away from engaging such a ship and whilst it's possible they might have won a battle with an old revenge class the resulting damage to themselves would almost certainly have seen one or both of the ships lost either in a fight or shortly thereafter by follow-up attacks and the convoy most likely would have escaped however there was a new card in the clicks Marines hand a brand new flush chief Bismarck much larger and faster than the old British battleships it was equipped with the latest German radar and fire control systems as well as new high-power 15-inch guns with a fast reload system when it worked such a ship could confidently engage almost any convoy esker it was likely to encounter especially when operating alongside other vessels in a small squadron at first the plan was to sail in company with one or two hipper class heavy cruisers as well as the Shamas tecna's now this marks sister ship Tippett's was still on the final construction so getting this ship into the field as well would take too much time but British air strikes had damaged both of the smaller German battleships in their Anchorage's on the French west coast leaving just Bismarck and Prince augen available for operations although a number of light cruisers were also combat ready the Koenigsberg and nürnberg classes did not have either the range or the seaworthiness to be considered useful in prolonged Atlantic operations although the Bismark represented a significantly powerful combat asset the primary objective was economic warfare not destruction of military targets and so although its participation on they came across the orders so as to allow to get at the merchant ships in the convoy and the primary target in this operation is the enemy's merchant shipping enemy warships will be engaged only when that objective makes it necessary and it can be done without excessive risk as with crash Bay's expedition at the start of the war supply ships with both stores and fuel were dispatched ahead of time whilst the earlier mission had primarily needed only Altmark to larger vessels would need multiple resupply stocks Luo Tian's had requested a delay as kanai's now was in for long term repair after an aerial torpedo strike but Shawn Horst might be ready in a reasonable time and that delay might allow the completion and training of Tirpitz his crew as well although the former ship would have to meet them at sea since it was stuck at the other end of the English Channel however these requests were denied despite a certain degree of tactical soundness partially this was to avoid a long period without major German surface raiding which would in turn allow the British to build up supplies from convoys that only had to worry about u-boats but there was also politics Kriegsmarine High Command knew about the upcoming Operation Barbarossa and learned invasion of Russia which isn't something that a fleet can play all that much of a major role in even Shore bombardment would be off the cards once the baltic coast was secured with that particular adventure sure to cause a huge increase in demand for funding for the bear market and the Luftwaffe scoring a major operational success beforehand would increase the creeks marines prestige first and thus allow it to fight to keep most all of its existing funding timing was also important in another aspect in the higher reaches of the North Atlantic the effects of the seasons were much more pronounced sailing earlier in the year meant considerably more hours of darkness and bad weather that could shield any German ships from visual detection since at this time not all British ships and very few aircraft had functioning search radar in contrast sailing in the later summer months could leave any Raiders open to spotting by anyone with a pair of functioning eyeballs for between 18 to 20 hours each day in the northern latitudes to meet the threat from German capital ships the British had the battleships of the home fleet at Scapa Flow whilst hardly the dozens of battleships of the first world war this force was usually kept at between three and four capital ships with vessels rotating in and out on other missions in May 1941 the home fleet was slightly weaker than average with the battleships King George the fifth and Prince of Wales as well as the battle cruiser Hood and the carrier victorious on paper this was a strong force but Prince of Wales and to a slightly lesser extent a victorious were fresh out of the shipyards and hood despite a reef it was literally on its last legs long passed over for a major refit and reconstruction due to its interwar status as at the flagship it was mostly keeping moving these days with engines running on patch ups rushed repairs one replaced turbine and a lot of hope further to the south Gibraltar could send Force H the relevant ships being the battle cruisers of renown and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal whilst in the Atlantic on various missions mostly convoy escort were the old battleships revenge and Rama Lee's the newer and far more powerful Rodney recently relieved from home flee duties by the Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser repulse these ships along with air patrols cruisers and destroyers were responsible for an upcoming 11 convoys including a heavily laden troop convoy on 5th May 1941 Hitler arrived at Gooden Hoffman to to a Bismarck and Tippett's and talk with Luo Tian's about his plans of the mission just under two weeks later Luo Tian's reported that Bismarck and prints were ready to go and so orders were issued to start the mission on the 19th of May compared to a normal true complement the Bismarck sailed with over a hundred extra men about 40% of which were the Admirals staff and the rest being additional sailors in anticipation of the need to crew capture transmits during the operation early in the morning she met up with Prince Wang and a small escort of destroyers and minesweepers along with Luftwaffe air cover once well out of sea on the 20th captain Lindemann informed the ship's crew violence because of what they were actually about to try and accomplish Swedish forces quickly spotted the Germans with both Swedish aircraft and the cruiser Gotland separately encountering the German formation and reporting back to their headquarters whilst Kriegsmarine high command wasn't worried by these incidents the command officers aboard Bismarck believed secrecy had been lost and they were right the swedish report mysteriously arrived in the mail of the british naval attache to sweden who then informed the Admiralty the code breakers at Bletchley Park were also supplying information that an Atlantic raid was about to occur since they had decrypted reports that Bismarck and Prince Aegon had taken on prize crews and requested additional navigational charts as a result a pair of Spitfire recon aircraft were sent to the Norwegian coast to look for the German ships in return German area records showed the home fleet still a tanker thus convincing many that the British were not in fact aware of the operation that evening the formation reached a Norwegian coast and only postmarked benzoin and the three destroyers continued on the next day the 21st they spotted recon aircraft overhead but without fighter cover could to middle against a high-altitude aircraft and instead set about repainting the ship from the more varied Baltic camouflage to a more standard gray that was better suited for Atlantic operations this obviously had to be done a tanker and so they managed to acquire a pair of Luftwaffe fighters as cover against air attacks but another recon Spitfire managed to fly right over them at 26,000 feet and got good quality photos nation to hand the home fleet was made ready Admiral Taavi ordered HMS hood and HMS Prince of Wales to reinforce the pair of cruisers patrolling the Denmark Strait the rest of the home fleet including king george v and victorious was placed on high alert and an air strike was launched by the raf although they didn't find anything but fog and clouds it seems odd that Taavi would send a worn-out ship and a brand new ship first instead of the more operational victorious and the fully operational king george v on the other hand king george v was the flagship and toby likely wanted to remain as close as possible to the latest intelligence a plus he needed to gather the rest of the home fleets cruisers and destroyers it's somewhat interesting to speculate on what might have occurred had King George the fifth and victorious been sent out instead or alongside Hood and Prince of Wales but that isn't what happened so we'll press on with the actual history knowing that his main battery was still being worked on and might well break down captain leech of the Prince of Wales ensured that civilian experts still trying to fix the issues remained aboard something that would prove vital later on as events transpired in Norway topped up here fuel stocks but miss mark did not despite now being 1200 tons short on a full load of fuel again as events would occur this would prove to be a significant decision by early morning on the 22nd the ships were back at sea with the destroyers turning for home whilst the two larger ships headed north at lunchtime they began to turn west for a run into the Denmark Strait he only delayed the Atlantic and many rich and tasty convoys in the early morning hours of the 23rd Bismarck and Prince oil increased be 227 knots now technically breaking the speed limits for urban areas to make a fast passage into the open ocean activating radar and at the same time listening for the sweep of British surface search radar mist and fog rolled in and was visibility reduced to less than four kilometers they began to see ice floating around them not wishing to go down in history as an especially heavily armed version of the Titanic speed was reduced - 24 knots and the ships began to maneuver to avoid the worst of the ice around dinner time they noticed HMS suffered a country class heavy cruiser had snuck up to just under 14,000 yards away as it appeared on both radar and hydrophone systems hence only signal that it has also intercepted radio traffic suffered was reporting their position suffolk realized the odds were against her and quickly fell back out of gun range and began to shadow her targets joined a few hours later by her sister ship HMS Norfolk which began to drift closer to close in fact as Bismarck opened fire and with a number of salvos dousing the Norfolk with water and shell splinters the ship vanished into a fog bank after laying smoke reporting the engagement back to the Admiralty another small but vital piece of the puzzle slotted into place as Norfolk reported Bismarck was leading the Prince Aegon this was true but after the gunfire died down it was discovered that the concussion of Bismarck's own guns had knocked out its main forward radar set as a result Prince Aegon was ordered to take the lead with its still functioning radar as the night drew 1 Suffolk detected the German formation turning back on itself and heading towards them without radar the Germans would have emerged from a rain school at point-blank range but thanks to their radar Suffolk and Norfolk were able to take the appropriate evasive action in time to avoid being shelled again instead sitting annoyingly off the German Stearns and radioing their location course and speed to anyone who would listen aware of the weaknesses in hoods armour protection admiral Taavi thought about ordering Prince of Wales to sail ahead of Hood the idea being that the better protected Prince of Wales could draw the German fire especially from Bismarck which they still believed was in the lead but how he concluded that micromanaging another ranking flag officer remotely from scapa flow was not justified and so he left Holland to make his own tactical decision vice-admiral Holland's plan aboard hood was actually fairly well thought out hood and Prince of Wales would target Bismarck whilst Suffolk and Norfolk engaged Prince Aegon again on the assumption that Bismarck was the lead ship whilst he informed Prince of Wales of the plan he didn't tell Suffolk and Norfolk for fear of the signals being intercepted and thus ruining the surprise so far north the Sun didn't set until very late and he was hoping to approach from the darkness with the German ships silhouetted against the Setting Sun in the same situation on Admirals Bay had forced on Admiral Craddock at the start of the first world war only in Reverse a surprise attack like this would allow the British warships to close in before opening fire negating some of the fears over hoods armor and allowing for what would hopefully be a devastating opening broadside unfortunately Suffolk temporarily lost contact with the German fleet and without accurate speed and course data the hood and Prince of Wales were forced to turn and attach their destroyers to start a search pattern nevertheless a Vice Admiral Holland had guessed right and the two forces were on a collision course only with the reduced visibility prevented the two sides from spotting each other in the gathering gloom with the German ships altering course early in the morning as a result of spotting ice which took them back out of range just before zero 300 Suffolk regained contact with Bismarck with Holland rapidly working out that his forces were now about 35 miles away their new positions meaning that the closing angle was much much wider and so the rate of closure would be slower regardless the ship's increased speed to 28 knots and made for their targets as the weather cleared in the morning on the 24th May the Chairman hydrophone operators heard new sounds powerful turbine engines about 20 nautical miles away and closing fast from the southeast a few minutes later smoke was spotted on the horizon and through the early morning haze came the onrushing forms of hms hood and HMS Prince of Wales under the overall command of Vice Admiral Holland aboard the Bismarck Admiral Luo Tian's ordered the true two battle stations and the four main battery turrets began to swing to port the Battle of the Denmark Strait was about to begin [Music] zero 5:35 24th of May 1941 lookouts aboard HMS Prince of Wales spot the German ships at fifteen nautical miles distance Holland has three options join Norfolk and Suffolk in following Bismarck hold position until Tuffy arrives with King George the fifth victorious and both his own escorts and the Destroyers that heard in prince of wales had detached earlier or commit to an immediate attack after a couple of minutes evaluating options he decides the seas are too rough for destroyers to have any real role and Norfolk and Suffolk are too far away to catch up in time and so he orders his ships to begin closing for action zero 552 at about twenty-six thousand five hundred yards Hood opens fire still operating on previous intelligence Holland's flagship begins action against the leading vessel believing that it is Bismarck in fact it is Prince oigan HMS Prince of Wales is already engaging Bismarck and after several minutes Holland will realize his mistake and realign his fire towards Bismarck as well but vital minutes and salvos are already being lost and the fire control solution will need to be recalculated once the error is realized knowing that hoods deck armor is insufficient for a long-range engagement he's determined to close that range but with the unfavorable angle due to his late arrival the angle of closing means that hoods rear to turrets and Prince of Wales rear quad turret cannot be brought to bear as the ships close leaving the British with only a to gun advantage in battleship grade weapons that advantage halves as one of the 14-inch guns ceases to work after the first salvo Suffolk and Norfolk are racing to catch up over the high speed of the capital ships leave them out of range and closing at less than walking pace the situation is further complicated by the Germans having the weather gauge although more often a term heard in the age of sail the wind in this case is high in that it means that the rangefinders on the British ships turrets are being drenched with spray and the smaller ones mounted higher on the ships needed to be used instead o 553 24th May 1941 the bhisma increases speed to 30 knots closing on the Prince Ojin front currently going at 27 knots the main artillery is ready to open fire and the first artillery officer Lloyd on commander in German Corvette in Capitan adiabetic neither asked permission to do so but now answer comes back puts second salvo falls close to Pennzoil whilst Prince of Wales second salvo lands close to Bismarck slightly long and with only 5 shells instead of 6 because the malfunction in the forward quadruple turret Lloyd non-book hard for marine Heinrich back third artillery officer and in charge of Bismarck's a French Honda receives an aura from admiralty ins to keep an eye on the two British heavy cruisers which are in visual range but are offs accurate gunnery range zero 554 hood and Prince of Wales changed course turning 20 degrees to port to allow the Prince of Wales aft quadruple turret to bear along with hoods to rear twin 15-inch gun turrets as this order is given and the ships begin to turn hood fires her third salvo on Prince Aegon and Princess of Wales fires her third salvo at Bismarck both missing but with the shells tracking in closer every time Oh 555 on the Bismarck Schneider asks for permission to fire for a second time as he is speaking another salvo from Prince of Wales lands this time all around the ship showering it with water and splinters the Admiral has still not authorized firing but capitaine Luo Tian's takes matters into his own hands he lost me don't eat man ship on tomorrow's make season fire F Ninh or in English I will not let them to shoot my ship out from under my ass open fire and so I consume seized a signal flag flying to target the first ship in the British line the hood and Capitan print mon informs his own gunnery officer of their target both ships open up fire almost at the same time with the forward turrets firing a few seconds before the rear turrets allowing the Germans to make two sets of observations Perceval abort printing which has been carefully calculating the range repeatedly for the past few minutes as hoods shells much closer and closer the first four shells are long the second set straddled a target but score no hits all of Bismarck's first salvo are short and too far ahead still a time 555 hood fires a fourth salvo at Prince Aegon again no hits whilst Prince of Wales fires her fifth salvo at Bismarck yet another gun seizing up in the forward quadruple turret immediately after leaving only four guns available from the forward turrets for the sixth salvo but this salvo is the first on either side to score a hit one shell hitting Bismarck on the bow punching clean through the ship before detonating in the sea although no explosive damage had been caused few lines were severed and the hit is low enough that as oil poured out water poured in eventually adding up to over 2,000 tons of unwelcome Atlantic inside the hull Oh 556 this smart continuous firing at third the second summer is long and behind the hood landing between the two printer ships some distance behind their line however prints are in second summer is more on target the first group of four shells are short but the second set are on target and a single hit lands between the second funnel and mainmast it seems this hit set fire to either ready use four inch anti-aircraft ammunition some anti-aircraft rocket launchers or possibly both parents are in farce a third salvo at herd but mrs. Ted Briggs up on the compass platform of hood reported myself that everyone else on the compass platform was also scrambling to his feet commander tiny Gregson walked out almost sedately onto the starboard wing of the platform to find out what had happened when he returned he informed us that she has hit us on the boat deck and there is a fire in the ready use lockers closer to the ammunition fire petty officer Edward bishop came aft and ordered three of hoods crewmen to help put it out to which they replied well when it stops exploding we will hood fires salvos five and six at Prince Aegon still only using her forward turrets but again mrs. Prince of Wales fires salvos seven and eight at miss mark but both sets of shells go over the target and despite the 20 degree turn to port ordered a couple of minutes earlier the two British ships were still firing only with the forward turrets Norfolk and Suffolk are closing in but are still out of range Oh 557 both chairmanships continued to concentrate on the hood prince on fire several four and five whilst miss mark Faris several three one shell from each ship hits hurt the shell from Bismarck knocks out the fire control tower on hood killing almost everyone there the shell from Prince iron hits the forward superstructure bursting in a room were a couple of hundred sailors primarily from the anti-aircraft battery crews are sheltering killing many of them and starting another fire the distances close quickly at the 3 5.9 inch turrets on Bismarck's portside fire on the Prince of Wales was the four twin 5.25 inch turrets on the starboard side of Prince of Wales fire on Bismarck the hood fire salvo seven still with only the four forward 15-inch guns against Prince Aegon while Prince of Wales fire salvo nine at Bismarck using her rear turret as well as the remaining forward guns this salvo scores another hit on the German battleship under the waterline exploding against the torpedo bulkhead and causing another fuel leak Oh 558 Admiralty ins decides that with hits being scored repeatedly on his ship it is not wise to leave the Prince of Wales firing against Bismarck unopposed and orders Pennzoil Beck's love Lincoln Gagner or changed to left enemy this mark faris several four had heard falling short but on the correct bearing was Prince Ivan Farris several six her last at hood followed by several seven at the Prince of Wales Prince of Wales fire salvos ten and eleven at Bismarck both land short and after this another gun goes off line this one's in the rear turret leaving the ship with seven operational guns a Sunderland flying boat appears and notices two fires aboard hood watching as hoods salvo 8 still only with the forward guns misprints oigan yet again Oh 559 Burnside far as two more cell walls eight and nine at Prince of Wales but doesn't it hit the target Prince of Wales fires salvo 12 and salvo 13 scoring a third hit on Bismarck this one lands in the middle of the ship under the main mast smashing the front of one of the ships boats and damaging the catapult system used to launch the reconnaissance aircraft but without any substantial resistance to its passage the shell passes through and hits the sea beyond the ship leaving a neat hole in the starboard hull hood fires salvo 10 reportedly the first using all eight guns at Prince Aegon but still fails to hit her another signal is made for a further 20 degree turn whilst Norfolk and Suffolk continue to close with Norfolk almost in range of the vist Mike with Vice Admiral Holland ordering the raging ammunition fire on Hertz main deck to be left to burnout Ted Briggs reports we're surprisingly someone still seemed to be capable of obeying orders to blue flag to a blue pendant went up the yardarm I remember musing not everyone on the flag deck is dead then Bismark virus l5 in two groups the first four shells fired by turrets Anton and Bruno are short but the second set from cezzah and Doha straddle the hood amidships the time is zero 600 hours on the 24th of May 1941 captain leech aboard Prince of Wales is only 750 meters away from hood and reports I think over but it may have been the other way around but I formed the impression at the time that something had arrived onboard the hood in a position just before the main mast and slightly to starboard it was not a very definite impression that I had but it was sufficiently definite to make me look at the hood for a further period I in fact wondered what the result was going to be and between 1 and 2 seconds after I formed that impression an explosion took place in the hood which appeared to me to come from very much the same position in the ship there was a very fierce upward rush of flame in the shape of a funnel a rather thin funnel and almost instantaneously the ship was enveloped in smoke from one end to the other Able Seaman Ted Bruns reports but it's why twin stayed silent and then a blinding flash swept around the outside of the compass platform again my feet on the deck this time when I got up with the others the scene was different everything was cold and unreal the ship which had been a haven for me for the last two years was suddenly hostile bobtail burn further down in the ship reported the next shell came off and the ship shook like mad I was next to the gun shield so I was protected from the blast but one of my mates was killed and the other had his side cut open by a splinter it opened him up like a butcher and all his innards were coming out back on the bridge as Ted Briggs and the rest of the bridge crew hauled themselves to their feet he continued to report she stopped after about 10 degrees when I heard the helmsman was shouting up the voice pipe to the officer of the watch steering's gone sir the reply of very good showed no signs of animation or agitation immediately one of the officers ordered change over to emergency steering although the hood had angled to starboard there was still no concern on the compass platform Holland was back in his chair he looked afterwards Prince of Wales and then retrained his binoculars on the Bismarck slowly the hood righted herself thank heaven for that i murmured to myself only to be terrorized by her sudden horrifying can't to port on and on she rolled until she reached an angle of 45 degrees the explosion breaks the ship in two and it goes down so quickly that the suction takes down everyone who has managed to make it into the water with the exception of Briggs tilburn and midshipman William Dundas who were all dragged under but an expanding gas bubble possibly caused by the collapse of an internal compartment or the explosion of one of the boilers propels all three of them back to the surface without this lucky phenomenon hood almost certainly would have been lost with all hands as it is only these three men will survive 1415 if their shipmates will go down with the hood the explosion in question was most likely a very fast burn of the main gun charges and was almost silent with a very tall column of fire consistent with some of the losses of battle cruisers at Jutland first the fire was very clear indicating a high heat then yellow then red then becoming a gray mushroom of dark and dense smoke debris cascaded down all around as the explosion broke the ship into two separate pieces around the mainmast area large quantities of fuel l poured out from ruptured tanks and started burning on the sea and whereas hood went over to port this accelerated into a final plunge from which she would never return the broken hull caused the stern section to sink first going down rapidly shortly followed by the bow which began to swing upwards until it was at about a 45 degree angle before beginning a final plunge beneath the waves somehow as the last of the battle cruiser began to accelerate downwards witnesses on both sides report the forward turrets firing one last defiant salvo before slipping beneath the atlantic ted briggs recounts me and i must try to swim away from it i managed to avoid being knocked out by the steel stanchions but i was not making any progress the suction was dragging me down the pressure on my ears was increasing each second and panic returned in its worst intensity I was going to die I struggled madly to try and heave myself up to the surface but I got nowhere although it seemed an eternity I was underwater for barely a minute my lungs were bursting I knew that I just had to breathe I opened my lips and gulped in a mouthful of water my tongue was forced to the back of my throat I was not going to reach the surface I was going to die i weakened my resolve left me what was the use of struggling panic subsided I had heard it was nice to drown I stopped trying to swim upwards the water was a peaceful cradle I was being rocked off to sleep there was nothing I could do about it so good night mum now I lay me me down I was ready to meet God my blissful acceptance of death ended in a sudden surge beneath me which shocked me to the surface like a decanted cork in a champagne bottle I wasn't going to die I trod water as I panted in great gulps of air I was alive tilburn had a similar experience stating I had my seat boots on and a very tight belt I paddled around in the water and took my knife and cut my belt so I could breathe properly then I looked around and saw the ship was rolling over on top of me it wasn't a shadow it was a big mast coming down on top of me it caught me across the back of the legs and the radio Ariel wrapped around the back of my legs and started pulling me down I still had my knife in my hands so I cut my sea boots off and shot to the surface I looked up to see the hood with her boughs in the air then she slid under above the sunderland was still flying over the action and at this point the German ships open up with an intense anti-aircraft barrage about the Bismarck reactions of the apocalyptic detonation on the horizons were mixed we'll have geek commander of one of the ships Taba twenty millimeter for batteries noted that none who witnessed that terrible scene could remain indifferent somewhere elated over the victory however he also noted that some of the sailors nearby had tears in their eyes as the British ships tank they had empathy for the seamen who were losing their lives in the brief hailstorm the German guns had unleashed ahead Prince Faisal was 10 and 11 at Prince of Wales obtaining no hits Prince of Wales fired on the Bismarck with her 14th through 16th salvos during this period with all shells falling short of the target everything happened so fast that Bismarck continued firing at hood even as it went down so salvo 6 landed well ahead of the rapidly vanishing wreck zero 601 the last remnants of hood are almost gone as Prince of Wales now finds itself on a collision course with the wreck the battleship makes an emergency starboard turn pointing its bow toward the Germans and masking the rear turret again although one of the disabled forward guns has started working again on both the prince capitán Brinkmann sees the Prince of Wales closing and orders two torpedoes readied for launch as the remaining target is almost in range miss mark now switches target to the Prince of Wales and since it was following hoods course closely the corrections to the fire control solution needed our minimal 7/7 from Bismarck and Sowell's 12 and 13 from Prince egg are fired to try and find the exact range the Sunderland withdraws at this point because of the heavy anti-aircraft fire from both German ships Prince of Wales is now under fire from the main and secondary batteries of both German vessels her own salvo 17 and 18 landshort not helped by the violent turns she's having to make to avoid what is left of hood l6o to Bismarck Faris salvo 8 and hits Prince of Wales on the bridge it doesn't explode but its passage kills almost everyone there although not the captain this causes the ship to temporarily cease fire as the ship turns to port to disengage the Prince going far several 14 but misses just a few minutes too late Norfolk opens fire on Bismarck with 3/8 inch salvos from 20 1,800 yards that all fall short further behind Suffolk is still out of range zero 603 oil fires on the surface are all that's left of hood as Prince of Wales turns a hundred and sixty degrees to port and covers herself with a smokescreen as it attempts to disengage before this can be completed this multi era salvo 9 and scores two hits one shall hit the water well short of the ship but the fuse fails to detonate and the shell punches through under the belt and comes to rest deep inside the ship the other shell hits the starboard 5 1 2 5 inch fire control station putting it out of action pennzoil Ferris L was 16 and 17 finally scoring a hit under the waterline on the stern the range is so close that even the portside heavy anti-aircraft guns join in suddenly an alarm signal is received on Bismarck from Prince oil an incoming torpedo has been detected on hydrophones and is confirmed when Capitan Brinkman steps out onto the bridge wing and sees the tracks the only Sunderland wasn't carrying torpedoes nor was Prince of Wales the only ship that could have been responsible therefore was the hood which presumably must have fired them either as it was sinking or almost immediately before the Bismarck immediately turns hard to starboard to evade a deathblow from the grave whilst Prince Island like where's takes evasive actions hood may thus inadvertently have saved Prince of Wales from sharing its fate as this evasive action has given the ship some breathing room to fully establish the smoke screen as it withdraws and fires its 19th salvo from the rear turret falling well short as both firing ship and target are now moving rapidly away from each other seeing this Norfolk ceases fire and suffered hangs back Oh 604 the Bismarck fired her next cell wall on land that one last hit on Prince of Wales destroying the portside crane and some boats making a hole in the second funnel and damaging the walrus sea plane left on deck after having made her evasive turn Prince oil fires several 18 storing two hits one of the stern below the waterline and the other near the fourth 5.25 inch turret but this shelf does not explode Prince of Wales fires salvo 20 from the rear turret but again for short as Norfolk and Suffolk pick up their shattering stations Oh 6:05 distances are increasing and Bismarck salvo 11 and Prince Owings salvo 19 score no hit with fire becoming less accurate and their own turns Plus Prince of Wales evasive actions ruin the fire control solutions Prince of Wales Faris had lost Sowell number 21 from the sole remaining functioning gun in the rear turret landing close to Bismarck's bow oh six oh six over the next few minutes Bismarck fire several twelve and thirteen and Prince Ivan Faris salvo twenty-two twenty-three for no results as the Prince of Wales ships courses crossed several times and soon after Admiralty ins orders both ships to cease fire Capitan Lindemann doesn't agree and wants to chase the Prince of wealth to finish her off but Admiralty ins knows his orders prohibiting any engagement by his units unless it was necessary to sink merchant ship convoys following the Prince of wealth back towards the UK could have further exposed his ships and he was concerned that the Royal Navy was probably converging on the battle area and with that the Battle of the Denmark Strait is over the entire engagement from the first shell fired to the lost shell that lands has taken about a quarter of an hour aboard Prince of Wales crew and civilian technicians work feverishly eventually bringing all but one gun back online before lunchtime shortly after the withdrawal is complete Suffolk fires six salvos in the direction of Bismarck having mistaken a radar contact with an aircraft for Bismarck herself she was actually well out of range with the loss of hood and Vice Admiral Holland local commander fell to Rear Admiral wake Walker aboard Norfolk technically once Prince of Wales main battery was operational he would still have the odds in his favor if he closed in with Norfolk and Suffolk in support of the battleship but he also knew that many other heavy units are available and there was no guarantee that Prince of Wales guns wouldn't start to fail again and so he chose to shadow the Germans until at least King George the fifth and victorious could arrive the first good sign was that just before Oh 800 Suffolk reported that Bismarck had reduced speed and appeared to be damaged the flooding caused by Prince of Wales was now causing the tip of the starboard propeller to rise out of the water Lindemann ordered counter flooding after to restore the ship's trim before sending divers into the forecastle to connect the forward fuel tanks with their 1,000 tons of fuel to the rest of the ship by emergency fuel lines however both attempts failed and Lindemann asks for permission to slope his mark to wealth patches from the inside to the holes in the forward hull Luo Tian's initially refuses but eventually had to agree to slow the ship to 22 knots to allow for some damage control efforts in number two boiler room and the auxiliary boiler room to stop the increasing flooding but this too felt and boiler room number two had to be shut down but using top speed to 28 knots noticing the leaking fuel oil Luo Tian's ordered Prince to drop back and see how much of a trail she was leaving us done it was bad news the oil slick was broad enough to cover both sides of the ship's wake was all colors of the rainbow and gave of a strong smell all of which helped disclose Bismarck's location without access to the forward fuel tanks and accounting for the fuel burns since in Germany they had about 3000 tons of usable fuel left not enough for effective rating and now they had a British squadron following their every move Luo Tian's concluded that he needed to abort the mission and had to a Dockyard for repairs confusion related to identifying ships had not been limited to the British side as the Bismarck sailed away from the battle area Luo Tian's reported battle cruiser probably heard some another battleship King George the fifth or renown turned away damaged two heavy cruisers maintain contact shortly afterwards he sent the ship damage report and his change plan of actions back to headquarters since Prince Agni had not sustained damage in the battle it was to be detached to continue the commerce raiding mission whilst this mark made for ports the problem the Germans faced was which Porter had for Norwegian ports were geographically the closest but that would mean fighting back past Suffolk Norfolk and Prince of Wales with the battleship tailing the other two cruisers plus whatever other elements of the home fleet and RAF might be beyond them but between Bismarck and Norway Lujan's was not in a position where he felt he could trust the Intel reports coming in from Germany since until the British had come over the horizon that morning his best information said that Hood was somewhere down in Africa and there had been nothing on any King George the fifth class battleship in UK waters at all both sets of information had obviously been blatantly wrong still Capitan Linda man thought battle may still be the best bet but Luo Tian's choose the French port of San SL although further away the seas were more open in that direction allowing more room to outmaneuver pursuers u-boats could be deployed relatively quickly and it would leave the battleship in the same vicinity as the to shun hos class which would make a powerful battle group once bhisma was repaired even more so if Prince survived herkimer's rating the French port was also far bet I could with dry docks and other heavy naval infrastructure that would be useful for making repairs to such a large ship especially if the damaged taken got worse or if they're suffered additional damage in battle on the way there in Germany the news was received with a mixture of confusion and elation the latter is easy to understand with use of girls propaganda ministry publishing the reports of the destruction of the hood enthusiastically whilst in German high command Luo Tian's relatively brief signal had left him wondering exactly what his plans were some thought he was heading straight for France others thought he might refuse from a tanker still others that he might try to engage either warships or merchant ships along the way in the background a few intelligence analysts were probably quietly given some one-way tickets to join the other soldiers preparing for Operation Barbarossa never High Command was split over whether to give Luo Tian's explicit orders or not but eventually a decision was taken that the Admiral was probably the best one to take decisions as he would know the situation much better than anyone at home in the UK the British public was shocked by the loss of the hood whilst the ship itself going down was unwelcome it could be expected in a battle with a brand new battleship of about the same size but this was compounded with the speed of the destruction hood going down after slugging match with Bismarck was one thing simply exploding like the worst horrors of Jutland with little to show for it was something else entirely however amongst the Royal Navy the shock effect passed quite quickly and all of a sudden miss Mach found itself in a similar situation to someone who's wandered into an old pub had a few drinks and just won a fist fight with one of the regular patrons then looked around to find dead silence and practically everyone else in the building from the old gentleman with the hat and cane to a pack of youngsters over at the main table oh slowly turning to stare in their direction and start reaching for the nearest object that wasn't nailed to the ground the Royal Navy ordered all warships in the area to join the pursuit of Bismarck and Prince Aegon Tubby's remaining ships of the home fleet were on an intercept course along with the three ships that ready following Bismarck the Admiralty further ordered the light cruisers Manchester Birmingham and Arethusa to patrol the Denmark Strait in the event that legions attempted to retrace his route the battleship rodney was mid-atlantic escorting RMS Britannic and was headed to Boston Navy Yard for a refit but quickly turned round and ramped its old engines to well beyond the red line plunging through the Atlantic swells at will over its original design speed despite the boilers already being almost shot and now practically coming apart of the seams to old revenge class battleships similarly employed on convoy escort also entered the fray HMS revenge steaming out from Halifax in Canada whilst HMS Rama Lee's left convoy HX 1 to 7 the battle cruiser HMS repulse was also a escorting convoys and likewise joined the search from Gibraltar came the battle cruiser HMS renown the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the rest of Force H including the cruiser HMS Sheffield off the African coast another battleship on convoy escort HMS Nelson was ordered to make best speed to Gibraltar to take on fuel and then join the effort in total at least 60 warships including at least half of the Royal Navy's active capital ships were all heading for Bismarck's last reported location blissfully unaware of the hornets nest that had been stirred lichens was trying to get prints to break off without alerting his pursuers although the weather have gotten worse the traditional method of sailing into a rain squall wasn't so effective when your enemy had radar and the first attempt failed about an hour and a half later a second attempt was made this time with the slightly more compelling distraction of Bismarck turning back and running straight at the British ships Suffolk was forced to evade was Prince of Wales and Bismarck and changed about a dozen servos without any hits scored on either side once the German battleship had resumed course the Prince egg was nowhere to be found just as plans soon found themselves facing another problem although the hits by Prince of Wales had caused Bismarck to lose speed he could still make something in the region of 27 to 28 knots which meant that the only remaining capital ships capable of catching it were HMS renown and repulse and no one was particularly keen to send them in unsupported after the loss of HMS hood unless some way could be found of slowing down the German ship it would reach lift off her air cover and then safe port before any substantial force could be brought to bear and therefore the following day Toby detached HMS victorious from king george v in order to conduct a torpedo bombers strike with the carrier almost as new as prince of wales and still also in the process of working up all she could muster on board were six full mar fighters and nine swordfish who then nearly attacked hms norfolk and a random US Coast Guard Cutter that for some bizarre reason was in the this the incoming air assault victorious as the British aircraft flew in the Bismarck's anti-aircraft battery opened up was the main and secondary batteries were ordered to fire a high-explosive shells into the sea ahead of the swordfish to create huge plumes of water with the idea that these would either break up the attack force torpedoes off course or if they were very lucky destroy an aircraft that happened to fly into one of the plumes in the event none of the swordfish was shot down and they all managed to successfully drop their torpedoes eight of the nine either missed or were evaded with the last hitting amidships where the armored belt and torpedo defenses were thickest the damage caused by the torpedo hit itself was minimal one dead and five injured from the shock wave throwing them into the steel bulkheads with some minor damage to electrical equipment ironically the other eight torpedoes could have been said to have caused more damage than the one that actually hit as in the efforts made to evade them the constant and rapid changes in speed and course loosened to the temporary matting that was plugging the forward shell hole which allowed more water in and forced the shutdown of the port number two boiler room combined with additional water ingress this forced the ship to slow down to 16 knots for some time until the matting could be repaired which allowed speed to increase again with the ship proceeding at 20 knots to conserve the limited fuel reserves in order to guarantee that they would actually make the French coast their work was briefly interrupted by another exchange of fire between Bismarck and Prince of Wales again with no hits and once the flooding was contained the ship was slowed again bound to twelve knots to allow for many of fuel lines to be rigged salvaging some of the fuel stuck in the four tanks which gave the ship more reserve fuel for high speed engagements and also lightened about a few hundred tons further helping the ship's profile and speed with the main body of the chase now heading south across the seas used by various convoys there was a real risk of three u-boats and the British ships began to 6ik just in case however with the ship straining to port at the start this means the port side aspect of the zigzag takes them the furthest away from Bismarck critically just out of radar range in the early morning hours Luo Tian's waits for his moment then breaks West to starboard keeping up the turn to eventually end up circling around so that Bismarck is now behind the British finding Bismarck gone and assuming that he had simply sailed West Suffolk headed out in that direction but of course finds nothing as dawn breaks Norfolk and Prince of Wales joined the search but of course they're looking entirely the wrong way as Bismarck now quietly resumes its course for France this is very bad news for the Royal Navy many of the ships called in were already on other duties and so have limited fuel stocks remaining enough to head for a rendezvous but not enough to add hours or days of high speed searching to their tasks now a comedy of errors begins but the ships are heading south and west away from him but Luo Tian's seems to be unaware that he has finally shaken off pursuit and sends a series of long radio messages to narrow droop West HQ in Paris revealing his position for all to see then the errors are compounded further as the ko coordinates are plotted wrongly on king george v making it look like bismarck has doubled back to what the Denmark Strait causing the home fleet to turn in that direction after almost half a day someone realizes the mistake but by now Bismarck has of course moved positions so again its location is unknown and the ship now has a substantial lead over ships that were previously almost caught up finally something starts to go right for the British when their signals decryption along with French Resistance reports indicate that the Luftwaffe is relocating units to provide air support for Bismarck in these reports indicating that the ship is now heading for the closer but more vulnerable port of Brest in response a squadron of Catalina flying boats based in Northern Ireland head south to cover the sea lanes just before 10:30 hours on the 26th of May a Catalina flown by a US Navy pilot on loan spots the first oil and then the itself that's the good news the bad news is that at current course and speed this mark will reach air cover long before any of the heavy surface units can catch it vilhelm vehic takes the opportunity to talk with some of the forward gunnery crew who mentioned that during the main battery firing over the past few days and there are sometimes interruptions with the communication and data they're receiving from the ship's fire control centers that seem to coincide with the ship firing salvos unknown to the chatting crewman it's an artifact of certain data communications cables that are not protected by heavy armor then being subject to the shock of the 15 inch gun blasts much like the knocked-out forward radar set was victorious Prince of Wales Suffolk and repulse are forced to break off due to low fuel nelson revenge and ram alleys are now far too far away this leaves king george v rodney renowned and arc royal as the only major vessels left in the game with ark royal being the only ship actually capable of inflicting damage in time following that the Catalina's reports are pearls own patrolling swordfish confirmed the Germans location not more than 60 miles away from the carrier and return for an immediate strike whilst Admiral Somerville commanding force H also orders HMS Sheffield to move forward to shadow the battleship with a remarkably quick turnaround time the swordfish head back out although the weather is not exactly Pleasant for carrier operations one pilot noting the after end of the flight deck was pitching something like 50 feet up and down and the waves were so high that even the 60-foot height from water line to flight deck of Ark Royal was still sometimes taking it green over her bowels renowned weather decks were continuously awash and we couldn't see Sheffield through the spume and spray the aircraft as their throttles were opened instead of charging forward and all deck were at one moment climbing a slippery slope the next plunging downhill towards the huge seas ahead and beyond some of them seemed to touch the wave tops as they fell off the boughs others were nose up as they came unstuck but thanks to the skill of our pilots they all flew away safely however having not been warned of Sheffield's new orders they dive in to attack the first big ship they spot which is of course the Sheffield this turns out not to be entirely a tragedy Sheffield survives thanks to the new magnetic torpedo detonators malfunctioning hopelessly and at the same time it points out that the weapons are incredibly faulty an attack on Bismarck by this courtrand would have actually been worse than useless as it would have taken the pilots too long to get there and then come back to rearm for a follow-up strike with working weapons before it became too dark Sheffield restrains her anti-aircraft Gunners with the captain and other members of the crew settling for hurling abuse and shaking fists at the aviators beating a hasty retreat and now working against the clock as daylight begins to fade Ark Royal rushes to rearm its aircraft with torpedoes that use the conventional contact detonators and at 19 10 hours the last chance to stop the Bismarck takes to the skies this time they are aware of the Sheffield as Charles friend and observer in one of the top another aircraft in sight Tony said where I don't know I replied but I know where Sheffield is and gave him a course to steer sure enough we reach the shadowing cruiser as we came down through the cloud we flew low past her and I made where is target by Aldous lamp enemy bears 185 distance 10 miles came the helpful reply thus using their erstwhile target as a marker point and with the cruiser helpfully indicating Bismarck this way to anyone who was interested the aircraft headed off in the right direction Sheffield almost pays the price for this as she strays too close and Bismarck opens fire on the cruiser straddling the ship before the swordfish swooping down give the crew somewhat more pressing concerns fifteen swordfish make their attacks in the teeth of German anti-aircraft fire and despite their aircraft being riddled with fragments in almost every one of the crew being injured in some way the remarkably resilient swordfish plow on Terry Goddard is flying another of the swordfish I had estimated it would be minutes to Bismarck and just before 9 minutes all around us is thundering noise the whole aircraft shook as if there were a number of Express trains roaring by us we figured this market opened fire on us in actual fact Shearer opened fire on Sheffield but we had found her so now and we went ice was peeling off the wings and I couldn't see a bloody thing the altimeter is spinning spinning and spinning and we break into the clear at about 600 feet and there's miss mark on our starboard bow she was a fire spitting monster everything was coming at us and she was illuminated awesome this ship was just magnificent she looked exactly like a battleship should I mean scary and everything but just a beautiful ship once the attack has started it's all about the pilot the observer and the air gunner well would stand by and get really excited watching what's going on you're not thinking you're going to be killed you're thinking you're going to hit this thing and that's it the more you turn the aircraft around the more chance they get to hit you so we just went straight in we got as low on the deck as we could and went straight the Bismarck was on our port side and she just got bigger and bigger Aflac is bursting over our head well above us the small arms fire is pretty well all around us and hitting us every once in a while but we get in to drop the torpedo do a quick turn away looking back shortly after the turn I see a large black and white explosion on the Bismarck it's high and wide obviously it is a torpedo hit there's no other aircraft near us so there's no doubt that it was the torpedo that we had just dropped I tell Stan and he grunts he's busy doing various maneuvers on the deck I give a message to the air gunner that we have scored a hit milliner thought he'd seen something too right after the attack and the shooting stopped we were in the clear the last aircraft to arrive is the one with child's friend on board she seemed to be in the middle of a slow turn to port as Tony put us into a shallow dive he aimed carefully and dropped at about eight hundred yards from her portside this Mach turned violently away as the whole ship exploded in a flash of guns firing at us as we did the best we could in weaving and drinking I saw a column of water rise amidships on her side the rear gunner Pimlott was firing his Vickers machine gun at the now distant Germans great splashes spurted up around us I said you ought to steer toward the splashes fell over correct and miss us bugger that Tony answered and forged on about a hundred knots and we were soon out of range untouched returning to our oil we flew low pass sheffield giving her a thumbs-up at the debrief we were discovered that we were not the only string bag to lose touch in the cloud our whole sub flight had lost the leader Tim Koons leading sub flight with another aircraft from further back had attacked first next the other two of our sub flight attacked after obtaining a bearing by radar and both being hit by shrapnel the rest attacked in quick succession several other aircraft had been hit by Bismarck but only two of the crew were badly wounded the earlier crews had observed other hit after swing to port the hit amidships damaged but the hit off strikes the portside at the stern of the ship the rudders are jammed by the explosion at 12 degrees to port a ship begins to steam in a large circle the true working frantically and managed to get the start rather working but the port rudder refuses to budge with only three screws and one of those on the centerline there is not enough differential propulsion power to hold the ship on course using the engines alone an idea is floated to blow the rudder off with explosives but Luo Tian's dismisses this since the amount of explosive needed would run the risk of opening up shock damage caused by the Tepito strike and also more importantly it would likely cause some damage to the screws if that happened would be completely dead in the water as night closed in the Bismarck continued steaming in its large circle while nutrient sending a final signal they will HQ sends back a series of messages but it turned out that reading these messages which praise the truth upcoming doomed but valiant sacrifice had a somewhat depressing effect on morale Bismarck fired on Sheffield again which withdrew to be replaced by five distress which were ordered to keep contact instead despite all this Lindemann decides Bismarck is not going to go quietly ordering a signal to nail headquarters that her weapons and engines are intact even if the steering is not effective he says there may be able to hold on until assistance arrives either in the form of Luftwaffe bombers u-boats or even Turks to tow Bismarck to one of the French Atlantic ports Vice Admiral Karl dönitz has ordered all available submarines to converge on Bismarck and defend her however none are in range to reach the ship before the British catch her although u55 six commanded by Capitan Lloyd non-habit Wolfert crosses paths with the Ark Royal and renown with no torpedoes remaining and the ships moving at speed Beaufort was left in impotent fury as he watched prime targets passed by and swiftly disappear although ostensibly up signed to keep an eye on the battleship the destroyers become drawn into a prolonged active engagement with various ships in the flotilla ducking in and out of gun range with Bismarck salvos coming close but never landing a hit the crew thus were kept to action stations throughout the night as Star shells and torpedoes streaked in no hits were reported as scored by the German crew but the constant action drained them whilst ORP Piron a Polish destroyer that was part of the flotilla trolled the battleship by flashing I am a pole at them with its signal lights was firing with everything they had right down to the light anti-aircraft armament an officer aboard HMS Cossack worries that the Polish ship might even try and RAM the battleship and observes going in and firing them off they did things like that they'd fight anybody these attacks also have a useful secondary effect of draining Bismarck's ammunition stocks as the primary and secondary batteries have already been in action several times during the voyage the secondary battery especially begins to run down on a shell stockpile over the course of the engagement with some theories stating that a few of Bismarck secondary batteries would later run out of ammunition before being destroyed as dawn rose on the 27th of May 1941 more and more British ships began to appear over the horizon the weather was overcast with rain schools and a fresh gale blowing from the northwest the swell of the waves was some high and the British vessels observed that although Bismarck's fire control and main battery was still in good working order her attempts to steer seemed to be largely fruitless the strong wind pushing the ship back around when it periodically made attempts presumably using the ship's propellers to steer a course this dictated the tactics the Norfolk and the cruiser Dorsetshire were maneuvering around to flank the battleship whilst king george v and rodney were ordered to close the range quickly by steering it nearly straight for their quarry Tavi stated this was to give the bismarck the smallest possible target and get into closer and more accurate range for the main part of the battle with the additional hoped for effect of rattling the nerves of the exhausted crew at the sight of two battleships bearing down at them at full speed the crew of Bismarck had been kept awake all night by the destroyers whilst aboard the British battleships their own gunnery crews had also been kept locked at action stations for much of the night as the ship speed varies between seven and ten knots and its own guns begin to train out the last battle of the Kriegsmarine slash if this mark was about to begin [Music] zero 708 hours 27th of May and 1941 Admiral toffee uses signal lights to send his tactical instructions and intentions to captain Dalrymple Hamilton aboard the Rodney I'm changing course to look for enemy keep station 1,200 yards or more as you desire and adjust your bearings once are you ready to engage Rodney acknowledges and surges forward the engineers asking one last great effort from there straining engines Oh 7:10 a German High Command a signal comes from Admiral Luo Tian's indicating that he wants his war logs picked up by a u-boat as earlier attempts to launch one of the Arado float planes on this mission has failed you to damage on one of the catapults cost days earlier in the Denmark Strait by one of Prince of Wales shells the nearest submarine is you father of six which is ordered to make a rendezvous but her fuel reserves are too low instead you 47 commanded by a Capitan light non-title 3/3 Kenneth who cease orders to proceed Oh 847 HMS Rodney opens fire at a range of about twenty-two thousand yards although much older than King George the fifth the issues that had plagued her 16-inch guns in her over early years were mostly sold by now and her all forward turret layout allows her to bring her entire battery to bear but closer bearings than the newer home fleet flagship although at the moment she's only firing with the forward two turrets one minute later King George the fifth opens up with its own forward turrets Oh 849 Bismarck's first Sawa in reply is fired and at Rodney using only turrets Anton and Pune the four turrets since the rear turrets Tessa and Dewar could not be brought forward enough some steering was evidently still possible as miss mark begins to turn to starboard presumably to bring the rear turrets into action the British initially start a gentle turn to keep out of the arc of the rear turrets but miss marks course alters back to port and instead Rodney begins its own turn to unmask its rear seat turret king george v adds the other way as the British battleships split up Oh 854 HMS Norfolk joins in the action with her 8-inch guns whilst Bismarck's second salvo straddles HMS Rodney some splinter and shock damage jams one of Rodney's underwater torpedo tubes as the shells plunge in a young officer board King George the fifth watches the sea around Rodney erupt he is sure the other battleship has been hit and it must surely be about to share the fate of the hood instead the long silhouette of the battleship emerges from amidst collapsing shrapnel laced geezers its guns snarling 16-inch replies at the German battleship aboard Rodney the lack of German shell hits is attributed to the ship's captain who is observed to be making minor course corrections each time a salvo lands often with an ex German barrage landing roughly where the ship would have been if not for that slight alteration in direction Oh 900 this MUX which is fired to King Church v as the range closes the secondary batteries and all three battleships now begin to come into play and aboard the Bismarck several officers are keeping themselves busy trying to work out which shells are coming and which are going the air is so thick with artillery that spotting the supersonic projectiles is actually becoming very easy zero nine oh two two zero nine twelve reports in this ten minute period are quite confused as to what the precise order of events is where the different survivors and differing ships logs all presenting the same events in slightly different orders but what is clear is that in very quick succession the Bismarck takes a series of devastating hits a 16-inch shell from Rodney lands squarely on the forward superstructure the shell explodes shredding the main fire control director along with several hundred men who were sheltering at the base of the bridge tower as well as wiping out the bridge and almost certainly everyone on it including a pollutants and captain Linderman splinters from this hit also sever most of the fire control communication cables leaving only the rear fire control station at the other end of the ship as the only one with the ability to seriously direct the ship's remaining guns and this station is only able to communicate with the rear turrets another shell some reports say from the same salvo others claim fired shortly thereafter is visually tracked by crewmen on HMS Rodney all the way to the front face of turret bruno where there is a flash of impact and moments later a colossal explosion as the several hundred ton armor plate that makes up the back of the turret exits stage right at high speed the force of the blast apparently also disables turret Anton which in any case now has no way of receiving fire control data from outside the turret in the middle of all this HMS Dorset shirt joins in the action at a 5.9 inch secondary turret on Bismarck explodes from a hit of unknown origin oh nine thirteen fourth artillery officer Capitan Leutnant Manheim ragbag has taken up responsibility for the main battery and directed four cells from the aft guns against the King George the fifth but just as he feels he has the range his station is knocked out by a 14-inch shell from his target a heavy shell has turned the entire rangefinder ray clean away leaving only a hole in the Coppola roof a meter or so lower and the true would have been gone as well turrets tessa and dora then director farah individually against HMS Rodney who begins firing speculative torpedoes as well as unleashing every gun aboard that has the range zero nine nineteen bismarck is rapidly becoming a burning funeral pyre as repeated 16-inch 14 inch 8 inch 6 inch and 5.25 inch shells hammer home fires are everywhere Jets of steam from ruptured lines are observed and thick black smoke billows from a number of ragged tears in the ship Oh 921 teredor is put out of action as one of its own shells detonates prematurely inside the right-hand barrel 0 925 Bismarck starts to show a distinct list to port even as a heli heavy caliber shell tears off a large chunk of the remaining superstructure rodney and king george v are now circling their prey at point-blank range with gunnery officers on rodney observing 16-inch armor-piercing shells punching clean through the ship and into the sea beyond the conning tower resembles a Swiss cheese as the flattening trajectory of close-range action means more and more shells are smashing apart Bismarck's upper works rather than hitting the sides of the hull but with the list increasing there's obviously been some damage done underwater as well Oh 9:27 parrot Anton briefly comes back to life and far as one last salvo zero nine thirty from the gunnery director's position aboard HMS Rodney a strange sequence of events is observed aboard miss mark I saw this through my porthole and told the gunnery officer Lieutenant Commander Crawford and he says I don't want to know about any signal now so then she flew Black Flag from the top of the yardarm and that was we want to parley with you but Crawford wasn't having that either so then she started blinking with her semaphore with her Morse lamps on the yardarm four lamps at a time and he said I don't want to know don't report any more of that and so she was for it then we saw this fellow semaphore in - and just to that moment a 16-inch shell hit the turret underneath him and he just froze there that was very sad but it was her or us at the time the Bismarck's colors are flying while some of her guns are still firing those attempting to surrender may have been taking unilateral action as they are in parts of the ship have been most vulnerable most damaged and communication throughout the ship is patchy and heavily disrupted so they likely have no word from the surviving senior command officers Oh 931 Tim says how viruses last Salwa before taking several hits and being knocked out deep below a rescue team tries to free sailors trapped in an ammunition magazine but when raging fires threatened to trigger an explosion the order is given to flood the space everybody within it is drowned but it buys some time for the rest of the true what is left of the forward superstructure vanishes into a rising column of fire as flames begin to spread a shell plunges into this Inferno and moments later the main mast is seen to be toppling into the sea Oh 940 the main battery has been silent for some time but a handful of secondary guns are still active for mullen Heinrich back is telephoning through the ship to see who is in command but can get nothing but deadlines and men telling him they are evacuating their posts and fire or smoke overwhelm them zero 945 Bismarck is nothing but floating wreckage but nobody strikes her ensign the internationally recognized signal for surrender really at this point the flames and flying debris is so intense it's unlikely anyone could even if they wanted to there is also no feasible way for the British to capture her they expect a little far for bombers at any moment and u-boats are thought to be nearby so the British ships continue pouring in shell fire the range is so short that the shells are leaving shockwaves on the water as they streak in and hit the side of the ship turret Anton is blown apart by a direct hit Rodney's gunnery officer decides to fire all nine of his ships 16-inch guns at once rather and then in staggered salvos a somewhat dangerous proposition as the shock could damage the ship beyond the cosmetic injuries they've already inflicted on themselves for example there isn't an intact plate or mirror for at least three decks below the turrets large sections of the ship's wooden planking over the main deck are splinters and memories all nine shells that are fired are seen to hit the Bismarck some going right through and skipping away over the Oh but the German ship remains stubbornly afloat zero 952 Rodney fires another full salvo this time scoring six hits glowing metal debris is sent flying through the air two hundred men trapped by warped hatches in the front canteen compartment are the victims of one of these shells creating mountains of flesh and bone according to one German sailor who comes across the scene later on Rodney launches more torpedoes and dosa sure closes in to do so as well sporadic 5.9 inch secondary fire is still coming from the German ship that is hopelessly inaccurate Rodney reports a hit possibly two with its torpedoes if so it has now become the only battleship to ever successfully torpedo another battleship in combat ten hundred hours aboard Ark Royal a new wave of swordfish had been launched earlier to ensure Bismarck's destruction they now arrive on the scene to report was much more relaxed almost carefree which was down to the fact we'd all survived nobody had been shot down we really did want to go in again I think we wanted to get there before the home fleet did then we were delayed about two hours partly because of the weather as we approached Bismarck the weather was better we were at about 2,000 feet Bismarck was surrounded by battleships cruisers and destroyers she was being mercilessly pounded her a turret was gone and the after turrets were still firing she was steaming about at about seven knots if that the bridge was gone there was just a big black hole billowing black smoke she was a mess and the gunfire was just ceaseless fearing these might be enemy planes King George the fifth anti-aircraft Gunners opened fire on the swordfish but miss hoping they can make a contribution to putting under the circle overhead ordered to stay away with guns was going to do it it was really irritating cruising around with a bunch of torpedo still hung up and not being allowed to attack the subsequent reason given was they didn't want us to be subjected to gunfire there was no bloody reason to hopefully couldn't have stopped firing for a minute we went in and attacked first officer Hans as ordered the men below deck that he could reach to abandon ship and instructed the engine room crews to open the ship's watertight doors and prepare scuttling charges although the ship was at this point already noted to be sinking due to progressive flooding the heart unit the chief engineering officer reports that he ordered his men to set the demolition charges with a nine minute fuse but the intercom system broke down and he sent a messenger to confirm the order to scuttle the ship the messenger never returned so you not primed the charges in order to true to abandon the ship 10-15 hours the Bismarck is a wreck without a gun firing on fire fore and aft and wallowing more heavily with every moment men could be seen jumping overboard preferring death by drowning in the stormy sea to the appalling effects of the continued gunfire some of miss marks hatches are so buckled and crumpled men wearing life jackets cannot squeeze through many exits are reported blocked by a struggling mass of men whom officers could no longer control those who do manage to make it outside aim to dash across the deck and throw themselves overboard blinded and jumped by smoke and flames some instead tumble through large shell holes into the inferno below the smart ones wait until there is a momentary lull in the firing and then make their bid to reach the seat first officer earth rushes throughout the ship ordering men to abandon their posts after he reaches the deck a huge explosion kills him and about the hundred men live Hurley has managed to find himself at the aft end of the ship where there is a bit more control and here is an order given to abandon ship stepping past glowing rents in the deck that seems to go down forever he makes it into the ocean and swims desperately away as he hears the hiss of seawater vaporizing to steam with every swell of ocean against Bismarck sights indicating massive internal virus given what he has observed under his journey along the length of the ship he doubts anyone could have survived to set demolition charges in the depths of the ship finally one at a time the British ships begin to cease firing bursts Rodney then Dorsetshire and finally six minutes later king george v 10 20 the shortage of fuel oil or than the British battleships has become acute it's not merely a matter of having sufficient oil to reach harbour there is also the possibility of damage to fuel tanks by a near-miss from a bomb or a hit by a torpedo exactly the kind of damage that has sent Bismarck to France for repairs days earlier and so a reserve is needed as they break off Tavi orders any ships still with torpedoes to use them on Bismarck engineering officer eunuch and his comrades report hearing explosions that they assume other demolition charges detonate as they make their way up through the various levels 10:22 having received no orders to abandon ship but realizing bismarck is done for for Manheim ragbag has waited until all the firing has stopped before leading his team out onto the upper deck to make their own escape 1026 dosa fires two torpedoes in one side scoring hits before heading around to fire more torpedoes at the other side of Bismarck 10:39 as dosages next set of torpedo strike zone the Bismarck begins to roll over and sink capsize Foreman Heinrich back orders his men to salute their fallen comrades and then jump over the side more than 700 men are in the water most of them will die the swordfish from Ark Royal continued to circle powerless to a system the bow of the German battleship rears up out of the ocean and with a hiss of steam the Bismarck slips beneath the waves for the final time you you in the aftermath some survivors who see HMS door such are closing to rescue survivors believe it is there to finish off anyone still alive one member of the crew Otto Peters was washed off miss marks upper deck as the ship went down I tried to get away from the ship as quickly as possible and it was raining and stormy but anyway one tries to live I tried to swim to this ship and I could see it very clear the Union Jack so it must be a British ship and I thought now they were going to kill us in the water coming closer to the ship I saw they had ropes down and so I thought to myself now they're going to pick us up some German sailors either misinformed or indoctrinated to believe the enemy will kill them rather than provide rescue unfortunately swim away from Dorsetshire while one officer shoots himself with a pistol one of the men aboard Dorsetshire reports we received a signal from the survivors we did it because they were seamen doing their job of work and we had done our job which was to sink the Bismarck we weren't far from Bismarck in extremely close in fact and scrambling nets and various bits of equipment were made ready to help get survivors aboard there was no question at all in our minds that they were sailors who wanted saving well of course a County class cruiser has got a lot of free board so they needed quite a lot of assistance in getting up there I saw quite a few of the Germans being pulled out of the water but most of my time was spent delivering messages quickly and then back up to the bridge ten thousand ton cruiser like Dorset sure has no anti-submarine detecting equipment and is a tempting target if you happen to be a u-boat the first thing on captain Martins mind was the safety of his own ship and there was a warning from one of the lookouts on the bridge that they'd been that they'd seen what was possibly some evidence a sort of haze of a submarine in the area and the captain turned around to me and ordered me to go and see the commander on the quarterdeck to tell him to throw all available rafts over the side he would be getting underway immediately to clear the area and that is what happened although we were still able to pick up what survivors we could I've seen bits in library books and someone's actually underlined had made a comment saying we left German survivors in the water deliberately stopped picking them up captain Martin it could not afford to risk his ship and the Germans understood that there were 750 men under captain Martin's own crew that were very much on his mind it is likely that what they spotted was u-boat you 74 arriving to pick up the war logs of Admiral Lujan's some sign of her was spotted by lookout on Dorset sure which would sadly condemn many survivors to a slow death in the freezing waters of the Atlantic other u-boats arriving later and searching for survivors would find only wreckage and corpses those saved by Dorsetshire included lieutenant von Mullen Heim RF Berg during the time the British Cruiser was stopped one of her own Midshipmen jumped over the side to help wounded Germans scramble up the ships at all sides another officer shouldn't have done it he'd been trying to rescue a German who was badly injured before we left you 74 would surface and pool three of the battleships men from the sea whilst the weather ship Saxon vault also saved two of Bismarck sailors the destroyer HMS Mallory picked up a further 25 along with door such as Hall of 86 that made 116 men out of Bismarck's 2365 strong complement one of the survivors aboard Dorset shirt died of his wounds and was buried at sea with full honors although not with a Nazi flag but rather the German naval ensign however out at sea a Vilhelm Vic still had a lot of suffering to go through before he could reach safety when night fell together in the water the sea got rougher and the waves searched higher suddenly I realized that I had lost Herman there wasn't a sign of him anywhere I was cold and frightened we had been trying to be ready to die for the fatherland but at that moment the idea of dying a hero's death did not appeal to me at all I wanted to live even alone in the middle of a heaving hostile black ocean a stream of memories flooded my mind I recalled my childhood in reckoning housing a coal mining town in northern mist fine I thought of my dear father who was a miner and of my mother my sister and my three brothers when war broke out I was enrolled in the Navy in coldenhoff where my military training started when I embarked on the Bismarck I was the only son left in the family one of my brothers died from sickness another one lost his life in the mind and yet another was killed during the invasion of Poland a cold brought me back to reality there I was in the middle of the ocean I felt a sudden urge to pray or I did not want to die over whelmed with a fear and aching all over I remembered that my grandmother had taught me the Lord's Prayer it was the only prayer I knew and I repeated it incessantly during the night as the hours passed my fear subsided and calm came over me when at long last they dawned I was completely exhausted the secret roughen I started vomiting then overcome with fatigue I began to do this and eventually went off to sleep another day dragged by with alternating periods of wakefulness and sleep then the second night set in by then I was suffering severe thirst my limbs were stiff from the cold and I started getting cramps I thought that the night would never end dawn broke at last bringing a third day I fell into a semi-coma losing all notion of time and in that state I just made out the sound of an engine before I lost consciousness he was found 75 miles away from the point where Bismarck had gone down total the four British ships had fired more than 2,800 shells at Bismarck and scored more than 400 hits junik who had abandoned the ship by the time it capsized observed no underwater damage to the ship's starboard side von Mullen Heim Rehberg reported the same but assumed that the portside which was then underwater and was the side that had been engaged by the majority of the battleships fire had been more significantly damaged in the end it is impossible to say with certainty exactly what was the final blow to Bismarck but it is clear that the ship was going down albeit slowly before the order for scuttling was given all the final torpedoes fired survivors accounts also differ significantly depending on where they were in the ship during the battle in the end though Bismarck was going down exactly which package of explosives caused it to sink at 10:39 hours and not sooner or later is in the end likely irrelevant back in the UK the consequences of the battle ranged wildly Admiral Toby reported to the Apple T meanwhile moobs were made to court-martial wake Walker and Captain John leach of Prince of Wales on the grounds that they were wrong not to have continued the battle with Bismarck after Hood had been sunk at Malta VIII horrified got into an argument with his superior Admiral Sir Dudley pound threatening to resign his position as commander of the Home Fleet and appear at any court-martial as the defendants friend and defense witness rather unsurprisingly nothing more was heard of the proposal a British Board of Inquiry quickly investigated the cause of hoods explosion and produced a report but due to being such a rush job it was pointed out that not all the evidence had been collected and so a second Board of Inquiry was called which also looked for similar weaknesses in other British capital ships in light of the problem causes of explosion this Board agreed with the first inquiries conclusion that a 15 inch shelf from Bismarck had caused the explosion of hoods aft ammunition magazines this led to refitting some older battleships with increased deck and magazine protection and other related improvements but the precise cause of her sinking remains a matter of hot debate to this day with her notable performance against bismarck hms rodney would find itself kept on a short leash near the home fleet for some time as insurance against the emergence of the Tirpitz until with the entry of more king george the claw micking georgia 5th class vessels and the United States of America into the war she could be released to other duties in Germany Admiral Aveda formally reported the loss of the Bismarck to Hitler in early June Hitler asked why Luo Tian's didn't fight past the Prince of Wales to return to port the way she had come after the Battle of the Denmark Strait even if that was outed in the loss of the Bismarck he argued the British would have lost to capital ships radar admit that that seen in retrospect at the feet of the Prince of Wales would have of course been a greater victory however nutrients had to keep his operational orders in view as long as his ship were in a position to carry them which meant attempting operation against merchant shipping if at all possible for the clicks marina the sinking of the schluck ship Bismarck was probably the worst single blow of the war shortly after and as a result of operation revenue boom the Germans would abandon the use of heavy surface warships against Atlantic convoys and concentrated their efforts on u-boats whilst Germany's capital ships would be staged and up in Norway menacing Arctic Convoys instead the wreck of Bismarck was discovered in 1989 by dr. Robert Ballard who had previously found Titanic the wreck rests upright almost five kilometers beneath the surface this initial survey found no underwater penetrations of the ship's belt although a good portion of this area was submerged under mud eight holes were found in the hull above the waterline Ballard noted he found no evidence of internal implosions which occur when a hull that is not fully flooded sinks whilst this suggests that Bismarck's compartments were flooded when the ship sank it does not in fact provide direct support to either scuttling or gunfire theories as there were plenty of holes in the ship that were repeatedly submerged before the ship went down in addition to the various torpedo hits so comprehensive flooding could have come from one the other or both sources the whole of the stern has broken away roughly where the swordfish torpedo hit raising questions of possible structural failures which was a recurring issue in the Stern's of a number of large German warships of the World War two period three subsequent expeditions have been conducted each coming to different conclusions the fact that a good portion of miss marks lower hull remains under mud doesn't help matters that much despite their differing viewpoints the various experts involved generally agree that Bismarck would have eventually founded and any scuttling charges merely hastened the inevitable although how much hastening was involved is of course something where the four expeditions have four different opinions although Ballard notes as far as I was concerned the British had sunk the ship regardless of who delivered the final blow and that concludes this a very extended look at the first and last voyage of the Bismarck look out in the next few weeks for further specials on miss marks design and construction as well as an in-depth look on the possible causes for the sinking of the hood you [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Drachinifel

Views: 1,309,297

Rating: 4.7961731 out of 5

Keywords: wows, world of warships, KMS, DKM, Bismarck, HMS, Royal Navy, Kriegsmarine, Operation Rheinübung, HMS Hood, HMS Norfolk, HMS Suffolk, HMS Prince of Wales, Prinz Eugen, HMS Victorious, HMS Ark Royal, HMS Renown, HMS Sheffield, HMS King George V, HMS Rodney, Battle of the Denmark Strait, Final Battle of the Bismarck, World War 2, Battle of the Atlantic, Swordfish, HMS Dorsetshire

Id: n69kV4gVoDw

Length: 105min 51sec (6351 seconds)

Published: Mon May 27 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

I love u drach

[u/EMR18]

Woops, I used the time stamp link

[u/ShadyPollster]

Good video.

[u/Sverker_Wolffang]

From the mist a shape a ship is taking form.