The last battle of the German battleship Bismarck took place in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) west of Brest, France, on 26–27 May 1941 between the German battleship Bismarck and naval and air elements of the British Royal Navy. Although it was an action between capital ships, it has no generally accepted name. It represented the culmination of Operation Rheinübung where the attempt of the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen to disrupt the Atlantic convoys to the United Kingdom failed and resulted in the former's scuttling after battle damage rendered the Bismarck unable to fight back. The four British warships continued firing throughout the scuttling process, and most experts agree that the accumulated battle damage would have caused the Bismarck to sink eventually.
The last battle consisted of four main phases. The first phase late on 26 May consisted of air attacks by Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal, which disabled Bismarck's steering gear, jammed her rudders in a turning position and prevented her escape. The second phase was the shadowing and harassment of Bismarck during the night of 26/27 May by British and Polish destroyers, with no serious damage to any ship. The third phase on the morning of 27 May was an attack by the British battleships King George V and Rodney, supported by the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire. After about 100 minutes of fighting, Bismarck was sunk by the combined effects of shellfire, torpedo hits and scuttling. On the British side, Rodney was lightly damaged by near-misses and by the blast effects of her own guns. British warships rescued 110 survivors from Bismarck before abandoning the rest because of an apparent U-boat sighting. A U-boat and a German weathership rescued five more survivors. In the final phase, the withdrawing British ships were attacked the next day on 28 May by aircraft of the Luftwaffe, resulting in the loss of the destroyer HMS Mashona.
Background
Under the command of the Fleet Commander Günther Lütjens, the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen tried to break out into the Atlantic in order to attack convoys. The ships were intercepted by a British force from the Home Fleet. In the resulting Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May, Bismarck's fuel tanks were damaged and several machinery compartments, including a boiler room, were flooded. Her captain's intention was to reach the port of Brest for repair.
Determined to avenge the sinking of the "Pride of the Navy" HMS Hood in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the British committed every possible unit to hunting down Bismarck.
- The old Revenge-class battleship HMS Ramillies was detached from convoy duty southeast of Greenland and ordered to set a course to intercept Bismarck if she should attempt to raid the sea lanes off North America.
- The damaged Prince of Wales and the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk were still in contact with the German ships after the Battle of the Denmark Strait.
- The remainder of the Home Fleet, consisting of the battleship King George V, the battlecruiser Repulse, the aircraft carrier Victorious, four light cruisers and their escorts, had already set sail from Scapa Flow before the loss of the Hood.
- The battleship Rodney was detached from escort duties west of Ireland and set an intercept course for the Bismarck.
- Force H had already left Gibraltar with the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, the battlecruiser Renown and the light cruiser Sheffield on 23 May to take over escort duties from other ships, but once it came clear the Bismarck was heading for France, the force set course to intercept Bismarck.
- The heavy cruiser London was escorting a convoy from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom and was also ordered to intercept.
- The light cruiser Edinburgh, which was searching for blockade runners in the area West of Cape Finisterre, was also ordered to join the hunt.
In the early evening of 24 May, Bismarck briefly turned on her pursuers (Prince of Wales and the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk) to cover the escape of her companion, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen to continue further into the Atlantic. During the late evening of 24 May, an attack was made by a small group of Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers of 825 Naval Air Squadron under the command of Eugene Esmonde from Victorious. One hit was scored, but caused only superficial damage to Bismarck's armoured belt. Early on 25 May the British forces lost contact with Bismarck, which headed E-S-E towards France while the British searched N-E, presuming Bismarck was returning to Norway. Later on 25 May the commander of the German force, Admiral Günther Lütjens, apparently unaware that he had lost his pursuers, broke radio silence to send a coded message to Germany. This decision would prove critical, as the British overheard the communique, and subsequently were able to triangulate the approximate position of Bismarck, logic leading them to deduce that the German battleship had set a course for France, for re-armament and repairs. Fuel was becoming a major concern to both sides, due to battle damage, the subsequent loss of fuel, and (for the Germans) because Bismarck had failed to refuel either in Norway or by fuel-tanker whilst underway in the North Atlantic. Lütjens chose to maintain an economical speed of 21 knots to conserve fuel, with the hope of reaching France before the Allied flotilla could detect and intercept them.
Meanwhile, from the pursuing Home Fleet: Prince of Wales, Repulse, Victorious and the four cruisers had to break off, and Suffolk as well. Only King George V and Norfolk were able to continue: since the destroyer screen of King George V was (like the Bismarck) also running short on fuel, the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla consisting of the destroyers HMS Cossack, Sikh, Maori and Zulu, and the Polish destroyer ORP Piorun, under command of Captain Philip Vian, was ordered to detach from convoy WS-8B and to screen King George V.
At 10:30 on 26 May Bismarck was detected by a RAF Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from 209 Squadron RAF that had flown over the Atlantic from RAF Castle Archdale on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland across the Donegal Corridor through neutral Ireland. It was piloted by the British Flying Officer Dennis Briggs and co-piloted by the US Navy observer Ensign Leonard B. Smith, USNR. Smith was at the controls when he spotted Bismarck (via a trailing oil slick from the ship's damaged fuel tank) and reported her position to the Admiralty. Shortly before at 09:00 Ark Royal had launched scouting planes and half an hour after the Catalina, two Swordfish found Bismarck as well. From then on, the German ship's position was known to the British, although the enemy would have to be slowed significantly if heavy units hoped to engage outside the range of German land-based aircraft. On receiving the message from the Catalina, Capt. Vian decided not to join the pursuing British battleships, but to steer directly for Bismarck. All British hopes were now pinned on Force H and these destroyers.
The battle
First phase: Air Attack by Ark Royal
At 14:50 on 26 May in bad weather conditions, Ark Royal launched 15 Swordfish for an attack on the Bismarck. The aircraft had not been warned that the Sheffield had been sent forward to shadow the Bismarck, instead they had been told no other ships were in the vicinity. The Swordfish attacked, in poor visibility, the shadowing cruiser Sheffield, but some of their torpedoes had defective magnetic pistols which caused them to explode on impact with the sea, and the remaining torpedoes could be evaded. At 19:10 the same aircraft were relaunched for a second sortie with contact pistol torpedoes. At 19:50 Force H ran into U-556, which obtained a perfect shooting position to hit both the Ark Royal and Renown, but the U-boat had expended all her torpedoes on previous operations and could not attack.
The aircraft made first contact with the Sheffield at 20:00 which vectored them to the Bismarck. Despite this helping hand and their ASV II radars, they could not find the German ship. Half an hour later they had to recontact the Sheffield which could finally send them to the Bismarck. The attack started at 20:47 and lasted half an hour. Three aircraft had to recontact the Sheffield for a third time. A first hit midships had little effect, but a second hit astern jammed Bismarck's rudder and steering gear 12° to port. This resulted in her being, initially, able to steam only in a large circle.
Bismarck fired her main and secondary armament against the attacking aircraft, trying to hit the low flying torpedo aircraft with the shell splashes. Once the attack was over, Bismarck fired her main battery at the shadowing Sheffield. The first salvo went a mile astray, but the second salvo straddled the cruiser. Shell splinters fell on Sheffield killing three men and wounding two others. Four more salvoes were fired but no hits were scored. Sheffield quickly retreated under cover of a smoke screen. Sheffield lost contact with the Bismarck in the low visibility but shortly before 22:00 she met Capt. Vian's group of five destroyers and was able to vector them to the Bismarck. The King George V and Rodney had joined around 18:00 and were approaching from the northwest. Since Vian's destroyers would keep in touch with the Bismarck and harry her all night, he decided to steer south, even southwest and making a circle in order to be able to engage the Bismarck in the morning silhouetted against the east. The heavy cruiser Norfolk and the light cruiser Edinburgh were also approaching separately from the northwest. Edinburgh had to abandon the chase due to fuel shortage but Norfolk took up a position to the north of Bismarck. Another heavy cruiser, Dorsetshire, was approaching from the west and would make contact the next morning. After collecting her aircraft Ark Royal and Force H first kept north of Bismarck, but during the night sailed south and remained in the vicinity.
Repair efforts by the crew to free the rudder failed. Bismarck attempted to steer by alternating the power of her three propeller shafts, which, in the prevailing force 8 wind and sea state, resulted in the ship being forced to sail towards King George V and Rodney, two British battleships that had been pursuing Bismarck from the west. At 23:40 on 26 May, Admiral Lütjens delivered to Group West, the German command base, the signal "Ship unmanoeuvrable. We will fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer."
Second phase: Night actions
One hour after the Swordfish attack, Maori and Piorun made contact with Bismarck at 22:38. Piorun attacked at once, signalling her identity as a Polish ship, but was not able to launch torpedoes. She approached close enough to engage Bismarck with her guns, but then lost contact and played no more role in the battle. Deteriorating weather made a concentrated attack impossible. Throughout that night, Bismarck was the target of intermittent torpedo attacks by Vian's destroyers. In ten approaches between 22:38 and 06:56 Cossack, Maori, Zulu and Sikh fired sixteen torpedoes but none hit. One of Bismarck's shells sheared off Cossack's antenna and three other shells straddled Zulu, wounding three men. Between 02:30 and 03:00 the destroyers fired starshell at Tovey's request in order to make her position visible for the battleships. The constant harrying tactics of the destroyers helped wear down the morale of the Germans and deepened the fatigue of an already exhausted crew.
Between 05:00 and 06:00, Lütjens ordered an Arado 196 float plane launched to the French coast, to secure the ship's war diary, footage of the engagement with Hood, and other important documents. It was discovered that the float plane catapult had been rendered inoperative due to damage received on the 24th by the Prince of Wales. The fully fuelled aircraft was then pushed overboard to reduce the risk of fire in the upcoming battle. Lütjens then radioed at 07:10 for a U-boat to rendezvous with Bismarck to fetch these documents. U-556 was assigned at once to this task, but the U-boat missed the signalled order because it was submerged. At any rate, it was subsequently revealed that U-556 had been too low on fuel to have been able to carry out the order. The task was then passed on to U-74 but by then Bismarck had already sunk.
Third phase: The Final Engagement
As the British units converged on Bismarck's location, Tovey gave his instructions for the final battle. First, he ordered Renown, which had closed to within 17 miles of Bismarck, not to participate in the battle. Renown, being a Battlecruiser and not a Battleship, was not seen as adequate to confront Bismarck, especially in light of what happened to the more heavily armoured Hood. He then instructed the captain of Rodney to close to within 15,000 yd (14,000 m) as quickly as possible, and that while he should, in general, conform to King George V's movements, he was free to manoeuvre independently. The morning of Tuesday 27 May brought a heavy grey sky, a rising sea and a tearing wind from the northwest. Because of this northwesterly gale, Tovey postponed the final attack from sunrise until clear daylight and concluded an attack on Bismarck from windward was undesirable. He decided to approach on a northwesterly bearing before deploying.