A Beast made of Steel

Hello and Welcome. I adore naval history and today’s story is one close to my heart, it is the story of the mighty battleship Bismarck.

The song “Bismarck” is named after the German battleship of the same name. The Bismarck, together with her sister-ship Tirpitz, are the largest battleships ever built by Germany. Commissioned in 1940 by the Kriegsmarine she had a short but infamous life.

The German Navy’s plan for the two sisters was to join them up with two other German battleships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, know to the British as “The Ugly Sisters”. The issue with this plan was that Bismarck and Tirpitz were in Germany, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were in the Atlantic.

Eventually it was decide that the Bismarck will sail out north across the Denmark Strait escorted by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Its task was to meet up with Gneisenau and wreck havoc on British shipping, thus tightening the noose around Britain.

The mission required utmost secrecy, something completely impossible due to Bismarck’s gigantic size. It comes as no surprise that the German duo ran into bad luck in every step of the way. They were first spotted by the Norwegian resistance and later by the heavy cruisers HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk which shadowed them along their entire journey.

The first engagement was in the Denmark Strait where the German battle-group was intercepted by the battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood. The Hood was “The Pride of the Royal Navy” being the last Battlecruiser built in British history at the end of WWI. First Blood was drawn by Prinz Eugen which hit Hood supposedly in a magazine depot. The engagement was short but bloody, a lucky shot by the Bismarck had broken the back of the Hood, literally, which sunk in a matter of minutes. Out of the 1418 sailors on board, 3 survived. Prince of Wales was heavily damaged and forced to retreat but not before one of its retaliatory shots hit Bismarck’s oil tank, she was losing oil rapidly and one boiler room was lost to the sea.

The death of Hood send a shock wave across all of Britain, soon after the Royal Navy was ordered to use everything in its disposal to destroy the Bismarck. Bismarck’s Captain, Ernst Lindemann, was short on options, either sail back to Germany or try getting to France. He chose the latter.

The German Behemoth was soon spotted and attacked by Force H. Headed by the Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal, who’s Swordfish bombers hit Bismarck’s achilles heel, the rudder. This was the deciding nail in the German coffin, Bismarck was immobilized.

The mighty battleship’s last engagement is a one-side one. Outnumbered and surrounded by the new British flagship, HMS King George V,’s battle-group the Bismarck would go out in a blaze of glory and fire. The Battleship lost gun after gun and then its command board, it was slowly torn to pieces. The final shot would be delivered by the heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire. Out of Bismarck’s 2200 strong crew only 114 survived.

The chase for the Bismarck would remain an infamous story in naval history and one of the strongest signals that the Age of Battleships is over and the Age of Aircraft Carriers has started.