The Story of Bismarck (IV): Bismarck’s Knell

This article is the final part in a series of four articles about the battleship Bismarck

May 25, 1941: No one in the British Admiralty office slept that night; the disappearance of the German battleship from right under their noses was a tough pill to swallow. The British public would never forgive this slight, especially after the loss of their beloved Hood. Churchill had instructed Admiral Dudley Pound to convey all updates directly to him. More than a tactical move, the search for the Bismarck became a prestige issue- the Hood needed to be avenged.

In the Atlantic, Bismarck was on course southeast towards Brest in occupied France. Lutjens had managed to shake off his pursuers, but tragically, he didn’t know of his success. He overestimated British radar capabilities, believing that while he had put some distance between the Norfolk and others, he was still on their radar. And so, inexplicably, he broke radio silence multiple times, sending information to the German headquarters about his intended route to Brest and requesting Luftwaffe air assistance. The code being used by Lutjens was similar to the one found aboard a captured U-Boat a few months earlier. This allowed British cryptologists at Bletchley Park to decode vital information. Most notable among these was Alan Turing, who broke the naval Enigma code.

The Story of Bismarck (III): The Battleship Disappears

This is the third part of a four part series on the battleship Bismarck.

The next day’s newspapers around the world carried but one news:

The short but shattering battle with the Royal Navy in the Denmark strait had left the German sailors in awe of their ship and of naval combat in general. Admiral Lutjens, though calm on the surface, was alarmed. He knew of the Hood’s fame, and was under no illusions about what the British would do next. The reassuring news was that while the Bismarck had lost a bit of speed, it was still cruising at  at least 28 knots, which was on par with the fastest British battleships. As long as Lutjens could maintain distance, he was not under immediate threat.

The story of Bismarck(II): The Denmark Strait

This is the second of a four part series on the Battleship Bismarck

In the early hours of May 19, 1941, the Bismarck departed Gotenhafen, escorted by 3 destroyers (or small torpedo boats); the Prinz Eugen had already departed a few hours earlier. They wove across Kattegat and Skagerrak in poor weather, but were seen by Gotland, a Swedish cruiser, who forwarded the report to the Allied Naval HQ. For his part, Admiral Lutjens was sailing blind, since the same poor weather that was supposed to facilitate the Bismarck slipping unseen out into the Atlantic also prevented German aerial reconnaissance. The Gotland was also spotted from the Bismarck, but the Germans were not sure if the neutral Swedes would relay the information to Britain. However, it became clear that the Operation Rheinübung was no longer a secret.

The Story of Bismarck: The Road to Gotenhafen

This article is the first of a four part series on the story of the KMS Bismarck. 

While reading of important events about World War-II, I was fascinated by its naval aspect, which is often eclipsed by its terrestrial aspects. The two theaters of this conflict were the Pacific and the Atlantic. In the Pacific, Imperial Japan threatened South East Asia, including various archipelagos in the Pacific, competing with the United States, which had hitherto held an implicit sway over the Philippines. The Atlantic was characterized by what became later known as the ‘Battle for the Atlantic’: a period of time where a rapidly expanding Kriegsmarine, (the German Navy) threatened British supremacy at sea, as well as the vital Allied shipping lanes that supplied Great Britain from the United States. After the Battle for Britain (1940), where the Royal Airforce routed the Luftwaffe (German Airforce), Germany attempted to disrupt Atlantic shipping lanes through raider operations on merchant convoys, often supplemented by the submarine ‘U-Boats’. It was during these operations that the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau earned their fame through their famous ‘English Channel Dash’.