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Coastal Command played a crucial role in the hunt for the Bismarck, the largest battleship afloat which, in May 1943, broke out into the Atlantic sinking HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, on the way. Bismarck, in company with the Prinz Eugen, a heavy cruiser, posed the most serious surface threat to convoys yet faced. Ships of the Royal Navy chased the Bismarck for several days but lost contact on 25 May. Air Chief Marshal Bowhill himself redirected the air search for Bismarck on to a south-easterly course. He was rewarded when a Catalina of 209 Squadron piloted by Pilot Officer D A Briggs found the Bismarck on 26 May enabling the Royal Navy to attack and sink her.
Bismarck. German 247 m long 50,000-ton battleship with eight 38 cm guns, top speed 30 knots, and a 2100 men crew, built in 1939. Bismarck sank HMS Hood in May, 1941 in the North Atlantic. Shortly after that, off the French coast, Bismarck was attacked by British torpedo-carrying aircraft. One of the torpedoes (too weak to penetrate the hull) got stuck in Bismarck’s rudder without exploding. The steering was jammed and the ship doomed to spin in circles.
The “linkage” for the rudder was jammed. This was down in a flooded compartment. Divers reached the linkage but were unable to fix it. Diving over the side was not practicable due to the sea being rough–impossible conditions. Explosives were discussed and rejected. Basically the stern was going up and down so much in the seas they could do nothing, and the flooded compartments were also affected by this, as when a hatch was opened and a fountain of water shot up to the deckhead and then was sucked back down each time the stern fell and rose. They tried everything but no go.
The ship could only head into the wind, which was from the direction the British battleships were coming, and not from France, so BISMARCK was doomed.
There was a big hole aft which flooded the steering gear compartments and shock or other distortions had jammed the “linkage” The rudder was not jammed by having a torpedo stuck in it as far as the crew could tell. The one diver who managed to get in there could not shift it, which is not surprising as how could he brace himself and tug on a wrench or whatever to do it? It needed a major repair with proper heavy equipment to do anything. The force of the sea swooshing in and out made everything impossible.
They had an idea to weld an opposing sort of rudder to the ship’s side aft, but could not because of the large motion of the stern in the seaway. Diving over the side was especially difficult as would be placing such explosives, even if the explosives would have done any good. They also worried the explosion would damage the propellers, which were at least then still working. Hard to judge how much explosive to use was a problem they discussed.
They tried and tried, but there just was no way. See chapter 27, “Mortal Hit” in “Battleship Bismarck” People have been trying to think of what they could have done that they didn’t try since it happened, but nobody has solved the problem.
After receiving thousands of shells Bismarck sank. Whether she sank from the shells, or was scuttled by her own crew remains disputed, but no matter which, the Germans lost the battle. 115 men survived. Even if the ship had not been sunk it wouldn’t change history. A single ship like the Bismarck would only dare occasional hit-and-run attacks in the Atlantic. The wreck was discovered in 1989 by Dr Robert Ballard on 4700 m depth. The hull was surprisingly intact, which might support the theory that the ship was sunk by its own crew rather than surrender it.
In 2002, James Cameron, the guy who directed the movie, “Titanic,” mounted an expedition to film the wreck of the Bismarck. He made a documentary of the expedition, “Expedition: Bismarck.” It was shown on one of the high definition cable channels a couple of weeks ago and I watched it.
One of the biggest puzzles of Bismarck’s sinking was whether Bismarck went down as a result of British attacks or was scuttled by her crew. Cameron used state-of-the-art underwater gear and a battery of experts in his quest for the truth about why Bismarck went down. After watching the documentary, I was convinced by Cameron’s analysis that Bismarck was scuttled.
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There’s no question in my mind that Bismarck was scuttled by her own crew. As disheartening as it may be to the British, the end result was the same.
Bismarck’s torpedo bulging did its job, and of the 700+ heavy caliber shells that hit her, only 4 penetrated her side, and they were the 16in shells, not the 14s being thrown by King George V.
It is also possible the Bismarck was low enough in the water the torpedoes hit her armor belt. At any rate, it is inexcusable for torpedo belts to fail on a capital ship unless multiple hits are scored in the same relative area, or vulnerable areas like the bow and stern are hit.
