The Battle of the Denmark Strait and the Failure of Operation Rheinbung

less. She was known by British intelligence, but not much was known about her.The Beginning: On May 18th she left port to commence Operation Rheinübung (Excercise Rhine), her goal not to engage the Royal Navy directly but to sink allied shipping in the North Atlantic. It was surely a blow to the morale of merchant marine personnel to know that the German battleship Bismarck was loose and on the prowl! Rheinübung was the follow-up to Operation Berlin, where Admiral Jutjens had sunk 115,600 tons of allied shipping with the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Luckily, the two Battlecruisers were out of action, or the story may be entirely different, and Bismarck was only accompanied by the 8in heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. They left Gotenhafen on Monday the 19th, at 2 o clock in the morning. The Royal Navy became aware of their existance at 8 o clock in the evening of Wednesday 21st May. By the next day, Bismarck and Eugen's escorts had peeled off and the two ships were free to move at their top speeds, as they far outran the destroyers. Travelling northwest at 24 knots, they were sighted by the British 8in cruiserSuffolk, and engaged her and her companion Norfolk, but Bismarck scored no hits and escaped into a snowstorm with Eugen, her intent to proceed into the North Atlantic in the most stealthy fashion possible.However, their cover had already been blown. Their discovery by an RAF reconaissance Spitfire while leaving the Kattegat had resulted in Admiral John Tovey of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet to respond accordingly. He concentrated his cruiser forces, which included the 6in gun cruisers Manchester and Birmingham as well as Norfolk and Suffolk north in the Denmark Strait. However, most importantly, two R.N. capital ships were deployed to Iceland: these were, the new Battleship Prince of Wales with her 10 14in guns, and the Battlecruiser HMS Hood, known throughout the Empire as the mighty Hood. Superficially, Hood was an extremely strong ship. She sported an impressive top speed of 33 knots, though that was somewhat decreased with age, and an armament precisely the same as Bismarck's, although with the latest Royal Navy RADARs that her gunnery crews were not entirely familiar with. However, she was laid down in 1916 and commisioned in 1919. Although she was large - larger than Bismarck - she weighed several thousand tons less and her armour pattern, while being thick in some areas, was generally poor. Tovey also had five cruisers, six destroyers, the battleship King George V, the battlecruiser Repulse and the Aircraft Carrier Victorious, as well as land-based aircraft which he had used to locate the German ships on 21st May. As the Home Fleet assembled in Scapa Flow, Tovey ordered Admiral Lancelot Holland’s Hood into the Denmark Strait with Prince of Wales in tow, leaving behind their destroyer screening escort as they headed towards the German ship. Holland’s tactical plan was to set the bows of the two battleship slightly ahead of the German ships, so that eventually they would intercept them directly – Tovey did not want to chase the Bismarck, nor did he want to fight it head on. The Prince of Wales was fresh out the slip and still had civilian engineers onboard, adjusting her temperamental 14 inch quad gun turrets. It took two days for Hood and Prince of Wales to reach the Bismarck, as Norfolk and Suffolk kept up the chase, keeping Bismarck on their radar. The Game's Afoot: At 0015 on the 24th of May, 1941, Hood and Prince of Wales went to action stations, flying their battle flags. At this time, Bismarck was zig-zagging to avoid a constant radar contact from Suffolk and Norfolk so that the British ships could not plot her direct course or speed. This was mostly successful. With two battleships bearing down on him, the German commander, Admiral Lutjens, was in an uncertain position. His order was that if he was facing a superior or equal force, he was to retreat – in no way should theBismarck fight an enemy it might not be able to overwhelm. However, Lutjens was penned in – the British cruisers on his tail, the ice sheet to his north, and two battleships somewhere to his southwest. There was no way to evade detection. At 0549, the first shells were fired. Admiral Holland’s Hood opened fire at a range of 25,000 yards. The British opened fire on the lead ship, which they thought were Bismarck, but was actually Prinz Eugen – the silhouettes being remarkably similar. Prince of Wales, however, noticed this and corrected the fire, but not before Hood’s first salvo was let forth. Hood fell slightly short of Prinz Eugen and Prince of Wales' slightly long of Bismarck. Captain Lindemann returned fire, but the first German salvo also fell short. In the North Atlantic waters and mist, with water spraying over the rangefinders of the British ships, accuracy was not the prime that was possibly in the clear Mediterranean and Pacific. All ships fired a second salvo, and all missed. Bismarck’s rate of fire was slightly faster and her third salvo straddled the Hood, alongside Prinz Eugen’s fire. It is still disputed whether it was Bismarck or Eugen who began the fire that set alight Hood’s 4in gun magazines – it is likely we will never know, but that third salvo ignited a fire in the ship.At 0557 the range had deceased to 19,000 yards and Bismarck had fired her fourth salvo. By this time, Hood had turned to port far enough so that her rear guns could also open fire. Disaster: Three minutes later, John Leach, Captain of the Prince of Wales, blinked in disbelief as the Hood exploded in a great leaping mushroom of bright orange fire and within half a minute had totally disappeared from view. Within ten minutes Prince of Wales was pulling off, one of her turrets having jammed and having taken a hard hit to the ship’s bridge. However, critically, the Prince of Wales’ gunners had scored three hits across the Bismarck, one penetrating and causing an oil leak. Lutjens now had to turn back, and headed theBismarck for occupied France, detaching the Prinz Eugen for hunting duties in the North Atlantic. At nine o clock that night, the Admiralty issued a communiqué across the Empire. "British Naval Forces intercepted early this morning, off the coast of Greenland, German Naval Forces, including the battleship Bismarck. The enemy were attacked and during the ensuing action HMS Hood received an unlucky hit in the magazine and blew up."There were a total of three survivors, of a crew numbering 1,418. Why the Hood blew up in a single hit is a subject of debate and it is likely nobody will ever know. However, there are some theories which are clearer than others. The witnesses agreed fairly unanimously on the cause of the first fire on Hood’s deck. Most believe that the explosion was a cordite or wood fire which would indeed indicate a smaller explosion due to the fire on Hood’s 4in gun magazines. However, on the last and most destructive hit, none of the officers really agreed. Rear Admiral Wake-Walker onboard Norfolk saw a mushroom shaped explosion and a “red glow”. His subordinate guessed the plume to be perhaps 700 feet tall. This much is agreed on – others say a large cone, or a flash higher than the mainmast, either way indicative of a large and extremely potent explosion. Leach himself, perhaps one of the most qualified to say, saw a n explosion "twice the height of the mainmast." Many of the officers also say the explosion was near the centre of the ship or near X turret, which would agree with the theory that a shell penerated and blew upHood’s rear magazine – with a hundred odd 1,300 pound high explosive shells it would have been enough to cause the large explosion, and because the magazine is located slightly behind X turret (a rear turret) and on the bottom of the ship, it would have "broke her back”, causing the almost instant sinking. Another suggestion is that Hood’s torpedo tubes were detonated and the ensuing explosion triggered the magazine destruction. I should note one thing: it is a fallacy to say Hood’s armour was too thin. It was not in fact thin, but badly placed. On battleships, the “belt armour” only lasts for a certain proportion of the hull, and it slowly thins out towards the deck. It is possible, that if the German shell was traveling at the correct angle, although it would not be traveling at sufficient speed to break through the belt, it could have struck the thinner transition area of the belt and penetrating at the correct angle to reach into the magazines. One thing was sure: the Royal Navy’s greatest ship had been sunk with practically all hands, and that the German ship was heading to escape. It must not be allowed to reach France and meet up with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Winston Churchill issued the General Order to the Admiralty – "Sink the Bismarck!"Hitting Back: At ten o clock that night, nine Fairey Swordfish planes of 825 Naval Air Squadron ran off the decks of the Aircraft carrier Victorious and headed towards the last seen position of the Bismarck, torpedoes slung underneath their fuselages. The attack is unsuccessful, and one hit is scored, though it does no damage. All aircraft are retrieved unharmed, and one thing is discovered – that the aging Swordfish biplanes travel too slowly! Design to attack modern aircraft, the targeting radar of the Bismarck’s anti air guns were not able to accurately track the slow-moving Swordfish. Bismarck, however, escapes. In a tense two days, she is rediscovered heading south to France by a Coastal Command flying boat, west-north-west of Brest, Brittany, France. Force H, with the aircraft carrier Ark Royal was detached from Gibraltar on the 24th and had headed north. Lutjens, a mere couple hundred miles from the French coast, was now confident that he would reach homeport. On the 26th of May, the 6in cruiser Sheffield sighted the Bismarck at a quarter to eight at night. By this time the whole Royal Navy is out in force, and three quarters of an hour later, fifteen Swordfish from the carrier Ark Royal press the attack on Bismarck, scoring two hits. In a flash of karma for the Bismarck, an extremely lucky single torpedo hits the rudder machinery gear, jamming it at 12 degrees. Endgame: Bismarck is unable to maneouvre. Lutjens knows his fate, and asks Hitler to send a u-boat to pick up the war diaries, informing him that the Bismarck will fight to the last shell. At eight o clock on the 27th of May, the British battleships Rodney and King George V, as well as the 8in cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire are sighted off the port and astern at 26,000 yards. It takes three hours for the Bismarck to be systematically destroyed, losing her fire control and gun turrets, rendering her totally useless. The invulnerability of her belt armour is proven wrong at range when a full salvo of Rodney’s 16in shells tears apart her hull – Rodney’s commander comments, ironically – "Hold fire! This is a genocide!" as he sees German sailors jumping overboard from the burning wreck of the Bismarck. The range now is a mere 3,000 yards as the British ships rain fire onto the mostly defencelessBismarck. At 10:00, Bismarck is totally incapable of combat. Had she moved another fifty miles, Rodney and King George V would have not been able to engage, as by this 10:16 they turned away due to fuel constraints. The order is given to scuttle the Bismarck, and demolition charges are planted. However, Bismarck takes three torpedo hits from the Dorsetshire and begins to sink as her scuttling charges detonate. The last and perhaps saddest tale of the whole battle was that as Dorsetshire closed to pick up the 700 survivors, she was forced to withdraw as the presence of the German submarine U-74 is discovered. Only 116 men are rescued. Sources:Various internet sourcesNelson to Vanguard Warship Design and Development 1923-1925 by D.K. BrownHOOD: Life and Death of a Battlecruiser by Roger ChesneauBattleships and Battle Cruisers 1905-1970 by Siegfried BreyerAnatomy of the Ship: The Battleship BISMARCK by Jack BrowerAnatomy of the Ship: The Battlecruiser HOOD (revised edition) by John RobertsAnatomy of the Ship: The Aircraft carier VICTORIOUS by Ross Watsonkbismarck.com