German Battleships 1939–45

On 1 May Hitler paid a formal visit to Bismarck, along with Generalfeldmarschall Keitel and Grossadmiral Raeder. Bismarck sailed from Gotenhafen on 18 May and, after a brief refuelling stop, proceeded through the Kattegat and Skagerrak and on to Grimstadfjord near Bergen in Norway where she dropped anchor.
At this point the distinctive black and white angular camouflage pattern which had been applied to her hull and upperworks was painted out. Only the false wave some way back from her bow remained. At around the same time, Prinz Eugen had arrived in Norway, anchoring at Kalvanes Bay, a little further north, where she topped up her fuel bunkers.

Unfortunately for the Germans, who had hoped to make their breakout into the Atlantic undetected, the arrival of the German ships in Norway was immediately reported to the British by members of the Norwegian underground movement. Photographs subsequently taken by RAF photo-reconnaissance aircraft confirmed Bismarck’s identity.
On 21 May, Bismarck set sail and rendezvoused with Prinz Eugen at Kalvanes Bay. Escorted by destroyers, the two sailed northwards. At the latitude of Trondheim the destroyer screen departed, leaving Bismarck and Prinz Eugen to continue steaming northwards, before turning west and skirting around the north of Iceland. Late on 23 May the German ships began negotiating the minefields that obstructed the Denmark Straits between the west coast of Iceland and the eastern limit of the ice fields off Greenland’s east coast. It was here, on the evening of the 23rd, that contact was made with the British heavy cruiser Suffolk. Having spotted the German ships, Suffolk began to track them and was joined shortly afterwards by her sister, the Norfolk, alerted by signals from Suffolk. Bismarck opened fire, forcing the British cruisers to withdraw. After a brief attempt to pursuer her stalkers, Bismarck resumed her course.
The German force, now aware that they had been detected, expected to face enemy reinforcements at any time and indeed, just before 0600hrs on the following morning, the mastheads of enemy ships were spotted on Bismarck’s port beam. The unwelcome arrivals were the battlecruiser Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales. The British opened fire almost immediately. Two minutes later, the German ships responded. Both concentrated their fire upon the Hood, whilst the British battlecruiser, confused by the similarity in design of the German ships, fired at the Prinz Eugen. The Prince of Wales correctly judged the identity of each of the German ships and fired on Bismarck. Within two minutes of opening fire, Bismarck’s observers noted a massive fire on the Hood just by her aft mast caused by hits from Prinz Eugen. Just four minutes after this, a salvo from Bismarck penetrated Hood’s decks and ignited her magazine. In a massive explosion, the British battlecruiser broke her back. Within minutes the two halves of the 48,000-ton warship had sunk, leaving but three survivors from a crew of 1421. With the gunfire of both German ships now directed against her, and having suffered a number of hits, Prince of Wales withdrew under cover of a smokescreen.
Bismarck, however, had also suffered a number of hits. One shell from Prince of Wales had ripped a hole right through the ship from port to starboard, allowing over 2,000 tonnes of water to be shipped. Another hit caused significant flooding in one of the boiler rooms. More significantly, Bismarck was now suffering from an oil leak, which would make it much easier for the enemy to find and track her.
Admiral Lütjens at this time decided that Bismarck would make for St Nazaire whilst Prinz Eugen continued into the Atlantic to hunt enemy merchant ships. Accordingly, at just after 1800hrs on 24 May, Bismarck turned to starboard, opening fire on the British ships still shadowing her, whilst Prinz Eugen turned to port and into the covering curtain of a rain squall, allowing her to escape.
The net began to close around Bismarck and at around 2330hrs, several aircraft appeared off her port bow. These were Swordfish, torpedo-carrying biplanes from the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious. Despite zigzagging at speed, Bismarck was unable to avoid all the torpedoes and one struck her on her starboard side, though it appeared to have struck the armoured belt and did little damage.
Shortly after this attack, Prince of Wales came within range once again and fired two salvoes from her main armament. Bismarck immediately responded, but neither scored any hits and the British battleships withdrew once again.
The British, now eager to avenge the loss of the Hood, reassigned every available heavy unit to the pursuit of the German battleship, even to the extent of stripping convoys of their escorting battleships. Before the day was out, a total of six battleships and battlecruisers, two aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers and 21 destroyers were involved in the hunt for Bismarck.