Fewer pages of naval history are so more exciting and so dramatic than that of the Bismarck. When the greatest battleship of the German navy was commissioned in February 1939, it was greeted as the crown of the Kriegsmarine, Germany’s pride at sea. Weighing more than 50,000 tons at full load, and 251 meters in length, with eight of the gargantuan 15-inch guns, Bismarck was the ultimate battleship. On paper, she was nearly invincible—imposing, thick-skinned, and designed to dominate the waves.
Bismarck’s tale was never solely one of guns and brute strength alone, though. It was one of strategy, danger, and very rapid change on the seas of naval warfare. She was commissioned in August 1940 and was already in operation in spring 1941. Her maiden and final deployment, Operation Rheinübung, was a daring one: get into the Atlantic, sink Allied convoys bringing supplies to Britain, and force the Royal Navy to divert ships away from the other oceans. Bismarck departed from Gotenhafen on 19 May, 1941, accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, under the orders of Admiral Günther Lütjens.
The British loved the threat too. German subs were already scaring the wits out of the Atlantic, and a battleship like Bismarck could upset the balance of power in the most dramatic possible way. With the aid of intelligence, air support, and sightings in Scandinavian seas, the Royal Navy tracked her path. When Bismarck and Prinz Eugen showed up in Bergen to refuel, British warships were already stationed there waiting for them.
The first fight was May 24 in the frozen waters of the Denmark Strait. Waiting in ambush were British pride Hood and shiny new Prince of Wales. Hood, magnificent as she was, was not infallible. A German shell struck her in relatively just the worst possible location within a matter of minutes, igniting her magazines. The resulting explosion damaged the ship and sent her rapidly to the bottom. Three of more than 1,400 crew on board survived. Prince of Wales managed to escape but was severely damaged.
The sinking of Hood amazed Britain. Grief and anger swept the nation, mobilizing government leaders and the Royal Navy. Churchill summoned: “Sink the Bismarck.” All available ships and aircraft were subsequently thrown into pursuit.
Bismarck herself was also hit in the battle, struck by oil and unable to complete her mission. Admiral Lütjens departed to France-occupied to undergo repairs, followed by British ships with radar, intercepted communications, and determination. The Atlantic then turned into a gigantic playground of strategy, survival, and determination.
The turn was not by a second battleship but by air. May 26, torpedo planes from HMS Ark Royal bombed in stormy weather and managed to strike Bismarck’s rudder, taking the giant ship out of action and rendering it helpless in its turn.
By the morning of May 27, the British Royal Navy surrounded Bismarck. Battleship King George V and Rodney, escorted by cruisers, battered Bismarck with a hail of fire. She battered Bismarck over an hour, tearing out guns, starting fires, and breaking up her superstructure to splintered wreckage. With her dogged resistance, the battleship could no longer hold out. Flight now hopeless, her men went steadily on to the ship’s destruction. At 10:39 a.m., Bismarck went under the surface of the sea having lost over 2,200 men and having only 115 survivors.
Bismarck’s destruction was not the destruction of a ship, but a revolution in naval warfare that demonstrated that battleships so heavily armed and armored as Bismarck could be destroyed by combined attack and airpower. Battleship days as the par excellence symbol of sea power were done; aircraft carriers and submarines would dominate the seas from now on.
For Germany, the defeat was disastrous. Its surface fleet was never able to regain its former excellence, and Hitler was profoundly cautious about his still-existent capital ships. For Britain, the win gave it a huge boost in morale and was demonstration of the power of intelligence, technology, and massive will.
Bismarck’s remains were discovered only in 1989, deep in the Atlantic. It is a sad reminder of the brief operational life of the warship and the end of the era. Its fate is a warning about the rapidity with which the efforts at war may be undone and the way in which even the grandest warship can be put on her back through strategy and luck.