Bismarck, sinking of. The destruction by British naval forces of this powerful 42,000-ton German battleship, armed with eight 38 cm. (15 in.) guns, took place in the Atlantic on 27 May 1941 after she and the heavy cruiser
Prinz Eugen had left Germany to attack Allied Atlantic
convoys.
Swedish intelligence had forewarned the British that
Bismarck was to sail and on 20 May the British naval attaché in Stockholm was tipped off by a Norwegian who had been told at a cocktail party that two large German warships had been sighted that day heading north through the Kattegat. This information alerted British patrols and both ships were sighted in the Denmark Strait by the cruiser
Norfolk. They were initially engaged by the Polish destroyer
Piorun, and then by the battle-cruiser
Hood and the battleship
Prince of Wales. The angle of interception prevented the full armament of the two British warships from being brought to bear; and while the British divided their fire both Germans concentrated all theirs on
Hood. She was soon hit and blew up with only three survivors, and
Prince of Wales, new and not fully operational, had to disengage after being hit. However,
Bismarck, which had been damaged in the encounter and subsequently hit by a torpedo aircraft from the carrier
Victorious, was leaking fuel, and decided to head for Brest while
Prinz Eugen slipped away westwards.
British naval forces now converged on the area, but until she blundered by breaking wireless silence
Bismarck's whereabouts were unknown. Even so, she nearly escaped for the bearings on her position were incorrectly plotted, which led to the Home Fleet, commanded by
Admiral Tovey, sailing in the wrong direction. But she was eventually sighted at 1030 on 26 May by a Coastal Command Catalina flying boat flown by a US Navy pilot. Torpedo aircraft from the carrier
Ark Royal, part of the Gibraltar-based
Force H under
Admiral Somerville, then wrecked her steering gear making her an easy target the next morning for the battleships
King George V and
Rodney. The cruiser
Dorsetshire then performed the
coup de grâce with
torpedoes. Only 115 out of
Bismarck's crew of 2,222 were saved. Given the close proximity of German aircraft and submarines operating from France, the margin of victory had been a narrow one. Her remains, found in 1989, lent credence to German claims that she had been scuttled. See also
German surface raiders and
sea power.