In the black veil of dawn on May 19, 1941, the giant Bismarck, a battleship of unheard-of strength, glided into the Baltic Sea, beginning her journey. The German navy had not built such a monstrosity ship since the First World War. Her task was a gargantuan task, to sever the lifeline between Great Britain and the United States by cutting off the supply chain across the Atlantic. The German leadership believed the “unsinkable” Bismarck would reduce Britain to its knees. At the ill-fated morning of May 24, the powerful HMS Hood, the pride symbol of British naval strength, and the newly commissioned HMS Prince of Wales of the British Royal Navy had struck the Bismarck in the Denmark Strait.
The battle was marked by the earsplitting intensity of gunfire, with a killing blow to the Hood. Bismarck’s one shell destroyed into Hood’s magazine filled with ammunition, and the magazine exploded, splitting the ship in two, sending it to the bottom, and eliminating over 1,400 British lives instantly. It was the Royal Navy’s largest single-ship loss in history. The British, infuriated by the destruction of the Hood and eager to seek revenge on their brethren, went on an unabating chase of the Bismarck.
Having taken damage from the collision exacting its own price upon the German behemoth, Admiral Gunther Lutjens headed towards occupied France, where he hoped to find refuge. But on May 26, the fate of the Bismarck took a disastrous turn when British Fairey Swordfish biplanes, in a dramatic display of aerial might, launched torpedoes that crippled its steering system. The next British naval attack was one of calculated and overwhelming strength.
Early in the morning of May 27, the King George V, the HMS Rodney, and other Royal Navy ships unleashed a torrent of fire upon the German behemoth. The helpless Bismarck, unable to maneuver or make its getaway, was pounded mercilessly with continuous fire. Eventually, HMS Dorsetshire’s torpedoes added the finishing touches, sending the erstwhile titanic Bismarck to its resting place in the sea at around 10:40 a.m. The Bismarck’s demise, barely 10 days after it had set out triumphantly on its Atlantic mission, marked the end of its brief but glorious life. The ocean bed claimed the “unsinkable” ship, as well as nearly 2,000 of its crewmen. British war vessels rescued 110 survivors, leaving behind a wreck and a scene of despair.
