Read Battleship Bismarck Online
Authors: Burkard Baron Von Mullenheim-Rechberg
But no such help came. The battleships
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
, then docked at Brest, were not able to go to sea.
Gneisenau
had sustained bomb and torpedo damage, while the
Scharnhorst
was having tubes replaced in her boilers. The destroyers there could not put
to sea because of the northwester. The weather was so bad that, even had they reached the battle area, they would not have been able to accomplish much—on the night of 26-27 May we saw what a difficult time the British destroyers had in the high seas. Of the eight U-boats in the Bay of Biscay that at the last moment were ordered to support the
Bismarck
—the
U-73, U-556, U-98, U-97, U-48, U-552, U-108
, and
U-74
—the
U-74
and
U-556
had expended all their torpedoes in earlier operations. The
U-74
had been damaged by depth charges and had only limited maneuverability. The intact boats were too far away when they received the order to assemble around the
Bismarck
to reach the scene of action in time. It was too late to send a fully equipped U-boat from a base on the west coast of France. There were still the supply ship
Ermland
and the oceangoing tugs, but it would take them between twenty and forty hours to reach us from the coast. They would have arrived too late even to rescue survivors.
Our naval headquarters ashore certainly mobilized every imaginable help for the
Bismarck.
But it was too little and too late.
The only other help we might have had was from our bomber squadrons stationed in France. But, of course, they needed notification and preparation. Apparently there was neither.
Inevitably, the questions raised earlier about the timing for Exercise Rhine and the best possible composition of Lütjens’s task force come to mind. Even more important, however, is the question of how good were the arrangements for cooperation between the task force and the air and submarine arms, should that become necessary. But these are considerations that exceed the bounds of a survivor’s story. So this line of thought must be abandoned with the recognition that, after the torpedo hit on 26 May, the
Bismarck
was consigned to a fate that she did not have the resources to avert.
*
Jochen Brennecke,
Schlachtschiff Bismarck
, note 454.
*
Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, “Schlachtschiff
Bismarck
und Seemannschaft,” pp. 6–7.
†
In addition to the preceding reservations, it is doubtful if it would have been technically possible to back the ship all the way to the coast of France. The reverse turbines could only have exerted their—already greatly diminished—horsepower for brief periods, as the cooling system would not have sufficed for prolonged operation. The openings for the cool water intake were designed for forward motion. Because of this, the backing would have had to be periodically interrupted, and each time the ship would have swung off course, which would have been very difficult to regain, so from this viewpoint as well such a maneuver would have been an act of despair.
*
Junack’s words regarding morale on board after the Fleet Commander’s address
[see
pp. 182–84 above] may have provoked Brennecke’s question. Junack’s actual words were: “The high fighting spirit that permeated the battleship on Saturday [24 May, the day of the battle off Iceland] was, however, irretrievably lost.”
†
jochen Brennecke, note 299.
| |
0844 | Green 005 degs [starboard 5° from dead ahead]. Enemy in sight. |
0847 | Rodney fires first salvo. |
0848 | King George fires first salvo. |
0849 | Enemy replies, 1000 short of Rodney. |
0852 | Enemy shell 1000 over. |
0853 | Enemy shell just short starboard side. |
0854 | Enemy shell just over port side. |
0856 | Enemy salvoes over. |
0857 | Enemy salvoes over. |
0858 | Rodney straddled. |
| Enemy, firing steadily, abeam on crossing King George V bow . |
| Rodney’s secondary armament in action. |
| Main and secondary armament engaging enemy port side. |
0902 | Hit on Bismarck’s upper deck. |
| Enemy salvoes short. |
0905 | Enemy shell 1000 over. |
0906 | Enemy shell 300 over. |
0910 | Our salvoes falling well together astern of Bismarck. Enemy turning away firing at King George V . * |
0913 | Good straddle on Bismarck , which was completely obscured. |
0914 | Rodney’s shots falling well over. |
0915 | Bismarck passing down Rodney’s port side. |
0916 | Rodney turning hard to starboard, enemy ship passing under Rodney’s stern. |
0917 | Good straddles on Bismarck , one hit observed, enemy firing very intermittently and inaccurately. |
0919 | Salvo from Bismarck’s after turrets. |
0921 | Good straddle on Bismarck. |
0922 | Bismarck fires after turrets at Rodney. Near miss on Rodney’s starboard side. |
0923 | Bismarck hit. |
0924 | Enemy still firing after turrets. |
0924 | Enemy turning towards Rodney. |
0926 | Bismarck straddled. |
0927 | Salvo from enemy’s forward guns. |
0928 | Enemy turning towards Rodney. Enemy hit abaft funnel. |
0929 | Bismarck on parallel course hit again. |
0930 | Another hit. |
0931 | Enemy fired after turrets. † |
0932 | Enemy still on parallel course to Rodney , range 2 miles. |
0937 | Green 040 degs [starboard 40°]. Ship, probably Dorsetshire in sight opens fire. |
0938 | Bismarck passes astern and comes up on port side distance still 2 miles. |
0940 | Enemy on fire fore and aft. |
0941 | Enemy hit again forward turning towards Rodney. |
0942 | Bismarck’s ‘B’ turret on fire. |
0944 | Enemy passes astern of Rodney. Rodney turning to starboard engages enemy starboard side. |
0946 | Bismarck hit at least four times during this run on starboard side and has not herself fired. |
0949 | Rodney turning hard to port. Enemy engaged port side. |
0951 | Engagement continuing port side. * |
0955 | Torpedo fired port side. No results observed. |
0957 | Torpedo fired port side and seen to leap out of the water two-thirds of the way across. |
0958 | Torpedo hit Bismarck amidships starboard side. † |
0959 | Enemy turning to starboard. |
1000 | Engagement on starboard side, enemy turning away. |
1002 | County Class cruiser, perhaps Norfolk on Rodney’s starboard bow attacking enemy. Dorsetshire (?) on Rodney’s port bow. ‡ |
1003 | Lull in action. Bismarck well alight, clouds of black smoke from fire aft. |
1005 | Bismarck has been slowly turning around and is now passing down Rodney’s starboard side 1½ miles away smoking heavily. |
1006 | Enemy hit starboard amidships. King George V , 5 miles astern, firing as opportunity offers. |
1007 | Bismarck passes astern. Rodney turns hard to port engagement continuing on port side. Much black smoke from the enemy. |
1011 | Salvo from Rodney blows pieces off stern of Bismarck and sets up a fire with greyish white smoke. |
1012 | King George V ahead of Bismarck. |
1013 | Salvo from Rodney explodes amidships enemy. |
1014 | Big flames for three seconds from enemy ‘A’ turret. Flash of exploding shell on enemy spotting top. |
1016 | King George V approaching Rodney on port bow, turns on parallel course and fires at Bismarck from ‘Y’ turret. |
1019 | Enemy smoking heavily. Rodney’s guns will not bear. |
1021 | Bismarck dead astern of Rodney. |
1023 | Red 145 degs [port 145°]. Six aircraft. * Driving rain from port bow. Red 145. An unidentified ship firing at aircraft. † |
1026 | Green 130 degs [starboard 130°] County Class cruiser [Dorsetshire). Bismarck still smoking heavily passing to port well astern. |
1027 | Sudden red flash visible from enemy’s stern. |
1028 | Enemy ship now about five miles astern. |
1029 | Enemy a smoking mass bows-on. Dorsetshire crossing her bows. |
1038 | Bismarck disappears in a cloud of smoke, sinking, bow or stern visible momentarily sticking out of the water. |
1039 | Bismarck sank. |
*
The expression
enemy turning
used in this and subsequent entries should not be understood to mean that the
Bismarck
was turning of her own volition. She was reacting to the combined influences of her jammed rudders, the seaway, and the wind. The salvos referred to in this entry are those directed by the author from the after station (see pp. 250-51 above).
†
Parallel to this, Lieutenant Commander J. M. Wellings, USN, who was in the
Rodney
, reported: “at 0902 a hit was observed on
Bismarck’s
forecastle.
Bismarck
continued to fire regularly until between 0902 and 0908 when her firing became irregular and intermittent.
Bismarck’s
‘A’ and ‘B’ turrets must have been damaged during this period as only one salvo was observed from the forward turrets after this period. This salvo was fired at 0927. From about 0919 to 0931 only ‘X’ turret of the
Bismarck
was in action, apparently in local control and very erratic. The last salvo was fired by
Bismarck
at 0931.”