Battleship Bismarck (77 page)

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Authors: Burkard Baron Von Mullenheim-Rechberg

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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.

 

 

  

E

  
Action between the
Rodney
and the
Bismarck
on the
morning of
Tuesday, 27 May
1941, as recorded
by the battle
observer in the
Rodney

 

 

 

 

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.”

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