Final Voyage (8 page)

The rebuilding of Halifax brought much needed regeneration to a city that had lost its industrial heart.

Aime Le Medec, the
Mont Blanc
's captain, and Francis Mackey, the harbour pilot in charge of the ship at the time of the collision, both strenuously denied any responsibility, and maintained there had been nothing they could have done to prevent the explosion once the
Imo
had struck the
Mont Blanc
. Both of them were charged with manslaughter, but charges were quickly dropped. In 1919 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that both the
Mont
Blanc
and the
Imo
were equally responsible for the mistakes that led to the explosion.

The Halifax Relief Commission, formed immediately after the disaster, saw the disaster as an opportunity to improve and modernise what had been an ageing city struggling to keep up with the times. In poorer parts of Richmond, for example, there was a lot of densely packed and overcrowded housing, and some of the roads weren't even paved. The rebuilding of Halifax brought much needed regeneration to a city that had lost its industrial heart – and many of those who worked there – in the explosion. Housing, hospitals and harbour regulations all improved after the disaster. Modern plumbing and access to electricity was brought to all parts of the city.

By the end of January the Halifax Relief Commission had organised the repair of nearly 3,000 houses. Temporary housing for those who needed it most was being constructed so quickly that new apartments were completed at the rate of one an hour. With so many families left bereaved if not homeless, the Halifax Relief Commission became important to almost every community in the city. They handled rehousing, pensions, claims for damages, as well as supplying money, clothes and furniture to the most needy. Only in 1976 was the Commission finally disbanded.

From the Spanish Armada to the
Bismarck

The defeat of the Spanish Armada by an outgunned English fleet in 1588 came to set a pattern for the merciless sea battles that would follow in subsequent centuries. The King of Spain, Philip II, mustered the full might of his empire at its peak to invade England, overthrow Queen Elizabeth I, bring the English back to the Catholic fold, and ensure that Spain would become the dominant naval power in both the Atlantic and the Pacific for generations to come. It would end with less than half of his ships and only a third of his men ever making it back home. England's decisive victory helped generate the idea – which arguably
wouldn't be true for another 300 years – that Britannia ruled the waves.

Less than 20 years before, Philip II had secured a stunning naval victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto, and he probably hoped to repeat his success when he sent 151 ships, manned by 8,000 sailors and ferrying nearly 20,000 men, to Gravelines, Flanders, the closest part of his empire to England. There the fleet would pick up an additional 30,000 soldiers and carry them across the Channel to invade England. The Armada was so big that it had taken over two days for every ship to get out of the harbour at Lisbon, Portugal. Though the English sent 200 ships to intercept the Spanish fleet at Gravelines, combined they only had half the firepower of the whole Armada.

Sacrificial vessels were loaded with tar, brimstone, pitch and gunpowder, set on fire and directed towards the enemy.

Yet the English were victorious. They sent several fireships – sacrificial vessels loaded with tar, brimstone, pitch and gunpowder, set on fire and directed towards the enemy – into the midst of the Armada, driving the Spanish ships from their anchorage before the extra 30,000 soldiers could board at Gravelines. As the Spanish scattered, the English ships took advantage of their own greater manoeuvrability and speed to come in on the attack and then get out of the firing line before the ships of the Armada could counterattack. The Spanish wanted to use hand to hand fighting techniques, getting close enough for soldiers to board enemy vessels, which had been so successful for them in the past. The English kept their distance, and in the course of the Battle of Gravelines used up every last piece of ammunition they had
brought with them from Plymouth. In the end they were firing lengths of chain at the Armada.

But the English decision to fight a defensive battle worked. The Pope had seen the invasion of Protestant England as a holy crusade, so the Armada carried more priests than it did gunners. Inexperienced infantrymen expecting to march across countryside to arrest Queen Elizabeth found themselves firing guns at fast English ships they could barely see in the distance. The Spanish realised they were losing.

The invasion routed, the Armada began its retreat. With the English in control of the Channel the Spanish fleet would have to go the long way home, up into the North Sea and then around Scotland and Ireland. Though victorious, the English did not want to let the Spanish return home to King Philip, most of his fleet intact and able to try again sometime later. So the English pursued the Armada for over a thousand miles, and it was during their retreat that 20,000 Spaniards lost their lives. Beset by stormy weather, running out of food and water, chased by the relentless English who would not let the Armada either rest or escape, the Spanish numbers dwindled. One ship, the
Girona
, rescued survivors of another lost ship, only for all 1,300 to die – leaving only nine survivors – when the
Girona
also foundered off the Irish coast. Those who made it to shore were hunted down by English soldiers. Few escaped alive.

Up until this point in history, many of the battles between European powers ended not in the annihilation of one side or the other but in the restoration of the status quo, give or take a disputed territory or two. The defeat of the Spanish Armada marked a change in direction that
would reach its bloody culmination in the tactics of total war adopted during the world wars. Victory now had to be absolute, with no prospect of recovery and retaliation. Thousands would lose their lives in the Battles of Jutland (1916) and Midway (1942), but even these death tolls would be surpassed by the worst maritime disasters caused by war at sea.

The deadliest sinking of the First World War is not, as commonly thought, that of the RMS
Lusitania
, on which 1,198 lost their lives when the ship was sunk by a U-boat torpedo in May 1915. In June 1916 another U-boat sank the
Principe Umberto
, an Italian transport ship carrying 2,000. Up to 1,750 died. During the Second World War, especially in the latter stages, such death tolls became almost standard.

In 1940, the Royal Air Force having won the Battle of Britain, secured control of the British skies and delayed a German invasion, the Kriegsmarine refocused its tactics. Now the aim for much of Hitler's navy was not to seek out enemy vessels and engage them in strategically risky sea battles, but to deliberately target shipping between the United States and the United Kingdom. Cut off Britain's supply lines and Churchill would soon run out of the near endless supply of American munitions that had helped the British keep the Nazis back thus far.

Their armament would include eight 15in (38cm) guns, which could fire 1-ton shells at targets 24 miles (40km) away.

The German warships that would carry out such attacks were already being built as early as 1936, when the British
public and their government still wanted to believe that Hitler desired peace, and the few figures who drew attention to his rearmament found themselves at best ignored and at worst ostracised. In July 1936 the first ship in a new class of battleship was laid down, to be launched in February 1939 and be ready to enter service in August 1940, before the Battle of Britain was even lost. The ships in this class would be the largest, heaviest and most powerful warships ever built in Europe, displacing over 50,000 tons at full load. Crewed by over 2,000, they would be 823ft (251m) long, 118ft (36m) across the beam, have a range of over 10,000 miles (16,000km) and a speed in excess of 30 knots. They would be protected by armour nearly 5in (127mm) thick on the main deck and 13in (320mm) around the belt, and their armament would include eight 15in (38cm) guns, which could fire 1-ton shells at targets 24 miles (40km) away. The first ship in this class was named for the chancellor held largely responsible for the unification of Germany in 1871 – Otto von Bismarck.

The
Bismarck
only ever took part in a single operation, but in the course of that week-long mission she acquired the reputation that has maintained her infamy to this day.

The
Bismarck
only ever took part in a single operation, but in the course of that week-long mission she acquired the reputation that has maintained her infamy to this day. Between leaving the port at Gotenhafen (now Gdynia), in occupied Poland, on 19th May 1941 and receiving the final, fatal blow from HMS
Dorsetshire
on the 27th, the
Bismarck
claimed over 5,000 lives. Despite the worst other Royal Navy ships could throw at her during that time, the
Bismarck
kept on going, seemingly unsinkable.

Originally the German naval command intended to keep the
Bismarck
waiting until her sister ship the
Tirpitz
was ready. Together the two battleships would constitute an almost unbeatable, unstoppable force. However, when delays hit the
Tirpitz
's construction, the Nazi strategists decided it was more important to hit British targets sooner rather than wait until late 1941. When the
Bismarck
left port at 2am she joined the heavy cruiser
Prinz Eugen
and sailed with three destroyers plus a small fleet of minesweepers and supply vessels instead. In addition, four U-boats were placed along the convoy routes between Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Britain, though they would not attack, just report numbers, directions, speeds and the convoys' level of protection. However, a Swedish cruiser spotted the
Bismarck
leaving the Baltic Sea, and soon British code-breakers at Bletchley Park confirmed that an attack was imminent. The Royal Navy sent a fleet to intercept the
Bismarck
, which they did in the Denmark Strait.

Much of the reason why the
Bismarck
was almost peerless as a warship at the time was because her designers had found a way around the problem that had decided the outcome of sea battles since long before the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Evasion was the best form of defence, so warships needed to be fast to escape enemy attack. But at the same time they needed to be well armed to actually win, and heavy firepower slowed ships down. The
Bismarck
managed to be both fast and well armed.

The explosion tore the
Hood
in half with such ferocity that the bow kept moving forward for a while.

Radiomen on the
Prinz Eugen
picked up radio transmissions from heavy cruiser HMS
Suffolk
, so the
Bismarck's commander, Captain Ernst Lindemann, was expecting the battlecruiser, HMS
Hood
, pride of the Royal Navy, as well as six destroyers. During the course of the Battle of Denmark Strait the British came to think of the
Bismarck
as the Nazis' superweapon. Despite three direct hits from HMS
Prince of Wales
, the
Bismarck
barely slowed. Within eight minutes of the first salvoes being fired, the battle ended for the
Hood
. The
Bismarck
may only have hit her with a single shell from her 15-inch guns, but it struck straight through her armoured deck and exploded in her rear ammunition magazine. The explosion tore the
Hood
in half with such ferocity that the bow kept moving forward for a while. What was left of the ship then flooded so quickly that only three of over 1,400 crewmen aboard her survived.

Following this display of the
Bismarck
's power, the captain of the damaged
Prince of Wales
ceased his attack on the German warship and ordered a retreat. He knew his vessel was no match for the
Bismarck
. When the news of the
Hood
's sinking reached the Admiralty, the order came back direct from Winston Churchill himself, and it went to every ship in the vicinity: sink the
Bismarck
.

As dozens of British warships rallied to join the hunt for this Nazi superweapon – which had not only wounded national pride but now presented the biggest threat to Britain's war effort since the previous year's battle for air supremacy – the
Bismarck
herself set course for occupied France for repairs. Despite the impression she had given her opponents in the Denmark Strait, she had suffered
some serious damage. As well as a bad oil leak, flooding had caused a 9-degree list to port, and she also dipped 3 degrees toward the bow. No longer able to reach 30 knots, but still able to outrun many British ships, it would take her until 27th May to reach the protection of U-boats and Luftwaffe planes. Before they could even attempt to destroy her, the British needed to slow her down and make sure she didn't reach safety in time.

The German ship managed to evade many of the torpedoes, sometimes firing shells into the sea to create a wall of water in front of low-flying planes.

The aircraft carrier HMS
Ark Royal
was closest to her, about 60 miles (97km) away. Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers raced through terrible weather conditions – so bad that they first attacked the HMS
Sheffield
by mistake – to reach the
Bismarck
. The German ship managed to evade many of the torpedoes, sometimes firing shells into the sea to create a wall of water in front of low-flying planes. Others hit but barely caused any damage to her armour. Caught in a gale, she was riding 60ft (18m) waves; huge seas that would have thrown some of the torpedoes off course anyway.