The Sinking of the Bismarck (11 page)

He made sure this time that the Swordfish would not mistake the
Sheffield
for the
Bismarck
. The pilots were told to fly over the cruiser first and then go on to the enemy ship.

The
Sheffield
, having by this time sighted the
Bismarck
, was shadowing her just out of gun range. She could therefore direct the fliers straight to their target. This was a great help, as the Germans ultimately realized. In the secret official German naval report written afterward, Admiral Kurt Assmann emphasized that “this was of particular importance for the further course of action since the
Sheffield
was now in a position to direct the torpedo aircraft in an attack on the
Bismarck
.”

Actually, despite this help, the British fliers found it very difficult to locate the enemy in the murky weather. A northwest wind was blowing with almost gale force. The clouds were down
to 600 feet above the churning sea. Getting the planes off the carrier for the final attack had proved most difficult. The
Ark Royal
was pitching even more dangerously than during the previous take-off. But a few minutes after 7:00
P.M.
fifteen Swordfish—all that were left—got safely off the lurching flight deck and headed for contact with the
Sheffield
. They knew that everything depended on them. If they failed this time to hit and drastically slow up the
Bismarck
, she would make her haven at Brest.

The planes reached the
Sheffield
forty minutes later and were told by signal that the
Bismarck
lay twelve miles dead ahead. In eight or nine minutes the attack would be launched. Observers on the cruiser listened for the sound of firing from the
Bismarck
’s guns. Ten minutes passed, fifteen minutes, thirty minutes. The silence was ominous. What had happened to the planes?

They had got lost in the clouds. At the end of half an hour they were back over the
Sheffield
asking for a fresh bearing. The
Bismarck
, they were told, was still just twelve miles directly ahead. The planes swerved off for another try.

Soon the watchers on the cruiser heard the roar of anti-aircraft fire from the
Bismarck
. Now and then a clear patch in the mist revealed the flashes of her guns and the bursts of the shells in the air. At last the Swordfish had found their target and were attacking.

It was hard going. So thick was the cloud cover—it rose from a few hundred feet above the sea to 10,000 feet—that the British planes could not hold formation for the sweep down at the German battleship. They soon split up. To make matters worse their wings began to ice up while they were in the clouds. The only recourse was for each pilot to get down and attack as best he could. The result was that they flew in from every direction to launch their torpedoes. This had one advantage, of course. It dispersed the German fire.

Even so, the anti-aircraft fire, as the airmen soon found, was quite deadly. At least five planes were soon hit, though they managed to keep going. All but one of the fifteen Swordfish launched their torpedoes at short range in the teeth of the heavy flak barrage.

Did they score any hits? It was difficult to see in the smoke of battle and in the mist and gathering night. The last plane did not launch its torpedo until 9:25. Night was falling. Apparently there had been no hits. At least that was what the squadron leader ruefully reported by radio to his carrier, which in turn flashed the mournful news to Admiral Tovey on the
King George V
.

***

“Estimate no hits!” That signal from the squadron leader was the last bitter straw for the Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet. There was nothing for him to do now but admit failure and turn home. It would be of no use to try to catch the
Bismarck
during the night. She had too big a lead on him.

The exhausted crews who had been pushing the two big battleships
Rodney
and
King George V
in a desperate effort to overhaul the
Bismarck
were informed of the failure. Captain Dalrymple-Hamilton on the
Rodney
personally took the microphone to inform his crew over the ship’s loud-speakers that no hits had been scored by the Swordfish. The chase seemed to be at an end.

The spirits of the British aboard the two ships were about as black as the night which had now descended over the wind-swept seas. Then over the radio came a message which at first merely seemed to confuse the situation. Admiral Tovey could make nothing of it.

It was a signal from the
Sheffield
announcing that the
Bismarck
had reversed course. Instead of steering southeast for Brest she was now veering in the opposite direction! To the dispirited Sir John it made no sense. He knew that sailors often made the mistake of making out the course of a distant ship 180 degrees wrong. That is, they thought it was coming toward them when it actually was steaming away from them. Sir John, who invariably kept his temper tightly in check, permitted himself a sarcastic remark at the
Sheffield
’s making such a common blunder. And at this, of all moments!

But Captain Larcom on the
Sheffield
had deadly proof that he was right. If he had mentioned it in his message the Admiral would have been convinced, but the Captain had neglected to do so. The proof was that shortly before the Swordfish
had finished their attack on the
Bismarck
, the German battleship had turned suddenly on the British ship and opened fire. Before the
Sheffield
could make smoke and swerve off, one salvo from the enemy ship had fallen so close that the splinters wounded twelve men among the cruiser’s anti-aircraft crews. Three of them were dying.

The
Bismarck
had not, as Captain Larcom expected, turned back on its course to Brest after firing. Instead it continued to come at him on the opposite course, and he had to scurry to get out of range and save his ship from being blown up by the enemy’s heavy guns. It was clear to Captain Larcom that the
Bismarck
was in fact sailing directly toward Sir John’s two battleships to the north.

But this, at first, was not clear to the Admiral. He had just dismissed the
Sheffield
’s report with a sarcastic quip when a second message came over the radio about the
Bismarck
’s new course. This was from one of the planes of the
Ark Royal
which had remained over the German battleship to see whether any damage had been
done in the second torpedo attack. The pilot could not see any damage but he could see plainly that the
Bismarck
was heading northwest.

Sir John’s face lit up. A ship’s watch at nearly sea level could mistake the direction of a ship directly ahead. But a plane just above could not. The pilot’s confirmation of the
Sheffield
’s signal was significant. Still, Sir John refused to be carried away by this good news. If the
Bismarck
were really, for unaccountable reasons, steering toward him, he would have her before dawn. But he thought the chances were that she had merely reversed course as part of an evasive action against the Swordfish attack. Or she could have done so in order to catch the
Sheffield
unawares and finish her off. Then, with the night ahead of him, Admiral Luetjens would shake his shadowers and have clear sailing until daylight brought him his shore-based bomber cover.

If Tovey had known of the
Bismarck
’s firing at the
Sheffield
, this would only have confirmed his judgment. As it was, he was sure that the next message would reveal that the enemy had resumed course for Brest.

To Sir John’s surprise—and it was a pleasant surprise—the next message did not reveal any such thing. It came nine minutes later from a spotter plane. It said the
Bismarck
was still steering northwest. Again, after nine more minutes, a similar report was received from the aircraft. And then came a second dispatch from the
Sheffield
. The
Bismarck
, it said, had now veered north.

Admiral Tovey’s skepticism began to evaporate. It was obvious now that the
Bismarck
was steering toward him. It made no sense…. What could the explanation be? Suddenly it occurred to the Admiral that the
Ark Royal
’s planes might have scored a hit after all. If so, it must have been just the lucky one he needed. It must have damaged the
Bismarck
’s rudders. That would explain her erring course. As soon as he had read the
Sheffield
’s last intelligence, Admiral Tovey changed course to the south to meet the enemy head on.

Shortly after dusk the
Sheffield
, following the
Bismarck
north at a respectable distance, sighted five destroyers tossing at high speed through the rough seas. They turned out to be Captain Vian’s
squadron. Captain Larcom directed them on to the enemy ship just ahead.

***

The last of the little Swordfish torpedo planes did not get back to the
Ark Royal
until after dark. Five of them were riddled with shrapnel from the
Bismarck
’s flak. One had 175 holes in it. Both the pilot and his gunner were wounded, but they had succeeded in bringing back their crippled craft. They managed to land it on the flight deck, though the ship still pitched and rolled in the storm.

The pilots reported to Captain Maund that they were sure they had scored at least one torpedo hit amidships. This information was radioed to the fleet at 10:30
P.M.
Ten minutes later the carrier signaled that the pilots believed they had made a second hit on the
Bismarck
’s starboard quarter. For some reason Admiral Tovey did not receive this message until an hour later. He had already turned south. But the message confirmed him in his judgment. Any damage to a ship’s quarter might put her rudder and even her propellers out of action. He was now pretty
certain that this was what had happened to the
Bismarck
.

Toward midnight he radioed the rest of the fleet and the Admiralty in London of his new course on the enemy. His plan now was to get to the westward of the
Bismarck
and attack her at dawn when she would be silhouetted against the light of daybreak. So confident was Admiral Tovey now—after a week of reverses—that he penned a message to the officers and crew of his flagship.

The sinking of the
Bismarck
may have an effect on the war as a whole out of all proportion to the loss to the enemy of one battleship.

May God be with you and grant you victory.

About one o’clock in the morning—it was now May 27—Sir John received a message from Vice-Admiral Somerville that further increased his confidence. The last of the
Ark Royal
’s planes assigned to keep contact with the
Bismarck
had returned during the night with a vital piece of information. Its pilot had seen her turn two complete circles after the torpedo attack and come to a virtual stop headed north against the wind.

For the British this was the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle. The mighty
Bismarck
had been hit in the stern. Her rudders or propellers—or both-had been damaged. She was no longer maneuverable.

The chase which had seemed definitely lost a few hours before had been nearly won. This was a sudden last-minute turn of fortune! Admiral Tovey could now take on the
Bismarck
at any hour he chose. It was a temptation for him to close in at once and try to dispose of the enemy during the night. But now, he saw, was the moment to keep cool. There were so many British warships converging on the scene that there was danger of their firing on each other in the rain-swept darkness. He would wait until dawn. In the meantime Captain Vian’s destroyers, which had reported sighting the
Bismarck
two hours earlier, could keep him informed throughout the rest of the night of the enemy’s exact position.

As a matter of fact, the dashing destroyer leader had already gone into action on his own initiative.

Chapter Ten

A Desperate Night on the
Bismarck

In the very last hour of daylight on May 26, when the squadron of Swordfish came in to attack the
Bismarck
, the German battleship had swung into action as quickly and efficiently as when she had sunk the
Hood
and held off the torpedo planes of the
Victorious
two days before.

Most of the 2,400 officers and men aboard were dead tired from lack of sleep. For nearly a week the gunnery crews had remained at their guns, snatching what little sleep they could. It was not much.

The strict admiral had insisted on these precautions. Luetjens never knew at what second an enemy warship or plane might loom out of the
clouds or mist. He had to be ready for instant action. The swarm of Swordfish suddenly swooping down out of the clouds had shown how necessary it was.

The German sailors felt certain that this would be the last bit of action on the voyage. That afternoon Admiral Luetjens had assured them over the loud-speakers that by dawn of the next day they would be safely under the cover of the Luftwaffe. Within twenty-four hours they would be comfortably ashore. The sailors, though weary, were in a fairly cocky mood. What could a handful of out-of-date British carrier planes do to their mighty battleship? Shooting them down would be good target practice.

Confidently, Admiral Luetjens watched the ship’s brand-new flak guns fire away at the darting dots of the approaching aircraft. He was a little tense and tight-lipped, as he always was in battle. But he did not appear to the others on the bridge to be much worried.

Two evenings before, in a similarly fading light east of Greenland, the
Bismarck
had easily beaten off an attack of the same kind of torpedo-carrying
biplanes. Those had come off the
Victorious
. One of the aircraft had scored a hit on the starboard side, but it had not slowed up the
Bismarck
by one single knot.