Bismarck’s Final 24 Hours: The Downfall Of Hitler's Deadliest Battleship

May 1941. The world's biggest and deadliest warship, the Bismarck, roams the seas. Its mission? To cripple Allied shipping. Its first victim, HMS Hood, is sunk in just eight minutes. We couldn't believe it. Just couldn't believe it. There were only three survivors. This is a devastating blow to the Allies. It could have been the pride of the Royal Navy, so to lose her quite so suddenly was a very great shock indeed. What follows is one of the biggest hunt-and-destroy missions in naval history. Course 135. Course to intercept 135. Using never-before-seen testimony from the veterans of the British fleet who took part in the battle. The Bismarck was getting hit regularly. There was smoke, there was fire, there was everything. Oh god. I was scared, certainly. You'd be a fool not to be. Take nothing away from the Germans, their gunnery was out of this world really. And powerful recreations of the battle. We would be straddled with 15-inch shells and then it was up smoke and out as fast as we could go. Yeah, it's quite early. A day you'll never forget. You'll never forget the date, you know, the 27th, never. This is the story of the dramatic final 24 hours of the German battleship Bismarck. It's 1941. Germany's navy is destroying thousands of tons of merchant shipping, carrying essential supplies to Britain. There was a major threat to shipping in the Atlantic. There were several east-west convoys in the Atlantic. Hitler's plan is to win the war by starving the Allies. The convoys were being destroyed so easily, so badly, that England was hungry. In fact, we were almost on the point of suing for peace because we were so hungry. Two massive German battleships, the Scharnhorst and Neusenau, are already decimating convoys. Charles and Neusenau rampaged around the North Atlantic, off to Africa, came back. They sank 270,000 tons and sank 48 vessels. Now the Nazis unleashed the mighty Bismarck into the Atlantic. 41,700 tons, 241 meters long. It is armed with eight 15-inch guns. It has a range of nearly 10,000 miles and has a top speed of 30 knots. Faster than any British warship. It's the most formidable battleship yet built. And for this mission, it's accompanied by the light cruiser Prince Eugen. Their first target is HMS Hood. The Hood could do little against such might. Bismarck landed a 15-inch hit under the armour belt of the vessel. ...that penetrated an ammunition magazine aft at the back of the ship. This then detonated and there was a chain explosion all the way through the ship that tore Hood apart. In just eight minutes, the British ship is lost, along with the loss of 1,415 crew. Hood had been a flagship of British naval supremacy, so when that vessel was destroyed in a matter of minutes, it was profound. The terrible news reaches Britain. Hood had been the pride of the Royal Navy, so to lose her quite so suddenly was a very great shock indeed. The British Navy acts quickly, and within hours, the carrier HMS Victorious locates the Bismarck and launches its torpedo bombers in a desperate attack on the battleship. But they were up against one of Germany's finest commanders, Admiral Gunther Lütjens. He's considered by his contemporaries to be the ablest, most logical and shrewd admiral in the German navy. Gunther Lütjens is a formidable commander. He oversaw Operation Berlin as an Atlantic raider sinking 22 Allied merchant ships and commanded the battle fleet during the invasion of Denmark and Norway. The British didn't really have an idea what he was going to do next. Was he going to prey on the convoys between the Atlantic? Was he going to turn back towards Norway like some of the raiders had done? Or was he going to make for France like the Scharnhorst and the Neissner? The valiant torpedo bomber scored one hit but failed to disable Bismarck. Barely 24 hours after the sinking of the Hood, amid mountainous seas and poor visibility, Admiral Lutyens slips the hounds on his trail. So once again, Churchill orders the Royal Navy to find Bismarck. There were two ways, really, that the Royal Navy could track her. By sending out an aircraft that would search a particular area of sea and spotting her with the eyeball, or a ship escorting a convoy or out there patrolling on the hunt for a might see her coming over the horizon. The hunt is on. The Women's Royal Navy service intercepts wireless messages sent from a German warship to its naval headquarters and Hitler. Lutyens had verbal diarrhoea, couldn't stop sending these wireless messages. The Wrens identified Bismarck as the source. We'd already identified to the person who the sender was of that wireless message and that enabled us to get bearings on Bismarck. They decided that Bismarck had to be going to the southeast, so that meant that Royal Air Force coastal command aircraft was sent out to search certain areas of sea. Using this information, an RAF Catalina reconnaissance plane is sent to confirm the German warship around 690 miles to the west of Brest. The discovery of Bismarck seals its fate. It only has 24 hours left to live. The Admiralty orders warships across the Atlantic to converge on Bismarck's position. Sailing up from Gibraltar is Force H, a battle fleet that includes the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. Coming down from the north is the home fleet led by Admiral John Tovey aboard HMS King George V. He commands the British forces hunting Bismarck. Tovey is a classic example of the sort of product that the Royal Navy produced from the start of the century. He's solid, he's dependable, he's professionally very adept. Among the vessels seeking to join the home fleet and confront Bismarck is the battleship HMS Rodney commanded by Captain Dalrymple Hamilton. Dalrymple Hamilton was from a distinguished military family of Scottish aristocrats who knew the Bowes-Lyons family well, and indeed Dalrymple Hamilton had known Queen Elizabeth since childhood. To the south, Force H is approximately 75 miles to the east of the German warship. Aboard HMS Ark Royal is 21-year-old Terry Goddard, one of the observers in a squadron Children of Swordfish torpedo bombers. Terry Goddard is typical of the aviators of his day. Very pragmatic, matter of fact, there's a job to be done, and he's just gonna get on and do it. We were well aware that Bismarck had to be stopped. Swordfish aircraft are launched by HMS Ark Royal to maintain contact with Bismarck. The main thing was to keep track of her until the warships could get close enough. When they arrive, the swordfish are spotted by German lookouts. And whenever they get in range, Bismarck's anti-aircraft guns open fire. The planes weave and dodge the flak. Admiral Lutyens now knows that enemy warships are on his tail. He must escape the Allied pursuers and reach safety. Meanwhile, the British fleet is facing a fuel crisis. Weather conditions are extremely bad, and the warships moving at high speed are rapidly burning through precious fuel. Conditions were very bad for that time of year. By this stage, you've got very high seas. King George V, Rodney, all suffering, and they're running out of fuel. Aboard HMS Ark Royal, the Swordfish have returned from their reconnaissance mission. The crew are now preparing them for a torpedo strike on the Nazi radar. The British biplane is affectionately nicknamed the Stringbag because it can carry just about any weapon. The Swordfish could carry a whole variety of weapons and was very difficult to shoot down, so although looking like some kind of World War One aircraft, Swordfish was relatively modern and also quite formidable in its roles as a torpedo bomber. Despite atrocious weather conditions, orders are given to launch the Swordfish. In poor visibility, they spot what they believe is the Bismarck and begin their attack. But in fact, this is the British cruiser Sheffield, which is shadowing Bismarck. Now, for heaven's sakes, the Sheffield is a two-stack, 11,000-ton cruiser. Bismarck is a single-stack, 50,000-ton battleship, three times the size of Sheffield, and they attack the Sheffield. The Sheffield commander, Captain Charles Larkham, manages to avoid the torpedoes, and he restrains his anti-aircraft gunners from firing on their own planes. Terribly sporting and not firing on the idiots that were attacking them. Bismarck has another lucky escape, but the relentless clock, counting down to doom, is still ticking. The Swordfish biplanes have returned to Ark Royal after their mistaken attack on HMS Sheffield. Admiral Tovey is now burning precious fuel as his fleet battles rough weather, trying to catch up with the Bismarck. Admiral Tovey and Captain Darryl Hamilton were both worried that if they went too fast, then they would simply have to stop the pursuit of Bismarck because you can't have a battleship running out of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic. The British warships converge from all directions. Aboard his flagship King George V, Admiral Tovey now has the concentrated firepower necessary to destroy his target, the Bismarck, if he can just catch up. Now a Luftwaffe Condor long-range scout plane discovers the home fleet. It sends a message to Bismarck identifying HMS Rodney as one of the approaching ships. The home fleet is now aware that they've been located. Their greatest fear is an attack by German U-boats before they can reach the Bismarck. On board the Bismarck, Admiral Lutyens is informed. A British battle ship was spotted. Do you know that she was shot dead at the age of 16? Do you know what you can do with it? We are also well equipped. The Rodney is 200 miles behind us. 200 miles. How long do we have until the battle? The garden is slow. Even at full speed, they won't catch up to us. As Lucim's attention is focused on the Rodney to the north, He is unaware of HMS Sheffield steaming ahead of Force H coming up from the south. Sheffield is now in visual contact with Bismarck. She cautiously edges her way around the distant German battleship. Sheffield reports the speed and position of Bismarck to the home fleet. Now Admiral Toby knows that the Bismarck is travelling too fast for the British fleet to catch her. New orders are issued. The Swordfish torpedo bombers must target the propellers and rudders in a bid to disable her and slow her down. This is a highly dangerous mission. The mighty Bismarck bristles with guns. All will be brought to bear against the Swordfish. The odds are stacked against the pilots. Well, I think we knew we were leaving fairly fast. I don't think we had any fear of dying. Generally, the guys who bought it just got married or just had a baby. We knew perfectly well we were going to fly, because if we didn't fly, there would be no tomorrow for us. Once again, despite the stormy conditions, Ark Royal's aircraft launch. As far as flying off the Ark Royal, there's no other aircraft could possibly have taken off and landed in the conditions which we did. And while three squadrons of swordfish head towards the German warship, enemy commanders in France have ordered its U-boats to rendezvous with the Bismarck. First on the scene is U-556, commanded by Captain Herbert Wulfhof. U-556 is so close, the German U-boat almost has its periscope crushed by the Ark Royal. Prior to Bismarck sailing, she had sunk 30,000 tons of shipping. But she's also used all of her torpedoes up. It's really ironic that 556 is very close to the action, but she's run out of torpedoes. So she can only report what is going on. She can't actually save her big brother at this stage. If I only had a few torpedoes, I wouldn't have to maneuver. Wolfhart reports the position of Ark Royal and Force H to U-Boat Force Headquarters. Now the Nazis know the powerful aircraft carrier can do decisive damage to Bismarck. The squadron of British torpedo bombers begin their attack runs. Down we went, ice peeling off the wings. Altimeter spinning, spinning, spinning. And then we break into the clear about 600 feet. There's Bismarck, starboard bow. She was a fire-spitting monster. Around us, there is thundering noise. The whole aircraft shook as if a number of express trains were roaring by us. She was just ablaze with everything firing at us. She was illuminated. This ship was just magnificent. It looked exactly like a battleship should look like. I mean, scary and everything, but oh, just a beautiful ship. The flak was bursting well above us. Despite their enormous firepower, the Germans are finding the British planes difficult to hit. The Swordfish presented them with a very difficult target because it flew slowly and then would act like a leaf going from side to side, floating up and down. They found that very difficult to shoot down. The Swordfish is one magnificent airplane. Now they must hit the steering and disable Bismarck at any cost. You're not thinking you're going to be killed. You're gonna hit the bastard and that's it. We got as low on the deck as we could, which was low, and went straight in. At about 1200 yards we dropped the torpedo, did a violent turn. I see a large black and white explosion wide. Obviously it's a torpedo hit. There's no other aircraft anywhere near us and there's no doubt that it was the torpedo that we had just dropped. The returning Swordfish crew excitedly claim a strike against Bismarck, but doubts remain. Command are very reluctant to believe that we have scored a hit. They wanted more confirmation than just these young enthusiastic aviators claiming they had the glory. Then a report comes in from Sheffield. Bismarck is steering erratically and has changed course from south-west to north-east. On a collision course with the British fleet. It was when Bismarck suddenly turned and instead of heading away from the oncoming British battle fleet, she sailed towards it or appeared to be sailing towards the enemy and it seemed a bit of a crazy thing to do. Bismarck's change in direction could not be deliberate. In fact, she seems to be steering in a series of crazy S-turns, heading away from France and straight towards the British fleet. There can only be one conclusion. That meant Bismarck had very little control over her destiny, even though her propulsion was working. She couldn't steer. It's clear to Admiral Tovey that the Swordfish's mission was successful, wrecking the Bismarck steering as intended. But news of the damage to Bismarck had yet to reach other units and aboard Rodney, Captain Dalrymple Hamilton makes a broadcast from the bridge. Attention all hands, Ark Royal's attack has failed. But then he receives new orders from the flagship. Sir, King George V signals that Admiral Tovey is ordering a course to intercept the enemy. Ring on. Full speed ahead. Revolutions for 23 knots. Course 135. Sir, course to intercept 135. Very good. Course 135. As Rodney steams towards its destiny with Bismarck, the crew take up battle stations. We never went to bed. We stayed at our action stations, sat around a gun all night when you couldn't sleep. What you call sleep really is two things cold anyway in a turret. Meanwhile, Bismarck's crew worked frantically to repair the damage to the stricken vessel's rudder. In the hours after the fateful hit on the steering, they did try and unjam the rudder. They tried to put divers down into the compartment to free the rudders. They even talked about putting people over the side. But the weather was so bad that they were being flooded in the engine compartment. Twenty-year-old Len Nicol sees the Bismarck floundering. She was wallowing around in circles. She was a sitting duck as far as we were concerned. After that torpedo strike, her fate was sealed. Bismarck is now unable to escape a battle. An injured animal with a pack of wolves gathering to tear her to shreds. Bismarck has been seriously damaged, its rudders smashed by a swordfish torpedo bomber. Steering out of control, it's heading straight for the British fleet. Admiral Lutjens sends a signal to German naval headquarters in France. The ship is not manoeuvrable. We fight until the last grenade. Long live the Führer. But although wounded, his ship is still a fearsome battleship, and the British must advance with extreme caution. Colonel Toby's plan is to stage a daylight attack using the weather as cover. His vessels will be obscured by gloom in the west as King George V and Rodney go into the attack, with the climbing sun in the east silhouetting Bismarck. The order is given to fire at will. She was firing the 15 inches. She didn't hit us but very close. We made two or three attempts to fire torpedoes going head-on into the sea and then turning and firing head-on. We would be straddled with 15-inch shells and then it was up smoking out as fast as we could go and the last end was going all over the place. From U-boat U-556, Captain Herbert Wolfhardt watches the onslaught. What a terrible feeling, to be so close and not be able to do anything. Commander of U-556 must have been very frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. He had no weapons. He couldn't participate in this battle at all. But U-556 will not be alone. Captain Wolfhardt is informed that other U-boats are on the way. British intelligence is also aware that German submarines could be in the area. The Admiralty sent out a signal which the warship captains at sea could tune into, which said there were four U-boats known to be in the vicinity. The British warships have very little time to attack and destroy the Bismarck before they are attacked by Nazi U-boats. Aboard Bismarck, Admiral Lutyens believes all hope is lost and signals to have his war diary collected by a U-boat. One of the things that Lutjens was really keen to do was that his war diary should survive. To show the high command that he'd done exactly the right thing in every case. His message is transmitted to German high command. As the home fleet prepares for the coming battle, Len Nicol considers his chances of survival. The Rodney was safe heading straight towards the ship to the enemy and they fired and hit the Rodney. From HMS Rodney, the obscure shape of Bismarck on the horizon looms into view. To me, it was quite a day you'll never forget. You'll never forget the date, you know, the 27th, never. The British fleet take up attack positions. King George V and HMS Rodney move in from the west, with Dorsetshire coming from the east and heavy cruiser Norfolk joining the battle from the northeast. Bismarck is confronted with the chilling sight of King George V and HMS Rodney. We fired the first shot about 8.30. A single shell is hurled at the Bismarck to test accuracy. The range? Around 13 miles. It splashes wide at the target. Then, with calculations adjusted, Rodney's big guns send their shells towards Bismarck. Sixty seconds later, the King George V fires a salvo with her 14-inch guns. The British shells miss their mark, creating gigantic splashes around the Bismarck, but causing no harm. Captain Lindemann concentrates on knocking out the most dangerous of his opponents, HMS Rodney. I was scared to death. I was just waiting, sort of expecting the whole time. Rodney's gunner, Len Nicol, watches from his turret. Take nothing away from the Germans, their gunnery was out of this world really. You could see the shells coming towards you and you could see our shells going away from us. You could be blown away any minute. As Bismarck's shells plunge in, smoke obscures the fate of HMS Rodney. Due to very clever manoeuvring, Our captain, Dalrymple Hamilton, avoided shells. The Bismarck fails to score a hit on the Rodney, a testament to the skill of Captain Dalrymple Hamilton. You get a salvo landing all around you, and he would just shift his ship almost if he knew where the next shot was coming. He was very astute. By now, the Home Fleet is engaging in a fearsome battle with the Bismarck. It was a long battle and very frightening. I was 20, I think, at the time, and I must admit I was scared to death. The fleet is firing on Bismarck with high-explosive shells. With high-explosive, a shell will go in and then explode inside the ship. But they aren't very effective because the German battleship is so well protected with armour. The order is given to switch to armour-piercing shells. Armour-piercing shells will literally do what it says on the tin, they'll go through and with a ship like Bismarck, some parts were so vulnerable that the armour-piercing shells went straight through like a knife cutting through butter, they would just go in and cause carnage. The torrent of shells from British guns inflict serious damage on Bismarck. We noted that our shells which were one tonne in weight and the biggest In the world, XC was making quite a number of hits on Bismarck. The Rodney is the closest to Bismarck. I would say she was about 2,000 yards away from it, no more. Some of the lads on the AA guns could have hit her with potatoes if she was that close. When the shells from Xmas Rodney came in, They destroyed most of the command team and also the communications and what's called command and control and another officer in the ship described this as having Bismarck's brains blown out. But Lutyens is determined to stay fighting carrying out his orders from Admiral Raeder at German high command. Raeder had said quite explicitly if you're cornered you fight to the death. Weather conditions in the Atlantic have finally improved enough for the swordfish to fly. Terry Goddard is circling Bismarck. By the time we arrived, she was being mercilessly pounded. Bismarck was obviously out of control. After her long dash from the south, the heavy cruiser Dorsetshire storms into the fight. Swinging broadside, she fires all her eight-inch guns. The bridge and the gunnery command positions in the forward section of the Bismarck are being shredded. I actually saw the back of the E turret explode. Flipped up in the air like a penny. Shelling is relentless. They were creating dreadful havoc. The Bismarck was getting hit regularly. There was smoke, there was fire, there was everything. Oh, God. Quite a lot of the shells actually tore into Bismarck from short range, from King George V and Rodney, there's no question about that. I saw the ship itself burning from stem to stern. We did a tremendous amount of damage. It's highly likely. that Lindemann and Lutyens were killed within 20 minutes or so of the battle starting. So when the brains were blown out, that included the command team. All Bismarck's big guns are now silent. Once you get a lot of percussive shells hitting a ship, particularly armour-piercing ones, it distorts the ship. You can't get through hatches, people are disorientated. The battle is turning into a massacre. Hundreds of German sailors were jumping off the burning inferno that was the Bismarck, desperate to escape but with little chance of surviving. Some people aboard Rodney, and I think including the captain, felt rather sickened by the whole process and wanted it to end. It was ugly. It was dirty, in my opinion. You might almost classify it as murder. It was slaughter. It was dreadful to see. Hardly came on the bridge, and the sense of the captain stopped, desist. Just firing shells at a ship that can't reply. Captain Hamilton said, you go and mind your own business and get off Wild Bridge. Captain Dalrymple Hamilton has no choice but to continue firing as he has strict orders to sink Bismarck. But also, Bismarck is flying its battle flag, a sign that it's not surrendering. It's still ready to fight. I recollect. It seems to be in my mind, the battle flag flying above this smoke. They have this swastika on the main mast and this great big one on the foremast. This was war. You can't aim to wound, you've got to aim to kill. The Bismarck had to be sunk. It wasn't just to be left crippled. It should have been repaired and got out again. Time was also running out for the British fleet. They know German U-boats and warships are heading towards them. King George V and Rodney and all the other ships want to finish the job because they're running out of fuel. They do not want to be out there in the Atlantic at the mercy of U-boats. This is a mighty battleship that so far has resisted being sunk. You want to get rid of it, there's no question about that. So the signal went out then for anybody with torpedoes to go in and end the Bismarcks agony. HMS Dorsetshire delivers the final blows. I wouldn't have liked to have been on that ship. The dying moments of the Bismarck are witnessed by Terri Goddard. The bridge was gone, the island was gone. There was just a big black hole, billowing black smoke. She started to go down by the stern. Up came the bow as if to say, up yours. It reached a great big mass of bubbles. She went down. Over 2,000 German sailors lose their lives. The water was full of hundreds of bobbing sailors. The attack turns into a rescue mission. There are pictures of German sailors being hauled on board alongside Dorsetshire. Other destroyers are looking for survivors. But the rescue mission is abruptly brought to an end. There is a perpetual fear of U-boats. And then someone thinks they see a submarine periscope. The British are wary, they don't want to get sunk. The captain of the cruiser that was picking these chaps up realised that, you know, he had to move away, otherwise he'd be sunk as well. Admiral Tovey orders the home fleet to withdraw immediately. Leaving these people in the water really sad, because once your enemy has been defeated, the law of the sea, the custom of the sea, requires you to stop and aid your enemies. It was heart-rending, really, to sort of leave all these sailors in the icy sea who were obviously going to die, just drown. The sinking of the Bismarck has far-reaching consequences for Germany. The effect of the sinking of the Bismarck was to stop Atlantic raiders coming in, like the Admiral Scheer, like Tirpitz, or the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, ever doing that again. With the sinking of the Bismarck, America realises that the British cause is worth helping with crucial war supplies. Sinking of Bismarck was a pivotal moment because it showed not only the world that Britain wasn't a lost cause, but ending Bismarck encouraged President Roosevelt to carry on supporting the UK. On the evening of the 27th of May 1941, President Roosevelt makes an address to the American nation. In which he declares an unlimited national emergency. Roosevelt tells his nation that the USA will help the British with American naval escorts for the convoys. I say that the delivery of needed supplies to Britain is imperative. I say this can be done. It must be done and it will be done. We will not... Accept a Hitler-dominated world, and we will not accept a world like the post-war world of the 1920s, in which the seeds of Hitlerism can again be planted and allowed to grow.