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15 BISMARCK AND THE U-BOATS (May, 1941)

On the twenty-first of May, 1941, the 40,000-ton battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz

Eugen sailed on a raiding expedition into the Atlantic. While the squadron was still on passage, it

was located from the air and all available British forces were dispatched to intercept and destroy it The battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were already in Brest, although they had suffered some bomb damage; if they could be reinforced by Bismarck and Prinz Eugen it would mean that the Germans could put into the Atlantic a battle squadron of three brand new battleships and a heavy cruiser. In that event no one could tell what would happen to the British convoys, for even the mighty British fleet would be hard put to it to furnish adequate escorts.

Admiral Sir John Tovey, Commander in Chief of the British Home Fleet, fully aware of this danger, sent every available big ship in pursuit of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen; on the morning of May 24 a squadron composed of Hood and Prince of Wales made contact with the Germans after they had been located by Suffolk. After a brief exchange of fire a gigantic pillar of flame shot up between Hood's masts; two or three seconds later she broke in two and for a moment her bow and stern could be seen sticking vertically up out of a cloud of heavy black smoke, before she finally disappeared.

Bismarck, however, had not escaped unscathed and a broad streak of oil began to spread out in

her wake as she continued her course into the Atlantic. It was not long before she altered course for St. Nazaire to effect repairs, leaving Prinz Eugen to act independently in the Atlantic. In the course of the day, Admiral Lutjens, flying his flag in Bismarck, called for a close cordon of U- boats to be stationed across his line of advance, through which he proposed to lure his pursuers. Of the six boats which accordingly took up positions some 450 miles west of St. Nazaire, two had no torpedoes and very little fuel, but it was considered that their presence might be of some help.

Neither the British nor the Germans were quite clear as to the real position. Admiral Lutjens did not know that Suffolk had lost radar contact with Bismarck; nor was he aware that for some time the British forces had steamed in the wrong direction under the illusion that Bismarck was making for Norway. Believing that Suffolk was still in radar contact, Lutjens saw no reason for maintaining radio silence, and on the twenty-fifth he made a detailed situation report. The British took D/F bearings on this transmission, realized their mistake and turned their ships around.

[D/F—an abbreviation for direction-finding bearings]

An immediate air search was ordered and on the twenty-sixth a Catalina reconnaissance plane sighted, through haze and low cloud, a dark shape ploughing through the heavy seas—the

Bismarck.

It now became very clear to Admiral Sir John Tovey that he could not hope to overtake the German ship unless her speed could be reduced. His last hope lay in the Gibraltar squadron, consisting of the battle cruiser Renown, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the cruisers Sheffield and Dorsetshire, which had been hastily ordered northward; actually it was the Ark Royal's planes which alone were capable of attacking Bismarck with torpedoes and so reducing her speed that the main British fleet could catch up with her. These aircraft were the last card in the English hand.

It was blowing a gale from the northwest and the seas were running steep and high. The weather had prevented Wohl-farth in U 556 from getting into the ordered position as second from the left wing of the line, when suddenly, on the evening of the twenty-sixth, his lookouts reported enemy warships in sight. Wohlfarth crash-dived and raised his periscope in time to see Renown and Ark

Royal steaming straight toward him, their huge gray hulls plunging deep into the heavy seas. Renown was burying her bows and then throwing cascades of water high in the air; walls of

spray were sweeping over her forward turrets smothering the whole ship in a white cloud. Ark

Royal several times dipped until her flight deck seemed to be touching the water; Wohlfarth

could see the planes on her deck with their engines running. The ships were almost on top of him now, ahead and astern. He had no need to maneuver for attack—all he had to do was press the firing buttom for the forward and after tubes—but he had no more torpedoes! Such a chance would never recur—a battleship and an aircraft carrier on a straight course, without escorting destroyers, passing in front of a U-boat's torpedo tubes. And those tubes were empty! This fact was decisive in Bismarck's destiny. With bitterness in his heart, Wohlfarth gazed at the two huge targets wallowing in the giant waves. There was a special relationship between the Bismarck, the largest and latest battleship in the world, and the little 500-ton U 556, for Bismarck was the U- boat's "godchild."

Many months earlier, Bismarck had been exercising in the Baltic where Wohlfarth also was working up his crew in the new boat. One day the U-boat passed the battleship and Wohlfarth, who had his own sense of humor, signaled: "Personal from Captain to Captain. A fine ship you've got!" This did not seem to go down too well; the answer came back smartly and formally: "From Commander to Captain, report name of commanding officer." Oh Lord! thought

Wohlfarth, now I've done it! His answer was: "From Captain to Captain. You try to do this!" Then he promptly dived out of sight.

Some time later he drew up a magnificent certificate of "godfatherhood," expressed in suitable terms of friendly admiration, in which U 556 undertook the sponsorship of her big sister and pledged herself always to watch over her. Armed with this document, Wohlfarth paid a formal call on Captain Lindemann, the captain of Bismarck. Thus a friendship was born amid laughter between the two ships' companies and Wohlfarth, on passing Bismarck on his way to his first patrol, signaled: "Personal from Captain to Captain. When you follow me don't worry. I'll see that you come to no harm." But it was not to be, for now, as he watched the enemy ships disappearing in the dusk, he realized that without torpedoes he could not keep his promise. As soon as the enemy was out of sight, he surfaced and hastily reported: "Enemy sighted, one battleship, one carrier, course 115°, grid-square BE 5382." That meant 48° north, 16°20' west. He had tried to shadow the ships as long as the heavy seas would allow. At nine o'clock that night he intercepted a signal from Bismarck, in position 47° N, 14°50'W, reporting that her

rudder was out of action from a torpedo hit. A few minutes later the U-boat Command came up with: "Emergency. All boats with torpedoes proceed toward Bismarck at full speed." But what could full speed be on a night like this? After midnight one U-boat did report momentary contact with "ships in action," but the heavy clouds and rain soon blotted out the gun flashes. During that night Bismarck held off the attacking destroyers with her guns; she was now 420 miles west of Brest—just outside the effective range of the Luftwaffe.

At about 7 A.M. on May 27, Admiral Lütjens asked for a U-boat to pick up Bismarck's log, and it was Wohlfarth who was ordered to close the battleship; but he did not receive the order as he had dived to avoid aircraft; when eventually he picked up the signal at ten o'clock, it was too late. Bismarck's last action began at 8:47 A.M. when the battleships Rodney and King George V opened fire. Bismarck's third salvo straddled Rodney without hitting and a few minutes later

Norfolk joined in, so that Bismarck—an easy, almost motionless target—came under the

concentrated fire of three ships. Fighting to the last, she was gradually shot to pieces.

Dorsetshire came in close as Bismarck's fire began to slacken, and Rodney fired torpedoes but

they missed. At about ten o'clock Bismarck ceased fire. Although still afloat, she was nothing but a wreck; her masts and funnel had gone, her upper works were crushed and riddled, her gun muzzles pointed lifelessly in every direction, and heavy black smoke poured out amidships. Then Rodney fired nine broadsides at close range, the shells bursting on the target three and four at a time. Rodney fired her last two torpedoes, one of which hit; but Bismarck still floated. At ten fifteen the British C-in-C had to disengage as King George V was running short of fuel; as he left he ordered Bismarck to be torpedoed again. Dorsetshire fired torpedoes from both sides into the wreck, and finally, at ten forty, Bismarck rolled silently over on her side and went down with her flag still flying. The battle was over. Two officers and just over one hundred men were picked up by the British. U-boats combed the area for four whole days, but all they found were three men on a raft.