The Sinking of the Bismarck Read Online Free PDF Page B

searchlights were endangering the whole fleet. Captain Bovell kept them on until a second order that brooked no disobedience came to him. But the pilots had seen the lights. All of the Swordfish, miraculously, put down safely on the dark, rain-swept deck.
    ***
    Aboard the Bismarck , Admiral Luetjens had radioed brief messages in code to Berlin telling of the air attack.
    23:38. [11:38 P.M. ] Air attack in approximate position 56 50N, 36 20W.
    00:28. [12:28 A.M. of May 25] Attack by carrier-borne aircraft. Torpedo hit starboard.
    01:53. Torpedo hit of no importance.
    Aboard the King George V , Admiral Tovey had been cheered by the reports that the Swordfish planes from the Victorious had found the Bismarck despite the miserable weather and the failing light. He felt even better when the signal came inthat one torpedo hit had been observed. This might well slow up the Bismarck and give him the chance for which he had been waiting so long: to close in and engage her.
    Hopefully, but not without impatience, he waited for confirmation from the Suffolk and Norfolk that the Bismarck ’s speed had been reduced. Trailing her as they were, they would soon know.
    Past midnight, past 1:00 A.M. and on to two o’clock, Admiral Tovey waited expectantly. No news came of any slowing up of the Bismarck . She seemed to be steaming on at the same speed as before.
    Somewhat depressed, the Admiral decided to turn in for a nap. It had been a rough and discouraging day for him. At dawn he had lost in the Hood the most powerful battleship in the fleet. And one of the two newest of his battleships, the Prince of Wales , had been damaged, though it was still in the chase. His ships had not given a very good account of themselves. So far as he knew, they had not damaged the Bismarck seriously, if at all. Her guns seemed as fit as ever, her speed undiminished.
    Even if he could intercept her the next day, which now seemed doubtful, his own fleet would be further weakened. At midnight he had had to send his destroyers back to Iceland to refuel. This left him without destroyer protection at the very moment he was entering U-boat-infested waters. His battle cruiser Repulse would have to leave him by nine the next morning. She would have just enough fuel to get back to port. And there was little chance that he could corner the enemy battleship by so early an hour.
    Shortly after he turned in for a nap, the Admiral was awakened by further bad news. At six minutes past three o’clock on May 25, while the night was still black and the weather miserable with mist and rain, the Suffolk lost contact with the Bismarck .
    The ships of both sides had begun zigzagging during the night because of the possibility of the presence of German submarines. (Admiral Luetjens could not be sure that one of his own submarines might not mistake his ship for a British vessel in the darkness.) On one of the outward zigzags away from the Bismarck , the Suffolk had lost contacton her radar. She did not regain it on her inward zigzag.
    Captain Ellis on the Suffolk , numb from the cold and lack of sleep, increased speed. He had been on the bridge almost continuously for four days and nights. A blast from one of his own guns had shattered the protective glass on the bridge, leaving it exposed to the icy winds. And now for an hour he plunged forward at full steam, seeking to regain contact with the enemy. At 4:00 A.M. he ruefully signaled the Home Fleet: “Have lost contact with the Bismarck . Am making a search.”
    When Admiral Tovey heard the news, he hastened to the chart room to ponder it with his staff. There was no denying that this was a blow. After thirty-one and a half hours of skillful and persistent shadowing, the British had let the enemy slip away.
    The mighty Bismarck was lost!

Chapter Six
    Where Is the Bismarck ?
    Loss of contact with the Bismarck caused the British government in London, as Prime Minister Winston Churchill later admitted, the “utmost anxiety.”
    For