She was the pride of the German Navy and the most powerful battleship in the world when commissioned in 1940. With a displacement of 53,000 tons, she carried eight 15-inch guns in four turrets and a secondary battery of twelve 6-inch guns in six turrets. Despite her size, she made nearly 31 knots in sea trials. What she could not outright, she could outrun. Yet the Bismarck operated as a warship for only eight days, comprising one of the greatest sea battles of World War II.
After eight months in the Baltic for sea trials, crew training, and post-construction repairs, the Bismarck was made ready to put to sea. In late April 1941, she and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were ordered to the Atlantic for commerce-raiding duties. Under the command of Admiral Gunter Lutjens, the two warships departed the Baltic on 21 May 1941.
To avoid detection, their route across the Atlantic took them far north and west to the edge of the Arctic pack ice. Then they turned south to pass into the North Atlantic via the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland. They already had been detected, however. The heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Suffolk waited near the strait. Their contact reports helped the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood intercept the German ships on 24 May.
The Bismarck's baptism was brief. With deadly accurate gunfire she sank the Hood in only six minutes. One shell penetrated the Hood's after magazine; the pride of the Royal Navy blew apart. Only three of her crew of 1,416 survived. Still in sea trials, with some shipyard workers on board, the Prince of Wales took a considerable beating from both German ships before pulling out of range 14 minutes after the action had begun.
The Bismarck had received two major hits. One entered boiler room no. 2, putting it out of service. A second hit the bow near the waterline, causing flooding and damaging several forward fuel tanks so they could not be used. With speed reduced to 28 knots, fuel supply critical, and trailing an oil slick, Admiral Litjens decided to go to France for repairs.
The Norfolk, Suffolk, and Prince of Wales now trailed the German ships. Admiral Lutjens unsuccessfully tried to shake them by maneuvering and turning to take them under fire.
On the 25th the Germans finally broke contact, and the Prinz Eugen was detached to proceed on the original mission. The Bismarck turned east toward France. On the 26th British patrol aircraft regained contact. It then became clear to the Royal Navy where the German battleship was headed. Fifteen Swordfish torpedo bombers from HMS Ark Royal attacked. While scoring only two hits, one effectively ended the Bismarck's hopes. It exploded aft near the rudders, jamming them at 12 to port. A circling Bismarck now was doomed.
The next day, the battleships HMS Rodney and HMS King George V engaged the Bismarck. Soon the Bismarck's fire control systems and the main turrets were disabled. As the largest guns were silenced, the battleships and the heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire closed in, firing until the Bismarck sank. After less than two hours of combat she rolled over, plunging to the seafloor three miles below. Of her crew of 2,100, only 115 survived.
In June 1989, explorer Dr. Robert Ballard located the wreck. Using a ship-towed camera sled he photographed the Bismarck extensively, her hull sitting upright on the bottom. The four main turrets were gone, having fallen clear when the German battleship sank. Otherwise the ship was remarkably intact.
In June 2001, with German government approval, the Deep Ocean Expeditions company used the Russian Research ship Keldysh and two Mir manned submersibles to return to the Bismarck. On board were three television and two print-media teams as well as two German survivors of the sinking. In addition, 16 Russian oceanographers would do deep-sea research at the site.
Able to dive to 20,000 feet, the two Mirs made eight double dives carrying a total of 24 people to study and photograph the Bismarck. Each dive to 15,800 feet lasted about 12 hours, with some 50 hours spent at the wreck and associated debris field. Results of these dives and their imagery will be published over the next several months.
Solemn memorial ceremonies were held on board the Keldysh on arrival and departure from the site. The Battleship Bismarck Comrades Organization prepared a memorial plaque engraved, "The Living Remember the Dead." It was placed on the Bismarck's quarterdeck by one of the submersibles.
The great sea battle lasted just eight days, taking two great ships and nearly 3,500 men to their deaths. One by one the survivors have joined their comrades of long ago. Today only 27 are left.