The Destruction of the «Bismarck»

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

In World War II, Britain relied on its Merchant Navy to keep its supply
lines from the United States and Canada open. The Merchant Navy counted
on the Royal Navy and, increasingly, the Royal Canadian Navy, to protect
the convoys that carried food and war material to the beleaguered
island. German U-boats, though, lurked in wait and dispatched many cargo
ships to the bottom of the Atlantic with a well-aimed torpedo.

To augment the U-boats’ work, the new and powerful battleship
Bismarck, pride of Germany’s surface fleet, was sent out with the
cruiser Prinz Eugen under orders to attack Allied shipping. The
Bismarck’s career was brief—a mere 277 days, including only nine
days of actual operation. She left Germany on May 18, 1941; six days
later, she sank HMS Hood, proudest symbol of Britain’s naval might.
Three days after that, the Bismarck herself sank to the bottom of the
ocean, a victim of British guns and torpedoes.

This book provides details of the ship’s construction, the strengths
and weaknesses of her armor, the problems of gunnery turrets, and the
limited fuel supply that hampered her operations. It compares these
features with those of the Hood and King George V, the principal British
ships that were sent out to sink her. The outcomes of sea battles are
determined not only by ships but by the men who command them; the
authors describe the experience and personalities of the senior British
and German officers and the immensely difficult decisions they had to
make. Bercuson and Herwig write with clarity and skill about the complex
events that led to the Bismarck’s demise.

The story of the Bismarck’s sinking has been told in several books;
this one, drawing on recently declassified information, includes the
added dimension of explaining the political considerations not only in
Britain and Germany but also in the United States. The Destruction of
the Bismarck has some small flaws, but they are far outweighed by the
book’s comprehensive and compelling text.