The end of the Bismarck

27th May 1941: The interior of the battleship becomes a horrific mess of 'flesh and bone', as revealed in Naval Intelligence interviews with the survivors

An artist's impression of the final minutes of the Bismarck, when, crippled and barely able to fight back, she had to endure the full force of the guns of the battleship HMS Rodney, which mounted the largest guns ever placed on a British battleship - crushing, point-blank salvos from nine 16-inch (406 mm) Mark I naval guns.

This image gives a good sense of the distance at which her final battle was fought. A photograph of the BISMARCK on fire in the distance, taken from one of the Royal Navy warships chasing.

After her steering was disabled by a torpedo hit to the stern, the Bismarck was a crippled ship, slowly turning in circles. Desperate attempts were made to free the rudder to no avail. It gradually became more and more apparent that she was helpless, simply waiting for the arrival of a combination of overwhelmingly more powerful Royal Navy ships that would finish her off. Morale plummeted as the inevitable end drew closer. During the night of the 26th, a Destroyer flotilla made successive attempts to torpedo her, but she was saved by the rough seas.

The Bismarck Action: HMS Zulu Under Fire: A reconstruction of the pursuit and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck. In the foreground the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Zulu is under fire from Bismarck, just visible in the right background. A large plume of water rises to the side where a shell has fallen and Zulu lists heavily to the side. Sailors on deck are visible in the immediate foreground. John Hamilton 1975.

It was not until morning on the 27th that the battleships HMS Rodney and HMS King George V arrived on the scene, and at 0847, opened fire. Bismarck fired back and came very close to hitting HMS Rodney, but her inability to control her steering meant her fire became increasingly inaccurate. Within ten minutes, she was taking regular hits from the British warships, and although she continued to fire, it was no longer effective.

Orders were given to flood and the imprisoned men were drowned.

Subsequent interviews¹ with survivors paint a grim picture of what it was like on the Bismarck during this bombardment:

”Bismarck” was taking severe punishment. According to one prisoner, one officer drew his revolver and shot down some of the crew when they refused to obey him. Another prisoner refers to officers committing suicide. Still another prisoner mentioned that members of the crew lost their nerve and jumped overboard long before action ceased.

It is known that almost the entire 400 men of the “flak” became casualties. No special protection had been arranged for these men during surface action, they merely being ordered to shelter behind the superstructure on the disengaged side, and, huddling together for protection, groups of forty or more men were wiped out at a time. With the ship listing to port and rolling and seas coming inboard, there were washed over the side scores of bodies, both the killed and of the wounded, whose grasp had weakened on whatever object they had been able to clutch. Hit after hit was now being registered on the upper deck, which was speedily reduced to a mass of twisted steel. Boats and lockers had been smashed to pieces, machinery and instruments twisted and broken. Ready use ammunition was exploding.