Monday, May 19

The Task Force heads for the Great Belt

Bismarck in the Baltic, as seen from Prinz Eugen (German Federal Archives)

At 0200 Bismarck slipped his moorings in the early morning darkness, her massive engines propelling the battleship toward the Baltic Sea. She was escorted by a small screen of destroyers, and sailed into the empty sea lanes cleared by yesterday’s orders from OKM. She proceeded without incident, making her rendezvous with the Prinz Eugen at 1125. They both set course for the Great Belt, their passage into the North Sea.

British ships at Scapa Flow (Royal Navy)

At Scapa Flow, Captain John Leach of the HMS Prince of Wales reported to Admiral Tovey that his ship was ready for operations. While good news, Tovey was still unsure of the readiness of the battleship, which had been showing teething troubles, particularly with her main armament. A crew of technicians were currently aboard, working on ironing out the last kinks in the new turrets, but it cast serious doubts on the ability of the Prince of Wales for duty.

Meanwhile, the the north, HMS Norfolk sets out from Iceland, where she had stopped to bunker fuel oil, for the Denmark Straight, to relieve HMS Suffolk so that she could refuel in turn. As the Germans approached the Great Belt the British remained unsure of the indentions of the Germans, or even of the departure of the task force from Gotenhafen.

The German task force enters the Great Belt