Sunday, May 25
Bismarck Escapes
HMS Suffolk’s captain eats a sandwich on the bridge of his cruiser during the chase (Royal Navy)
As the clocks on the Bismarck rolled over to midnight the PA systems crackled into life, congratulating Admiral Lutjens on his 52nd birthday. His spirits are not high. Despite the apparent success of Prinz Eugen in breaking away, he is now alone, damaged and shadowed by three British warships, with an aircraft carrier operating in the vicinity. As he makes his way toward France his only hope lies in the short range of the British ships, who had been designed with the prevalence of friendly bases in mind, leading to smaller fuel tanks than many other nations.
This indeed is a problem for Tovey, as his forces are indeed on the clock to catch Bismarck before their battleships have to turn back to refuel, or even worse are left dead in the U-boat infested waters of the North Atlantic. The same cause of their small tanks also had resulted in the Royal Navy never investing in at-sea refueling capability, ruling out the simple expedient of using tankers that would normally used in other navies.
An after starboard secondary turret on Bismarck (German Federal Archives)
The pursuing British ships had by now adopted a zig-zag pattern to avoid the threat of U-boats, which was indeed prudent, as Admiral Donitz today ordered U-108 and U-552 to sail from Lorient and clear the path of Bismarck. This evasive maneuver led at 0300 to Admiral Lutjens forming a plan to finally break off from his shadows.
The British ships were able to keep a clear radar signal on Bismarck as they performed their maneuvers, except for a moment as they reached the end of the ark and turned back. This has been of no consequence, as the battleship immediately appears again on screen as they continue the pattern, but at 0330 it was different. As the cruisers came about the German ship did not reappear.
Officers at work plotting Bismarck’s position in the chart room of HMS Suffolk (Royal Navy)
Lutjens had waited for the exact moment, and had executed a sudden hard turn to starboard, swinging wide to the north, out of radar range, before cutting back across the British’ wake and taking up a new course southeast toward St. Nazaire. The maneuver is successful, as the British do not expect the warship to veer away toward American controlled Greenland, or to take a new course. They immediately set about a search of the area along the Bismarck’s previous course, but find nothing.
As this happens, far to the south Admiral Somerville’s Force H, which had steamed from Gibraltar to reinforce the convoys, is ordered to alter their course to join the hunt for Bismarck, thus adding yet more capital ships to the pursuit of the killer of HMS Hood. This decision is vindicated at 0401, when a report arrives from Admiral Wake-Walker:
“Have lost contact with the enemy.”
As the morning continues, the HMS Rodney arrives with the Home Fleet. Aboard them, Captain Dalrymple-Hamilton confers with the two other senior officers aboard, Captain Coppinger, who was aboard to take command of the battleship HMS Malaya which was just completing a workup in the United States, along with Lt. Commander Welling of the US Navy, who had been Naval Attaché at the US Embassy in London and was being rotated back to the United States. The captain of Rodney consulted with the other officers regarding the movements of Bismarck, the Germans’ intentions and the planned interception.
A Supermarine Walrus is lowered from HMS Suffolk to assist in the hunt for Bismarck (Royal Navy)
On the other side of the Atlantic, in the peaceful city of Washington, a conference was underway between President Roosevelt and Lord Halifax, the British ambassador regarding the situation in the Atlantic. Despite the clear violation of their neutrality, Roosevelt orders US Navy warships to assist in the hunt for Bismarck, aided by US aircraft operating from Greenland. It is possible that the President was hoping to provoke an incident that would justify American entry into the war, although little hard evidence exists.
Meanwhile, at 0700 Lutjens was unaware that he had escaped the British, and commenced one of the greatest blunders of the operation: he reported by radio on his situation. He could still see faint signals on his radar detectors, and was unaware that the British could not actually see him. His signal, however, was picked up by British radio direction finders (Huff-Duff). This in turn is picked up by Admiral Tovey, who assumes Bismarck is heading back to Germany via the Iceland-Faroes passage, and orders the Home Fleet to steam to intercept.
Crewmen operate a signal lamp on HMS Suffolk (Royal Navy)
At 0846 Admiral Lutjens receives a reply from Naval Intelligence, reporting that the British have indeed lost him. Despite this, and in light of the previous errors in German intelligence reports, Lutjens does not believe them, and continues to assume he is under pursuit. Two hours later Admiral Tovey orders his fleet to move north, increasing the distance between British forces and Lutjens as they chase phantoms in the North Sea.
Force H steams northward, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and the carrier HMS Ark Royal visible (Royal Navy)
Even as Tovey moves northward, Admiral of the Fleer Sir Dudley Pound issues orders to Admiral Somerville from the Admiralty: Force H is to move to block the Germans from making port in France, in the event that they are still making for the Bay of Biscay rather than Germany. An hour after this order is issued at 1100, Admiral Lutjens breaks his customary stony silence and addresses the crew over the PA:
“Seamen of the Bismarck! You have covered yourself with great glory! The sinking of the battlecruiser Hood has not only military, but also morale value, for Hood was the pride of England. The enemy will now seek to concentrate his forces and to deploy them against us. Thus, I released Prinz Eugen yesterday so that it can conduct commerce warfare in the Atlantic. She has managed to evade the enemy. We, on the other hand, have received orders because of the hits we took to proceed to a French port. On the way there, the enemy will gather his forces and force us to do battle with him. The German Volk is with you and we will fire until the barrels glow red hot and until the last shell has left its barrel. For us seamen, there is now but one cry: Victory or Death!”
The speech causes morale to plummet, with its gloomy pronouncement that the British will soon engage in a battle to the death with Bismarck as she limps to port in France. Captain Lindemann in furious, and quickly attempts to repair the damage, meeting with mixed success.
As the day wore on, in the early afternoon Captain Lindemann ordered the construction of a dummy funnel to alter Bismarck’s profile to hopefully confuse him with a British or American warship. The signals crew were also set to work with creating English language signals, while others were ordered to paint the tops of the main turrets yellow as a recognition aid when they enter the Luftwaffe’s air umbrella.
Turret Anton, the forwardmost aboard Bismarck, while in port (German Federal Archives)
At 1548 Admiral Tovey orders a change of course, betting on a hunch (backed up by scattered signal intercepts) that Bismarck is indeed headed for France, and at 1621 he breaks radio silence to request an update on the projected course of the enemy from the Admiralty. Despite this, confirmation was not forthcoming,
At 1800 a message was sent by Luftwaffe General Hans Jeschonnek, commanding the Luftwaffe in Athens, requesting an update on the status of his son, who was a sailor stationed aboard Bismarck. This message was sent via a Luftwaffe enigma machine, which had been cracked by the British cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, and was almost immediately decoded, as was its reply. The British now had confirmed Bismarck was making for France.
Five minutes later orders are sent to Rodney to change course to intercept Bismarck on the way to France. She had already been doing so in defiance of her earlier orders, so simply confirms them and continues on her way. No order ever makes it to Tovey, but he regardless acts on his hunch and turns the Home Fleet to cut off the Germans as they make for France. It is not until 1924 that the Admiralty finally broadcasts to all ships that Bismarck is making for France.
Bismarck executes a maneuver at 0330 to escape the British ships dogging him
Wake-Walker’s squadron loses contact
Bismarck makes for the coast of France
Wake-Walker’s cruisers move to cut off Bismarck from the North Sea
Home Fleet moves to block entrance to North Sea
HMS Rodney continues to move toward France
Force H is ordered to block the approach to France