大象传媒

sted Soon by thammick
Subject: Sinking of the Bismark
Recently I found my fathers Journal from his time in the Royal Navy. As a junior officer (Midshipman) at the start of the war, he had to keep a journal, that was revieed weekly by his training officer.
In his, I found a witness account of the sinking of the Bismark, written by him in the HMS Zulu, one of the ships in the Destroyer Squadron.
Here is the text, written at the time of the action:
"Sunday may 26th:
C.S.I reported this morning that he had lost touch at 0330. news also came that HMS Rodney had joined in the chase and was closing 22 knots, and keeping up that speed. There were several dark comments on board about people who strained their engines to ensure a long refit, but I think everyone was also rather amazed at such a fine feat of steaming by an old ship whose maximum last year had been 17 knots.
We got two D/F bearings of an unknown ship during the forenoon, and to our consternation found that this ship would probably meet us at 04.00 tomorrow. moreover it seems probable that this was the Bismark as her speed was 25 knots.
Nothing appeared at 0400 much to our relief, and shortly afterwards the 4th DF (Destroyer Flotilla) and (illegible name of ship) were detached to join C in C. No one was particularly pleased about this but at 11.00 a report was received from a catalina that the Bismark was some 60 miles to the South. We immediately turned to the South to close the enemy. there was a strong quartering sea and the ships were yawring very badly at 27 knots which was all they could make good with safety in the sea running.
H M S Sheffield made contact at 15.00 and reported that the enemy's course and speed were 120degrees, 25 knots. Shortly afterwards, Ark Royal's aircraft, which had been shadowing ever since the report by the Catalina, carried out a torpedoe attack, which was not successful as most of the aircraft attacked HMS Sheffield instead. Another attack was carried out at 20.30 however, and two hits were reported. Shortly after this the enemy was reported to have altered course to 340 degrees, that is directly towards us!
HMS Sheffield was sighted at 22.00 steaming at full speed on the opposite course to ours, and the atmosphere gre rather tense when she signalled that the enemy was only 8 miles astern. She held her course and it was not until she was out of sight that she reported she had lost contact, a fact that amused us.
At 22.32 Piorun hoisted 'N' and a few minutes later aship was sighted in the mist ahead. The first I saw of her was an orange flash in the mist ahead, but the shot fell near Maori and did no damage. The Flotilla immediately scattered, ships acting independantly to remain in contact with the enemy. Piorun distinguished herself by opening fire as she turned away.
Shortly after this, Zulu came in for her first close fire from the enemy, and from then on he seemed to single her out as his main target, possibly because she was the closest. In that first few minutes, six salvoes of 15 inch shell fell near her , besides many salvoes of 5.9 inch and smaller. She was straddled twice, once abreast the bridge, and once abreast the foremast, and there was one salvoe abreast B gun about 30 ft. short. The remainder fell 60 ft. over.
We were lrft alone for a while after this until at about 23.30 the enemy again opened fire on us. There was one straddle and several salvoes about 30 ft. short but the interesting point is that we could see the enemy's gun flashes, we could not see him. This argued some pretty accurate form of RD/F fixing.
It was quite dark by 23.45. which time the enemy opened fire with his AA armanent. It was rather a fine sight as salvoes of tracer of all colours shot into the sky. We did not see what she was firing at but I immagine it was one of Ark Royals aircraft.
By 24.00 we found we could not see the enemy clearly, though we had quite a good idea where she was from the plot. Actually this idea was not quite correct as to our surprise we found ourselves some 5000 yards on the enemy's beam when wwe tried to regain contact. This again brought some well directed salvoes of 15 inch and 5.9 inch shell before we could get to a safe distance. Five minutes later we found Cossack, who had had her wireless aiels shot away and could not communicate by W/T. She told us to act independently and to fire torpedoes when the opportunity offereed.
By 00.50 the enemy seemed more or less quiet and Zulu altered course to close. We sighted the enemy suddenly at 05.00 and he opened fire at 4000 yards with everything he had got. We were doing 22 knots, 210 revolutions, at the time and went in until the range was 3000 yards before torpedoes were fired. They were fired with a deflection of 18, ,rather too much but I believe we were given a hit although no onr was paying attention to that at the time!. I shall never forget the few minutes that followed. The whole sea a glare of starshell and search lights, and the orange of the gun flashes, as the enemy opened fire with every single gu he could bring to bear, and the ship bucketing along through a head sea at 320 revolutions, with smoke belowing from her funnels, and the spray streaming over the bridge in solid sheets. One could hear the schrapnell pattering on the decks and see the sparks it made as it hit the steel.
As soon as we had got out of it , Maori went in and fired two torpedoes, one of which started a small fire on Bismarck's forecastle. She was followed by Cossack, and then by Sikh. Piorun did not attack during the night. The range that ships fired torpedoes from was Zulu 3000 yards, Maori 3500 yards, Cossack 4000 yards, and Sikh 6000 yards.
The enemy was reported to be stopped by torpedoe attacks.
At 02.00 C in C HF ordered destroyers to fire star shell every quarter of an hour to show the position of the enemy to the Battle Fleet. We tried this for a while but found it anything but funny as no one knew when the ship was going to be illuminated for the enemy . Once we were straddled by two of Sikh's starshells and the minutes that followed before we could get out of the light were extrodinarily tense! Bismark also fired star shell, but hers were distinguishable as they were lighter and also because they had some kind of reflector gear which made them turn round and so throw a beam of light like a lighthouse.
After a time we stopped firing starshell and fired AA shell every half an hour.
Dawn came at about 05.00. By that time the sea was very rough, and rain squalls drifted across the sea from time to tome so that at one moment one could see 10 miles and the next only 500 yards. No one knew really where the enemy was, but our own plot and the D/F bearings from other ships we thought he must be pretty close, and were forever expecting him to appear out of the nearest rain squall and blow us out of the water.
The enemy was eventually sighted about 8000 yards away dead ahead, and we altered course to keep at a safe distance to shadow him. Piorun was detached to refuel.
Now followed two hours of quiet while we wandered about the sea, watching Bismark steaming along the horizon, and waiting for our own fleet to arrive. The day grew steadily better, and soon a bright blue sky and a clear horizon had taken the place of the grey mists and driving clouds of earlier on. We saw no other destroyers except once when Sikh appeared over the horizon and we closed to identify each other.
Suddenly at 09.00, we saw a large orange flash in one of the few remaining rain clouds on the horizon, and a minute later the enemy replied. Another orange flash and we saw two ships comming out of the mist. They were HMS King George V, the flag ship, and HMS Rodney.
We now steamed about as close as we could to the big ships, and slightlyto the North of them, to watchthe action. Bismark only got one salvoe anywhere near our ships, and that , her first straddled Rodney. No damage was done as the spread was colossal, but our ships. after the first few shots, were continually hitting the enemy, so much so that it was difficult to tell which flashes were from the enemy's guns, and which were from our own shells hitting.
Bismark ceased fire and lay stopped by 09.30, but her flag still remained flying, and one gun fired spasmodically in local control. Our ships therefore kept firing. Rodney turned away and came round to the Southward of the enemy, closing in as time went on to 1500 yards and firing the whole broadside into the enemy with both 16 inch and 6 inch guns. It was a fine sight, the ships dipping into the swell with clouds of spray comming over the forecastles, and every so often belching clouds of brown smoke and yellow fire from the guns.
While this was going on we were able to close in to within about three miles of the enemy. She was a fine looking ship, far more than her supposer 35,000 tons, and bigger perhaps than HMS Hood, with a long sweeping sheer on the forecastle, a fine arched bow, two turrets forward and two aft. She had one funnel and a fairly large mainmast structure.
Some fifteen torpedoe bombers were sighted at 10.50 but they turned out to be our own. All the same Zulu turned across their line of firee and KGV fired a few shots at them before they were identified. They turned away and dived on us before flying towards Bismark.
Major developments were happening here however. HMS Dorchester, who had come up at the last moment was sent in to sink the enemy with torpedoes, while the battle fleet turned for home and some much needed oil supplies. At this time the enemy was completely stopped, but upright and only a little low in the water. Smoke was pouring out of her superstructure, and guns were cocked at all angles. We watchd Dorchester close in and hit the enemy with two torpedoes. She turnrd over and sank at 11.0, just as the the torpedoe bombing force was diving to attack.
Maori and Dorchester stayed behind to pick up survivors, but the rest of us joined C in C and proceeded to the Northwards at 20 knots.
Nothing else happened that day."

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