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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 3, 1963)
MEDFOKD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON iffikimig of Bism MONDAY. JUNE 3. 19(3 (Editor's not: Twenty- two years ago the greatest ta chase ei modtrn nival history wit naaring an and In tht Atlantic. A solitary German battleship, th mightiasl ih world had r atan. wu challenging th tupramacy ol tha British Royal Nary. Baior th drama was over, two fa mous ships and 3,000 men died, and the lifeline ot Britain bad been between the scissors.) care Ik. me si Bergen Alerts Fleet Tovey flashed the word to auuolk and her sister ship, I Confidence reigrcd. Hood broadside to Norfolk, on the Denmark! was ,ne biggest warship in marck. Strait patrol, the favorite ! the Royal Navy, and practical-1 The ponderous Hood heeled route jor Uerm-r. ships break ing into the Atlantic. He By JOHN G. WARNER United Press International The dark ship slid down an eerie hall of ice and fog, dis appearing now and again in wandering patches of mist. The curl and slap of the frigid sea on her bows was lost in the smothering silence of the Arctic. She was His Majesty's Cruiser Suffolk, patrolling the Denmark Strait on the bleak evening of May 23, 1941. It was a bleak evening eve- ryw.?re for beleagured Brit ain. The elite of the Wehr- macht was winning Crete; an other Dunkirk appeared im minent. The Luftwaffe was hurling its last great onslaught at London, and the battle of the Atlantic was at its peak. Depth charges were stacked on the stern of HMS Suffolk as she raced through the Arc tic twilight, but she was not looking for submarines. The cruiser hugged close to a wall of fog as she ran the southward leg of her patrol. Behind the fog were the mine fields off Iceland. On the oth er side, dimly visible through flurries of snow, lay the great icepack, and beyond that, the mountains of Greenland, All Eyes North On the bridge, the eyes of the watch strained astern, to the north. It was Newell, the starboard after lookout, who cried: "Ship bearing green, 140 de grees! Pounding down from the, north, nearly nine miles away and barely visible through snow and mist, was the mighty German battleship Bismarck, sprinting for the Atlantic to prey upon the convoys that kept Britain alive. The Bismarck was the world's most powerful vessel She displaced 56,000 tons fully equipped and oiled; she could steam 8,000 miles be fore refueling and her eight 15-inch guns, equipped with radar range finders, could strike an enemy 18 miles away. She was to venture alone but for ' the cruiser Prinz Eugen, into the ocean that British ships had ruled for centuries. On the 20th of May, Bis mark and her consort steam ed through the Kattegat for Bergen, Norway, under Vice Adm. Gunther Lutjens. Her passage did not escape British agents. By the n.-xt ttlesfoip, A 5 uay. nam. ir jonn lovey, the signals trom trie saa-; iiancs uom ilia big guns ot j A 15-inch shell crashed into I on a quick burst ol speed and were plotted right. The Bis- But one struck the Bis- commander in chief, Home) owing cruisers were picked , four ships seared the grey ! the bridge, killing or wound-i lose the cruisers shadowing mark was undoubtedly head- marck in her starboard quar- Fleet, knew the Bismarck lay i up by the Hood and the sky. and the splashes of their ! ing every man on it but the ; her. Tr try to prevent that, ing in a southerly direction, ter and it sealed her doom in Grimstad Fiord, south of Prince of Wales south of Ice-' shells rose hundreds of ttct in j c a p t a i n and a singlcman. he ordered the carrier Vic- Sir John wheeled his ships only a few hundred miles land. On Hood. Vice Adm. the air. I Blood dripped through thejtorious to take a cruiser I back around. Holland ordered high speed. Adm. Holland ordered a'voicepipe into the plotting screen and steam to within Oil Running Out Hood Said Match Murn to bring the Hood a ' room below. range to launch her planes. bear on Bis ; Seven hits- racked the On the night of the 'J4th, Prince of Waics in moments. ' she flew her planes off in a Staggering, most of her guns j storm without mishap. They malfunctioning, she reeled found the Bismarck - after away from the battle. nearly setting upon a V. S. The Bismarck had. with six Coast Guard cutter that bltin from safety. It wrecked her steering and forced her to The problem of fuel was turn into the wind - direct- growing more critical every ly towards Sir John Tovey's hour. Sir John could do no battleships. more high speed steaming, for Shortly before midnight. he was running out of oil. Adm. Lutiens radioed Berlin: The night of the 25th pas- 'Ship unmaneuverable. We sed dismally. On the morn- shall fight to the last shell. salvoes, blown to bits one of dered into the drama - and i ing of the 26th, costal com- Long live the Fuehrer.' the most powerful vessels launched the attack. maud planes found the Bis- Tovey had his miracle. He ly every man in the Admir- j into the turn, her guns bla:- alty had served aboard her. inc. and suddenly she disap- alerted the Home Fleet to be If anything afloat was a'peared in a mighty eruption ready to steam from Scapa1 match for the Bismarck, it ' of flame. A dazzling ball of Flow. i was Hood. ! fire soared a thousand fect But Tovey, flyinsr his flae Prince of Wales. 22 vcars into the air. The Hood was . aiioat. and with another rioz- Score A Kit mark. She was making for an decided to wait until mom- aboard King George V, could j the Hood's junior, was so raw gone, smashed beneath the soa ; en driven away a second bat-1 They scored a Int. and re-1 Atlantic port. And she was so ing to close in, despite his not take the fleet out without i that some of her main turrets ' as if by a gigantic hammer : tleshin. Dismallv. the cruisers turned, landing on the heav- j lar ahead ot tir John Tovey flagging fuel supply. His de- turtner word of the Bismarck. I were not in working order: blow. and the battered battleship ing deck without the loss of ann "is pack that, without stroyers forged ahead, and u he left too soon, he might I and she steamed on such short ! A radioman aboard the Nor- picked un the trail and began : a single plane. It was the : some son ol miracle, they through the night they nipped run out of fuel before he I notice thai workmen from the i folk, standing off to watch the j shadowing the Bismarck; first time many of them had ' could never catch her. and snanped at the hamstrung could find her; if he left too shipbuilders were still aboard, battle of giants, gazed in southward. j landed on a carrier. i ne oniy isuusn lorce with- giant like wolves at a stag. late, she might gain such a lead he could never find her. The weather closed in over Norway. The R.A.F. sent in flight after flight, with bomb ers and torpedo planes ready Hood made out two ships off the starboard beam. They were Bismarck and cruiser. it was accurate. A file broke out by the Hood's mainmast, bu't was quickly brought un der control. The angry orange to follow, but the foe was so i the 24th. lookouts aboard bad most of the pilots couldn't even find the coast. At 9 p.m. on May 21 Tovev ordered Vice Adm. L. E. Hol land, aboard the battlccruiser Hood, to take the battleship Prince of Wales and a squad ron of destroyers and shape a course toward Iceland. It was seven hours since the last news of the Bismarck. The weather was even worse on the morning of the 22nd. Late that afternoon, a crew took off from the R.A.F. sta tion near Kirkwall in the Orkneys and crossed to Nor way. They had luck. They found Bergen and raced through the flak at rooftop height toward their objective. Bismarck Loose To Tovey at Scapa Flow crackled the news he had waited for: Grimstad Fiord was empty; the Bismarck was loose. "Two ships bearing green. 140 degrees," cried Newell aboard the Suffolk as the Bis marck and her consort hove down upon them. The Suffolk slid hastily into the protec tive mist. Her job was to shadow the German squad ron as it raced toward the Atlantic shipping lanes, and move the British battleships in for the kill. The Bismarck would blow the Suffolk out of the water, given half a chance. So the Suffolk waited in the fog un til the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen had passed. The radio sent out enemy sighting messages in a con stant flow through the half light of the bitter arctic night. A few miles away, HMS Nor folk picked up the trail, too. The chase was on. It went on through six days of rain, snow and Atlantic gales dur ing which the hunters and the hunted never glimpsed the sun and, before it was over, 3,000 miles from where it started, thousands of men were dead in its wake. At 15 minutes past mid-1 shocked silence at the message night, Adm. Holland ordered ! he had to send to the admir the battle ensigns hoisted. The ! alty. , men on the Hood and the J "Hood has blown up." Prince of Wales went to ac- At Chequers on that Sattir tion stations. At 5:35 a.m. on 'day morning, Sir Winston Churchill was awakened to be told of the disaster. Three Men Survive It was also the fust time On their way, they picked ! carrier-launched planes had up the only three men who survived the sinking of the Hood. More than 1.500 hands went down with the old bal tlecruiser. In London, the admiralty He was saddened, but not moved swiftly. From Gibral- her disheartened. Surely the i tar, Force H, consisting of aboard the German raider. ! Prinp. rf Vafi and thp nlhrr I .1,1 hiitlni-rnici- T?r,ir,-r, tha She had suffered nnlv- two ever attacked a battleship at sea, sounding the first toll of the battlewagnn's death knell. The torpedo that caught the Bismarck was little more than a mosquito bite to her armor. But all was not well With the Hood in the lead, ! ships converging on the scene the British men of war turn-1 could handle the situation, ed to close the Germans. He told his guest, Avercll Adm. Holland ordered a Harriman, "Hood has blown course that closed the gap up, but we have got the Bis quickly, but it also prevented J marck for certain." the after turrets of both ships An hour and a half later, he from bearing on the enemy, knew the truth. His secretary while still showing the big appeared with a strained look, guns of the Bismarck most of j "Have we got her?" the the length of the British ships, i Prime Minister asked. British Open Fire "No." replied the secretary, At 5:49 am., Holland gave : "and the Prince of Wales has 'day. the 25lh the signal to open fire. The broken otf the action, ranee was 25.000 yards. j Prince of Wales had to Bismarck and Prinz Eugen sheer sharply to miss the pall opened fire immediately, and of smoke that hung over the Ark Royal, and a ' hits in the battle that mom was ordered north-! ing, but one of them burst carrier cruiser. ward to intercept the Bis marck. Other ships from all over the Atlantic were or dered into the gigantic hunt. At sea. Sir John Tovey, lead ing his squadron aboard King George V, set a course which he hoped would bring him upon the Germans a few hours after dawn on the next Hood's grave, and the mur rierous fire of the Bismarck fell promptly upon the battleship. Within six hours of the loss of the Hood, four battle ships, two battle-cruisers, two carriers and dozens of cruis ers and destroyers were on the Bismarck's trail. Sir John was concerned that the Bismarck might put They'll Do It Every Time -"-. By Jimmy ILitlo 7 HELLO- R.4DD MAPS ? V EI6UT HERE CM TVJ-r lE!?IALYii" I THI5 15 DCCE3 0 TVE UtjU- MAP-ACCCEDlNO TO OUR - M I WAV COMMISSION AAlM-fTc-EODETICSUIJVEVTHATSECTlOM) IMcNTHOL.Trlt MAP WHAT ABOUT THAT TURN- OP THE TURNPIKE WILL BE IN NUka 15 TVIP OFF BETWEEN ZIPPER ,f OPERATION ON JUNE 0-'J' 'jJ VllM-Q-nVF-"" Jp-ra GAP AND CURTAIN sSA ZmAn---;i;Ji V-n, ,,7cu frCl V FALLS ' T-OvV ilIi1 jsrSi AUTHORITY WHEM -r-iSli IT COMS TO MJZXZk CHARTING EVERY" ' WWT HIGHWAY. BYWAV into an oil tank, losing much of her fuel and contaminating more with sea water. She needed repairs. Later that night, the Prinz Eugen slipped away unseen. The mighty battleship Bis marck was on her own. Everything seemed set for a showdown on the morning of the 25th. But about 3 a.m., the Suffolk, zig - ragging to ward off submarines, lost contact with her quarry on the oilier icg She turned hark on the inner leg. but failed lo regain contact as usual. She cast about fran tically with her radar. Bismarck Gono The Bismarck was gone, disappeared in the vast At lantic. Consternation and fear swept Britain in reach of her was Sir James A gale was blowing out of Somervillc's force H from Gi- the northwest when the 27th braltar. The only capital ship dawned and showed the Bis- in Force II was the battle- marck floundering In the cruiser, Renown - no match aves. At 8:47 a.m., the Rodney lor liismark. opened tire, followed in a The only hope - a slim one minute by the flagship. There - was that a carrier strike was a pause, and the Bis- from the Ark Royal would mnrck's guns opened up. somehow slow the Bismark On her third salvo, the Bis enough for the battleships to marck straddled Rodney, but overtake her before she came then a British hit shredded under the Luftwaffe's protec- her fire control center and tion. the Bismarck's gunnery fell The battleship Rodney loin- off sharply ed forces with King George Within half an hour, the V and the pursuit continued. The batt-red Prince of Wales, her fuel supply sagging, head ed for port. Fuel supplies aboard King George V and Rodney were ebbing rapidly, but Churchill ordered Sir John to keep up the chase even it he had to be towed home. They were in U-boat coun try. Summoned by German radio, woltpacks were rush ing lo the scene to protect the Bismark. Storm Thickens The storm around the Ark Royal was worsening rapidly. Nevertheless, a strike of Swordfish planes was lined up on the deck. Such was the heave of the sea that the end Bismarck was ablaze. Her guns were silent, sagging downward towards the waves or pointing like paralyzed fingers at the sky. The British battleships paraded back and forth, pouring tons of shell into her. The Rodney even torpedoed' her, the first and probably only Instance of one battle ship torpedoing another. But the Bismarck would not sink, and her battle en sign still flew. Tovey could stay no longer; it was already questionable whether he had enough fuel to reach home. He turned away, and told his cruisers to use up what tor pedoes they had left on tha apparently indestructible Bis marck. But the end was at hand. The cruiser Dorsetshire slip ped two torpedoes into th staggering hulk. The Bis marck shuddered, rolled over on her back and sank. Two thousand of her crew died with her. In London, the prime min ister rose in parliament and told the house that "I hav just received news that th Bismarck is sunk." The house, he observed, "seemed content" The battle of Crete was at of the flight deck was rising its height, requiring most of ; and falling 56 feet. Planes had Churchill's attention. "Never- never been flown off In such thcless," he wrote afterwards, "only one scene riveted my background thoughts: "This tremendous Bismarck . . . perhaps almost invulner able to guniirc, rushing south ward towards our convoys." The Bismarck had 10 be found weather. At 3 p.m. on the 26th of May, the Ark Royal flew off her first slrike. The pilots promptly mistook the cruiser Sheffield for the Bismarck and attacked her. The torpedoes, fortunately, missed, and the dejected pilots en But Adm. Lutiens, aboard returned to the Ark Royal the Bismark, didn't realize he There was time for only one had shaken off his shadowcrs. more attack, then it would be He submitted a long radio too dark, and too stormy, for transmission lo Germany. more, and in the morning, at British direction - finding the rate she was steaming, the stations picked up the signals. Bismnrck would be under Thev n nlted the signals German air cover. wrong, making it appear the Again (hey took off, and Bismark had turned and was this time they found the Bis- heading back for the North marck churning through the Sea. ram Accordingly, Sir John Tov ey ordered his hunters back lo the North. They lost five hours steaming the wrong way before the talkative Bis mark made another radio The Swordfish dived al most to the waves, flattened out and began their approach through the bursts of flak. One after another, they loosed their torpedoes. Most of them '-v JMMT1I IIll "S1. . -1 k -V-".:. ' J& r5 XT 30-5 1 I X r m.. 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