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
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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
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SHOWS HIS TIP-Hubcrt L. Russell, a Seattle, Wash., taxi
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unknown man who had used his taxi, while a passenger,
to rob the "drive-in" window of a Seattle bank. Russell
was unaware that a robbery was in progress. The bandit
took the bank for $3,800. (UPI)
123 nsraiicpf
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