Today in History: The Bismarck Sinks!

On this day (May 27) in 1941 the Bismarck, the greatest German battleship ever built, was sunk. The Bismarck only conducted one offensive mission. In an eight day raid on allied shipping, it was confronted by the British battleships Hood and Prince of Wales. It sunk the first and badly damaged the second, but determined to retreat to Occupied France for repairs. Dozens of ships from the British navy swarmed after the Bismarck seeking revenge, but it was an attack by 16 Fairey Swordfish (obsolete warplanes) that crippled the battleship when one of them dropped the “lucky torpedo” which damaged the battleship’s ability to navigate by jamming the port rudder. Two more British battleships and two heavy cruisers then caught up with the Bismarck. In the ensuing battle, they hit the Bismarck 400 times but couldn’t sink it. Yet they had damaged it sufficiently for its commanding officer to order the Bismarck scuttled to keep it from falling into British hands. Unfortunately, communications breakdowns within the damaged vessel kept the order to abandon ship from circulating to all of the crew and many went down with the ship. Captain Lindemann, who gave the orders to scuttle the vessel, stood at attention at the stem of the Bismarck as she sank. Out of a crew that started with 2100 members, only 114 survived.