THE GLORIOUS ‘STRINGBAG’
THE CREW OF THE BATTLESHIP BISMARCK COULD BE PROUD OF THEMSELVES AND THEIR GREAT SHIP. TWO DAYS EARLIER, ON MAY 24, 1941, THEY HAD SENT THE PRIDE OF THE ROYAL NAVY, THE BATTLECRUISER HMS HOOD, AND ALL BUT THREE OF ITS 1,419-MAN CREW TO THE BOTTOM OF THE ATLANTIC.
Hit by three shells in return, Bismarck had set course for the port of Brest, in occupied France, to undergo repairs. The only warships that could pose a threat were hundreds of miles away.
Then, at dusk, out of a rainsquall, skimming just above the waves at a leisurely pace, appeared what must have seemed phantoms from the previous war: nine Fairey Swordfish biplanes from the aircraft carrier Victorious, their crews’ heads leaning out of open cockpits. Bismarck’s Captain Ernst Lindemann ordered the helm put hard over. He knew that while the biplanes might be obsolete, the torpedoes they carried were not. The battleship’s anti-aircraft guns unleashed an intense barrage. No planes were shot down, but only one torpedo scored a hit, amidships on the main armor belt, with negligible effect. Bismarck’s crew probably wondered why, in the third year of the war, the Royal Navy had only sent a handful of antique aircraft against them. Tomorrow, they would be close to France, protected by the Luftwaffe and a line of U-boats.
For the British there remained one last, desperate chance to attack. With darkness falling, another flight of 15 Swordfish managed to take off from the wildly pitching deck of the carrier into 70 mph winds. One of their torpedoes again fruitlessly turned hard to port, a second struck its vulnerable stern. With its rudder jammed, the great ship could only steam in circles. The next day, May 27, the battleships and , together with several cruisers, appeared on the horizon. put up a brave fight, but eventually joined on the ocean floor.
