End of a Giant

    After the bombing of the Bismarck, Admiral Lütjens offered to reward the Iron Cross on the spot to any volunteer who could blast free the jammed rudders in the flooded engine steering room. But every effort failed. Even a message from the Füherer: "the whole of Germany is with you," did little to revive the flagging spirits of the Bismarck's exhausted crew.

*The Bismarck is being pounded by King George V

    It the morning the British battleships King George V and the Rodney were closing in rapidly from the northwest, supported by the heavy cruisers Norfolk to the north and the Dorsetshire to the south. At 8:47 a.m. the Rodney opened fire from 12 miles away, followed immediately by the King George V. The Bismarck returned their fire, but she was hardly maneuverable.

    The Rodney's third salvo destroyed one of the Bismarck's forward turrets. The Norfolk and the Dorsetshire joined the fight. Shell after shell smashed into the Bismarck's superstructure. Her fire control machinery was demolished. The King George V and the Rodney closed to four miles, then two miles- point-blank range. Observers saw shell after shell from the British ships strike. By 10 a.m. the Bismarck was still afloat and under way, but her guns were silent. At 10:15 a.m., Lieutenant Commander Junack, the Bismarck's chief turbine engineer, was told that the ship was sinking.

*The last photo of the Bismarck from the Dorsetshire

    Of the more than 2,000 officers and men who had sailed from Gotenhafen nine days earlier, only 110 were rescued. Neither Admiral Lütjens nor Captain Lindemann was among these survivors. Thus ended Operation Rheinübung, and with it the major effort of Germany's surface navy in the Battle of the Atlantic. From then on Hitler, who was still haunted by the loss of the Bismarck, had decreed that all of his remaining major ships must "avoid any unnecessary risks"; none could sail without first obtaining his express approval. Never again would the big ships venture into the Atlantic to sink Allied vessels. That was left to the submarines. 

*Survivors from the Bismarck