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"Sink
the Bismarck "
On
24th May 1941 the Bismarck dealt a damaging blow to the Royal
Navy and the British people by sinking the "mighty Hood" in
the North Atlantic . The battle only lasted six minutes
and there were only 3 survivors from the ships company of
1419. Churchill gave orders to "Sink the Bismarck ".
On 18th May, under the command of Admiral Lutjens,
the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen had left the Baltic port of Gotenhafen
, hoping to carry out attacks on convoys of merchant ships
that carried vital supplies of food, materials and arms from
Canada and the U.S.A. to Britain . During the encounter
with the Hood the Bismarck had been hit by HMS Prince of Wales,
leaving her holed with a fuel tank leak and one engine out
of action. Admiral Lutjens decided to separate from
the Prince Eugen and to head for France in the Bismarck .
In the early morning of 24 th May, 1941 three ships
from Force H, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, the cruiser
Renown and the light cruiser Sheffield , were ordered to leave
Gibraltar to try and intercept the Bismarck . HMS Sheffield
had been assigned to Force H because of her radar (then known
as RDF) facility, which was still a closely guarded secret.
Robert
Watson-Watt and his team of researchers had been developing
radar (RDF) since 1935. In 1938, at the Board of Admiralty's
request the Commander in Chief, Home Fleet, nominated HMS
Sheffield and HMS Rodney to be fitted with the first two radar
systems. The onset of war gave the added impetus to
the development of more accurate radar systems for detecting
surface craft and low-flying aircraft. The Sheffield
had been fitted with radar and the scientist John Logie Baird
had visited her to see the Navy's first radar installation.
At this point no radar operators had been specifically
trained and all testing and calibrations had been undertaken
by civil technicians and the Chief Telegraphist. In
October 1939 three RNVR ratings, Ted Eves, Owen Piggott and
Ron Ravenscroft, and Andrew Maciver (Anndra Beag of 26 North
Tolsta) an RNR rating, were selected by the Royal Navy as
the first four RDF operators and joined HMS Sheffield in Scapa
Flow . Following convoy duty in the North Atlantic
, Sheffield had been assigned to Force H who were on duty
in the Mediterranean .
Bercuson
and Herwig described the departure of Force H from Gibraltar
. "As the clock struck 2.00 a.m. , Somerville 's destroyers
began to move south, past Algecrais to port and the Rock of
Gibraltar to starboard, to the mouth of the bay to take up
station for the larger to follow. Then the Renown began
to move, followed by Ark Royal and the Sheffield .
One by one they exited the bay, then shaped course southwest,
past the town of Tarifa , at the tip of Spain , and into the
Strait of Gibraltar . Next they formed line-ahead with
the Sheffield in the lead and the Renown at the end of the
line and altered course northwest into the grey Atlantic .
The sailors had no idea where they were headed, but
they knew from the cold-weather gear that had been broken
out that their days in the tropics were over for now"!.
In his history of HMS Sheffield, Ronald Bassett, comments
that the "Bismarck was overwhelmingly superior to the ships
of Somerville's Force H, but Sheffield found herself alone
in the ring with Bismarck."2
At
18.00 on 26 th May the Sheffield located the Bismarck , the
first British ship to have made contact for 40 hours.
The
following account was written by Andrew Maciver (Anndra Beag)
and Owen Piggott on a small typewriter in the radar operators'
room on HMS Sheffield following the sinking of the Bismarck
. Anndra has kept these pages for over 60 years and
although most of it is still legible unfortunately the first
couple of pages are too faded to be read. We pick up
the story at the beginning of page 3 when the Sheffield was
closely shadowing the Bismarck .
An
Eye Witness Account written 60 years ago by Andrew Maciver
and Owen Piggott
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She
seemed horribly close to us and we all felt that she must
have seen us and at any moment expected a salvo of fifteen
inch shells about our ears, however all was well and nothing
happened as we made our way round astern of her keeping about
ten to twelve miles away.
The
next six hours passed in a flash, every quarter of an hour
or so we were making enemy reports on our wireless giving
the position, course and speed to our other heavy forces who
we knew were trying to concentrate; it was tense work, nobody
dared to relax a moment, if we got too close and disclosed
our position we should undoubtedly lay ourselves open to being
sunk or at any rate badly damaged. Our nearest supporting
forces were over fifty miles away so would not have a chance
of coming to our assistance.
At
18.30 we got a signal from "Ark" saying that she was going
to fly off a striking force of torpedo bombers, they were
to contact us and we were to direct them to the target.
Striking force arrived about 20.00 and we signalled to them
"the enemy is twelve miles dead ahead of us". The visibility
was not good at this time there was a good deal of low cloud
about, with several rain squalls all around. The torpedo
bombers disappeared into the clouds to attack whilst we waited
for the fireworks to start. They found a certain amount
of difficulty in getting into position for the attack on account
of the low clouds and rain storms, but suddenly in the murk
on our starboard bow we saw spurts of flame and huge red flashes
in the sky and realised that the torpedo bombers were going
in to attack.
It
was dull not being able to see clearly, but suddenly we saw
first one and then another two of our Swordfish flying towards
us. They came past us very low on a level with our
bridge and everyone took off their caps and gave them a terrific
cheer. We saw that their torpedoes had gone and as
one crew flew past we could see their faces wreathed in smiles
and they all had their 'thumbs up' as they flashed to us 'hit'.
Just after this the rain squall passed and we suddenly
saw the second wave of Swordfish going in to attack.
It was a never to be forgotten sight, there was the Bismarck
one spurting sheet of flame with all her guns firing.
We could see the aircraft coming down low over the water and
the splash where their torpedoes entered, then all of a sudden
there was a huge spurt of blue flame and a gigantic column
of spray alongside the stern of the Bismarck . We realised
that it must have been a hit or a very near miss.
We
watched the last few aircraft attacking when suddenly we saw
their fifteen inch guns open fire, we all thought it was at
the aircraft as we thought we were still unseen. The
shells fell in the water about three miles away from us so
we did not worry. Another salvo was fired by the Bismarck
and about three quarters of a minute later there was a most
deafening crack as four of her fifteen inch H.E. shells fell
either side of us and exploded on impact with the water, two
of them fell about forty yards on our starboard beam, the
others about fifteen yards off our port quarter. The
air was filled with flying splinters and fragments of shell.
We
immediately went on to full speed ahead and the Captain gave
the order to make smoke but before it could be effective four
more salvos fell uncomfortably close, two of them falling
just ahead and the other two just astern. Everyone
was extremely thankful when the smoke screen became effective
and hid us from the Bismarck .
By
this time it was after 21.00 and to our great relief we saw
five destroyers, Cossack, Maori, Zulu and two others coming
at high speed. Our job had been accomplished as we
had maintained touch with the enemy till these fellows had
arrived to take over the very difficult and dangerous job
of shadowing the Bismarck throughout the night.
All
this had not happened without us having to pay a price.
Unfortunately some of the splinters had wounded twelve of
our A.A. personnel, three poor fellows have since died and
two others are seriously wounded. The wardroom was
the most damaged spot, several huge fragments of shell came
through the ships side and went ricocheting around, piercing
three bulkheads before coming to rest. Nobody was there,
thank goodness, and only superficial damage was done.
Having
turned over the job to the destroyers, we cleared out to the
westward to keep clear of the King George V and Rodney who
we knew were coming down from the North in addition the Renown
was to the Southward and the Norfolk to the East. It
was thrilling as the destroyers enemy reports started come
through: "Bismarck is doing twelve knots" (she had been doing
twenty to twenty two knots all the time we had been shadowing
her); "Enemy had altered course to 340 0" followed very shortly
by "Enemy has altered course to 260 0" . Her course
seemed to vary with each report, slowly it was being borne
on us that her steering gear or rudder must have been affected
by the hit that we had observed on her stern.
About
02.00, it was now being very dark with no moon and an overcast
sky, a signal from Cossack; "I'm going in to attack" followed
five minutes later with "Attack completed, claim one hit"
(with torpedo). At 02.30 approximately from Maori;
"Have carried out attack, one hit definite, enemy forecastle
is on fire". The enemy's speed after this was reduced,
7- 8 knots, and this news was broadcast to our guns' crews
who are still standing to at action stations.
The
C-in-C Home Fleet in the "K.G.V." made a signal saying "Intend
to engage the enemy at dawn from the Westward with the Rodney.
We then realised the end was very near. Our
reports combined with those of the destroyers had led these
two ships straight to the enemy.
The
sun rose at 07.15 but the light and visibility was very poor
due to the constant rain squalls and low clouds and it was
not until 08.30, by which time we had closed in to fifteen
miles, that the C-in-C decided conditions were good enough.
We heard "K.G.V." and Rodney open fire and the answering
fire from the Bismarck . We were all hoping that we
should be allowed to close to finish her off with torpedoes,
what a spectacle that must have been. Unfortunately
it was not to be and the Dorsetshire was ordered to sink her
with torpedoes. Thus ended a very gallant ship and
a brave ships company, they had fought until there was not
a gun in action and their ship nothing but a battered hulk.
After
the action the following signal was received from Vice Admiral
Somerville:
"Much
regret to hear of your casualties while shadowing Bismarck
. I wish to express my sympathy in the loss of your
shipmates. I trust the wounded are progressing favourably.
I consider your tenacity and your shadowing was in
a large degree responsible for the striking force and destroyers
making contact, which fixed the Bismarck and led to her eventual
destruction."
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