And i concede as well...i think this account adds a bit more detail to the picture for all arguments...draw your own conclusions:
The chase
Determined to avenge the sinking of
Hood, the British committed every possible unit to hunting down
Bismarck. During the early evening of 24 May an attack was made by a small group of
Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from
825 Naval Air Squadron of the
aircraft carrier Victorious. One hit was scored resulting in a single fatality (
Bismarck's first); however, the blast caused only superficial damage to
Bismarck's armoured belt.
The effect of the attack reopened the
Bismarck's earlier "wounds". The collision mats which had been used to block further flooding in the bow region had come loose due to constant jarring from evasive action and the firing of the anti-aircraft guns. The packing of the damaged bulkheads was also loosened leading to the complete forward flooding of the forward port boiler room, which was abandoned. This caused the bow to go down further, Lütjens thus ordered speed to be reduced to 16 knots (30 km/h) while the mats were repaired.
For some time
Bismarck remained under long-distance observation by the British. At about 03:00 on 25 May, the ship took advantage of her opponents' zig-zagging and performed an almost three-quarter clockwise turn behind her pursuers to escape towards the east and then south-east. Contact was lost for four hours; however, perhaps in awe of British radar capabilities, it appears that the Germans did not realise their good fortune. Lütjens, for reasons that are unclear but possibly believing that
Bismarck was still being tracked (despite a communication sent by Group West telling him the opposite),
[20] transmitted a half-hour radio message to HQ, which was intercepted thereby giving the British time to work out roughly where he was heading. However, a plotting error made onboard
King George V, now in pursuit of the Germans, incorrectly calculated
Bismarck's position and caused the chase to veer too far north.
Bismarck was therefore able to make good time on 25/26 May in her unhindered passage towards France and protective air cover and destroyer escort. By now, though, fuel was becoming a major concern to both sides.
The British had a stroke of luck on 26 May. In mid-morning a
Royal Air Force Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from
209 Squadron, which had flown over the Atlantic from its base on
Lough Erne in
Northern Ireland across
Donegal through a small corridor secretly provided by the
Éire government,
[21] spotted
Bismarck (via her oil slick) and reported her position to the Admiralty. From then on, the German ship's position was known to the British, although the enemy would have to be slowed significantly if heavy units hoped to engage it out of range of German aircraft protection. All British hopes were now pinned on
Force H, whose main units were the aircraft-carrier
Ark RoyalTemplate:WP Ships HMS instances, the old battlecruiser
RenownTemplate:WP Ships HMS instances and the cruiser
SheffieldTemplate:WP Ships HMS instances. This battle-group, commanded by Admiral
James Somerville, had been diverted north from
Gibraltar.
At dusk that evening, and in atrocious weather conditions,
Ark Royal launched its
Fairey Swordfish for another attack at 19:25. The first wave mistakenly targeted the
Sheffield that was by now shadowing the quarry. Although precious time was lost by this incident, it proved beneficial to the British in that the magnetic detonators on the torpedoes used against
Sheffield were seen to be defective and for the following attack on
Bismarck were replaced by those designed to explode on contact. In a final attack, almost in darkness at 21:05, a hit by a single torpedo (launched by Sub-Lieutenant
John Moffat) jammed
Bismarck's rudder and steering gear. This rendered
Bismarck virtually unmanoeuvrable, increased her list to port and she was able only to steam in a large circle in the general direction of
King George V and
Rodney, two frontline battleships that had been in pursuit from the west. After extensive efforts to free the jammed rudders, the fleet command finally acknowledged their by-now impossible position in several messages to naval headquarters. Lütjens promised that the ship would fight until the last shell was spent. The cost to the attacking British had been four Swordfish damaged, and another damaged beyond repair.
[22]
