Operation Rhineland Exercises included the entry of the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen into Atlantic Ocean through the Denmark Strait. The main goal of the operation was to reach the sea communications of the British merchant fleet. It was assumed that the Bismarck would engage the escort of convoys in battle, while the Prinz Eugen would sink merchant ships. Admiral Gunter Lütjens was appointed commander of the operation, who asked the command to postpone the start of the campaign so that the Tirpitz, which was undergoing testing, or the “pocket battleship” Scharnhorst, which was being repaired in the port of Brest, could join him. However, the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine, Admiral Erich Raeder, did not support Lütjens, and on May 18, 1941, Prinz Eugen and Bismarck went to sea.

On May 20, German ships were spotted from the neutral Swedish cruiser Gotland, and on the same day representatives of the Norwegian resistance reported a squadron of two large warships. On May 21, Great Britain received a message from its military attache at the Swedish Embassy about the discovery of two large German ships in the Kattegat Strait. From May 21 to 22, the ships were moored in the fjords near Bergen, Norway, where they were repainted and the Prinz Eugen was refueled. "Bismarck" for unknown reasons did not refuel. While the ships were parked, an English Air Force reconnaissance plane managed to photograph them. Now the British admirals have accurately identified Bismarck.

The commander of the English Home Fleet, Admiral John Tovey, almost immediately sent the battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Hood, accompanied by destroyers, to the southwest coast of Iceland. The cruiser "Suffolk" was supposed to link up with the cruiser "Norfolk" located in the Denmark Strait. The light cruisers Birmingham, Manchester and Arethusa were supposed to patrol in the strait between the Faroe Islands and Iceland. On the night of May 22, Admiral Tovey himself, at the head of a flotilla of the battleship King George V and the aircraft carrier Victorious with an escort, left the Scapa Flow fleet base. This flotilla was supposed to wait for German ships to the northwest of Scotland, where it was supposed to meet with the battle cruiser Repulse.

Battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen

On the evening of May 23, in the Denmark Strait, in thick fog, the cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk came into visual contact with German ships. The Bismarck was forced to open fire on the Norfolk, after which the British ships retreated into the fog and conveyed the location of the enemy to their command, continuing to follow the Bismarck on radar at a distance of 10-14 miles.

Battle in the Denmark Strait

The flagship of the English fleet, Hood, and the battleship Prince of Wales established visual contact with the German ships in the early morning of May 24 and began the battle at 5:52 a.m., being more than 20 km away. Vice Admiral Holland, who commanded the formation, ordered to open fire on the first ship, mistaking it for the Bismarck. The Prince of Wales quickly figured out the mistake and transferred the fire to the second ship. Holland himself soon realized this, but apparently his order never reached the fire control center, since the Hood continued to fire at the Prinz Eugen until the very end.

At 5:56, the sixth salvo from the Prince of Wales hit the Bismarck, the shells damaged the fuel tanks and caused fuel to leak and fill with water, the ship began to leave the oil shelf. A minute later, the Hood received hits from the third salvo of the Bismarck and the second salvo of the Prinz Eugen, fires started on the ship. At this time, Bismarck received two more hits from Prince of Wales below the waterline. By 6:00 o'clock the ships had approached to 16 km, at which time the Hood was hit by the fifth salvo from the German battleship. terrible power explosion and the pride of the English fleet, breaking in half, sank to the bottom in a matter of minutes. Of the total crew of 1,417 people, only three were saved.

The battleship "Prince of Wales" was forced to continue the battle alone and it developed extremely unsuccessfully for him. The ship was forced to approach German ships up to a distance of 14 km, avoiding a collision with the remnants of the Hood. After receiving seven hits, which disabled one of the main caliber turrets, the battleship left the battle, hiding behind a smoke screen.

The captain of the Bismarck, Lindemann, offered to continue the pursuit and sink the stricken battleship, but Admiral Lütjens ordered the campaign to continue. On the Bismarck, as a result of the battle, one generator failed, sea water began to flow into boiler room No. 2 with two boilers, two fuel tanks were pierced, the ship sailed with a trim on the bow and a list to starboard. Admiral Lutyens decided to break through to the French port of Saint-Nazaire for repairs, after which the battleship could easily reach the Atlantic communications.

"Bismarck" fires on the battleship "Prince of Wales"

The pursuit

The cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk, as well as the damaged battleship Prince of Wales, continued to pursue the Germans, relaying their location. The death of the flagship of the fleet, the battle cruiser Hood, made a very painful impression on the British admirals; later, a special commission was even created to investigate the circumstances of the death of the Hood. Now most of warships located in the North Atlantic joined the hunt for the Bismarck. The escort ships of many military convoys were brought in to pursue the battleship. So, for this operation, the battleship Rodney and three of the four destroyers that accompanied the former passenger liner Britannic, converted into a military transport, were involved. Additionally, 2 more battleships and 2 cruisers were involved in the operation. Fleet Force H, stationed at Gibraltar, was put on alert in case the Bismarck headed in their direction.

At about 6 p.m. on May 24, the Bismarck suddenly turned around in the fog and headed towards its pursuers. After a short battle, the ships did not hit each other, but the British ships were forced to hide, at which time the Prinz Eugen successfully broke contact with them and reached the French port of Brest 10 days later. At half past ten, Leutens reported to the command that the Bismarck, experiencing a lack of fuel, was stopping attempts to shake off its pursuers and was moving directly to Saint-Nazare.

In the evening of the same day, Admiral Tovey orders the aircraft carrier Victories to approach the battleship, and already at 22:10 9 Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from it, which, under heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire, attacked the battleship and achieved one hit from the starboard side. However, the ship did not receive serious damage, since the torpedo hit the main armor belt. In this incident, the ship's crew lost one sailor (the first loss since the beginning of the voyage). At night, the Bismarck managed to break away from its pursuers, taking advantage of the fact that they, fearing attacks from submarines, began to perform anti-submarine maneuvers.

Detection

The ship was discovered again only at 10:10 on May 26, when the American-British crew of the Katolina flying boat took off from the Lough Erne base to Northern Ireland was able to detect the battleship. By this time, Lutyens still had 690 miles left to Brest; soon he could call in Luftwaffe bomber aircraft to protect the ship.

At this moment, the only British formation that could slow down the Bismarck was Force H, commanded by Admiral Sommerville, which came out to intercept from Gibraltar, including the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. At 14:50, Swordfish torpedo bombers flew from its deck to the place where the battleship was found; by this time, the Sheffield cruiser, which had separated from the main forces, was in the area and was trying to establish contact with the Bismarck. The pilots, who did not know anything about this, mistook him for a German and carried out a torpedo attack; fortunately for them, not one of the 11 torpedoes fired was able to hit the target.

At 17:40, Sheffield discovered the Bismarck and began pursuing it; a repeated raid by 15 torpedo bombers at 20:47 bore fruit, the British pilots achieved two or three hits on the battleship, with one of them becoming decisive, the torpedo hit the stern part of the vessel and damaged the steering mechanisms. "Bismarck" lost the ability to maneuver and began to describe circulation; the team's attempts to restore the ship's controllability were unsuccessful.

The last battle of the battleship

Sinking

May 27 at 8:47 am from a distance of 22 km. The Bismarck was attacked by ships from Admiral Tovey's formation; the battleships King George V and Rodney, and then the cruisers Dorsetshire and Norfolk, began shelling the ship. The battleship snapped back. However, the British quickly scored hits on the Bismarck; within half an hour, the main caliber gun turrets were damaged, many superstructures, including fire control posts, were destroyed and on fire, and the ship suffered a strong list. At 9:31, the last fourth gun turret of the cruiser fell silent, after which, according to the stories of the surviving crew members, the captain of the ship, Ernst Lindemann, gave the order to scuttle the ship. "Bismarck" did not lower the battle flag to the end, which allowed "Rodney" to approach a distance of 2-4 km. and shoot a defenseless ship point-blank. However, the fuel on the British ships was running out, realizing that the Bismarck would no longer reach Brest, Admiral Tovey decides to return to base. The cruiser Dorsetshire fires 3 torpedoes at the German battleship from 10:20 to 10:36, each of which hits the target. At 10:39, the Bismarck fell on board and sank; only a little more than 110 crew members managed to escape; more than 2,100 people shared the fate of the lost ship.

The first to discover the German formation consisting of the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen were observers from the English battleship Prince of Wales at a distance of approximately 38 km. This happened at 5.35 on May 24, 1941 - against the backdrop of a brightening horizon, the British noticed the masts of German battleships. The battleships Hood and Prince of Wales themselves remained in the shadow of the fading twilight. But the Germans also knew about the presence of the enemy thanks to hydrophone readings. And the cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk, which discovered the German formation the night before, monitored it using radar, periodically losing and regaining contact. But the main thing is that they reported the course of the German raiders, thanks to which it was possible to find them at the exit from the Denmark Strait. In the Atlantic, this would be much more difficult to do and would have to accompany every convoy from America and back, spending colossal resources that were already scattered across all oceans. There was less than a month left before the treacherous attack on the USSR, and in Europe England alone waged war against Nazi Germany. America helped a lot, with the help of convoys delivering the most necessary things, but Admiral Raeder’s submarines had already begun to form “wolf packs”, having felt the “taste of first blood”. And then there are two new, first-class raiders, capable of doing what a submarine cannot do - catching up and destroying. The convoy security forces were mostly destroyers capable of detecting and attacking a submarine with depth charges, but against a battleship they main caliber- What a grain to an elephant! And “Bismarck” against a convoy is not even a bull in a china shop, it’s a natural “beating of babies”...

Admiral Holland, holding his pennant on the Hood, had a choice: fight or accompany the German squadron until the main line of His Majesty's fleet approached. Two by two - everything is fair and you can’t hesitate. The English formation “turned up” and the “Prince of Wales” took its position in the wake, 4 cables behind the flagship. The Hood was the first to open fire at 5:52 a.m. from a distance of 22 km on the leading German ship, mistaking it for the Bismarck. The Germans responded with a delay according to Hood, but extremely accurately - a 203-mm shell from the Prince Eugene hit the ammunition rack of the stern anti-aircraft gun, causing a noticeable fire. To confidently defeat the enemy from the main caliber guns, it was necessary to fire several sighting shots (three or more - this depended on the skill and training of the crew), taking the enemy into the “fork”. The Germans covered the Hood with a second salvo... The sixth salvo of the Prince of Wales hit the Bismarck's bow cheekbone and led to a fuel oil leak and the tank filling with sea water. The Bismarck was listed to starboard and trimmed to the bow, and a plume of leaking fuel followed it. The British tried to shorten the battle distance in order to avoid the overhead fire that the Hood was so afraid of due to its poorly armored deck. And as it turned out - not in vain...

At 6.00, from a distance of 15 km, the Hood was covered by the fifth salvo of the Bismarck and seconds later a huge column of fire appeared above the masts, followed by an explosion that broke the ship in half. The stern sank instantly, and the bow rose vertically and a salvo thundered from the bow turret. The ship disappeared under water in a matter of minutes, and only three were saved...

What were the battleships that took part in one of the last artillery battles of heavy ships in world history? The aircraft came to sea, becoming the main caliber of the fleet, surpassing all guns in range, accuracy and firepower.

The battlecruiser Hood was laid down after the Battle of Jutland by the main linear forces of the English and German fleets and took into account the lessons and mistakes of British shipbuilders, which cost the Crown dearly in that battle. Launched on August 22, 1918, immediately becoming the largest and most powerful ship in the world. Completed, equipped and prepared for testing on January 9, 1920. On March 29, she was transferred to the fleet, and on May 17, 1920, she became the flagship of the battlecruiser brigade.

Weapons:

• Main caliber: 8 guns – 381 mm in four two-gun turrets
• 12 – 140 mm rapid-fire guns
• 4 – 102 mm anti-aircraft guns

Maximum length – 262 meters

• Normal displacement is 42600 tons.
• Total displacement 45,200 tons.
• Speed ​​– 31 knots

Before the war, a number of small upgrades were carried out that did not affect the main and most time-consuming problems - the deterioration of the power plant and weak deck armor. When installing lighter boilers of the new generation, the freed weight could be used for additional armor.

The battleship Bismarck was launched on February 14, 1939, almost 20 years after Hood. On August 24, 1940, the first and only commander of the ship was appointed - captain first rank Lindemann, who was remembered for the words: “I will not allow people to shoot at my ship with impunity.”

Weapons:

• Main caliber: 8 guns – 380 mm in four two-gun turrets
• 12 150 mm guns
• 16 - 105 mm
• 16 - 37 mm
• 18 - 20 mm

Maximum length – 251 meters

• Total displacement 50,900 tons.
• speed – 30 knots

As part of Operation Rhineland Exercises, on May 18, 1941, it left the Polish port of Gdynia together with the heavy cruiser Prince Eugene and headed for English sea communications in the Atlantic, was met by a neutral - the Swedish cruiser Gotland, after which the squadron’s departure became known British intelligence. The British sent several formations to intercept, one of which discovered the German squadron...
The Bismarck did not survive its victim for long - the sinking of the Hood was a crushing blow to Britain's pride as a maritime power, and revenge was a matter of honor for all fleet personnel, from the cabin boy to the gray-haired retired admiral. Two days later, the Bismarck was found by the American flying boat Catalina (America was neutral at that time), a Swordfish torpedo from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal disrupted the control and the ship was not controlled and described circulation, and the next day it was finished off by the squadron battleships and cruisers point-blank without lowering the flag and opening the kingstons.

All the available forces of the British fleet from the Baltic to Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea (if he managed to get there) took part in the operation to bait the Bismarck. Several formations of warships left their convoys to participate in the operation to destroy the Bismarck, and its sister battleship Tirpitz, before its sinking in a Norwegian fiord, caused panic in the English fleet. However, Hitler was also terrified of losing his only trump card at sea.

Battle of Denmark Strait

Opponents

Commanders of the forces of the parties

Strengths of the parties

Battle of Denmark Strait - naval battle World War II between ships of the Royal Navy of Great Britain and the Kriegsmarine (naval forces of the Third Reich). The British battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Hood tried to prevent the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen from breaking through the Denmark Strait into the North Atlantic. As a result, the battlecruiser Hood was sunk along with Admiral Lancelot Holland and 1,415 crew members.

Story

On May 18, 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by the cruiser Prinz Eugen, left Gdynia to break into the Atlantic and begin attacking trade convoys. The ships were commanded by Admiral Gunther Lütjens. The Royal Navy tracked Bismarck and Eugen to the coast of Norway before they disappeared on 22 May. On May 22, Admiral John Tovey sent the battlecruiser Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales with destroyers to the southwest coast of Iceland, leaving Scapa Flow on the same day with the battleship King George V, the aircraft carrier Victories and ships guards, heading to the north-west of Scotland in order to meet Bismarck and Eugen there. In addition, Tovey sent the cruiser Suffolk to the Denmark Strait to join the cruiser Norfolk, already patrolling the strait. On the evening of May 23, these two cruisers discovered Bismarck and Eugen and, having transmitted data on the location of the ships, went into the fog, continuing to follow the enemy at a distance of 10-14 miles.

Early on the morning of May 24, Hood and the Prince of Wales discovered Bismarck and Prinz Eugen and at 5:52 am opened fire on them, being at a distance of 22 kilometers from the enemy. Initially, Vice Admiral Holland ordered the first German ship to open fire, mistaking it for Bismarck, but it turned out to be Prinz Eugen - Bismarck was behind him. The Prince of Wales realized the mistake and opened fire on Bismarck. The Germans did not respond for some time, because they did not have orders to shoot at ships that were not part of the convoys. However, soon Bismarck's captain Lindemann said that he would not allow Eugen to be fired on with impunity, after which both German ships opened fire on the British. After this, Holland realized his mistake and ordered fire on Bismarck rather than Eugen, but, apparently, his order did not reach fire control. At 5:56 the Prince of Wales shells finally hit Bismarck, damaging the fuel tanks and causing fuel to leak and water to enter the tanks. However, just a minute later, Prinz Eugen and Bismarck simultaneously hit Hood's bow, causing a fire to start. Bismarck received a hit from the Prince of Wales below the waterline, but a minute later Hood flew into the air due to a hit in the ammunition storage. The Hood sank within minutes. 1,415 people died along with Admiral Holland. Only three people survived. The Prince of Wales, however, continued the battle, but extremely unsuccessfully: he was forced to approach the Germans to a distance of 14 kilometers in order to avoid a collision with the drowning Hood. In addition, the guns of the bow four-gun turret jammed, as a result of which the battleship was forced to withdraw from the battle under a smoke screen, receiving seven hits. Captain Lindeman suggested starting a pursuit and sinking the Prince of Wales, but Admiral Lutyens decided to continue the campaign.

Links

• R. Grant “Battles at sea. 300 years of continuous fighting"

May 24, 1941 became a dark day for Great Britain: the battle cruiser Hood, the most famous and strongest ship of the Royal Navy at that time, was sunk in a short-lived battle in the Denmark Strait. His rival, the German battleship Bismarck, broke into the operational space of the Atlantic, accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. The Bismarck's campaign, which ended with its death on May 27, its successful battle with the Hood became one of the central episodes of the Battle of the Atlantic, and its influence on the course of the war and the post-war development of the fleet turned out to be much greater than could be expected.

Dangerous situation

By the spring of 1941, a paradoxical situation had developed in the Atlantic theater of operations. The British Royal Navy, of course, had an overwhelming superiority over the Kriegsmarine of the Third Reich - including in ships linear class, which at that time were the basis of the main forces of the fleet. The British could formally oppose the two combat-ready German battleships - Scharnhorst and Gneisenau - and two more at the stage of commissioning, the more powerful Bismarck and Tirpitz, with a battle line of nine old battleships - four "mobilization" ships of the First World War II type "R" (the fifth ship of this type, "Royal Oak", was sunk by the submarine U-47 in the fall of 1939), five of their more advanced peers "Queen Elizabeth", three of which were radically modernized, two more modern - “Nelson” and “Rodney” built in the 1920s, two newest battleships of the “King George V” type and three high-speed battlecruisers - “Repulse”, “Rinaun” and “Hood”, also built at the end of the First World War.

Total - sixteen pennants in the battle line against four, while the British had three more battleships in construction, and the Germans had none (which, however, the British did not know about). However, this formal superiority instantly fades when detailed analysis. Firstly, the geographical factor played a role. The original British war plan called for maintaining dominance in the Atlantic and Mediterranean and counterbalancing the Japanese deployment in Far East. However, a key element in these calculations was the position of France, whose strong navy would support the Royal Navy in European waters. The defeat of France in 1940 deprived London of an ally, and a series of operations under common name“Catapult”, which involved the capture and destruction of French ships in English and colonial ports in order to prevent them from passing under German control, turned the remnants of the French fleet into an enemy. Whether the actions of the British in the summer of 1940 were justified is debatable, but in any case, now they had to deal alone with both the Germans and the Italians who had joined them, without forgetting about the Far East.

Italy added to naval forces Axis countries four battleships from the First World War that underwent modernization, and four that were being completed newest ship type "Littorio". Potentially, this gave Berlin and Rome 12 battle-class ships, including 8 new and 4 old, against 19 (also taking into account the ships under construction) English ones, of which only 5 would have been new. Military preparations of Japan, which by 1941 had ten modernized battleships built in the 1910-1920s and the construction of three battleships of a new type, finally reduced the former naval dominance of the British to nothing - an attempt to be strong everywhere threatened with defeat in any of the three key naval theaters of war for the empire.

The comparative characteristics of the ships in these conditions were of secondary importance, but they did not add optimism: economic problems allowed the empire to modernize only three battleships and one battle cruiser of the old construction, and also forced them to seriously reduce the characteristics of the new ships being built, which seriously reduced the chances in the event of probable military clashes of the main fleet forces.

However, the Royal Navy would be unworthy of its name if it did not seize chances even in these conditions: after the cold-blooded reprisal of the French ships in July 1940, the Italians began to suffer. On November 12, 1940, in an attack on the main base of the Italian Navy Taranto, 20 torpedo bombers and Swordfish bombers, rising from the deck of the British aircraft carrier Illustrious, achieved torpedo hits on three battleships - Conte di Cavour, Caio Duilio and the newest Littorio " Cavour was out of action for the rest of the war, Littorio and Duilio for several months each, making things much easier for British forces in the Mediterranean. Among other consequences of the attack, one can note a careful study of its results by the office of the Japanese naval attaché in Rome, but Tokyo representatives did not share their conclusions with anyone then.

In March 1941, the suffering of the Regia Marina - the Royal Italian Navy - continued: in the battle off Cape Matapan, the Italians lost three heavy cruisers sunk, and the newest battleship Vittorio Veneto was seriously damaged. This success of the British, which they themselves perceived as an offensive failure - the damaged enemy battleship managed to escape - reliably locked the Italian Navy in the bases, allowing the British to continue escorting convoys across the Mediterranean, despite heavy losses caused by attacks by aircraft and submarines. In general, despite all the “buts” and potential threats, this theater remained with the Royal Navy, and the material results were fairly reinforced by the self-confidence achieved in the battles - the Italians did not want to get involved in an open battle with British battleships - whether new or outdated.

This confidence also reigned in the Atlantic, even after the raid of the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in February 1941. Despite the relative success - a breakthrough through the British operational zone from the North Sea to the Bay of Biysk, arrival in Brest without losses and the destruction of 22 enemy merchant ships with a total tonnage of 115,600 tons - the same pattern was confirmed as in the Mediterranean. The Germans, fearing losses, avoided contact with British battleships, retreating first from convoy HX-106, which was escorting the outdated and not modernized battleship Ramillies, and then from SL-67, in whose escort the Germans discovered a slightly more advanced, but also outdated ship "Malaya". Under these conditions, the readiness for battle of the two newest German battleships - the Bismarck and the Tirpitz - was perceived by the British rather philosophically: the Huns' submarines in the Atlantic and their bombers in the Mediterranean posed a much more significant threat.

Operation Rhineland Exercise

The February breakthrough of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau convinced the Germans of the need to continue raider operations of large surface ships in the Atlantic: the commissioning of new battleships promised a qualitative advantage more significant than that of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the 280-mm main caliber of which is all it was considered insufficient to successfully confront British battleships carrying main battery guns from 356 to 406 millimeters. "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz" carried 380-mm main caliber artillery, eight of the latest guns with increased rate of fire and accuracy in four turrets, surpassing in firepower both the new British "King George" with their ten 356-mm barrels, and older ships with eight 381-mm guns from the First World War, which were inferior to the Bismarck in terms of firing range, speed and protection, and the Nelsons, whose 406-mm guns were not very successful. Moreover, the battlecruisers Repulse and Renown were inferior to the new German ships, whose 30-knot speed, prohibitive for battleships of the First World War and high even for the Second World War, was bought at the cost of weakening armor protection and reducing the number of main caliber barrels from eight to six.

Battleship "Bismarck"
Built by Blohm&Voss shipyard, Hamburg.
Laid down: 07/01/1936
Launched: 02/14/1939
Transferred to the Navy: 08/24/1940
Reached combat readiness: 02.1941

Displacement: 41,700 t standard; 50,900 tons total.
Length/width/draft, meters: 251/36/10.2
Reservations: main belt 320 mm, upper belt 145 mm, belt at the ends 60/80 mm, main deck 80-110 mm, steering gear 110-150 mm, main gun turrets 180-360 mm, main gun barbettes 340 mm, SK turrets 35- 100 mm, conning tower 200-350 mm, torpedo bulkhead 45 mm.

Energy: boiler-turbine power plant, 12 steam boilers, three shafts, total power 110 MW.
Full speed: 30.6 knots.

Weapons:
main caliber - 8 × 380 mm SKC34 (4 × 2),
medium caliber - 12 × 150 mm (6 × 2)
anti-aircraft artillery - 16 × 105 mm (8 × 2),
16 × 37 mm (8 × 2),
20 × 20 mm (20 × 1).
Aviation group: four reconnaissance seaplanes, one steam catapult.

Crew on the day of going to sea: 2220 people.

Only the larger than both of these ships, the Hood, could compete with the new Germans on equal terms - although it had not undergone modernization, it was in good technical condition, gave almost 30 knots of speed, had adequate (as it seemed) armor protection and eight 381 -millimeter main caliber guns. The most famous and popular ship of the Royal Navy at that time, named after the famous officer dynasty, the last representative of which was Rear Admiral Horace Hood, who died in the Battle of Jutland, was the first in its series - and the only one: the construction of three more ships was canceled after the First world by financial reasons. Combined with the excellent training of the crew, who had solid combat experience, the characteristics of the Hood made it the most valuable ship in the fleet. These qualities also determined its place in the structure of the Royal Navy: the ship was part of the Home Fleet, which was responsible for maintaining dominance in the North Atlantic, that is, in the “home” theater of war, the most important from the point of view of the empire.

On May 18, 1941, two ships left the German naval base of Gotenhafen - the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen with 203 mm artillery. The second newest battleship, the Tirpitz, has not yet reached combat readiness, and Kriegsmarine commander Grand Admiral Erich Raeder refused the proposal of the commander of the surface fleet, Admiral Gunther Lütjens, to postpone the start date of the operation.

On May 21, the British Admiralty began to suspect that “something was going on”: the British attaché in Stockholm transmitted a radiogram that a detachment of two German heavy ships had been spotted in the Kattegat Strait the day before by the Swedish cruiser Gotland, and in the evening of the same day about Norwegian resistance fighters informed the same detachment on the radio: the Germans had anchored in the port of Bergen.

On May 22, the German detachment was photographed by a British aerial reconnaissance, and London accurately determined the enemy’s forces: the British knew that the Tirpitz was not ready to go to sea and that the Admiral Hipper was under repair.

On the same day, the commander of the Home Fleet, Admiral Sir John Tovey, sent a detachment consisting of the battle cruiser Hood, the newest battleship Prince of Wales and escort destroyers to the Denmark Strait between the islands of Greenland and Iceland, under the overall command of Rear Admiral Lancelot Holland, who was on aboard the Hood. In the strait itself a curtain of two heavy cruisers- “Suffolk” and “Norfolk”, which were supposed to detect the Germans when they appeared. Another likely route for the German detachment - a wide passage between the Faroe Islands and Iceland - was provided by a screen of three light cruisers. On the night of May 23, John Tovey left the Scapa Flow base in the Orkney Islands aboard the battleship King George V at the head of a detachment that also included the aircraft carrier Victorious and escort ships. The British commander intended to take a position west of Scotland, which would allow him to intercept the German detachment along any route. There he waited for reinforcements to arrive in the form of the battle cruiser Repulse.

The battle

On the evening of May 23, British cruisers in the Denmark Strait noticed the Germans - and soon the leading Bismarck opened fire on the Norfolk. Not having the task of “stopping with their breasts” a clearly superior enemy, the British retreated, continuing to maintain radar and visual contact. The Germans also had radars, but due to shocks during firing, the Bismarck's bow radar failed, and Admiral Günther Lütjens placed the Prinz Eugen in command. The British did not notice this change of formation in the thickening cloudy darkness, believing that Bismarck was still leading the detachment. Admiral Holland, having received the radar contact data, led two of his linear units to intercept, obviously being confident of success: 18 barrels with a caliber of 356-381 millimeters against eight German ones gave a solid advantage, even despite the not very high reliability of the newest four-gun turrets of the recently commissioned "Prince of Wales".

Battlecruiser Hood
Built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank.
Laid down: 09/01/1916
Launched: 08/22/1918
Transferred to the Navy: 05/15/1920

Displacement: 41,125 t standard; 47,430 tons total.
Length/width/draft, meters: 267.5/31.7/9
Reservations: belt 305 mm, upper belt 127-178 mm, barbettes 305 mm, deck 25+38 mm, conning tower 76.2-280 mm, anti-torpedo bulkhead 38 mm.

Energy: boiler-turbine power plant, 24 steam boilers, four shafts, total power 106 MW.
Full speed according to the project is 31 knots, in 1941 - 29 knots.

Weapons:
main caliber - 8x381 mm Mk I (4x2)
anti-aircraft artillery - 14 x 102 mm Mk XVI (7x2)
3x8 40mm pom-pom mounts
5x4 12.7 mm Vickers machine guns
5x20 installations of anti-aircraft unguided rockets UP.
Torpedo armament - 2x2 533 mm torpedo tubes.
Aviation group: reconnaissance seaplane, one steam catapult.

Crew on the day of death: 1421 people.

At 05:35 on May 24, lookouts on the Prince of Wales discovered a German detachment at a distance of 17 nautical miles (28 kilometers), by which time the Germans had already established radar contact. The unnoticed restructuring of the German ships played a cruel joke on the British: the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen had silhouettes that were confusingly similar, and the large distance did not allow one to notice the difference in the sizes of the battleship and the heavy cruiser.

The British began to approach at full speed and at 05:52 began shooting at the lead ship, believing that it was the Bismarck. The Germans also did not immediately understand the tactical situation, mistaking the Hood for a light cruiser for some time, but soon identified both opponents. It is unknown how much this mistake of the Germans influenced subsequent events - it is possible that, having identified both opponents at once, Gunter Lütjens would have retreated, taking advantage of the advantage in speed, as the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had previously retreated even when meeting with a single old battleship.

Radiogram with a message about the death of "Hood"

British naval forces intercepted early this morning off the coast off Greenland German naval forces including battleship Bismarck. The enemy were attacked and during the ensuing action HMS Hood (Captain R. Kerr, CBE, RN) wearing the flag of Vice-Admiral L.E. Holland, CBE, receive an unlucky hit in magazine and blew up. The Bismarck has damage and the pursuite of the enemy continues.

It is feared there will be few survivors from HMS Hood.

A British formation near the coast of Greenland early in the morning intercepted a German one, which included the battleship Bismarck. The enemy was attacked, and in the ensuing affair His Majesty's ship Hood (Captain Kerr CBE, Royal Navy), under the flag of Vice-Admiral Holland CBE, was unsuccessfully hit in the magazines and exploded. The Bismarck is damaged and the pursuit of the enemy continues.

I fear that few will escape from His Majesty's ship Hood.

At 06:00, a German salvo from a distance of 8 to 9.5 miles (it is not possible to establish more precisely due to the death of the main participants in the events) covered the Hood, on which a large fire broke out, and a few moments later the battle cruiser exploded. Of the 1,421 people on board, the escorting destroyers were able to save only three. The Prince of Wales, sailing half a mile from Hood, was hit by a hail of debris, and a few minutes later the German detachment transferred fire to the surviving battleship. The Germans managed to damage one of the ship's four-gun turrets, the second failed due to mechanical failure, and the British were left with one main-caliber two-gun turret against the Germans' eight "big guns." However, for this a short time The Prince of Wales scored three hits on the Bismarck, damaging the enemy's bow group of fuel tanks with one of the shells. An oil trail followed the German.

The enemy's advantage, however, remained undeniable: having received seven hits, including three 380-mm shells from the Bismarck and four 203-mm shells from the Prinz Eugen, the commander of the Prince of Wales, Captain John Leach, laid a smoke screen and left from the battle. The battleship and two cruisers continued to maintain contact with the German detachment, transmitting a message about what was happening to Admiral John Tovey. The Germans, in turn, not knowing about the condition of the opponent, also considered it best to interrupt the battle and continued their journey to the south. The Bismarck, which had been hit by fuel tanks, slowly began to bury its nose in the water. A patch was placed under the hole, but this did not prevent significant volumes from flooding in the bow of the ship.

The consequences are greater than expected

The death of the Hood could not simply be left alone: ​​all available combat units nearby rushed into the North Atlantic. On the evening of May 24, the Bismarck again came into fire contact with the Prince of Wales and its accompanying cruisers, covering the departure of the Prinz Eugen for independent raiding. Having assessed the damage to the battleship, Admiral Lutyens decides not to risk the best German ship, and, having released the cruiser on a solo voyage, go with the Bismarck to Brest, where three months earlier he had safely brought the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. He failed to realize this plan - after three days of a dramatic chase and two attacks by torpedo bombers, the second of which, carried out by Swordfish from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, deprived the Bismarck of steering control, the British caught up with the enemy. On May 27 at 10:39 the Bismarck was sunk. The British did not suffer any losses - the German battleship, almost devoid of speed, could not adequately maneuver and adjust artillery fire in the stormy sea; in addition, one of the first hits destroyed the main rangefinder post of the Bismarck. Nevertheless, the ship held out under fire from two British battleships for almost three hours and was finally sunk by torpedoes from cruisers that approached the minimum distance after the Bismarck’s guns stopped firing, having exhausted their ammunition. Along with the battleship, Admiral Lutyens, the commander of the ship Lindeman and another 2,104 people out of the 2,220 on board were killed.

The consequences of the battle, however, turned out to be much more significant than simply excluding two units of the main forces of the fleet from the enemy forces. First of all, the almost instantaneous sinking of the battlecruiser and the subsequent stubborn resistance of the Bismarck forced the British to reconsider their views on the combat capabilities of German ships and to constantly maintain in the Home Fleet a sufficient number of modern battleships and aircraft carriers to guarantee the neutralization of the Germans in the event of a new breakthrough into the Atlantic, so and failed.

This had a serious impact on the Royal Navy's capabilities in other theaters. Firstly, in the Mediterranean Sea, especially after German submarines sank the battleship Barham and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal in the fall of 1941, and Italian underwater saboteurs seriously damaged the battleships Valiant and Queen Elizabeth in the harbor of Alexandria. Secondly, in the Far East, where the Prince of Wales, a survivor of the battle with Bismarck, together with the battle cruiser Repulse, was sent to intercept Japanese convoys with troops without adequate escort and without air cover. "Repulse" and "Prince of Wales" died on December 10, 1941 in the South China Sea under the attack of torpedo bombers and coastal bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, as heroically as it was senseless, without causing any damage to the enemy, except for the four downed aircraft.

For the Soviet Union, this episode of the war at sea was important primarily due to the increased caution demonstrated by the British fleet when escorting polar convoys, the extreme expression of which was the defeat of convoy PQ-17 in July 1942, which was actually abandoned on orders from London in the face of a hypothetical threat from the Germans. large ships, which by that time had moved to Norway.

The distant echo of the battle between the Bismarck and the Hood, however, echoed over the Atlantic for another decade and a half after the war, when one of the main threats to the Western Allied Navy was considered the breakthrough into the ocean of Soviet heavy artillery ships - cruisers of Project 68, 68-bis and supposed battleships and battlecruisers, reports of the construction of which in the USSR have long excited the minds of Western naval analysts. To neutralize this hypothetical threat, the United States and Great Britain continued to maintain the remaining battleships after the war in service and in reserve - since aircraft carriers and aircraft of that period did not guarantee success in difficult situations. climatic conditions North Atlantic, and developed projects for new ships with powerful artillery weapons, united under the common name “Sverdlov-killers” - in honor of the lead cruiser of Project 68-bis “Sverdlov”.

Finally, the ghost of a heavy artillery ship suddenly appearing from behind a horizon hidden by clouds among gloomy waves and creeping fog dissipated only towards the end of the 1950s - by that time it became clear that the Soviet Union in the naval war had relied on the development of naval missile-carrying aviation and nuclear power. submarine fleet, and large guns as weapons of naval warfare remained the property of history.

In the mid-30s, Nazi Germany quickly got rid of the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty, which prohibited it from having powerful armed forces. Development of the future Bismarck began in 1934. The Germans were preparing for a new major war, and no one was going to enter it without a strong fleet. However, the extensive shipbuilding program was impossible for Germany: the Nazis could not recreate the mighty Kaiser’s fleet. However, they firmly intended to build a fleet capable of destroying at least a French squadron. In 1936, as part of plans to build a new fleet, two battleships that went down in the history of naval warfare were laid down - Bismarck and Tirpitz.

"Bismarck" was intended for classic combat battleships. It had heavy armor, low vulnerability to flat cannon fire, and powerful weapons, primarily, however, adapted for close combat: the elevation angle of the guns remained small. This choice is associated with the expectation of battles in conditions of poor visibility at short distances.

However, things were worse with the concept of using new battleships. France in the 30s was considered a serious enemy, but the Germans had a vague idea of ​​what to do if they also had to fight against the mighty British fleet.Meanwhile, this is exactly what happened in reality.

The Bismarck was finally completed and commissioned on August 24, 1940. The ship was commanded by Captain Zur See Ernst Lindemann; the crew consisted of more than two thousand people. By this point, France had surrendered; the Germans no longer needed to destroy its fleet. But at the very beginning of the new world war, Britain declared war on the Nazis, and now the Germans were left with a well-prepared, but fatally small fleet.

The inability to secure a landing on Albion forced the abandonment of the planned Operation Sea Lion. Hitler turned to the crazy idea of ​​​​defeating the Soviet Union, and the tasks of the German fleet became vague. The solution came in April 1941, when Admiral Raeder decided to turn to raid warfare. Although it was later said that this was the original purpose of the Bismarck, in reality it would have been simply wasteful to create such a powerful and expensive ship for operations against convoys. The battleship's operations against convoys were conceived, oddly enough, simply due to the lack of more suitable tasks that could be assigned to it.

Be that as it may, a raid by a combat detachment led by the Bismarck was planned. He was to be supported by the cruiser Prince Eugene. Initially, two more battleships, the less powerful Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, were planned to go to sea, but due to technical problems they remained at the bases. The operation of the two remaining warships was led by Rear Admiral Lutyens, who went to sea on the Bismarck.

On May 19, "Bismarck" and "Prince Eugene" headed around Britain and Iceland to the North Atlantic.

Polar waters

Almost immediately the first problem arose: the Germans met a Swedish cruiser. Sweden was neutral, and there was no reason to destroy or capture its ships. However, soon the squadron’s expedition becomes known in Stockholm, and from there the dispatch flies to London. Knowing roughly where to look, the Germans are discovered by a reconnaissance plane. A squadron under the command of Admiral Holland goes out to intercept the Germans: the battleship Prince of Wales, the battle cruiser Hood and a flock of destroyers.

"Hood" turned out to be one of the most important participants in the upcoming events. It was considered a symbol of British sea power. However, this battle cruiser was already of a very respectable age. It was laid down back in the First World War, and in the 20s it was a magnificent warship, combining high firepower, good armor and excellent performance.

But compared to the newest Bismarck, the Hood already looked rather pale. Nevertheless, the British could count on success: the Prince of Wales was, like the Bismarck, the latest warship, and the Hood’s capabilities were quite enough for the Eugene. In addition, another squadron led by Admiral Tovey - a battleship, an aircraft carrier and five cruisers - went to sea, and a third detachment, also including an aircraft carrier, was approaching from Gibraltar. In short, the threat from Bismarck was taken very seriously.

On the evening of May 23, German ships circled Iceland along the edge of the Arctic ice. There they were discovered: Admiral Holland’s detachment was attacking the Germans.

On May 24, early in the morning, the Germans and the British discovered each other. Both sides wanted to fight, no one wanted to shy away. At 05:55 am the battle began.

The first hit was achieved by "Prince Eugene". One of his shells hit the Hood's deck, and anti-aircraft ammunition began to burn on the Briton. Both British ships did not enter the battle very successfully: the Germans entered from the bow, and the stern towers of the Royal Navy ships did not open fire. However, the artillerymen's training turned out to be excellent: the Bismarck received three hits on the move. At that moment, an event occurred that no one expected.

At six o'clock one minute, the Bismarck, from eight miles away, hits the Hood between the mainmast and the rear funnel. This hit detonates the main caliber artillery magazines. Within three minutes, the huge ship sank under the water, taking with it almost the entire crew: three of the 1,418 officers and sailors survived. Admiral Holland did not escape the common fate.

The "orphaned" battleship left the battle. The battle lasted 11 minutes and ended in a decisive German victory. However, the “Prince of Wales” left a parting gift, which most dramatically affected the fate of “Bismarck”. Several hits caused minimal damage to the German battleship. However, one of the shells made a hole in the nose. This might not have caused any serious problems, but during the battle the Germans had to actively maneuver right through this hole, and the Bismarck gave an unpleasant trim to the bow.

In addition, the internal pipeline was damaged. Oil began to flow overboard. Of course, against the backdrop of a completely destroyed enemy battle cruiser, this was a ridiculous amount of damage. However, a raid against British transport convoys no longer looked like a reasonable idea: autonomy had dropped sharply due to fuel losses. After consulting, Captain Lindeman and Admiral Lutyens decided to redraw the original plans. "Prince Eugene" went on an independent raid, and "Bismarck" itself turned towards France for repairs.

However, the British no longer got off the tail of the battleship. Soon the Bismarck survived the first air attack, which had no significant consequences. Contact with English ships was lost and then resumed. In the end, the Bismarck seemingly managed to escape. However, now the British knew where to look for the battleship. An unusually long radio message about the battle against the Hood was tapped out from the Bismarck. Subsequently, this radiogram was often declared the main reason for the death of the battleship. In reality, however, the British had incorrectly determined the ship's immediate location. This, however, no longer mattered: many ships and planes were combing the Atlantic from different sides. The noose around the Bismarck was tightening.

Driven hunt

It was no longer so far to the harbor of Brest. A port with coastal and anti-aircraft artillery made the destruction of the Bismarck a difficult task. But on May 26, the British reconnaissance Catalina found an oil trail, and then the ship itself. Admiral Lutyens soon knew that he had been discovered: the radiogram from the reconnaissance aircraft was also intercepted by the Germans.

One of the main participants in the British driven hunt, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, immediately took planes into the air for additional reconnaissance. The Bismarck was a hundred miles from the aircraft carrier and about 650 from Brest. 125–135 miles from the German there were two British battleships, Rodney and King George V, but they could not catch up with Bismarck due to their slow speed. Nevertheless, the British were not going to lose their prey. Only one question remained: whether the torpedo bombers from the Ark Royal would be effective enough to destroy or seriously damage such a dangerous enemy.

The basis of the Englishman's air group was the Swordfish torpedo bombers. These were very imperfect and already outdated biplanes, but they could be used for attack. Around three in the afternoon, the first 14 planes took off. Thick clouds forced the British to use radar. They soon discovered the ship and immediately attacked.

It is easy to imagine the horror of the pilots when they realized that they had fallen on their own cruiser Sheffield. He managed to evade friendly torpedoes, but this meeting, of course, added to the nerves of both pilots and sailors. In addition, now half of the torpedo bombers have dropped their cargo. However, at 19:10 a second wave arose. By this time, Sheffield had reached Bismarck and was already maintaining visual contact. About half On the ninth evening, the pilots discovered their cruiser, and soon a German battleship.

The air attack did not come as a surprise to the Germans. Due to thick clouds, the British could not maintain formation and attacked at random, in groups of 2–4 aircraft or even individually. "Bismarck" desperately maneuvered, avoiding the attacks, and itself fired from all calibers. Anti-aircraft guns spewed fire, torpedoes flew past their target. It seemed that this attack would also be a failure.

However, two Royal Air Force pilots showed remarkable skill and courage. They launched an attack close to the water. Due to the minimum height, the Bismarck's anti-aircraft guns could not conduct targeted fire at them. One of the torpedoes caused relatively minor damage. But pilot John Moffat managed to hit the steering compartment with a torpedo. The Bismarck's rudders were tightly jammed at 12 degrees to port. The steering compartments were flooded. "Bismarck" began to write out circulations.

The Germans were able to unlock one of the rudders, but the other continued to jam. The divers trying to repair the rudder were unable to work: the hole and excitement thwarted all their efforts. Admiral Lutyens announced on the radio that the battleship would fight to the last shell. The British did not have to wait too long.

At 22:38, the Bismarck was discovered by a Polish destroyer (in English service). Soon the British destroyers arrived. A not very active firefight ensued, and both of them received minor damage.

On May 27, Bismarck was attacked by the British battleships King George and Rodney. Due to the unstable course, the Bismarck could not aim properly, and physical fatigue from the night battle with the destroyers was already affecting the crew’s condition. More ships arrived at the site, and the Bismarck quickly found itself under a hail of shells from an uncomfortably long distance. By half past nine, not a single main-caliber gun was operational on the German battleship.

The Bismarck showed tremendous survivability: it was hit by a total of up to 400 shells, in addition to two torpedoes from aircraft and damage in the battle with the Hood. Even after such a beating, he remained afloat. However, the overall result was not in doubt. At 10:25, the cruiser Dorsetshire, which came within a short distance, finished off the flagship of the German fleet with a torpedo salvo from a three-kilometer distance. The battleship went to the bottom. 2,106 crew members died, only 115 were saved. Neither the admiral nor the captain were among those rescued.

For Germany, the death of the Bismarck was not so much a shock as a reason to reconsider the entire concept of war at sea. Surface ship operations were sharply reduced. If, for example, in 1940 the German surface fleet played a huge role in the occupation of Norway, then after the sinking of the Bismarck the Kriegsmarine no longer conducted major operations with decisive goals, and the convoys were attacked exclusively by submarines.

The drama ended with a peculiar grin of fate. An amazing story happened with the ship's cat "Bismarck". Oscar the cat, floating on the wreckage of the ship, was picked up by the English destroyer Cossack. Just five months later, the Cossack was passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, where it was encountered by a German submarine. The destroyer was hit by a torpedo and sank. Oscar the cat remained alive, and he was taken in by the captain of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal - the same one whose planes hobbled the Bismarck. On November 14, 1941, the submarine U-81 managed to approach the aircraft carrier undetected and hit it with a torpedo salvo. The aircraft carrier sank. The crew, fortunately, suffered very few losses, and Oscar the cat also survived. Her Majesty's fleet decided not to risk it, and the animal was written off ashore. The cat lived quietly and peacefully in the Sailor's Home in Belfast until 1955. The destroyer Legion, which delivered sailors from the aircraft carrier and Oscar to land, was sunk by German bombers in the spring of 1942.