by gerald hall
The roar of Hood’s own guns as she returned fire against Bismarck was a reassuring answer to the British commander. Obviously, the British battle cruiser was still fully combat-capable as she and Prince of Wales continued to advance on the German force.
“We’re alright, Sir. We have a small fire from a ready use ammunition locker for some of our ‘ack-ack’, but otherwise are alright.”
“Keep focusing our fire on Bismarck. Her companions are not nearly as much of a threat to our shipping as she is.”
In Bismarck’s main fire control center, the jolt of her main guns firing badly shook the delicate electronic equipment of her three FuMO 23 radars during each salvo. The sounds of dozens of shell fragments from British near-misses could also be heard ricocheting off of the foretop director as well.
So when the first fifteen-inch shell from Hood struck near Bismarck’s catapult amidships, the FuMO 23 attached to her foretop fire control director abruptly failed because of the additional physical shock of the shell’s impact and explosion. This particular unit was extremely important because it was Bismarck’s only radar with 360 degree coverage. Bismarck’s other search and fire control radars had significant blind spots where they could not spot other ships because the battleship’s superstructure blocking the view.
“The foretop FuMO 23 unit is inoperative, Sir.” One of the junior fire control officers immediately reported.
“Try to repair it as quickly as possible. We will rely on our optical rangefinder which will be more than adequate at this point.” Bismarck’s First Artillery Officer replied.
“We will not be able to search for other ships very well with this unit no longer functioning, Sir.”
“I understand, Hauptmann. Some things cannot be helped. We must now focus on the task at hand.
The gun duel between the British and German forces continued over the course of four hours, with the British alternating between closing the range in an attempt to score hits and then withdrawing to avoid German return fire. The British had not expected to meet as strong of a German force as they did. So the British had to try to buy time for more of their capital ships to arrive. Churchill and the Royal Navy did not want to leave anything to chance in the battle against Bismarck.
Soon after another short skirmish with the Germans, another ship appeared on the horizon, approaching from the south. At first glance, it appeared to resemble a tanker with its funnel located near the stern of the ship. But this vessel was much larger.
“We have just received a radio message from Captain Dalrymple-Hamilton. HMS Rodney managed to make her way here to join the battle.”
“That run had to be hard on her. She’s long overdue for repairs to her engines. I would be surprised if she can make more than twenty-one knots.”
“Well, she’s here. I am very glad that she was able to make it here. The question now is whether or not the Germans know that she is here.”
“I’m sure that they will know in about twenty seconds. Rodney just fired her main guns at Bismarck.”
All of the personnel on the Bismarck’s command bridge quickly turned away from looking at Hood when six huge pillars of water appeared unexpectedly about two hundred meters off of Bismarck’s port bow.
“What the hell was that?” Admiral Lutjens abruptly asked.
“It appears that another Englander battleship has joined battle from the south. We could not detect her earlier because of a malfunction to our radio detection equipment. According to our lookouts, the battleship is one of the Nelson-class battleships. It is much slower than we are, but is very heavily armed. Currently, she is sailing directly towards us.” One of the other bridge officers reported after a few moments.
“Then we must knock Hood out of the fight quickly if we are going to be able to escape. We can outrun the other British capital ships here. Have all ships concentrate their fire on Hood now.” The admiral quickly ordered.
The number of shells being fired at Hood suddenly increased dramatically as the Germans shifted their fire from Prince of Wales, Suffolk and Norfolk towards Hood. It did not take long for the German focus on Hood to take dramatic effect. The water around Hood churned violently with all of the German shells falling around her. With all of the heavy shells falling around Hood, there was no way that she could maneuver to chase salvoes. She just had to try to alter course enough to throw off the aim of the German gunners. For the most part, the battle cruiser’s maneuvering was successful. There were some hits, but most did little damage to her. But not all were so harmless.
Hood shuddered amidst a large explosion aft of her mainmast. Admiral Holland looked back to see smoke billowing from an apparent large caliber hit. He looked over towards Captain Kerr, who already on the phone to the battle cruiser’s damage control department.
“Sir, we’ve lost X Turret. She took a direct hit from that last salvo from Bismarck. Fortunately, our anti-flash measures worked. No reports of any flame getting down to the magazine through the barbette trunk and handling room.” Captain Kerr turned and said after putting down the phone.
“What about casualties? Is there any chance of our repair teams being able to get that turret back into action?
“Bad news, I’m afraid, Sir. It appears that we lost the entire turret crew. I don’t think that we will be able to get it back into action outside of returning to a shipyard either. The turret’s got a bloody big hole in its roof now.”
“Can we still fight?”
“Yes, Sir. But I do wish that the Jerry’s would quit focusing all of their fire on us.” Hood’s captain replied just the battle cruiser was straddled by half-dozen more heavy enemy shells.
“How is Prince of Wales doing?” Admiral Holland asked amidst the towering plumes of water that showered over Hood from the near misses.
“Pretty well. We know that she’s hit Bismarck at least twice with her main guns.”
“We need to get more hits if we are going to sink that big bastard. Tell Prince of Wales that we are going to turn to close the range on Bismarck. We will be able to punch right through the guts of Jerry’s pride and joy. Closing the range will also eliminate the problem with plunging fire through our decks. Prince of Wales shouldn’t have to worry about Scharnhorst’s guns terribly much since they cannot penetrate either our belt or turret armor, much less theirs.”
“Sir, we still have to worry about their cruisers and destroyers though. Both have heavy torpedo batteries, as I recall.”
“Then our destroyers will just have to keep their counterparts on the other side occupied. As far as those two German cruisers are concerned, we will deal with them if they get close enough to be a real threat
“Scharnhorst is turning to present her broadside. Our ships should have an excellent fire solution on her from both radar and main fire control directors.”
“Have Prince of Wales engage her immediately then!”
Nine heavy fifteen-inch armor piercing shells, each weighing nearly a ton, roared out as Prince of Wales fired a full broadside at the smaller German battleship. A third of the shells hit Scharnhorst. One shell tore a great hole in the thinly armored bows. Another shell glanced off of Turret Caesar. The third shell hit nearly amidships, tearing through Scharnhorst’s deck armor and plunging deep within her before exploding inside her forward engine room. The explosion wrecked turbines, shattered high-pressure steam lines and killed or wounded dozens of crewmen.
Black smoke and live steam poured from the gaping wound in Scharnhorst’s deck as she continued to madly twist around to avoid more hits. The ocean behind Scharnhorst glistened as she streamed fuel oil from tanks that had been ruptured in her bow from the hit there. But it soon became obvious to the British forces that Scharnhorst had been badly hit as her speed dropped significantly.
On the Bismarck’s bridge, the news from Scharnhorst came as a heavy blow. A yeoman from the radio room delivered the message to Captain Lindemann. Bismarck’s captain then informed Admiral Lutjens just as the German battleship
shuddered from another hit by Hood’s guns.
“Sir. Kapitän Hoffmann reports that a heavy caliber shell from Prince of Wales has seriously damaged one of his main engine rooms. Scharnhorst cannot go faster than twenty-four knots now because of the damage that she has suffered. Kapitän Hoffmann believes that Scharnhorst cannot escape the Englander force. So he is going to turn towards the enemy and close the range so that Bismarck and our kruizers can have an opportunity to escape. If he is lucky, he will sink or cripple as many Englander ships as possible as long as he has operational guns and power to his screws.”
Admiral Lutjens grimaced for a moment before responding.
“Signal to Scharnhorst, Good luck and good hunting. Our prayers are with you and your men. We will send our surviving Zerstorers to support you with your glorious attack.”
“What are the rest of our ships going to do, Sir?”
“Make sure that Scharnhorst’s sacrifice isn’t in vain. Order Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen to turn towards the French ports and make smoke. We must break contact from the main Englander fleet. We will then lure then into a trap with as many U-Boats as we can assemble.”
Captain Lindemann simply nodded his head in acknowledgement before turning to issue the necessary orders.
Aboard Hood, the reports from her radar room and lookouts were in Admiral Holland’s hands less than a minute later.
“Bismarck is turning away along with her cruisers. Rodney’s and Prince of Wales’ guns must have hit her much harder than we expected.”
“Yes. But Scharnhorst is turning towards Rodney and it appears that the German destroyers are making another run at us as well.” Captain Kerr after having received additional reports only a few moments later.
“That’s a suicide run for those poor bastards on Scharnhorst and the destroyers.”
“Perhaps, but after our last series of maneuvers, Scharnhorst is now closer to Rodney than she is to the rest of us. That and Rodney’s slow speed would explain why Scharnhorst is heading towards her. Apparently, the Germans feel that they will be able to take advantage of that.”
“We are still going to have to shift fires from our main batteries to help Rodney then. But we will have Prince of Wales continue to keep Bismarck under fire in any event.
It was an incredible sight as Rodney and Scharnhorst drew closer to each other. Rodney tried to turn away and extend the distance. But in doing so, she could not effectively fire all three of her sixteen-inch gun turrets. The blast from the firing of her aft-most turret was wrecking Rodney’s own upperworks. So Rodney was forced to turn again to present her full broadside against Scharnhorst. As the two battleships hurled scores of shells at each other across an ever smaller distance, a huge fountain of water erupted amidships next to Scharnhorst. The German battleship’s speed dropped even more as she turned her bow towards Rodney.
“I can’t believe it. We actually hit that German battleship with one of those bloody big torpedoes of ours.” One of Rodney’s two-pounder ‘pom-pom’ gunners noted.
A few moments later, the antiaircraft gunner saw something else through his sights as he looked down at the ocean between the two great battleships.
“Oh, shit. We have three incoming torpedoes. Those damned Germans must have had torpedoes of their own.”
Rodney attempted to turn to avoid Scharnhorst’s torpedo salvo. But less than ten seconds after the torpedoes were spotted, a tall fountain of water erupted next to Rodney as one of Scharnhorst’s torpedoes detonated against her side abreast her bridge. The entire ship shuddered from the explosion. Sirens blared throughout Rodney as her crew fought to deal with the flooding from the torpedo hit in addition to the damage from Scharnhorst’s shells.
The German battleship’s guns were unable to penetrate Rodney’s main armor, but they still riddled the British battleship’s upperworks. The unarmored parts of Rodney’s hull not contained within her armored citadel were also taking a heavy beating. Most of Rodney’s secondary battery had been silenced from battle damage now. But her sixteen-inch guns kept firing and hitting.
Scharnhorst was battered and burning, yet she kept turning towards Rodney after the exchange of torpedoes.
“I think that she is going to try to ram Rodney.”
“Then we have no choice but to sink Scharnhorst first before she can reach Rodney.” Admiral Holland decided.
Within seconds, Hood’s great fifteen-inch guns turned towards Scharnhorst and opened fire. The German battleship continued on her run towards the battered Rodney. For the most part, the Scharnhorst’s thick armor belt stopped most of the British fire from entering her vital internal spaces. Scharnhorst’s guns were another matter though. One by one, the battered German battleship’s turrets were knocked out by direct hits by Rodney’s and Hood’s heavy guns. Still, she drove in closer towards Rodney, who was also badly damaged as well at this time.
Finally, a salvo of shells from Hood found their mark. Another fifteen-inch armor-piercing shell plunged deep through Scharnhorst’s armored deck, this time into her forward magazine. Even though Scharnhorst’s ammunition stores had been heavily depleted in the extended battle, there was still more than enough ammunition and propellant charges to cause a cataclysmic magazine explosion. This blast tore apart much of Scharnhorst’s forward hull and even lifted turret Bruno up off of her rollers by several meters before it slammed back down crookedly on the shattered barbette.
Scharnhorst quickly began to capsize as the battleship’s battered hull began to buckle. Hundreds of survivors started to scramble over the sides in a frantic attempt to escape the sinking battleship. Even as Scharnhorst began to capsize, four German destroyers continued to close the range on Rodney and now also on Hood.
“Turn away from those damned destroyers before they can torpedo us. Engage with all available weapons.” Admiral Holland ordered Prince of Wales, Hood and Rodney.
Rodney’s secondary weapons had been decimated by Scharnhorst’s fire, but the BD Mark II mounts on both Hood and Prince of Wales opened up with a furious barrage of shells. Dozens of spouts of waters erupted around the approaching destroyers as the British gunners began to find the range. The range rapidly shrank to the point that even the two-pounder ‘pom-poms’ began firing at the German destroyers. Soon, two of the four German destroyers were on fire and dead in the water from multiple hits. The other two destroyers turned and withdrew after taking heavy damage themselves.
But Captain Kerr still had bad news even after repelling the German attack.
“We have to withdraw from the fight, Sir. We’ve simply taken too many hits. I’ve already lost one turret and a quarter of my secondary armament, not to mention the hit to my starboard fuel tanks that has left us with barely enough fuel to get back to a British port.” Hood’s captain told Admiral Holland.
“At least your crew struck the decisive blow against Scharnhorst. That’s one less German battleship that we have to worry about.” Admiral Holland said with a grimace.
“But they paid one hell of a price doing it. I have reports of over two hundred casualties already here on Hood.”
“Alright, Captain. Prepare to change course towards Portsmouth. What is Rodney’s condition?”
“Admiral, Rodney simply isn’t able to keep up with Bismarck. She can barely make eighteen knots and has already taken several severe hits from German guns in addition to that torpedo from Scharnhorst. If we are going to be able to have a chance at keeping in gun range of the Germans, we are going to have to leave Rodney and her big guns behind.”
“We can’t allow Bismarck and those cruisers to escape either. We’ve already sunk the other battleship, but the real prize is up ahead. Prince of Wales must continue to pursue and engage Bismarck. She especially cannot be allowed to reach the western French ports. We will just have to get reinforcements to our people as quickly as possible. Make signal to Prince of Wales and our cruisers to maintain contact with Bismarck. Sink or cripple her before she can get within range of Luftwaffe bombe
r support.”
Hood and a small contingent of British destroyers, themselves also very low on fuel, turned towards Portsmouth. Prince of Wales continued to pursue Bismarck, firing salvoes whenever possible at the German battleship while Rodney continued to pursue the German battleship as best as she could. The two German cruisers slowly pulled away from Bismarck as they also ran towards the French coast.
Suddenly, Captain John Leach received a message from Prince of Wales’ radar room.
“Captain, we have several more radar contacts coming in from the north. Four of them are cruiser-sized or larger.” The young lieutenant from the radar room reported.
“Any identification on who they are? We still have no idea if the Germans have other ships out here as well. For all that we know, the reports of the rest of the Vichy French fleet having been scuttled could be false and they are now being manned by Germans.”
“I just don’t know, Sir. There is a heavy fog bank blocking our view in that direction.”
“Well, Gentlemen. Let’s find out quickly before we find ourselves outnumbered.” Captain Leach ordered.
Five minutes later, the starboard lookout cried out, “Sir! That’s Tiger, Repulse and King George V!” as he pointed out towards the large grey shapes coming out of a nearby fog bank. Along with Prince of Wales’ sister ship and the two Royal Navy battle cruisers sailed the Dido-class antiaircraft cruiser HMS Phoebe. The Dido bristled with dozens of light and heavy antiaircraft guns to defend the larger ships from enemy air attack.
A few moments later, a signal light near Tiger’s bridge started quickly flashing a message in Morse code.
“Sorry, chaps, for not letting you know that we were coming to help. We were operating under radio silence so that the Jerry’s wouldn’t know that we were coming either. Admiral Tovey is flying her flag aboard King George V. We also have half a dozen more destroyers along with the carriers Effingham and Formidable just a few kilometers behind us to provide some additional air and anti-U-Boat cover. We have also learned that Force H with Renown and Ark Royal are en route at best speed from Gibraltar as well.”
