Hunt the Bismarck
Page 3
So it was that on St Valentine’s Day 1939, a select crowd of guests took their seats on the platforms surrounding Slipway 9.17 The shipyard workers stood in the background. In all, 60,000 people watched the ceremony that followed. At noon, the German Führer Adolf Hitler left Hamburg’s prestigious Hotel Atlantic and boarded a yacht, which took him across the river to the shipyard. The rest of the Nazi inner circle – Göring, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess, von Ribbentrop, Keitel and Bormann – were already in their seats. Once he’d arrived, Hitler mounted the rostrum, and at 13.00 the launching ceremony began. Hitler gave a brief speech, announcing for the first time that Battleship ‘F’ would be named after Germany’s great statesman Otto von Bismarck. Then, he was joined by Dorothee von Löwenfeld-Bismarck, the granddaughter of the ‘Iron Chancellor’. She named the ship after her famous grandfather, and a bottle of sparkling wine was duly smashed against her bows. The band then played the ‘Deutschlandlied’ as the newly named battleship slid into the River Elbe.
The ceremony over, tugs towed the Bismarck to the nearby Equipping Pier, where her fitting-out would take place. This involved another year or more of work; at the moment, Bismarck was merely an empty steel shell. This was the period when she would be turned into a functioning warship. Bismarck was still alongside the Equipping Pier when the war broke out seven months later. The work continued, although now flak batteries ringed the shipyard and searchlights probed the night sky over Hamburg.
The winter of 1939–40 was a harsh one, and ice covered the basin. Nevertheless, by January, the last of the battleship’s four great gun turrets was in place and the final phase of fitting-out began. In April 1940, the first of her crew arrived, although initially they were housed in barrack ships berthed nearby.
Their ship was still a mess, with electricians, engineers, fitters, carpenters, metalworkers and even plumbers working hard to complete it. Wiring lay everywhere and vital equipment was being installed. Still, these sailors had to learn their way around their new ship and, even more importantly, they had to familiarise themselves with her machinery and weaponry. Everything gradually took shape, though, and by the summer Bismarck was moved into a dry dock to have her propellers fitted and her underside painted. By then, all that was left were a few finishing touches and last-minute snagging. Once that was done, and her captain and a team of naval inspectors officially approved the work, the shipyard would be ready to hand the completed ship over to the navy. That was what happened on commissioning day, when Bismarck officially became part of the Kriegsmarine.
The lieutenant’s new ship
That June, the battleship’s fourth gunnery officer joined his new ship.18 Kapitänleutnant Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg came from Alsatian nobility, and at 29 he was already an experienced officer; before the war, he’d even served as a junior naval attaché in London. He’d been on other warships during his career, but nothing compared to the Bismarck. His account of her reflected the young man’s sense of pride in his imposing new ship. He began with her bare statistics: ‘Bismarck had a net displacement of 45,928 metric tons, and a full-load displacement of 49,924.2 metric tons. Her overall length was 251m, her beam 36m, and her designed draft was 9.33m, or at maximum displacement, 10.17m.’19 As a gunnery officer, he was particularly impressed by the wide beam, which made for a stable gun platform. In fact, she could barely scrape through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal – Dr Burkhardt had pushed that aspect of her design to the limit.
Müllenheim-Rechberg emphasised the underwater protection afforded by her double bottom, her torpedo bulkheads – which acted like a sacrificial layer outside the main hull – and her 22 watertight compartments. Any warship was vulnerable to torpedo attacks by aircraft, submarines or destroyers, and it was almost impossible to make the ship impervious to their blast. So, the idea was to create an outer hull that would absorb the detonation, and thus avoid serious damage to the inner layer of the hull. The wide beam of the Bismarck made this system particularly effective.
The lieutenant was just as impressed by the ship’s armour. Again, while Bismarck carried 18,000 tons of armour, made from plates of specially hardened Wotan steel, it was almost impossible to protect everything. So, as the lieutenant put it, it was concentrated where it was needed the most: ‘The ship’s outer shell was covered by an armoured belt, whose thickness varied up to 320 millimetres, and which protected such important installations as the turbines, boilers, and magazines. Higher up, the armour was between 120 and 145mm thick and it formed a sort of citadel to protect the decks above the armoured deck.’ He added that this armoured deck was up to 4.3in. thick, although the main deck above it was only protected by 2.4in. of armoured plate – enough to protect against shell splinters and not much else. This was enough, though: the vital parts of the ship were superbly protected. As in most warships of the time, some areas of the ship lacked full armoured protection, in part to keep her weight down and maintain that all-important balance between protection, firepower and speed. After her sinking, Allied naval analysts reckoned Bismarck had achieved a near perfect balance between these three factors, and was actually better designed than the latest British or American battleship. Any way you look at it, Bismarck was well protected.
Müllenheim-Rechberg went on to describe Bismarck’s propulsion system – her three propellers, powered by steam turbines and 12 high-pressure boilers: ‘The plant was designed to provide a top speed of 29 knots at a total horsepower for the three [propeller] shafts of 138,000, but at the normal maximum of 150,000, the speed was 30.12 knots.’20 He couldn’t help adding: ‘The Bismarck was one of the fastest battleships built at this time.’ He then touched on her cruising abilities: ‘Her maximum fuel capacity was 8,700 tons, which gave her an operating range of 8,900 miles, at a speed of 17 knots, and 9,280 miles at 16 knots.’ That was a remarkable range for a turbine ship of that day, and it shows, from the outset, that the Bismarck was intended for high-sea operations. He described her two electrically powered rudders, and her battery of powerful electrical generators, but his main fascination still lay with the ship’s weaponry.
‘The battleship’s main armament consisted of four double 15in. turrets, two of which, Anton and Bruno, were mounted forward, and two, Caesar and Dora, aft. Their maximum range was 36,200m.’21 These guns were hugely impressive, with barrels almost 66ft long. It wasn’t just the guns that impressed the lieutenant, either – it was the whole complex array of magazines, hoists, rangefinders, analogue computers and fire control equipment that kept them supplied with their huge shells, and made sure they hit their target. Each turret weighed a little over 1,000 tons, but they were so well balanced on rollers that they could turn quickly and easily to face their target. The shells, which weighed almost 800kg (0.75 ton), were brought up to the turrets on mechanical hoists, and hydraulic rammers fed them into the gun breeches.
Analogue computers used things like speed bearing, wind direction and humidity to work out where the barrels should be aimed, and once a firing solution had been found, the guns were trained and fired.22 To a gunner like Müllenheim-Rechberg, there was nothing to match the Bismarck’s firepower. The lieutenant admired almost as much the battleship’s other weaponry – her 12 6in. guns in six twin turrets, and her formidable array of light, medium and heavy anti-aircraft (or flak) guns. These were backed up by an impressive fire control system that allowed the ship to lay down a devastating barrage of flak – the bigger guns creating a wall designed to stop enemy planes, while the smaller ones actually targeted individual aircraft. A radar system gave the ship a degree of warning of enemy surface or air threats, while hydrophones did the same for enemy submarines. Müllenheim-Rechberg found it all very impressive. With some justification he described the Bismarck as ‘a floating gun platform’.
With the crew of 103 officers and 1,962 men assembled, the Bismarck also contained everything required to keep them fed, clothed and healthy.23 She was fitted with state-of-the-art galleys, while cold stores and freezers were crammed with food. Th
is was served in large dining areas or in the wardroom. The ship had her own bakery and even a bar serving beer. Stores were filled with clothing, while a laundry kept uniforms clean. Bismarck also boasted a tailor’s shop and a cobbler. The health of the crew was maintained by a medical team, headed by skilled doctors using a full operating theatre, a dental surgery and a pharmacy. Hygiene was maintained by showers and washing facilities, while mess decks were kept scrubbed and clean. In effect, Bismarck was a small floating town, albeit one with an all-male population.
So, with her crew on board, Bismarck was now ready to begin her sea trials.24 This was the process whereby her performance would be tested, and her engines put through their paces. The Kriegsmarine policy was that no commissioned warship could be considered operational until these trials had been completed, and that any snags that emerged were dealt with – something that involved her returning to Hamburg. Only once this had been completed could the training of her crew begin and then, finally, after these trials and training periods had been completed, the Kriegsmarine would be willing to declare the new ship fully operational. Thus it was that on 14 September 1940 the great battleship was edged away from the quayside, and with the help of tugs made her way into the River Elbe. From there, she faced a 40-mile journey to Brünsbuttel, and the western end of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal.
That night she anchored off Brünsbuttel, and fired her guns in anger for the first time, as her flak batteries engaged a formation of British bombers on their way to Kiel.25 The next day, she entered the canal, Kapitän Lindemann nervously watching the battleship pass through it with just centimetres to spare on either side. As Müllenheim-Rechberg put it: ‘The slightest error … could have had disastrous consequences’. However, all went well, and by the evening of the 17th Bismarck was safely berthed alongside the Scheerhaven – the naval wharf in Kiel. Eleven days later, on 28 September, she left Kiel and headed out into the Baltic. That was when her eight weeks of sea trials started in earnest.
These began with the testing of her engines, and her speed trials. It was found she could easily make 30 knots. Lindemann put her through a range of evolutions, including high-speed turns and rapid changes of speed. The ship responded perfectly. On 12 November, Raeder came aboard to inspect her as she lay off Gotenhafen and additions were made to her weaponry, including the adding of two new twin 4.1in. flak mounts. Eventually, the trials were deemed a success, and in early December the Bismarck returned to Kiel. By 9 December she was back alongside the Equipping Pier in the Blohm+Voss shipyard, ready for any problems to be dealt with. In fact, there were very few.
So, Kapitän Lindemann officially thanked the crew for their efforts, and told them that after some well-deserved Christmas leave they would return to the Baltic, for their working up, or crew training.26 Then, once Bismarck and her crew had been welded into a fighting machine, they would become fully operational and embark on their first operation. On 16 December, Müllenheim-Rechberg left Hamburg for two weeks of skiing in Bavaria.27 Others went home to their families or enjoyed the delights of Hamburg. Meanwhile, the shipyard workers trooped back on board to make sure the battleship would be ready for her crew when they returned. This completed, Bismarck was now a fully functioning warship, and the pride of the German navy. Soon, in a very few months, she and her crew would be able to play their part in the war.
Chapter 2
Germany’s Atlantic Strategy
Raeder’s vision
Bismarck, like the other Kriegsmarine ships that came before her, had a clearly defined job to do. The Kriegsmarine’s construction programme, from its capital ships like Bismarck to its U-boat fleet, was in the business of ‘sea denial’. This was a term first coined by Alfred Thayer Mahan, the hugely influential American naval strategist whose writing in the 19th century was read by Kaiser Wilhelm II and whose words lay behind his enthusiasm for a powerful German navy.1 However, the German Kaiser realised that he would never be able to build a fleet large enough to rival that of the British Royal Navy.2 Instead, his battle fleet had a more limited aim – the pinning-down of British naval resources. That, ultimately, would allow his U-boat fleet to set about the job of cutting Britain’s vital maritime supply lines. The survival of Great Britain relied on a steady supply of foodstuffs and raw materials, all of which were imported by ships. By sinking these ships, and so severing these supply lines, Germany could bring Britain to its knees.
During World War I, this plan came close to succeeding.3 Only by diverting considerable resources to the protection of her sea lanes could Britain avoid catastrophe. So, Britain organised convoys to protect her merchant ships, and developed new anti-submarine technology. This, and the entry of the USA into the war, helped tip the balance, and the Kaiser’s stratagem was foiled.
The Royal Navy, meanwhile, played a different game. Its role was ‘sea control’ – in effect maintaining full control of the seas by using the fleet to protect the sea lanes and deny the enemy access to them. It was a far more ambitious policy, but then the Royal Navy was large enough to make it work. Sea denial, by contrast, was less ambitious, and for Germany it recognised the limitations of its much smaller navy. If you couldn’t seize control of the seas, then at least you could choke Britain’s maritime lifeline enough to deny control of the high seas to the enemy.
In fact, in the days of Weimar Germany, Britain was never seen as a potential enemy. Instead, in 1928, when Admiral Erich Raeder became the head of the Reichsmarine, France was considered Germany’s most likely adversary.4 While the French fleet was powerful, it had to divide its forces between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. So, if the German navy were built up then it might conceivably be able to strangle France’s maritime links to her Atlantic and Channel ports, and with her overseas colonies. It was a very limited objective but one Raeder felt he could achieve, which was why he approved the building of the Deutschland class of ‘pocket battleships’.5 While they lacked the firepower to take on French capital ships, they were perfectly suited to the role of commerce raiding, and therefore of ‘sea denial’. So, too, were the small fleet of U-boats that Raeder was secretly building.
When Hitler came to power in 1935 this whole strategic plan was turned on its head. The abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement meant that Raeder could now build pretty much what he wanted.6 So, the Kriesmarine began a construction programme that saw the expansion of the fleet, in line with Hitler’s more aggressive foreign policy, which added Poland and the Soviet Union to the list of potential enemies. However, both of these countries had even smaller navies than France. So, with a slightly larger Kriegsmarine, this raised the possibility of achieving control of the seas against them. In short, although any military campaign against any of these three countries would predominantly be decided on land, a larger fleet would give Raeder’s navy the chance to play a greater part in the conflict.
It was only in 1938 that Hitler began to consider a possible war with Great Britain.7 At this point it was clear that the Kriegsmarine wasn’t up to the task of challenging the Royal Navy. Even in 1939, it would have less than one-tenth of the strength of the British fleet. This meant that Germany needed to re-evaluate its plans for the Kriegsmarine, and also had to expand it. So, towards the end of 1938 Raeder came up with a long-term programme of naval expansion – one that far exceeded the limits imposed by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of just three years before. This programme, known as ‘Plan Z’, was approved by Hitler in January 1939.8 It involved the commitment of more than 33 million marks over the next seven years, and the building of a decent-sized battle fleet that included battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers and a huge force of U-boats. Underpinning it was Hitler’s assurance to Raeder – now a Grossadmiral – that any war with Britain wouldn’t take place before January 1946 – seven years from then. In fact, the peace lasted barely seven months.
The coming of war with Britain and France in September 1939 meant that Plan Z was now dead in the water. The fir
st casualties were the capital ships – a new group of ‘H’ class battleships that would have been even larger than Bismarck – and an aircraft carrier.9 By September, work had begun on two of the battleships, while the carrier Graf Zeppelin was already being fitted out in Kiel. Raeder understood his fleet would only get limited resources now; economic efforts would be concentrated on the army and air force. He therefore had to prioritise, which meant focusing on U-boats and smaller warships, which could be built quickly, rather than large capital ships. So, the two ‘H’ class battleships that had just been laid down in Hamburg and Bremen were scrapped before their keels were even finished. The Graf Zeppelin suffered a lingering death. She had already been launched and was being fitted out. However, the Luftwaffe, who would have supplied the planes and pilots, were lukewarm about the project, and in May 1940 work on her was halted.
Essentially, then, Raeder and his Oberkommando der Marine (OKM, or German Naval High Command) had to wage a war for which they were unprepared, and do so with the limited resources they had at hand. Certainly, new ships were being completed, including Bismarck, Tirpitz, a third Admiral Hipper class heavy cruiser and a host of new destroyers and U-boats.10 The OKM was divided into several departments,11 the most important of which was the Seekriegsleitung (SKL, or Naval Warfare Command). This was responsible for strategic planning, the allocation of naval ships and resources, and the oversight of specific operations. Officially, Raeder was in charge of it, but it was his chief-of-staff Admiral Otto Schniewind who effectively ran the department. This meant that in the autumn of 1939, both Raeder and Schniewind had to come up with a whole new strategic plan, based on a war their Führer had assured them wouldn’t happen.