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The breakout of the German battleship Bismarck into the North Atlantic in May 1941 was one of the most dramatic naval episodes of World War II (1939-1945). It took place at a time when the resources of the Royal Navy were stretched thinly, and the British Home Fleet were hard pressed to counter this powerful German warship, which was vaunted as the most powerful battleship in the world.
For nine days she became the most sought-after vessel afloat, as the Home Fleet and Force H, based in Gibraltar, combed the seas in search of her. After days of fruitless searching, the lone German warship was spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft some 300 miles to the south-west of Ireland. Admiral Tovey, who commanded the Home Fleet from his flagship HMS Rodney ordered his warships to intercept her, and a great naval race began, with the Bismarck speeding towards the safety of the French ports, and the British doing their utmost to stop her.
Despite overwhelming odds, with most Home Fleet craft too far away to intercept the German ship's flight to France, the Royal Navy ultimately managed to locate, damage and ultimately sink the great German battleship. In this new addition to Osprey's Campaign series, author Angus Konstam sheds new light on this race-to-the-finish, detailing the original plans, the British efforts to locate and damage the Bismarck, the Bismarck's extensive armor systems and her ultimate defeat in a highly illustrated format.
- Sales Rank: #1099563 in Books
- Brand: Osprey
- Published on: 2011-03-22
- Released on: 2011-03-22
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.85" h x .27" w x 7.24" l, 1.50 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 96 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
“Konstam sheds new light on Bismarck's extensive armor systems and armament, British efforts to locate their quarry despite seemingly impossible odds, and the Nazi battleship's ultimate defeat. His book features more than 60 photographs drawn from museums and private collections, plus a few striking illustrations by Paul Wright.” ―Toy Soldier & Model Figure (August 2011)
“Konstam provides a basic yet sensible introduction to the topic and situates the Bismarck campaign in its historical context ... the selected illustrations and photographs ... complement the text nicely...” ―Christopher Kretzschmar, The Northern Mariner
About the Author
Angus Konstam hails from the Orkney Islands, and is the author of over 50 books, 30 of which are published by Osprey. This acclaimed and widely published author has written several books on piracy, including The History of Pirates and Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate. A former naval officer and museum professional, he worked as the Curator of Weapons at the Tower of London and as the Chief Curator of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida. He now works as a full-time author and historian, and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Most helpful customer reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
A Good, if conventional, Summary
By R. A Forczyk
The story of the German battleship Bismarck's sole wartime cruise in May 1941 is one of the most dramatic episodes in modern naval history and it never seems to lose its appeal for readers. Angus Konstam recounts the hunt for Bismarck in Osprey Campaign No. 232. While there are many extant books on this subject, Konstam's book is probably more concise and thereby useful for the general public. On the other hand, there is not much new in these pages, just a good synthesis of existing data. Overall, I would give the volume a `5' for graphic content and writing, but only a 3 for historical research and originality. Nevertheless, this is an eye-catching volume that many readers will want to include in their naval library.
The volume begins with a nice introduction and operational chronology. Although the author mentions that the Germany Kriesgmarine (Navy) wanted Bismarck to sortie with other capital ships such as Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, this was not possible due to time constraints. He does not mention that Admiral Raeder, commander of the Kriesgmarine, wanted a major sortie in May 1941 a month before the up-coming German invasion of the USSR. Since Bismarck's sister-ship Tirpitz would soon have been available, it is one of the tantalizing "what ifs" of history if these two behemoths had sortied simultaneously. However, Raeder was unwilling to wait and wanted to make a "big splash" with his capital ships before the army stole all the headlines in Russia. The usual sections on opposing commanders, forces and plans are also here and concise, but useful.
The campaign narrative itself is 58 pages in length and conventional, but quite good. The campaign section includes six 2-D maps, two BEVs and three superb battle scenes by Paul Wright. While many of the photos are well-known, the author manages to slip a few rare ones in (but there are no Bundesarchiv photos). Overall, the author provides a nice summary of the campaign with some terrific graphic support. There are a couple of points about the campaign that are either explicitly or implicitly brought out. First, the bane of the Bismarck turned out to be British radar, which enabled the Royal Navy to have superior situational awareness throughout most of the chase. For reasons not entirely clear, the Kriesgmarine failed to realize the significance of this British advantage nor did they make any significant effort to mitigate it with countermeasures. Second, the Royal Navy's carrier attack capability appeared anemic on the surface, with only limited numbers of obsolete biplane torpedo-bombers on hand, yet they twice pulled off the amazing feat of putting a torpedo into Bismarck in night attacks. When you consider how larger numbers of U.S. torpedo bombers were often unable to score torpedo hits in daylight attacks in the Pacific in 1942, one realizes that the skill level of Fleet Air Arm pilots was as impressively under-stated. It is doubtful if the Kriesgmarine recognized it either, until too late. Finally, on the one occasion where the Bismarck managed to elude her pursuers, Admiral Lutjens threw away his momentary advantage by radioing Berlin about sinking HMS Hood. Oftentimes, it seems that the Kriesgmarine exhibited a serious lack of common sense in the Second World War and this is one of those moments. Clearly, the smart play was to have the cruiser Prinz Eugen broadcast the report once it was detached and heading home to Brest, while Bismarck quietly snuck off in the opposite direction, but Lutjens was not going to allow a subordinate to share any of his glory.
There are some odd omissions in this account, such as the failure to explain the role of Ultra and other HF/DF collection in pin-pointing Bismarck's intentions and position, or the subsequent British roll-up of Bismarck's supply ships in June 1941. Properly speaking, the Bismarck campaign extended past the sinking of the main protagonist and the British victory was more encompassing than suggested here, resulting in the utter destruction of the at-sea logistical network for other raiders, as well. Furthermore, the British naval effort in pursuit of the Bismarck put a damper on other Kriesgmarine operations, such as Hilfskreuzer (auxiliary cruiser) raiding in the Atlantic.
Admiral Gorshkov, the Soviet admiral, provided a sober assessment of the Bismarck campaign in post-war writing that is more incisive than most of the British historiography on this subject. Gorshkov stated that the fundamental mistake was that the Germans viewed the Bismarck as a `super-warship' and sent it out essentially to fight on its own, with virtually no support from the rest of the German military. He stated that if the Germans had been more adept at integrating Luftwaffe support (Fw-200 Condors and other long-range aircraft), U-Boats, intelligence collection, deception and better coordination between the services, that the Bismarck might have had a fighting chance. Indeed, it is hard to understand why no diversionary measures were conducted prior to the Bismarck sortie to pull at least part of the Home Fleet away. Given that the British were able to rush CAM-ships and auxiliary carriers into service within months in 1940-41, it is also amazing that the Germans made no effort whatsoever to get even a few Bf-109s to sea with either the Bismarck group or any other raiders - surely a couple of Bf-109s would have made Swordfish attacks more problematic. In the end, the real blame for the loss of the Bismarck lies with the Kriesgmarine leadership and naval staff in Berlin, who were eager to prove the continued relevancy of battleships, but relied upon superior gunnery and armor plate instead of sound operational planning to achieve their objectives - a brute force approach that met its match.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
A victorious moment for the British
By Dave Schranck
During the dark days of early 1941 the British were under siege from a number of locales. They had just been ejected from Greece and it was looking like Crete would fall too. Tobruk was under fire and Rommel was trying to take Egypt. Iraq was trying to revolt and Alexander was trying to put that revolt down. The British were also trying to protect the convoys and resources were stretched pretty thin. Now the Royal Navy had to contend with the Bismarck breaking out into the Atlantic to reign terror on the shipping lanes. (Ever since reading about the Bismarck and despite German precedence, I could never understand why Raeder took the risk to allow the Bismarck to sail without a proper escort or why Prince Eugen was detached after Bismark was slightly damaged in the Denmark Straits. I would have had several other battleships and a u-boat or at least a number of crusiers to sail with her. History could've been much different; instead the mightiest German ship afloat was sunk after nine days on her maiden voyage into the Atlantic. The author discusses this issue but it still seems reckless for Raeder to rush.)
A brief introduction and origins describes the situation of the day and the Bismarck as the most advanced and one of the most powerful battleships in the world. The operational chronology that follows covers the time she filled her fuel bunkers on 5/18 to the Hood sinking, to Prince Eugen detaching to Bismarck's sinking on 5/27 and together these first sections brought the reader, especially new readers up to speed for the rest of the book.
The chapter on Opposing Commanders was good and included profiles on Pound, Tovey, Holland, Sommerville, Wake-Walker while on the German side included Lutjens, Lindermann, and Brinkmann of Prince Eugen.
Opposing Fleets was also competent, discussing the ships from the Home Fleet and Force H that would take part in this drama: Hood, King George V, Prince of Wales, Rodey, Victorious, Ark Royal and others. A table at the end of the chapter summaries the data.
Opposing Plans was brief and simple. Lutjens had orders to break out into the Atlantic and sink Allied ships. Pound and Tovey was ordered to locate and sink the Bismarck at any cost.
The Campaign begins on page 30 with the Break-out into the Atlantic and for an Osprey length book, it was deliberate as well as interesting. While the Bismarck was trying to sneak out by way of the Denmark Straits, the British were working even harder to find the ship and intercept. The interception was made by HMS Hood in the straits and during the battle that followed, the author explains tactics, angle of attack, salvo count, elapse time, gun sizes, firing ranges, firing trajectories and accuracies, sailing speeds, course changes as well as the disadvantages of the Hood's WWI design. When the Hood's magazine was hit, the ship broke in two and slipped beneath the waves in only three minutes, losing all but three sailors. It was a devestating event for the Royal Navy and the country and the Bismarck was still loose on the open seas with only minor damage.
Force H was brought up from the Med to help the Home Fleet. Its Swordfish would hunt down and torpedo the Bismarck and allow the rest of the Home Fleet to catch up to Bismarck when one of the torpedoes struck and jammed the mighty ship's rudder. Without escorts or air support, that one hit doomed the Bismarck.
The final battle was also deliberate with King George V, the Rodney and Norfolk moving in for the initial strike. Rodney scored the first significant hit to the Bismarck then King George V, and once they had the range Bismarck didn't have a chance.
The Campaign also includes six 2-D maps, two 3-D maps and three eye catching color battle scenes that included Bismarck firing or being fired on. The maps showed the routes taken, the interceptions and three of the maps had comments to help the reader follow the action. There were also many photos, which can be seen in other books, that are good. Some were taken during battle while the others were of the officers and ships. The two British carriers were included. The Campaign ends with Aftermath and the Shipwreck as well as a reading list.
Mr Konstam is an experienced author, having written over 30 Osprey books and his experience is evident for each of the chapters was well done and though a few things were left out the balancing act an author must do to write for Osprey was credible. Larger books will have greater political coverage, deeper profiles of the officers and more first hand experiences of the sailors but in this short format, I enjoyed the concentration in the naval aspets.
I certainly enjoyed this primer and I think many others will too. Its certainly recommended.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Sink the Bismarck!
By Mike O'Connor
Few naval battles were as dramatic as the German battleship Bismarck's May 1941 sortie into the North Atlantic. Bismarck's unexpected destruction of HMS Hood produced shock waves in White Hall and around the world. The Royal Navy's subsequent, frantic attempts to find and sink Bismarck, the one-in-a-million torpedo hit that spelled Bismarck's doom and the subsequent gun battle between the German BB and various RN capital ships were spellbinding. Noted naval author Angus Konstam nicely summarizes that epic voyage in this 2011 release Osprey Publising, #232 in their 'Campaign' series.
Bismarck's story has been told many times before...and in greater depth. Yet, if you're looking for a concise, accurate 'one-stop-shopping-guide' to that fateful sortie, Konstam's book works just fine. After summarizing and analyzing the opposing forces, opposing commanders, contrasting strategies/plans and factors that played important roles in Bismarck's ultimate fate, Konstam takes the reader step-by-step through the initial breakout, the first, disastrous - for the RN - clash, the subsequent chase and final engagement.
Konstam's text is complimented by dozens of photographs, 3-D maps and battle scenes by Paul Wright. These illustrations not only help the reader follow the course of events but lend drama and excitement to the narrative.
In short, THE BISMARCK 1941, HUNTING GERMANY'S GREATEST BATTLESHIP is a good, basic primer to that fated battleship and its short but eventful naval career. Recommended.
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