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The
report came to the British on may 21, 1941. The German battleship Bismarch, the
most powerful warship in the world, was moving out into the Atlantic Ocean. Her
task: to destroy the ships carrying supplies from the United States to war-torn
England.
The
British had feared such a task. No warship they had could match the Bismarck in
speed or in firepower. The Bismarck had eight 15-inchguns and 81 smaller guns.
She could move at 30 nautical miles an hour. She was
believed to be unsinkable.
However, the British had to sink her. They sent out a task force headed by their
best battleship Hood to hunt down the Bismarck. On May 24, the Hood found the
Bismarck.
It was
a meeting that the German commander Luetjens did not want to see. His orders
were to destroy the British ships that were carrying supplies, but to stay away
from a fight with British warships.
The
battle didn’t
last long. The Bismarck’s
first torpedo hit the Hood, which went down taking all but three of her 1419
men with her.
But in
the fight, the Bismarck was slightly damaged. Her commander decided to run for
repairs to France, which had at that time been taken by the Germans. The British
force followed her. However, because of the Bismarck’s
speed and the heavy fog, they lost sight of her.
For
two days, every British ship in the Atlantic tried to find the Bismarck, but
with no success. Finally, she was sighted by a plane from Ireland. Trying to
slow the Bismarck down so that their ships could catch up with her, the British
fired at her from the air. The Bismarck was hit.
On the
morning of May 27, the last battle was fought. Four British ships fired on the
Bismarck, and she was finally sunk.
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