Word: bismarcks
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...BISMARCK EPISODE (219 pp.)-Captain Russell Grenfell - Macmillan...
...Bismarck, all right. There, in Grimstad Fiord on the Norwegian coast, lay the new Nazi 50,000-ton battle-wagon-bigger and tougher than any British battleship afloat. The British Admiralty had been worrying about the German giant for months; now that she had slipped away from her Baltic anchorage, the Home Fleet would have a crack at her at last. When Flying Officer Suckling photographed the Bismarck from his Spitfire on a May afternoon in 1941, he touched off the greatest sea hunt in naval history...
...Bismarck Episode is a retired British naval officer's remarkably lucid account of the pursuit, cornering and sinking of the pride of Hitler's navy. An author of less background might have pulled out all the stops and wallowed happily but confusingly in the story's drama. Author Grenfell,* veteran of 30 years' service, including the Jutland and Dardanelles actions in World War I, sticks sternly to facts and understatement...
...Bismarck, which fought like fury when she was finally cornered, did not want to fight at all. Her escort was the powerful heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, but they had no destroyer screen and could expect no help from the rest of the German fleet. Their task was to hit Allied shipping and run. In foul weather, the Bismarck and her cruiser escort slipped out of Grimstad Fiord before British bombers could be put to work on them. Admiral Sir John Tovey, commander of the Home Fleet, ordered every available ship deployed to bring them to battle. Then, on the evening...
...desperate haste, a new hunt was organized. It was not easy, because figuring out where the Bismarck would head for was just educated guesswork. Later it became known that there had been a hot argument aboard her. Captain Lindemann wanted to return to Germany; iron-willed Fleet Admiral Günther Lütjens, senior officer on board, ordered a westward dash. Systematically the Admiralty planted every available cruiser and destroyer across likely lines of escape. At 10:30 a.m. on May 26, the Bismarck was spotted by a Catalina patrol plane southwest of Ireland. This time Sir John Tovey...