On May 20th, 1941, the German battleship BISMARCK [8 x 15" guns], in company with the heavy cruiser PRINZ EUGEN [8 x 8" guns], leaves Gdansk [Gdynia] on the Baltic, and heads west for the Skaggerak and Kattegat, and eventually the Atlantic Ocean, to commerce raid. The Rhine Exercise had begun.
The Rhine Exercise had originally been more grandiose in its planning stages. In addition to BISMARCK and Prinz Eugen, it was envisaged that the battlecruisers SCHARNHORST and GNIESENAU [9 x 13" guns], which were then in Brest, would simultaneously break out into the Atlantic, and join the other two warships in a powerful squadron to raid Allied convoys.
The underlying rationale for the operation had developed during the SCHARNHORST's and GNIESENAU's operations in the early part of the year. Despite a fair amount of success [22 ships sunk], the two battlecruisers had been unable to engage several convoys because of British battleship escorts. In Berlin, Grand Admiral Raeder's staff thought that by sending BISMARCK, he could engage the battleships while the battlecruisers and PRINZ EUGEN disposed of the merchant ships.
However, by the time BISMARCK was readying for the raid, the battlecruisers had been repeatedly attacked, and been damaged, by British aircraft. They would not be part of the RHINE EXERCISE.
The fleet commander, Admiral Guenther Lutjens [who had commanded the earlier raid] requested that the sailing be postponed until BISMARCK's sister ship, TIRPITZ could accompany him. The request was denied, and what started as a planned sortie of a battleship, two battlecruisers and a heavy cruiser, became a two ship operation.
Things went wrong almost immediately. BISMARCK and PRINZ EUGEN were spotted in the KATTEGAT by a Swedish cruiser, and the Swedes notified Britain's naval attaché of the location, and heading of the German warships. They were spotted again off the coast of Norway by Norwegian resistance operatives, who notified London. The presence of the warships, in Grimstadt Fjord, was confirmed by an RAF reconnaissance plane shortly before the weather closed down. The two ships sailed shortly afterwards. But while PRINZ EUGEN had topped off her fuel bunkers, BISMARCK had not. So he sailed at least many hundred tons "light". And since BISMARCK would be responsible for refueling PRINZ EUGEN absent a supply ship, that fuel shortage had a potential to be a major problem.
BISMARCK and PRINZ EUGEN were picked up on May 23rd, traversing the Denmark Strait by the cruisers NORFOLK and SUFFOLK, at least one of which had radar. BISMARCK turned on them, and fired her main guns, but they eluded him. And, additionally, the firing knocked BISMARCK's forward radar out of battery. So during the night, the two German warships swapped position, with PRINZ EUGEN now leading.
That was the situation, when, early on May 24th, lookouts spotted what proved to be H.M.S HOOD, Britain's largest warship [8 x 15" guns], and the new battleship PRINCE OF WALES [10 x 14" guns]. In theory HOOD was a match for BISMARCK. In fsact, she wasn't. A WW I design, HOOD was a battlecruiser. She sacrificed armor for speed. But BISMARCK, while far more heavily armored, was also faster. And BISMARCK's main guns, while the same caliber, were newer, more accurate, and could fire three salvos for every two the HOOD could fire. PRINCE OF WALES still had civilian workers on board, and her complex quadruple gunned turrets were not functioning properly.
Due to changes in course during the night, the British plan to cross the Germans' "T" did not happen. In fact the Germans would cross the "T" of the British. Additionally, the British ships were silhouetted by the oncome of daylight, while the Germans were still in the dark from the west, with the mass of Greenland behind them.
Admiral Holloand, the British fleet commander decided to close the range as soon as possible to avoid plunging fire. But by coming in more or less in column, HOOD partially masked PRINCE OF WALES, and confined the British squadron to their forward turrets [4 x 15", 6 x 14"]. The Germans suffered no such limitations.
German heavy cruisers and BISMARCK class battleships shared a common silhouette. Except for size, they were virtually the same. So it was understandable when the British squadron opened on the lead ship. They thought it was BISMARCK. It wasn't.
PRINZ EUGEN engaged HOOD at some 12 miles or better. She hit HOOD's superstructure, causing a fire and some damage. Of more import, she was transmitting her firing data to BISMARCK, which was given several minutes to lay her guns. Lutjens, whose orders were to avoid fights, unless necessary, declined to open fire. The ship's Captain, Ernst Lindemmann, who said, "I'll be damned if I have my ship shot out from under my ass", had no such compunctions. He ordered BISMARCK to open fire. BISMARCK's fifth salvo blew HOOD out of the water. She sank with three survivors.
BISMARCK then turned her attention to PRINCE OF WALES. His shooting was again accurate, causing significant damage to the British battleship. PRINCE OF WALES broke off the action and fled. But BISMARCK had not gone unscathed. PRINCE OF WALES had hit BISMARCK forward, causing sea water to flood a forward fuel bunker. It was a critical hit. BISMARCK, at top speed [over 30 knots] could outrun ANY battleship in the British fleet [the KING GEORGE V claa, of which PRINCE OF WALES was one, had a top speed of 28 knots]. And the only two British battleships that could outgun him, with 16" guns were the RODNEY and NELSON, with top speeds in the low 20s.
But BISMARCK, to do a sustained top speed, needed oil to burn he didn't have. Between Lutjens' failure to top off in Norway, and the fuel spoiled by the shell hit, BISMARCK was limited to 27 knots. In other words, reachable.
At first that didn't look like it would occur. In detaching PRINZ EUGEN to go into the Atlantic, BISMARCK turned on the cruisers and PRINCE OF WALES trailing her. Then, after accustoming the British to a zig zag pattern, BISMARCK, doubled back behind them, shook them, and headed for France
They found BISMARCK on May 26th, steaming for Brest and German air cover. An air strike, from the aircraft carrier ARK ROYAL, damaged the BISMARCK's steering and rudder [a potential problem they were aware of from sea trials], sending them back toward the British fleet.
The final engagement took place the next morning. BISMARCK was engaged by the battleships RODNEY and KING GEORVE V [Admiral John Tovey, fleet commander]. The accuracy of BISMARCK's fire fell off rapidly. The British battleships closed to point blank range [RODNEY damaged her guns]. BISMARCK was a flaming wreck when H.M.S Dorestshire torpedoed her. [Based on James Cameron's investigation of the wreck, it appears German claims to have scuttled BISMARCK were true]. BISMARCK slid beneath the waves before 10 A.M., never to be seen again until Robert Ballard discovered the wreck.
Several weeks later, PRINZ EUGEN sailed into Brest to join SCHARNHORST and GNIESENAU. The "Rhine Exercise was over.They remained there until 1942, and the Channel Dah [Operation Cerebus]
PRINCE OF WALES went on to carry Winston Churchill to the Acadia conference with FDR, and was sunk, in company with the battlecruiser REPULSE by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Malaya on December 10th, 1941. PRINZ EUGEN survived the war, and was taken as a war prize by the United States. She was sunk after participating in atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll [the bomb didn't sink her.
