This is a fantastically interesting Special Jase, even though it's all history now it still seems so new! Well done and many thanks!

(There was a report in recent years that the Catalina didn't actually 'find' the Bismark as was always believed, her actual position was already known shortly before through enigma intercepts at Bletchley Park but as in so many other enigma episodes, the info couldn't be used without a believable cover story so the Catalina was sent out, not to find her but to check the position was correct and to let the Bismark spot the Catalina and report back that she had been discovered visually, protecting the enigma secret!)
The dirty secrets of war!

Keep it up Jase - wonderful!

Robin

27 May 1941 (Tuesday)

The Royal Navy catch up with the damaged Bismarck....

Ordinary seaman Benjamin Port (younger brother of Thomas Port serving on HMS Anthony) Tells his unusual story as to why he wanted to see action with the Bismarck.

The following account is owned under copyright by J.M.Port and may not be used without permission of the author.

I had my own reasons for wanting to get into action with the big German ship, quite different from those of the Admiral. In 1941 I was eighteen, an ordinary seaman, on King George V. For about six months I had been the ships Meteorological Rating. This was a bit of luck as it meant having an office more or less to myself, a terrific advantage in a crowded warship. Actually in charge of the office was an Instructor Commander, but as he had other things to do he only came in about twice a day. The object of the office was to provide weather forecasts for the fleet plus general information about the weather such as temperature, wind direction or any updates on the last forecast. The weather maps were made up from long coded messages sent by radio from the Admiralty, so much of my time was spent decoding these and then drawing the maps from which the forecast was made.

Occasionally the Admirals bridge came on the phone about some specific point such as when the visibility was likely to improve. Usually it was a staff officer but sometimes it was the Admiral himself Who I rapidly handed over to the Instructor Commander if he was there; if he was not I had to answer up myself. However, the Admiral, a very experienced sailor, had good opinion of his own weather judgement, which did not always coincide with ours!

One of my jobs in the forenoon was to take the temperature of the sea, this being a factor in the formation of fog and, in northern waters, ice. I had been carefully shown how to do this, as it was a complicated procedure. There was a special devise, a thermometer in a metal cage with a small bowl at the bottom surrounding the bulb of the thermometer. To take the reading a weighted canvas bag was lowered over the ship's side into the sea. the bag of seawater was hauled in and the bowl filled, a wait of three minutes, and a repeat performance with the bag; the bowl was then emptied and refilled with the new water another wait of two minutes the the reading could be taken. In rough water this meant getting soaked in seawater as the King George V always shipped a lot of water of the bows.

On rough morning it occurred to me that it would be easier to put the thermometer (in its cage) into the canvas bag, tie the line to the guard rail, drop the whole lot into the sea and let it trail for five minuets, while i stood well back in the dry. However, as we were steaming at twenty-five knots, when the bag hit the water the line snapped taut with a nasty jolt and something told me i had made a mistake. On hauling the instrument back on board I found to my dismay that the thermometer glass was broken into three pieces. This was a considerable disaster, but knowing that we had a spare in the office, lying in its velvet-lined box, I hurriedly went and made the substitution. This overcame the immediate difficulty, but we had regular stocktaking procedures on board when all items had to be sighted; so I was left with the problem of how to account for the breakage.

Some weeks later the news came that the Bismarck was out and during the chase that followed I realised that if we did manage to catch her there might easily be an excuse for a broken thermometer. As day followed day without success my hopes gradually faded and it seamed that I would have to dream up some other excuse, but on 26th May the captain came on the tannoy system gravely to announce that the Bismarck had been found and we would probably be in action on the following morning. At this news the mess deck went rather quiet, understandably enough, as many of the older men had families and we had, as yet, hardly come to terms with the fact that the Hood had gone down so quickly. But with my mind on matters other than destruction I said with great conviction 'oh good' such a positive reaction caused some surprise as I was a quiet, inoffensive lad, but of course no one knew of the secret reason behind my keenness for action.

In the event we had no hits from the Bismarck but firing big guns always gives the ship a jolt, it feels as though the ship takes a sudden step sideways. Even practice salvos from a few guns sometimes caused slight damage, so repeated broadsides were always likely to cause problems such as split ventilator trunking, etc. So, immediately on being released from my action station, in a shell handling room, i dashed to the Met. Office, opened the cupboard, for reasons of realism spilt a bottle of ink, and took out the box with the broken thermometer as if I had picked it up from the deck. Then as we had already missed on forecast, I got on with decoding the latest weather signal and innocently awaited the arrival of the Instructor Commander. When he eventually arrived he obligingly asked if everything was all right, whereupon I duly mentioned the blast, the open cupboard door and showed him the broken thermometer. Hardly looking bothered he said 'don't worry about that, we must get on with the next map.'

In the official log book that evening, after usual weather details I added the following note in red ink: No forenoon forecast issued owing to action with Bismarck which was sunk at 1039. Some damage to office from shock of our own gunfire. Spare sea thermometer broken.
Well there is no harm in making sure!



0217. Bismarck reports to Supreme Commander of the Navy (Grossadmiral Raeder):
"Submitting application for awarding the Knight’s Cross to Korvettenkapitän Schneider for the sinking of Hood!"

0500. Bismarck reports to Group West:
"50% overcast, ceiling 600 meters. [Wind] from NW at force 7."

0625. Bismarck reports to Group West:
"Situation unchanged, wind force 8 to 9."

0710. Last report from Bismarck to Group West:
"Send U-boat for safe-keeping of war diary!"

0844. Sighted by King George V and Rodney. Bismarck's speed is seven knots.

0847. HMS Rodney opens fire, the final battle begins.

0849. Bismarck's forward turrets "Anton" and "Bruno" open fire at Rodney.

0902. Bismarck receives first hit disabling the Foretop command post.

0908. Forward command post now disabled and turrets "Anton" and "Bruno" out of action.

0913. Bismarck's after command post disabled. Rear turrets "Cäsar" and "Dora" continue to fire using local ranging.

0921. Turret "Dora" knocked out of action.

0927. Turret "Anton" or possibly "Bruno" is seen to fire one last salvo.

0931. Turret "Cäsar" fires the last salvo and is quickly put out of action. Bismarck's Main battery is now silenced.

0958. unconfirmed torpedo hit to Bismarck's port as RN ships close range.

0936-1016: The Bismarck receives an indeterminable number of hits from point blank range between 2,500 and 4,000 meters, Frustration is raising as Bismarck shows no sign of sinking and RN fuel reserves are extremely low.

Approx. 1000. Demolition charges explode in the turbine room as members of Bismarck's surviving crew attempt to scuttle the ship.

1022. HMS Dorsetshire having been instructed to finish Bismarck with torpedoes makes two hits on the starboard side of Bismarck with two 21 inch MK VII torpedoes from about 3,000 meters .

1037. Hit on the port side by a third 21 inch MK VII torpedo fired by Dorsetshire from 2,200 meters.

1039. Bismarck finally keels over and sinks at approximate position 48º 10' North, 16º 12' West. 116 men rescued from a crew of 2200

Shortly after RN ships begin to Pick up survivors but have to break of the operation due to a combination of low fuel and fears of U-boats. some survivors are left to drown.

The Sinking of the Bismarck effectively ended Germanys surface raiding operations and closed a page on gigantic ironclad ships slugging it out on the sea. the Aircraft carrier would become the new capital ships and in tern they would be eclipsed by nuclear submarines.

Watch the film sink the Bismarck - http://www.veoh.com/watc...7Dh?h1=Sink+The+Bismark

This 'On this day in military history Bismarck special is dedicated to all those who lost there lives during these days in May 71 years ago.