Sinking of Bismarck

27 May 1941, North Atlantic, about 300 miles west of Brest

British victory; Bismarck sunk

At 8.47 in the morning, with a gale blowing from the north-west, Rodney and King George V opened fire. Bismarck, still unable to steer, hit back for a while, but her fire-control top and forward turrets were knocked out within half an hour. Rodney closed to 3,000 yards and fired her 16-inch guns almost point-blank, and fired a torpedo; Norfolk and Dorsetshire joined in. By ten o'clock Bismarck was a blazing wreck with her guns silent and her flag still flying. Short of fuel, Tovey took the battleships home and left Dorsetshire to torpedo her. Bismarck rolled over and sank at 10.39, perhaps helped by scuttling charges set by her crew. Dorsetshire and Maori had picked up about 110 men when a U-boat alarm made them leave; a U-boat and a German weather ship rescued five more. More than 2,000 died, Lütjens and Captain Ernst Lindemann among them. The destroyers Tartar and Mashona were attacked by German bombers on the way home, and Mashona was sunk.