Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2983566 in Books
• Published on: 1963
• Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews

Captures the fear and intensity of what the presence of the Bismark meant to the British in World War 2
When the German battleship Bismark put to sea in World War II, everyone in the world knew the awesome consequences of her actions in the Atlantic. Considered the most powerful warship ever constructed, it was believed that no single ship could ever stand-alone against her. If the Bismark was to inject herself into the Atlantic sea-lanes to the British Isles, she could easily dispatch any armed merchant ship protecting any convoy. She would then be free to sink any merchant ship that she could catch and the Bismark was faster than almost any other ship afloat. The ease with which the Bismark dispatched the powerful British battleship Hood put fear into the hearts of all British people.
However, it turned out that the Bismark was not the most powerful warship in existence that distinction had already passed to the aircraft carrier. It had passed so far that the initial blow that led to the sinking of the Bismark was struck by a small set of obsolete British Swordfish bi-planes carrying torpedoes. The hit on her rudder kept the Bismark from speeding to the European coast, where the planes of the Luftwaffe could have protected her.
While this book captures the tenseness of the Allied search for the Bismark, conversations are put forward that are at best only paraphrases of what actually transpired. It also makes it clear how the Bismark could almost single-handedly have won the Second World War for Germany. It alone could have sunk every merchant ship in a convoy; the consequential lack of food and other supplies would have quickly forced the British to surrender.
The intelligent reader will also be puzzled as to why the Germans did not provide a substantial submarine escort for the Bismark. Even a small number of submarines could have kept the British from massing the fleet of warships that finally dispatched the Bismark. In the end, it was a lucky shot that led to the sinking of the Bismark and perhaps altered the outcome of the war. However, even after the lucky shot, if the Bismark had had a submarine escort, the British would not have been able to sink her with surface ships.