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That's patreon.com slash we have ways more than 100 war veterans yesterday commemorated the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck

on the 27th of May 1941 in one of the most epic naval battles in modern history.

Accompanning the veterans at the Imperial War Museum in South London was Heinz Stieg rescued from the water

after the Bismarck which was launched by Hitler and said to be unsinkable went down.

Harry Cuffling, 82 from the

Isle of White, was one of the men who dragged Mr Stieg on board the cruise of the Dorsetshire. The German sailors were huddled together in a crowd, he said. The sea was very rough and they looked extremely cold. They couldn't talk. We felt no animosity towards them. It's human nature. Mr Stieg said he wanted to do the same after the Bismarck shelled the British battleship HMS Hood, which sank in just three minutes. There is never any great feeling of joy or celebration when a ship is sunk because the ship is a beautiful thing, but I remain thankful that the men of the Dorsetshire could come to my aid, he said. Soludovic Kennedy, a sub-lieutenant on HMS Tartar during the battle and author of a book on The Sinking of the Bismarck, paid tribute to what he called his band of brothers. He described the naval engagement as one of the most memorable, important and dramatic events of the Second World War. The damage she could have done to us and the whole war effort was incalculable. That was why she had to be eliminated,

and she was eliminated by a good share of luck, skill and courage. The fate of the Bismarck proved that the era of the battleship was over, he added, killed by airpower and left as dead as a dinosaur. George Bell, 77, who was a 17-year-old captain's messenger on the Dorsetshire at the time, told how he watched the Bismarck capsize.

I remember seeing a turnover completely.

All you could see was a huge... 17-year-old captain's messenger on the Dorsetshire at the time told how he watched the Bismarck-Capsize.

I remember seeing her turnover completely. All you could see was a huge keel lying in the water

before it went under. Leslie Sayer from Colchester Essex, who flew a swordfish biplane on a

torpedo mission against the German warship, said, we were apprehensive, concerned and bloody

frightened in that order. And that's from The Guardian on

the 23rd of May 2001. Well, welcome to where you have ways of making you talk with me, Al Murray and

James Holland for our, well, our aftermath, the legacy of the sinking of the Bismarck.

Yes. We've covered the pursuit, the swordfish attack, the actually rather disturbing sinking of the ship

and the sort of making sure she was dead approach of the Royal Navy

under Admiral Tovey.

I found that really hard to, you know.

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