Sinking the Bismarck

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2021

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In May 1941 Nazi Germany's most powerful warship and pride of the Kriegsmarine the Bismarck slipped out of harbour and made its way to hunt Allied merchant shipping in the Atlantic. Operation Rheinubung would be its first and last mission. Alerted to her presence and desperate to protect its Atlantic trade routes, the admiralty of the Royal Navy sent her best battleships, including the mighty HMS Hood to intercept the German sortie and sink Bismarck. This fateful encounter would lead to the obliteration of HMS Hood just minutes after engaging the Bismarck when a shell detonated one of her magazines. The rapid destruction of HMS Hood, which had been the pride of the Royal Navy, and mauling of the accompanying HMS Prince of Wales sealed Bismarck's fate. The Royal Navy launched an all-out effort to sink the mighty battleship at almost any cost. In this episode of the podcast, Dan with the help of archive interviews from veterans of the battle tells the story of this titanic clash of arms in the Atlantic.

If you would like more content on the story of the Bismarck then watch History Hit's dramatic new documentary Hunt the Bismarck.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We were coming towards them at about a 45 degree angle with the hood on the right.
0:10.0	We were on the left side, slightly a stern of the hood.
0:16.0	And I looked down at this range pointer and just as it was dropping down to about 15,000 yards,
0:24.0	we then altered course to support the left and then we're beginning to run in the same direction as the Bismarck.
0:34.0	And I thought my goodness in a minute we will be getting out our cutlaces and go on the board that German
0:40.0	and give them a good old taste of the Nalsens and the Drakes. But no, as I was looking at the Bismarck,
0:48.0	all these little, just like you see in the night time sometimes, all little winking lights and I thought,
0:54.0	oh isn't that pretty? And all of a sudden I realised that what I thought was pretty was death in destruction,
1:01.0	in the form of about eight tons of metal coming my way.
1:07.0	There goodness she's gone but she was the fannish ship that I ever saw.
1:11.0	She's a marvellous looking ship. And a wonderful fading ship, it's nearly that murdered.
1:16.0	Those were the voices of John Gainer who was aboard HMS Prince of Wales 80 years ago this May.
1:23.0	And William Crawford who was on HMS Rodney.
1:27.0	They're describing two moments in the running battle that took place in May 1941 against the Super Battleship Bismarck,
1:36.0	the pride of Adolf Hitler's German Kriegsmarine.
1:40.0	In this very special episode of Dance and Earth's History I'm going to be talking you through the hunt for the Bismarck and the battle to destroy
1:47.0	one of the single greatest threats to Britain's command of the Atlantic Ocean during the Second World War.
1:52.0	You'll be hearing from some of the sailors who were interviewed by the Imperial War Museum about their experiences
1:58.0	and they are the people that appear in our recently released documentary on history hit.tv all about this clash in the Atlantic.
2:07.0	So I want to head over to History Hit.tv and watch the documentary.
2:10.0	Please do so if you use the code Bismarck, you get 50% off your first three months.
2:16.0	So head over to History Hit.tv, use the code Bismarck and watch that and all the other documentaries that we've made.
	...

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