Bismarck- sunk on the 27 May 1941, all but 111 hands lost
Mission report from Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, Captain of the HMS Rodney for the 27th May 1941
Report
On the 27th May 1941, battleships HMS Rodney and HMS King George V, accompanied by heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk and Suffolk engaged the battleship Bismarck. At 8:43 the lookouts on King George V spotted the Bismarck 25,000 yards away. We fired first and were followed by King George V. Bismarck replied with her front batteries at 8:50 and nearly Hit us. The Bismarck never scored any hits during the engagement. At 9:02 we scored the first hit on the Bismarck, a 16-inch round struck the forward superstructure. The same salvo had damaged the forwards turrets, making them unusable. Her firing came solely from her aft turrets that we quickly knocked out after 3 salvoes. The Bismarck was weaponless and yet refused to surrender, still proudly flying her colours. We closed to a distance of 3,000 yards and fired off two torpedoes, one of them struck the Bismarck. By 10:00 it was listing about 20 degrees to port and was clearly sinking. At 10:20 we were ordered to turn back for port and Dorsetshire torpedoed it one last time. At 10:35 it was beginning to capsize and by 10:40 had sunk.
Notes: When the Bismarck was sunk, a strange phenomenon was reported by the Dorsetshire and Maori, apparently there was a bright light under the Bismarck as it sunk and "consumed" it. Their sonar confirmed this as the wreck disappeared well before reaching the maximum range of the sonar. They thought it was a U-Boat and quickly hurried away to escape the torpedoes that would have bee fired at them if they remained stationary.
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