Product Description

Late in the morning of 27 May 1941, the German battleship 'Bismarck' was sunk by the British in a fierce battle that lasted 90 minutes. This account uncovers much new information, from the key strategic decisions of the national leaders, to a blow-by-blow account of the battle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #726916 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-06
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 9.21" h x 1.22" w x 6.10" l, 1.25 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

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• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
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From the Publisher
A dramatic retelling of one of the key incidents in the Second World War.

About the Author
David J. Bercuson is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary. Holger H. Herwig holds the Canada Research Chair in Military and Strategic Studies at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary. He is the General Series editor of Naval Policy and History and is the author of more than a dozen books on German military history. Together, Bercuson and Herwig are consultants for an American-teamed documentary film about the sunken Bismarck, working alongside Titanic director James Cameron. (20021018)

Excerpted from Bismarck! by David J. Bercuson, Holger H. Herwig. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
THE FIFTH OF MAY 1941 was a clear, blustery day in the eastern Baltic Sea. The newly commissioned fleet flagship, the Bismarck, rode at anchor in Gotenhafen (now Gdynia) Roads, off Danzig. The fleet chief, Admiral Günther Lütjens, and the Bismarck’s skipper, Captain Ernst Lindemann, anxiously peered over the railings at the approaching dispatch vessel Hela. Lindemann had mustered his officers and crew in their finest uniforms on the upper deck. As the Hela off-loaded her small boarding party at 10:20 A.M., a special pennant snapped up the battleship’s mainmast: the "Führer’s Standard." The band struck up "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" and the Nazi party’s anthem, the "Horst Wessel Lied." Adolf Hitler was piped over the side. Accompanying him were Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (OKW) and two service adjutants, Major Nicolaus von Below of the air force and Commander Karl Jesko von Puttkamer of the navy.1 The Führer, who had come to inspect both the Bismarck and her sister ship, the Tirpitz, looked pale and sullen. "On land I am a hero," he liked to boast, "at sea I am a coward."2 Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, commander in chief of the Kriegsmarine, was conspicuously absent. It was the first time that he had not accompanied Hitler on an inspection tour.3
After reviewing the honor guard and assembled crew, Hitler toured the battleship. Fascinated by technology, he chatted with specialists about numerous pieces of equipment. The Führer was especially taken with the Bismarck’s intricate fire-control system, and in the after gunnery tower he received a detailed briefing from Lieutenant Friedrich Cardinal. A lance corporal in the Great War, Hitler keenly paid attention to the ratings. "You are the pride of the navy," he assured them. In the admiral’s cabin, Lütjens briefed Hitler on the details of his recent sortie into the Atlantic Ocean (Operation Berlin) with the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst,
during which he had ranged as far south as Sierra Leone and as far west and north as Halifax. The raid had destroyed twenty-two Allied merchant ships totaling 115,622 tons and had disrupted the British convoy system. The Bismarck, with 15-inch guns, he explained to Hitler, was more powerful than the Scharnhorst class, with 11-inch guns, and hence ideally suited to prey upon even well-protected convoys. The admiral brushed aside the Führer’s rejoinder that the Royal Navy’s numerical superiority needed to be kept in mind.4 The Bismarck, Lütjens patiently explained to Hitler, was superior in firing and staying power to any single British unit. Still, Lütjens conceded that hostile seaborne airpower remained a concern. Privately, Hitler did not share Lütjens’ enthusiasm about Operation Berlin. "The
U-boats do these things better and faster," the Führer confided privately to Puttkamer, "and without such incredible expenditures."5 But he was not about to cross Raeder or Lütjens.
Lunch, a simple one-course vegetarian meal specially catered for the Führer, was served in the wardroom. Hitler was uncharacteristically silent. Not a word about the 50,500-ton (fully loaded) marvel of German naval engineering. Not a word about her intended sortie into the Atlantic. Not a word about the proposed date of departure. Not a word about the fact that battleships were not designed to act as high-seas commerce raiders. Not even a word about Admiral Raeder’s absence.6 When Captain Lindemann showed Hitler Franz von Lenbach’s prized portrait of Otto von Bismarck and suggested that it might be put ashore during the sortie, Hitler cut him short: "If anything happens to the ship, the picture might as well be lost too."7
Then, as if on cue, Hitler delivered one of his celebrated monologues. It ranged from the Transylvanian Germans in Romania, whom he intended "to haul back into the Reich in short order,"8 to the possible entry into the war of the United States, which he dismissed because of the Republic’s poor combat performance in the First World War. When Captain Lindemann responded that American intervention in the present struggle should not be easily dismissed, the lunch abruptly ended. Admiral Lütjens closed the four-hour visit with a brief, general overview of the impending Atlantic raid, and vowed to crush British ships wherever they appeared. Hitler left the Bismarck at 2:18 P.M. Alongside the jetty he next inspected the Tirpitz, whose commander requested permission to accompany the Bismarck, and then returned to Berlin.
Throughout the meeting with Hitler, Lütjens had spoken only in generalities about another projected sortie in the Atlantic. He had avoided any discussion concerning the detailed planning for what in Raeder’s innermost naval circles was officially classified as the top-secret Rhine Exercise (Operation Rheinübung). This was to
be the greatest naval sortie of the war, including not only the
battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, but also the world’s two newest and most powerful battleships, the Bismarck and the Tirpitz.