Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom by Iain Ballantyne

Author:Iain Ballantyne [Ballantyne, Iain]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Ipso Books
Published: 2016-05-23T07:00:00+00:00

3. Hand of Mercy

In a temporary debating chamber in Church House, central London - a stand-in House of Commons, due to a recent Luftwaffe fire-bombing raid that damaged the Palace of Westminster - Winston Churchill is explaining how Hood was lost in action against the Bismarck on 24 May.

As he details the subsequent pursuit by the Royal Navy, the P.M. is praying for some good news to provide the perfect conclusion.

Churchill tells MPs the Home Fleet has engaged Bismarck. The outcome is not yet known, but surely must see the Nazi battleship destroyed.

He sits down and listens to an MP asking how was it Hood had not been modernized to better protect her against the enemy’s gunfire?

Churchill explains she had been refitted in 1931, but further strengthening was not possible amid all her war duties.

The MPs move on to other business, but the P.M.’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, Brendan Bracken, pushes his way through a crowd of MPs and into the chamber. A note is passed along to Churchill, who stands up again, begging the indulgence of the Speaker.

He reveals: ‘I have just received news that the Bismarck is sunk.’

Meanwhile, in the Atlantic…

Some of those who had made it out of Bismarck alive believe when they see an enemy vessel nearby that it is not there to rescue them but rather to finish them off. Otto Peters was washed off Bismarck’s upper deck as the ship went down and now stares fearfully at the British warship.

‘The second wave took me out of the Bismarck. I tried to get away from the ship as quick as possible, and it was raining and stormy, but anyway, one tries to live. I tried to swim to this ship, and I could see it very clear - the Union Jack, so it must be a British ship. And I thought: "Now they're going to kill us in the water." Coming closer to the ship I saw they had ropes down and so I thought to myself: "Now they're going to pick us up”.’

Some German sailors, indoctrinated to believe the enemy will kill them rather than provide rescue, actually swim away while one officer shoots himself with a pistol. It is Dorsetshire, which has stopped to rescue survivors. Aboard her George Bell has been sent down by Capt Martin to see the Commander – second in command of the cruiser - with instructions for picking up Bismarck’s men.

‘We received a signal from the admiral to collect survivors. We did it because they were seamen doing their job of work and we had done our job, which was to sink the Bismarck. We weren’t far from Bismarck, extremely close, and scrambling nets and various bits of equipment was made ready to help get survivors aboard. There was no question at all in our minds that they were sailors who wanted saving. Well, of course a County Class cruiser has got a lot of freeboard, so they needed quite a lot of assistance in getting up there. I

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