The Sinking of the Bismarck by William L. Shirer

Author:William L. Shirer [Shirer, William L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7953-4246-2
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2014-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

One battleship! Was it the Bismarck? Admirals and captains went quickly to their chart rooms and marked the given position on their maps. So far as they knew no British battleship was in the immediate vicinity. It must be the Bismarck!

The Bismarck Is Found Again

The situation at 10:30 A.M., May 26.

And what British aircraft had found her? The radio message did not come from any of the Ark Royal’s Swordfish planes. Instead the sender identified his plane as “Z/209.” That would be a Catalina—“Z” of the 209th Squadron, R.A.F. Coastal Command. It was one of the two flying boats which had been sent out that morning to make the long flight from Northern Ireland to the area of search.

It had been in the air over seven hours when, in the words of one of the pilots:

“George” [the automatic pilot] was flying the aircraft at 500 feet when we saw a warship. I was in the second pilot’s seat when the occupant of the seat beside me, an American, said: “What the devil’s that?”

I stared ahead and saw a dull black shape through the mist which curled above a very rough sea.

“Looks like a battleship,” he said.

I said: “Better get closer. Go round its stern.”

I thought it might be the Bismarck because I could see no destroyers round the ship and I should have seen them had she been a British warship.

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