In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, broke
out into the Atlantic to attack Allied
shipping. The Royal Navy's pursuit and subsequent destruction of Bismarck was an epic of
naval warfare. Astonishingly, nearly seventy years on, this new book by Iain
Ballantyne, Killing the Bismarck, alters our perception of this
legendary episode, by focusing on the eyewitness accounts of British sailors,
marines and carrier aviators, some of them published for the first time in a
compelling narrative. During this action-packed story we go aboard cruisers
playing a lethal cat and mouse game as they shadow Bismarck and experience
the horror of the British battlecruiser Hood’s destruction, a disaster that
filled the men of pursuing Royal Navy units with a thirst for revenge. We fly in
Swordfish torpedo-bombers as valiant aircrews take off in atrocious weather and
defy storms of anti-aircraft fire during desperate bids to cripple Bismarck. We sail in
destroyers as they make daring torpedo attacks, battling mountainous seas.
During the final showdown battleships Rodney and King George V, supported by
cruisers, destroy the pride of Hitler’s fleet in a close-quarters battle, the
terrible reality of which has never been fully depicted in print before. We also
experience Winston Churchill’s anxious vigil and learn of the key role the
victory played in establishing the ‘Special Relationship’ between the
USA and UK. The author
analyses the myths surrounding Bismarck and her destruction, considering
whether they have any substance. Included are portraits of the short fighting
lives of legendary British warships, such as the battleship Prince of Wales and
destroyer Cossack as well as men who sailed to death or glory in them. Providing
a harrowing insight into the unremitting cruelty of war at sea, as well as the
courage and compassion of frail humans pitted against savage weather and plunged
into brutal combat, Killing the Bismarck is delivered with the verve of a novel,
taking the reader on a roller-coaster ride in which each twist and turn yields
new shocks.
