I Sank The Bismarck

I sank the Bismarck, says wartime pilot

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I Sank the Bismarck: Memoirs of a Second World War Navy Pilot by John Moffat

He decided to approach on a northwesterly bearing. Rodney and King George V drew closer to Bismarck in line abreast, their enemy well illuminated by the morning sun in the background. Rodney steered to the east so that her gunfire would work the length of Bismarck , while King George V took the side. They opened fire at Bismarck returned fire, but her inability to steer and her list to port severely affected her shooting accuracy. Within 30 minutes, Bismarck ' s guns had all been silenced, and the ship was even lower in the water. Bismarck continued to fly her ensign.

The battleship's upper works were almost completely destroyed and although her engines were still functioning, she was slowly settling by the stern from uncontrolled flooding with a degree list to port. With no sign of surrender, despite the unequal struggle, the British were loath to leave Bismarck. Their fuel and shell supplies were low — a demonstration of how difficult it was for a battleship to sink a similar unit even in an unbalanced engagement. However, when it became obvious that their enemy could not reach port, Rodney , King George V and the destroyers were sent home.

Norfolk had used her last torpedoes; therefore, Dorsetshire launched three torpedoes at a comparatively short range, at least one of which impacted on the superstructure as Bismarck was already largely underwater. Bismarck went under the waves at Dorsetshire and Maori attempted to rescue survivors, but a U-boat alarm caused them to leave the scene after having rescued only Bismarck sailors, abandoning the majority of Bismarck ' s survivors from the 2,man crew around to the mercy of the water.

After the sinking, Admiral John Tovey said, "The Bismarck had put up a most gallant fight against impossible odds worthy of the old days of the Imperial German Navy , and she went down with her colours flying. Their Lordships congratulate C. The loss of H. Hood and her company, which is so deeply regretted, has thus been avenged and the Atlantic made more secure for our trade and that of our allies. From the information at present available to Their Lordships there can be no doubt that had it not been for the gallantry, skill, and devotion to duty of the Fleet Air Arm in both Victorious and Ark Royal, our object might not have been achieved.

Unaware of the fate of the ship, Group West, the German command base, continued to issue signals to Bismarck for some hours, until Reuters reported news from Britain that the ship had been sunk. In Britain, the House of Commons was informed of the sinking early that afternoon. After the battle, the British warships returned to the United Kingdom with Bismarck survivors.

One died later of his wounds. After a period of interrogation and processing, the survivors spent the rest of the war as prisoners. Several Bismarck survivors spoke afterwards of a sailor on the Dorsetshire , Midshipman Joe Brooks, who tried to jump into the water to rescue a German sailor who had lost his arms.

In a National Geographic documentary on the Bismarck , one of the survivors said, "the name Joe Brooks meant something to us; our government should've given that man a medal for humaneness. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Surrounded by shell splashes, Bismarck burns on the horizon. For Operation Rheinubung she embarked over supernumeraries, including merchant seamen to act as prize crews, cadets in training, and a film unit Kennedy, p. The number of these supernumeraries, and hence the exact number of casualties, is unknown.

Archived from the original on 17 July Retrieved 26 July A survivor from Bismarck recounts the situation prior to the order to scuttle: We could hear the noise, but we did not notice any direct hits. We did hear sporadic shrapnel clattering in the airways. In time, we noticed the ship pitching more and more to port. A direct hit in Section X ripped the water storage cells beneath us, and our compartment started to slowly flood. The two auxiliary engines were already underwater when the command ordered the port engine-control center to place and activate the scuttling charges and abandon ship.

Late in the final engagement, the Bismark was defeated, sinking as the result of uncontrollable progressive flooding, and virtually defenceless.

Pilot who sank the Bismarck tells his tale after almost 70 years

Retrieved 19 October List of battleships of Germany. The joy of second hand books is you don't feel so bad about read in them yourself before you wrap them up. This is the third book by a second world war torpedo bomber pilot's book that I've read this year. Thomas Moffat - with the assistance of Mike Rossiter - is an engaging raconteur delivering a different kind of memoir. It opens with an account of a plane crash and its aftermath, though the crash happened in September when the author - then 80 years old - was piloting a single engined aircraft with his 9 year old grandson as the only passenger.

It makes for a more dramatic opening than many.

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The aftermath of the crash provides a prompt for the author to reflect on his early life and the conspiracy of events that built up to that appointment with destiny on a stormy May night in the Bay of Biscay. Having begun with a bang - or at least a crash - Moffat goes back to the beginning with his very early life. The taleleaps engagingly from anecdote to anecdote with the agility of a mountain goat, keeping em so enthralled that, although I only bought the book at 1.

Moffat's story begins as an independent minded four year old growing up with a dog called wiggy and a rare wanderlust in the Scottish borders between the wars. There isn't much war at this point, but it is interesting nonetheless. Moffat illuminates those distant simpler - maybe more primitive - times with anecdotes of life and work and love. Yes - as a rugby player and musician of some accomplishment Mr Moffat seems to have attracted attention in various quarters and, without going into any sordid details, challenges my preconceived ideas of the s as an entirely chaste and sober period.

While aware of its limitations, he speaks fondly of the antiquated Fairey Swordfish - and less so of its successor the Albacore. There was power and manouverability in those old stringbag as well as an ability to take enormous punishment, as Moffat finds in several dangerous scrapes. Moffat's work - even the routine - was dangerous.

Hazardous navigation, deck landings, tested in all weathers, bombed at aerodromes. Men died all around him, victims of fickle fate. He makes the point that the solution was to live in the now, not to think too much of tomorrow or of death. He offers a contemporary historian's insight into events he did not himself participate in - such as the raid on the Italians in Taranto Harbour.

He also draws interesting contrasts in styles of leadership - Admiral Lutjens of the Bismark's depressing speech about death and glory as the Bismark strove to escape, Captain Lindemann's upbeat riposte of success and imminent relief to try and raise morale. It out me in mind of Theoden's battle cry at the Pelennor Fields as shown in the Lord of the Ring's Film - clashing spears and shouting out with deep foreboding about Death seems more a Lutjens than a Lindemann approach. It is a reminder that what makes inspiring reading or watching from the comfort of an armchair witnesses, doesn't make so much for inspiring living or fighting for those at the sharp end of war.

Moffat has many kind words and fond memories of Admiral Somerville a seaman's admiral. There is a point where Somerville orders the ship turned at night to go back and look for one lost pilot - it reminded me of a story of Nelson, pursued by a more powerful French force when Lieutenant later Captain Hardy fell overboard. Nelson, crying out, "I'll not lose Hardy" stopped his own ship and surprised the French so much they stopped too allowing Nelson to recover his officer and still escape. Somerville seems to have inspired and delivered the same kind of loyalty that Nelson did. Moffat also tells of other less well known parts of the war.

I have just seen the film Dunkirk and heard how some on the other side of the channel have expressed distaste for the slight reference it made to the sacrifice of the French. Our allies did so much to enable the evacuation by holding of the Germans and yet benefited relatively little from it in terms of numbers lifted from the beaches. But there were worse days in those dark days of Moffat talks frankly of the attacks the Royal Navy made to destroy the fleet of their erstwhile allies at Oran and Dakar - ships that could not be allowed to fall under German control through Vichy France.

We read of French planes attacking British ones, of French sailors killed and their ships sunk by British torpedoes. I'll bet you never see a war movie about that! Moffat also gives insights into life on the most famous carrier of the war - the Ark Royal and you can see how he became part of a truly elite unit. They had to be, because when you read how they had to launch that attack on the Bismark - you can believe just getting in the air was a feat of airmanship to rival any achievement of squadron the Dambusters. Reading Moffat's account, I am struck more so than ever before, by what a close run thing it was.

How nearly the Bismark escaped and would in time have charged up the channel with Scharnhorst Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen to home and safety. Moffat's flight was the last possible attack, his one of the last possible torpedoes. If they had not crippled Bismark then her escape was certain, after they had wrecked her rudders her fate was only a matter of time. The desperate chaos of that last attack was like the scrabbling and then pushing over for the winning try in the last seconds of a close game of Moffat's favourite sport rugby - only this was infintely more dangerous.

I Sank the Bismarck: Memoirs of a Second World War Navy Pilot

War was no game, victory meant success in a job, not a triumph. Moffat and his colleagues flew over the end of the battle and witnessed the great battleship roll over taking men to their deaths, that image stuck with him throughout his life. But the voices of those who were there must be heard, and in this book, history has found a most articulate witness. Nov 22, Fin Chandler rated it really liked it. This book is an autographical account mixed in some added historical facts of John Moffat's time and service of life before and during World Word II, during which he spent mostly piloting the swordfish aircraft participating in the action that led to the sinking of the famous german battleship the Bismarck.

I immensely enjoyed reading this book. It is very straight forward and reads out like somebody maybe your grandfather telling you their story out aloud.

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Particularly interesting is John M This book is an autographical account mixed in some added historical facts of John Moffat's time and service of life before and during World Word II, during which he spent mostly piloting the swordfish aircraft participating in the action that led to the sinking of the famous german battleship the Bismarck.

Particularly interesting is John Moffat's perspective and calling not as a super solider or best of the best fighter ace but as a trainee gaining the experience needed in the Royal Naval Reserve, being called to serve in times and situations where the outcome looked completely grim. I found alot to learn from John's story. There have been many dots in my knowledge that are now joined together that I think would of missed had a historian or journalist had written it as in the fact that although we look down today on Prime mininster Chamberlain's attempt to make peace with Hilter he was popularly supported because the country was still so scarred from the effects of the the first world war as John describes in his relationship to this father.

Overall I am very grateful for reading this book. It does seem today to be taken for granted that the allies won WWII, we do forget how perilessly close the free world as we know it came to being defeated and how uncertain it really was for all those who lived and served through that time. I think this book is a good reminder of that with its lifestory and perspective Dec 12, Au Yong Chee Tuck rated it really liked it. Most historians have given a general account of the chase that led to the sinking of the Bismarck.

There are only a very few accounts that concentrate on the aerial attacks on the Bismarck. For enthusiastic readers of military history, it might be relevant that someone interview the remaining survivors of those aviators who took part in the torpedo attacks.

With the passage of time, there are probably only a few such survivors still alive today. At last, Mike Rossiter has interviewed Sub Lieutenan Most historians have given a general account of the chase that led to the sinking of the Bismarck. At last, Mike Rossiter has interviewed Sub Lieutenant John Moffat who could have dropped the torpedo that damaged the rudders and steering gear of the Bismarck.

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