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Home , Antony Preston, Fleet Review, HMS Rodney (29)

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INTERNATIONAL www.warshipsifr.com UK DEFENCE REVIEW & THE RN SPECIAL

DID BISMARCK TRY TO SURRENDER? CHINA RISES AS USA FALTERS?

WHY THE October 2010 £3.95 AUSTRALIANS NEED A SSTTRROONNGG RRAANN

DANISH FLEET REVIEW...PORTUGAL’S PIRACY WAR...NAVIES LOOK NORTH...PAKISTAN’S FLOODS writing, alters perspective, and is Lef t , main image: ‘The End of therefore potentially controversial. the Bismarck’ by leading UK maritime artist Paul Wright RSMA. Having found the surrender angle I © Paul Wright. asked myself what else had gone For further information e-mail: untold? [email protected] In looking at already published Lef t , inset : HMS Rodney’s accounts of the Bismarck Action I Tommy Byers, w ho saw signs t hat realised that, while they covered Bismarck sailors w ere t rying t o DID BATTLESHIP surrender. the final battle - some quite vividly - none of them, in my opinion, quite Photo: Byers Collection. conveyed the full horror. When Tommy Byers wrote to Baron von Müllenheim-Rechberg, the senior mind by the time they had been BISMARCK TRY TO surviving German officer, in the chased and harassed by the Royal early 1990s to ask if any Bismarck Navy for several days. On the day of survivors had seen signs of battle it only took 40 minutes, or surrender attempts aboard their less, to reduce Bismarck to a own ship, the Baron could not floating hell. It was understandable help. Nobody among those who that while some of the German could have revealed the truth had battleship’s crew fought on - being survived. The majority of survivors well protected - there were others, SURRENDER? came from either deep inside the in the forward part of the ship (and ship, within the armoured citadel, outside the citadel), who decided or were in some other well- they should try and give up. protected area, such as the main Tommy Byers did bring the fact armament turrets. Men outside that he had spotted light signals, those heavily protected zones, semaphore attempts and the black including the command team and flag, to the attention of the hundreds of others, were subjected Rodney’s gunnery officer, Lt Cdr to a murderous hail of 16-inch, 14- William Crawford. I cannot believe inch, 8-inch, 5.25-inch and 6-inch that other officers in the British shells. The four British ships fired ships did not see the same things - nearly 2,000 shells in total, with or have them reported to them - around 400 hitting Bismarck, plus but neither Admiral Tovey, the several torpedo strikes (by Rodney, Home Fleet Commander in HMS with her 24.5-inch torpedoes, as King , or well as Dorsetshire’s 21-inch Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, the torpedoes). The people who captain of HMS Rodney wrote a therefore saw the full scale of that detailed account containing final battle - the enemy battleship anything as graphic as those I have being ripped apart - were sailors uncovered from junior officers and and marines in British ordinary sailors. On the bridge of and firing those shells and Rodney, one of the ship’s chaplains torpedoes, staring at their was so appalled that, in front of the gruesome handiwork through high- other officers and men, he begged powered optics. During the course Captain Dalrymple-Hamilton to of my research Major John Ruffer, stop the bombardment. His plea who in May 1941 was a Royal received a coldly furious response, Marine junior officer in the gunnery Dalrymple-Hamilton ordering him control position of HMS below decks with an admonition to Norfolk, sent me a first-person ‘mind his own business.’ account of the battle. I also found a Rodney’s Commanding Officer had It was six years ago, while I was WARSHIPS IFR EDITOR IAIN BALLANTYNE EXPLA INS Tommy died some years ago, but ceasefire? The Irish sailor said that down. However, isn’t it all a futile gripping account in the Imperial grown increasingly frustrated as his gathering primary research material HOW HE DISCOVERED EYEWITNESS EVIDENCE THAT, Kevin had interviewed his dad he saw Bismarck ‘flashing her discourse? Anyone with even a War Museum archives by A.E. ship’s broadsides slammed into for my previous book, that I came about his life in the navy and the signalling lights, sending us a Morse modicum of insight understands Franklin, a junior rating in the Bismarck but did not produce the across an eyewitness account in the WHILE OTHER GERMANS FOUGHT ON, SOME SAILORS transcripts of those interviews message.’ Byers scanned Bismarck that a ship is only as good as her cruiser HMS Dorsetshire. Both men destruction of the vessel. Rodney archives of the, now disbanded, IN THE FAMED BATTLESHIP BISMARCK MAY HAVE BEEN yielded more evidence relating to through his optics, finding the man crew, so the fact that sailors in the described the Bismarck’s death at had only Armour-Piercing shells, for HMS Rodney Association. Only a TRYING TO SURRENDER DURING COMBAT WITH THE the possibility that Bismarck, or at waving the semaphore flags again, forward part of the ship wanted to the hands of the in she had offloaded her High few dozen people in any British ROYAL NAVY ON MAY 27, 1941. DISCUSSING least some of her sailors, were only to see him ‘blown into the air surrender even while men searing terms, conveying the Explosive 16-inch gun ammunition battleship’s complement of more trying to surrender. I have heard a by a 16-inch shell.’ Byers felt very operating turrets in the horrific spectacle of the encounter. in the UK as she was about to go than 1,000 could actually see the ASSOCIATED ISSUES RAISED IN HIS NEW BOOK recording of an interview between sad for enemy, but conceded ‘it was section fought on, surely destroys Ruffer did not see any signs of into a refit at in the USA. action, and the majority of those ‘KILLING THE BISMARCK’ (SEE REVIEW , ON P4 5 ) HE Kevin and his dad and there is no them or us.’ the idea of the ‘invincible surrender; Franklin indicates he The Rodney’s heavy shells therefore would be using high-powered ALSO PONDERS THE HORRIFIC REALITY OF WAR, AND doubt in my mind about the Bismarck’. It rather makes the might also have spotted the Morse cut though the less well-protected optical instruments as part of their reliability of Tommy’s account. THE widely accepted perception of whole debate over what exactly signals. The surrender claim ties in parts of Bismarck, like a hot knife jobs, either controlling the guns, IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE BRITISH PAUSING IN THEIR He had noticed men jumping the ‘invincible Bismarck’ is based sank her pointless. Not only was with the morale of the Bismarck’s through butter - one of the controlling the ship herself or ATTACK ON BISMARCK. overboard and then spotted on the myth of an impregnable she utterly shattered by the British crew, which it is widely known was Rodney’s junior ratings, watching out for air attack. something curious - a black flag warship that was so heavily bombardment - from two shaky prior to the battle. In various G. Conning, describing them as Lieutenant Donald Campbell was indications that somebody in but a bit tenuous - not enough to flying from Bismarck’s main protected that neither British shells battleships and two heavy cruisers previously published accounts fiery tennis balls, with some ‘going HMS Rodney’s Air Defence Officer, Bismarck was trying to surrender. build a whole theory on. However, yardarm, the accepted nautical nor torpedoes actually sank her. at close range, including numerous there have been references to panic through her bows and out the enclosed with his team of sailors in Lt Campbell spotted a white light in the course of further research for signal calling for ‘Parley’, or talks, According to this school of thought torpedo hits - it appears a portion when the finality of the ship’s other side’, bouncing and twirling a lightly armoured box perched sending a Morse code signal from that book (‘HMS Rodney’, about surrender. The black flag is the Germans scuttled their ship and of her ship’s company wanted to predicament set in on the morning into the distance until they right at the top of the battleship’s Bismarck’s main mast. published in 2008) I got in touch used to signify a plea for surrender, were therefore responsible for give up. Surely it was obvious that of the battle. It is also no secret that splashed. A sailor in King George V, command tower. His account of the He wondered: ‘was it surrender?’ with Kevin Byers whose dad, because a white flag still looks like a sinking her, rather than the British. at least some of the men in a ship some of Bismarck’s ordinary sailors whom I interviewed some years Bismarck Action makes a gripping A heavy shell fired by a British Tommy, was a junior rating in the battle ensign from a distance. For nearly 70 years a debate has so mercilessly pounded would try regarded Admiral Günther Lütjens, ago, even before the ‘Killing the read, conveying the dark majesty warship cut short the message, battleship’s main gunnery control German U-boats surrendering to raged, with shipwreck hunters who and surrender? And this brings us the commander of Bismarck’s Bismarck’ book was mooted, said and horror of the final battle on according to Campbell sending ‘the position. Byers also used high- the British at the end of WW2 flew have found what remains of to the second reason why the book raiding mission, as a Jonah. They that his ship’s High Explosive shells May 27, 1941. whole ponderous stalk [light signal powered optics, to spot the fall of the black flag. Tommy Byers also Bismarck also arguing about that ultimately became ‘Killing the were depressed and anxious about just bounced off Bismarck, so the As I read it I came across a passage mast]…spinning in the air to crash shot during the final fight between noticed a man waving semaphore whether it was the British weapons Bismarck’, following more than two his presence aboard their ship even Home Fleet flagship also switched in which he described mysterious over the side.’ This was intriguing the Royal Navy and Bismarck. flags. Was he trying to ask for a or scuttling charges that took her years of further research and as she set sail from the Baltic, never to AP. Given Byers’ clear sighting of

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surrender signs in the fore part of her momentum, but most of her Dalrymple-Hamilton’s son - North The reality of war is that in the heat Bismarck, and sightings by others, vital systems were swiftly destroyed Dalrymple-Hamilton, a midshipman of battle, it is notoriously difficult A NEW VIEW OF A FAMILIAR STORY LONG OVERDUE why didn’t the British just stop and with them hundreds of lives. serving in King George V during the for soldiers, sailors or airmen to HOW BRITAIN’S FIGHTING SAILORS KILLED BISM ARCK firing and go alongside Bismarck to So, were Germany’s naval architects battle - many years later revealed surrender without being killed in take survivors prisoner after culpable? She was left defenceless his dad’s feelings, during an the process. All manner of by Gerry Northwood seems a little unfair. Picture two maximise firepower on a relatively When the German battleship German ships, the small hull. Yet with the best will mounting a boarding? with no means to co-ordinate her interview with documentary film- calculations enter into the Bismarck broke out int o t he Pr i n z Eu g en an d b at t l esh i p in the world, they did not have Rodney’s gunnery officer, who gunnery, failing to score a hit on maker Rob McAuley for the latter’s equation. It is not as simple as North Atlantic in May 1941, Bismarck set against t he might of sufficient hitting power to take would rise to high rank in the Royal any British ship during the final milestone series ‘The Battleships’. waving a white flag. There is the events unfolded which became the Home Fleet. But the Home on the best protected ships of the Navy post-war, was frank about the battle. She was tough, with lots of “We were awfully close, and confusion and chaos of battle, the increasingly personal; for the men Fleet was badly stretched to meet time. Designed to protect brutal, bloody business of small compartments and everybody was expecting that she’d sheer brutality and pace of events. of the Home Fleet who were out all its commitments and failure Brit ain’ s naval superiorit y w hile destroying Bismarck being entirely longitudinal bulkheads - making her [Bismarck] would strike her flag,” Then there is fear that the enemy to avenge lost comrades and against Bismarck could have mitigating the risk of a naval personal to the Royal Navy, which resulted in Britain being knocked arms race, they in fact had the necessary. In an account he gave to slow to sink - but further evidence said North Dalrymple-Hamilton. may be using ‘surrender’ as a ruse had to prove that, despite out of the war. Like Admiral opposite effect. an Imperial War Museum of Bismarck’s defective design was “We could see the swastika flying to achieve advantage. Above all, the insufficient and obsolescent Jellicoe in the during A naval arms race in the 1930s interviewer, Crawford explained: the fact that, as she turned turtle, very plainly from her main mast, commander must safeguard his equipment, it could maintain a WW1, Home Fleet commander was never a real threat, yet ‘We couldn’t leave her floating her poorly but she never did, and own people in the face of threats tradition of victory and keep Admiral Tovey could afford to Germany gave itself carte blanche about there, and go away. And of constructed stern ‘WE COULDN’T so…we just went on from enemy forces who may not Brit ain in t he w ar. soak up some element of tactical to break treaty obligations and course we were in the very difficult actually fell off. LEAVE HER firing. I mean there have capitulated. A battleship In ‘Killing the Bismarck’ (Pen & defeat or reverse, in order to build battleships like the Bismarck Sword Maritime, £25.00, maintain overall ascendancy, but and Tirpitz that effectively out- position…both ourselves and King Despite Preston’s FLOATING ABOUT was nothing else to surrendering in the midst of hardback) Iain Ballantyne the strategic balance was actually gunned and outmanoeuvred George V were running extremely assertions the THERE, AND GO do. My father was combat was an event unheard of in examines the story via the lens of much finer than two ships anything the Royal Navy short of fuel… some of the people ‘invincible AWAY. I HAD A JOB horrified by this, war at sea since the days of fighting on the high seas, having delivered a the Royal Navy, a specific against a fleet. Tovey did not possessed. In ‘Killing the who weren’t actively doing Bismarck’ myth TO DO, WHICH I actually, he told me sail, when warships traded blows body blow to the world’s most narrative treatment that inevitably have a single unit that could hold Bismarck’ f law s of t he King [anything] had many more feelings endures today. After afterwards, but you literally within shouting distance. powerful fleet - by sinking Hood - leaves much out, but criticism of its own against the Bismarck. George V Class battleships’ main than possibly I did, about whether WW2, when asked if HAD TO GET ON see, until she struck The distance between British it for that would miss the point. Battleship HMS Rodney, with the armament, and the manner in WITH. I DIDN’T and got away with it. The impact on ‘Killing the Bismarck’ allows the 16-inch guns, could outgun which British politicians were we ought to be still firing at her. I the Bismarck had her flag you just didn’t warships and the Bismarck was British morale, and global prestige, men who were actually there on Bismarck but had insuf f icient duped by the Nazis prior to WW2 had a job to do, which I had to get simply stopped REALLY HAVE know how badly she miles - even when the range was would have been immense. the British side to drive the speed t o close her f or a gun are covered in two chapters that on with. I didn’t really have enough firing - that is of her ENOUGH TIM E TO was damaged.” closed down to ‘point-blank’ in Fighting a fascist military machine narrative. It is their story and one engagement in the first place. act as precursors, scene-setters, time to think very much about the own volition, THINK VERY M UCH The task of killing the gunnery terms - and there was no that has mercilessly waged war on that is long overdue some The new King George V Class for the drama at sea that follows. moral side of it.’ without her ABOUT THE MORAL Bismarck was a realistic means of clarifying if any millions of innocent people, caring exposure. It is sometimes said battleships, HMS King George V After his action-packed telling of weaponry being horrific and disgusting attempt to surrender came as a that the Army equips the man, (Tovey’s flagship) and HMS Prince the Bismarck Action, Iain SIDE OF IT.’ little for the rules of war, the British while the Navy mans the of , were out-gunned by Ballant yne gives an account of THE late delivered knocked out by the business, which might result of a decision by the dare not give any quarter. The equipment. This is no more than Bismarck. Hood, w hile mat ching Prince of Wales carrying Churchill a crushing verdict on Bismarck, by British - would explain why a number Bismarck’s command team to cease Norfolk’s John Ruffer said of semant ics. Navies do act ually the German capital ship’s 15-inch to Newfoundland for the British including her in his 2002 book, Rodney have followed suit, William of those on the British side decided fighting, or was just a result of Bismarck’ s final moments: ‘she was equip the man, and for this guns, lacked sufficient armour Prime Minister to sign the ‘The World’s Worst Warships’. Crawford replied: ‘No, our job was not to make too much of it. Like panic under fire in one part of the silenced, but still looked an reason the essence of a navy is its protection to withstand a Atlantic Charter with President Preston - a globally respected naval to sink her. And our job was to sink any rational and right-thinking ship. Certainly, Bismarck’s two aft impregnable fortress, despite the people. No matter how slugging mat ch. This w as sadly Roosevelt. To conclude his epic authority - explained that Bismarck her as quickly as possible.’ human beings, the individuals turrets were determined to go on sentimental we might feel about and cruelly exposed in an yarn the author delivers a hammering she had had. Then a ship, especially when we see engagement in the Denmark somet imes harrow ing coda on was ordered very quickly after the Nobody liked the brutal business of involved were possibly ashamed of firing even in the absence of started the most fantastic phase of our old steamer sat forlornly Strait lasting less than ten the fate of many British ships, Nazis came to power in 1933, her war, least of all Crawford and what they were forced to do in contact with the command team, all, which made the most rusting away on the trots at minutes. The , in the including Prince of Wales, design actually based on the Bayern Dalrymple-Hamilton, but it wasn’t order to ensure their nation’s which was probably wiped out very bloodthirsty feel rather sick. We , the truth is that our carriers HMS Victorious and HMS Cossack and cruiser Class of 1914. In common with possible to stop until the enemy survival during its darkest hour - as early in the final battle. It would simply could not sink her, and we depth of feeling is for what that Ark Royal, were ready and willing Dorsetshire. They may have WW1-era designs Bismarck was utterly destroyed. Dedicated to it fought on alone against the Nazis. have been folly for the British to expected large scale air attack at ship once w as. We remember t he to do their bit, but their strength triumphed over Bismarck in May possessed a low armoured , doing his duty on behalf of a nation They did not wish to revisit those days when she was a vibrant, lay in the determination, courage 1941, but were soon casualties of hesitate, particularly with mass air any moment.’ Despite the efforts of living community populated by a and skill of their aircrews, and war themselves, with heavy loss leaving a lot of vital areas outside fighting for its survival, Dalrymple- baser instincts, those acts of attacks thought imminent - by up to two battleships and two cruisers, ship’ s company. It is f lesh, not certainly not in the types of of life in many cases. Iain the citadel, including Hamilton, a very humane officer, desperate necessity, in detail at a 200 bombers - and U- ‘pumping all they had into her’, she st eel, t hat makes a w arship a aircraft, which were all woefully Ballant yne’ s ‘ Killing t he Bismarck’ communications and electrical was also capable of great empathy later date. However, to not reveal boats likely to make every effort to would ‘neither sink nor surrender’. special living entity. The battle- out of date. Rudimentary radar is both a well-written historical systems. Preston judged that, for fellow mariners under a the full scale of the brutal business sink Royal Navy warships. And In short, as John Ruffer summed it cruiser HMS Hood was one such gave the Royal Navy an edge in narrative and a gripping read. It during the fight of May 27, 1941, dreadful onslaught. It must have of war at sea is to help foster the Bismarck could not be left to it, for vessel - beloved of many men surveillance and this did tip the tackles the excitement and up: ‘It was quite appalling.’ serving across t he Royal Navy balance slightly in its favour. But pathos of the war at sea in equal British guns ‘shredded everything been a stomach churning illusion that it is a long-range, she might have been salvaged and Appalling, yes, but as everyone who had once considered her the fact that the RN was able to measure and is above all a except the main machinery.’ experience and something that remote, almost bloodless, affair; a towed back to France, a very visible acknowledged, entirely necessary. their home, or knew people find, fix and ultimately strike the thoughtful tribute to the officers Therefore, Bismarck could maintain caused him great distress. Captain tale of machines rather than men. example of heroic Nazi endurance What the Bismarck Action and the serving in her, had visited the killing blows is more a testament and men who served in the fate of Hood and Bismarck, both ‘Mighty Hood’ in some capacity to the fighting spirit and tenacity Home Fleet during those tense destroyed within a space of a week or had been inspired by her of the commanders at sea and days when the Bismarck was on glamour status in newsreels, on the men who made up their the loose in the North Atlantic. at the cost of around three and a cigarette cards and in the ship’ s companies. The bat t le w as This is a st ory about f ight ing half thousand lives, teaches us newspapers and magazines of personal on many levels, as sailors and naval airmen, and today is that mass casualties are an the interwar era. Under any ‘Killing the Bismarck’ makes clear. Ballant yne draw s out vivid inevitable consequence of major circumstances the sinking of There w ere t he Polish eyewitness comment and war at sea between states. Should Hood by Bismarck would have midshipmen in King George V testament to propel the story been a shock. In fact, in the who were found in their mess forward. And what a story it is. China go to war with India, or strategic context of 1941, a deck sharpening swords and Of course, it is one we all know America, at a future date, the death failure to sink Bismarck would bayonets in anticipation of well, or at least think we do. Yet toll as the great fleets they already have had far-reaching boarding Bismarck. For them it Iain Ballantyne has created possess, or are busy building, fight consequences. But for the men of was about seeking retribution for something that anyone interested it out will be enormous. There are the RN’s Home Fleet, what what Germany had done to their in the story of hunt for the no glorious deaths at sea, as the Bismarck did t o Hood w as homeland. The aviators, cruiser Bismarck should read, f or it personal - more than 1,400 of men, destroyer sailors and delivers new insights. revelation that men in the so-called their mates went down with her, battleship ship’s companies ‘invincible Bismarck’ tried to and Ballantyne’s new book wanted to avenge Hood but the • Commander Gerry Northwood surrender proves. A ship is nothing adroitly describes why Bismarck men of the Home Fleet were MA OBE Royal Navy commanded without her men having the will to had to die. It is a tale of men effectively fighting with an arm the Type 42 destroyer HMS fight or the means to survive under extreme adversity. Not only tied behind their backs due to the Liverpool and most recently was destruction. were they battling the enemy, degree to which the Royal Navy on the staff of Commander but they had also to endure had compromised capability to Maritime Battlestaff conducting • Some elements of this article atrocious weather while comply with Arms Control counter-piracy operations off adapted from ‘Killing the struggling to get the best from Treat ies and budget const raint s Somalia. He currently works in During the final Bismarck’ by Iain Ballantyne. their less-than-brilliant between the wars. This is the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in battle of May 27, See review, right. equipment. That they succeeded brought home by the hybrid the Directorate of Media and 1941, the battleship ‘Killing the Bismarck’ is available first of all in slowing the Bismarck design of the KGV Class Communicat ions. He has a HMS Rodney fires on from Pen & Sword Books. before finally cornering her and battleships. The complex 14-inch lifelong interest in naval history. Bismarck. Web site: bringing the German giant to her four-gun turrets in the KGVs His naval hero is Admiral of the Illustration: knees was by no means a were a direct result of these Fl eet ‘ Jack i e’ Fi sh er , a m an w h o www.pen-and-sword.co.uk foregone conclusion. On paper treaties. This was a novel and believed in the value of Dennis Andrews. Tel: 00 44 (O)1226 734555 the battle to sink the Bismarck relatively high risk solution to deterrence.

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