"Scaming at top speed various forces converged to intercept or overtake her. It soon became obvious that-unless the Bismarek's speed was reduced we could not get into con tact with her until she was comfortably near the French coast and under the protection of her own alrerat Seaplanes of the aircraft-carrier "Ark Royal succeeded in crippling ber and reducing her speed."
The officer considered that the Bis-marek must have been far above the 35,000 tons at which she was listed. "T should think her tonnage was! something like $0.000 to give her the strength to withstand the punishment she received. Her gunnery against the Hood was good. and it was also) very good later, but fell off very, badly indeed when she was firing on the battleships. Most of her damage must have been above water."—Reuter, Few Nazi Survivors London May 31.
There was no officer of high rank among the hundred or so survivors the German battleship Bismarck, was Tearnt in London yesterday.
Proof of the tremendous hammering
Surface and aircraft is provided by. the, Bismarck received. from, "naval The Lasi. snow squall. passed. laying bare a horizon broken by two speeks—the Bismarck and her cruis consort, For a fow long minutes we plougheq on to shorten the range. Then the Germans turned to get thelt pursuers. The world's biggest battleships. their bow waves hissing as if In challenge, sped fo meet each other. The specks stew rapidly Into recognizable form who tension of waiting for battle be: came acute, 'Open fire" and almost within a sol second an orange-gold flame Holehed from the Hood's great forward guns, Within three seconds there shot from the Bismarcle pulls of black smoke. She too had opened fire, "Then the Prince of Wales' guns came into action, "Clouds of yellow cordite smoke enveloped her bridge. momentarily blotting out the view.
The Hood is Hit To port the Hood, 200 or 300 yards away, surged forward on a parallel course. Fountains of water shot up in her wake. The Hood ploughed on. Then suddenty she had been hit. A shell of shells appeared to fall fust ahead of her atk. AS-inch gun turrets, A large fire broke out with 4 thick black: smoke.
What happened next was a strangling, sickening sight. There was a terrific explosion and the whole vast ship was enveloped ina. flash of flame, and smoke was hissing high in tte shape of a giant mushroom. "See lions of funnels and masts were hurled hundreds of feet into the air and then fell, some on the ship and some into ut of action and a large fire broke' out amidships; but was quickly subued, "However often the Bismarck was! hit, there was never any sign of a large rending explosion, "such 93 would have caused the ship to sink. She continued to move at about 12 knots. After the frst 25 minutes o 50 her fire was intermittent and inaccurate. We did not receive one direct hit. The enemy made no action to surrender.
"We closed to 4.000 yards, fung' our guns and torpedoes. One torpedo scored a hit amidships. The cruiser Norfolic was also firing with her guns and torpedoes. and. the battleship King George V-with her guns.
"The position of the enemy was British warships closed in, raining shells on the doomed vessel"
Torpedoes Fired After this pounding had continued for some time, the eriser Dorsetshire. which had closed in to about two' miles. asked permission to fire tor-the small' number of those whi survived. Unquestionably the casui les aboard the Bismarck were very' severe.
Among the hits received by the Birinarek were some from. the British battleship Prince of Wales which herself suffered slight damage, Cotusities aboard the Prince of Wales however were very small. The hits she scored: are considered in naval circles to have played some part in the final destruction Hitler's greatest warship. since they' slowed her down by two or three knots and enabled the. shadowing, cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk more folk and Suffolk also greatly con tributed to the British success. The team work shown by these two cruisers, working in tricky conditions of varying visibility. was described by naval experts asa masterly performance.
High tribute was also paid to the Coastal Command planes in checking} the Bismarck's position and to planes from the Victorious and Ark Royal which brought her (o bay—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.