NAZIS BLASTED FROM 2 CRETAN TOWNS; STILL ARRIVE BY AIR, 5,000 DROWN IN SEA (5/24/41)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 5/24/41 | Craig Thompson, C. Brooks Peters, Hanson W. Baldwin, Joseph C. Nichols

[Homer_J_Simpson]

An impression of the sinking of the Hood, first published in Time Life magazine.

Time Life? Life, maybe? I will be waiting by my mailbox for the June 2nd edition to be delivered.

[henkster]

Mullenheim-Rechberg’s book makes it pretty clear that Bismarck was more seriously wounded by Prince of Wales than most people have been led to believe. Bismarck’s injury was such that prolonged surface raiding in the North Atlantic was not going to happen.

In retrospect, it’s easy to see that Lutjens should have gone after Prince of Wales and then returned home. He would have gained a great victory over the Royal Navy. On the other hand, his orders quite explicit that he was to operate in the North Atlantic and avoid engagements with major Royal Navy units. Lutjens became fleet admiral because his predecessor, Marschall, was sacked for exercising exactly the sort of initiative that would have involved sinking Prince of Wales and returning to Norway. But to complicate matters, Lutjens had to know that Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were being continuously bombed by the RAF while holed up in Brest. The French ports really didn’t seem like a safe haven for surface ships.

He was on the horns of a dilemma that required a fairly quick decision. And he was the man on the spot. There seemed to be a good option from an operations standpoint that would hurt his career but preserve his ship (sink Prince of Wales and go home), and a good choice from a career standpoint but bad for the prospects for the ship (blow off Prince of Wales and head for France). So was Lutjens decision one of putting one’s career over the welfare of the ship & crew, or was he “just following orders?” Because he and all senior officers on the bridge went down with the ship, we will never know.

[abb]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victorious_%28R38%29

On 24 May 1941, Victorious launched nine of her biplane Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber aircraft and two Fulmar fighters. The Swordfish, under the command of Eugene Esmonde who would make his name with the "Stringbag", as the Swordfish was known, flew through foul weather and attacked in the face of tremendous fire from Bismarck's anti-aircraft guns. The result was only a single, ineffectual hit to the armoured belt.[1] No aircraft were shot down during the attack, but the Fulmars ran out of fuel on the return journey and had to ditch in the ocean; the ship's homing beacon had failed. Victorious took no further part in the chase and sinking; aircraft from another carrier, the Ark Royal, contributed to the sinking of the Bismarck three days later. Esmonde received a DSO for his part in the action.

The actor Kenneth More served aboard Victorious as a junior officer. In the British film Sink the Bismarck! (1960), More plays a fictitious Admiralty Director of Operations and is shown giving the order to detach Victorious from Convoy WS-8B which was forming in the River Clyde in order to move almost 20,000 troops to the Middle East. During the film, Victorious briefly played herself, despite the post-war modifications (the addition of a large angled deck and a Type 984 "searchlight" radar) and she was also used to depict Ark Royal sailing from Gibraltar.

HMS Victorius Swordfish. The flight deck of HMS Victorious on 24 May 1941. This photo shows the strike group being arranged on deck several hours before the launch against the Bismarck. All nine Swordfish of 825th Squadron are clearly visible as well as, in the extreme rear, two Fulmars from 800Z Flight.

[abb]

The Baron wrote several pages opining about the decisions. He was not witness to them. One intriguing point he mentions is that Lutjens may have considered resuming his mission after repairs at St. Nazaire, accompanied by the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

What is obvious is that the British would do whatever it took to sink Bismarck, regardless of the cost or odds. They were fully prepared to send old “R” class battleships up against Bismarck if necessary.

[PAR35]

I’m not seeing the images - just links. And when I click on them, nothing on your photobucket site.

Just me? Or are others having this problem?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I’ve still got the images OK. Can you see the other photos posted? Like reply #43?

[CougarGA7]

I certainly would like to post Time magazine too if I could find it online. Maybe the two companies should merge and save me the trouble.

With the typical lag with events in LIFE’s reporting, June 2nd edition should be the earliest mention of the Hood’s sinking (the 26th of May edition would be way to early). Probably will account it’s destruction to a lucky shot by the German battleship. Any details would probably be in the following week’s edition.

I’d be real interested to see what and when Time reported on this.

[CougarGA7]

Actually, I can get old articles from Time online at their website, but I wish I could post the entire issue as it looked off the press like I can with LIFE.

Here's the June 2nd Article on the end of the Bismarck, World War: AT SEA: End of the Bismarck

[longtermmemmory]

the civilians of the island we fighting with everything they had.

they even sharpened the edges of shovels into blades.

[PAR35]

43 came up automatically. And now I can see the NYT pages by clicking on the link. Must be an update that my computer installed. I’ll see if I can fix things this weekend. I didn’t want to troubleshoot until I figured out if it was my problem or one that everyone had.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 632 May 24, 1941

Battle of Denmark Strait. At 5.52 AM, British battlecruiser HMS Hood and battleship HMS Prince of Wales open fire on German battleship Bismarck and cruiser Prinz Eugen from 24 km. Although they outgun the Germans, both British ships have flaws. At 6 AM, a 15 inch shell from Bismarck penetrates HMS Hood’s thin deck armour, exploding a magazine. Hood is blown in 2 and sinks quickly (1,415 killed, 3 survivors). HMS Prince of Wales (completed only 2 months earlier) is hit 7 times (13 killed) and retires at 6.04 AM with her new guns jammed. Bismarck is hit 3 times (no casualties) but flooding in her bows and a boiler room reduces speed to 28 knots. British cruisers HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk continue following Bismarck and Prinz Eugen but at 6 PM Prinz Eugen escapes South in a squall. At 11.50 PM, 8 Swordfish torpedo bombers from British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious attack Bismarck (1 torpedo hits with little damage, 1 killed).

Crete. In the face of constant flow of fresh German troops at Maleme and continued fighting around the airports at Rethimnon and Heraklion, Allies began a series of retreats South across Crete. German 55th Motor-Cycle Battalion, armed with Spandau machine guns mounted on side-cars, advances towards the South coast to prevent Allied reinforcements arriving from North Africa. Carpet-bombing by Luftwaffe levels the North coast town of Canae.

Off the coast of West Africa, U-38 sinks British SS Vulcain at 2.49 AM (7 killed) and U-103 sinks Greek SS Marionga at 3.56 AM (26 dead, 5 crew escape on a raft).

850 miles off the coast of South Africa (now Namibia), German raider Atlantis shells British steamer Trafalgar (carrying 4500 tons of coal and 2 aircraft) and then sinks her with a torpedo when the 2 ships are on collision course (12 crew killed, 33 picked up from the water).

Overnight, Minelayer HMS Abdiel transports 200 British commandoes from Alexandria, Egypt, to Suda Bay, Crete. 800 more commandoes are not landed at Port Lutro, Crete, due to bad weather.

[PAR35]

Fixed my problem. Apparently my web blocker took a sudden, personal, dislike of you. Have it addressed for now. Thanks for helping me localize it.