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Bismarck: The Final Days of Germany’s Greatest Battleship Hardcover – Illustrated, May 26, 2009

by Michael Tamelander (Author), Niklas Zetterling (Author)

4.4 420 ratings

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A gripping tale of heroism —and doom—on the high seas . . .

The sinking of the German battleship Bismarck—a masterpiece of engineering, well-armored with a main artillery of eight 15-inch guns—was one of the most dramatic events of World War II. She left the port of Gotenhafen for her first operation on the night of 18 May 1941, yet was almost immediately discovered by Norwegian resistance and Allied air reconnaissance. British battlecruiser Hood was quickly dispatched from Scapa Flow to intercept the Bismarck, together with new battleship Prince of Wales. They were ordered to find the ship quickly because, on their way from the USA, several large convoys were heading for Britain.

On 24 May, Bismarck was found off the coast of Greenland, but the ensuing battle was disastrous for the British. The Hood was totally destroyed within minutes (only 3 crewmen surviving), and Prince of Wales was badly damaged. The chase resumed until the German behemoth was finally caught, this time by four British capital ships supported by torpedo-bombers from the carrier Ark Royal. The icy North Atlantic roiled from the crash of shellfire and bursting explosions until finally the Bismarck collapsed, sending nearly 2,000 German sailors to a watery grave.

Tamelander and Zetterling’s work rests on stories from survivors and the latest historical discoveries. The book starts with a thorough account of maritime developments from 1871 up to the era of the giant battleship, and ends with a vivid account, hour by hour, of the dramatic and fateful hunt for the mighty Bismarck, Nazi-Germany’s last hope to pose a powerful surface threat to Allied convoys.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Prologue

Part 1
1 Lessons from Previous Wars
2 The First Attempt
3 Preparations
4 Cruiser Warfare
5 ‘Now you pretend to be dead’
6 ‘For the first time in history…’
7 Operation Berlin
8 Rheinübung
9 The Home Fleet
10 The Visit

Part 2
11 Departure
12 Bunkering in Norway?
13 Holland and Tovey Put to Sea
14 Break-out
15 Pursued
16 Collision Course
17 Battle in the Denmark Strait
18 ‘Roll out the barrel!’
19 Farewell, Bismarck!
20 Air Attack
21 ‘Have lost contact with the enemy’
22 A Mysterious Signal
23 ‘Battleship sighted’
24 The Second Air Attack
25 One in a Hundred Thousand

Part 3
26 The Last Night
27 The Last Battle
28 The End
29 Epilogue

Notes
Index

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Editorial Reviews

Review

”... a very interesting and useful history …once you start… you will be very hard pressed to stop until the smoke has cleared and the ship is sunk.”
Internet Modeler

“…unable to put it down…I highly recommend this book for anyone that likes the study of naval battles or just wants to read about an action-packed sea battle.”
IPMS/USA

“A fresh look at the life and death of the most famous German warship of World War II.”
The NYMAS Review

“…a thorough treatment, including material from interviews with survivors of their sinkings and the impact they had on the naval war in the Atlantic.”
Seapower

“A fresh look at the life and death of the most famous German warship of World War II…a very good read…”
StrategyPage

“essential background and new historical insights make otherwise inexplicable elements of the Bismarck story much clearer, without diminishing the drama of the epic sea chase and its vivid, human details.”
World War II

"outstanding book about naval warfare…real time, you are there style that conveys all of the anxiety of actual combat at sea."
WWII History

“A detailed account of one of the most dramatic events of the Second World War, including interviews with survivors”
Military History Monthly

“…exciting story-telling. Besides recreating the thrill of the hunt and allowing the reader to trace the movements of both sides on easy to grasp maps and diagrams…presentation in vivid detail and captivating images of the final hours of the German battleship on the ninth day of its first and only combat mission. It is a terrifying tales and a striking reminder of how impersonal, cruel and unforgiving modern military engagements have become... well crafted epilogue to one of World War II’s most notorious naval engagements.”
International Journal of Maritime History

About the Author

Niklas Zetterling is a military historian and researcher at the Swedish Defense College. His previous books include Bismarck; The Korsun Pocket; and The Drive on Moscow, 1941.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1935149040
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Casemate Publishers; Illustrated edition (May 26, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781935149040
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1935149040
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.48 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,652 in Naval Military History
- #3,108 in German History (Books)
- #11,165 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 420 ratings

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Darwin Meyers

Highly recommend!

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2023

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Great book! Really kept me interested. Great for anyone who is a ww2 buff,or anyone who's a history buff. Well written!

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2024

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There are many grammar mistakes in the book. The book needs to be proofread. The book has a very accurate description of things.

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2023

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Enjoyable read with information I had not been aware of beforehand. The authors researched the movements of both sides well and presented a balanced view of their actions. The German thinking behind their actions was especially interesting.

One person found this helpful

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Scott A Clausen

Great, Detailed Read

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2023

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A superb work with all the level of detail one could want. Especially interesting is reading both sides of the conflict. Most highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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R. Young

Read it Twice and Enjoyed it Both Times

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2014

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Despite other reviews to the contrary, I did not find the writing dry or uninteresting. On the contrary, both times through I was fully engaged with the account.

The Bismarck was a magnificent ship. It was almost impossible to sink even when hammered from all directions in its final battle.

It was also essentially useless. The ship was at war for only about 9 days before it went down.

Germany might have fared better in the war if the steel, fuel, men, training and supplies needed to send the Bismarck to sea had instead been used for submarines and tanks.

The tactical/strategic idea was to turn the Bismarck and a few other ships loose on Allied convoys and wreak destruction. One problem appeared immediately. The total view from a battleship covers about the head of a pin on a map. Just finding targets proved enormously difficult. So we come to see these enormous ships, manned with thousands of men, burning tons of scarce fuel, driving back and forth through the gray, towering waves of the seas and accomplishing next to nothing.

Of course, more than just the men, steel, guns, and weaponry of the Bismarck were involved in the enterprise. It had to be fed and fueled so ships loaded with provisions were posted in different regions of the sea to supply the fighters. No battleship was needed to take out those supply ships. Destroyers could easily sink one when discovered and a ship like the Bismarck could be driven back to port without a shot being fired at it. Ultimately, after the Bismarck was sunk, the supply ships were swept from the oceans to deprive other German warships of supplies.

No battleship sails without needed regular refits, repairs and sometime visits to a dry dock. For German ships they either had to take the guarded route north of Scotland or sail to captured French ports where they were at risk of aerial attack.

It was heading to the Atlantic on the northern route that Bismarck encountered the HMS Hood. In that encounter, HMS Hood was sunk and the mighty Bismarck received its first wound. Although HMS Hood was the largest warship in the world, it was an unequal contest. Bismarck was a true battleship, fully armored, but HMS Hood was actually a battle cruiser. It looked like a battleship, but it was more lightly armored and, in theory, should not have had to get into a battering contest with a true battleship. Certainly that lesson was learned during World War I.

Although Bismarck did get battle honors for sinking the Hood, its sister ship, Tirpitz, never accomplished anything unless one counts a bombardment of shacks in a far north settlement. Hitler came to realize how wasteful the giant ships were and ordered them decommissioned and their guns removed for coastal defense. The German navy stalled and the Tirpitz was sunk by English bombers before it could be dismantled.

Both these author's books, this one on Bismarck and the other on Tirpitz TIRPITZ: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship , are entertaining and informative, but anyone looking for great battleship history and combat should read Castles of Steel, a truly great book about battleships at war, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

12 people found this helpful

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Andy H. Cr.

A million things a day can go wrong in war, Bismarck almost got away

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2018

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This is an excellent analysis of the story of the Bismarck. The detail is fine-grained, and the authors note that both sides had to cope with extremely serious technical, communications, and planning challenges. After Bismarck sunk the battlecruiser HMS Hood, it was absolutely imperative for the British to find and sink the German ship. Yet, Bismarck was a fast and extremely formidable ship with 15 inch guns that were more accurate and had longer range than most of the British battleships, many of which were older. The authors keep us informed of the large number of factors that had to be constantly assessed throughout this confrontation. Eventually the Bismarck was doomed by a brilliant or lucky torpedo shot from a Swordfish biplane, which left the crew unable to effectively steer the ship. The authors also leave us with a "doomsday scenario" that might have occurred if the Bismarck had escaped. They suggest that if Admiral Lutjens had reached France with this ship, he might have come back to sea eventually and establish a task force composed of the Bismarck, its sister ship the Tirpitz, and the smaller but still very powerful battleships (sometimes considered battlecruisers ) Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. What a fight for the British home fleet then! Not fully clear who would have won.

11 people found this helpful

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meyestone

Fascinating rough draft awaits final edit!

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2012

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(Review is of the Kindle edition) I have to agree with others that this is a fascinating story, and the author has clearly done his homework to assemble credible courses and to think through the events in a way that I found compelling - I really could not put this down.

At the same time, the book is more of a rough author's draft than a product ready to be published! It's repetitive; individuals are referred to repeatedly and only much later introduced; and, it's riddled with spelling and grammatical errors (some bad enough to make the meaning of sentences unclear.) On my Kindle (even when using the Kindle computer reading apps, so I could have the big screen) the various maps are pretty much illegible.

The book needs a good edit to be a great book. But, as I say, I still could not stop reading this compelling story, and I feel I understand what happened much better.

One substantive criticism is that there is little mention of some of the controversies about the sinking - in particular, whether it was scuttled or sunk by Allied action.

One other thing - the Bismarck was subsequently located on the ocean floor, which would, one might think, be worth at least a post-scriptural mention!

10 people found this helpful

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Louis Hoffman

history book without bordorm

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2023

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This was a interesting read , primarily because the writer wrote it with good information and not in a boring format. Used individuals and their words as much as the big picture. In short made a story of the individuals more than just boring facts. It a biography of the story

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Kindle Customer

Great Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2022

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enjoyed it, imagine the damage the germans would have done with one hundred Bismarcks, still The Royal Navy put him in his place

One person found this helpful

Rudy

Not bad but the writing could be much improved

Reviewed in Canada on April 20, 2020

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Up to the actual start of the Bismarck’s mission, it felt to me that the writing was scattered and lacked depth but the description of the mission and the events surrounding it was great. Still, many grammatical errors and spelling mistakes in the Kindleedifion mDe me wonder how seriously I should take this book. Still not a bad read.

One person found this helpful

U.B.P Sikhamani

The best book I have read on the Bismark episode.

Reviewed in India on April 27, 2019

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The account of the chase and sinking of Bismark was clear and lucid. The author has well researched his subject and the narrative was simple so that even those not well versed in marine warfare could be drawn into the narrative.

Lindavia

Bismarck

Reviewed in Germany on January 19, 2013

Verified Purchase

Ein geschichtlicher Abriss, diesmal aus britischer Sicht. Ein Buch das leider nicht in ein Seekriegswerk eingereiht werden kann.
Dazu hätte ein Taschenbuch ausgereicht.

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Anglolawyer

A good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2023

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Thorough account of an absorbing drama. The maps are very good.

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