Last battle of Bismarck

The last battle of the German battleship Bismarck took place in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) west of Brest, France, on 26–27 May 1941 between the German battleship Bismarck and naval and air elements of the British Royal Navy. Although it was an action between capital ships, it has no generally accepted name. It represented the culmination of Operation Rheinübung where the attempt of the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen to disrupt the Atlantic convoys to the United Kingdom failed and resulted in the former's scuttling after battle damage rendered the Bismarck unable to fight back. The four British warships continued firing throughout the scuttling process, and most experts agree that the accumulated battle damage would have caused the Bismarck to sink eventually.

The last battle consisted of four main phases. The first phase late on 26 May consisted of air attacks by torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal, which disabled Bismarck's steering gear, jammed her rudders in a turning position and prevented her escape. The second phase was the shadowing and harassment of Bismarck during the night of 26/27 May by British and Polish destroyers, with no serious damage to any ship. The third phase on the morning of 27 May was an attack by the British battleships King George V and Rodney, supported by the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire. After about 100 minutes of fighting, Bismarck was sunk by the combined effects of shellfire, torpedo hits and scuttling. On the British side, Rodney was lightly damaged by near-misses and by the blast effects of her own guns. British warships rescued 110 survivors from Bismarck before abandoning the rest because of an apparent U-boat sighting. A U-boat and a German weathership rescued five more survivors. In the final phase, the withdrawing British ships were attacked the next day on 28 May by aircraft of the Luftwaffe, resulting in the loss of the destroyer HMS Mashona.