For educational purposes
After the loss of HMS Hood . Britain is in a state of shock, its capital ship sunk by just one shell.
Churchill has ordered every British warship or plane within striking distance to 'Sink the Bismarck!'.
This second feature-length documentary reveals the expedition's findings about Hitler's dreaded battleship - the most powerful weapon of its day - and her historic first, and last, voyage.
After the loss of HMS Hood . Britain is in a state of shock, its capital ship sunk by just one shell.
Churchill has ordered every British warship or plane within striking distance to 'Sink the Bismarck!'.
This second feature-length documentary reveals the expedition's findings about Hitler's dreaded battleship - the most powerful weapon of its day - and her historic first, and last, voyage.
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LearningTranscript
00:00:00May 1941.
00:00:07The British Navy was on a state of high alert.
00:00:17The legendary German warship Bismarck was prowling the North Atlantic.
00:00:22She'd sunk the pride of the British Navy, the mighty HMS Hood, in only two minutes.
00:00:29She'd also seriously wounded Britain's newest battleship, the Prince of Wales.
00:00:42In London, the Admiralty issued this now famous order to every ship within striking distance.
00:00:49Sink the Bismarck.
00:00:59Sink the Bismarck
00:01:06May 2001, the Imperial War Museum.
00:01:31The 60th anniversary of the great British naval victory,
00:01:35the sinking of the Bismarck.
00:01:39This World War II naval battle has become legendary.
00:01:43The greatest warship afloat sunk on only the ninth day of her maiden voyage.
00:01:52But behind the myth is a story of epic bravery and blunder.
00:01:59The outcome could have been so very different.
00:02:02The triumph was very nearly disaster.
00:02:08The last of these actual pictures of the battle shows the Bismarck as smoking ruin.
00:02:15And over the whole affair hangs a question no one has yet answered.
00:02:20Did the British really sink the Bismarck?
00:02:24Amazingly, some German survivors claimed they sank their own ship.
00:02:35In the summer of 2001, a Channel 4 expedition steamed far out into the North Atlantic to find
00:02:41and film the last resting place of one of the most famous warships of all time.
00:02:47And to probe the mystery of who sank the Bismarck.
00:02:54The voyage was part of a hugely ambitious project.
00:03:03Expedition leader David Mearns is a world authority on deep ocean exploration.
00:03:07He became the first person to rediscover Bismarck's victim, HMS Hood.
00:03:18Hood had lain at the bottom of the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland for 60 years.
00:03:27For the first time in history, the team located and filmed the wreck and solved many of the mysteries surrounding her sinking.
00:03:40But Hood lies on a flat underwater plane.
00:03:51Finding and filming Bismarck is an altogether different proposition, despite the fact she's been found before.
00:04:00Bismarck was discovered by American explorer Bob Ballard in 1989, when underwater video technology was relatively primitive.
00:04:08The images of her were unclear and the survey of the wreck incomplete.
00:04:14It also took over two years to find her, and her location was kept secret.
00:04:20David Mearns has since researched all the reported positions for Bismarck sinking, and has come up with a search area 400 miles square.
00:04:38Locating Bismarck again will be hard.
00:04:43She is three miles down, in one of the deepest abysses of the North Atlantic.
00:04:48However, the previous expedition left a vital clue.
00:04:53Bismarck is said to lie on the deeply ravine side of an underwater volcano.
00:04:58There is only one such geological feature within the area.
00:05:02David is confident of finding Bismarck on the first line through the search box.
00:05:14Well, I'm going to sit down later, actually, and work through my line strategy, and I'll have a better feel then.
00:05:20But I do think we're going to find it earlier rather than later, and some of that is just going to be a bit of skill, but also a bit of luck as well.
00:05:34The key to finding the wreck will be one of the most advanced underwater sonar units in the world.
00:05:41It operates at huge depths, scouring up and down the ocean floor with sound waves to create a detailed map of the area.
00:05:53David will then send down the ROV.
00:05:56This remote controlled submersible will deliver the highest quality video pictures of Bismarck,
00:06:02and they will be used to conduct the first ever comprehensive survey of the wreck.
00:06:08If Bismarck is found, then historian Dr. Eric Grove, and underwater forensic expert Bill Durans,
00:06:15will help David assess whether the Bismarck was, in fact, sunk by British torpedoes or scuttled by her own crew.
00:06:24Our inspection of the damage, as far as we can see it along the sides of the ship,
00:06:28should shed some light on how much water she was taking in before the Germans claimed that they opened the seacocks
00:06:34and perhaps even exploded scuttling charges.
00:06:36The idea of the scuttling charges is controversial.
00:06:40There's some anecdotal evidence from survivors that scuttling charges were installed.
00:06:47I think, actually, it fits the German naval mindset,
00:06:49and better to sink the ship yourself rather than even to risk it falling into enemy hands.
00:06:56And it seems odd to us as Anglo-Saxons, but it wasn't odd to the Germans.
00:07:05But as the research vessel Northern Horizon reaches the search area,
00:07:09the weather threatens to undo David's carefully laid plans.
00:07:14It's looking a bit angry out there, actually.
00:07:17The sea's starting to get wind whips, which is not a good sign,
00:07:21and the tops of these swells are being blown over. They're starting to break.
00:07:26Rather like it was on the day, the Bismarck sank.
00:07:30I mean, you can see in the photographs, you can see that the, you know,
00:07:33that the tops of the swells are being blown by the wind.
00:07:36But you could almost see the Bismarck out there, you know,
00:07:38having seen some of the pictures of the sinking.
00:07:40You could almost imagine a smoking out there and going down.
00:07:43These are very similar conditions.
00:07:45Yeah, I'd rather it be flat front.
00:07:48We don't need the historical accuracy.
00:07:51Yeah, we don't need it today.
00:07:53Absolutely, absolutely.
00:07:54A Force 10 gale blows up.
00:08:00The team keep their delicate equipment tied to the heaving deck.
00:08:07But the whole North Atlantic right now is a mess.
00:08:13It's not a place to be.
00:08:15We're ready to go. We're just sort of sitting here holding fire.
00:08:19The expedition costs tens of thousands of pounds a day.
00:08:30Time is a precious commodity.
00:08:32David's plan to find Bismarck fast is already three days behind schedule.
00:08:38The battleship Bismarck was a legend from the day she was launched in 1939.
00:09:01Adored by Hitler, Bismarck was a towering symbol of the technological supremacy of the Third Reich.
00:09:17She was designed to be indestructible and very fast.
00:09:23She was built in secret in Hamburg.
00:09:28At 820 feet long, she was Germany's biggest warship.
00:09:34She was also bristling with eight 15-inch guns.
00:09:38She had 13-inch thick steel armor and a top speed of 30 knots.
00:09:45Bismarck was the quickest and best armored ship of her day.
00:09:50Even as she lay in harbor, she was a drain on the British Navy who had to cover her every possible move.
00:09:57Let loose in the Atlantic, she would be a lethal threat to the merchant convoy ships supplying Britain.
00:10:04But despite the formidable credentials of his new ship, Bismarck's new commander was not happy.
00:10:11German Admiral Gunther Lutyens was an Atlantic veteran.
00:10:18On a two-month mission in early 1941, leading the battleship Scharnhorst and Neisenau,
00:10:24Admiral Lutyens sank 116,000 tons of British merchant shipping.
00:10:30Despite being outnumbered 10 to 1, the German Navy was winning the war at sea.
00:10:36Their strategy was to avoid clashes with warships and instead attack the merchant convoys.
00:10:44Hitler's plan was to starve Britain into submission.
00:10:49But it's not clear that Admiral Lutyens had much faith in his Fuhrer's strategy.
00:10:55The broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy, who took part as a young officer in the action against the Bismarck,
00:11:12believes Admiral Lutyens was at odds with Hitler and Nazism.
00:11:17When he had inspected the Bismarck at Gottenhafen, Admiral Lutyens had the officers arranged on the quarterdeck to receive him.
00:11:28And all the junior officers went like that.
00:11:32But Lutyens gave the old naval salute like that.
00:11:35He wasn't going to count out a Nazism.
00:11:38In fact, Lutyens' own grandmother was Jewish.
00:11:48Gerhard Lutyens was 10 years old when his father left to take up command of the Bismarck.
00:11:55There were many Jewish officers in the Navy, a great many.
00:12:01Older ones too, who had fought in the First World War.
00:12:04And they were protected.
00:12:06Or some had wives that were Jewish or that sort of thing.
00:12:10Well, you know how the Nazis were completely crazy.
00:12:12But apparently it was possible to be a Jewish officer in the Navy.
00:12:15And many of them were saved.
00:12:18Admiral Lutyens' own brother had fled to Switzerland at the start of the war.
00:12:26Lutyens' loyalty to the Navy had made him stay.
00:12:29But from the start, he had serious doubts.
00:12:33The armed forces hadn't really realized the war was a total waste of time.
00:12:37Of course, we realized it later.
00:12:39But very early on, my father knew.
00:12:41He had said that we would probably never be able to win this war.
00:12:45He said, we haven't got enough oil and it won't work.
00:12:52But that was the way it was.
00:12:54He was a military man and he did his duty.
00:12:59Despite his reservations, Lutyens was determined to put on a good show.
00:13:04He proudly inspected the Bismarck and her consort, the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen.
00:13:09In this film, taken by the propaganda ministry, Lutyens is seen coming on board to meet the crew as they prepared for their maiden voyage.
00:13:21One of those men was Henning von Schulz, the second gunnery officer on board for Prince Eugen.
00:13:28The mood was excellent.
00:13:34On the 18th of May 1941, we set sail from Gothenhafen and met up with the battleship Bismarck, which was to join us for Operation Rheinübung at Cape Arcona.
00:13:48The commander had assembled the crew and briefed them about the forthcoming mission.
00:13:55He reminded them of their obligation to do their duty, as is the usual practice.
00:14:01He stressed the feeling of belonging together and we were in such high spirits that the entire crew sang the Prince Eugen battle song.
00:14:09Finally, after nearly five years of building and preparation, the awesome Bismarck slipped out of the Baltic on her maiden voyage.
00:14:26Her mission, to decimate the Atlantic convoys.
00:14:30But Lutyens' new success would depend on how long the ships could remain undetected.
00:14:41Many younger officers, like gunnery officer Baron von Mullenheim Reckberg, doubted it was possible.
00:14:49He is now 90 years old.
00:14:52In 1936, he was German naval attaché to Great Britain, based in Berkeley Square.
00:14:58Then he served as Admiral Lutyens' adjutant, before being posted to the Bismarck as third gunnery officer.
00:15:05After the war, working as a diplomat, he found out that Bismarck had been spotted almost immediately after her departure.
00:15:19There was an ornithologist, Edward K. Barth, off the south coast of Norway.
00:15:26He was part of the Norwegian underground.
00:15:29He photographed anything of interest that he saw.
00:15:32So, on that particular day, he took a photo of the Bismarck and then the Prince Eugen.
00:15:38It is of great historical interest, because it shows that we had been spotted several times.
00:15:45So much for remaining undetected.
00:15:53Admiral Lutyens' preferred route into the Atlantic was north of Iceland, through the Arctic.
00:15:58The propaganda film shows the ships entering the ice flows.
00:16:05But unknown to the Germans.
00:16:07The Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland had been staked out by two British cruisers.
00:16:13HMS Norfolk and Suffolk.
00:16:15They started to shadow the German ships.
00:16:26Initially, we had hoped to be able to shake Suffolk off.
00:16:30We tried changing course, heading for patches of fog and so on.
00:16:33Nothing worked.
00:16:34They kept on shadowing us.
00:16:36The British cruisers sent out the alert.
00:16:43Lurking just off the south coast of Iceland, ready to pounce, were the massive HMS Hood
00:16:49and the brand new battleship, Prince of Wales.
00:16:53The Germans had been ambushed.
00:16:55Bismarck's crew leapt into action.
00:17:02The state-of-the-art gunnery swiftly sank the hood and left the Prince of Wales badly damaged.
00:17:15But as the German gunnery crews cheered, Lutyens was already a very worried man.
00:17:20With his attackers in disarray, Lutyens made for the vast expanse of the Atlantic.
00:17:28But he still couldn't shake off the cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk.
00:17:32They stuck to Bismarck and Prince Eugen like glue.
00:17:36Lutyens suspected that the British cruisers could be using a new long-range radar system
00:17:42that far outperformed the Germans' own.
00:17:45For a huge surface ship like Bismarck in hostile waters, that would be disaster.
00:17:50Lutyens knew he faced a situation he had not anticipated.
00:17:58He soon decided that waging a hit-and-run war against convoys under such conditions
00:18:04when there was no means of escaping and no safe means of reaching a tanker would be senseless.
00:18:11This affected his entire state of mind.
00:18:15It had a negative effect on his whole attitude.
00:18:18He allowed himself to become depressed.
00:18:21For Lutyens his mission was over just as it was starting.
00:18:29He was sure he couldn't hide.
00:18:32And he soon found out he couldn't run.
00:18:34Bismarck had been hit by the Prince of Wales below the waterline.
00:18:39She was losing oil.
00:18:41Her speed was down.
00:18:43She had to get back to a safe port.
00:18:46The nearest was over a thousand miles away.
00:18:49On board the research vessel Northern Horizon, there is good news.
00:18:57A weather window has opened up.
00:18:59Hopefully long enough to complete the mission.
00:19:02After days of waiting, expedition leader David Mearns can launch the sonar unit.
00:19:07It will travel 15,000 feet down into the deep ocean to hunt for Bismarck.
00:19:15David is hopeful he will find the wreck on his first sonar pass through the search box.
00:19:21Yeah, it's just, you know, sort of three days of frustration is now released and now it's, you know, the excitement will build once we get on line.
00:19:34When the sonar is a thousand feet from the seabed, the ship tows it using satellite navigation on a perfectly straight line through the search area.
00:19:48The line is 12 miles long.
00:19:51With the ship moving at two miles an hour, the first pass goes on well into the night.
00:19:58The sonar generates a split image showing the terrain to the left and right of the unit.
00:20:04But in the center, the area right underneath the sonar is a blind spot.
00:20:10As the ship gets nearer and nearer to the end of the first line, it seems that the team may have had some bad luck.
00:20:17Computer here, I can't zoom in and we're getting something really hard now.
00:20:20Is that red over there?
00:20:23Yeah, roger.
00:20:25And that's a bit of a slide, isn't it?
00:20:27Roger that.
00:20:28Okay.
00:20:29I mean, this is all the sort of telltale signs that you're in the middle of a debris field and there's some unusual, I mean, these are not sort of unusual.
00:20:44There are some hints of smaller debris, but strangely no sign of the massive hull.
00:20:48I have a feeling that it's right in here and we can't see the wreck, but we're getting everything else.
00:20:56These things are hard coming in, but I can't, I can't zoom in on them.
00:20:59I think we'd be going to the other side.
00:21:00David runs to the sonar control hut to try and get a closer look at the sonar image.
00:21:14I can't zoom over there because my, if I do, it'll crash the way that's going on.
00:21:18It's like the worst possible situation you could have is just get a, you know, a hint, but nothing definitive.
00:21:34But then, uh...
00:21:38Yeah, I'm going to start picking up on some cable.
00:21:40Bismarck's main hull should show up as a large, hard-edged rectangular image in the sonar sweep.
00:21:50But it's not in there.
00:21:53I think we're really unlucky and it's right under the towfish.
00:22:04The ship turns round to make another path to the search box.
00:22:07With over five miles of cable behind, the turn has to be slow.
00:22:13It's another 12 hours before the sonar will be back over the debris field again.
00:22:19Will Bismarck be in there?
00:22:22Yeah, we're starting to get some hard bits.
00:22:26This is it. This is the debris field.
00:22:29Look, the target's over here as well.
00:22:31Look at the size of that. There's a shadow behind that.
00:22:35There it comes.
00:22:40That's it.
00:22:42236 metres, that's it.
00:22:45There you go. Well done.
00:22:47Fantastic.
00:22:49Nice run.
00:22:51Just another day in the park, isn't it?
00:22:53Fantastic. Right, well done.
00:22:55That's wonderful.
00:22:58David has indeed located the main hull of Bismarck quickly in less than 24 hours.
00:23:03It also seems to be intact.
00:23:09Bismarck may soon give up answers to a 60-year-old mystery.
00:23:14We've located the main hull and...
00:23:18Which seems to be the right length.
00:23:20A whole collection of parts that seem to be detached from that of various rough sizes and shapes and things like that.
00:23:26In fact, the initial impression from the sonar picture is very, very encouraging.
00:23:31There's quite a lot to find out.
00:23:33And so I'm very much looking forward to what we find out tomorrow.
00:23:37The day after Bismarck destroyed HMS Hood was Sunday the 25th of May, 1941.
00:23:47It was also Admiral Gunther Lutyens' 52nd birthday.
00:23:53He received birthday greetings from the Führer himself.
00:23:58He and his ship were commended by Hitler on the dramatic sinking of the Hood.
00:24:05And Lutyens had also just pulled off a tactical masterstroke.
00:24:12The previous day the cruisers HMS Suffolk and Norfolk and the limping Prince of Wales continue to track Bismarck and Prince Eugen South.
00:24:26Closing in from the east was Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Fleet, Admiral Sir John Tovey.
00:24:36On board the battleship HMS King George V, he was steaming at high speed along with HMS Repulse and the aircraft carrier Victorious.
00:24:50Convoy escorts HMS Rodney and Dorsetshire were diverted to the chase.
00:24:56At midnight, Tuffy ordered a torpedo attack by the aircraft from HMS Victorious.
00:25:15But they failed to inflict any damage on Bismarck.
00:25:26Then, in an audacious move at night, Admiral Lutyens had his ships separate.
00:25:32Bismarck doubled back into a rain squall and then headed east, while Prince Eugen veered southwest.
00:25:40In the confusion, the new experimental British radar lost both German ships.
00:25:46Bismarck had slipped her pursuers and was alone in the vast expanse of the North Atlantic.
00:25:52Lutyens was in the clear.
00:25:56His intelligence sources intercepted British radio traffic.
00:26:01They reported the British had lost Bismarck.
00:26:04Lutyens didn't believe them.
00:26:06He felt sure British radar must be plotting his every move.
00:26:10He broadcast a long, rambling message to shore, asking for U-boat and air support.
00:26:17It was a fatal mistake.
00:26:20The transmission was immediately intercepted by the British and the now distant Prince Eugen.
00:26:26We threw up our hands in despair and thought to ourselves, good heavens.
00:26:35The tracking ships must have lost contact with their target.
00:26:39There are no radio messages from them.
00:26:41And now the Bismarck is sending such a long radio message, which will undoubtedly enable the enemy to locate her position.
00:26:46By intercepting the transmission from Bismarck at various radio stations on land, the Admiralty in London were able to get a rough directional fix on Bismarck's position.
00:27:00It seemed to them she was heading east to German-occupied France.
00:27:05But the data was inconclusive.
00:27:09They decided Admiral Tovey had a better view of the situation.
00:27:13They sent him the raw data to make his own calculations and draw his own conclusions.
00:27:19Unfortunately, on board HMS King George V, Tovey's staff got their calculations back to front.
00:27:29Instead of heading east in pursuit, they turned north, believing she was heading back to Norway.
00:27:35Instead of closing in on their prey, the British were now steaming at top speed in the wrong direction.
00:27:44Yet again, Lutyens was oblivious to his own good luck.
00:27:49At midday, he solemnly addressed the whole crew.
00:27:53It was clear he felt they were doomed to fight a battle which they could not win.
00:27:58The fleet commander Lutyens made a very moving speech to the crew on his birthday, the 25th of May, ending with the words, victory or death.
00:28:09I was on guard duty at the bow command post. I released my NCOs so they could go and hear his speech.
00:28:17When they returned, they said, good heavens, good heavens, it's all over.
00:28:22Soon afterwards, the captain of the Bismarck, Ernst Lindemann, tried to lift crew morale.
00:28:32He told them they were now only 600 miles west of France, soon to be inside the Luftwaffe air cover.
00:28:38He assured them they'd make it home.
00:28:44Back in London, the Admiralty were confused by the fact that the British ships pursuing Bismarck had turned north.
00:28:51They thought Tovey must know something they didn't.
00:28:54But their calculations still showed Bismarck heading east to a port in northern France.
00:28:59To make sure, RAF Coastal Command was asked to sweep over the easterly route.
00:29:06The Admiralty's hunch was right.
00:29:09Bismarck was found again.
00:29:12Unfortunately, she was now 150 miles east of the fleet.
00:29:18Tovey's ships would never catch her.
00:29:22Somehow, the German ship had to be slowed down.
00:29:27The northern horizon is on the very spot where Bismarck sank 60 years ago.
00:29:36Expedition leader David Mearns watches anxiously as his team prepare the ROV, the remote controlled submersible.
00:29:44It will descend to the very bottom of the ocean.
00:29:48From there, it will feed back high quality images of the hull of the great ship and all the debris that fell off as she sank.
00:29:55With four days already lost and the weather outlook uncertain, David wants to start filming Bismarck quickly.
00:30:04Well, it's just a few more hours, and then we'll see her.
00:30:05As the ROV heads to the bottom on its four-hour journey to the Bismarck, at least some of the team can get started.
00:30:06As the ROV heads to the bottom on its four-hour journey to the Bismarck, at least some of the team can get some sleep.
00:30:09As the ROV heads to the bottom on its four-hour journey to the Bismarck, at least some of the team can get some sleep.
00:30:10As the ROV heads to the bottom on its four-hour journey to the Bismarck, at least some of the team can get some sleep.
00:30:17As the ROV heads to the bottom on its four-hour journey to the Bismarck, at least some of the team can get some sleep.
00:30:30At one in the morning, the team come back to the survey room.
00:30:55The ROV is nearly there.
00:31:12Ah, those are boots.
00:31:14Yes, those are boots, definitely.
00:31:19The ROV has dropped down right on top of the mass of debris.
00:31:23The plan is to progress through it and hopefully locate the main hull of the ship.
00:31:28Only then can the team search its exterior for the signs of the torpedo damage that the British claim sank Bismarck.
00:31:36Or will they find evidence that the Germans scuttled their own ship?
00:31:41As the ROV proceeds forward through the field of debris, it comes across larger and larger pieces.
00:31:52This is part of the range-finding apparatus used to aim the main guns.
00:31:56Cranes and mast parts litter the seabed.
00:32:09That's a crust tree.
00:32:11That's that crust tree there.
00:32:12Yeah.
00:32:13Then into shot comes a huge piece of debris.
00:32:16That looks like the mast of Bismarck.
00:32:17Yeah.
00:32:18That's it.
00:32:19To see, to see that we don't have any other inverted cross trees anywhere.
00:32:29I mean, that has to be the main mast.
00:32:32No doubt about it.
00:32:34The main mast of Bismarck lies bent in two, upside down.
00:32:40But the railings and viewing platforms where signal men and lookout stood are still visible.
00:32:46Yeah, Dave, we've got a real good hard target dead ahead of us, about 35 feet.
00:32:51Right.
00:32:52Okay.
00:32:53Go ahead.
00:32:54Hit that.
00:32:58My god.
00:32:59Is that the bottom of the turret?
00:33:04No.
00:33:05It's too light, I think.
00:33:07It looks...
00:33:09The bottom of the turret...
00:33:11No, no.
00:33:12Is that a turret inverted?
00:33:13I mean, no.
00:33:14Whatever it is, it's upside down.
00:33:16Oh, yeah.
00:33:17Yeah.
00:33:18Yeah.
00:33:19This is indeed one of Bismarck's 1,000-ton gun turrets.
00:33:20As the ship rolled, it would have fallen out and now lies upside down on the seabed.
00:33:42Visible in the center of picture is an open escape hatch.
00:33:45Then into shot looms the biggest piece of debris yet.
00:33:46The superstructure is the main tower of the ship containing the bridge.
00:33:48On this very platform behind these windows stood Captain Linderman and Admiral Lutyens.
00:33:50Now it lies upside down, having snapped off as one complete piece as the ship sank.
00:33:51As the ship sank.
00:33:52As the ship sank.
00:33:53As the ship sank.
00:33:56The dashboard looms the biggest piece of debris and debris.
00:33:59The main tower of the ship containing the bridge.
00:34:04On this very platform behind these windows stood Captain Lindemann and Admiral Lutyens.
00:34:11Now it lies upside down, having snapped off as one complete piece as the ship sank.
00:34:29But after exploring the field of debris, the team start to draw a blank.
00:34:47The main hull, the ship herself, where all the answers lie, doesn't seem to be in the
00:34:53same area.
00:34:59The search goes on all night and into the next day.
00:35:13This is a challenging terrain, an underwater mountain range rivaling the Alps in size.
00:35:20The team are having to negotiate the deep ravines on the side of the underwater volcano.
00:35:26The ridges along the tops of the ravines are limiting their view.
00:35:32This must be part of the problem in that they're getting shielded from targets.
00:35:36We're on the wrong side of our ridge and they can't see over it.
00:35:39It's the only way to explain this.
00:35:43Do we need to move it to front of you?
00:35:46Well, we'll see if you can.
00:35:49I mean, there's no other way to explain him not being able to see anything.
00:35:54You know, they were down there for hours and they haven't had a target.
00:35:58The hull could so easily be just beyond the next hill.
00:36:06Hello, ROV.
00:36:07This is a sonar.
00:36:09By seven in the evening, even David's apparently limitless patience is wearing thin.
00:36:15And then, when it seems things couldn't get more frustrating, the ROV stops moving.
00:36:31There's that oil that came up on the camera lens.
00:36:35No, it's just dust.
00:36:37Wow.
00:36:39My initial guess is that we've shagged a hydraulic line.
00:36:49I think we're probably looking at the full recovery.
00:36:52The way she's responding, it looks like a hydraulic line may have gone or the pump was shagged for
00:36:57some reason.
00:36:58Well, I think this dive is over.
00:37:07Yet again, David is looking at a schedule that is slipping away from him.
00:37:19As the ROV is recovered, it soon becomes clear that it has blown a hydraulic line.
00:37:24Luckily, the damage is not critical.
00:37:33The problem can be fixed, but the delay only adds to the tension.
00:37:43Three miles below them, Bismarck waits to give up the secrets of her sinking.
00:37:48Sixty years ago, Bismarck had slipped away from the ships of the Royal Navy, but she hadn't
00:38:04escaped their aircraft.
00:38:12The pilot of this plane is 82 years old.
00:38:16In May 1941, John Moffat was a Navy pilot on board the aircraft carrier Ark Royal.
00:38:22Combined his flight server will。
00:38:28If he got a log owner that's a Squealth.
00:38:31起用 some tunes of marin 조리.
00:38:35Re Wan .
00:38:36Reader 2.
00:38:37Two of cheers being Aldo.
00:38:40his flying logbook discsaurais
00:38:41Close your walk in the terrorists!
00:38:44A master of his aircraft was we will beitetails.
00:38:46A phase ofARIN's piracy decided?
00:38:47F любой 1!
00:38:49Behind this simple entry in his flying logbook,
00:38:52is the story of a dramatic last-ditch air attack on the Bismarck.
00:39:03I couldn't believe what I was feeling.
00:39:05I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
00:39:08And it still haunts me.
00:39:12It's a terrifying sight.
00:39:15Terrifying.
00:39:16Fifteen pilots and their crews hurled themselves straight at the fire-spitting mountain that was Bismarck.
00:39:26But their breathtaking bravery was nearly marred by disaster.
00:39:34Admiral Lutyens on board the Bismarck had outsmarted the vastly superior forces of the British Navy for over two days.
00:39:42Then his luck had seemed to run out.
00:39:44The RAF had spotted Bismarck heading for France.
00:39:50But one by one, the chasing ships reached their fuel limits and had to turn back.
00:39:57Eventually, only Admiral Tovey's own ship, HMS King George V, and the Cruiser Norfolk were left.
00:40:04But they were still over 150 miles behind Bismarck.
00:40:08The convoy escorts, HMS Rodney and Dorsetshire, which had been diverted to the chase, were also too far away.
00:40:19Tovey's only hope lay with the ships from the Force H, the British Mediterranean Fleet, which had been sent up from Gibraltar the previous day.
00:40:26They included the cruiser HMS Sheffield and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.
00:40:32She carried a squadron of swordfish bombers.
00:40:36Despite their antiquated appearance, these canvas and wire biplanes were a pioneering design.
00:40:44And they were still the only aircraft that could haul a torpedo off the ship's deck.
00:40:49As a last ditch effort, they were ordered to attack.
00:40:52The hope was they could slow Bismarck down, but the weather off the Spanish coast was abysmal.
00:41:03The Ark Royal attack was absolutely astonishing, because they would never normally, if it was a practice shoot, practice attack, they would have never taken off.
00:41:13I mean, they measured the, the amount of stern was rising and falling in this tremendous sea.
00:41:20And it was something like 55 feet going up and down like that.
00:41:34Like many young wartime pilots, Ken Pattison had married shortly before he was sent on active duty.
00:41:40At the age of 24, he found himself sitting on the deck of Ark Royal in a storm, waiting to take on the most powerful German warship afloat.
00:41:53I can remember, you know, sitting on the deck with the aircraft running, waiting to take off.
00:42:00I can remember feeling my wedding ring under my glove and thinking, I hope that I shall get back.
00:42:07Almost saying a little prayer. I'm not that religious, but one gets that feeling, you know.
00:42:16Fifteen swordfish headed off on a stormy 300 mile round trip to find the German warship.
00:42:22When we were briefed, we were told, there's one ship out there, Bismarck.
00:42:25Go and sink her.
00:42:26Ha ha ha!
00:42:27Ha ha ha!
00:42:28Ha ha ha!
00:42:45When we were briefed, we were told.
00:42:48told, there's one ship out there, Bismarck, go and sink her. But they didn't tell us a
00:42:58ship that was halfway between the Art Royal and the Bismarck. And in the cloud and the
00:43:07hype conditions, the poor old leader of the flight saw this ship and said, well, it must
00:43:14be the Bismarck. There's no other ship there. And so down we went. In fact, Art Royal had
00:43:23been told that the British cruiser HMS Sheffield was now shadowing the Bismarck. Unfortunately,
00:43:29the message was still sitting unread in the air squadron's intray. The swordfish went in
00:43:36to attack their own ship. Luckily, disaster was avoided. A new type of detonator had been
00:43:51fitted to the torpedoes. They all failed to explode.
00:43:56I mean, some of them hung their heads in shame. I didn't because I hadn't dropped my torpedo
00:44:04at her.
00:44:14None of this was doing Admiral Tovey's blood pressure any good. Unless Bismarck's speed was reduced
00:44:20by midnight, his ships would have to turn home for lack of fuel. He immediately ordered the swordfish
00:44:26of Force H to launch another attack. This time, the torpedoes were fitted with the old detonators.
00:44:33Well, they re-armed and re-fuelled the aircraft. We had a bite to eat because it was late afternoon
00:44:40this time. And then we took off again.
00:44:43With the gale still raging, the second attack took off. With it was pilot John Moffat.
00:44:53We set off in unbelievable conditions. I don't know how everybody managed to get off, but they did.
00:45:00Anyway, we kept going. And then the next thing we knew was these shell bars coming through. And then
00:45:07that's when the commanding officer gave us a signal to go line astern. So we went line astern,
00:45:14the three of us. And then he gave a signal and down we went.
00:45:22Firing at us right from then. And that was even in the clouds. And when we came out,
00:45:28that's when the things really opened up then. It was unbelievable. It was just like hail coming at
00:45:37you with these tracers. We came out of the cloud, went right down onto the water, 90 feet, 90 knots. You
00:45:48had to slow down because we were doing 180 knots in the dive. We had to slow down because it was no good
00:45:54dropping the torpedo too fast because they are almost a little bit delicate and they would break up.
00:46:02So, and there's no good dropping them at 800 feet either. You've got to get right down on the water.
00:46:13She was firing her main armament into the sea ahead of us and we'd suddenly see great columns of spray
00:46:20going up. They were like living antiques. They were flying at a speed of roughly 60 to 70 miles an hour.
00:46:43There was this voice in my ears and this was my observer, my navigator. And he was telling me
00:46:51I'll tell you, I'll tell you. And I couldn't understand what he was on about, you see. And I
00:46:56said, what's it about? And his name was Miller. And I said, what's wrong, Miller? And he says, I'll
00:47:03tell you when to let it go. And I thought, good Lord, you know. And the next thing I had just looked
00:47:10out the side of the aircraft and there he was hanging over the side. Yeah, I'm not kidding. I mean,
00:47:15hanging over the side. And there he was leaning right out and his head down and then, and he kept
00:47:23saying, not yet, not yet. And then I realized what he was on. The idea is, you see, the sea was so
00:47:31bad, as you can imagine these waves, that if you didn't set that torpedo into the trough properly,
00:47:38and there, if you hit the top of a wave and it porpoised, it's of no use. It wouldn't run.
00:47:46You had to get it. So it went straight in. And he held me there. He held me far too long. It was a
00:47:53few seconds, but it felt like years. But, and then he just said, let her go, you know. Okay. And
00:48:02I just pressed with it. And the next thing I heard him shout was, we've got a runner.
00:48:16As I went in on my attack and got down, I realized she was turning to port.
00:48:21So I aimed well off, across, ahead of her bow, dropped my fish, and then I got out of it as quick as I could.
00:48:42Amazingly, every single aircraft returned to the Ark Royal with little more than minor damage.
00:48:48But to the pilots, it seemed that their attack on Bismarck had failed.
00:48:54To Admiral Tovey, the situation now looked desperate. He had only a few hours worth of fuel left.
00:49:01Quiet resignation started to set in. Despite the huge efforts by the Royal Navy, it seemed Bismarck
00:49:07would slip the net. Then slowly, dismay gave way to disbelief.
00:49:19The Sheffield shadowing sent a signal to Tovey, saying,
00:49:24course of Bismarck, due north. Well, the course that Bismarck had been steering was roughly south-east,
00:49:36towards Brest or Saint-Nazaire.
00:49:38Tovey said to his officers on the plot,
00:49:44I fear poor Larkham, that's the name of the captain of the Sheffield, has joined the reciprocal club,
00:49:50meaning that he had thought that Bismarck was going from right to left,
00:49:55when in fact she was going from left to right, or the other way round,
00:49:59which is an easy mistake to be made by an inexperienced officer.
00:50:03But the officers thought, poor old Larkham, to make such a balls-up at this time.
00:50:09We didn't know at that time that we'd hit her rudder.
00:50:12They couldn't understand why she was turning. They thought she was in a kind of turn to avoid torpedoes.
00:50:20And then the swordfish, who was shadowing, also reported the ship heading north.
00:50:26And they knew then that she was in trouble.
00:50:33We received two direct hits to the rudders at the ship's rear.
00:50:36I realised the rudder position needle was no longer moving. The ship was no longer manoeuvrable.
00:50:42The rudders could not be repaired. Bismarck steamed around in circles.
00:50:56The greatest warship afloat had been brought to heel by a tiny canvas and wire biplane.
00:51:03Luchin's prediction was correct. In an ocean now swept by radar and policed by aircraft,
00:51:10battleships could no longer hide.
00:51:13So we basically drifted towards our executioner. That was the worst part of the whole operation.
00:51:19The certainty that we were powerless to escape our fate.
00:51:22It must have been a very depressing experience.
00:51:39Your confidence had built up. You thought you'd shaken off the British.
00:51:42There was every chance of your getting back to France, getting back to safety.
00:51:48But then the air attack takes place. Then suddenly the ship can't steer.
00:51:53And suddenly the mood swings. It must be one of the largest mood swings in naval history.
00:51:58It was impossible to keep up morale in these circumstances.
00:52:00Everyone from the admiral on the captain down sank into a sort of lassitude of depression.
00:52:06A sense of doom. A real sense of doom.
00:52:10And the atmosphere on that ship on the night of the 26th or 27th must have been extraordinary.
00:52:14Otto Peters was in the engine rooms of Bismarck that night.
00:52:28He'd been with the ship long before she'd even been commissioned.
00:52:34Every day for two years he walked under the Elbe river in Hamburg in this tunnel with
00:52:38thousands of fellow workers to the dockyards.
00:52:40He'd been part of the team who installed the turbine engines.
00:52:47Now he was eight decks down, awaiting his fate.
00:52:56Yes, there was fear. There was fear, yes.
00:53:00But some of it was subconscious, so you couldn't actually pinpoint when the fear set in.
00:53:05But it was there.
00:53:06It's human.
00:53:14There was no doubt in our minds that the English would do whatever they could to destroy us.
00:53:20The night before his death, Admiral Lutyens sent this message to shore.
00:53:34To the Führer of the Third Reich, we fight to the last with firm faith in you, my Führer,
00:53:41and with unshakable confidence in Germany's victory.
00:53:48He got this reply.
00:53:50All Germany is with you.
00:53:52What can be done, will be done.
00:53:55Your devotion to duty will strengthen our people in their fight for survival.
00:54:00Adolf Hitler
00:54:01After hurried repairs, the remotely operated vehicle, the ROV, is ready to go back in the water.
00:54:14This time, it also carries a bronze plaque in memory of the sailors of Bismarck.
00:54:19It looks like it's a solid piece there.
00:54:34I'll get a closer look at it.
00:54:35Yeah, if we take a closer look, if there's a really good landing zone, then that's fine.
00:54:40David had wanted to lay the plaque on the bow of the Bismarck.
00:54:44With the main hull of the ship proving elusive and the fears that the weather might again turn
00:54:48against him, David decides to compromise.
00:54:51Drop it, drop it, drop it.
00:54:53Good.
00:54:55Well done, well done, perfect.
00:55:00The plaque is placed on the biggest part of debris already found,
00:55:04on the superstructure near Admiral Lutyens' bridge.
00:55:10And then, soon after, the team locate what seems to be a huge trench dug out of the mountainside by Bismarck.
00:55:33The sinking hull of Bismarck hit the seabed at around 24 miles an hour.
00:55:38It blasted an impact crater over a mile wide into the rocky surface.
00:55:43But because it hit the steep slopes of an extinct underwater volcano, it started to slide.
00:55:49Bismarck's huge 50,000-ton, heavily armoured hull charged down the slope,
00:55:54ripping out a deep trench nearly two miles long.
00:55:59The ROV is now in that trench and heading downhill.
00:56:07The ROV to the wreck is staring us dead in the face.
00:56:16Yeah, we're under that, Dave. We're steady snooping, too.
00:56:19Okay, thank you.
00:56:19What's that, R.D.?
00:56:29What the hell is that?
00:56:33What's that in front of you?
00:56:36That is exactly what we've been looking for.
00:56:38That's, uh, this one.
00:56:42Jesus Christ.
00:56:43There, look at that.
00:56:48That's disgusting.
00:56:49Yes, sir.
00:56:52I was ready to go, what's wrong with you guys?
00:56:57There's drama, there's drama.
00:56:59Fantastic, well done.
00:57:00The clarity of the water at 15,000 feet is breathtaking.
00:57:23The images of the massive ship are better than anyone had dared hope for.
00:57:26At last, a scientific analysis of the wreck can shed light on the historical accounts of this famous battle.
00:57:41As the dawn came up on the morning of Tuesday the 27th of May,
00:57:45the British ship started to circle Bismarck.
00:57:49At 0847, they opened fire.
00:57:52The big battleships, HMS King George V and HMS Rodney, along with the cruisers Dorsetshire and Norfolk,
00:58:00launched salvo after salvo.
00:58:07Bismarck, unable to steer, wandered aimlessly through a firestorm.
00:58:12The shells start landing, and they land in very large numbers indeed.
00:58:28They convert the upper part of the ship into a wreck very rapidly.
00:58:33They kill hundreds of hundreds of members of the crew.
00:58:37They penetrate inside the armour on the upper works.
00:58:39And although they don't destroy the ship's capacity to float, they destroy the ship's capacity to fight.
00:58:45Within a very few minutes, one of the finest battleships in the world is converted into a useless burning wreck.
00:58:50The Germans tried to respond to the British attack, but at 902, HMS Rodney scored a direct hit on Bismarck's front control tower.
00:59:03A later shell ripped out the huge hole in the bottom right of the picture.
00:59:07But on the front side is evidence of the first 16-inch hit, which passed straight through the armour.
00:59:19Bismarck's guns had now lost their main control systems.
00:59:24Firing of the rear guns passed to Baron Mullenheim-Reckberg in the rear gun control tower.
00:59:29But he only managed to fire four salvos.
00:59:37But at that moment, we received a hit and the entire viewing equipment was blasted away.
00:59:45The rangefinder had been destroyed.
00:59:48The operators were dead.
00:59:50We were thrown against the side and got a bloody nose.
00:59:53That was my only injury during the entire incident.
01:00:01This is the control tower where Mullenheim-Reckberg sat.
01:00:04The rangefinding apparatus, which should sit on top, is completely missing.
01:00:17Bismarck's secondary guns were all eliminated.
01:00:21Each shows evidence of direct hits.
01:00:24Bismarck's single remaining gun, the rear turret, was obliterated by a 16-inch shell at 9.31am.
01:00:42Bismarck's guns fell silent.
01:00:45Her crew were defenceless.
01:00:47The British continued to hurl thousands of shells at the crippled German ship for the next hour.
01:00:54They estimated that around two to three hundred hit their target.
01:00:59Despite this, Bismarck still refused to sink.
01:01:07Bismarck was built very strongly in many ways.
01:01:10Bismarck was a very hard ship to sink, as was proved.
01:01:13She was pounded in a very long, by naval battle standards, bombardment.
01:01:20What, an hour and a half or so?
01:01:21Something like that.
01:01:22A very long bombardment indeed, at point-blank range.
01:01:26And yet she didn't sink.
01:01:27She was put out of action, yes, but she didn't sink.
01:01:31She was attacked inefficiently.
01:01:34The British chose, for whatever reasons, to attack the ship,
01:01:38probably in the worst possible way, if one wanted to result in a rapid sinking.
01:01:42There's always been some questions asked as to why the Royal Navy did not simply pull back and
01:01:46torpedo this essentially helpless ship.
01:01:49They could have sent in more strikes with swordfish very easily.
01:01:52They could have pulled back to 30,000 yards, where penetration of the deck would have been
01:01:57virtually certain, and probably sank the ship, just as happened to Hood, with it 12, 15 salvos.
01:02:04They weren't thinking scientifically, they were thinking instinctively.
01:02:07And they thought that the closer they got, the more fire they poured in, the faster the ship will sink.
01:02:13And all the evidence is that, in fact, they got extremely frustrated.
01:02:16These probably were big gunmen, and here was their chance to use their big guns.
01:02:21Virtually everyone who was on the deck of Bismarck died.
01:02:31Most of the survivors were men like engineers who worked below decks.
01:02:36The main witnesses to the horrors above decks were the British onlookers.
01:02:43I saw it all.
01:02:43They were giving the ship a most awful pounding.
01:02:49Can't imagine what it must have been like on board.
01:02:56The scenes of carnage on board after the battle started were really horrific.
01:03:04Men, friends next to them, being hit by a splinter and
01:03:09ripping their stomachs open and all the guts coming out and bone and blood and all that.
01:03:16I mean, really horrific things.
01:03:19And I think that's, I mean, that you don't expect in the course of a lifetime.
01:03:23It still haunts me.
01:03:36Because these poops, souls, they just had no chance.
01:03:42None.
01:03:43At 10.21, Admiral Tovey was now at his limits on fuel.
01:03:54There were reports of imminent German air and U-boat attacks.
01:03:58Much to the amazement of the Admiralty, Tovey broke off the action and headed for home.
01:04:03The cruiser, HMS Dorsetshire, was ordered to torpedo the Bismarck.
01:04:13And this caused a tremendous crisis between Tovey and Churchill.
01:04:18Tovey'd sailed away with the ship still afloat.
01:04:20And this caused, well, it wasn't just a frisson with Churchill.
01:04:23It was a frisson with Dudley Pound, the first sea lord.
01:04:25People, other people in the Navy thought,
01:04:27you can't sail away and leave an enemy battleship still, still, uh,
01:04:31still on the, um, on the, um, on the surface.
01:04:34But he did.
01:04:35And he left Dorsetshire to have a go with torpedoes at very close range.
01:04:40But the evidence of the expedition now suggests Tovey's decision was not so strange.
01:04:48It's clear from a detailed examination of the hull that the handful of torpedoes
01:04:52the British had already fired had had a much greater effect than previously believed.
01:04:58Earlier in the action, HMS Rodney and Norfolk had fired four torpedoes each at Bismarck's
01:05:03starboard side. The survey of the hull revealed at least four out of the eight hit.
01:05:09One tore open Bismarck's weaker underbelly and prized apart these 13-inch thick side armor plates.
01:05:15The resulting flooding would have been devastating.
01:05:19Tovey may well have seen that Bismarck was going to sink.
01:05:22We now think that a torpedo from Dorsetshire came in about here
01:05:26and actually exploded on the main deck here.
01:05:29Causing huge damage, of course, because of the size of the warhead.
01:05:32But below the waterline, when one takes torpedo hits, the flooding is restricted by compartmentation.
01:05:39Up above, in the main deck, in what we call, in the US Navy at least, the second deck area,
01:05:47that's all more or less wide open. And once water gets in there, it floods freely throughout the ship.
01:05:52So, once a ship gets to that point, she doesn't come back.
01:05:57The conclusion of the expedition is that Bismarck was indeed sunk by British torpedoes.
01:06:03If the Germans did open the Seacocks to scuttle Bismarck, as some anecdotal evidence
01:06:07from survivors claimed, it only hastened the inevitable.
01:06:17Towards the end of the action, the swordfish from Ark Royal had hoped to finish off the Bismarck.
01:06:23But the planes from the Mediterranean-based force were not welcomed by the home fleet.
01:06:28Bismarck was their prize. Revenge for sinking the Hood.
01:06:33The planes were fired on by ships of their own side.
01:06:38I think it was the Dorsets that gave us a broadside when we were about to attack.
01:06:46That's probably the fact that we were a different force in wrong waters.
01:06:56We understood that when we got back, because that was revenge for the Hood.
01:07:03As the planes flew away at 10.38, Bismarck started to roll over.
01:07:09The men from below decks now tried to escape.
01:07:18And well, it was then that we finally knew that we really did have to leave the ship.
01:07:23And there were mountains of dead bodies. It was a horrifying sight.
01:07:32There were hundreds of dead bodies, and the ship had almost sunk by the time I reached the upper deck.
01:07:39The waves were crashing overhead, and it's really terrible to see people with the blood all washed
01:07:44out of them, and only their flesh remaining.
01:07:48Bismarck had a crew of two and a half thousand men.
01:07:52Eight hundred men got away as she sank.
01:07:55This photograph, taken from the Dorsetshire, shows the survivors swimming towards the British ship.
01:08:01Dorsetshire, and the destroyer Maori, moved in to rescue the German sailors.
01:08:23But shortly after the ships came to a halt, there was a warning of a U-boat attack.
01:08:29I was utterly horrified when all of a sudden we set off again,
01:08:36and I realized that the others were not going to be rescued.
01:08:40Although I was unaware of it at the time, I had been one of the last to be rescued.
01:08:50All warships were under strict orders to move off.
01:08:53To be static in the water near a submarine was considered suicidal.
01:08:58It was awful.
01:09:00And that same feeling of compassion, which the Germans had found when they saw the hood disappear,
01:09:07were replicated by us in the British ships.
01:09:12It was just the same sort of feeling the Germans had.
01:09:14It's this thing of the comradeship of the sea.
01:09:16It's a very instinctive thing.
01:09:31Of the 800 German sailors who had survived the shelling,
01:09:36nearly 700 were left in the water.
01:09:39Otto Hunch was an anti-aircraft gunner on Bismarck.
01:09:53He was one of a handful of men from above decks who had found cover
01:09:57and avoided the wholesale carnage happening all around him.
01:10:00The actual drama didn't begin until my fellow soldiers were in the water
01:10:12and the Dorsetshire, or whatever the cruiser was called, sailed off.
01:10:22Sailed off without rescuing any more men.
01:10:24It was traumatic for those soldiers.
01:10:33It was cruel, and I don't know.
01:10:38I can't imagine that a German submarine, a German submarine commander,
01:10:44that he would have sabotaged the rescue attempt by firing torpedoes at the ship,
01:10:49at the British ship.
01:10:54I can't imagine that.
01:10:57Somehow, he and two others had managed to get an inflatable life raft undercover too,
01:11:02and protect it throughout the battle.
01:11:05As Bismarck sank, they set off into the massive Atlantic swells.
01:11:10But it was an almost impossible task to stay in the raft.
01:11:14Before 1900 hours, I had decided that it was futile to go on like that,
01:11:25and I had taken off my life jacket.
01:11:27I said, the next time we capsize, I won't struggle to get back.
01:11:37But my fellow soldiers won me around,
01:11:39saying that we should hold out, which is what we ended up doing.
01:11:44At 1900 hours, the submarine arrived.
01:11:48After nine hours in the water,
01:11:49Wunsch and his two companions were picked up by a German U-boat sent to look for survivors.
01:11:56They were the only ones found.
01:12:00The other 700 sailors who survived the battle had slipped beneath the mountainous waves.
01:12:05They were the only ones found that they were the only ones found that they were the only ones found.
01:12:20No one knows how Admiral Lutyens met his death.
01:12:24My father always had his gold watch with him, a pocket watch with a spring lid.
01:12:34But this time he had left it behind, saying that it was to be given to me should he not return.
01:12:42Those were the last words I heard him say.
01:12:44One morning my mother came in and told me that my father was dead and that I didn't have to go to school.
01:12:55That was that.
01:12:56Then we heard it on the radio.
01:12:58That was all we knew.
01:13:04Winston Churchill was in the House of Commons at the time
01:13:06and somebody handed him a piece of paper and he said that I've just received news
01:13:12that the Bismarck had been sunk and everybody cheered.
01:13:17Except for one man, that was Harold Nicholson, the writer, who was a member of parliament.
01:13:23And he more than most sensed the human tragedy and the loss of so many lives.
01:13:294,000 sailors on the two sides, including two admirals, died.
01:13:361.112 Bismarck survivors were landed at Newcastle and spent the rest of the war in camps in Canada.
01:13:50Today many of those who remain meet at the memorial to their lost shipmates
01:13:54in the Bismarck family estate near Hamburg.
01:14:03With them are some of the men who sank them.
01:14:07Together both sides still remember the 4,000 men of Hood and Bismarck who died.
01:14:14Although they didn't realize it at the time, these men took part in one of the last chapters
01:14:20of the battleship era.
01:14:26Such huge gunships were never built again.
01:14:28The battle of the Hood and Bismarck proved that even the most powerful weapons either
01:14:34side possessed could now be destroyed by something smaller, cheaper and more mobile.
01:14:41Soon aircraft would come to dominate naval warfare.
01:14:47This expedition has reopened that chapter of history and found new answers to unsolved mysteries.
01:14:53The men who served and died in Hood and Bismarck have not been forgotten.
01:15:00The world has been able to gaze once more upon these enormous feats of engineering,
01:15:06the ships that ruled the waves in the age of the battleship.
01:15:11The battle ship