In
the early hours of May 24, 1941, as the mighty German battleships
Bismarck and Prinz Eugen slipped through the Denmark Strait,
they were dramatically intercepted by the Royal Navy battleships
Hood and Prince of Wales. Within six minutes of the first
salvo being fired, the Hood, pride of the Royal Navy, was
blown out of the water in one of the most gigantic explosions
ever witnessed at sea.
Bismarck's fourth salvo landed a shell
forward of the Hood's after turrets, piercing her deck, exploding
the 4-inch magazine. Simultaneously this detonated the adjacent
15-inch magazine, and in one mighty eruption the battleship
broke in two. Within seconds she was gone. Of the ships company
of 1400 officers and sailors only three survived.
Outraged at the grievous loss Winston
Churchill signaled the Admiralty just three words: "Sink
the Bismarck!" Thus began one of the epic sea chases
in the history of naval warfare.
Damaged by shells from the Prince of Wale's
14-guns and losing fuel oil, Admiral Lutjens broke off the
engagement and steamed Bismarck towards the anonymity of the
North Atlantic. Evading the British warships for 32 hours
he had hopes of reaching the safety of Brest, but when spotted
by a Catalina of RAF Coastal Command, Lutjens knew it was
the beginning of the end for the mighty German warship.
When an attack by Ark Royal's Swordfish
torpedo planes jammed her rudder Bismarck's fate was sealed.
As she limped haphazardly through the waves trailing oil,
the Home Fleet closed in for the final encounter.
Overwhelmed by British guns and torpedoes,
Bismarck's crew fought a gallant last battle, but the odds
were too great. Watching Bismarck's final moments from King
George V's bridge, Admiral Tovey said: "She put up a
noble fight against impossible odds, worthy of the old days
of the Imperial German Navy."
Robert Taylor, a master-painter
of sea and sky, portrays the Bismarck at the fateful moment
she was located by RAF Coastal Command. Greeted by a defiant
barrage of fire from Bismarck's anti-aircraft guns, the Catalina
veers away, but already the radio operator has transmitted
her position. Like the Hood just two days earlier, the pride
of Hitler's Kriegsmarine was by now, destined for the deep.
|
|
Overall print
size: 32 1/2" wide x 23 1/2" high.
A unique limited print featuring the
Bismarck - pride of the German Kriegsmarine.
| Sighting
The Bismarck by Robert
Taylor |
| 850 s/n prints w/FOUR
signatures. |
US $295 |
|
Joining artist Robert Taylor, each
print in the edition is signed by FOUR of the small band of
only 110 crewmembers who survived the sinking of the Bismarck.
Obergefreiter Hans
Hellwig
Hans Hellwig joined the Kriegsmarine
as an eighteen-year-old in January 1940, and served on the
Bismarck from May of that year, through to 27 May, 1941. He
was part of the gun-crew in one of Bismarck's main 15-inch
turrets. In the final deadly duel with the Royal Navy his
gun was eventually destroyed but he continued in action serving
one of the starboard 6-inch guns until the end.
Machinen Obergefreiter Karl-August
Schuldt
After his enlistment into the Kriegsmarine
in 1941, Karl-August was soon posted to join the crew of the
Bismarck. He served as a leading machinist in one of Bismarck's
many engineering rooms. As the Bismarck sank, Karl-August
was still at his battle-station below deck but fought his
way out of that hell to be rescued, along with the other survivors,
by HMS Dorsetshire.
Matrose II Josef
Statz
Josef Statz was a dockyard shipbuilder
before joining the Kriegsmarine in October 1940. Posted to
the Bismarck in April 1941, he was a member of the central
damage control team. Stationed just forward of Bismarck's
main bridge Josef took part in the desperate efforts to save
the Bismarck from the deep.
Machinen Obergefreiter Johannes
Zimmermann
A former blacksmith, Johannes Zimmermann
was conscripted into the Kriegsmarine in 1940 and was one
of the first to join Bismarck's crew at the Blohm and Voss
shipyard in Hamburg on 3rd June 1940. As a leading stoker,
Johannes was at his post deep in Bismarck's boiler room during
the final action but successfully managed to escape when ordered
to abandon ship.
|
