Last Days of the Lonely Queen

As war clouds gathered over Europe in the 1930's two powerful new battleships were under construction by Nazi Germany. The ships were intended to be commerce raiders once launched, capable of inflicting major losses on the convoys supplying England and Russia, a mission that caused great concern to the allies and led Churchill to make their destruction a top priority. Bismarck was launched first, in February 1939 and joined the fleet in August 1940. The following May, while on her maiden voyage she stunned the world by sinking the HMS Hood, pride of the Royal navy, in waters off Greenland. She in turn was hunted by British forces and crippled when her rudder was jammed by a lone torpedo from British carrier based aircraft. Bismarck could only steam in circles while ships and planes of the enemy battered her into submission. Rather than surrendering, in a final act of defiance her crew sent her to the bottom of the Atlantic by scuttling. Out of a total complement of 2,200, only 115 men survived the icy water, to be picked up by a British ship and transported to a prisoner of war camp in England. That left the Tirpitz, nearing completion in a German shipyard. Churchill, calling her "The Beast," was determined to prevent her from ever sailing and ordered multiple RAF bombing raids on the harbor. But the bombs failed to score direct hits, her fitting out was completed, and Tirpitz joined the German Baltic Fleet on February 25, 1941. Thus began the remarkable career of the ship that withstood repeated daring British efforts to find and destroy - including human chariots, midget subs, and newly developed massive bombs - all matched by extraordinary German efforts in defense. So came into being - the Lonely Queen of the North . . .