Why were the British so intent on sinking the Bismarck ?

Question

Why were the British so intent on sinking the Bismarck ?

2 Answers

Answer Question

Answer 1

I ought to start by pointing out that the Germans insist that they scuttled the ship. The Brits would make the point that two high-explosive torpedoes from "The Dorsetshire" probably didn't help to keep it afloat.

The Brits needed a "win" (and as someone else said, revenge.)

The Royal Navy surface fleet was 7 times the size of the German Navy, ultimately, the Bismarck would eventually have lost a battle, and whereas the British could afford to lose a boat or two, the Germans just couldn't. Hence, most of their navy stayed away from front-line action after that. That was probably not an unintended consequence.

We'd lost "The Hood", which contrary to one of the other answers was not (by any means) our finest ship. She was the biggest, but she was undergunned, a bit slow and disliked by all who sailed in her. Extensive long-term (and actually unfinished) modifications had made her a "bitza".

It was "old technology" 170mph biplanes that first crippled the Bismarck. But ultimately force of numbers ensured her fate.

Answer 2

I can't add much to Ray's excellent answer but the Bismarck was a strategic target. Sure, she sank the Hood but the the hunt for her was already underway and the Hood went down as part of that hunt.

Had she made it through to the open waters of the Atlantic, Bismarck, together with the U-Boat fleets, would have devastated the convoys bringing the supplies England needed to survive. England, aided by her colonies, were the only country to have stood successfully against the astonishing power of the Wehrmacht, but without those supplies they may well have been doomed.

The US was still largely isolationist (and may have remained so except for an optimistic gaffe by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor) and it's not certain how long that bloody great moat (shades of an earlier question) between England and France would have kept Churchill's "fight them on the beaches" speech from becoming a dire reality.

In my opinion, and I'm no expert, sinking the Bismarck was one of the decisive naval battles of WWII.