Bismarck - 65 year anniversary

Today is the 65th anniversary of the sinking of the Bismarck during WWII. This event received a great deal of attention at the time. The sinking of the Bismarck has been the subject of a movie, various books and documentaries over the years. The sinking has been viewed as a turning point in the war.


65 years ago today









The wreckage lay undiscovered at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean until 1989.

From the Amazon.com review

With a new introduction by the author. First published in 1974, this work remains in the forefront of the many books, movies, and television programs about the epic World War II drama played out in the stormy Atlantic. It is a thrilling firsthand account of the hunting down and sinking of the battleship Bismarck, pride of the German Fleet, told by a member of the Royal Navy's destroyer force who participated in the pursuit. The author's own experiences add fire and immediacy to the account that has come to be considered a classic by critic and general reader alike. The world's largest warship when she first sailed into the Atlantic in May 1941, the Bismarck was a serious threat to Britain's survival and her sinking of the beloved battle cruiser HMS Hood with nearly fifteen hundred aboard sent shock waves throughout Britain.
Determined to track her down, the Royal Navy engaged in pursuit, finding the mammoth warship just hours from her safe harbor. The chess-like plotting, the horror and heroism on both sides, the final apocalyptic action have never been portrayed more vividly and objectively--and never with the benefit of such detailed documentation from both British and German sources. A measure of the book's epic qualities is that knowledge of the outcome in no way lessens the tension. When she was sunk just days after her own victorious action with the Hood, the Bismarck took more than two thousand German sailors to the bottom of the ocean and with them the dreams of the German naval high command. For sheer suspense, this book can hardly be equaled. For carefully researched history, it is an admirable example of fine writing. Ludovic Kennedy's introduction to this new edition places the event in perspective for today's audiences.

Also:



[DVD - originally produced in 1960]




[a survivor's story]

and


[the version I read when I was 10]




[National Geographic account of Bismarck's discovery in 1989 (along with historical WWII footage and info re: search for PT 109 and other WWII ships)]

If the terrorists possesssed a similar ship today, and U.S. forces sunk it, headlines would focus on the fact that we sunk the ship without convicting the enemy sailors in a court of law first.
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another update -

The Bismarck, as noted above, was missing at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean from 1941 until 1989. If the MSM/DNC had been true to form during that time period, it would have denied that the Bismarck ever existed in the first place.

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Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, LaShawn Barber and Debbie Schlussel post their thoughts on Memorial Day.