Bismarck: The Final Days of Germany's Greatest Battleship

by Niklas Zetterling, Michael Tamelander, Michael Tamelander Niklas Zetterling

Book Overview

A gripping tale of heroism --and doom--on the high seas . . .

The sinking of the German battleship Bismarck--a masterpiece of engineering, well-armored with a main artillery of eight 15-inch guns--was one of the most dramatic events of World War II. She left the port of Gotenhafen for her first operation on the night of 18 May 1941, yet was almost immediately discovered by Norwegian resistance and Allied air reconnaissance. British battlecruiser...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B008C47UU4
• ISBN13: 9781612000756
• Release Date: January 2012
• Publisher: Casemate
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

bismark

very well written book. complete with pictures , well documents the first and last voyage of the bismark from both sides of the story, and from survivors of both sides.i highly reccomend this book to others

..pursuit and death of the Schlachtschiff Bismarck

..exciting and competent re-telling of the hunt, pursuit and final destruction of one of the mightiest battleships ever to put to sea. A tremendous British victory, the heroism of the sea-and-airmen involved is calmly and dispassionately portrayed in this fine account. After the shock of the loss of the Royal Navy's battleship Hood with virtually all hands, the attempts to shake off the pursuing pack and the desperate attacks flown by the Navy's venerable Swordfish torpedo bombers are nicely built up by the authors to the final denouement, as the Bismarck, crippled by a torpedo strike, is shelled into oblivion.. A couple of criticisms; the authors don't bring much new information to the table and their style is ponderous and leaden to say the least. This is not helped by the authors attempt to weigh up and evaluate the decision making process undertaken at each stage of the hunt by the various interested parties. On the German side they rely heavily of course on Mullenheim-Rechberg's memoir but don't appear to realise that an English translation was published. The authors are not native-speakers and sentence construction is predictably and unfortunately rather wooden in places, while this work has more typos and omissions than any other similar work I've ever read. In short the text desperately needed copy editing. Recommended despite these shortcomings.

Fascinating and well written account

Written from a military historian's perspective, Bismarck: a minute-by-minute account is both intellectual and highly accessible. The authors trace the doomed mission of the Bismarck in detail and give position-by-position accounts of the main players. They also intersperse some eyewitness accounts of the Bismarck's fall to keep things in perspective. My favorite moments are when the authors talk about the Bismarck's impact on Germany's war potential and their "cruiser warfare" policy in general. Could be longer. A few typos. Otherwise, 5 stars through and through.

"In May of 1941, the War Had Just Begun...The Germans had the Biggest Ship that Had the Biggest Guns

Ole Johnny Horton had it right in his classic sixties song, "Sink the Bismarck..." And the author of this book gets it right in telling us the gripping tale of Bismarck and naval warfare at the start of WWII. It is a tale of technology, yes, but moreso a tale, a story, of men and decisons made and not made. An interesting, entertaining and gripping saga. Have studied WWII to some extent, but this book, for the first time, helps me understand the naval warfare of the period and why sinking that one battleship was so important to the British. "Churchill told the people 'put every ship asail cause somewhere on that ocean we know she's gotta be...we gotta sink the Bismarck to the bottom of the sea..." (With apologies and appreciation to Johnny Horton!!!)

Enthralling account of WW2 naval warfate

Surely, the raid of the German battleship Bismarck into the North Atlantic in May, 1941, and the Royal Navy's search for and destruction of the feared ship is one of the best-known incidents of World War II naval warfare, but perhaps never before has such a comprehensive, thoughtful analysis of the event been published as in Niklas Zetterling and Michael Tamelander's "Bismarck: The Final Days of Germany's Greatest Battleship", looking at what happened from both the German and British perspectives. The Bismarck's mission is carefully placed in the context of the German strategy of commerce raiding, with a comprehensive look at the strategic and tactical problems faced by the commanders of both sides, and possibly alternative actions at each stage are carefully explored. The text is well-illustrated with large-scale maps showing the changing positions of hunter and hunted, making clear the development of events. The narrative text is highly detailed but does not, as books on naval history so often do, descend into a merely technical hardware descriptiion in which seemingly every bolt is counted and described. Instead, authors Zetterling and Tamelander concentrate upon the human element, always keeping in mind what each side knew and did not know at any given moment, with the result that a feeling of tense suspense builds, even though the reader already knows the Bismarck's fate. All in all, a gripping account.