National Geographic: The Search For the Battleship Bismark Page #5

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scuttling and all the damage it took.

I just find it difficult to understand

why they're so concerned about it

and I guess it boils down to pride:

Germans wanting to be proud

that the British couldn't sink it,

and the British wanting to be proud

that they could.

I'm just shocked that there's hardly

that much apparent damage other

than the loss of those four turrets,

the loss of some of the superstructure.

I thought it was going to be

an awful sight and it's strangely...

sitting upright and proud.

The Bismarck survivors have been

in the water over an hour

when the British cruiser Dorsetshire

arrives to pull them from the sea.

The rescue effort has hardly begun

when the Dorsetshire's captain

gets a report that a German U-boat

has been spotted.

In an action that remains

controversial to this day,

he orders a retreat.

The question runs through

my head all the time:

Why did Captain Martin stop the

rescuer while so many hundreds

of men were still in the water?

I can only interpret it as an act of

revenge for what happened to the Hood,

which sank with all her crew except

for the three men who were rescued.

Hardly had I been taken underneath on

board the Dorsetshire that I felt,

by the vibrations of the ship,

that she had gone with utmost speed.

And I had been one of the last to be

rescued without ever having a notion

of it so far. It was a terrible thing.

The water around Dorsetshire's stern

foamed and bubbled with the

sudden exertion of the screws.

Slowly, then faster,

the ship moved ahead.

Bismarck survivors

who were almost on board

were bundled over the guard

rails onto the deck.

Those halfway up the ropes found

themselves trailing the stern,

hung on as long as they could against

the forward movement of the ship,

dropped off one by one.

Others in the water clawed

frantically at the paintwork

as the sides slipped by.

In Dorsetshire they heard the thin

cries of hundreds of Germans

who had come within an inch of rescue,

had believed that their long ordeal

was at last over;

cries that the British sailors no less

than survivors already

on board would always remember.

From the water Bismarck's men

watched appalled

as the cruiser's grey side

swept past them,

believed then the tales they'd heard

about the British not caring much

about survivors were true after all,

presently found themselves alone in

the sunshine on the empty tossing sea.

And during the day as they

floated about the Atlantic

with only lifebelts between

them and eternity,

the cold came to their testicles

and hands and feet and heads.

And one by one they lost consciousness

And one by one they died.

One of the German sailors rescued by

the Dorsetshire died the following day,

and is buried at sea.

The chaplain was there with some

British crew members

and we stood across

from them face to face,

just staring at each other

not sure what was happening.

Then we heard a military signal,

and then I realized

it was a funeral for my friend.

One of us borrowed h harmonica

and played:
"I once had a Camarade".

The British had tears in their eyes,

just like us.

He had stood next to me,

he had marched by my side.

It is sometimes difficult

to be reminded all the time.

It's hard to explain.

On one hand you're glad you survived,

but then you are pulled back

into the past again.

It's inevitable that all great ships

in the sea will be found some day.

I think the key thing is

how do we treat it.

I mean, what's our reaction to it?

Do we treat it respectfully?

Do we not touch it, not disturb it?

Do it with respect?

To me the Bismarck's the war grave.

The chase and sinking of the Bismarck

was without doubt one of the

great sea epics of all time.

And it was because of the changing

fortunes of either side.

It was this great, vast,

huge monster come out of its lair.

And then in a flash it sinks the big

British monster, disappears.

We look for it, we can't find it.

A little tiny airplane suddenly

finds it, reports where it is.

Another little, tiny airplane sends

a torpedo which cripples it.

And then the big British ships

can come up and sink it.

It's an extraordinary story.

And it's full of heroism.

And it's full of heroism.

And it's full of pride on both sides.

I mean, these were wonderful ships

and the impersonality of it all.

You see, we all fired at each other

without seeing the enemy.

We never saw the enemy at all.

The only time I ever saw the enemy

was when this little trickle of men

ran down in the Bismarck's quarter

deck and jumped into the sea.

Apart from that I could've been firing

or we could've been

we weren't firing ourselves,

but the British could've been

firing at castles.

A sea battle is a very

impersonal thing.

It won't happen again.

Not like that.

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