Germany had long sought control over the Atlantic shipping lanes in their road to total victory in Europe. Perhaps the best known of the German battleships was KMS Bismarck who, along with KMS Prinz Eugen and other German warships, were charged with the destruction of Allied merchant shipping across the Atlantic. A cat-and-mouse game eventually ensued between elements of the British Royal Navy and the Germans that ultimately led to the demise of the mighty Bismarck. The Royal Navy responded to German aggression by releasing a hunter-killer task force intended to engage and eliminate the threat posed by the massive battleship. What followed was perhaps one of the most famous naval engagements of the war featuring torpedo-laden biplanes, massive naval artillery bombardments, and extensive use of naval tactics to bring down one of the war's best known warships.

Royal Navy forces landed two torpedoes into the Bismarck, the second disabling the rudder and forcing her into a turn. From there Royal Navy warships closed in to unleash their justice on the warship which was now, more or less, a floating fortress. The end result would see thousands of British and German sailors lives cast about as thousands of shells were lobbed back and forth until the Bismarck finally went silent. At the end of it all, just 115 Bismarck sailors were recovered while the ship itself sank to the ocean floor off the French coast.

The engagement proved a strategic and morale victory for the British in the early going though at the expense of the battleship HMS Hood and her 1,413 souls and other Royal Navy warships damaged. The Germans, however, were dealt what became the first of many irrecoverable blows which led to a heavy reliance on the U-boat submarine fleet to contain Allied shipping ventures in the Atlantic. ©www.SecondWorldWarHistory.com

There are a total of (19) entries in the Timeline of the Hunt and Sinking of KMS Bismarck (May 1941). Entries are listed below by earliest date to latest date.