Günther Lütjens

The

men in command of Bismarck were Vice Admiral Gunther Lütjens and his captain, Ernst Lindemann.

Lütjens had been in charge of Operation Berlin and was now about to lead Germany's most potent naval asset out on another commerce raiding mission, Operation Rheinuwung.

And so on the 19th of May, 1941, the world's heaviest commissioned battleship slid out of a dockyard on the German-occupied Baltic coast, escorted by her consort, Prince Eugen.

On board the Prince Eugen was a small team from the Propaganda Company, tasked with reporting on the mission.

Some plucky kids in there, little dog.

Well, he writes, quote, Admiral Gunther Lütjens, who was aboard Bismarck and was the mission's commander, made frequent progress reports to German naval headquarters.

It was a huge error.

Although Germany's naval Enigma signal codes were still hard to crack, the Bismarck's transmissions enabled British radio direction finding stations to identify the battleship's general location and heading so they could just follow it.

22 knots was far slower than it had been moving up to that point, and such slow speeds would just make it easier for the British cruisers to stay in contact with the German battleship.

Lütjens, Lindemann, and all of the German officers had two critical tasks ahead of them.

Set the Prinz Eugen free without British pursuit, and find a way to separate from the British.

They had to find a way to do those two things, or there was only one result that would follow.

These are the types of situations where our benefit of hindsight is important to unpack and peel away.

All that Lütjens and his officers knew was that it was a British ship.

It could be anything, from an auxiliary cruiser to a battleship, and it could be one of many paddle ships or auxiliary cruisers out there.

In fact, a rumor would begin circulating that it was the King George V battleship based on some incorrect assessments made by the radio intelligence group aboard the Prinz Eugen.

The Norfolk got lucky and the shells missed, but they hit close enough to the ship that shell splinters would impact and damage the Norfolk's X turret.

The Norfolk put up a smoke screen and quickly moved to widen the range with the Bismarck, with several more salvos from the Bismarck's 15-inch guns falling around the cruiser, any of which could have destroyed the ship if they'd managed to hit it.

After the Norfolk had retreated out of firing range, Lütjens was presented with two problems, both of which did not have easy answers.

The first and most immediate was the problems with the Bismarck's radar, and specifically the fact that firing the main guns could cause the radar to no longer work.