Bismarck · The Final Days of Germany's Greatest Battleship

**The author of* Blitzkrieg* covers one of the most dramatic events of the Second World War in an ****"outstanding book about naval warfare" (* World War II History* ).**
When the German battleship *Bismarck* \--a masterpiece of engineering, well-armored with a main artillery of eight 15-inch guns--left the port of Gotenhafen for her first operation on the night of May 18, 1941, the British battlecruiser *Hood* and the new battleship *Prince of Wales* were ordered to find her quickly, as several large convoys were heading for Britain.
On May 24, *Bismarck* was found off the coast of Greenland, but the ensuing battle was disastrous for the British. The *Hood* was totally destroyed within minutes, with only three crewmen surviving, and *Prince of Wales* was badly damaged. The chase resumed until the German behemoth was finally caught, this time by four British capital ships supported by torpedo-bombers from the carrier *Ark Royal*. The icy North Atlantic roiled from the crash of shellfire and bursting explosions until finally the Bismarck collapsed, sending nearly two thousand German sailors to a watery grave.
Tamelander and Zetterling's work rests on stories from survivors and the latest historical discoveries. The book starts with a thorough account of maritime developments from 1871 up to the era of the giant battleship, and ends with a vivid account, hour by hour, of the dramatic and fateful hunt for the mighty *Bismarck* , Nazi Germany's last hope to pose a powerful surface threat to Allied convoys.
"Exciting story-telling . . . recreat[es] the thrill of the hunt." -- *International Journal of Maritime History*
"[An] epic sea chase and its vivid, human details." -- *World War II*