Sink the Bismarck!

Sink the Bismarck! is a 1960 black-and-white British war film based on the book “The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck” by C. S. Forester. It tells the true story of the Royal Navy’s attempts to find and sink the German battleship, the largest in the world, during the Second World War. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter (who was funnily enough born in Berlin!)

The film depicts the hunt of the Bismarck, including the sinking of HMS Hood. Although not entirely accurate, the movie paints a great picture of what it was like, in an understated B&W manner, during the desperate days of 1941, when for 7 days, the chase for the Bismark took on the importance of a war winning moment, especially after the pride of the Royal Navy, and probably the second largest battleship in the world at the time, had been suck so quickly.

The Bismark deals with everything thrown at it, but after constant attacks by battleships, torpedoes and planes, the Bismark is slowly worn down until it is caught and attacked from all sides. Even then, the armour of the ship was so good, that it has now been shown that rather than being sunk, the Bismark was scuttled to prevent it being captured by the British!