The last voyage of the Bismarck
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The last voyage of the Bismarck |
| Original title | Sink the Bismarck! |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lewis Gilbert |
| script |
Edmund H. North after a book by C. S. Forester |
| production | John Brabourne |
| music | Clifton Parker |
| camera | Christopher Challis |
| cut | Peter R. Hunt |
| occupation | |
| |
The Last Voyage of the Bismarck is a war film about the hunt of the Royal Navy on the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic in 1941 , based on CS Forester's non-fiction book Hunting The Bismarck (alternative title: The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck , German title: The last journey der Bismarck ) is based. The Bismarck encounters strong British naval forces on her first mission, the so-called Operation Rhine Exercise . In a first battle she defeated an opposing battle cruiser , but three days later she was defeated by superior British units and sank with heavy crew losses. The film was shot in black and white.
action
London in May 1941. The Battle of Britain has been over for six months and the danger of a German invasion has been finally averted. Nevertheless, the British have to worry about the progress of the war, because German surface and underwater forces are operating more and more successfully against the supply routes in the North Atlantic and are thus hitting the lifeblood of the islanders. Countless trading ships carrying food, oil and military goods sink to the bottom of the sea.
A new challenge
And once again a new evil threatens the convoys : Shortly after Captain Jonathan Shepard took over his job as head of the operations department, he and the First Sea Lord are confronted with reports of two German capital ships in the Kattegat . Is the Bismarck , the newest German battleship, among them? In fact, the Bismarck has ended its test phase in the Baltic Sea and is preparing for the first war mission under the orders of the fleet chief Lütjens . Together with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen , she is supposed to break into the Atlantic and wage a trade war.
English reconnaissance flights soon bring certainty: Bismarck and her companion have since left their last berth in a Norwegian fjord . The Admiralty is puzzling over which route the German ships will take. Our own naval forces, which are currently tied up especially in the Mediterranean , where the German armed forces have just occupied Crete , are actually too scarce .
At his first contact with the staff of the operations staff, Shepard proves to be a closed person who insists on strict discipline and who often snubs his subordinates with his behavior. He is also reluctant to talk to Second Officer Anne Davis.
The catastrophe
At Shepard's suggestion, some heavy units, including the battle cruiser HMS Repulse and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious , are detached from convoy trains and ordered to the home fleet so that the possible breakthrough routes into the Atlantic can be secured. Finally, the German formation is sighted by the heavy cruiser HMS Suffolk in the Denmark Strait , where it is captured by the Commodore Holland's squadron, consisting of the battle cruiser HMS Hood and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales , in the early morning of May 24, 1941 . The battle ensues. After three salvos from Bismarck , the Hood blows up. The Prince of Wales , which initially continued the fight, also received a devastating hit in the superstructure a little later, to which almost all men on the navigating bridge fell victim. The surviving commander then gives the order to break off the battle. Lütjens renounces pursuit, the Prince of Wales escapes.
The news of the loss of the Hood causes horror in England and around the world, because it was the pride of the British Navy. The Admiralty is also shaken.
Bismarck escapes
Meanwhile, on board the Bismarck Lütjens and Commander Lindemann argue about how to proceed. Lindemann refers to the two hits received, due to which the Bismarck traces a treacherous trail of oil behind her. He recommends returning to a port for repairs and refueling. Lütjens, on the other hand, insists on fulfilling his mission to wage cruiser warfare in the Atlantic.
As Prime Minister Churchill in the wake of the loss of Hood arranges the Bismarck to sink at any price, the Admiralty sends the squadron H, which, inter alia, the carrier HMS Ark Royal is a national is stationed at the Shepard's son Tom as a naval aviator, of Gibraltar from the Reinforcement in the North Atlantic. At the same time, the Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet orders a torpedo attack by aircraft of the carrier Victorious in order to reduce the speed of the Bismarck , which is threatening to escape.
In the meantime, Lütjens had a maneuver that was surprising for the cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk , which was shadowing him , in order to enable the Prinz Eugen to drop down unnoticed, which he succeeded. Meanwhile, a squadron of Swordfish sets out from the Victorious to attack the Bismarck with torpedoes. A torpedo hits, but does not cause any significant damage in view of the strong armor .
During the following night the British cruisers lose contact with the Bismarck . Although Lütjens now has several options to escape, Shepard commits himself to leading the Bismarck into a French Atlantic port, and bases all considerations of the operations staff on this assumption. He lets aircraft of the Ark Royal reconnaissance fly over the Bay of Biscay . During this phase, Shepard Davis, with whom he got on a little better now, asks to work exclusively for him in the future. Then Shepard receives the news that his son has been missing since the previous reconnaissance flights. He takes this as an opportunity to reveal to Davis the reason for his reticence: When he was released from the hospital after the sinking of his ship and returned home, he found his house in London destroyed by a direct hit. His wife was killed in the German air raid . Davis comforts Shepard with great empathy. She also accepts his offer to work as his personal assistant, thus turning down an assignment in America that the deputy chief of staff had recently offered her.
A lucky hit
In this conversation the news bursts that the Bismarck has been found - as Shepard suspected on a course towards Brest . However, due to a lack of fuel, the pursuing British units cannot guarantee that they will be able to maintain the speed required to overtake the German battleship long enough. So at the moment there is only one attack by Ark Royal planes . But they mistakenly attack the light cruiser HMS Sheffield , because it is mistaken for the Bismarck as a single sailing ship . During the attack, some of the torpedoes explode as soon as they hit the water surface; a bug in the novel magneto . Fortunately, the Sheffield is not hit.
Shortly before dark, the Ark Royal's Swordfish take off again - this time the common and reliable contact fuses are attached to their torpedoes - and find the Bismarck . A hit amidships causes no damage, but the final torpedo hits the rudder blades in hard rudder position and blocks them. So Bismarck can no longer keep her course and is unable to maneuver slowly to the north, towards the British capital ships. All repair efforts fail. During the night, some destroyers attempt to sink the German battleship with torpedoes, but Bismarck successfully keeps them at a distance with their artillery .
Meanwhile, Shepard learns that his son has been rescued from an English ship. When Anne Davis enters his office, she finds him in tears.
The end of the hunt
At the start of the day, the battleship HMS King George V encounters the Bismarck and the final phase of the hunt begins. At a short distance, the English grenades hammer into Bismarck , who defends itself in desperation but weaker and weaker, and turns it into a wreck . Hundreds of crew members perish in the explosions and fires on board. Several torpedoes hit, and finally the Bismarck sank, burning from fore to aft. And finally the tension in the British operations center is released. The mighty surface enemy is defeated, the Hood avenged. The final note Shepard dictates to Officer Davis is, "Captain Shepard requests dinner with Miss Davis." Anne accepts the invitation.
background
Theatrical releases
| Great Britain | unknown |
| United States | February 11, 1960 |
| Sweden | March 7, 1960 |
| Finland | April 1, 1960 |
| West Germany | April 12, 1960 |
| France | May 13, 1960 |
| Denmark | May 31, 1960 |
Trivia
The role of commander of the HMS Prince of Wales is played by Esmond Knight, who was actually an officer on board this British ship during the operation against the Bismarck and was wounded during the engagement on May 24, 1941.
Edward R. Murrow, on the other hand, plays himself, who during the war reported for American radio listeners with legendary reports mainly from London. His trademark was the announcement at the beginning of every program: "This is London!"
The (obscene) verbal reaction of the Sheffield commander to the erroneous attack is faded out in the original, but can easily be read on the lips.
The song used in the trailer, Sink the Bismarck! does not appear in the film itself.
Awards
The film was nominated for Best Action Drama at the Laurel Awards in 1960 and scored fourth place.
In the following year, the director Lewis Gilbert was nominated for the DGA Award in the category Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures .
Reviews
The film collects plus points through the staging that is kept close to the actual events. The film manages to deliver a very accurate sequence of the sinking of the Bismarck despite its relatively manageable length ... The realism of the presentation is supported by the integration of archive material, but also by the participation of Ed Murrow. Furthermore, the closeness to reality benefits from the commitment of numerous trained sailors. Thanks to the support of the Royal Navy, the film became impressively realistic .
However, the two thousand and one lexicon of international film is criticized because the film downplayed the bloody sea battles into a purely sporting event and heroized both sides . After all, the acting achievements are praised as remarkable .
Web links
- Sink the Bismarck at the Internet Movie Database (English)
Remarks
- ↑ a b Movieman.de, quoted at Amazon.de . Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- ^ The last voyage of the Bismarck ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The last voyage of the Bismarck. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .