Rating: 
Summary: Too much speculation.
Review: Although good in parts, this book has numerous problems, the most annoying of which (for me) was the intrusion of speculation into what is supposed to be a historical work. The authors over-play the US involvement in the hunt for the Bismarck - yes, Churchill was trying to bring the US in to the war, yes, FDR was doing his best to help despite opposition at home, and this is an interesting area to explore, but the US involvement in this particular episode was negligible. The Bismarck (while being tailed by British warships) was overflown by US planes and spotted by one US coastguard vessel, but the authors present no evidence of active support or even of the sightings being reported, despite implying that the coast guard cutter directed a British torpedo bomber attack. Similarly, they spend a great deal of time discussing the presence of an old US battleship patroling the western Atlantic, ignoring the fact that at its closest it was 2100 miles away and took no part in the hunt. Their attempt to suggest that it was ordered to help in the search is undermined by their tacit admission that there is no evidence of any such order. I can only conclude that the authors added this material to try to attract US readers - something the story could do by itself if they had written a better book.
Rating: 
Summary: new light on a modern naval classic
Review: Anyone keen on the naval history of the 20th century will probably have read masses of stuff on the Bismarck chase, and may well share my initial reaction when I saw this book on the "new" shelf at the library:"What on earth is there left to be said?" Well, perhaps not a lot. I think the authors make a bit of a mountain out of a mole-hill in their discussion of possible U.S. roles in the chase -sometimes when folks deny something it is because it didn't happen, not because they are covering up for "national security". At the same time the book does a nice job discussing the possible motivations of the key players -particularly in the German Admiralty- and does a better job than most in pointing out both the effect of the failure of the Graf Spee on the Bismarck's mission and also the effect of the failure of the Bismarck on German naval strategy from that point on. The authors also give us a better sense of the damage sustained by the Bismarck in her encounter with the Hood and Prince of Wales -a factor that tends to be lost in the shock of the destruction of Hood but is in actuality key to the ultimate failure of the whole Rhine Exercise. Overall, a pleasant evening's read.
Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: I have just finished this book and it rates at least 4 star.
The book covers a lot of ground including personalities, and
interesting details such as activities of secondary ships.
It informed me of some of the naval strategies and history
which added to the experience. The authors style is very readable
and I finished it in short order.
Rating:
Summary: Two amateurs write history of sea warfare
Review: I, unfortunately, bought the book. It is written by two amateurs, who know very little about geography, or warfare at sea. They are "politically correct" in an archaic way (ca. 1941) in praising the "British race" and making essentially stick figures out of the "wicked Nazi". But, when you are PC, I guess you don't need to know the difference between latitude and longitude, or the First Lord of the Admiralty, and the First Sea Lord (page 109). Page 109 is practically a Keystone Cops scene in confusing who was what.
Although they did the research, their amateurish confusion invalidates the book as a serious historical account.
Not recommended at all unless they do a re-write of the amateurish passages. Not recommended as a book on naval history, unless the propagande is taken out.
Rating:
Summary: The Sinking of Germany's Supership
Review: In May, 1941, Germany unleashed a terror in the Atlantic; the battleship Bismarck. At over 50,000 tons and armed with 15 inch main guns, the Bismarck was the most powerful battleship afloat at the time. Germany's objective was to unleash the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the Atlantic through the Denmark Strait against the vulnerable British convoys making their way across the Atlantic. These convoys were usually guarded by destroyers and corvettes, which would be no match for the heavy guns of the German ships. The transports would be slaughtered.Due to information received by Swedish spies, the British were alerted to the Germans' plans. Two British Spitfires were sent to fly over a Norwegian fijord to discover if the Bismarck was at anchor. Sure enough, the Spitfires spotted the German ships. However, the Germans were still able to proceed into the Atlantic while the British were left trying to decide how to deal with them. The British had two cruisers stationed near the Denmark Strait, and they eventually made radar contact with the German ships. The British managed to shadow the German ships and maintain radar contact while alerting other British forces to the location of the Bismarck. Two British battleships, the Hood and Prince of Wales, set course for the Bismarck. The Hood was the pride of the British fleet. She had the same size guns as the Bismarck, but much thinner armor. The British captain made several errors which, in the end, would turn out to be fatal. Instead of allowing each ship to fight independently of one another, both were forced to move in conjunction together. This allowed the Germans to "cross the T", allowing full broadsides to bear on the British, while the British ships could only fire with their forward guns. The Germans' fire support radar was also superior to the British, and soon the Bismarck had the range. In under six minutes, the Bismarck destroyed the Hood and severely damaged the Prince of Wales. Only three men survived from the Hood. The chase continued for several more days and several thousand miles of ocean, with the Germans losing the British, and the British finally finding the Germans again. Other units of the Royal Navy had been following the Bismarck, and finally were close enough to launch an air attack against her. The only planes the British had available were obsolete Swordfish torpedo bombers, but they bravely took off from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to attack the Bismarck. The Bismarck put up an umbrella of anti-aircraft fire, but the Bismarck suffered a torpedo hit in her most vital area; her steering gear. Now only able to manuver in a circle, the Bismarck became easy prey for the other pursuing warships. The following day, the British battleships attacked, and soon the Bismarck was a flaming wreck. Torpedoes finally put an end to her, and she disappeared under the waves of the Atlantic. This book gives a very good account of the Bismarck chase. From the description of the German commanders, Admiral Lutjens and Captain Lindemann as well as the British commanders Pound and Tovey, to the sinking itself, the reader is drawn in by the excitement of the hunt. Lindemann and Lutjens never got along. Lutjens was a strict by the book commander who very rarely shared any information with anyone, while Lindemann was well-liked by his crew and loved his ship and continually feuded with Lutjens, all the while saying he would not have his ship "shot out from under him". Indeed, it was Lutjens and his constant radio messages to the German command that enabled the British to find the Bismarck in the first place. One aspect of the book that I found intriguing was the participation by the United States in the hunt for the Bismarck. I was unaware that an American coast guard cutter could have directed British torpedo planes toward the Bismarck. The chase and sinking are presented in great hour-by-hour detail throughout the book, as well as secret manuverings between Churchill and Roosevelt. Read this book and discover the story about one of the dramatic turning points of World War II.
Rating:
Summary: The Sinking of Germany's Supership
Review: In May, 1941, Germany unleashed a terror in the Atlantic; the battleship Bismarck. At over 50,000 tons and armed with 15 inch main guns, the Bismarck was the most powerful battleship afloat at the time. Germany's objective was to unleash the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the Atlantic through the Denmark Strait against the vulnerable British convoys making their way across the Atlantic. These convoys were usually guarded by destroyers and corvettes, which would be no match for the heavy guns of the German ships. The transports would be slaughtered. Due to information received by Swedish spies, the British were alerted to the Germans' plans. Two British Spitfires were sent to fly over a Norwegian fijord to discover if the Bismarck was at anchor. Sure enough, the Spitfires spotted the German ships. However, the Germans were still able to proceed into the Atlantic while the British were left trying to decide how to deal with them. The British had two cruisers stationed near the Denmark Strait, and they eventually made radar contact with the German ships. The British managed to shadow the German ships and maintain radar contact while alerting other British forces to the location of the Bismarck. Two British battleships, the Hood and Prince of Wales, set course for the Bismarck. The Hood was the pride of the British fleet. She had the same size guns as the Bismarck, but much thinner armor. The British captain made several errors which, in the end, would turn out to be fatal. Instead of allowing each ship to fight independently of one another, both were forced to move in conjunction together. This allowed the Germans to "cross the T", allowing full broadsides to bear on the British, while the British ships could only fire with their forward guns. The Germans' fire support radar was also superior to the British, and soon the Bismarck had the range. In under six minutes, the Bismarck destroyed the Hood and severely damaged the Prince of Wales. Only three men survived from the Hood. The chase continued for several more days and several thousand miles of ocean, with the Germans losing the British, and the British finally finding the Germans again. Other units of the Royal Navy had been following the Bismarck, and finally were close enough to launch an air attack against her. The only planes the British had available were obsolete Swordfish torpedo bombers, but they bravely took off from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to attack the Bismarck. The Bismarck put up an umbrella of anti-aircraft fire, but the Bismarck suffered a torpedo hit in her most vital area; her steering gear. Now only able to manuver in a circle, the Bismarck became easy prey for the other pursuing warships. The following day, the British battleships attacked, and soon the Bismarck was a flaming wreck. Torpedoes finally put an end to her, and she disappeared under the waves of the Atlantic. This book gives a very good account of the Bismarck chase. From the description of the German commanders, Admiral Lutjens and Captain Lindemann as well as the British commanders Pound and Tovey, to the sinking itself, the reader is drawn in by the excitement of the hunt. Lindemann and Lutjens never got along. Lutjens was a strict by the book commander who very rarely shared any information with anyone, while Lindemann was well-liked by his crew and loved his ship and continually feuded with Lutjens, all the while saying he would not have his ship "shot out from under him". Indeed, it was Lutjens and his constant radio messages to the German command that enabled the British to find the Bismarck in the first place. One aspect of the book that I found intriguing was the participation by the United States in the hunt for the Bismarck. I was unaware that an American coast guard cutter could have directed British torpedo planes toward the Bismarck. The chase and sinking are presented in great hour-by-hour detail throughout the book, as well as secret manuverings between Churchill and Roosevelt. Read this book and discover the story about one of the dramatic turning points of World War II.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable but....
Review: Overall, I found this book very interesting, with fast-paced, exciting descriptions of the chase and its associated battles and I appreciated the descriptions of the various personalities on all sides. There is also some new infomation that I have not encountered elsewhere. Some of the accounts, however, do not quite match those in earlier publications, particularly those describing he events of the night of the 23-24 May. The description of the Denmark Strait battle is somewhat confused, and would leave a reader who has little or no previous knowledge, uncertain as to the exact sequence of events. The authors are a bit harsh in their handling of the Royal Navy's interwar years and neglect to mention its modernization programme which transformed older ships into highly successful, effective weapons of war. They also neglect to mention that he US Navy's battleship fleet was just as old and it took Pearl Harbor to bring modernization to those vessels! I suppose this would not be in keeping with the overall "American" tilt of the book in general. There are some errors which crop up occasionally, such as the use of an incorrect ship's name in a paragraph descibing another, or the referral to the KG5 as K3G. These aside, the effort is good and makes for a worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: The authors are not seamen and neither is their editor
Review: This account of the tracking and destruction of the Bismarck is marred by annoying stupid errors that could have been eliminated by giving the manuscript to a seaman to read and by consulting an atlas, or a nautical chart. For example, in Ch.4 it says that (when leaving Gibraltar) 'Somerville's destroyers began to move south, past Algeciras to port and the Rock of Gibraltar to starboard'. I have sailed from Gibralter Bay on a ship, and the fact is that Algeciras is to the west and therefore to starboard on a ship heading south and the Rock is to port. Later, in Ch.8, it says that two British battleships straightened on a course of east-northeast, then says they were steering 110 degrees, which is of course east-southeast. Later they received a signal from the cruiser Norfolk, giving the enemy's bearing as 130 degrees, which is south east, but then states that the battleships were 'now steering southwest as they bore down on the Bismarck's estimated position'. Describing damage to the Bismarck's steering gear, it states the rudder was jammed hard a starboard, but then repeatedly tells us that the rudder indicator was showing 'Left 12 degrees' which is the exact opposite of starboard and is not 'hard over', which would be more like 30 degrees. There is also frequent use of 'miles per hour' for windspeed, which is usually given in knots. In addition to this, much of the purported 'new evidence' is no more than idle speculation about the role that a USCG cutter that happened to be in the vicinity might have played, and there is a curious amount of space devoted to the manoeuvres of the battleship USS New York, which was over 2,000 miles away at the time of the battle and was completely irrelevant to the proceedings. There is more idle speculation on what the commanders of the Bismarck or cruiser Prinz Eugen would have done in the event that they had encountered American ships, when the only recorded encounter in the book records that the Bismarck ignored the USCG cutter when challenged by it.
Frankly, there's nothing pertinent here that wasn't in Ludovic Kennedy's book 'Pursuit'.
Rating:
Summary: The Destruction of the BISMARCK
Review: This book is disappointing. It has factual errors and tries to interjecta "subplot," as it were, of considerable American involvement in the BISMARCK operation. An American officer was flying a patrol plane that spotted BISMARCK, and the American Coast Guard cutter MODOC encounteredBISMARCK and pursuing British ships.Some "American involvement," huh?Let me sum up: If you know nothing at all about the BISMARCK operation, there's only two books you need to read: Battleship BISMARCK: A Survivor's Story by Mullenheim-Rechberg, and Pursuit: The Chase and Sinking of the Battleship BISMARCK by Ludovic Kennedy.
Rating:
Summary: The Destruction of the BISMARCK
Review: This book is disappointing. It has factual errors and tries to interjecta "subplot," as it were, of considerable American involvement in the BISMARCK operation. An American officer was flying a patrol plane that spotted BISMARCK, and the American Coast Guard cutter MODOC encounteredBISMARCK and pursuing British ships.Some "American involvement," huh?Let me sum up: If you know nothing at all about the BISMARCK operation, there's only two books you need to read: Battleship BISMARCK: A Survivor's Story by Mullenheim-Rechberg, and Pursuit: The Chase and Sinking of the Battleship BISMARCK by Ludovic Kennedy.
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