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00:00On February 14, 1939, the massive hull of an unfinished German warship slid into the
00:25water at Handel. For the Nazi party, it was a day to celebrate the country's resurgent
00:34military power, a moment to be savored by the Fuhrer himself.
00:48Two years later, the ship was finally ready for action.
00:55When she left port in the spring of 1941, she was widely regarded as the most elegant
01:02and the most dangerous battleship ever built. She would never return. Her name was the Bismarck,
01:14and she was about to become a legend.
01:21The Bismarck
01:23The Bismarck
01:28The Bismarck
01:35Summer 1988. A converted trawler named Starella leaves Spain.
01:42bound for the North Atlantic, where the Bismarck sank nearly half a century ago.
01:49Summer 1988. A converted trawler named Starella leaves Spain, bound for the North Atlantic,
01:56where the Bismarck sank nearly half a century ago. The story of what happened to the battleship
02:00during her brief moment on the world stage has captured the imagination of almost everyone
02:04who's heard it, including Bob Ballard, the man who found the Titanic. Now, he's looking for the Bismarck.
02:11Now, he's looking for the Bismarck. Come around to 1-5-3. 1-5-3.
02:131-5-3.
02:14Ready, man?
02:18I knew the story of the Bismarck as a child. It was an elegant ship, a warship, but it was very much like a
02:28Titanic in a sense. It was on a maiden voyage. It had such a short life and a very exciting and violent life.
02:47I mean, it was alive for less than two weeks at sea. It's an exciting story. To find it gives you the opportunity to retell it.
02:56To a new generation of people. Even before the search begins, Ballard is feeling the pressure.
03:07Well, if I don't find it, I'll be disappointed, obviously. So will a lot of other people.
03:13But it was sort of interesting on this one. When I did the Titanic, no one believed I would find it.
03:20Now, no one believes I won't find the Bismarck, and I don't think I preferred when they didn't think I would find it.
03:25If the Bismarck is as elusive today as she was half a century ago, Ballard has his work cut out for him.
03:361941, Monday, May 19th. The Bismarck leaves German waters on her first mission.
03:42Water commanders hope will be a three-month reign of terror on British shipping in the North Atlantic.
03:47She is a monumental weapon. A sixth of a mile long, displacing 53,000 tons.
04:00Her 15-inch guns are aimed with the help of stereoscopic rangefinders, and can hurl a one-ton shell 20 miles with ease.
04:08Her crew of over 2,000 men has been handpicked for duty on a ship rumored to be unsinkable.
04:15Many are 18 or 19 years old, about to see combat for the first time.
04:21The Bismarck is like a huge cat waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey.
04:27But first, she must prowl into enemy territory without being seen.
04:36Two days out of port, the Starella approaches the Bismarck's last known position, 600 miles west of France.
04:43Because no one knows exactly where she sank, the search could cover nearly 100 square miles.
04:50As far as the location of where the Bismarck was lost, we have four separate positions.
04:55One was by the Dorchester, which was the ship that dogged the Bismarck,
04:59and then actually dealt the final blow when it torpedoed it from both sides.
05:04It gives its position over here in the eastern search area.
05:07Then there's the position of one of the destroyers, which is over in the western area.
05:12A published report also puts it in the same area.
05:15And then we have a secret document that puts it even in yet a fourth area.
05:21Ballard is a pioneer in the use of sophisticated technology to explore the deep sea.
05:27Hold on, this is bridge. That's 3-4-0 now.
05:30All right, let's put it in. Take over the control.
05:32Okay, bridge.
05:35These transponders will sink to the seabed and begin to emit powerful acoustic signals,
05:44allowing Ballard to pinpoint his position on the surface.
06:00Sonar provides his first glimpse of the terrain lying three miles beneath the ship.
06:05I should pick up bottom right here.
06:08Got a hell of a long ways to go.
06:10It's pretty gruesome.
06:13It's real gruesome.
06:16I don't know, the worst is looking like it's with us.
06:20It's horrible topography, huge mountains, solid rock, hand-to-hand combat.
06:28When we dropped the first transponder, it was nice and flat.
06:33But the second transponder went in near a mountain, and trying to get to the third, we're in solid mountains, which is just, you know, horrible.
06:46Ballard is worried that the rugged topography below will make it dangerous to maneuver Argo, an underwater sled carrying video cameras, lights, and sonar equipment.
06:58Argo is designed to photograph the bottom while skimming just above the pitch-dark seabed at the end of miles of cable.
07:07My biggest fear is losing the vehicle, because that's the biggest fear you've got.
07:12Hanging up on a cliff and cutting your cable, and then losing it.
07:16I've come close before. I don't want to do that again.
07:22Ballard decides to avoid the mountains and focus his search on the flat mud plains to the west.
07:30For the men who operate Argo, like Ballard's son, Todd, the long watch is just beginning.
07:361941, Tuesday, May 20th.
07:49The Bismarck steams north and west through Danish waters.
07:53With her is a heavy cruiser, the Prince Eugen.
08:00For the men aboard the Bismarck, the times couldn't be better.
08:03The war in Europe is nearly two years old, and Germany still hasn't suffered a significant military defeat.
08:13Hitler's troops occupy most of Europe.
08:16The German Luftwaffe is carrying out bombing raids against Britain,
08:21which stands alone against the Nazi advance.
08:24Only England, and her legendary sea power, stands between Germany and victory.
08:29But even the Royal Navy has never done battle with a ship quite like the Bismarck.
08:35And the idea was that the Bismarck would break out into the Atlantic with the cruiser Prince Eugen,
08:40and she would spend a three-month cruise going up and down the Atlantic,
08:44sinking all the ships, bringing from America the food, the petrol, the ammunition,
08:49that was keeping us going, keeping the war going.
08:51Although the United States won't enter the war for another six months,
09:01supply convoys from America are already being hit hard by the German Navy.
09:05If the Bismarck had got out onto the Atlantic sea routes, she could have done an enormous amount of damage.
09:12I think that if she had done that, she could have altered the course of the war,
09:16so it was very, very critical she had to be sunk.
09:20But first, she has to be found.
09:22As far as British intelligence knows, the Bismarck is still safely in German waters, finishing her sea trials.
09:30In fact, she is already making her escape from the confined waters of the Baltic.
09:37The German plan is simple, bold and risky.
09:41First, they hope to slip through the narrow waters off Sweden and Norway and break through to the North Sea.
09:47If the Bismarck hasn't been detected, it should be no problem to sail into the Atlantic,
09:53perhaps through the Denmark Strait.
09:57But the Bismarck is detected.
09:59On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, a British Spitfire snaps this photograph,
10:04showing the Bismarck nestled in a Norwegian fjord.
10:10The report that Bismarck is trying to break out is confirmed.
10:13Now, all the Royal Navy has to do is catch her.
10:25Summer, 1988.
10:27Aboard the Starella, only two days have passed since the hunt for Bismarck began,
10:32and already Ballard believes he's picked up the scent.
10:34Argo is sending back images of a debris trail left by a sinking ship.
10:42That trail should lead Ballard to the wreck.
10:45Coming in.
10:51Come up, Todd.
10:53To 20 meters.
10:5520 meters.
10:57Something is buried here.
10:58There's something right there.
11:02Come on down.
11:04Down.
11:05Keep going down.
11:07On the down swing.
11:09On the down.
11:10Now.
11:11Bang.
11:13The sinking should have been up in here.
11:16I mean, that's the best guess.
11:18That's where we're here.
11:19So we're going to head up there, but stay visual.
11:21And try to stay in debris, so it'll smell our way up.
11:28For the next three days, Ballard follows the meandering trail of wood and metal.
11:33On the fourth day, Argo finds something larger.
11:37Got a good object coming.
11:40Look at the brightness of that sucker.
11:42Wow, that's awesome.
11:44Whatever it is, it's a big thing.
11:46Hold on this altitude.
11:47All right.
11:48Should be coming right up.
11:49Oh, what's this?
11:50Look at this.
11:51This is what we've come for.
11:52Look at that strike.
11:53There's some pulse section right here.
11:55All right, down to about seven meters.
12:03Yeah.
12:05Kaboom.
12:07What Ballard has found is an impact crater where some large object appears to lie buried.
12:13But what kind of object?
12:15You can see the debris trail.
12:17So you have very light stuff getting bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, smlack.
12:22So I think it went down to the bottom and went right in.
12:32I'm pretty confident that it's the Bismarck, we have total coverage of the area.
12:37And I think as we produce our data and process it, our case will get stronger, not weaker.
12:46Believing that he has found the Bismarck, Ballard has Argo hoisted from the water and the Starella turns for home.
12:52What we've got to do now is to go home and take a closer look at the photographs and see if we can spot something that says,
13:02yes, this is the Bismarck or no, it's not.
13:05The photographs give Ballard the definitive answer he's been looking for, but not the one he wanted.
13:15It's a rudder.
13:17And then there was a teak rudder.
13:19I mean, a brand new, beautifully preserved teak rudder.
13:25Now I know the Bismarck was hit in the rudder, maybe that's a teak rudder, but obviously it wasn't the Bismarck.
13:32And that image was sort of like a stake in your heart.
13:36I mean, I just looked at that and there was no way I could rationalize around that.
13:42It clearly belonged to a sailing ship.
13:44Instead of the Bismarck, Ballard has stumbled upon the wreck of a 19th century schooner.
13:50Round one to the Bismarck.
13:56Fifty years ago, the Bismarck was proving to be just as elusive to the Royal Navy.
14:04On Friday, May 23rd, the battleship is spotted by a patrolling British cruiser
14:09as she prepares to pass through the narrow strait between Greenland and Iceland.
14:15250 miles away, the British warships Prince of Wales and Hood are alerted.
14:23They begin steering a course to intercept Bismarck before she reaches open water.
14:30Leading the attack will be the largest ship in the British fleet.
14:33Now, the Hood was the epitome of everything that was marvelous about the Royal Navy before the war.
14:41She was a wonderful ship. She was built during the First World War.
14:45And unfortunately, she had very poor armor, very lightly covered armor on her decks.
14:52And she shouldn't have been there unarmored as she was.
14:56Now, the Hood was a name all of us knew and hated.
15:02Our commanders tried to scare us with the name when we were on maneuvers.
15:05In every exercise, they'd say, our ship is in a battle with the battleship Hood.
15:09It's in a battle with the Schlacht Kreuzer Hood.
15:17Saturday morning, May 24th, the two Titans spot each other.
15:22At a distance of about 14 miles, the Hood opens fire.
15:25Bismarck responds with a series of salvos.
15:47One of Bismarck's shells penetrates the Hood's thinly armored decks
15:50and ignites her aft powder magazines.
15:53The resulting firestorm rips the Hood in half.
15:57All I saw was a gigantic sheet of flame
16:00which shot round the front of the compass platform.
16:03And the ship started to list to starboard.
16:07We were all thrown off our feet.
16:10There was no order given to abandon ship. It wasn't necessary.
16:14The news spread immediately and was passed on to everybody in the ship,
16:17however deep, somewhere posted inside the ship.
16:20And the jubilation was almost indescribable.
16:23And it was difficult to get the men really back to their stations
16:28because of all that elation.
16:30I managed to get on one of these routes
16:32and I turned and looked around again.
16:34And she'd gone.
16:36And there was a fire on the water where she'd been.
16:38And I say the water was about five inches thick with her.
16:40And again I panicked.
16:42I turned and swam away again as fast as I could.
16:45And when I looked round again the fire had gone out.
16:49And over on the other side were the other two.
16:52There was no one else came up, just the three of us.
16:56In less than ten minutes of battle the Hood is gone.
17:01Only three men from a crew of 1,400 survive.
17:04When this news was received in England it was received with the greatest shock.
17:11It was as much of a shock to us in England as Pearl Harbor was to America.
17:15We couldn't believe that a ship which epitomized the Royal Navy
17:18and all our successes in the past could end within a few minutes.
17:22It could end her life.
17:23And people said, well, what next?
17:24I mean, if the Bismarck can sink the Hood in six minutes, what else can she do?
17:30Summer, 1989.
17:33A year after coming up empty handed, Ballard prepares to renew his search aboard the star Hercules.
17:39Well, we learned a lot last year, mostly where the Bismarck wasn't.
17:45We got a better ship, a better wind system, and we can finally take on the mountains.
17:50It was just too dangerous last year.
17:52I'm not too excited about going into the mountains even now, but I've run out of choices.
17:57This is the report, one of the reported positions here, another one here and then here.
18:04So the new search area for this year is roughly six miles east-west by five miles.
18:10Now the transponders, Kathy, are where right now?
18:12We've got A here, we've got B out here, and C up here.
18:16So running throughout this area is a tremendous wall that we have to worry about.
18:21In fact, this shows the wall, and it's fairly dramatic.
18:25It rises a thousand feet from here all the way up to the top.
18:30So we have to worry about coming in and crashing into that wall.
18:36The winch we have is very powerful, and it's capable of breaking the cable.
18:41You get it up and you get it trapped.
18:44Think of it as a 20-pound trout on a five-pound test line.
18:48Do not try to reel it in, because the trout will just break that five-pound test,
18:52and the winch will just break the cable.
18:55So pay it out, give it line.
18:59It takes Argo over two hours to reach the ocean floor, three miles down.
19:07Its only connection to the surface ship is a length of cable less than an inch thick.
19:11Once in position, Argo can search the bottom for days, but first it must drop through realms of unimaginable darkness under the full weight of the sea.
19:25Although the sled performs flawlessly, the first week ends without Ballard finding any trace of the Bismarck.
19:38The good news is the area we were so terrified of last year to the east isn't so bad.
19:49The bad news is we haven't found it.
19:52We've covered over 40 miles now along the bottom in an area of 30 square miles.
19:58And we haven't picked up anything other than mud and rocks.
20:07I mean, it's an interesting geologic feature, but that's not why I'm here.
20:18You guys are really milking this one, huh? Why don't you guys find this thing?
20:21Nothing yet.
20:24You see anything?
20:26Nothing out of the door.
20:28You almost want to throw trash over it just to have something to look at.
20:32Anything is more fruitful than this. This is boring.
20:36A little mud watching?
20:37I don't think the world realizes that most of the planet is mud.
20:41And I think I've looked at more mud than anyone else.
20:43Yeah, I think that's the worst part of any search is just the boredom.
20:49And hours and hours and hours of mud.
20:53And that's what I'm worried about is fatigue setting in and people just going right by it and not seeing it.
20:59The watch is maintained day and night by shifts that change every four hours.
21:13So far, there's been nothing of interest to report.
21:17Ready for some mud crawling?
21:19Good. Well, we saw nothing.
21:22Right. You want to be 200 meters south.
21:24South of that position.
21:25Okay.
21:26Which is going to be...
21:30I relieve you.
21:31I'm relieved. Thank you. Have fun.
21:43The area we're searching is quickly exceeding the size of the area we searched for the Titanic.
21:48So, they were really evidently very busy shooting at one another and not very busy at being navigators.
21:55Because the positions that have been issued so far, there's nothing there.
21:59There's nothing there.
22:16Saturday, May 24th, 1941.
22:20One hour after sinking the hood, the Bismarck's commanders decide to return the ship to occupied France to repair damage suffered in the battle.
22:30But Bismarck is being shadowed by three British warships, while another battle group moves into position for an ambush.
22:39Aboard the Bismarck, the officers decide the time is ripe to lose their pursuers.
22:44And then came this dramatic event in the middle of the night when the captain of the Bismarck put the wheel harder starboard and did a tremendous loop right out to the west and right back, crossed his own track, crossed the track of the Prince of Wales and the cruisers that were following him and disappeared.
23:09Bismarck's maneuver takes the British completely by surprise.
23:15While they search a hundred miles to the north, the Bismarck sails closer and closer to safety.
23:20Thirty-one hours pass as the distance between Bismarck and the ships frantically looking for her widens.
23:28Then, on Monday morning, there is a sudden change in the fortunes of war.
23:37A Catalina flying boat cruising just below the low-hanging clouds spots a dull black shape on the choppy seas.
23:45It is the Bismarck.
23:50She is less than a day's sail from the protection of Luftwaffe bombers stationed in France.
23:57Most of the British ships are well to the northwest, while others lie south, all too far away to catch up.
24:04Only one ship has a chance to slow the Bismarck down before she reaches port, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal.
24:11But the Ark Royal is less than an ideal weapon to pit against the Bismarck.
24:22Her aging swordfish torpedo planes have wings made of fabric, an attack speed of less than a hundred miles an hour,
24:30and carry only one torpedo apiece.
24:33Yet they are the only weapon the British have left.
24:35If the swordfish can't slow the Bismarck down, she'll be in friendly waters by morning.
24:48With night closing in, the tiny swordfish race across the darkening skies.
24:57At 8.53 p.m. they spot the Bismarck and attack.
25:00They came in the evening, in the twilight.
25:10The sea was rough when we opened fire.
25:15We shot and shot, but what good did it do?
25:21We fired so much our gun barrels had to be cooled down.
25:23One of the swordfish torpedoes hits Bismarck amid ships, causing minor damage.
25:35But another strikes the battleship in the only place she is vulnerable, her rudders.
25:42Bismarck's steering gear jams.
25:44Now she can only move in one direction, northwest, directly toward the onrushing British fleet.
25:50We couldn't understand it when we got a signal from the Ark Royal and the Sheffield saying,
25:56course of Bismarck is now due north, when up to that point it had been due south, or at least southeast.
26:01And we thought they made a mistake.
26:03It's very easy when you see a ship in the distance, in the haze.
26:06It's awfully uncertain whether it's going from left to right or right to left.
26:09And we thought, oh, they made a mistake, silly old thing, they should know better than that.
26:12And then when it was repeated two or three times, we suddenly realized that the Bismarck had been delivered into our hands.
26:20Summer, 1989.
26:26The star Hercules has been criss-crossing the seabed for over 200 hours without finding a trace of wreckage.
26:32On the ninth day of the hunt, that begins to change.
26:39This whole area is like someone really disrupted it.
26:44It's flat.
26:47They're just getting little snippets.
26:50There's some little stuff.
26:51Forward.
26:52Oops.
26:53Look at that.
26:54Look at that right there.
26:56Forward.
26:58That's obviously man-made.
26:59No doubt about that.
27:01Light stuff.
27:02What did that one off to the right look like on your guy?
27:05There wasn't a shadow.
27:06Yeah, but could be an impact crater.
27:08Could be.
27:10We came in on the debris about 17 hours ago.
27:16And we found a big section of wreckage.
27:19And we got burnt last year, and we don't want to repeat that.
27:23We want a definitive, you know, Bismarck, okay?
27:27We're not getting it.
27:29Man, it's frustrating.
27:31It takes hours and hours and hours, and I haven't slept for 17 hours, and I'm getting tired.
27:37The trail of clues on the ocean floor is tantalizingly human.
27:42A boot.
27:44A lantern torn from a sinking ship.
27:46But was it the Bismarck?
27:49Good morning.
27:50Good morning.
27:51Good morning.
27:52Good morning.
27:53Good morning.
27:54It's just junk.
27:55It's a nice piece.
27:56You're welcome.
27:57I'm junk.
27:58You're ready.
27:59Fire.
28:00Each hour brings new discoveries, and a renewed sense that they're closing in on the quarry.
28:21These are circles.
28:22You're down.
28:24Yet nothing they have found can positively be linked to the Bismarck, until just before midnight,
28:28when Argo passes over what appears to be part of a turret that once housed Bismarck's 15-inch guns.
28:41Here.
28:42There.
28:43Back up.
28:44No, no.
28:45Back, back.
28:46Reverse it.
28:47Back, back, back.
28:48Right there.
28:49Right now.
28:50Run.
28:51That's just below it.
28:52That's it.
28:53You got it?
28:54Close.
28:55They didn't have those on 18th century sailing ships.
28:56No, they did not have those on 18th century.
28:57They didn't.
28:58No.
28:59Do you know what the thing is?
29:00Just like the boiler.
29:01The cylinder, first thing we saw, there was a fingerprint of the ship.
29:16Ballard knows he's getting closer, but he's not there yet.
29:21We haven't found the ship.
29:22I don't think it was buried.
29:24I don't think it slid down that hill.
29:26I don't think it's there.
29:27I think it's somewhere else, but nearby.
29:29And here's more debris coming in.
29:31And if that debris, the debris trail is going to lead us to the ship.
29:37We just have to pick up the scent again.
29:39Tuesday, May 27th, between midnight and dawn.
29:45Over a dozen British warships close on the crippled Bismarck,
29:50waiting for first light to deliver the final blow.
29:53They know their quarry is wounded, but no one can guess how badly.
30:00At about midnight or shortly after, the conclusion had to be drawn.
30:08It was impossible to do a useful repair and was just given up and next morning had to be awaited.
30:17We ate our meals at our guns.
30:24There was no more warm food, just bread with something on it.
30:29And once we had boiled potatoes.
30:31And we stayed at our guns the whole time.
30:34And this was perhaps the most difficult, the most dreadful part of the entire operation as far as I remember.
30:46The certainty, you could not escape anymore.
30:49You couldn't do anything.
30:50And you could probably not do anything equal up to the battle that would be shaping up next morning.
30:59It was like a sentence of death.
31:01Tuesday, May 27th, two hours after sunrise, the Rodney and King George V finally spot the Bismarck emerging from a rain squall.
31:14Battle stations are called.
31:16At 8.47 a.m., the British warships open fire.
31:34The only thing that struck me when the battle started was all the colour contrasts.
31:37The Bismarck was black.
31:39The British ships were grey.
31:41The seas were green with the wind creaming the tops, creamy tops.
31:47There was the brown of the cordite when the guns fired on both sides.
31:52There was these brown puffs of cordite smoke.
31:54And then there was the flash, the orange flash of the guns.
31:56And then these enormous shell splashes, high as houses, white as shrouds.
32:03And, er, it was majestic.
32:07It was a majestic scene.
32:08It was an awesome scene.
32:10And I can see it today as clearly as I saw it then.
32:16For one full hour, the relentless British salvos continued.
32:21She'd had a lot of damage on the forecastle, the forehead of Atar.
32:24And every time she plunged in the sea,
32:28the plates on her port bow, extending over a large area,
32:33were red-hot as she came out.
32:35And then when she went into the sea, there was a cloud of steam.
32:38And how that looked at there, it was almost bad.
32:41I saw it. I saw it.
32:43There were mountains of dead people, in pieces.
32:47There was one crazy man still at his gun, still firing.
33:00Ammunition was exploding.
33:04The entire upper deck was on fire.
33:07It looked like a heap of rubble.
33:09The beauty of the ship was gone.
33:12The beauty of the ship was gone.
33:14Then, eventually, we saw men trickling down,
33:18running down the quarter-deck,
33:20and then jumping into the sea,
33:22because it was all over, it was finished.
33:24It was a dreadful sight, you know.
33:26No sailor likes to see another ship sunk, even if it's an enemy.
33:30This piece of film, showing the Bismarck burning on the far horizon,
33:35is the last view of the battleship before she began to sink.
33:39I thought about what to do.
33:48I was no longer needed.
33:50What good is anti-aircraft in the sea battle?
33:53And we were almost out of ammunition.
34:00So I left with some others,
34:01and we drifted away from the Bismarck on a lifeboat.
34:04The Admiral decided the only way to sink her was to torpedo her.
34:16So we went in close and fired our torpedoes.
34:22And then we watched her sink.
34:25Thursday, June 8th, 1989.
34:37A rainy, overcast morning.
34:40Very much like Bismarck's last hours at sea.
34:44Once we've established that, we're going to turn around,
34:46come back west of that mine,
34:48and go again around the top.
34:50Looks like we have a big target coming up on the port side,
34:55about 45 meters out.
34:58Closing on the target, it's about 30 meters ahead.
35:01All right.
35:03Still closing.
35:04Staying dark.
35:08Staying strong.
35:09A lot of debris, port starboard.
35:11It's still closing.
35:12It's still closing.
35:13Real strong.
35:19This is a strong one, guys.
35:20This could be it.
35:21That's the...
35:22Gun ducks.
35:23Incredible.
35:24Gun ducks.
35:25Right across the bridge.
35:34Remember that baby?
35:35Yeah, the bridge is on.
35:36Again!
35:37You got it, huh?
35:39You got it, huh?
35:40It was in that crater.
35:42And it just got boom, boom, right across the middle.
35:44You couldn't offer anything better.
35:46I tell you, it's absolutely amazing.
35:48So it's 100 meters further than what we're?
35:50Yeah.
35:52Well, I guess we want to get in the trash.
35:54Yeah, well, man.
35:57All right.
36:09Our ship was at the very spot that the Bismarck must have been, with all the rounds coming,
36:15total chaos and confusion, splashes, the impacting rounds, explosions going off, the fire burning,
36:23just the tremendous carnage that took place.
36:27And then to realize that the ship sank, and then there were all these people in the water
36:30around you.
36:31You could almost see them swimming in this churning sea full of oil.
36:35I relate to that as to see how awful that would be.
36:51We swam for a little while, just to keep moving so we wouldn't freeze.
36:56The water was about 10 degrees Celsius.
36:59It was so difficult to swim in the oil that had the, uh, assembled in the surface.
37:05of the ocean from the sunken ship.
37:07It penetrated on our faces and ears and was terrible and made everything most difficult.
37:13We were ordered to go and rescue them in the ship I was in.
37:19So we came up slowly to them and tried to pull them up the ship's side on ropes.
37:23I remember a story that spread right away on the Dorsetshire.
37:31A British seaman saw a German sailor who had no arms, trying to swim.
37:36So he climbed down into the sea and fastened a rope around the man's body.
37:41I reached one of the ropes to help them pull the survivor up and then we noticed that he
37:50had both his arms shot off and was holding the rope with his teeth.
37:55And he fell off just, just as we got him to the upper deck.
38:01And I went over the side to tie a bowling around him.
38:04So I did that.
38:05Then I lost him.
38:07For those of us on the Dorsetshire, the name Joe Brooks means something.
38:12Our government should give that man a medal for humaneness.
38:34In the days following the discovery of the Bismarck, Argo maneuvers slowly around the
38:38half-buried hull, trying to determine the extent of the damage.
38:51Well I think any time you retell a story, particularly World War II, people aren't from it.
39:00I mean, the feudalness of it, the stupidity of it, the wastefulness of it, I think we need
39:04to be reminded of that, and I think one needs to be reminded of all that happened during
39:10World War II.
39:11And I think it's very critical that people reflect back, so we don't repeat these things.
39:17All right, all right Martin, sequence through.
39:25Okay, what's it, stop, what's that?
39:27All right, down look, it's a swastika, look at it, is it a swastika?
39:34It's a cross.
39:35A cross?
39:36No, it's not a cross.
39:37Oh, you can see the lower legs.
39:39It is a swastika.
39:40That's a swastika.
39:41It's a swastika, yeah.
39:42Some part of it's covered up by the sediment, and the other part is chopped off.
39:46All right, down look.
39:48Now the ship that Hitler called this majestic giant of the sea,
40:17can only be glimpsed in fragments.
40:24A ghostly section of the bow, with decks of polished teak.
40:38Bismarck's 15-inch guns, once held in place by their own weight, fell free when she rolled
40:43underwater.
40:44Only empty holes remain.
40:50Across one of the four turret holes, a crane lies toppled.
40:58Much of the forward superstructure was destroyed, but the open bridge and conning tower still
41:05remain.
41:07A moment's glory, then 50 years of darkness.
41:13A moment's glory, then 50 years of darkness.
41:25We got it all.
41:26I mean, as I absolutely know, the whole ship is here.
41:28We're missing, it looks like, all the big turrets, but almost all the other armament is present
41:35on the ship.
41:36We're only missing the big guns.
41:37Although the four main turrets are gone, Bismarck's smaller guns remain in place, as if still menacing
41:43the sea.
41:50That's gone.
41:51I'm sure the stack's gone, but...
41:56Okay, we need to...
41:58This gun has lost that.
42:05Little anti-aircraft guns should be down.
42:09Zoom down.
42:11There's an anti-aircraft gun, see him?
42:15That guy's pointed...
42:18The fact that the ship is in one piece seems to confirm German reports that it was scuttled,
42:24though the issue is still being debated.
42:27I'm sure that it was a combination of scuttling and all the damage it took.
42:31And I just find it difficult to understand why they're so concerned about it.
42:36And I guess it boils down to pride.
42:39Germans wanting to be proud that the British couldn't sink it,
42:43and the British wanting to be proud that they could.
42:48I'm just shocked that there's hardly that much apparent damage,
42:52other than the loss of those four turrets, the loss of some of the superstructure.
42:56I thought it was going to be an awful sight, and it's strangely...
43:00It pertains, yes.
43:02Sitting upright, proud...
43:05The Bismarck survivors have been in the water over an hour,
43:11when the British cruiser Dorsetshire arrives to pull them from the sea.
43:16The rescue effort has hardly begun when the Dorsetshire's captain gets a report
43:20that a German U-boat has been spotted.
43:23In an action that remains controversial to this day, he orders a retreat.
43:28The question runs through my head all the time.
43:34Why did Captain Martin stop the rescue while so many hundreds of men were still in the water?
43:42I can only interpret it as an act of revenge for what happened to the Hood,
43:47which sank with all her crew except for the three men who were rescued.
43:55Hardy had I been taken underneath on board the Dorsetshire
43:58that I felt by the vibrations of the ship that she had gotten with utmost speed,
44:02and I had been one of the last to be rescued without ever having a notion of it so far.
44:08It was a terrible thing.
44:10The water round Dorsetshire's stern foamed and bubbled with the sudden exertion of the screws.
44:14Slowly, then faster, the ship moved ahead.
44:17Bismarck survivors who were almost on board were bundled over the guardrails onto the deck.
44:22Those halfway up the ropes found themselves trailing astern,
44:25hung on as long as they could against the forward movement of the ship, dropped off one by one.
44:31Others in the water clawed frantically at the paintwork as the sides slipped by.
44:36In Dorsetshire they heard the thin cries of hundreds of Germans who had come within an inch of rescue,
44:41had believed that their long ordeal was at last over,
44:44cries that the British sailors, no less than survivors already on board, would always remember.
44:49From the water Bismarck's men watched appalled as the cruiser's grey sides swept past them,
44:55believed then that tales they'd heard about the British not caring much about survivors were true after all.
45:00Presently found themselves alone in the sunshine on the empty, tossing sea.
45:06And during the day, as they floated about the Atlantic with only life-belts between them and eternity,
45:11the cold came to their testicles and hands and feet and heads,
45:15and one by one they lost consciousness, and one by one they died.
45:20One of the German sailors rescued by the Dorsetshire dies the following day and is buried at sea.
45:39The chaplain was there with some British crewmen, and we stood across from them, face to face,
45:48just staring at each other, not sure what was happening.
45:51Then we heard a military signal, and I realized it was a funeral for my friend.
46:08One of us borrowed a harmonica and played Ich hatte einen kamerad.
46:23I once had a comrade.
46:25The British had tears in their eyes, just like us.
46:30He had stood next to me.
46:32He had marched by my side.
46:34He went to my side.
46:36He went to my side.
46:38He went to my side.
46:40It is sometimes difficult.
47:10To be reminded all the time.
47:16It is hard to explain.
47:25On one hand, you are glad you survived.
47:32But then you are pulled back into the past again.
47:41It is inevitable that all great ships in the sea will be found someday.
47:56I think the key thing is how do we treat it?
48:00What is our reaction to it?
48:02Do we treat it respectfully?
48:03Do we not touch it, not disturb it?
48:06Do it with respect?
48:08To me, the Bismarck is the war grave.
48:17The chase and sinking of the Bismarck was without doubt one of the great sea epics of all time.
48:22And it was because of the changing fortunes of either side.
48:27This great, vast, huge monster come out of its lair.
48:31And then in a flash it sinks the big British monster.
48:35Disappears.
48:36We look for it.
48:37We can't find it.
48:38A little tiny aeroplane suddenly finds it.
48:40Reports where it is.
48:41Another little tiny aeroplane sends a torpedo which cripples it.
48:45And then the big British ships can come up and sink it.
48:49It's an extraordinary story.
48:51I mean, it's full of heroism and it's full of pride on both sides.
49:01I mean, these were wonderful ships.
49:03And the impersonality of it all, you see.
49:05We all fired at each other without seeing the enemy.
49:08We never saw the enemy at all.
49:09The only time I ever saw the enemy was when this little trickle of men
49:12ran down on the Bismarck's quarterdeck and jumped into the sea.
49:15Apart from that, I could have been firing, or we could have been...
49:18We weren't firing ourselves, but the British could have been firing at, er...
49:22Castles.
49:23Sea battle is a very impersonal thing.
49:26It won't happen again.
49:28Not like that.
49:42Concled the entire city.
49:45It was a great-р
49:56Mall despertoise.
49:58It won't happen again.
49:59I'll see you later.
50:01The blues wasと three win-ups.
50:03I love it.
50:04He has gone all over into the wind.
50:07And it was too fazla,
50:09the old dude was so großen.