The history of the Bismarck starts in the spring of 1941. It set sail on Operation Rheinbung after two ships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau returned from Operation Berlin. It was considered to send out the Bismarck with its sister ship Tirpitz, but it was decided against shortening training operations. They were also going to send it out with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but they were not operational due to British air attacks. So they sent it out with heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. The operation started on May 18th, 1941. Being the largest operation of its kind, two supply ships, five tankers, and two reconnaissance ships were sent with them to escort them. Although it was tried to keep the operation secret, an aircraft cruiser Gotland spotted them while passing the Swedish coast. On May 21st the ships arrived in Grimstadtfjord, Norway, where the camouflage painting was removed, and the Prinz Eugen refueled. The Bismarck did not, which proved an error for later operation. The British reconnaissance ship Spitfire had photographed the ships while at port. This gave the British the exact location of the ships without the Germans knowing. That evening the ships left the Fjord and headed north as the weather got worse and low clouds set in, preventing air detection. The ships were supposed to refuel in the Norwegian Sea, but Admiral Ltjens skipped refueling. The reason is still unknown today, but he probably wanted to take advantage of the bad weather and refuel in the North Atlantic. SO the ships changed course on the morning of May 22nd, and headed for the Denmark Straits. The next night they were informed they were still undetected, so they continued their course. That afternoon, they started through the ice fields while heading south west. At 19:22, Bismarck’s radar detected a signal on the port side, and a few moments later the silhouette of British cruiser Suffolk appeared then disappeared in the dusk. Later, another...
