In May 1941 the mighty German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by the cruiser Prinz Eugen, left her home port in the Baltic on a mission to attack British convoys in the North Atlantic. The two ships were intercepted in the Denmark Strait, between Greenland and Iceland, by the British warships HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales. In the ensuing exchange of fire the Hood was sunk, with the loss of all but three of her crew, and the Prince of Wales and the Bismarck were both damaged. The German commander, Admiral Günther Lütjens, therefore decided to return to a port in occupied France so that the Bismarck could be repaired. The ship was, however, pursued across the Atlantic by the Royal Navy, determined to avenge the loss of the Hood and to neutralise the threat which the Bismarck posed to British shipping.

"Sink the Bismarck!" is made in a semi-documentary style, concentrating less upon the actual combatants than upon what have been described as the "unsung back-room planners". (The documentary effect is enhanced by having the American journalist Ed Murrow repeat some of his wartime radio broadcasts from London). The main character, played by Kenneth More, is Captain Jonathan Shepard, the Admiralty's Chief of Operations, responsible for directing the operation from a war room in London. Michael Hordern, playing the Admiral leading the hunt for the Bismarck at sea, has a much smaller role. (Historically this would have been Admiral Sir John Tovey, but his name is never given in the film).

More was one of those actors who had a fairly small range but who was capable of giving some very good performances within it. He specialised in playing calm, imperturbable upper-middle-class Englishmen or Scotsmen, often officers in the armed forces. (He could often look out of his depth when he tried to go too far outside this range). Here, however, he is excellent. Shepard is a fictitious character; the film- makers insisted in the closing credits that he was not to be identified with Captain Ralph Edwards, the real Chief of Operations during this period. More plays him as, outwardly, a typical stiff-upper-lip Briton of the era, but one who beneath his calm façade is hiding his own personal traumas. His work is physically less dangerous than service at sea would be, yet nevertheless extremely stressful emotionally; one of Shepard's colleagues, unable to cope with the strain, has announced that he will resign his job in the operations room to take up a position as commander of a naval vessel.

In some ways the film is very accurate; the battle scenes were shot using scale models of the actual ships involved. There are a number of historical inaccuracies, but I suspect that these are not "goofs" in the sense of inadvertent errors made through carelessness but deliberate departures from historical fact for the sake of dramatic licence. During the chase the Bismarck sinks a destroyer named HMS Solent; no British destroyers were lost in the battle, and although there was an "HMS Solent" during the war it was a submarine, not a destroyer. A Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is shot down, although no aircraft were lost in the actual battle. Both these details were added to increase dramatic tension; one of the crew of the bomber is Shepard's son Tom, and his father must endure an agonising wait for news of his son.

Perhaps the greatest departure from historical reality concerns the character of Admiral Lütjens. Karel Štěpánek plays him as a fanatical Nazi, arrogant and absurdly overconfident. (Peter Finch had given a much more sympathetic portrayal of a senior German naval officer in "Battle of the River Plate" four years earlier). He barks at his crew "Never forget that you are Nazis!"; a real Nazi would probably have said "Never forget that you are National Socialists!" but the truth is that the real Lütjens was not a Nazi at all. He disliked the regime for which he was fighting and, contrary to the way he is portrayed here, was very pessimistic about the Bismarck's chance of success. Yet in the context of the film Štěpánek's performance is a good one, increasing the dramatic contrast between Lütjens and Shepard, both more cautious and more humane.

Patriotic wartime epics, often based upon true stories, were popular in the British cinema during the fifties and sixties, so it is not surprising that the hunt for the Bismarck should have furnished the material for a how-we-won-the-war film. Compared to the high emotions of something like "The Dambusters", perhaps the greatest true story war film, it can at times seem rather cool, yet it is still undoubtedly one of Britain's better efforts in the genre, due particularly to More's efforts. 7/10

The style of "Sink the Bismarck!" is a bit unusual for a war film. Much of it is not set on the frontlines on the open sea but within the underground confines of the Cabinet War Rooms--a fortified bunker well below the streets of London. In fact, if you want to visit this site today, you can--and it makes for an interesting couple hours.

Within the underground complex, a Captain (Kenneth More) is in charge of coordinating the British Navy's pursuit of the dreaded Bismarck-- one of two incredibly powerful German battleships which terrified the British because its guns were more powerful and armor plating much thicker than on the British naval counterparts. In addition, you do see some battle scenes and while they were done mostly with models (along with a bit of stock footage),they do look rather realistic.

So is the film worth seeing? Yes, especially if you enjoy seeing war films AND don't mind the rather cerebral behind the scenes style of the film.

By the way, while the acting was very good, I was surprised how bad and unconvincing the voice actor was who pretended to be Churchill. It didn't even sound close. Also, as you see the torpedoes going through the water, look carefully and you can see that in some clips you can see the ropes pulling them through the water!

In May 1941 the Royal Navy was stretched to the breaking point. As was accurately pointed out by Laurence Naismith playing the First Sea Lord, they are committed heavily to the battle raging for Greece, to defending the critical base at Malta, and to protecting Atlantic convoys from America. So when Hitler turned loose his newest and biggest battleship, the Bismarck, the Royal Navy had not a whole lot to throw at her.

Sink the Bismarck is done in a documentary style with the action taking place on the high seas in the British ships and on the Bismarck. The other part of the drama takes place at the war room at the Admiralty where the fictitious character Kenneth More, a captain who had his ship shot out from under him by the German commander who is in charge of the Bismarck.

The Bismarck was only out for eight days, but in that time she annihilated the British cruiser Hood with all but 3 lost. After that it was a running battle with both planes from the carrier Ark Royal and ship to ship battles with the Prince of Wales, the George V, and the Dorcestshire before the Bismarck went down in the Atlantic.

There is a side personal drama involving Kenneth More whose son is a flier on board the Ark Royal and who is missing. WREN officer Dana Wynter is around to lend a sympathetic ear and there's a bit of a hint that things might get personal with More and Wynter.

The Ark Royal planes did some damage and I notice that the planes flown off the Ark Royal were ancient biplanes. They did some damage, but didn't sink the Bismarck themselves. Unfortunately some lessons were not learned by the British command and the Prince of Wales and the Repulse were sunk several months later by the Japanese with aerial bombardment when they reported for duty at the British base in Singapore. The British did in fact experiment with carriers as the Ark Royal's contribution in that action and others signifies. I'm willing to bet Mr. Churchill wished he had a few more carriers like the Americans and Japanese did. And I'm also willing to bet he was thanking the Deity the Germans had none.

Two things helped popularize the film in America and it did do well on this side of the Atlantic. I remember a packed house when I went to see it in theater back when I was a lad. One was the presence and narration of Edward R. Murrow who as a correspondent for CBS radio reported to America on the Bismarck story and so many others. His more than FDR's was the voice of World War II for the American public.

The second was that country singer Johnny Horton had a big selling hit also entitled Sink the Bismarck. Though nary a note of it is heard in this film that song on the charts boosted sales to Sink the Bismarck tremendously.

Kind of unusual that an American country singer would choose a British naval action as the subject of a song. But the heroism of all the members of the Royal Navy and even that of the crew of the Bismarck is the stuff legends are made of.