At 8:00 A.M. on May 21, 1941, a coded message arrived at the Admiralty in London. The mighty German Bismarck, the world's most powerful battleship, had been sighted heading for the North Atlantic! Swiftly the commander in chief of the British Home Fleet organized a great armada of fighting ships.

It was the second spring of World War II, a dark and perilous time for Britain. The Germans had occupied the coast of Western Europe, and their submarines, warships and bombers were taking such a fearful toll of British shipping that there was grave doubt the island nation could hold out. Before the Bismarck got a chance to open fire on any of the precious British convoys at sea, she must be sunk.

In The Sinking of the Bismarck, William L. Shirer reconstructs the suspenseful one-week chase—through uncertain days and nights of stormy seas and crippling assaults—that ended on the morning when the battered pursuing force finally cornered the German battleship. The fighting spirit, courage and endurance of both the British and German officers and crews are vividly described as the action shifts back and forth between the pursuers and the pursued. Maps marking action along the route add to this dramatic and authentic account of The Sinking of the Bismarck.

From the dust jacket