Sink the Bismarck!

Sieg heil!

Sieg heil!

Sieg heil!

Sieg heil!

Sieg heil!

Sieg heil!

Sieg heil!

This is London. Ed Murrow reporting.

To an American reporter...

there is something very special about the people of this city...

this island, this nation.

Never in the long and stormy history of Great Britain...

have her fortunes been as low as they are in this spring of 1941.

Britain is fighting alone for her very existence,...

fighting desperately.

Yet her people remain steadfast and unflinching.

Britain's allies have been defeated one by one,...

as the dark stain of Nazi conquest spreads across the map of Europe.

In Africa, Rommel is giving the Eighth Army a very bad time.

Greece has fallen.

And the Luftwaffe continues to smash English cities.

The worst news of all comes from the North Atlantic,...

where last month, German U-boats and surface raiders...

sank 600,000 tons of shipping.

In this battle, Britain's lifeblood is at stake.

This is the battle on which depend the future course of the war...

the future course of British history.

The battle of the North Atlantic is fought at sea...

but it is directed from the admiralty, here in London.

Very deep in the ancient Admiralty Building,...

200 feet underground, is the War Room.

Here is the guiding brain and central nervous system of the British Navy,...

The Operations Division.

- Robert. - Sir?

Take Captain Shepard's things and put them in the office.

Aye, Sir.

Thank you.

This, of course, is the message center for incoming and outgoing signals.

These tubes lead to the wireless room just down the hall.

Oh, Shepard...

- Anything wrong? - That man's uniform.

Oh. We're quite informal here about some things.

You'll find it's much different from the bridge of a ship at sea.

- Is that so? - Oh, yes. It has to be that way.

Shepard, this is Commander Richards the duty plot officer.

Captain Shepard is the new director of operations.

- How do you do? - Don't let me interrupt your meal.

Captain Shepard, Second Officer Anne Davis.

Captain Shepard's taking over for me.

- How do you do, Sir? - How do you do?

Be nice to her, Shepard. If she ever got angry and walked out, we'd lose the war.

Really?

Seriously, you can depend on this young lady.

I've done it more times than I care to admit.

Anne, be a darling, will you and get your plot report in as soon as possible.

We mustn't be late for Jimmy's party tonight.

Right-oh.

I suppose I should shed a few tears at leaving this place, but...

quite honestly, I've hated the job.

Too much responsibility, too much strain.

I'm getting a command at sea. That's what I've always wanted.

Congratulations.

I hope you find one that doesn't involve too much strain.

Yes, The point is, it's a different kind of strain.

After all, a man's going to serve in the navy, he ought to serve at sea...

unless, of course, it's a man like yourself who's already seen a lot of action.

He should still serve at sea.

Yes. Well, I'd better get along.

I'll say good-bye now unless you have any questions.

I don't think so, thank you. Good luck.

Thank you.

We thought we might be of some assistance, Sir,... not knowing your way around yet, Sir.

Is there anything I can do for you?

Yes, there is something you can do.

A few moments ago I saw a rating enter the War Room without his jumper.

From now on, everyone will be properly dressed at all times.

I cannot have officers eating sandwiches on duty, Commander Richards,...

under any circumstances.

I'm sorry, Sir. It won't happen again.

Excuse me, Sir. I think you should know that Commander Richards...

stood two watches without relief and...

I'm sure Commander Richards doesn't need an interpreter, Miss Davis.

I was also surprised to hear a Wren officer addressed by her Christian name.

To me, this kind of informality is both irregular and inexcusable.

Come in!

Sorry to interrupt, Sir.

- Priority signal. - Thank you.

Excuse me.

Come in.

Oh, Shepard.

You know the assistant chief of naval staff.

Yes, indeed, Sir. Very well.

How are you, Jonathan? I'm glad to see you again.

Thank you. I have a signal here sent from our naval attache in Stockholm.

He reports two large German warships steaming through the Kattegat.

- What ships are they? - He doesn't say.

- Do you think it might be the Bismarck? - It's possible, Sir.

She's just completed three months' training in the Baltic.

They couldn't pick a better time to break out, could they?

With this Crete business going on, and our convoys scattered all over the ocean.

I have a nasty hunch that's the idea, Sir.

I hope for once you're wrong.

We can't afford to have that monster on the loose.

Look what Scharnhorst and Gneisenau did to us.

- 22 ships sunk... 115,000 tons. - All in two months.

And they don't have anything like Bismarck's fire power.

She could stand off and sink every ship in a convoy without ever coming under fire.

Shepard, get on to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet.

Tell him we're not sure, but we're very much concerned.

Tell him we'll let him have every scrap of information we get.

Aye-aye, Sir.

Oh, and, Shepard. I wish you'd prepare your recommendations in case it is the Bismarck.

Very good, Sir.

Pretty rough assignment for a new man on the job, isn't it?

I suppose, Sir, I'm not worried about Shepard. He's one of the

ablest men in the service.

I'm also told he's as cold as a witch's heart.

That's may be a slight exaggeration, Sir.

I want a man who's cold.

I'd like a man with no heart at all, no soul, just an enormous brain.

The battle of the North Atlantic is a grim business.

It won't be won by charm and personality.

- We've had too much of that here. - I've known Shepard for years.

We've served together before. He was different from these days.

Any particular reason for the change?

I suspect there are many reasons, Sir.

Reasons of a personal nature.

Oh. I see. Well, how are we going to get the information on those two ships?

We have an agent in southern Norway, Sir,...

Better get in touch with him.

We don't want to get in touch with him directly. It's much too dangerous.

And there isn't time to go through Zurich or Stockholm.

In this case, you'll have to make direct contact.

Sir, this man is in Nazi-occupied territory.

I realize that.

All the same, we must get in touch with him immediately.

Aye-aye, Sir.

The enemy ships were sighted coming out of the Baltic...

obviously heading out to sea, obviously not in the service of the king.

Now, what have we got over here at Scapa Flow?

Battleships King George V, Prince of Wales,...

battle cruiser Hood, and a few cruisers and destroyers.

The rest of the fleet's out on convoy escort.

It's from Admiral Cunningham, Sir.

"Situation in Crete is deteriorating."

"German airborne troops have captured Maleme Airfield."

Why is it we never get our bad medicine in small doses?

Perfect timing for an enemy breakout in the North Atlantic.

Cunningham and his fleet busy down here in Crete.

Sommerville's got his hands full trying to reinforce Malta with Force H.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are up here at Brest ready to come out again.

We must keep them covered.

And 16 convoys to guard, scattered all over the Atlantic.

If we had a hundred more ships, we still wouldn't have enough.

Sir, we've just had a signal from our agent in Norway.

The message is incomplete.

"Sighted two enemy ships off Kristiansand at 0335 sailing due west,"

"Cruiser Prinz Eugen and..."

The transmission stopped abruptly at that point, Sir.

- Did you try to get him back? - Yes, Sir. No further contact.

Where is Kristiansand?

Off here, Sir. Southern tip of Norway.

What do you think, A.C.N.S.?

I don't think this man would have transmitted in the circumstances...

if it hadn't been something really important.

Then we'll proceed on the assumption that it's Bismarck.

May I suggest we put Coastal Command to work on air reconnaissance?

By all means. Everything from Bergen southwards.

Tell them to photograph everything that looks suspicious.

I'll talk to Commander-in-Chief at Scapa Flow.

Aye-aye, Sir.

Excuse me, Sir.

First Sea Lord on the line, Sir.

Commander-in-Chief, Sir.

- Hello, Jack. How are you? - I'm fine.

Those two German ships were sighted off southern Norway at 0335.

One is the Prinz Eugen... and we're not sure about the other.

Do you think it's...

I suggest you proceed on the worst possible assumption...

that it's Bismarck and she's trying to breaking out.

Allright.

I may be wrong, but I can't think of anything worse at the moment.

Yes, I agree. We can't let that ship get loose in the Atlantic.

I'll come to immediate notice for steam, Sir.

All right. Good-bye.

We're directed to assume that it's Bismarck accompanied by Prinz Eugen...

and that they're attempting to break out into the convoy lanes.

Now, gentlemen, they'd have four available passages, wouldn't they?

Here's the Denmark Strait, the passage south of Iceland,...

the Faeroes-Shetland Passage, and the Fair Island Channel...

between the Orkneys and the Shetlands.

Anyone care to place a bet?

What about the Iceland-Faeroes Channel?

Not too near our bases, and a plenty a room to maneuver.

Why wouldn't he take the nearest exit?

Fair Island Channel, is only a few hundred miles.

Much too close to our air patrol.

You're of no help to me, gentlemen.

all you're saying is it could be any one of the four.

Actually, of course, you're perfectly right.