Sterling Point Books: The Sinking of the Bismarck: The Deadly Hunt Book

The Bismarck was arguably the difference-maker in naval dominance going into World War II. This "accessible" account of Nazi Germany's efforts to get this battleship out of the North Sea and into Atlantic Ocean warfare is right for those who want to know something more than the fact that the effort failed and the Bismarck was sunk.

In less than 200 easily read pages, Shirer gives us as much detail about the "hunt" as most of us will ever want. His talents as a chronicler of this era are known far and wide for his Berlin Diary and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Photos, timelines, maps and "breakout" pieces lavishly support this short book.

I learned so much about the state of the British Navy, the changing strategies employed by the Bismarck and the ships that pursued it and how close that battleship came to winning the encounter: "…British commanders would have agreed with (the Bismarck's) Admiral Luetjens on one thing. If the Bismarck could not be located this day then she was safe. A great German naval victory would have been completed. With the Hood unavenged, the British would have suffered a complete defeat---in fact, a disaster."

From insights into the key players, to tactics and mistakes, to implications of this "hunt," I absorbed a lot of information in a very short read. If I had to say what provided the greatest impact, it was that this encounter was the harbinger of the shift in naval thinking from the battleship to the aircraft carrier as being the centerpiece of future naval strategy.