As U-64 raced for the safety of the depths once more, Bismarck erupted out of the fog straight into the path of the cruisers Suffolk and Dorsetshire, who had heard the death throes of the battleships on their radios and were determined to avenge the loss. They could not understand how the crippled Bismarck had succeeded once again in humbling the Royal Navy, and were not sure that the garbled messages had said "torpedo" or something else. The german battleship was known to carry tinfish as part of her secondary battery but it seemed unlikely she would have used them first. Perhaps U-boats were in the vicinity, which was bad news.
Bad, but not as bad as Bismarck's main armament opening fire on them at point blank range...
Within minutes, although her superstructure was badly damaged by the cruiser's 12" guns, Bismarck had reduced the British ships to flaming wrecks. As Dorsetshire slipped beneath the waves, Kapitan z See Ernst Lindemann stood in his wrecked bridge, cap and clothes shredded, staring at the dying Admiral.
"Lindemann, your ship is a credit to the Reich! They will award you the Knight's Cross for this, I swear it!" gasped Lutjens as he clung to the last ebb of life.
"Danke, Herr Admiral, rest now. We must hope the Royal Navy has no more ships out there after our blood. We are not home and dry yet." Lindemann did not like the Admiral, he was not and ardent supporter of the party whereas Lutjens was a fanatic, and had endangered Bismarck through his misplaced enthusiasm for facing the enemy directly on unequal terms. But here was a dying man, who had, admittedly, braved the storm of enemy fire directed at the bridge unflinchingly.
As the Admiral was carried below, Lutjens looked out to where Dorsetshire's bow foamed and frothed until dissappearing from view entirely, leaving a thick oily slick as the only marker of her final resting place.
