Sink the Bismarck!

The Bismarck's crew was made up of just over two thousand men. Following her sinking, only 114 survivors were rescued from the sea, 110 of them by HMS Dorsetshire and the Tribal-class destroyer HMS Maori. The rescue of survivors was called off by the captain of HMS Dorsetshire amid reports that a U-Boat may be in the area.

The characterization of Admiral Gunther Lütjens in this movie is wildly inaccurate. He is shown as a zealot, a fanatic, denying reality until the end. In fact, Lütjens was a thoughtful, even morose figure - some survivors claimed that his tendency for fatalism damaged their morale. Absurdly, on screen the Admiral tells his men to "remember you are Nazis!" Lütjens was not a Nazi (very much the opposite, to the extent that he famously refused to perform the Nazi salute for Hitler before the Bismarck set sail), nor were the vast majority of his officers and crew.

Opening credits prologue: LONDON MAY 1941