Suffering defeat and the loss of its empire at the end of World War I, Germany was obliged to sign the Versailles Treaty, which placed crippling restrictions on its armed forces. Contrary to the terms of the 11 November 1918 armistice, which designated internment at a neutral port, the German fleet was to be interned in Scapa Flow, under control of the Royal Navy. On 21 November, units of the German High Sea Fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter arrived at the Firth of Forth to surrender to the allied fleet under Admiral David Beatty. From there, the German ships were taken to Scapa Flow for internment until a peace treaty could be negotiated.
The Versailles Treaty was to have been signed at 1200 on 20 June 1919, but the event was postponed to 23 June while the victorious powers argued over the disposition of the German ships. France and Italy each wanted a quarter of the ships in the anchorage. Great Britain wanted all the ships scrapped or sunk, aware that any redistribution of them would be detrimental to the Royal Navy's proportional advantage. Although clause XXXI of the armistice forbade Germany to scuttle its ships, Admiral von Reuter settled the issue by ordering the sinking of fifty-two of the seventy-four interned ships on 21 June 1919.
The Kaiserliche marine, second in size to the Royal Navy at the beginning of World War I, was reduced by the onerous treaty terms to six pre-dreadnought battleships and six obsolete cruisers that had been built between 1899 and 1906.¹ Article 190 forbade the new Reichsmarine to construct or acquire any warships other than those intended to replace ships in commission.
French and British naval constructors decided on 10,000 long tons (2,240 pounds)—the light-ship displacement of the six pre-dreadnought battleships of 1902–6 vintage—as a limiting displacement for armored ships. After twenty years of service, these battleships could be replaced by a vessel of the same displacement, which was incapable of supporting battleship-scale armament or protection, and with a gun caliber limited to 280 millimeters (mm).
On 16 April 1919 the National Assembly of the Weimar Republic formally established the Reichsmarine, a development marked by strife and mutiny. By October 1922 the Reichsmarine had come to terms with its reduced status. The battleship would become the prime element when the decision was made to rebuild the fleet. However, doing so in compliance with the Versailles Treaty limitations would be difficult. The Germans interpreted the treaty displacement limitation terms in long tons, as had the French and English.²
The Versailles Treaty dictated some important changes in the Construction Office and shipyards controlled by the Reichsmarine. The long-established Wilhelmshaven Navy Yard and its veteran workforce were deemed essential to the construction needs of a postwar Reichsmarine, but the former navy yard at Kiel was taken over by the private shipyard Deutsche Werke Werft in 1925.³ Private shipyards, such as Blohm and Voss in Hamburg and Deschimag in Bremen, would meet most of the navy's future needs. The Construction Office, which had produced the designs for German ships before and during World War I, was also affected. Funds were too severely limited for it to continue as it had under Kaiser Wilhelm II; many naval constructors had to be dismissed. These developments would lead to difficulties when naval construction began during the Adolf Hitler regime about a decade later.
Admiral Erich Raeder would rise to a position of leadership in the Reichsmarine by 1928. Although convinced of the primacy of the battleship, Raeder understood that as a markedly inferior naval power, the Reichsmarine also would have to rely heavily on the submarine—of which it had none, by terms of the Versailles Treaty. Admiral Raeder believed that the loyalty of the navy and its personnel—the true core of the fighting force—was achieved through discipline and training. During the last months of World War I, some German naval officers and petty officers had become actively involved in political action, contributing to the eventual abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm. Admiral Raeder was convinced that the only proper path for a career naval officer was complete abstinence from politics and absolute loyalty to the state.
From 1920 to 1923 Raeder immersed himself in compiling a study of Kaiserliche marine operations in World War I that became the basis of a two-volume book, Kreuzerkrieg. The concept of cruiser warfare would manifest itself (and be fully supported by Adolf Hitler) when Raeder's unprepared navy was thrust into war on 3 September 1939.
With the port rudder jammed, Bismarck was now steaming in a large circle, unable to escape from Tovey's forces. Though fuel shortages had reduced the number of ships available to the British, the battleships King George V and Rodney were still available, along with the heavy cruisers Dorsetshire and Norfolk.Lütjens signalled headquarters at 21:40 on the 26th: "Ship unmanoeuvrable. We will fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer."The mood of the crew became increasingly depressed, especially as messages from the naval command reached the ship. Intended to boost morale, the messages only highlighted the desperate situation in which the crew found itself.As darkness fell, Bismarck briefly fired on Sheffield, though the cruiser quickly fled. Sheffield lost contact in the low visibility and Captain Philip Vian's group of five destroyers was ordered to keep contact with Bismarck through the night. The third shell hit from Prince of Wales had damaged the steam line on the aircraft catapult, rendering it inoperative. As it was not possible to launch the aircraft, it had become a fire hazard, and was pushed overboard. The third shell hit from Prince of Wales had damaged the steam line on the aircraft catapult, rendering it inoperative. As it was not possible to launch the aircraft, it had become a fire hazard, and was pushed overboard. The third shell hit from Prince of Wales had damaged the steam line on the aircraft catapult, rendering it inoperative. As it was not possible to launch the aircraft, it had become a fire hazard, and was pushed overboard.Junack, who had abandoned ship by the time it capsized, observed no underwater damage to the ship's starboard side. Von Müllenheim-Rechberg reported the same but assumed that the port side, which was then under water, had been more significantly damaged. Some survivors reported they saw Captain Lindemann standing at attention at the stem of the ship as she sank.Around 400 men were now in the water;[128] Dorsetshire and the destroyer Maori moved in and lowered ropes to pull the survivors aboard. At 11:40, Dorsetshire's captain ordered the rescue effort abandoned after lookouts spotted what they thought was a U-boat. Dorsetshire had rescued 85 men and Maori had picked up 25 by the time they left the scene.A U-boat later reached the survivors and found three men, and a German trawler rescued another two. One of the men picked up by the British died of his wounds the following day. Out of a crew of over 2,200 men, only 114 survived.
In 1959, C. S. Forester published his novel Last Nine Days of the Bismarck. The book was adapted for the movie Sink the Bismarck!, released the following year. For dramatic effect the film showed Bismarck sinking a British destroyer and shooting down two aircraft, neither of which happened.