From Pursuit by Ludovic Kennedy (he was on one of the RN destroyers).
Times are by RN clocks, which I believe were on GMT plus 2 hours summer time starting on 4 May. Dawn on the 27th was around 5 am.
Evading the torpedo attack from Victorious caused the damaged boiler room to completely flood, after doing repairs Bismarck's speed was 20 knots.
The first Catalina sighting report position was 49° 33' N Longitude: -21° 47' W, out by about 25 miles, the correct position was around 690 miles from Brest and Force H was nearer to Brest. Sighting report timed at 10.30, the Swordfish search had been launched at 9 am, Ark Royal reducing speed to 10 knots and turning north west to do so, at 10.50 a Swordfish made a sighting, followed by another Swordfish at 10.57. Ark Royal was then around 50 miles from Bismarck doing 25 knots to make up for lost ground, while "at times the ship seemed almost out of control". The fight deck was 62 feet above the waterline and was occasionally taking it green. Two officers with sextants measured the rise and fall of the stern as 53 and 56 feet. During the approach before locating Bismarck Force H had gone down to 17 knots, wind speed over the deck 50 miles per hour.
All three Catalinas that sighted Bismarck that day had USN personnel on board.
Bismarck was at 167 degrees range 38 miles when the second strike launched. Ark Royal was flying air search and shadowing as well as strike missions, using Swordfish fitted with long range tanks. The second strike force was 15 aircraft and began taking off at 7.10 pm, was briefed to use Sheffield as a guide, found the ship at 8.00 pm but then lost it for the next 35 minutes, found it again and were then given distance and bearing to Bismarck, which was steaming under a weather front, while climbing to 9,000 feet one sub flight found ice forming on their wings. The front effectively stopped any attempt at a co-ordinated strike and it was not until 8.53pm the attack began and appears to have continued until around 9.30 pm. Sunset around 11 pm.
Sheffield was 12 miles astern and could see the AA armament firing. Bismark was around 48 north, maybe 16 or so east. There were Swordfish still in the air shadowing Bismarck all through the attack.
The 10 hours from the 10.30 sighting report at 20 knots to the time of the second strike would have cut the distance to France by around 200 statute miles.
The strike force landing took an hour with 3 crashed and written off, though at least one of these was due to flak damage. (None of the first strike that mainly attacked Sheffield was lost.) Timing was everything, one of the 8 Swordfish recalled from the initial air search to become part of the first strike met the stern coming up rather than the other way around, the crew was unhurt, the aircraft pieces were swept over the side.
Bismarck Wreck location Latitude 48° 6' 0" N Longitude: -16° 11' 60" W or about 500 miles from Brest and even further from Plymouth.
Ark Royal and Renown passed either side of U-556, steering straight courses, time not given but it seems after launching the second strike. If the submarine had any torpedoes left it could have done one of the more spectacular attacks of WWII.
The advantage for the Germans was U-556 corrected Bismarck's position, Bismarck was reporting a position 80 miles in error, but U-556 did not find out and make the signal until several hours after Bismarck had been crippled, no earlier than 23.30 that day. The U-boat could not keep up with Bismarck, it met with U-74 and handed over shadowing duties, when U-556 reached Lorient it had 80 litres of fuel.
The 2 destroyers with the battleships had left before the shooting had stopped, as had at least 1 of the flotilla of 5 destroyers harassing the Bismarck during the night, the battleships left before Bismarck sank but did see it go down. The British knew Bismarck had been transmitting homing signals, so they did not think they could linger for very long. Only the cruiser Dorsetshire and the destroyer Maori were able to pick up survivors. Ark Royal sighted 3 German aircraft, one of which dropped a stick of bombs nearby. The weather was clearing on the day Bismarck was sunk, sighting was made at 25,000 yards.
U-74 sighting a cruiser and 2 destroyers that morning, it had salt water in its batteries, it could not dive after rescuing the 3 Bismark sailors later that day. In fact damage it took earlier in its voyage meant it could not attack. All it could do was shadow. It picked up the three men at 7 pm that night. A German weather ship found 2 more men.
Luftflotte 3, serviceable longer range types but as of 30 June 1941. Ark Royal did have fighters.
II/KG2 23 Do217
I/KG4 19 He111
III/KG4 15 He111
I/KG40 4 Fw200
II/KG40 5 Do217
II/KG40 5 He111
III/KG40 14 He111
KG100 14 He111
KG606 13 Ju88
Kufl 106 4 Ju88
Kufl 106 5 He115
1. Aufl 123 6 Ju88
3. Aufl 123 4 Ju88
Ensign Leonard Smith was part of a group of USN Catalina pilots sent to England on 4th May, after a few days in London 9 of them were sent to 209 and 240 Squadrons, the British promptly sent 9 co-pilots on leave thereby making the Americans the new co-pilots. The Americans had more time on the newly arrived Catalinas than the British.
Smith was assigned to aircraft Z of 209 squadron, commanded by Flying Officer Briggs, they were the first to sight Bismarck and were shot at when they misjudged their approach, later repairing the flak damage with rubber plugs and margarine.
Aircraft M from 240 squadron, had an American copilot, Lieutenant Johnson, it sent a sighting report 1.30 pm. Z/209 closed on the other aircraft but soon departed so as to arrive back during daylight, M/240 stayed until 6pm, being shot at when it came too close.
Bismarck was torpedoed around 9pm, shortly after a third Catalina O/240 arrived with another American copilot, Ensign Rinehart, it too was shot at when it came too close.
Edited, correcting sunset from 9 PM GMT to 11 PM by RN clocks, and adding co-pilot information.