In the battle for the seas, raiders and aircraft have played an important part, roughly one half of the shipping losses being due to submarines and the remainder to raiders and aircraft.1 Their principal field of attack has been the Atlantic and it was to the Atlantic that the cruiser Prinz Eugen and the Bismarck, the newest and finest battleship in the German Navy, took their way in May. The Bismarck was commanded by Captain Ernst Lindemann and flew the flag of Admiral Gunther Lütjens. She carried no less than 2,300 persons. Her main armament consisted of 8 38 cm. (15-in.) mounted in pairs in four centre line turrets. Her secondary armament was 12 15 cm. (5.9-in.) in pairs in turrets on each side of the upper deck. She had 16 10.5 cm. (4.1-in.) and a number of smaller guns. She could steam 27 knots. “You are the pride of the Navy”, said Hitler when he visited her in May. She left Gothenhafen, near Kiel, on 19 May, to launch a big and concerted attack on British trade in the Atlantic.
Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs 1941
Besides achieving considerable tactical successes, the first operation of battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst in the Atlantic from January to March 1941 and the operation of cruiser Hipper, confirmed the fact that such use of surface vessels has far-reaching strategic effects. These effects were not restricted to the waters chosen as the zone of operations, but extended in widely diverging directions to other theatres of war, that is, also to the Mediterranean and the South Atlantic.
Hence naval warfare had to attempt to preserve and intensify the effects of the initial operations by repeating similar operations as frequently as possible, making the most of the experiences gained. In view of the decisive significance which British supplies in the North Atlantic have for the outcome of the war, German naval warfare can most effectively achieve its object only in the North Atlantic.
1. Up to 31st May, 1941, out of 6,803,807 tons gross sunk (British, Allied and Neutral), 911,812 tons (or 13.5 per cent.) were sunk by raiders.