Pursuit: The Sinking of the "Bismarck"

click here for more details, find new or used items	Ludovic Kennedy Used from £0.01 Pages: 252 (Paperback) ISBN: 0006340148 Pub: Fontana Press Pub date: 1975-12-01 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 540614

Reader Reviews:

Still one of the best accounts (0/0 people found this helpful)

This is a worthwhile and even-handed account of the pursuit and subsequent sinking of the Bismarck, which is particularly notable for the way in which in the author uses his own wartime experience as a junior naval officer to evoke the human element of this dramatic episode of naval history and bring the account to life.

Especially memorable in this respect are his comments on the sinking of the Hood and his description of the grim fate of Bismarck's survivors as the Dorsetshire broke off her rescue action.

The book is not without its inaccuracies -- for example, Kennedy wrongly suggests that Luftwaffe reconnaisance of Scapa Flow was misled by British decoy ships -- and it is marred by a writing style which perversely omits many conjunctions.

However, Kennedy's book will be read with profit by anyone seeking a straightforward account of how in the space of three days, two of the world's greatest warships were destroyed and with them over 3,500 mostly young lives.

Excellent, objective account of the Bismarck saga (7/7 people found this helpful)

Considering that the author was serving on one of ships which participated in the chase of Bismarck, I was expecting a partisan account of the story. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is a wonderfully written book, surprisingly objective, with a distinctly human angle to it. Kennedy mixes hard fact, with speculation on why the leaders of each side did what they did, from both German and British perspectives.

It's a gripping read, at times dramatic, funny, and very sad.

Does full justice to a gripping episode of WW2 (10/10 people found this helpful)

Perhaps the dearth of dramatic fiction concerning the Royal Navy in world war two is best explained by the sinking of the Bismark. This true story of the Royal Navy's quest for the most powerful warship of its day and its eventual destruction, is itself a story of such drama that one can hardly imagine how it can be bettered: Ludovic Kennedy does it full justice.

Its all here; the planning, the mistakes and the unexpected, which together shaped the sequence of events leading to both tradgedy and triumph. The author's obvious familiarity with the subject informs, while his narratives excites. By the end of this book I almost felt as if I had witnessed the whole thing myself.

A very Human version of events. (9/9 people found this helpful)

No need to read the last page as we all know what happens. Yes! but without this book you will never know the rhyme or reason for that end. Marvel at the tenacity of the Royal Navy, chuckle at the duplicity of the US Goverment, pity those of both sides whether they lived or died. This is the Human story with enough facts to satisfy all but the most proficient of anoraks. An excellent accompaniment for those who've read Dr. Ballard's book.

Excellent account of the action. (2/2 people found this helpful)

This is an excellent account of the action between Hood and Bismark, and the subsequent pursuit of Bismark ending in her destruction. At this price, it can't be bad.

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