WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.459 So picture this. You are stepping down into the 00:00:03.459 --> 00:00:06.120 subterranean war room of the British Admiralty. 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:09.500 It's 1941. Right into the thick of it. Exactly. 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:12.880 The air in this bunker is, well, it's completely 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.640 stagnant, thick with cigarette smoke, raw tension 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:18.600 everywhere. You've got officers hunched over 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:21.640 these massive tables orchestrating this high 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:24.940 stakes life or death chess match across the freezing 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:27.320 North Atlantic. Hunting down Nazi Germany's most 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:29.660 powerful battleship. Yeah, the Bismarck. But 00:00:29.660 --> 00:00:32.039 then you pull the camera. back, past the maps, 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.679 past the uniforms, and you see blinding studio 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:36.659 lights, you see boom microphones, a director 00:00:36.659 --> 00:00:39.840 yelling, cut! Because you aren't in 1941 at all. 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:42.299 Nope, you are in 1960. And the history you're 00:00:42.299 --> 00:00:44.619 watching is actively being rewritten by Hollywood, 00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:47.240 a hit country music song, and amazingly, the 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:50.280 British government's Official Secrets Act. Welcome 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:52.579 to a brand new Deep Dive. I'm your host, and 00:00:52.579 --> 00:00:55.619 today we're exploring the 1960 British war film 00:00:55.619 --> 00:00:57.929 Sink the Bismarck. And I am thrilled to be your 00:00:57.929 --> 00:01:00.030 expert for this one. Our mission today for you, 00:01:00.090 --> 00:01:03.210 the listener, is to explore the incredibly complex, 00:01:03.570 --> 00:01:06.390 often messy gap between history and the silver 00:01:06.390 --> 00:01:09.450 screen. It's a huge gap, too. Oh, massive. We 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:12.489 are going to deconstruct how a film tries to 00:01:12.489 --> 00:01:15.829 capture the physical reality of war, why it sometimes 00:01:15.829 --> 00:01:18.290 fundamentally alters the truth for the sake of 00:01:18.290 --> 00:01:21.989 a compelling narrative. And I think most fascinatingly, 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:24.859 how actual top -secret classified government 00:01:24.859 --> 00:01:27.920 intelligence literally forced the screenwriters 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.700 to invent history out of thin air. I mean... 00:01:30.489 --> 00:01:32.670 By the end of this deep dive, the way you watch 00:01:32.670 --> 00:01:35.129 historical narratives unfold on screen is going 00:01:35.129 --> 00:01:38.269 to fundamentally change. The detective work behind 00:01:38.269 --> 00:01:40.209 how this movie was constructed is just sheer 00:01:40.209 --> 00:01:42.930 fun for us to dig into. It really is. Primarily 00:01:42.930 --> 00:01:45.629 because the creators of Sink the Bismarck went 00:01:45.629 --> 00:01:48.489 to extraordinary, almost obsessive lengths to 00:01:48.489 --> 00:01:51.549 make this film feel like a factual, gritty documentary, 00:01:51.870 --> 00:01:53.769 even while they were actively bending the truth. 00:01:54.049 --> 00:01:56.170 Director Lewis Gilbert and producer John Brayborne 00:01:56.170 --> 00:01:59.170 made some highly unusual stylistic choices right 00:01:59.170 --> 00:02:01.189 out of the gate. to achieve that exact effect. 00:02:01.489 --> 00:02:04.069 Like what? Well, for one, they chose to shoot 00:02:04.069 --> 00:02:05.849 the film in black and white cinemascope. And 00:02:05.849 --> 00:02:08.229 remember, by 1960, fiber and color was widely 00:02:08.229 --> 00:02:10.370 available. Right. It was the standard for those 00:02:10.370 --> 00:02:13.969 massive historical epics. Exactly. But they deliberately 00:02:13.969 --> 00:02:16.669 handicapped themselves with black and white so 00:02:16.669 --> 00:02:19.030 they could seamlessly intercut their newly shot 00:02:19.030 --> 00:02:22.590 studio scenes with actual, authentic wartime 00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:25.219 newsreel footage. Which is brilliant because, 00:02:25.419 --> 00:02:28.539 I mean, if you suddenly cut from crisp 1960s 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:32.080 color film to grainy 1940s combat footage, the 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:34.199 audience is immediately pulled out of the illusion. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.460 Oh, for sure. The black and white made that transition 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:38.960 totally invisible. And they didn't just rely 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:40.919 on visual tricks either. They brought in the 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:43.659 legendary CBS radio correspondent, Ed Murrow, 00:02:43.659 --> 00:02:46.759 to literally play himself. Oh, wow. Yeah. He 00:02:46.759 --> 00:02:50.060 sat in the studio and reprised the actual famous 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:52.699 wartime broadcasts he had made from London back 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:55.300 during the Blitz. That anchors the entire fiction 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:59.159 in this undeniable, recognizable sonic reality. 00:02:59.340 --> 00:03:02.240 It creates a profound near -documentary aesthetic. 00:03:02.860 --> 00:03:05.099 And the film was highly unusual for its era in 00:03:05.099 --> 00:03:07.259 another structural way, too. You know, most war 00:03:07.259 --> 00:03:09.719 films of the 50s and 60s focused almost entirely 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:12.000 on frontline combat. Right. The mud of the trenches, 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:14.219 the adrenaline in the fighter cockpits, that 00:03:14.219 --> 00:03:16.759 sort of thing. Exactly. Yeah. Sink the Bismarck, 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:19.580 however. dedicated a massive amount of its runtime 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:23.080 to the unsung, exhausted backroom planners. It 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:25.439 treated the intelligence gathering, the map reading, 00:03:25.539 --> 00:03:28.300 and the strategic plotting as just as thrilling 00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:30.819 as the naval battles themselves. And it paid 00:03:30.819 --> 00:03:33.319 off massively. I mean, it was the number two 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:36.500 film at the British box office in 1960. But here 00:03:36.500 --> 00:03:38.699 is the anomaly that really stands out to me. 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:42.090 It was also a massive out of nowhere hit in the 00:03:42.090 --> 00:03:44.330 United States. Which makes zero sense on paper. 00:03:44.590 --> 00:03:46.810 None at all. There was no American involvement 00:03:46.810 --> 00:03:49.689 in the actual battle, at least officially. And 00:03:49.689 --> 00:03:52.509 a previous British war film, directed by Gilbert, 00:03:52.789 --> 00:03:55.530 Reach for the Sky, had completely flocked with 00:03:55.530 --> 00:03:58.210 American audiences. So how did this incredibly 00:03:58.210 --> 00:04:02.169 British, highly strategic, map -heavy film conquer 00:04:02.169 --> 00:04:04.969 America? Well, the American box office was boosted 00:04:04.969 --> 00:04:07.050 by an estimated half a million dollars, which 00:04:07.050 --> 00:04:09.650 was a staggering sum of money in 1960, by the 00:04:09.650 --> 00:04:11.930 way. purely because of a country pop song. Right, 00:04:12.050 --> 00:04:13.810 Johnny Horton's song Sink the Bismarck. It hit 00:04:13.810 --> 00:04:15.930 number three on the US pop and country charts. 00:04:16.550 --> 00:04:19.089 But the wild part is it wasn't an official tie 00:04:19.089 --> 00:04:21.410 -in. Not at all. The filmmakers didn't commission 00:04:21.410 --> 00:04:24.670 it. It never actually appears anywhere in the 00:04:24.670 --> 00:04:28.230 movie. It's crazy. The American studio distributors 00:04:28.230 --> 00:04:31.230 just realized they had a hit song on the radio. 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:34.579 about the exact same topic. So they just slapped 00:04:34.579 --> 00:04:36.779 it over the promotional trailers in the U .S. 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:39.879 to ride its coattails. It is a phenomenal early 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:42.899 example of viral marketing. It's perfectly analogous 00:04:42.899 --> 00:04:46.279 to how today a modern movie might blow up at 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:49.560 the box office entirely because some unofficial 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:52.519 fan made audio track goes viral on TikTok. Yes. 00:04:53.050 --> 00:04:55.670 The studio just quietly adopts the hype. It proves 00:04:55.670 --> 00:04:57.589 that sometimes, you know, the marketing ecosystem 00:04:57.589 --> 00:05:00.410 completely outpaces the actual content of the 00:05:00.410 --> 00:05:03.069 art. Absolutely. The marketing undeniably got 00:05:03.069 --> 00:05:05.670 American audiences into the theater seats. But 00:05:05.670 --> 00:05:07.170 once those viewers were sitting in the dark, 00:05:07.310 --> 00:05:09.269 the filmmakers faced a severe narrative hurdle. 00:05:09.329 --> 00:05:11.829 Because they had committed to this dry documentary 00:05:11.829 --> 00:05:14.050 aesthetic. Right. Focusing on the back rooms. 00:05:14.410 --> 00:05:17.269 But a purely factual recitation of ship coordinates 00:05:17.269 --> 00:05:19.990 being moved across a map for two hours. That 00:05:19.990 --> 00:05:22.149 isn't going to hold an audience's emotional attention. 00:05:22.379 --> 00:05:24.819 They needed a human anchor in that room. Imagine 00:05:24.819 --> 00:05:27.060 you're sitting in that subterranean windowless 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:30.699 bunker. The writers needed you to feel the stakes. 00:05:30.939 --> 00:05:34.000 So they injected pure fiction right into the 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.420 center of the real world admiralty. Enter Captain 00:05:36.420 --> 00:05:39.879 Jonathan Shepard and WRNS Second Officer Ann 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:42.079 Davis. Played by Kenneth Moore and Dana Winter. 00:05:42.379 --> 00:05:45.139 And just to clarify for the listener, WRNS stands 00:05:45.139 --> 00:05:48.000 for the Women's Royal Naval Service. These were 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.160 the women who were physically responsible for 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:52.620 interpreting the incoming data and moving the 00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:55.279 ship models on those massive plotting tables. 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:58.379 Crucial work. But Captain Shepard, however, is 00:05:58.379 --> 00:06:01.379 entirely fictional. The actual director of operations 00:06:01.379 --> 00:06:03.319 in the Admiralty at that time was a man named 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:06.470 Captain R .A .B. Edwards. But the writers needed 00:06:06.470 --> 00:06:08.389 someone the audience could emotionally bleed 00:06:08.389 --> 00:06:10.910 with. Exactly. So they gave this fictional Captain 00:06:10.910 --> 00:06:13.069 Shepard a son who was serving out in the Navy. 00:06:13.449 --> 00:06:15.990 During the battle, his son's plane goes missing. 00:06:16.610 --> 00:06:19.430 This forces Shepard into this agonizing position. 00:06:19.569 --> 00:06:22.029 He has to desperately separate his icy, ruthless 00:06:22.029 --> 00:06:24.509 professional demeanor from his profound personal 00:06:24.509 --> 00:06:27.709 grief as a father, all while ordering other men's 00:06:27.709 --> 00:06:30.550 sons into a meat grinder. It's heavy. And they 00:06:30.550 --> 00:06:32.829 even shoehorn in his subtle romance to break 00:06:32.829 --> 00:06:35.509 the tension. Oh, right. At the very end of the 00:06:35.509 --> 00:06:38.689 film, after the Bismarck is finally sunk, Shepard 00:06:38.689 --> 00:06:43.610 asks Officer Davis out for a 9 .0 PM dinner date. 00:06:44.550 --> 00:06:47.449 And she kindly points out that they have been 00:06:47.449 --> 00:06:50.430 awake and locked in this artificially lit bunker 00:06:50.430 --> 00:06:53.449 for so many days, he doesn't even realize it's 00:06:53.449 --> 00:06:55.329 actually nine zero in the morning. So they go 00:06:55.329 --> 00:06:57.790 out for breakfast instead. It highlights the 00:06:57.790 --> 00:07:00.329 extreme, disorienting nature of the environment 00:07:00.329 --> 00:07:02.709 they were working in. I hear that, but I have 00:07:02.709 --> 00:07:04.750 to push back on this entire creative choice. 00:07:05.250 --> 00:07:07.230 Doesn't this become a slippery slope? I mean, 00:07:07.350 --> 00:07:09.829 if we excuse erasing the real Captain Edwards 00:07:09.829 --> 00:07:12.550 and his actual contributions just because a fictional 00:07:12.550 --> 00:07:14.750 guy with a missing son makes for a better, more 00:07:14.750 --> 00:07:17.310 emotional movie, aren't we just admitting that 00:07:17.310 --> 00:07:19.569 actual history is too boring? That's a fair point. 00:07:19.769 --> 00:07:21.949 Aren't we just giving history a cheap Hollywood 00:07:21.949 --> 00:07:24.589 facelift? You are hitting on the eternal tension 00:07:24.589 --> 00:07:27.459 of historical cinema. Is it disrespectful to 00:07:27.459 --> 00:07:30.579 the real people? Perhaps. But we have to look 00:07:30.579 --> 00:07:33.120 at the limitations of the medium. Well, for a 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:35.959 film to succeed in 1960, it had to translate 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:39.079 vast, impersonal, continent -spanning events 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:43.639 into individual, relatable human drama. The real 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:46.279 Captain Edwards did a phenomenal job, but his 00:07:46.279 --> 00:07:48.420 internal emotional life during those specific 00:07:48.420 --> 00:07:50.399 days isn't part of the public historical record. 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:52.779 Right, we don't have transcripts of his private 00:07:52.779 --> 00:07:56.120 fears. Exactly. By creating the fictional shepherd, 00:07:56.620 --> 00:07:59.259 the filmmakers could externalize the immense, 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.160 crushing psychological pressure that everyone 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:05.259 in that room was feeling. It is a dramatic composite. 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:08.439 I see. It sacrifices the literal factual truth 00:08:08.439 --> 00:08:11.279 of who was standing at the desk in order to capture 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:13.920 the emotional truth of what it felt like to bear 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:16.339 that responsibility. I suppose that makes sense 00:08:16.339 --> 00:08:18.279 when you frame it as a limitation of the historical 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:20.319 record, but that brings us to the most incredible 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:22.240 part of this entire story. Because there was 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:24.439 one part of Captain Shepard's fictional brilliance 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:26.420 that wasn't just a screenwriting whim to make 00:08:26.420 --> 00:08:28.279 him look good. No, it was a legally mandated 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:30.639 cover -up. Yeah. So in the movie, the hunt for 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:33.279 the Bismarck completely stalls when the British 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:36.399 cruisers lose radar contact in the fog. The trail 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:39.240 goes cold. And suddenly, Captain Shepard has 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:42.879 this brilliant, almost psychic instinct. He bets 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:46.059 the entire pursuit. and arguably the safety of 00:08:46.059 --> 00:08:48.820 the Atlantic on his gut feeling that the Bismarck, 00:08:48.820 --> 00:08:51.399 which had been hit and was leaking oil, is heading 00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:54.159 south to the French coast, specifically to the 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:56.759 port of Brest for repairs. And his hunch pays 00:08:56.759 --> 00:08:59.019 off. He looks like an absolute tactical genius. 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:01.799 But the reality is he didn't guess anything. 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:04.179 Nope. The British knew exactly where the Bismarck 00:09:04.179 --> 00:09:06.240 was going because they were reading the German 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:08.600 mail. The intelligence services at Bletchley 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:11.220 Park had successfully intercepted and decoded 00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:14.490 a Luftwaffe enigma transmission. A high -ranking 00:09:14.490 --> 00:09:16.769 German official had sent a message inquiring 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:19.730 about the Bismarck status, and the response explicitly 00:09:19.730 --> 00:09:22.549 stated the battleship was headed for Brest. Wow. 00:09:22.629 --> 00:09:25.269 But even beyond the decrypted messages, the British 00:09:25.269 --> 00:09:27.649 were utilizing a technique called traffic analysis. 00:09:27.929 --> 00:09:30.269 Traffic analysis is fascinating because it doesn't 00:09:30.269 --> 00:09:33.850 even require you to break the code. It's like 00:09:33.850 --> 00:09:35.809 realizing your neighbor is throwing a massive 00:09:35.809 --> 00:09:38.350 surprise party, not because you heard them explicitly 00:09:38.350 --> 00:09:40.730 say it, but because you look out the window and 00:09:40.730 --> 00:09:43.429 see five different pizza delivery cars pull up 00:09:43.429 --> 00:09:45.970 to their house. That is a perfect way to explain 00:09:45.970 --> 00:09:48.269 it. You don't know what kind of pizza they ordered, 00:09:48.549 --> 00:09:51.870 but the volume of traffic alone tells you exactly 00:09:51.870 --> 00:09:54.090 what's happening. Yes, and direction finding 00:09:54.090 --> 00:09:57.129 stations across Britain picked up the radio signals. 00:09:57.259 --> 00:10:00.139 from the Bismarck. They couldn't read every word, 00:10:00.299 --> 00:10:03.320 but they saw that the Bismarck had stopped communicating 00:10:03.320 --> 00:10:06.299 with its naval command in Wilhelm Schab in Germany. 00:10:06.500 --> 00:10:08.360 And suddenly started communicating with German 00:10:08.360 --> 00:10:11.679 command in Paris. Exactly. The geographic shift 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:13.860 and who the ship was talking to, combined with 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:16.659 the sheer volume of the signals, gave away the 00:10:16.659 --> 00:10:19.059 destination before the ship even got close. So 00:10:19.059 --> 00:10:21.100 the obvious question for anyone listening is 00:10:21.100 --> 00:10:23.620 why on earth didn't the filmmakers put that in 00:10:23.620 --> 00:10:26.570 the movie? Breaking the Enigma code and using 00:10:26.570 --> 00:10:29.250 traffic analysis sounds like an incredibly tense, 00:10:29.529 --> 00:10:31.710 dramatic scene. Because they legally couldn't. 00:10:31.889 --> 00:10:34.789 I mean, the film was produced in 1960, the massive 00:10:34.789 --> 00:10:37.330 intelligence operations at Bletchley Park, the 00:10:37.330 --> 00:10:39.610 existence of the Enigma machine and the fact 00:10:39.610 --> 00:10:41.830 that the Allies had broken the German codes. 00:10:42.470 --> 00:10:46.490 All of that remained highly classified, top secret 00:10:46.490 --> 00:10:50.230 government information until 1975. That's 15 00:10:50.230 --> 00:10:52.509 years after the movie came out. The filmmakers 00:10:52.509 --> 00:10:54.960 literally were not allowed to tell the truth. 00:10:55.379 --> 00:10:57.419 If they had shown Bletchley Park, they would 00:10:57.419 --> 00:10:59.320 have been violating the Official Secrets Act. 00:10:59.700 --> 00:11:02.740 So they had to invent a fictional hero and make 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:04.659 him look like he just had the luckiest, most 00:11:04.659 --> 00:11:07.299 brilliant guess in the history of naval warfare. 00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:10.100 It fundamentally changes how you view historical 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:12.659 genius on screen. It's exactly like watching 00:11:12.659 --> 00:11:15.120 your friend perfectly predict every single twist, 00:11:15.259 --> 00:11:17.440 turn, and jump scare in a mystery movie. You're 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:19.419 sitting on the couch calling them a genius. And 00:11:19.419 --> 00:11:21.460 then 15 years later, you find out they had already 00:11:21.460 --> 00:11:23.559 read the Wikipedia plot summary on their phone. 00:11:23.340 --> 00:11:25.860 in the bathroom before the movie started, the 00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:27.919 brilliance was an illusion created by withheld 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:31.340 information. And because of those strict secrecy 00:11:31.340 --> 00:11:34.720 laws, the film had to invent not just the how 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:37.539 of the intelligence, but the where. Oh, that's 00:11:37.539 --> 00:11:39.700 right. The film places the central intelligence 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:42.100 operation right there in the Admiralty in London. 00:11:42.620 --> 00:11:45.259 But the actual nerve center for the Battle of 00:11:45.259 --> 00:11:46.860 the Atlantic, the place where the pursuit of 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:49.440 the Bismarck was truly orchestrated, was Jerby 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:52.620 House in Liverpool. Why Liverpool? Because Liverpool 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:54.919 was the headquarters of Western Approaches Command. 00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:58.519 It was physically closer to the Atlantic convoys, 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:00.600 meaning communication lines were shorter and 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:03.460 more direct. But again, the real mechanisms and 00:12:03.460 --> 00:12:06.259 locations of the intelligence war were just too 00:12:06.259 --> 00:12:08.179 deeply sensitive to put on a movie screen in 00:12:08.179 --> 00:12:11.279 1960. Because the Cold War was raging. Exactly. 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:13.740 and the methods of signals intelligence were 00:12:13.740 --> 00:12:16.740 still vital national secrets. So we have a heavily 00:12:16.740 --> 00:12:20.379 sanitized fictionalized war room. But what happens 00:12:20.379 --> 00:12:23.259 when we leave the bunker and translate those 00:12:23.259 --> 00:12:26.100 little dots on the map into the freezing chaotic 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:28.679 reality of the North Atlantic? Because out on 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:31.320 the water, the filmmakers significantly streamlined 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:34.220 the incredibly messy mechanics of naval combat. 00:12:34.580 --> 00:12:37.659 Naval combat between capital ships is astonishingly 00:12:37.659 --> 00:12:40.440 complex. I mean, it relies on geometry, weather, 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:43.940 and mathematics. just as much as firepower. The 00:12:43.940 --> 00:12:46.559 film drastically simplifies these tactics to 00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:48.980 make them legible to a general audience. Give 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:51.440 us an example. Well, during the initial catastrophic 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:53.460 engagement at the Battle of the Denmark Strait, 00:12:53.820 --> 00:12:56.720 the film shows the British ships, the HMS Hood 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.299 and the Prince of Wales turning early in the 00:12:59.299 --> 00:13:01.200 fight so they can fire their full broadsides 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:03.620 of the German ships. Which means they turn sideways 00:13:03.620 --> 00:13:06.279 to the enemy so Every single gun on the ship 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:09.139 can fire at once. Yeah. But that isn't what Admiral 00:13:09.139 --> 00:13:11.559 Holland, the British commander, actually did. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:14.559 No, he sought to close the distance first. Holland 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:16.480 drove his ships directly toward the Germans. 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:19.279 Why would he do that? To present a much smaller 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:22.159 target profile. If you point the nose of your 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:24.340 ship at the enemy, you are a very narrow target. 00:13:24.980 --> 00:13:27.980 But the tactical tradeoff is severe. By pointing 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:30.460 their bows directly at the Bismarck, the British 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:33.179 essentially blinded their own rear guns. Because 00:13:33.179 --> 00:13:35.159 their aft guns couldn't shoot through their own 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:38.320 ship's superstructure. Right. It cost them the 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:41.519 use of eight massive guns, cutting their firepower 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:45.120 in half. Meanwhile, the Bismarck and its escort, 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:47.759 the Prinz Eugen, were already turned sideways, 00:13:48.139 --> 00:13:50.700 firing full broadsides of every main weapon they 00:13:50.700 --> 00:13:54.799 had. It put the British at a massive, fatal disadvantage. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:58.179 And the film also completely leaves out a rather 00:13:58.179 --> 00:14:00.480 embarrassing mistake made by the British right 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:03.539 at the start of that battle. The HMS Hood initially 00:14:03.539 --> 00:14:06.360 fired at the wrong ship. They did. They mistook 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:09.220 the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen for the Bismarck 00:14:09.220 --> 00:14:11.399 and targeted it instead. Oh, does a highly trained 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:13.940 crew mistake a cruiser for a battleship? Because 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:16.580 of the mist. the freezing sea spray, and the 00:14:16.580 --> 00:14:18.779 fact that the German Navy deliberately designed 00:14:18.779 --> 00:14:21.779 the Prinz Eugen to have a very similar silhouette 00:14:21.779 --> 00:14:24.259 to the Bismarck. Ah, that makes sense. In the 00:14:24.259 --> 00:14:26.580 chaotic, low -visibility conditions of the North 00:14:26.580 --> 00:14:30.080 Atlantic, the British wasted crucial, lifesaving 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:32.769 minutes firing at the wrong target. before correcting 00:14:32.769 --> 00:14:34.809 their fire. It wasn't just the tactical mistakes 00:14:34.809 --> 00:14:37.190 they left out either. The filmmakers really narrowed 00:14:37.190 --> 00:14:39.909 the focus to make it an exclusively triumphantly 00:14:39.909 --> 00:14:42.909 British narrative. They scribed some incredible 00:14:42.909 --> 00:14:44.870 international contributions from the record. 00:14:45.149 --> 00:14:47.649 Yeah. They really did. For example, after the 00:14:47.649 --> 00:14:49.809 Bismarck escapes into the fog, it is finally 00:14:49.809 --> 00:14:52.809 relocated by a Catalina flying boat. The film 00:14:52.809 --> 00:14:55.269 shows the plane, but it conspicuously leaves 00:14:55.269 --> 00:14:57.610 out the fact that the plane was actually co -piloted 00:14:57.610 --> 00:15:00.549 by an American Naval Reserve officer, Ensign 00:15:00.549 --> 00:15:03.029 Leonard Smith. Which again, touches on deeply 00:15:03.029 --> 00:15:05.429 sensitive political realities. The United States 00:15:05.429 --> 00:15:08.610 was officially neutral in May of 1941, revealing 00:15:08.610 --> 00:15:11.049 that an active -duty American military officer 00:15:11.049 --> 00:15:13.570 was secretly participating in a British combat 00:15:13.570 --> 00:15:16.009 operation months before the attack on Pearl Harbor 00:15:16.009 --> 00:15:20.320 was. a detail that both governments prefer to 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:23.139 quietly obscure for a very long time. They also 00:15:23.139 --> 00:15:25.679 left out the Polish destroyer, the PRN. This 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:28.200 Kainé ship heroically charged straight at the 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:30.799 massive guns of the Bismarck signaling, I am 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:33.320 a Pole, as it sailed headlong into the fray. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:35.720 I mean, the sheer cinematic gold of that moment 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:38.580 is undeniable. It is brilliant, but it complicates 00:15:38.580 --> 00:15:41.269 the specific... streamlined narrative the British 00:15:41.269 --> 00:15:43.090 studios were trying to build for their domestic 00:15:43.090 --> 00:15:45.210 audience. And this curation of facts extends 00:15:45.210 --> 00:15:47.029 to the darkest moments of the battle as well. 00:15:47.389 --> 00:15:49.970 They sanitized the incredibly grim aftermath. 00:15:50.129 --> 00:15:52.970 Completely. The film skips over the fact that 00:15:52.970 --> 00:15:54.929 after the Bismarck was finally battered into 00:15:54.929 --> 00:15:58.350 a sinking wreck, the British cruiser HMS Dorseture 00:15:58.350 --> 00:16:00.850 began rescuing German survivors from the freezing 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:03.950 water. But suddenly, the British ship departed, 00:16:04.409 --> 00:16:06.250 abandoning hundreds of German sailors to drown 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:08.620 in the ocean. Because the British suspected a 00:16:08.620 --> 00:16:11.120 German U -boat was operating in the area. And 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:13.399 if you stop a massive cruiser in the water to 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:16.120 pick up survivors, you become a completely stationary 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:20.080 target for a torpedo. Precisely. It was the brutal, 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:23.539 unyielding calculus of war. To save the enemy 00:16:23.539 --> 00:16:25.899 in the water meant risking the lives of every 00:16:25.899 --> 00:16:28.759 British sailor on board. When a film strips away 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:31.269 the embarrassing mistakes, like firing at the 00:16:31.269 --> 00:16:34.309 wrong ship and removes the dark, horrific realities 00:16:34.309 --> 00:16:36.309 like leaving hundreds of men to freeze and drown. 00:16:36.769 --> 00:16:38.870 Are we really teaching history to the audience 00:16:38.870 --> 00:16:41.509 or are we just creating a comforting mythology 00:16:41.509 --> 00:16:44.929 for the victors? Sink the Bismarck is undeniably 00:16:44.929 --> 00:16:47.210 a piece of comforting mythology. We have to remember 00:16:47.210 --> 00:16:50.309 it was released in 1960. The British public had 00:16:50.309 --> 00:16:52.669 endured horrific generational trauma during the 00:16:52.669 --> 00:16:54.970 war. Whole cities had been flattened. Right. 00:16:55.049 --> 00:16:56.980 They had been through hell. They wanted to see 00:16:56.980 --> 00:16:59.899 a reflection of their own resilience, their competence, 00:17:00.259 --> 00:17:03.059 and their moral clarity. Acknowledging that their 00:17:03.059 --> 00:17:05.559 victory involved terrible tactical blunders or 00:17:05.559 --> 00:17:08.440 ruthless agonizing decisions like abandoning 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:11.500 drowning men muddies that moral clarity. So the 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:14.779 filmmakers chose to present an idealized, sanitized 00:17:14.779 --> 00:17:17.099 version of the victory. One that validated the 00:17:17.099 --> 00:17:19.799 immense sacrifices the country had made. And 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:21.900 of course, just as a disclaimer for you listening, 00:17:22.279 --> 00:17:24.200 we aren't taking a side on whether this sanitation 00:17:24.200 --> 00:17:26.619 was right or wrong. We're just impartially looking 00:17:26.619 --> 00:17:29.259 at how the primary sources reflect this shift 00:17:29.259 --> 00:17:31.859 from historical reality to cinematic narrative. 00:17:32.059 --> 00:17:34.660 Which brings us to how they handled the enemy, 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:37.200 because if the film simplified the British heroes 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:39.519 to make them look infinitely competent and righteous, 00:17:39.819 --> 00:17:42.559 it did the exact opposite to the German commander. 00:17:42.700 --> 00:17:45.740 Oh, yes. They completely assassinated the actual 00:17:45.740 --> 00:17:48.740 historical character of Admiral Günther Lütjens. 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:52.660 They rewrote his personality to fit a very convenient 00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:55.380 cinematic trope. The movie portrays the German 00:17:55.380 --> 00:17:58.720 fleet commander, Admiral Lütjens, as a crazed, 00:17:59.059 --> 00:18:02.559 unyielding, stereotypical Nazi zealot. He is 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:05.339 depicted pacing the bridge, blindly and fanatically 00:18:05.339 --> 00:18:07.980 convinced that the Bismarck is an unsinkable 00:18:07.980 --> 00:18:10.500 super weapon destined to crush the British Navy. 00:18:10.980 --> 00:18:13.559 But the historical truth about Litchens is shockingly 00:18:13.559 --> 00:18:15.940 different. Completely different. Historically, 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.480 Litchens was a traditional naval officer who 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:21.259 actually did not agree with Nazi policies. Really? 00:18:21.579 --> 00:18:24.440 Yes. He was one of the very few high -ranking 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:26.759 naval commanders who had formally and publicly 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:29.299 protested the brutality of the anti -Semitic 00:18:29.299 --> 00:18:31.589 crimes committed during Kristallnacht. And when 00:18:31.589 --> 00:18:33.809 Adolf Hitler actually came to visit the Bismarck 00:18:33.809 --> 00:18:36.609 before it launched on its mission, Litchens deliberately 00:18:36.609 --> 00:18:40.049 refused to give the Nazi salute to Hitler. Instead, 00:18:40.329 --> 00:18:42.630 he gave the traditional naval salute. It was 00:18:42.630 --> 00:18:45.410 a subtle, incredibly dangerous display of his 00:18:45.410 --> 00:18:48.390 separation from the ideological fanaticism of 00:18:48.390 --> 00:18:50.750 the regime. Furthermore, far from being a crazed 00:18:50.750 --> 00:18:52.529 zealot who believed his ship was invincible, 00:18:53.170 --> 00:18:55.630 Litchens was highly pessimistic about the Bismarck's 00:18:55.630 --> 00:18:58.009 mission. He understood the strategic reality. 00:18:58.490 --> 00:19:00.769 He knew that trying to break out into the Atlantic 00:19:00.769 --> 00:19:03.690 while being hunted by the entire Royal Navy was 00:19:03.690 --> 00:19:07.069 a daunting, highly dangerous, and likely doomed 00:19:07.069 --> 00:19:10.109 task. The movie even flips his actual combat 00:19:10.109 --> 00:19:12.890 orders to make him look more bloodthirsty. In 00:19:12.890 --> 00:19:14.970 the film, when the British ships first appear 00:19:14.970 --> 00:19:17.849 on the horizon, Litchens is eager to fight and 00:19:17.849 --> 00:19:20.509 immediately orders his ship to open fire on the 00:19:20.509 --> 00:19:23.269 HMS Hood. But in reality, it was the exact opposite. 00:19:23.390 --> 00:19:26.089 Right. In the actual battle, Litchens explicitly 00:19:26.089 --> 00:19:28.150 ordered his ship to avoid engaging the British. 00:19:28.789 --> 00:19:30.930 His overarching mission was to sneak into the 00:19:30.930 --> 00:19:34.150 Atlantic to sink undefended merchant supply ships, 00:19:34.410 --> 00:19:36.609 not to get into a lethal slugging match with 00:19:36.609 --> 00:19:39.049 enemy battleships. So who fired the guns? It 00:19:39.049 --> 00:19:41.309 was actually the Bismarck's captain Ernst Lindemann. 00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:44.509 He became infuriated by the British fire, refused 00:19:44.509 --> 00:19:46.569 Litchens order and commanded the guns to open 00:19:46.569 --> 00:19:49.619 fire. The film completely reverses this dynamic, 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:51.700 stripping the nuance from the German command 00:19:51.700 --> 00:19:53.819 and putting the aggression entirely onto Litchens. 00:19:54.420 --> 00:19:56.619 It perfectly illustrates Hollywood's absolute 00:19:56.619 --> 00:20:00.000 need for a Darth Vader. War is fought by complex, 00:20:00.339 --> 00:20:02.759 deeply compromised, often terrified human beings 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:06.799 on all sides. But audiences in 1960 didn't want 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:09.759 a nuanced conflicted German commander. They didn't 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:11.960 want a guy who didn't even want to be there and 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:14.119 knew he was likely going to die. They just wanted 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:16.779 a black and white cartoon villain they could 00:20:16.779 --> 00:20:18.519 cheer against without feeling an ounce of guilt 00:20:18.519 --> 00:20:21.180 when the ship finally went down. Is the psychological 00:20:21.180 --> 00:20:23.400 utility of the villain in narrative storytelling. 00:20:24.420 --> 00:20:26.859 If the audience recognizes the humanity, the 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:28.960 reluctance or the dread of the enemy commander. 00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:32.539 The triumph of sinking his ship becomes tinged 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:35.940 with profound tragedy. Right. By turning Lutyens 00:20:35.940 --> 00:20:39.160 into a fanatic, the film gives the audience absolute 00:20:39.160 --> 00:20:41.319 permission to celebrate the destruction of the 00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:43.980 Bismarck without any lingering moral ambiguity. 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:46.339 We have covered a massive amount of ground here 00:20:46.339 --> 00:20:48.859 today, from the hidden secrets of Bletchley Park 00:20:48.859 --> 00:20:52.059 traffic analysis to the geometry of naval gunfire, 00:20:52.440 --> 00:20:55.059 all the way to Hollywood entirely rewriting the 00:20:55.059 --> 00:20:56.960 personalities of real people. That's a lot to 00:20:56.960 --> 00:20:59.680 take in. It is. But when we synthesize all of 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:02.019 this, the main takeaway for you listening right 00:21:02.019 --> 00:21:05.759 now is this. Sync the Bismarck is a phenomenal, 00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:09.519 engaging piece of 1960s cinema. But ultimately, 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:12.680 it is a time capsule of the era it was made rather 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:15.440 than a perfectly accurate record of the era it 00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:18.119 depicts. It shows us exactly what the 1960 British 00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:20.740 public needed to feel. And because of the Official 00:21:20.740 --> 00:21:23.420 Secrets Act, exactly what they were legally allowed 00:21:23.420 --> 00:21:26.450 to know about how the war was actually won. It 00:21:26.450 --> 00:21:28.990 acts as a mirror, reflecting post -war Britain's 00:21:28.990 --> 00:21:31.829 deep psychological need for a clean, heroic, 00:21:32.150 --> 00:21:34.269 uncomplicated narrative wrapped tightly around 00:21:34.269 --> 00:21:37.009 a pore of real historical events. Perfectly said. 00:21:37.250 --> 00:21:39.490 But before we go, there is one final, incredibly 00:21:39.490 --> 00:21:41.349 intriguing detail from our sources that we have 00:21:41.349 --> 00:21:43.109 to discuss, something I want you to mull over. 00:21:43.490 --> 00:21:45.750 Because the film was produced in 1960, the filmmakers 00:21:45.750 --> 00:21:48.650 had access to actual retiring World War II warships 00:21:48.650 --> 00:21:52.089 to use as their physical sets. Yes. Through producer 00:21:52.089 --> 00:21:54.490 John Braeborn's deep connections with the Admiralty, 00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:57.990 they gained unprecedented access. They filmed 00:21:57.990 --> 00:22:00.450 scenes on the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, 00:22:00.910 --> 00:22:03.789 the cruiser HMS Belfast, which, you know, survives 00:22:03.789 --> 00:22:06.730 today as a museum ship in London, and most notably, 00:22:07.029 --> 00:22:10.049 they filmed on the massive battleship HMS Vanguard. 00:22:10.430 --> 00:22:13.509 That's incredible. They used the actual colossal 00:22:13.509 --> 00:22:16.710 15 -inch gun turrets of the Vanguard to visually 00:22:16.710 --> 00:22:20.650 represent the sheer terrifying firepower of these 00:22:20.650 --> 00:22:22.809 capital ships on screen. And here's the thought 00:22:22.809 --> 00:22:25.670 I want you to walk away with today. The HMS Vanguard 00:22:25.670 --> 00:22:28.150 and many of these other spectacular ships were 00:22:28.150 --> 00:22:30.009 sent to the scrap yard shortly after filming 00:22:30.009 --> 00:22:32.329 wrapped. They were systematically broken down, 00:22:32.450 --> 00:22:34.769 their immense steel hulls melted away, completely 00:22:34.769 --> 00:22:37.470 lost the time. It's such a shame. Isn't it profoundly 00:22:37.470 --> 00:22:39.930 ironic that a movie, a piece of Hollywood entertainment 00:22:39.930 --> 00:22:42.250 filled with fictional captains, altered timelines, 00:22:42.490 --> 00:22:45.130 and state mandated intelligence cover -ups, ironically 00:22:45.130 --> 00:22:47.569 becomes the most tangible, authentic visual record 00:22:47.569 --> 00:22:49.529 we have left of the very machines that fought 00:22:49.529 --> 00:22:52.309 the war? Wow. When you watch those massive guns 00:22:52.309 --> 00:22:55.490 fire and sink the Bismarck, You aren't just looking 00:22:55.490 --> 00:22:58.230 at a clever movie trap. You are looking at the 00:22:58.230 --> 00:23:01.309 ghosts of the real steel behemoths, captured 00:23:01.309 --> 00:23:03.769 on celluloid right before they vanished forever. 00:23:04.029 --> 00:23:07.410 It is a powerful, almost haunting reminder that 00:23:07.410 --> 00:23:10.029 sometimes the artifice of fiction is the only 00:23:10.029 --> 00:23:12.650 mechanism we have left to preserve the physical 00:23:12.650 --> 00:23:14.910 truth of the past. Thank you so much for taking 00:23:14.910 --> 00:23:17.589 this deep dive with us today. Stay curious, keep 00:23:17.589 --> 00:23:19.670 exploring the layers beneath the narrative, and 00:23:19.670 --> 00:23:21.869 always question the history you see on screen. 00:23:22.289 --> 00:23:23.069 Until next time.