A decisive episode: the strategic stakes of the Bismarck sortie

The events surrounding the brief Atlantic sortie of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941, have been told many times. Analysis often focuses on engineering and combat performance,[1] or on the tactical issues associated with finding a lone warship in the North Atlantic. It is often seen in isolation – an ‘episode’, according to Russell [ ] The post A decisive episode: the strategic stakes of…