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the wrong direction. As the hours passed, most of the top-ranking naval officers in London became certain that the Bismarck was making for France. Yet Admiral Tovey was not informed of this.
    Finally, at 3:30 in the afternoon, Tovey receiveda radio message from the Admiralty giving a new position for the Bismarck . This had been plotted from radio directional bearings received from the enemy ship’s radio two hours earlier.
    Admiral Luetjens had continued to send out a stream of radio messages all day. The twenty-fifth of May was his birthday and he had received a number of birthday congratulations radioed from Berlin. Even Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany, had sent him a message: “Best wishes on your birthday.”
    It was perhaps only natural for the German admiral to reply—and thus by his radio broadcasts to unwittingly keep the British informed of his course and changing position. He still was sure he was being shadowed. There was no sense in maintaining radio silence when the enemy had his ship on its radar screen and knew exactly where he was.
    At 8:46 A.M. Naval Group West, under whose command he now was, had radioed Luetjens that it believed he had given the slip to his pursuers.
    Last enemy contact report [it advised] was at 02:13 [2:13 A.M. ]. We have impression that contact with Bismarck has been lost.
    Unfortunately for himself, his ship and crew, the headstrong German admiral did not believe it. He still failed to believe it at 6:30 that evening when Group West again radioed him saying that there had been no British reports of sighting the Bismarck all day. Thus the mistakes on both sides were contributing to the sharpening of the tense drama now approaching its climax.
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    The position of the Bismarck radioed by the Admiralty to Sir John at 3:30 on the afternoon of May 25 came as a shock to the Commander in Chief. It showed that the enemy battleship was not heading north for home but southeast for a French port. It meant that Admiral Tovey had for several hours been engaged in a wild-goose chase in the wrong direction. Indeed, he realized that during the early afternoon the Bismarck must have passed him on her way south and now would have a head start in the race for the French coast.
    Completely baffled, Admiral Tovey asked his navigation officer to check his arithmetic in the original plotting of the enemy’s position. The officer did so and found his mistake. The Germanbattleship had been pointing toward France all day!
    At 6:10 P.M. Sir John, after waiting in vain for further word from the Admiralty, steered the Home Fleet around and set a new course southeast. An hour later the Admiralty approved. All British ships in the Atlantic, it ordered, were to try to intercept the Bismarck on her way to France.
    The newly discovered course of the German vessel immediately put several British warships out of the race, for their fuel supplies were fast dwindling. The Ramillies had dropped out earlier in the day on receipt of the false news that the Bismarck had turned northeast. The old British battleship was much too slow to attempt to catch up on the new course. Therefore during the early afternoon the Admiralty had instructed her to take over the troopship Britannic , which the Rodney had had to abandon the day before. The Ramillies was to escort the Britannic on to Canada.
    The cruiser Suffolk , which had turned west to look for the enemy off Greenland, was much too far away to join in the chase toward Brest. She now made for a refueling station in Iceland. So did the carrier Victorious and her escorting cruisers.The crippled Prince of Wales was also low on oil. She was ordered home. The Norfolk ’s oil tanks were getting dangerously low. But Rear Admiral Wake-Walker decided to risk remaining in the chase with her.
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    The twenty-fifth of May had been another dark and frustrating day for Admiral Tovey. As evening came, with mounting seas, a stiff wind from the northwest and a falling barometer,