Russell Grenfell

How did the Nazi cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau manage to run the gantlet of British sea and air power and escape unscathed from their French base through the English Channel? CAPTAIN RUSSELL GRENFELL,who has served for over thirty years in the Royal Navy, accounts for the failure of British intercepting forces. He is widely known for his books, The Bismarck Episode, from which two excerpts appeared in the Atlantic, and Nelson the Sailor, a biographical study. His latest book is Unconditional Hatred (Devin-Adair).

The sinking of the Bismarck was the most dramatic naval engagement in European waters. In the June Atlantic, we published the first phase: the detection of the Bismarck and its accompanying cruiser, the Prinz Eugen, as they left the Norwegian coast on May 21, and the head-on fight with the Hood squadron, in which the Hood, the most powerful ship in the British Navy, was sunk after only a few minutes of intense salvos. Our accounts of that battle and its sequel have been drawn from The Bismarck Episode, by CAPTAIN RUSSELL GRENFELL, R.N. — a book based on the testimony of almost every surviving officer and on the material in the captured German archives. The Bismarck Episode will be published by Macmillan.

In preparing The Bismarck Episode, from which this account is drawn, CAPTAIN RUSSELL GRENFELL, R.N., had the advantage of the personal testimony of almost every surviving officer who took a prominent part in the operations, as well as access to the captured German archives. As a result, many new and important facts have come to light. His narrative, which will be published by Macmillan next month, is unsparing in its judgment of both sides, and ranks as an important contribution to naval history.