Ludovic Kennedy on the pursuit of Bismarck

Rodney's improvised operations committee decided to wait near Bismarck's likely route to France. Bismarck then transmitted long messages because Admiral Lütjens mistakenly believed British ships still held contact. Direction-finding stations converted those signals into broad, nearly parallel bearings rather than a neat pinpoint. Kennedy's account shows that judgment, communications discipline, signal intelligence, and imperfect plots shaped the hunt as much as gunfire did.