At a thousand metres, he dragged back on the stick and released his single 500-pound bomb, the weapon swinging out on a long, crutch-like cradle to throw it clear of the propeller disc as the Skua powered away and manoeuvred heavily to avoid the mass of flak that followed his retreat. The next aircraft in line had dropped and commenced similar evasive action before his bomb struck, with the remainder of the two squadrons following on in a loose line behind them.
The first bomb missed the carrier by a few metres and punched into the water ahead of her bow, sending a towering geyser of foaming water skyward as it detonated. The second bomb also missed, this time to starboard with a similar lack of result, while the next three Skuas were shot from the sky as flak gunner began to find their range. The sixth aircraft however managed to make it through the clouds of enemy AA to land its single 500-pounder right in the middle of Graf Zeppelin’s flight deck, perhaps eighty metres aft from the bow. The damage done to the actual ship itself was relatively minor to begin with: the carrier had been had been designed to withstand air attack, and as such, the British practice of using an armoured steel flight deck had been adopted rather than the more common use of vulnerable wooden planking that was common with many other navies.
There was nothing that could be done however to protect the scores of fighters and attack aircraft gathered on her deck awaiting take off, and the damage inflicted on them was great indeed. With engines running, and filled with fuel and ammunition, the aircraft nearest the point of impact exploded instantly as the blast tore them apart, setting off a ‘domino effect’ that leapt from aircraft to aircraft along that crowded deck. More Skuas were shot down by the fighters already airborne, but fire from the Zeppelin’s flak guns began to trail off as the explosions spreading across the carrier’s deck either engulfed the gun emplacements completely, or the intolerable heat forced crews to abandon their posts and seek safety elsewhere. Four more bombs from the first wave struck the carrier, adding to the inferno as thick, black smoke poured from almost the entire length of the flight deck. One of those bombs punched its way through the much thinner armour of the island’s superstructure, exploding deep within and spreading fire and chaos through the vessel’s command and control areas. The impact struck near the forward end of the superstructure, killing most of those on the bridge, including the captain and many of the ship’s higher ranking officers. Out of control, Graf Zeppelin began to veer off to port as fires continued to build and spread.
No more than ten of 800 and 803 Squadrons’ original twenty-four aircraft came through the attack in one piece, and the survivors now made off to the west at full speed in an effort to avoid pursuit now their primary mission was accomplished. Their retreat also served to draw the defending J-4B fighters away from the stricken carrier, and although just five of the Blackburn Skuas would eventually make it back to Ark Royal, they’d managed to drag out the air battle long enough to exhaust the ammunition and fuel reserves of many of the enemy fighters. With the damage suffered by Graf Zeppelin, those same aircraft of TG186 were now also deprived of a place to land, and they were now forced to turn away to the east and the distant European coast in search of sanctuary.
This left the way clear for the second British attack wave to go in relatively unopposed, and the twenty-seven Fairey Swordfish of 810, 818 and 820 Squadrons found the burning bulk of Graf Zeppelin an easy target. The biplanes roared in at low level in pairs, the low speed that made them so vulnerable in aerial combat now serving to make them an excellent and stable launching platform for the 18-inch torpedoes beneath their bellies. Flak from the ship’s supporting destroyers managed to damage or destroy several of the Swordfish, but the gunners’ effectiveness was substantially reduced by the need to manoeuvre around the out-of-control carrier, and also by the thick clouds of smoke pouring from it’s burning deck.
As the burning ship slowed at the completion of a huge circle to port, fire from her deck began to spread to some of the lower levels, and the Swordfish were able to score no less than a dozen torpedo hits against her main armour belt below the waterline. The torpedoes the Swordfish carried mounted a relatively weak warhead that would be hard-pressed to penetrate Graf Zeppelin’s armour belt in some places, and effective damage control, had there been any, should’ve been able to restrict the effects of their impacts quite well. The fire already raging across her flight deck became the deciding factor, however. Throughout the history of naval warfare, from the age of sail through to modern times, fire was the deadly enemy of any ship… an enemy that if left to its own devices could quickly sweep through a vessel and destroy it. The inferno raging on the ship’s decks, combined with the loss of the ship’s commander and bridge officers, meant that no coherent damage control orders were ever given. Graf Zeppelin began to list notably to port as her speed dropped off even further and tonnes of seawater flooded unchecked into her hull below the waterline.
From the bridge of Bismarck, reports from the retiring fighters of TG186 and the lack of any response from Graf Zeppelin gave the officers there grave concerns regarding the heavy pall of smoke visible on the southern horizon. Lütjens belatedly requested urgent assistance from land-based units of the Kriegsmarine Air Arm on the Dutch mainland, but he knew that in reality, any assistance would be some time in coming by the time aircraft were reassigned from their original missions and rearmed. The cruiser battle moving off to the east looked likely of becoming a crushing German victory, but the main engagement was yet to be joined, and the Royal Navy had already dealt Schlactflotte-1 a telling blow.
The two forces were now no more than twenty kilometres apart, and lookouts and fire controllers could see the enemy capital ships quite clearly. Tirpitz was already calling for permission to open fire, but Lütjens, in accord with Lindemann, had so far refused the request, neither man seeing any point in wasting valuable ammunition at longer ranges that couldn’t guarantee decent accuracy. The distance between the two fleets fell as the minutes wore on, both approaching at oblique angles intended to prevent either from gaining a firing advantage. A tense period of manoeuvring began at the northern edge of the Dogger Bank, as the German ships took the initiative with their superior speed and attempted to cross the British ‘T’. A man of vast naval training, Tovey kept his cool despite his ships’ slower speed, and kept the Home Fleet zigzagging this way and that in tight turns of copybook precision that foiled each attempt, and continued to reduce the distance, enabling the Home Fleet to engage without any disadvantage of range or position.