In response to Admiral Tovey’s orders, Victorious launched her planes at about 10 pm. Like Ark Royal, Victorious’ squadron flew antiquated Swordfish bombers. Since the carrier was loaded with 48 crated Hurricane fighters that she had been ready to ship to North Africa when the emergency arose, there was room on board for only nine operational torpedo bombers and five fighters. This meagre force located Bismarck at about midnight and pressed home an attack. Squadron leader Eugene Esmonde scored a direct hit against Bismarck, but the torpedo caused no damage to the battleship’s massive armour plate

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Having shrugged off the air attack, Bismarck next succeeded in outfoxing Suffolk and breaking the radar contact that the cruiser had maintained throughout the night. Guessing that the Bismarck would head west into the Atlantic, Admiral Tovey concentrated his search in that direction. On board the German ship, however, Admiral Gunther Lutjens had decided to head toward occupied France for refueling and repairs. Throughout the next day he drew farther away from the British vessels, and Tovey’s hopes of finding and attacking her faded.

There followed a series of blunders on both sides. Admiral Lutjens, having finally avoided all pursuit, broadcast a 30-minute message to Berlin describing the battle against Hood. Long before the message was concluded, British radio direction-finders had pinpointed Bismarck’s position. On the British side, misunderstandings and faulty plotting led to a pursuit in the wrong direction and it was late in the day before Admiral Tovey’s ships actually turned in the direction of Bismarck.

By then a fuel shortage was becoming critical in the British fleet. Repulse, Prince of Wales, and several smaller ships had to give up the chase in order to refuel. To partially offset these losses, the battleship Rodney was released from convoy duty to join in the hunt for Bismarck.

On the morning of 26th May, long-range patrol planes sighted Bismarck 130 miles ahead of Admiral Tovey’s battleships. The distance was too far to cover before the German ship would reach safety. Only Force H stood between Bismarck and France.

Force H did not appear to be a formidable obstacle. Renown was a sister-ship of Hood, with the same fatally weak armour, and Tovey ordered her captain not to close within range of Bismarck. The cruiser Sheffield was fast and agile enough to shadow the enemy and keep Tovey appraised of Bismarck’s location, but was no match for the battleship. The third ship of Force H, Ark Royal, offered the only hope of engaging the enemy successfully.

Though Ark Royal was capable of operating 60 aircraft, she, like Victorious, had an incomplete complement of Swordfish bombers. On the more promising side, these planes were flown by some of the most experienced airmen in the Royal Navy. At 2.30 pm, 14 planes took off after Bismarck. The attack was nearly disastrous, for the air crews were unaware that Sheffield was near the intended target and when the pilots spotted the cruiser first they attacked her by mistake. Sheffield successfully avoided 11 torpedoes and escaped the ‘battle’ unscathed.

By shortly after 7 pm, crews had rearmed the Swordfish and readied them for another mission. The bombers, 15 this time, were guided to the target by signals from Sheffield. It was nearly 9 pm before the Swordfish finally located Bismarck and launched an attack. Heavy anti-aircraft fire shredded the bombers’ canvas skins, but failed to bring down any of the attackers, who enjoyed somewhat better results than they had against Sheffield, hitting the battleship twice. The first hit demonstrated once again the apparent inability of the British torpedoes to inflict any serious damage against Bismarck’s armour. The next torpedo, however, hit the ship’s stern, and while it too failed to penetrate the armour, it jammed her rudder.

The battleship slowed to a crawl and, unable to alter course, headed straight toward the British Home Fleet. Admiral Tovey initially dismissed reports from observation planes that Bismarck had turned away from France, believing the inexperienced pilots were confusing the bow of the German vessel with the stern. But as time went by and the reports went uncorrected, he began to realize that a showdown between the Home Fleet and Bismarck would be fought after all.

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