Captains Log BB Bismark MAy 22, 1940 1200hrs: Left Trodheim in dense fog, decided to conserve fuel since I am quite sure we'll need it later. 16:00 hrs: Due to the worsening weather we decided to up the pace a bit at a cost of some fuel. It was decided that a breakout could be done just West of the Faroe Islands. If found we can just head North and try again. 20:00 hrs: With the weather being a bit nicer a search plane found us. Which way to go? May 23, 1940 00:00 hrs: I have decided to break South, the British will probably expect me to head back North as per the original plan. Darkness and speeding up helped us lose the airplane. We had to radio base for techincal support due to Prinz Eugen's super critical boiler giving us fits. I hope the British didn't hear us. 04:00 hrs: The weather worsens a little so it just like when we left. This is a critical moment as we pass West of the Faroe Islands. We have reports of a CL patrolling here but luck is with us and we are not spotted. So far so good. 08:00 hrs: We seem to have broken through the British patrol lines so we turn continue South at high speed. Can't spare the fuel but we are so close to Scapa Flow and British bomber units we just have to get clear. Seems to be a lot of air traffic here, hope nobody spots us for what we are. 12:00 hrs: Thank goodnes for the nasty weather, that should hide us from the air traffic. Still too close to Britain though. 16:00 hrs: Good God almighty, not a cloud in the sky! If anyone is out there heading from or to anywhere in Britain we are spotted for sure. We were so close to making a clean breakout! We are almost far enough south now that darkness comes a little bit sooner. With the British fleet hopefully behind us we should be OK. Lookouts said we just blew past the Repulse! She's tough but old and no match for us. I am sure she had seen us though and now the entire British fleet will be mobilized against us. 20:00 hrs: Still being trailed by someone just out of sight. Must have guessed where we were going. Crap, need to conserve fuel for when the weather is bad. 24:00 hrs: Weather is just a tad worse, may be enough to stay hidden but still not enough for a burst of speed. May not have much choice if this keeps up. Just great, lookouts inform me we are being tailed. If this keeps up we may need to sprint towards France as we'll never shake the Brits in this weather. 04:00 hrs: Decided to head towards the open ocean at high speed. We are being followed by a search plane. When the weather gets nasty again we may have to split up. Not a cloud in the sky currently. Our search planes are out checking for the brit fleet behind us. Weather has to come our way soon. Just spotted a cruiser trailing us! If we do this right we can catch him off guard and nail him. Otherwise he'll probably get away. What luck! He never saw us coming. We are heading straight for him with all forward guns ready to fire. The Prinz is ordered to get in close to prevent a retreat. It's a risk but we can't have this ship trailing us or it won't matter anyway. What luck! We caught her napping and before she knew it we were coming right at her. We straddled her on the first salvo and scored a plunging hit that must have hit a magazine because she blew up! We picked up a few people and they were from the light cruiser Edinburg. The rest we had to leave behind. They should be OK as the weather is calm and they radioed their last position. She went down fast, can't be too many survivors though. 08:00 hrs: Still not a cloud in the sky. Nobody trailing us though! 12:00 hrs: A little cloudy as we keep heading South. No sightings yet. 16:00 hrs: Clear again, no sightings still. Sinking the Edinberg was a major turning point, we are pretty well lost now. 20:00 hrs: Weather is still clear, heading to the south atlantic away from the shipping lanes to avoid detection. 00:00 hrs: Weather is still clear, heading southwest still slowly to conserve fuel. If this keeps up we'll never get to hit the shipping lanes. 04:00 hrs: weather getting worse, steaming parallel to convoy routes heading south 08:00 hrs: weather is a lot worse, heading towards convoy route 12:00 hrs: A major storm is about although we manage to get into position. They'll have to run right into us for us to find them. The Prinz splits off just a bit to cover more area. 16:00 hrs: Still in the middle of a storm here. 20:00 hrs: Storm is letting up just a little, dark out though so we still can't see a thing. 24:00 hrs: The weather is getting clearer...nothing to report 04:00 hrs: The weather is much nicer now. Could be bad could be good. 08:00 hrs: Not a cloud in the sky again! I can feel the British breating down my neck....They are very close 12:00 hrs: Weather still perfect... 16:00 hrs: Starting to cloud up a bit thankfully.. 24:00 hrs: In the dark of night the Prinz has found a convoy! Finally! We are close to packing up and going home. 08:00-12:00 hrs: To escape the charging british, we split up at high speed but still on the convoy routes in case we get lucky! The Prinz got away but we are sighted! I expect to be attacked by carrier planes. They should not be a problem though. We can take it. We are attacked by 5 biplanes! All miss by a wide margin. On the horizon we see a lone ship. Is the fleet? It appears to be just Cruiser! We handly sink the ship but we take some damage to Dora turret. It seems that the British are out of fuel and disengaging. They have probably stopped all convoys so we might as well head back to France. A successful mission!