Brief Encounters: USCG Modoc in the Bismarck Chase
When U-boats savaged Convoy HX-126, during 20-22 May 1941, two US Coast Guard vessels, including Modoc (WPG-46), a lightly armed twenty-year old Tampa-class cutter under the command of Lt. Cdr. H. G. Belford, USCG, sailed into the war zone to help rescue survivors. U-boats spotted Modoc 240 nautical miles southwest of Cape Farewell, Greenland, on 22nd.
On the 23rd, Prime Minister Winston Churchill warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen’s sortie and suggested that if the Royal Navy should fail to catch them on the way out, then the US Navy might “mark them down for us.” In fact, on that same day, battleship USS New York (BB-34) and three destroyers had weighed anchor and departed Newport, Rhode Island, heading to the waters south of the Denmark Strait. Meanwhile, Modoc continued its search for survivors into the 24th.
In the early evening on 24 May, on board Modoc, the sound of aircraft engines broke the silence. The sight of wheeled aircraft followed, i.e., torpedo-carrying wheeled aircraft. The lead plane passed down the cutter’s starboard side, flashing a recognition signal, which Modoc returned. Crew scrambled to display the large American flags flat on the deck. Eight Swordfish—of nine, as one had become temporarily separated—circled and headed to the northwest where, to the astonishment of the crew, a “large battleship” was now observed some six miles away.
Earlier in the day Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen had sunk the famous battlecruiser HMS Hood and damaged the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales. The German ships had separated, and Bismarck, also damaged, was heading rapidly west after its action with Prince of Wales. Heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk, which was tailing the battleship, had mistakenly directed the Swordfish to Modoc.
With a front row seat to the battle, Modoc signaled Bismarck, “What ship?” and identified itself. The German battleship didn’t reply. Nearly immediately the evening sky flashed with anti-aircraft fire, as No. 825 Squadron, flying Swordfish from HMS Victorious, approached. Bismarck opened fire with all guns, including the main and secondary batteries, which blasted the water in front of the attackers, hoping to ensnare the obsolete biplanes in a wall of water. Modoc, which was slow in good weather, ambled away.
In the event, one torpedo hit was achieved. All nine Swordfish returned to the carrier. A day later, German naval headquarters again took note of the presence of Modoc in Bismarck’s area of operation. On 27 May, the day Bismarck was sunk, President Roosevelt announced an unlimited national emergency, signaling an ever greater and more aggressive response to Germany’s war on commerce.