Around 8 p.m. the Bismarck task force left the Korsfjord and headed out to sea. Controversially, Admiral Guenther Luetjens decided to leave before the Bismarck's fuel tanks had been topped off.
Just a few hours later, at 12:15 a.m. on May 22, Vice Adm. Lancelot Holland (great name) left Scapa Flow with the HMS Hood and the HMS Prince of Wales. This was a much quicker reaction than German planning had assumed.
At 2 a.m. British aircraft attacked Grimstadfjord, but the Bismarck group had departed six hours earlier.
And early the next morning, at 4:20 a.m. the German destroyers escorting the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen dropped away, returning to Norway.
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