Lewis Gilbert's dramatic re-telling of the Allied mission in the spring of 1941 to find & destroy Germany's largest battleship, the Bismarck. The story is told from two angles; the ships involved & the war-room in London where Captain John Shepherd (Kenneth More) plots the manouevres using models of the ships. Shepherd has an emotional reason for wanting the battleship sunk, his wife was recently killed in a German raid on London & his son is missing in action, & struggles to keep his emotions in line whilst making decisions that affect hundreds of lives. The final scenes are a mixture of newsreel of the battle & up-dated special effects.