Lewis Gilbert's dramatic re-telling of the Allied mission in the spring of 1941 to find and destroy Germany's largest battleship, the Bismarck. The story is told from two angles; the ships involved and 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 and his son is missing in action, and 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 and up-dated special effects.