"Bismarck" was sunk three days later, after a concentrated effort by Britain's Royal Navy. At 23:30 (local time 19:30) on 24 May an attack was made by a small group of nine Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers of 825 Naval Air Squadron under the command of Eugene Esmonde from the aircraft carrier . One hit was scored, which killed "Oberbootsmann" Kurt Kirchberg, but caused only superficial damage to the "Bismarck"s armoured belt. In mid-morning at 10:30 on 26 May, a RAF Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from 209 Squadron RAF spotted "Bismarck" roughly west of Saint-Nazaire. The British battle group Force H, under the command of Admiral James Somerville, whose main units were the aircraft carrier , the First World War era battlecruiser and the cruiser , was ordered to stop "Bismarck". At 19:15 that evening, 15 Swordfish from "Ark Royal" launched an attack. The air raid alarm was sounded on "Bismarck" at 20:30. Roughly 15 minutes into the attack "Bismarck" was possibly hit by one torpedo, and at around 21:00 another single torpedo jammed "Bismarck"s rudder 12° to port. Damage-control parties laboured to regain steering control and uncoupled and centred the starboard rudder, but failed to free the port rudder. With asymmetric power applied, speed reduced to , "Bismarck" was on a converging course with the Royal Navy units on the chase. The alarm sounded again at 23:00 when destroyers of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla under the command of Captain Philip Vian attacked "Bismarck". Throughout the night "Bismarck" was targeted by incessant torpedo attacks by , , , , and , denying Lindemann and the crew much-needed rest.