Later the German submarine U-74 rescued three more sailors. The next day, the German weather ship Sachsenwald rescued two more. Out of her total complement of more than 2200 men, there were 115 survivors (originally 116 were saved but Gerhard Lüttich died due to his wounds on board Dorsetshire on 28. May 1941).

On 30 May 1941, the Dorsetshire landed her Bismarck survivors at Newcastle and the Maori landed hers at a base on the river Clyde. From there, the survivors went to London for interrogation, and they were then sent to sit out the war in prisoner of war camps in Canada.

British reports based on the interrogation of the Bismarck survivors states that the inexperiences and youth of the majority of the survivors precluded much reliable information being obtained. Most of the survivors had only knowledge of their own part of the ship and prisoners emphasised that neither officers nor men received more information that was required for the performance of their own particular duties.

It was evident, from interrogations, that much information had been purposely withheld from the ship's company. Also the extensive sub-division of the ship into watertight compartments hindered an exchange of information which might had become common knowledge.

The Bismarck's crew had, from time to time, received instructions on security and they had been carefully prompted as to what their attitude should be as prisoners of war. The effect of this instruction was more apparent in the case of the senior ratings who were naturally possessed of more detailed knowledge. All prisoners were most reticent about matters which they considered, or had been told to consider, as secret.

Through their propaganda, the surviors had been given to understand that they would be fired at whilst helpless in the water after abandoning ship and they were accordingly much impressed when they found that this was not the case and, in fact, that they were afforded every consideration in the rescuing ships.

It was generally agreed, by the survivors, that the Bismarck had an exceptionally young and inexperienced ship's company. For many of the men the Bismarck was their first ship, which they had joined after doing a few months naval training. Survivors, on the whole, disliked serving in a battleship, stating that they would have felt more independent in a smaller ship. Many had been in the "Hitlerjugend" (Hitler Youth Organizastion) and had then had civil occupations such as: miner, farmer laborer, clerk, barber, plumber, cook, electrician, mechanic and so on and had been drawn from all parts of Germany and some from Austria and Czechoslovakia.

The Petty Officers were of a good type physically and of good intelligence but the younger men were poorly developed both mentally and physically, and those who had been stationed below decks appeared to have suffered from lack of fresh air. The survivors stated that there was noticeable friction between petty officers and men, whcih resulted in a lack of harmony which, in part, may also have been due to the activities of Party Agents.

Kapitänleutnant Gerhard Junack stated that it would be of importance for him and Kapitänleutnant Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg to return to Germany in order to report their experiences, not on account of any breakdown due to faulty construction, but to stress the failures resulting from lack of training and experience of the ship's company.

The survivors criticised their officers, stating that some of them were "peculiar" and others lazy, the Divisional Officers taking little interest in their men. It was even said that one officer was an idiot.