Tovey's best known achievement in this period was orchestrating the pursuit and destruction of the "Bismarck". He had insisted on being a "sea-going" admiral, despite pressure from above and the disadvantages of being away from command centres. He believed that this was one element in maintaining morale in the fleet, by sharing the privations and dangers of his men. The final action against the "Bismarck" added further weight to his decision. When the two British battleships HMS "Rodney" and "King George V" located "Bismarck", they had the setting sun silhouetting them while "Bismarck" remained in the evening gloom. Tovey observed this and, to the surprise of his staff, ordered that the final action be delayed until the following morning. In so doing, he ensured that the benefits of the light would be reversed to the British advantage and that the German crews would be fatigued by constant harassment by Vian's destroyers. The risk was that "Bismarck" would, somehow, escape but Tovey accepted this. Tovey was made a KBE "... for distinguished services in the masterly and determined action in which the German Battleship Bismarck was destroyed."