15. The sinking of the German battleship Bismarck and Britain’s HMS Hood
In May, 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sailed on its only wartime mission, bound for the Atlantic shipping lanes to raid Allied convoys. In the Denmark Strait, the battleship and its consort, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, encountered the new British battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood, which was at the time the largest and most powerful warship of the Royal Navy. In foul weather and limited visibility, Bismarck sank Hood in a short gun duel, the latter ship going down with the loss of all but three of her crew. Prince of Wales was badly damaged and forced to break off the fight. The Royal Navy mustered all of its available forces to track down and sink the German battleship.
On May 27, damaged by aircraft launched torpedoes and unable to steer, Bismarck was trapped by two British battleships, with supporting cruisers and destroyers in the vicinity. The German ship was battered into a flaming wreck before the Germans began to abandon the ship. Torpedoes from the cruiser Dorsetshire were launched into the ship as a coup de grace. The ship sank in an inaccurately reported position, with the British announcing they had sunk the vessel. Survivors from Bismarck claimed they had scuttled the ship when it could no longer fight back. The truth could not be verified, because for decades the sunken ship could not be found.
