Battle of the Denmark Strait
Part of World War II
Bismarck firing at HMS Prince of Wales, shortly after the sinking of HMS Hood on the 24 May 1941.
Date May 24, 1941 Location Denmark Strait Result German victory
Combatants
Germany	United Kingdom
Commanders
Günther Lütjens	Lancelot Holland † John Leach
Strength
1 battleship 1 heavy cruiser	1 battleship 1 battlecruiser
Casualties
1 battleship damaged	1 battlecruiser sunk 1 battleship heavily damaged 1428 dead 9 wounded

The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a World War II naval conflict between ships of the British Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The German battleship Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. ... HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. ... Three ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Hood after members of the Hood family, which produced several notable Navy officers: HMS Hood (1859) - 91-gun second-rate ship of the line, launched as Edgar. ... is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... The Denmark Strait is a strait between Greenland and Iceland. ... Image File history File links War_Ensign_of_Germany_1938-1945. ... Image File history File links Naval_Ensign_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links War_Ensign_of_Germany_1938-1945. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... Image File history File links Naval_Ensign_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Lancelot Ernest Holland (September 13, 1887–May 24, 1941) was an admiral who commanded the British force in the Battle of Denmark Strait in May, 1941 against the German battleship Bismarck. ... Temporary grave of an American machine-gunner during the Battle of Normandy. ... Image File history File links Naval_Ensign_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... John Catterall Leach (d. ... Combatants Royal Navy Royal Canadian Navy United States Navy (1941–5) Kriegsmarine Regia Marina (1940–3) Commanders Sir Percy Noble Sir Max K. Horton Percy W. Nelles Leonard W. Murray Ernest J. King Erich Raeder Karl Dönitz Casualties 30,248 merchant sailors 3,500 merchant vessels 175 warships 28... Combatants Germany United Kingdom New Zealand Commanders Hans Langsdorff Henry Harwood Strength 1 heavy cruiser 1 heavy cruiser 2 light cruisers Casualties 1 heavy cruiser damaged 36 dead 60 wounded 1 heavy cruiser heavily damaged 2 light cruisers damaged 72 dead 28 wounded For other uses, see The Battle of... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... SC-7 was a World War II convoy of 35 merchant ships which sailed eastbound from Sydney, Nova Scotia for Liverpool, England and other British ports on October 4, 1940. ... HX-84 was a World War II convoy of 38 ships which sailed eastbound from Halifax, Nova Scotia for Liverpool, England on 28 October 1940. ... Convoy HX-106 consisted of some 41 ships, eastbound from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England. ... Operation Berlin was the commerce raid performed by German warships KM Scharnhorst and KM Gneisenau between January and March, 1941. ... Combatants Kriegsmarine Royal Navy Commanders Günther Lütjens† John Tovey Strength 1 battleship 2 aircraft carriers 3 battleships 4 cruisers 7 destroyers Casualties 1 battleship sunk 2,200 dead[1] 110 captured 1 destroyer sunk 1 battleship damaged 49 dead[2] The last battle of the German battleship Bismarck... Operation Cerberus (German: Zerberus after Cerberus the three-headed dog of Greek mythology who guards the gate to Hades) was the name given to the break-out during World War II of the Kriegsmarines ships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen and a number of smaller ships from Brest to their... The Battle of the St. ... The Laconia incident was a 1942 incident during World War II when RMS Laconia, carrying some 80 civilians and 268 British soldiers, and about 1800 Italian POWs with 160 Polish soldiers on guard, was struck by a torpedo from a German U-boat off the coast of West Africa and... PQ-17 was a World War II convoy carrying war materiel from Britain and the USA to the USSR. PQ-17 sailed in June-July 1942 and suffered the heaviest losses of any Russia-bound (PQ) convoy, with 25 vessels out of 36 lost to enemy action. ... Combatants United Kingdom Nazi Germany Commanders Rear-Admiral Robert L. Burnett Captain Robert St. ... Combatants Nazi Germany United Kingdom Commanders Erich Bey† Bruce Fraser Strength 1 battlecruiser 5 destroyers 1 battleship 1 heavy cruiser 3 light cruisers 9 destroyers Casualties 1 battlecruiser sunk 1 battleship lightly damaged 1 heavy cruiser lightly damaged 1 light cruiser lightly damaged 1 destroyer lightly damaged In the World... The second happy time was a phase in the Second Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping along the east coast of North America. ... // 1939 September September 3, 1939 German submarine sinks the SS Athenia. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ... The Kriegsmarine (or War Navy) was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi regime, superseding the Reichsmarine. ...

The British battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood fought the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, both of which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to destroy Allied merchant shipping. For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. ... [[Image:HMS Hood and HMS Barham. ... HMS Hood was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy. ... For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... The German battleship Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. ... HMS Raleigh a Hawkins class cruiser around which the treaty limits for Heavy cruisers were written. ... The German cruiser Prinz Eugen (pron. ... For other uses, see Atlantic (disambiguation) The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. ...

Less than ten minutes after the British opened fire, a shell from Bismarck struck Hood near her aft ammunition magazines. The Hood exploded and sank within three minutes with the loss of all but three of her crew.

Prince of Wales continued to exchange fire with Bismarck but suffered serious malfunctions in her main armament. This, combined with the effects of the battle, left most of her main guns unusable and she broke off the engagement.

Bismarck, damaged but still very much operational, declined to chase Prince of Wales and instead headed for the Atlantic along with Prinz Eugen.

Background

On May 18, 1941 the new Bismarck was prepared, after extensive trials, for her first voyage against enemy shipping. She was accompanied by Prinz Eugen, a new cruiser also on her first mission of the war; "Operation Rheinübung". Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz, each heavier than any battleship in the British fleet, were perhaps the strongest battleships in service at this time. is the 138th day of the year (139th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... It has been suggested that Bismarck Chase be merged into this article or section. ...

Admiral Lütjens, the German fleet commander, intended to break out into the Atlantic through the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland and attack Allied convoy traffic in the North Atlantic. The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... The Kriegsmarine (or War Navy) was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi regime, superseding the Reichsmarine. ... Commander is a military rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. ... The Denmark Strait is a strait between Greenland and Iceland. ... This article is about the independent states that comprised the Allies. ... A convoy is a group of vehicles traveling together for mutual support. ...

Earlier raids by German capital ships such as the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had done enough damage to cause the British to use some of their older battleships such as the Revenge class as convoy escorts. Although old and slow, these ships were well armed with 15 inch (381 mm) guns, more powerful than most of the guns of the German heavy cruisers and pocket battleships. The Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, though, could risk attacking a convoy escorted by one of these battleships: the Bismarck could engage and attempt to destroy the escorting battleship, leaving the Prinz Eugen to chase down and sink the fleeing merchant ships. The capital ships of a navy are its important warships; the ones with the heaviest firepower and armor. ... For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... Scharnhorst was a 31,500 tonne Gneisenau class battlecruiser of the German Kriegsmarine, named after the Prussian general and army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst and to commemorate the World War I armored cruiser SMS Scharnhorst. ... Gneisenau was a famous World War II 31,100 ton Gneisenau class battlecruiser[1] of the German Kriegsmarine. ... The Revenge-class battleships were five battleships of the Royal Navy, ordered as World War I loomed on the horizon, and launched in 1914–1916. ... A convoy is a group of vehicles traveling together for mutual support. ... The USS Port Royal (CG-73), a Ticonderoga class cruiser. ...

The two ships were expected to try to break westward through the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap. Royal Navy ships and aircraft were watching their likely route. On the evening of May 23, 1941 they were spotted by the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk, patrolling the Denmark Strait under the command of Rear-Admiral Wake-Walker. The GIUK gap is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean. ... A list of aircraft used by the British Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. ... is the 143rd day of the year (144th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... HMS Raleigh a Hawkins class cruiser around which the treaty limits for Heavy cruisers were written. ... A long absence of a Norfolk in the Royal Navy was finally ended in the commissioning of County-class heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk (78), which displaced 10,035 tons. ... HMS Suffolk (55) was the Kent class cruiser for the Royal Navy. ... The Denmark Strait is a strait between Greenland and Iceland. ... Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank that originated from the days of Naval Sailing Squadrons and can trace its origins to the Royal Navy. ...

With the help of the Suffolk's newly-installed radar set, the cruisers shadowed the German ships through the night, reporting on their movements. The next morning the German ships were intercepted in the Strait between Iceland and Greenland by a force of British ships. These were the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood, along with a destroyer screen under the command of Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland on the Hood. The history of radar began in the 1900s when engineers invented reflection devices. ... Vice Admiral is a naval rank of three star level, equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. ... Lancelot Ernest Holland (September 13, 1887–May 24, 1941) was an admiral who commanded the British force in the Battle of Denmark Strait in May, 1941 against the German battleship Bismarck. ...

Prince of Wales was a newly commissioned King George V class battleship, of much the same size and power as Bismarck. She had not yet been properly "shaken down," and her crew was green. She still had mechanical problems, especially with her main armament, and had sailed with shipyard workers still aboard working on her. When Bismarck and Prinz Eugen first sighted her in the Denmark Strait, they identified her as King George V, as they believed Prince of Wales could not yet have put to sea. One of the KGV battleships, HMS Prince of Wales (1941) This article is about the 1939 class. ...

Hood, from her commissioning in 1918, for 20 years had been the largest warship afloat. Between the wars, more than any other ship she had represented British naval power in the eyes of Britain and the world. But her armour was less comprehensive than a battleship's. She had been designed in 1916, and then hastily and incompletely redesigned while still under construction, after three similarly designed British battlecruisers exploded in the Battle of Jutland that same year. Even so, Hood's firepower, 15 inch (381 mm) guns, were the equivalent of any battleship afloat, and she had been partially modernised in many areas over the years. She was a much more powerful cruiser than Prinz Eugen. Combatants Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy High Seas Fleet of the Kaiserliche Marine Commanders Sir John Jellicoe Sir David Beatty Reinhard Scheer Franz von Hipper Strength 28 battleships 9 battlecruisers 8 heavy cruisers 26 light cruisers 78 destroyers 1 minelayer 1 seaplane carrier 16 battleships 5 battlecruisers 6 pre...

Far away to the south-east, Admiral Holland's superior, Admiral Sir John Tovey debated whether to order Admiral Holland to allow Prince of Wales ahead of Hood. In this position, the better-protected Prince of Wales would draw the enemy's fire. He decided not to give this order, claiming, "I did not feel such interference with such a senior officer justified." ^[1] Sir John Tovey (March 7, 1885-January 12, 1971) was a British Royal Navy admiral during World War II. This article is a stub. ...

Plan gone awry

The last image of Hood as a fighting unit, taken from Prince of Wales en route to intercept Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.

Holland's battle plan was to have Hood and Prince of Wales engage Bismarck while Suffolk and Norfolk engaged Prinz Eugen (which, Holland assumed, still steamed behind Bismarck and not ahead of it). However, Holland did not radio his intentions to Wake-Walker for fear of disclosing his location. Instead, he observed radio silence. Holland hoped to meet the enemy at approximately 0200. Sunset in this latitude was at 0151. Bismarck and Prinz Eugen would be silhouetted against the sun's afterglow while Hood and Prince of Wales could approach rapidly, unseen in darkness, to a range close enough not to endanger Hood with plunging fire from Bismarck. The Germans would not expect an attack from this quarter, giving the British the advantage of surprise. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

This plan's success depended on Suffolk's continually unbroken contact with the German ships. Suffolk lost contact, however, beginning at 0028. For an hour and a half Holland neither sighted the enemy nor received any further news from Norfolk or Suffolk. Reluctantly, he ordered Hood and Prince of Wales to turn south-south-west while the destroyers would continue searching to the north.

Before contact was reestablished, the two squadrons missed each other by a hairsbreadth. Had the German ships not altered course to the west at 0141 to follow the line of the Greenland icepack, the British would have intercepted them much earlier than they did. The British destroyers were just 10 miles to the south-east when the Germans made this course change. Had visibility not been reduced to between three and five miles, the German ships would likely have been spotted. ^[2]

Just before 0300, Suffolk regained contact with Bismarck. Hood and Prince of Wales were 35 miles away, slightly ahead of the Germans. Holland signaled to steer toward the Germans and increased speed to 28 knots. Suffolk's loss of contact had placed the British at a disadvantage. Instead of the swiftly closing head-on approach Holland had envisioned, he would have to converge at a wider angle, much more slowly. This would leave Hood vulnerable to Bismarck's plunging shells for a much longer period. The situation worsened further when, at 0320, Suffolk reported that the Germans had made a further course alteration to the west, placing the German and British squadrons almost abeam of each other.

At 0535, lookouts on the Prince of Wales spotted the German ships, 28 kilometres (17 miles) away. The Germans, already alerted to the British presence through their hydrophonic equipment, picked up the smoke and masts of the British ships 10 minutes later. Holland at this point had the option of joining Suffolk in shadowing Bismarck and waiting for Tovey to arrive with King George V and other ships to attack or to order his squadron into action, which he did at 0537. ^[3] The rough seas in the Strait kept the destroyers' role to a minimum. The cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk would be too far behind the German force to reach the battle. A hydrophone is a sound-to-electricity transducer for use in water or other liquids, analogous to a microphone for air. ...

The battle begins

Hood opened fire at 0552 at a distance of approximately 26,500 yards (24,200 m), about 13 nautical miles (24 km). Holland had ordered firing on the lead ship, Prinz Eugen, believing from its position that she was Bismarck. Holland soon amended his order and directed both ships to engage the rear ship, Bismarck. Prince of Wales had already correctly targeted Bismarck, whereas Hood is believed to have continued to target Prinz Eugen for some time.

Holland ordered his ships to close with the enemy. Since Hood's deck armour was weak in places, Holland wanted to reduce the range as quickly as possible, since at a shorter range the trajectory of Bismarck's shells would be flatter and they would be more likely to hit the sides of the ship rather than the decking, or to glance off the top deck. However, by closing the range at the angle at which his ships faced the enemy, he could use only 10 of his capital ships' 18 heavy guns, yet he presented the Germans more at which to aim than necessary. Those 10 guns became nine when a defect in one of Prince of Wales' forward guns rendered it inoperative after the first salvo.

Also, while the British fire was divided between two targets, all the German fire was concentrated on Hood. Had Norfolk and Suffolk been ordered to close on Bismarck and worry her from the rear, that might have distracted the German ship enough to draw fire from the after turrets toward them. This might have been one possibility Holland had considered. Orders sent to Bismarck's after fire control room to keep an eye on the two cruisers show that Lütjens expected such a move. Since Holland had failed to give such an order to Wake-Walker, this opportunity was lost.

The Germans also had the weather gauge, meaning the British ships were steaming into the wind, spray drenching the lenses of the forward turrets' two-foot rangefinders. This necessitated using smaller rangefinders in the control towers instead. In addition, Admiral Holland had Prince of Wales stay close to Hood, conforming to Hood's movements instead of varying course and speed. This made it easier for the Germans to find the range to the British ships, as well as harder for the British ships to observe each other's fall of shot. The weather gage (less commonly weather gauge) is the favorable position of a sailing vessel relative to the wind. ...

Prince of Wales struck her target first. She would ultimately hit Bismarck three times. One shot struck the commander's boat and put the seaplane catapult amidships out of action. The second shell passed through the bow from one side to another. The third struck the hull underwater. These last two caused minor damage and flooding. More importantly, the damage to the bow cut access to the forward fuel tanks' 1,000 tons of fuel oil. It also caused Bismarck to trail a visible oil slick.

Lutjens held fire until 0555, when both German ships targeted Hood. A shell hit Hood's boat deck, starting a sizable fire in the ready-use 4 inch ammunition stored there, but this fire did not spread to other areas of the ship or cause the later explosion. Although unconfirmed, it is possible that Hood was struck again at the base of her bridge and in her foretop radar director.

Sinking of the Hood

At 0600, Holland ordered his force to turn once again to port to ensure that the after main guns on both Hood and Prince of Wales could bear on the enemy. During the execution of that turn, a salvo from Bismarck was seen by men from Prince of Wales to straddle Hood abreast her mainmast. It is believed that at least one 380 mm (15 inch) shell struck somewhere between the mainmast and "X" turret astern of it. Hood was hit amidships by at least one shell from Bismarck at a distance of about 9 miles (14 km).

This was immediately followed by a huge pillar of flame that shot upward like a giant blowtorch, in the vicinity of the mainmast. This was followed by an explosion that destroyed a large portion of the ship from amidships clear to the rear of "Y" turret. The ship broke into two. The stern broke away and sank. The bow, pointed upward and pivoting about, followed shortly thereafter. Splinters rained down on the Prince of Wales half a mile away. The Hood sank in about three minutes, taking 1,415 men, including Vice-Admiral Holland, with her. Only three of her crew (Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas) survived to be rescued two hours later by the destroyer Electra. Albert Edward Pryke Briggs, MBE, (born 1 March 1923), is a British seaman and the last survivor of the tragic destruction of the battlecruiser HMS Hood during combat against the German battlecruiser Bismarck. ... HMS Electra, which carried the pennant number H27, was launched on 15 February 1934 at the Hawthorne Leslie shipyard at Hebburn, Tyneside. ...

A sketch prepared by Captain JC Leach (commanding HMS Prince of Wales) for the 2nd Board of Enquiry, 1941. The sketch represents the column of smoke or flame that erupted from the vicinity of the mainmast immediately before a huge detonation which obliterated from view the after part of the ship. This phenomenon is believed to have been the result of a cordite fire venting through the engine-room ventilators (see article).

The British Admiralty later concluded that the most likely explanation for the loss of the Hood was a penetration of her magazines by a single 380 mm shell from Bismarck, causing the subsequent catastrophic explosion. Recent research by submersible craft suggests that the initial explosion was in the after 4-inch magazine and that it spread to the 15-inch magazines via the ammunition trunks. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... John Catterall Leach (d. ... Magazine is the name for a item or place within which ammunition is stored. ...

It has been suggested from examination of the wreckage, found in 2001, that the magazine explosion in the 4-inch armament near the mainmast caused the vertical blast of flame seen there, and this in turn ignited the magazines of the aft 15 inch (381 mm) guns that caused the explosion that wrecked the stern. This explosion might have traveled through the starboard fuel tanks, igniting the fuel oil there, setting off the forward magazines and completing the destruction of the ship. While this is possible, it is also possible that the forward magazines did not blow up. The forward part of the ship might have been damaged by hydrodynamic forces during the sinking.^{[citation needed]}

Prince of Wales alone

Prince of Wales found herself steering towards the sinking Hood. Her commanding officer, Captain John C. Leach, ordered an emergency avoidance turn away from Hood's wreckage. This violent change of course disrupted her aim and put her in a position that made it easier for the Germans to target her. She resumed her previous course, but was now under the concentrated fire of both German ships.

Prince of Wales was struck four times by Bismarck and three times by Prinz Eugen. One shell passed through her upper superstructure, killing or wounding several crewmen in the Compass Platform and Air Defense Platform. Pieces of another shell struck her radar office aft killing crewmen within. A 203 mm shell from Prinz Eugen found its way to the propelling charge/round manipulation chamber below the aft 5.25" gun turrets, and a 380 mm shell from Bismarck hit underwater below the armour belt, and penetrated about 13 ft (4 m) into the ship's hull, about 25 ft (8 m) below the waterline, but was stopped by the armoured, anti-torpedo, bulkhead. Fortunately for Prince of Wales, neither shell exploded, but she still suffered minor flooding and the loss of some fuel oil. Contrary to some mistaken opinion, the 380 mm shell that struck Prince of Wales below the waterline did not endanger her magazines, as it came to rest abreast an auxiliary machinery room.^[4]

By this time, serious gunnery malfunctions had put most of the main guns out of action. Captain Leach realized that continuing the action would risk losing Prince of Wales without inflicting further damage on the enemy. He therefore ordered the ship to make smoke and withdraw. Prince of Wales turned away just after 0604, firing from her rear turret under local control until the turret's shell ring jammed, making the guns inoperable. The salvos were ragged and are believed to have fallen short. She retired from the battle around 0610. Thirteen of her crew were killed, nine wounded.^[5] The timing of Prince of Wales' withdrawal was fortuitous, as she had come into torpedo range of Prinz Eugen and turned away as the German cruiser was about to fire. ^[6] Lütjens broke off combat instead of pursuing Prince of Wales.

Between 0619 and 0625, Suffolk fired six salvoes in the direction of Bismarck, having mistaken for Bismarck a radar range coming in from an aircraft. She was actually out of gun range of both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen at the time.^[7]

Aftermath

Prince of Wales and the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk continued to shadow the German ships, but they slipped away from their pursuers. Shortly afterwards, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen separated and escaped into the Atlantic.

The Captain of Suffolk remains on the bridge for lunch whilst shadowing the Bismarck

The damage to Bismarck's forward fuel tanks, combined with a missed opportunity to refuel at Bergen earlier in the voyage, left less than 3,000 tons of fuel remaining, not enough to operate effectively against the Atlantic convoys. Bismarck headed for Saint-Nazaire for repairs. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Saint-Nazaire is also a commune of the Gard département of France. ...

Prinz Eugen, undamaged, went further south into the Atlantic where she refueled from a tanker at sea. She suffered engine troubles, abandoned her commerce raiding mission without having sunk any merchant ships, and returned to Brest. Brest is a city in Brittany, or the Bretagne région, north-west France, sous-préfecture of the Finistère département. ...

The British public were shocked that their most emblematic warship and more than 1,400 of her crew had been destroyed so suddenly. The Admiralty mobilised every available warship in the Atlantic to hunt down and destroy the Bismarck. The Royal Navy forces pursued and brought Bismarck to battle and the German battleship sank on the morning of the 27 May. Combatants Kriegsmarine Royal Navy Commanders Günther Lütjens† John Tovey Strength 1 battleship 2 aircraft carriers 3 battleships 4 cruisers 7 destroyers Casualties 1 battleship sunk 2,200 dead[1] 110 captured 1 destroyer sunk 1 battleship damaged 49 dead[2] The last battle of the German battleship Bismarck... is the 147th day of the year (148th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Later, moves were made to court-martial Prince of Wales's captain, John Leach, and Frederick Wake-Walker, the Admiral commanding Suffolk and Norfolk. The view was taken that they were wrong not to have continued the battle with Bismarck after Hood had sunk. John Tovey, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, was appalled at this criticism. A row ensued between Tovey and his superior, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound. Tovey stated that the two officers had acted correctly, not endangering their ships needlessly and ensuring that the German ships were tracked. Furthermore, Prince of Wales's main guns had repeatedly malfunctioned and she could not have matched the Bismarck. Tovey threatened to resign his position and appear at any court-martial as 'defendant's friend' and defense witness. No more was heard of the proposal. John Cronyn Tovey, Baron Tovey of Langton Matravers, G.C.B., K.B.E., D.S.O., D.C.L. (March 7, 1885-January 12, 1971) was a British Royal Navy admiral. ... The Home Fleet is the traditional name of the fleet of the Royal Navy that protects the United Kingdoms territorial waters. ... Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound GCB GCVO RN (August 29, 1877 - October 21, 1943) was a British naval officer who served as First Sea Lord, professional head of the Royal Navy from June 1939 to September 1943. ...

A British board of enquiry quickly investigated the cause of Hood's explosion and produced a report. After criticism that the initial enquiry did not record all the available evidence, a second board of enquiry more extensively investigated Hood's loss, and examined the vulnerabilities of other large British warships still in service in light of the probable causes of the explosion. It, like the first enquiry, concluded that a 380 mm shell from Bismarck caused the explosion of Hood's aft ammunition magazines. This led to refitting some older British warships with increased protection for their ammunition magazines and some other related improvements.

Discussion

Intensely private, Lütjens never explained his orders to not pursue the Prince of Wales. Technically, he was adhering to Grand Admiral Raeder's orders not to engage unnecessarily against enemy capital ships but to instead find and attack merchant convoys. He also had already received damage reports on Bismarck taking on water and leaking fuel from the bow. Nevertheless, since the British knew Bismarck's position and had been shadowing her for some time, Lütjens could realistically have considered his mission compromised. Sinking Prince of Wales would have allowed him to keep Bismarck on its present course, back along the way he had come, to safety in Norway 1000 miles away. ^[8] On the other hand, Lütjens did not know the position of the British Fleet and the fear to direct his damaged ship right into the enemy fleet may have been the reason he decided to try to escape, which he nearly did achieve.

Bibliography

• Simon Adams, World War II. Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-78946-990-1
• Dewar, A.D. Admiralty report BR 1736: The Chase and Sinking of the “Bismarck”. Naval Staff History (Second World War) Battle Summary No. 5, March 1950. Reproduced in facsimile in Grove, Eric (ed.), German Capital Ships and Raiders in World War II. Volume I: From “Graf Spee” to “Bismarck”, 1939-1941. Frank Cass Publishers 2002. ISBN 0-71465-208-3
• Garzke and Dulin Battleships, USNI, 1980. ISBN 0-87021-100-5
• Ludovic Kennedy Pursuit: The Chase and Sinking of the "Bismarck", Cassell Military Paperbacks, 2004. ISBN 0-30435-526-7.
• Storia Militare, La battaglia dello Stretto di Danimarca, 2005
• B.B. Schofield Loss of the Bismarck, Ian Allen Ltd. 1972.
• VE Tarrant, King George V Class Battleships, Arms and Armour Press, 1991. ISBN 1-85409-524-2.

References

See also

• Rheinübung Sortie of the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen

In World War II, Operation Rheinübung (Rhine Exercise) was the sortie by the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, which left Gdynia, Poland on 12 May 1941. ...

External links

• HMS Hood Association: Battle of the Denmark Strait Documentation Resource
• The Battleship Bismarck
• The Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen