Under the cover of darkness on the morning of May 19, 1941, the German battleship Bismarck embarked on a maiden journey into the Baltic Sea. This most heavily armored fortress, with firepower previously unseen by any navy, was the first full battleship the German navy had built since World War I. This highly secretive mission, named Operation Rheinübung, was to destroy Allied convoys carrying vital supplies between the United States and Great Britain; this included the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen paired with Bismarck.
Knowing that Bismarck had broken into the Atlantic to prowl for prey, the British set a fleet to intercept the powerful warship. Among the pursuers were the newly commissioned battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the venerable HMS Hood, Britain’s largest battle cruiser and pride of the Royal Navy since its launch in 1918, considered a symbol of naval prowess.
At dawn on May 24, British ships engaged Bismarck in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland. Hood opened fire from 14 miles, but the reply from Bismarck was terrible. After a very short time of firing, one of Bismarck’s shells went through the deck of Hood and caused a catastrophic explosion, splitting the battle cruiser in two. Only three of the 1,421 crewmen of Hood survived, the largest loss of life by any single vessel of the Royal Navy.
Contrary to expectations, Bismarck did not get away scot-free. The ship had been damaged and started leaking oil. Admiral Gunther Lutjens ordered a retreat to Nazi-occupied France for repairs. British Admiral John Tovey wanting to settle the score brought the British Home Fleet into the chase to hunt down Bismarck before she could get to safety.
On May 26, while Bismarck approached within sight of the protective umbrella of the Luftwaffe, Tovey called in an attack from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. British Fairey Swordfish bombers launched a torpedo assault through stormy seas and initially mistook HMS Sheffield for their target. Fortunately, the torpedoes did not detonate, averting disaster. A second and more accurate attack followed, whereby those antiquated biplanes did manage to strike Bismarck’s rudders, crippling its steering and making it vulnerable.
Next morning, 27 May, three British warships closed in upon the crippled Bismarck. In a storming 90-minute bombardment, the heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire administered the final torpedoes, which sank Bismarck to the bottom of the ocean. Some 2,000 German sailors lost their lives in the sinking while only 110 survivors were pulled off the water before a U-Boat threat forced the British to retire.
The destruction of Bismarck less than ten days into its first cruise unequivocally revealed the strategic elan and determination that lay with the Royal Navy. More than anything else, it heralded a real sea change like naval warfare, one in which combined arms had come not just to support but to subsume, and in which British naval forces showed a staying power that would become legendary.
Recently, it was Britain’s Princess Anne who paid tributes with the unveiling of the bell recovered from the wreck of HMS Hood, now on display at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen said it was historic, as this bell would serve as a reminder of the sacrifices made by the men who served on Hood.