Bismarck Sinks: Germany's Mighty Battleship Lost at Sea

The most powerful battleship in the German Navy was sunk by the entire Royal Navy hunting it like a wounded animal. On May 27, 1941, British warships cornered the Bismarck in the North Atlantic and pounded her into wreckage after a three-day chase that had begun when the German battleship sank HMS Hood, the pride of the British fleet, with a single salvo. The Bismarck had sailed from Gdynia, Poland, on May 18, accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, on a mission to raid Allied shipping in the Atlantic. The Royal Navy scrambled to intercept. On May 24, in the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland, the Bismarck engaged HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales. A shell from Bismarck penetrated Hood's aft magazine, and the battlecruiser exploded and sank in three minutes. Of 1,418 crew, three survived. The sinking of Hood shocked Britain. Churchill ordered every available ship to hunt the Bismarck. The German battleship had been hit during the engagement and was leaking fuel, but she shook her pursuers and steered for the French port of Brest for repairs. A Catalina flying boat relocating her on May 26 set up the final act. Swordfish torpedo bombers from HMS Ark Royal launched an attack at dusk on May 26. One torpedo struck the Bismarck's rudder, jamming it and leaving the ship unable to steer. She circled helplessly through the night while British battleships closed in. On the morning of May 27, HMS King George V and HMS Rodney opened fire at close range, reducing the Bismarck to a burning hulk in 90 minutes. The Germans scuttled her. Of 2,200 crew, 114 survived. The chase consumed over 100 Allied vessels and aircraft across four days. It ended Germany's surface fleet threat in the Atlantic. Hitler, horrified by the loss, restricted his remaining capital ships to Norwegian fjords, effectively conceding the open ocean to the Royal Navy for the rest of the war.