The Hunt for the Bismarck
The pride of the German navy sank a battleship and slipped into the Atlantic then the world's navies hunted it without rest until it went down.
WOW Score
The battleship Bismarck and cruiser Prinz Eugen sortied into the Atlantic to raid Allied shipping. In the Denmark Strait, Bismarck sank the pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, in minutes.
Damaged and pursued, Bismarck tried to reach occupied France. A Swordfish torpedo from the carrier Ark Royal jammed its rudder, robbing it of maneuver.
On May 27, British battleships closed in and battered the crippled giant. Bismarck sank with most of her crew, ending the threat she posed.
"A single shell crippled its steering, and the great ship became a sitting target. The hunt ended in a storm of shells and torpedoes."
Bismarck's sinking removed the most serious surface threat to Allied Atlantic convoys and demonstrated the reach of carrier-based air power. It marked the end of the German battleship raider strategy.
The Full Story
The Hood's Destruction
The loss of the Hood, a symbol of British sea power, shocked the public and turned the pursuit of Bismarck into a national mission.
The Rudder Strike
Obsolete-looking biplane torpedo bombers delivered the decisive blow. The jamming of Bismarck's steering doomed her to circle helplessly.
The End of the Raiders
After Bismarck, Germany largely abandoned surface raiding and turned to U-boat warfare, but the legend of the great ship endured.