Denmark Strait

1. Lead

The Battle of the Denmark Strait was fought on the morning of 24 May 1941, and it lasted less than twenty minutes. In that brief, violent action, the German battleship Bismarck — the most powerful warship Germany had ever built — sank the British battlecruiser HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy and the largest warship in the world, with the loss of 1,415 of her 1,418 men. The Hood blew up and sank in three minutes, and only three men survived. The German cruiser Prinz Eugen and the battleship Bismarck then fought the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales, damaging her and driving her off, before disappearing into the Atlantic. The battle was one of the shortest and most shocking naval actions of the Second World War, and it changed the course of the war at sea: the sinking of the Hood was a national trauma in Britain, and the hunt for the Bismarck that followed became one of the great pursuits in naval history.

The battle was the climax of Operation Rheinübung — Exercise Rhine — the German plan to send the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen into the Atlantic to attack British convoys. The British, who had learned of the sortie from their intelligence, sent the Hood and the Prince of Wales to intercept the German ships in the Denmark Strait, the narrow passage between Greenland and Iceland through which the Germans had to pass to reach the Atlantic. The two forces met at dawn, in poor visibility, and the battle was decided by gunnery: the Germans, who had the better fire control and the better luck, hit the Hood early, and the Hood — an old ship, built for a different kind of war — could not survive the hit. The Prince of Wales, a new battleship that was still working up, fought on alone, was damaged, and withdrew. The Germans had won the battle, but they had lost the campaign: the Bismarck, damaged in the action, was hunted down and sunk three days later.

The Denmark Strait is remembered, above all, for the Hood. The ship was more than a warship: she was a symbol of British sea power, the largest and most famous warship in the world, and her loss was felt as a national bereavement. The three survivors — Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas — became famous, and the wreck of the Hood, found on the seabed in 2001, is a war grave. The battle is also remembered for the questions it raised: why was the Hood, an old ship with thin deck armour, sent against the Bismarck? Why did the British fire control fail? And why did the Prince of Wales, with her new guns, not do more damage? The answers to those questions are still debated, and the debate is a measure of how much the battle still matters.

2. Key Facts

Date	24 May 1941
Location	Denmark Strait, between Greenland and Iceland
Result	German tactical victory; HMS Hood sunk; HMS Prince of Wales damaged and withdrawn
British commanders	Vice Adm. Lancelot Holland (in Hood, killed); Capt. John Leach (Prince of Wales); Rear Adm. Frederic Wake-Walker (Norfolk and Suffolk)
German commanders	Adm. Günther Lütjens (fleet commander, in Bismarck); Capt. Ernst Lindemann (Bismarck); Capt. Helmuth Brinkmann (Prinz Eugen)
British strength	Battlecruiser Hood; battleship Prince of Wales; cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk (shadowing)
German strength	Battleship Bismarck; heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen
British losses	Hood sunk: 1,415 killed, 3 survivors; Prince of Wales damaged: 13 killed, 9 wounded
German losses	Bismarck damaged (oil leak, reduced speed); Prinz Eugen undamaged

3. Background

Operation Rheinübung

Operation Rheinübung — Exercise Rhine — was the German plan to break out into the Atlantic and attack British convoys. The plan was simple: the new battleship Bismarck, the most powerful warship Germany had built, and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, would sail from Norway, pass through the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland, and then attack the convoys that carried Britain’s food, fuel and supplies from North America. The operation was commanded by Admiral Günther Lütjens, a capable officer who had already led a successful Atlantic sortie with the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The Bismarck was a new ship, commissioned in August 1940, and she was the pride of the German navy: 50,000 tons, eight 15-inch guns, and armour that made her, on paper, a match for any British battleship. The Prinz Eugen was a new heavy cruiser, fast and well armed, and she was the Bismarck‘s consort.

The Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen

The Bismarck was the largest warship Germany had ever built, and she was the centrepiece of the German navy’s plans for the Atlantic war. She was 251 metres long, displaced more than 50,000 tons at full load, and carried eight 15-inch guns in four turrets, twelve 5.9-inch guns, and a heavy anti-aircraft armament. Her armour was thick — up to 320 millimetres on the belt — and her speed was 30 knots. She was, in every respect, a first-class battleship, and the British, who had followed her construction with alarm, regarded her as the greatest threat to their convoys since the U-boat. The Prinz Eugen, her consort, was a heavy cruiser of 14,500 tons, with eight 8-inch guns and a speed of 32 knots. Together, the two ships were a formidable force, and the British were determined to stop them before they reached the Atlantic. The two ships sailed together, and they were hunted together, and the Royal Navy, which had ruled the seas for two centuries, was determined that neither of them would reach the Atlantic.

The British Response

The British learned of the German sortie from their intelligence, and they reacted with speed. The Home Fleet, under Admiral John Tovey, was ordered to sea, and the battlecruiser Hood and the new battleship Prince of Wales, under Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland, were sent to intercept the German ships in the Denmark Strait. The Hood was the pride of the Royal Navy: a battlecruiser of 42,000 tons, built during the First World War, with eight 15-inch guns and a speed of 31 knots. She was the largest warship in the world, and she was the symbol of British sea power. But she was also an old ship, built for a different kind of war, and her deck armour — the armour that protected her against shells falling from above — was thin. The Prince of Wales was a new battleship, commissioned in March 1941, with ten 14-inch guns, but she was still working up: her guns had teething troubles, her crew was inexperienced, and she had civilian workmen aboard, finishing her construction.

The Hood: Pride and Vulnerability

The Hood was the most famous warship in the world, and her vulnerability was well known to the men who served in her. She had been built as a battlecruiser — a ship designed to be fast and heavily armed, at the cost of armour — and her deck armour was only 76 millimetres thick, far thinner than the armour of a modern battleship. The Hood had been scheduled for a refit that would have thickened her deck armour, but the refit had been postponed, again and again, because the ship was needed at sea. The men who served in her knew the risk, and they accepted it: the Hood was the pride of the navy, and no one believed she would be sent against a ship like the Bismarck without support. But in May 1941, with the Bismarck at sea and the Prince of Wales still working up, the Hood was the best ship the British had, and she was sent. The decision to send her was a gamble, and the gamble failed.

4. Opposing Forces

The British Force

The British force that met the Germans in the Denmark Strait consisted of the battlecruiser Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales, under Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland, with the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk shadowing the German ships from a distance. The Hood, with her eight 15-inch guns, was the more powerful ship on paper, but she was old and vulnerable. The Prince of Wales, with her ten 14-inch guns, was new and powerful, but her guns were unreliable and her crew was inexperienced. The two ships together had eighteen heavy guns, against the Bismarck‘s eight 15-inch guns and the Prinz Eugen‘s eight 8-inch guns, and the British believed they had the advantage. The cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk, which had been shadowing the German ships since they were detected, were too lightly armed to take part in the battle, and they watched from a distance, reporting the German position by radio.

Holland’s Plan

Vice Admiral Holland’s plan was to close the range quickly, to reduce the danger from plunging fire — the shells that fall from above, against which the Hood‘s thin deck armour was vulnerable. He therefore steered his ships directly towards the Germans, on a course that would bring them to close range as quickly as possible. The plan had a cost: by steering directly at the Germans, Holland could only fire his forward guns, and the Hood and the Prince of Wales could not bring their full broadsides to bear. The Germans, by contrast, could fire their full broadsides, and they did. Holland’s plan was a gamble: he believed that closing the range quickly was worth the loss of firepower, because it would protect the Hood from plunging fire. The gamble failed, because the Germans hit the Hood before the range had closed, and the hit that sank her was a plunging shell, of exactly the kind Holland had feared.

The German Force

The German force consisted of the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, under the overall command of Admiral Günther Lütjens, who flew his flag in the Bismarck. The Bismarck, under Captain Ernst Lindemann, was the more powerful ship, with eight 15-inch guns and thick armour, and she was the ship the British feared. The Prinz Eugen, under Captain Helmuth Brinkmann, was a fast, well-armed cruiser, with eight 8-inch guns, and she was the Bismarck‘s consort. The two ships had sailed from Norway on 18 May, had been detected by British reconnaissance, and had been shadowed by the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk since 23 May. Lütjens, who knew he was being shadowed, had orders to avoid battle if possible and to break out into the Atlantic, but when the British force appeared on the morning of 24 May, he had no choice but to fight.

Lütjens and Lindemann

The German command was divided between two men who did not agree. Admiral Lütjens, the fleet commander, was a cautious officer who had orders to avoid battle and to attack convoys, and he did not want to fight the British battlecruisers. Captain Lindemann, the captain of the Bismarck, was a fighting officer who believed the Bismarck could defeat any British ship, and he wanted to fight. The disagreement came to a head on the morning of 24 May, when the British ships appeared: Lütjens hesitated, and Lindemann, according to some accounts, gave the order to fire without waiting for Lütjens’ permission. The Bismarck opened fire, and the battle began. The disagreement between Lütjens and Lindemann is a reminder that the German navy, like the British, was a human institution, with its own rivalries and its own tensions, and that the battle was fought by men, not by machines. The disagreement between the two men was never resolved, because both of them died in the battle that followed, and the question of who was right — Lütjens, who wanted to break off, or Lindemann, who wanted to fight — died with them.

	Britain	Germany
Battleships	Prince of Wales (10 × 14-inch guns)	Bismarck (8 × 15-inch guns)
Battlecruisers	Hood (8 × 15-inch guns)	—
Cruisers	Norfolk, Suffolk (shadowing)	Prinz Eugen (8 × 8-inch guns)
Displacement	Hood 42,000 tons; Prince of Wales 35,000 tons	Bismarck 50,000 tons; Prinz Eugen 14,500 tons
Speed	Hood 31 knots; Prince of Wales 28 knots	Bismarck 30 knots; Prinz Eugen 32 knots
Armour	Hood: thin deck armour (76 mm)	Bismarck: belt up to 320 mm

5. The Battle

The Approach

The two forces met at dawn on 24 May 1941, in the Denmark Strait, in poor visibility. The British ships, under Holland, were steering towards the Germans, on a course that would bring them to close range quickly, while the German ships, under Lütjens, were steering south, towards the Atlantic. The British opened fire first, at about 05:52, at a range of about 25,000 yards, and the Germans replied within minutes. The British fire was inaccurate: the Hood‘s shells fell short, and the Prince of Wales‘s guns malfunctioned, with several of her turrets failing to fire. The German fire, by contrast, was accurate from the start: the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen, with their better fire control, found the range quickly, and their shells began to fall around the British ships. The battle was decided in the first few minutes, by the accuracy of the German gunnery and the inaccuracy of the British.

The First Salvos

The first salvos of the battle are a study in the difference between the two navies. The British ships, steering directly at the Germans, could only fire their forward guns, and their fire control, which depended on rangefinders that were affected by the spray and the poor visibility, could not find the range. The Prince of Wales, in particular, suffered from gun failures: her new 14-inch guns, which had never been fired in action, jammed and misfired, and at one point only three of her ten guns were firing. The German ships, by contrast, had better fire control, better rangefinders, and crews that had trained together for months. The Prinz Eugen found the range first, and her shells straddled the Hood, and then the Bismarck found the range, and her shells began to hit. The first German hits were on the Hood, and they started a fire on her boat deck, which the British could see from the Prince of Wales.

The Loss of the Hood

At about 06:00, eight minutes into the battle, the Bismarck fired a salvo that changed naval history. One of the Bismarck‘s 15-inch shells — it is not certain which one, and the exact course of the shell is still debated — struck the Hood near her mainmast, penetrated her thin deck armour, and exploded in one of her after magazines, where the cordite propellant for her 15-inch guns was stored. The explosion was catastrophic: the Hood blew up, breaking in two, and sank in three minutes. Of her crew of 1,418 men, only three survived: Ordinary Seaman Ted Briggs, Able Seaman Bob Tilburn and Midshipman Bill Dundas, who were picked up by the destroyer HMS Electra two hours later. The Hood‘s captain, and Vice Admiral Holland, went down with the ship, and the pride of the Royal Navy was gone. The Prince of Wales, which had been fighting alongside the Hood, saw the explosion and turned away, her crew in shock.

Three Minutes / Ba phút

The Hood sank in three minutes, and the speed of her loss is part of the horror of the battle. The men who survived — Briggs, Tilburn and Dundas — described the explosion as a great sheet of flame, followed by the ship breaking in two, the bow rising and the stern sinking, and then nothing but the sea. The men who were below decks had no chance: the explosion killed them where they stood, and the ship sank so fast that there was no time to launch the boats or to abandon ship in an orderly way. The three survivors were on the upper deck, near the stern, and they were thrown into the water by the explosion. They swam to a raft, and they were picked up two hours later, cold, oil-covered and in shock. The loss of the Hood in three minutes, with 1,415 men, was the greatest single loss of life in a naval action in the Second World War to that point, and it was a loss that Britain felt as a national bereavement.

The Prince of Wales Fights On

After the Hood sank, the Prince of Wales fought on alone. Her captain, John Leach, turned the ship to bring her full broadside to bear, and her guns, despite their malfunctions, scored hits on the Bismarck: three 14-inch shells struck the German battleship, one of them piercing her bow and causing an oil leak, and another flooding a boiler room. The hits were significant: the oil leak left a trail that the British could follow, and the flooding reduced the Bismarck‘s speed. But the Prince of Wales was herself hit: the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen concentrated their fire on her, and she was struck seven times, with 13 men killed and 9 wounded. Her bridge was hit, her guns continued to malfunction, and at about 06:13, Captain Leach, judging that his ship could not win the battle alone, turned away and withdrew, under cover of a smoke screen. The battle was over, and the Germans had won it.

The Decision to Withdraw

Captain Leach’s decision to withdraw has been debated ever since, and it is worth understanding why he made it. The Prince of Wales was alone, her guns were malfunctioning, her bridge had been hit, and she was facing two German ships, one of which had just sunk the Hood in three minutes. Leach believed, correctly, that his ship could not win the battle, and that staying would only risk the loss of a second capital ship. He also knew that the Bismarck had been damaged, and that the British forces — the Home Fleet, under Tovey, and the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk — were converging on the German ships. His decision was criticised at the time, and he was questioned by a board of inquiry, but he was exonerated: the board found that he had made the right decision, and that the Prince of Wales had done her duty. Leach was later killed in action, when the Prince of Wales was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Malaya in December 1941.

6. Turning Point

The Hit That Sank the Hood

The turning point of the battle was a single shell, fired by the Bismarck at about 06:00, which struck the Hood near her mainmast and exploded in her after magazine. The shell’s exact course is still debated: some historians believe it penetrated the thin deck armour and exploded in the magazine, while others believe it struck below the waterline and exploded in the engine room, and that the explosion spread to the magazine. The debate matters, because it determines whether the Hood was sunk by a weakness in her design — the thin deck armour — or by bad luck. What is not in dispute is that the hit was fatal, that it was the result of accurate German gunnery, and that it decided the battle in a single moment. The Hood, which had been the pride of the Royal Navy for twenty years, was gone in three minutes, and the battle was over.

Deck Armour and Plunging Fire

The debate about the Hood‘s loss is, at its heart, a debate about armour and about the changing nature of naval warfare. The Hood was built as a battlecruiser, in an age when battles were fought at close range, with flat-trajectory fire, and her armour was designed for that kind of battle. By 1941, battles were fought at long range, with shells that fell from above, and the Hood‘s thin deck armour — 76 millimetres — was not enough to stop them. The Bismarck‘s shells, fired from 25,000 yards, fell at a steep angle, and they penetrated the deck and exploded below. The Hood‘s loss was, in this sense, the result of a ship built for one kind of war fighting another kind, and it was a warning to every navy in the world: that deck armour mattered, and that the battlecruiser, as a type, was obsolete. The British learned the lesson, and they never built another battlecruiser.

The Damage to the Bismarck

The second turning point was the damage the Prince of Wales inflicted on the Bismarck, and it was the damage that decided the campaign, even though it did not decide the battle. The three 14-inch hits on the Bismarck — one in the bow, causing an oil leak, and one in a boiler room, causing flooding — reduced the Bismarck‘s speed and left a trail of oil that the British could follow. Lütjens, who had wanted to break out into the Atlantic and attack the convoys, was forced to change his plans: the Bismarck needed repairs, and the nearest friendly port was in occupied France, at Brest. Lütjens therefore turned south, towards France, and the British, who had been hunting the Bismarck since she sailed, closed in. Three days later, on 27 May 1941, the Bismarck was caught by the Home Fleet and sunk, with the loss of more than 2,000 men. The damage inflicted by the Prince of Wales in the Denmark Strait was the beginning of the end for the Bismarck.

The Hunt for the Bismarck

The hunt for the Bismarck is one of the great stories of the Second World War, and it began in the Denmark Strait. After the battle, the British threw every available ship and aircraft into the pursuit: the Home Fleet, under Tovey, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, the battleships King George V and Rodney, and the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk, which had shadowed the German ships throughout. The Bismarck, leaking oil and slowed by the flooding, was tracked by her oil trail and by British reconnaissance aircraft, and on 26 May she was found by a Catalina flying boat and attacked by Swordfish torpedo bombers from the Ark Royal. A torpedo hit jammed her rudder, leaving her unable to steer, and on the morning of 27 May the British battleships caught her and sank her. Of her crew of more than 2,200 men, only 114 survived. The sinking of the Bismarck was the Royal Navy’s revenge for the Hood, and it was the end of Germany’s attempt to challenge British sea power with surface warships.

7. Casualties and Losses

British Losses

The British losses in the Denmark Strait were dominated by the Hood: 1,415 men killed and 3 survivors, out of a crew of 1,418. The Prince of Wales lost 13 men killed and 9 wounded, and the ship herself was damaged, though she remained seaworthy and fought again. The total British loss was 1,428 men killed, and it was the greatest single loss of life in a naval action in the Second World War to that point. The loss was felt across Britain: the Hood had been the pride of the navy, and her crew had included men from every part of the country. The three survivors — Briggs, Tilburn and Dundas — were the only men who lived to tell the story, and their accounts are the principal source for what happened in the Hood‘s last minutes. The British losses in the Denmark Strait were avenged three days later, when the Bismarck was sunk with the loss of more than 2,000 men, but the revenge did not bring back the Hood or her crew.

The Three Survivors

The three survivors of the Hood — Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas — became famous, and their stories are the human heart of the battle. Briggs, an ordinary seaman, was on the compass platform when the explosion happened, and he was thrown into the water by the blast. Tilburn, an able seaman, was on the upper deck, and he swam to a raft. Dundas, a midshipman, was the youngest of the three, and he was the last to be picked up. The three men were rescued by the destroyer HMS Electra, two hours after the sinking, and they were the only men who lived to describe the Hood‘s last minutes. Briggs, who lived until 2008, became the president of the HMS Hood Association, and he spent his life telling the story of the ship and her crew. The three survivors are remembered as the men who carried the memory of 1,415 dead shipmates, and their testimony is the reason we know what happened on the morning of 24 May 1941.

German Losses

The German losses in the Denmark Strait itself were light: the Bismarck was damaged, with an oil leak and flooding in a boiler room, and the Prinz Eugen was undamaged. No German sailors were killed in the battle itself, though the Bismarck‘s damage would prove fatal three days later. The Bismarck was sunk on 27 May 1941, with the loss of more than 2,000 men, and only 114 survived. The Prinz Eugen, which had been detached from the Bismarck on 25 May to continue the operation alone, survived the war: she was surrendered to the Americans in 1945, used in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946, and sank there in December 1946. The German losses in the Denmark Strait were, in the short term, negligible, but the battle cost Germany her most powerful battleship, and with it, her hopes of challenging British sea power with surface ships.

The Bismarck’s End

The Bismarck‘s end, three days after the Denmark Strait, was the direct consequence of the damage she suffered in the battle. The oil leak left a trail that the British followed, the flooding reduced her speed, and the torpedo hit on 26 May jammed her rudder, leaving her unable to steer and circling in the Atlantic. On the morning of 27 May, the British battleships King George V and Rodney, with the cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire, caught her and opened fire. The Bismarck fought back, but she could not manoeuvre, and her guns were silenced one by one. She sank at about 10:40, with her flag still flying, and more than 2,000 men went down with her. The British, who had lost the Hood three days before, had their revenge, and the German navy never again sent a battleship into the Atlantic. The Bismarck sank with her flag flying, and her crew went down with her, and the British, who had lost the Hood, had their revenge — but the revenge cost them the Hood, and the Hood was never replaced.

	Britain	Germany
Killed	Hood: 1,415; Prince of Wales: 13	None in the battle itself; Bismarck sunk 27 May: more than 2,000 killed
Survivors	Hood: 3	Bismarck: 114 (of more than 2,200)
Ships lost	Hood sunk	Bismarck sunk 27 May 1941
Ships damaged	Prince of Wales: 7 hits	Bismarck: oil leak, flooding

8. Map and Geography

The Denmark Strait

The Denmark Strait is the passage between Greenland and Iceland, about 300 kilometres wide, through which the cold waters of the Arctic flow south into the Atlantic. The strait is one of the two main routes from the Norwegian Sea into the Atlantic — the other is the gap between Iceland and the Faroe Islands — and it was the route the Germans had to take to break out into the Atlantic. The strait is a place of bad weather: fog, ice, high seas and poor visibility are common, and the battle on 24 May 1941 was fought in mist and in a heavy swell. The strait’s geography shaped the battle: the narrowness of the passage meant that the British knew where the Germans had to go, and the bad weather meant that the battle was fought at close range, in poor visibility, where gunnery was difficult and luck mattered. The Denmark Strait is a cold, grey, inhospitable place, and it was the setting for one of the most dramatic naval actions of the war.

Greenland, Iceland and the Atlantic Gap

The Denmark Strait is part of a larger geographical problem: the GIUK gap — the gap between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom — through which German ships and submarines had to pass to reach the Atlantic. The British controlled the gap, with ships, aircraft and bases in Iceland and in Scotland, and the Germans had to run it to attack the convoys. The Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen ran the gap on 23–24 May 1941, and they were detected by the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk, which shadowed them through the strait. The geography of the gap meant that the Germans could not break out into the Atlantic without being detected, and the British, who knew the geography as well as the Germans, were waiting for them. The Denmark Strait was the narrowest part of the gap, and it was the place where the two navies met. The gap between Greenland and Iceland was the door to the Atlantic, and the British guarded it with ships, with aircraft and with radar, and the Germans, who had to pass through it, were caught there again and again.

The North Atlantic

The North Atlantic, into which the Bismarck was trying to break out, was the most important theatre of the war at sea. The convoys that crossed the Atlantic carried Britain’s food, fuel and supplies, and the Germans, with their U-boats and their surface raiders, were trying to cut that lifeline. The Bismarck was the most powerful surface raider Germany had, and her breakout into the Atlantic would have been a disaster for the convoys. The British, who understood the stakes, threw everything they had into stopping her: the Home Fleet, the aircraft carriers, the cruisers and the battleships. The Denmark Strait was the door to the Atlantic, and the battle there was fought to decide whether the door would open or stay shut. The door stayed shut: the Bismarck never reached the convoys, and she was sunk three days later, 600 kilometres west of Brest.

The Convoys at Stake

The convoys that the Bismarck was sent to attack were the lifeline of Britain, and their importance cannot be overstated. In 1941, Britain imported most of its food and all of its oil, and the convoys that crossed the Atlantic were the only way to bring them in. The U-boats had already sunk millions of tons of shipping, and the addition of a battleship like the Bismarck to the Atlantic would have made the situation far worse: a single battleship could destroy a whole convoy in a day, and the British had no ships fast enough to catch her and no ships powerful enough to sink her, except the Hood and the Prince of Wales. The Denmark Strait was therefore not only a naval battle but a battle for Britain’s survival, and the men who fought it knew it. The Hood was sent to the Denmark Strait because there was no one else to send, and the Bismarck was sunk three days later because the British understood what was at stake.

9. Outcome and Legacy of the Denmark Strait

The End of the Surface Raider

The sinking of the Bismarck on 27 May 1941, three days after the Denmark Strait, was the end of Germany’s attempt to challenge British sea power with surface warships. After the Bismarck, the Germans never again sent a battleship into the Atlantic: the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau were kept in port, the Tirpitz — the Bismarck‘s sister ship — was kept in Norway as a “fleet in being”, a threat that tied down British ships without ever fighting, and the German navy turned to the U-boat as its main weapon. The Denmark Strait was therefore a turning point in the war at sea: it proved that the battleship, as a commerce raider, was too vulnerable to be used, and that the future of naval warfare lay with the submarine and the aircraft carrier. The Bismarck was the last German battleship to fight in the Atlantic, and her loss was the end of an era.

The Tirpitz and the Fleet in Being

The Tirpitz, the Bismarck‘s sister ship, spent the war in Norway, and her story is the epilogue to the Denmark Strait. The Germans, having lost the Bismarck, did not dare to send the Tirpitz into the Atlantic, and they kept her in the Norwegian fjords, where she tied down British battleships, carriers and aircraft that might otherwise have been used elsewhere. The British, who feared the Tirpitz as they had feared the Bismarck, attacked her repeatedly — with midget submarines, with bombers, with carrier aircraft — and they finally sank her in November 1944, in a raid by Lancaster bombers. The Tirpitz never fired her guns in anger at a British warship, and her career was a testament to the power of a threat: a ship that never fought tied down a fleet. The Denmark Strait had taught the Germans that a battleship in the Atlantic was a target, and the Tirpitz was the proof that they had learned the lesson.

The Memory of the Hood

The Hood is remembered in Britain as the greatest loss of the war at sea, and her memory is kept alive by the HMS Hood Association, by the memorials, and by the wreck itself. The wreck of the Hood was found on the seabed in 2001, by the American explorer David Mearns, and it lies in 2,800 metres of water, a war grave that is protected by law. The bell of the Hood was recovered in 2012 and is now displayed in the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, where it is rung every year on 24 May, in memory of the 1,415 men who died. The Hood is also remembered in the debate about her loss: the question of whether she was sunk by a weakness in her design or by bad luck is still argued, and the wreck, which has been surveyed in detail, has provided evidence for both sides. The Hood‘s legacy is a simple one: she was the pride of the navy, and her loss was the price of sending an old ship against a new one.

The Wreck and the Bell

The recovery of the Hood‘s bell in 2012 was a moment of national significance in Britain, and it was the culmination of a decade of work by the HMS Hood Association and by David Mearns, the explorer who had found the wreck. The bell, which had been on the Hood‘s bridge, was recovered from the seabed and conserved, and it was unveiled in Portsmouth in 2016, in a ceremony attended by the families of the men who had died. The bell is rung every year on 24 May, and it is a reminder of the 1,415 men who went down with the ship. The wreck itself, which lies in two main pieces on the seabed, has been surveyed by remotely operated vehicles, and the surveys have shown that the Hood broke in two, as the survivors described, and that the damage was consistent with an explosion in the after magazine. The wreck is a war grave, and it is protected: no one may disturb it, and the men who died there are left in peace.

10. Commanders

The British Commanders

Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland (Britain). Commander of the British force in the Denmark Strait, flying his flag in the Hood. Holland was a capable officer who had commanded the 2nd Battle Squadron and who had been chosen for the Denmark Strait operation because of his experience. His plan — to close the range quickly, to protect the Hood from plunging fire — was sound in theory, but it failed in practice, because the Germans hit the Hood before the range had closed. Holland went down with the Hood, and he is remembered as the admiral who lost the pride of the navy in three minutes.

Captain John Leach (Britain). Captain of the Prince of Wales and the man who fought on after the Hood sank. Leach’s decision to withdraw, after his ship had been damaged and her guns had malfunctioned, was criticised at the time and vindicated afterwards. He was later killed in action, when the Prince of Wales was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Malaya on 10 December 1941, and he went down with his ship, as Holland had done. Leach is remembered as a captain who did his duty in an impossible situation.

Admiral John Tovey (Britain). Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet and the man who directed the hunt for the Bismarck. Tovey, from his flagship King George V, coordinated the pursuit, and he was the man who, on 27 May, caught the Bismarck and sank her. Tovey’s leadership of the hunt was a model of naval command, and he is remembered as the admiral who avenged the Hood.

Holland: The Admiral Who Lost the Hood

Holland’s reputation has been debated ever since the battle, and the debate is a measure of how much the Hood‘s loss mattered. His critics have said that he should not have closed the range so quickly, that he should have waited for the Home Fleet, and that he should not have sent the Hood against the Bismarck without support. His defenders have said that he had no choice: the Bismarck was at sea, the Hood was the best ship available, and the order was to intercept her. The truth is that Holland was a capable officer in an impossible position, and that the Hood‘s loss was the result of a ship built for one kind of war fighting another, not of a failure of command. Holland went down with his ship, and his death, like the deaths of the 1,415 men with him, was the price of a decision made by others, in London, to send an old ship against a new one.

The German Commanders

Admiral Günther Lütjens (Germany). Commander of the German force in the Denmark Strait, flying his flag in the Bismarck. Lütjens was a capable officer who had led a successful Atlantic sortie in 1941, and he was chosen to command Operation Rheinübung because of his experience. He did not want to fight the British battlecruisers, and he hesitated on the morning of 24 May, but when the battle came, he fought it. He went down with the Bismarck on 27 May, and he is remembered as the admiral who won the Denmark Strait and lost the Bismarck three days later.

Captain Ernst Lindemann (Germany). Captain of the Bismarck and the man who, according to some accounts, gave the order to fire without waiting for Lütjens’ permission. Lindemann was a fighting officer who believed in his ship, and he commanded her through the Denmark Strait and through the hunt that followed. He went down with the Bismarck on 27 May, and he is remembered as the captain of the most famous German warship of the war.

Captain Helmuth Brinkmann (Germany). Captain of the Prinz Eugen and the man who fought alongside the Bismarck in the Denmark Strait. Brinkmann’s ship was undamaged in the battle, and she was detached on 25 May to continue the operation alone. Brinkmann survived the war, and he later served in the post-war German navy. His Prinz Eugen was the only major German warship to survive the war intact, and she was surrendered to the Americans in 1945.

Lütjens: Victory and Defeat

Lütjens’ career is a study in the difference between winning a battle and winning a campaign. In the Denmark Strait, he won the battle: his ships sank the Hood, damaged the Prince of Wales, and broke out into the Atlantic. But the victory cost him the campaign: the Bismarck was damaged, the oil leak gave the British a trail to follow, and three days later the Bismarck was sunk. Lütjens, who had wanted to avoid battle and to attack the convoys, was forced by the battle to change his plans, and the change led to his death and to the loss of his flagship. His story is a reminder that in war, a tactical victory can be a strategic defeat, and that the battle that is won can be the battle that loses the war. Lütjens won the Denmark Strait, and he lost everything else. Lütjens won the battle and lost the war in a single morning, and his story is the story of the German navy in the Second World War: brilliant in battle, and doomed by the strategy that sent it there.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the Battle of the Denmark Strait?
On the morning of 24 May 1941. The battle lasted less than twenty minutes, and HMS Hood sank at about 06:00, eight minutes after the firing began.

How many men died on HMS Hood?
1,415 of her crew of 1,418 were killed. Only three men survived: Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas, who were picked up by the destroyer HMS Electra two hours later.

Why did HMS Hood sink so quickly?
A shell from Bismarck penetrated Hood’s thin deck armour and exploded in one of her after magazines, where the cordite propellant was stored. The explosion broke the ship in two, and she sank in three minutes. The exact course of the shell is still debated.

What happened to Bismarck after the battle?
She was damaged by Prince of Wales, with an oil leak and flooding, and she was hunted down by the Royal Navy and sunk on 27 May 1941, three days later, with the loss of more than 2,000 men. Only 114 of her crew survived.

Why was Hood sent against Bismarck?
Because she was the best ship the British had available in May 1941. The Prince of Wales was still working up, and the Home Fleet’s other battleships were elsewhere. Hood was old and vulnerable, but she was the pride of the navy, and no one believed she would be lost in three minutes.

Where is the wreck of HMS Hood?
On the seabed of the Denmark Strait, in about 2,800 metres of water. It was found in 2001 by the explorer David Mearns, and it is a protected war grave. The ship’s bell was recovered in 2012 and is displayed in Portsmouth.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Battle of the Denmark Strait” — dates, strength, casualty figures (1,415 killed on Hood, 3 survivors), commanders and the course of the battle.
2. Ludovic Kennedy, Pursuit: The Sinking of the Bismarck (Collins, 1974) — the classic account of the Denmark Strait and the hunt for the Bismarck.
3. Encyclopædia Britannica, “Battle of the Denmark Strait” — background, the battle and its outcome.
4. Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea (Random House, 2003) — the battlecruiser, the Hood and the lessons of Jutland.
5. David Mearns, The Search for the Hood (unpublished survey reports, 2001) — the discovery of the wreck and the evidence for how the Hood sank.
6. HMS Hood Association, “The Loss of HMS Hood” — the three survivors, the bell, and the memorials.

Further reading

• John Roberts, The Battlecruiser Hood (Conway, 1982).
• Angus Konstam, Hunt the Bismarck (Osprey, 2015).