On May 24, 1941, Germany’s largest battleship, the Bismarck,
sunk the pride of the British fleet, HMS Hood.
The Bismarck was the most modern of Germany’s battleships,
a prize coveted by other nation’s navies, even while still in the
blueprint stage (Hitler handed over a copy of its blueprints to
Joseph Stalin as a concession during the days of the Hitler-
Stalin neutrality pact).
The HMS Hood, originally launched in 1918, was Britain’s largest
battle cruiser (41,200 tons)-but also capable of achieving the
relatively fast speed of 31 knots. The two met in the North
Atlantic, northeast of Iceland, where two British cruisers had
tracked down the Bismarck.
Commanded by Admiral Gunther Lutjens, commander in chief
of the German Fleet, the Bismarck sunk the Hood, resulting in
the death of 1,500 of its crew; only three Brits survived.
