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Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: Zathras on May 25, 2025, 01:12:45 AM

Title: On this day in 1940....
Post by: Zathras on May 25, 2025, 01:12:45 AM

The Battle of the Denmark Strait occured. The Royal Navy, with the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, battlecruiser and pride of the fleet HMS Hood and the heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Suffolk, engaged elements of the German Kriegsmarine consisting of the battleship Bismark and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the Demark Strait between Iceland and Greenland. The results of the battle resulted in a tactical victory for the Germans with the loss of HMS Hood due to the detonation of her after 15" magazine blowing her into two pieces and killing all but 3 of her 1443 officers and men.

https://youtu.be/oVWEb-At8yc?si=QGhH4hiyX2vkOInX

Title: Re: On this day in 1940....
Post by: SVPete on May 25, 2025, 08:23:20 AM

Another result was that hits from Prince of Wales basically mission-killed Bismarck and forced him to head toward France rather than out into the Atlantic for his commerce raiding mission. One of PoW's hits contaminated some of Bismarck's fuel oil, forcing the diversion. As big a symbol as HMS Hood was, the worse loss was her 1400+ experienced men.

Spoiler alert, Bismarck didn't make it to France, stabbed by swordfish, oiled by Rodnol, and ruled by King George V.