Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement in the Second World War, which took place on 24 May 1941 between ships of the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine.The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood fought the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to attack Allied ...
After Bismarck had sunk HMS Hood during the Battle of the Denmark Strait (24 May), it culminated with the sinking of the Bismarck (27 May), while Prinz Eugen escaped to port in occupied France. From that point on, Germans would rely only on U-boats to wage the Battle of the Atlantic.
The battle-cruiser encountered Bismarck and engaged her at long range. Bismarck returned fire and destroyed Hood, killing all aboard except for Briggs and two others. [4] The Battle of the Denmark Strait and the loss of Hood were regarded by the British public as one of the greatest disasters to befall the Royal Navy during the war.
Its best-known constituent ship was HMS Hood, "The Mighty Hood", which was lost in the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941. Following the loss of HMS Repulse on 10 December 1941, Battlecruiser Squadron was disbanded. Its last surviving member, HMS Renown, survived World War II and was removed from service and scrapped in 1948.
The two ships destroyed the British battlecruiser Hood and moderately damaged the battleship Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Prinz Eugen was detached from Bismarck during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles.
A metal container holding administrative papers was discovered washed ashore on the Norwegian island of Senja in April 1942, almost a year after the Battle of the Denmark Strait. The container and its contents were subsequently lost, but its lid survived and was eventually presented to the Royal Navy shore establishment HMS Centurion in 1981.
At about 05:35, the German forces were sighted by the Hood and, shortly afterwards, the Germans sighted the British ships. In the ensuing Battle of the Denmark Strait the Hood suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion at 06:01 that broke the ship in half; the admiral and all but three of the crew of 1,418 were lost. [2]
He was commander of Hood for just three months, when he was killed at the Battle of the Denmark Strait, along with most of his crew, when Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck. He was posthumously mentioned in dispatches. [1] Kerr is commemorated on Portsmouth Naval Memorial. [2]