Bismarck sinks HMS Hood

24th May 1941: One of just three survivors from the 'Mighty Hood', pride of the Royal Navy, describes her final minutes

“When I reached the surface, 50 yards [50 metres] away, I saw her bows, vertical out of the water. That image would haunt me in nightmares for the next 40 years. When I swam clear of the ship, seconds later, I turned back, she was gone”. Painting by J.C. Schmitz-Westerholt, depicting Hood’s loss during her engagement with the German battleship Bismarck on 24th May 1941. HMS Prince of Wales is in the foreground.

HMS Hood in 1937: the ‘Mighty Hood’, pride of the Royal Navy, had cruised the world flying the flag for the might of the British Empire.

The Royal Navy cruisers HMS Suffolk and Norfolk had been shadowing the Bismarck and Prince Eugen since they had sighted her heading south through the Denmark Strait at 1922 on the 23rd. The two cruisers had kept their distance and hidden in the fog while tracking her on radar. This was a world first in the use of ship-borne radar, and it confounded the Kriegsmarine's expectations that Bismarck would be able to either outfight or outrun any warship that it encountered. The cruisers did not have the firepower to take on Bismarck, but they enabled two of the most powerful ships in the Royal Navy to find her.

One of the last images of HMS Hood, taken on her last patrol on 22nd May 1941.

HMS Prince of Wales shortly after she was commissioned, lowering a Supermarine Walrus flying boat over her side.

The relatively old battlecruiser HMS Hood and the very new battleship HMS Prince of Wales now intercepted the German ships as they emerged from the gap between Greenland and Iceland. The Battle of the Denmark Strait began with the first sighting at 0535, the Hood opened fire at 0553. It was all over in a matter of minutes.

The crew of HMS Hood that had celebrated the New Year together now faced mortal danger.