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The only two British aircraft carriers were carrying out duties elsewhere in the world and would take some time to return to help to stop the Bismarck.   However, Britain had the legendary HMS Hood.  ‘The Mighty Hood’ our champion.  

The Hood and the new HMS Prince of Wales were sent out from Scapa Flow in the Orkney Isles to sink the Bismark.

This situation was like a World Heavyweight Boxing Championship fight.  The British heavyweight champion against the German Heavyweight champion.  

When the Hood sighted the Bismarck in the Denmark Strait she turned and steamed strait towards her at top speed.  55,000 tons of steel crammed with 1420 British sailors, many of them Scots,  bulldozing its way through a stormy Atlantic at 57 km/hr.  The Prince of Wales followed in her wake.  Because of their positions the British battleships could only fire their forward main guns.  This meant that they were at a severe disadvantage.  Just as the Hood was turning to enable all of her main guns to bear on the Bismarck a sixteen inch (400 mm dia) from the Bismarck slammed through her deck armour and exploded inside the cordite store.  This was a rather lucky shot but caused the largest single explosion ever.  The Hood broke in two and sank immediately.  This caused a terrific loss of life as most of the crew were trapped below armoured decks.

Only 3 out of the 1420 men survived.

The British nation was shocked and appalled.

The call went out from the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Royal Navy to sink the Bismarck at any cost.

However that is another story.

Below on the left is shown a recreation of the Hood and the Prince of Wales about to battle with the Bismarck.  It shows the Hood’s main guns turning to bear on Bismarck as the great ship tries to turn broadside on.  This was just before the Hood was hit by the fatal shell.  The computer graphic was created by Thomas Schmid, a computer graphics designer.  However, to describe Thomas as a graphics designer is like describing Diego Maradona as a footballer.  Mr Schmid is probably the best in his field in the world.  His work is in great demand by film and documentary makers.

On the right is an attempt to recreate the CAD graphic through the use of pupils models and also photographic and CAD trickery.  Select to enlarge

1941- Britain had been at war with Germany for almost two years. Although the Battle of Britain had been won we were relying for survival on ships bringing food and supplies from America.   As Germany had invaded and conquered most of Europe these ships kept us going.  However, U-boats were taking a tremendous toll of our ships.  The German submarines were sinking them faster than we could build them.  If this rate of loss continued, Britain would start to starve and would have to surrender to Germany.

Adolf Hitler, Leader of Germany, decided that this was the time to unleash The Bismarck. The Bismarck was a recently completed brand new battleship.  The Bismarck was huge.  The largest battleship in the world.  The most technologically advanced ship in the world.  The German plan was to send this colossal ship into the Atlantic and cut off Britain’s lifeline by sinking any British ships that escaped the U-boats.  No ship could withstand its massive guns.

To survive the British had to stop the Bismarck from reaching the Atlantic.  How?