After just three minutes of combat, HMS Hood explodes in the frigid North Atlantic, leaving only three survivors out of 1,418 sailors.
The culprit: a single German battleship on her first mission.
In London, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, face flushed with anger, gives one simple six-word order: ‘Sink the Bismarck at all costs.’
Within hours, the Royal Navy mobilizes its largest hunting force ever: six battleships, two aircraft carriers, thirteen cruisers, and twenty-one destroyers, all pursuing a single target.
At 50,000 tons, her eight 15-inch guns outrange any British pursuer. Her advanced radar spots aircraft before they can spot her, and her compartment design makes her virtually unsinkable.
Bismarck races toward the safety of occupied France, with the world’s largest navy on her heels.
But a small wound betrays the pride of the Kriegsmarine, a trail of oil follows her.
And the British planes are close behind.
Credit to : Dark Seas