This video is sponsored by World of Warships Download the game for free using the link in the description below and use the promotional code to propel your start. It's late spring of the year 1940. Following the rapid overwhelming of France and Low Countries (which gained Germany an unchallenged position in continental Europe) Hitler now attempts to knock the last major power in Europe out of the war. Yet the ensuing battle for domination over British skies proved the valour of the Royal Air Force pilots and capability of British industry, resulting in a first major defeat for the German war machine. Independent from these air operations above the English Channel and British soil, the German Kriegsmarine challenged the mighty power of the Royal Navy over its long-standing hegemony at sea. This daunting task was of vital importance to the Germans, as Great Britain (though a global power) being an island nation was heavily dependent on imported goods and raw materials. Thousands of commerce vessels crossed the Atlantic every month helping to keep the British economy running and both directly and indirectly supporting its war effort. Of course the Germans were fully aware of this vulnerability and since the war broke out in 1939 one of the main tasks of the considerably weaker, but rapidly expanding Kriegsmarine was to undermine British sea commerce and thus hinder its military industry and economic potential. This spanning sea campaign, known today as the Battle of the Atlantic, lasted for nearly six years and had a crucial impact on the war in Europe. It is to this backdrop that our story unfolds. It is the 21st March of 1941, two German battleships – the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sail back to the port of Brest following their moderately successful sixty day long raid on Allied trading lanes. This action served two purposes: The tying down of a significant portion of the British Home Fleet with the presence of German capital ships loose on the Northern Atlantic. And also to serve as support for a small, yet deathly effective u-boat fleet which at the time was highly successful performing its mission to hunt down Allied merchant convoys crossing the Atlantic. The German Naval Command under Grand Admiral Erich Raeder was pleased with the results of the sortie, which either captured or destroyed 22 ships and immediately decided to carry out yet another commerce raid, but this time utilizing all four modern German battleships. Such force operating on the Atlantic could pose a formidable threat not only to allied commerce convoys but even for the British Royal Navy. But this plan, dubbed "Operation Rheinübung" faced certain difficulties from the onset. Both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were out of action for at least several months due to engine and torpedo damage respectively, while the newest battleship – the Tirpitz was still undergoing crew training. This meant that the only fully operational capital ship at the time was the pride of the German Navy and leading ship of her class – the Bismarck. Grand Admiral Raeder was determined to have his capital ships raiding the Atlantic convoys as soon as possible, because he wanted to avoid the expected cuts on the naval budget in light of the upcoming German invasion of the Soviet Union, where the Kriegsmarine wouldn't play any significant role. He opposed the idea of opening the Eastern Front, believing that it was United Kingdom which posed the greater threat to German hegemony in Europe. Regardless, preparations for the Bismarck's sortie into the Atlantic began. The only other serviceable ship with enough endurance for such a mission was the Prinz Eugen, an Admiral Hipper class heavy cruiser, which was subsequently added to the Bismarck's task force. Raeder appointed trustworthy admiral Gunther Lütjens to take command of "Operation Rheinübung" who soon raised his flag on the Bismarck. Raeder wanted to begin the operation in late April, during a new moon period and with favourable low-visibility conditions. However, due to a couple of issues with the Prinz Eugen, both ships remained in port until the middle of May. Worth mentioning is that Lütjens tried to change Raeder's mind regarding the upcoming sortie and he advised Raeder to wait until at least one of the three unavailable capital ships could join the Bismarck's mission. Lütjens, more than anyone else, was aware of the danger the sortie could spark as he had commanded Scharnhorst and Gneisenau's successful Atlantic raid months earlier. Yet Raeder was unable to yield to Lütjens’ wishes and he instead convinced Lütjens of the necessity of the presence of German capital ships on the Atlantic, even if it meant just one battleship would be involved in this operation. Late in the evening of the 18th of May, Prinz Eugen departed Gotenhafen and five hours later was followed by the Bismarck. Both ships rendezvoused in the Western Baltic, and, with the assistance of three destroyers, they steamed through the Great Belt heading to the Norwegian Sea. Yet Lütjens’ operation didn’t remain unnoticed for too long. While passing through Kattegat, the German battle group was sighted by a Swedish seaplane cruiser. A day later, while refuelling in a fjord near Bergen, was sighted by a British reconnaissance Spitfire. Lütjens expected that the British could already know that the Bismarck was off port, but the German air reconnaissance reports that he received on the 22nd of May stated that the Royal Navy ships were still anchored in Scapa Flow naval base in the Orkneys. This information possibly dispelled Lütjens doubts and he led both ships to the Denmark Strait, hoping that worsening weather would help the German ships to break out into the Atlantic unseen. In the evening of the 23rd of May, they reached the ice limit and set course along Greenland’s coast. Though the Denmark strait was officially 200 nautical miles wide, in late spring it was still considerably obstructed by pack ice, which basically halved its effective width. Soon, despite bad weather and low visibility, the German battle group encountered the HMS Suffolk, a British heavy cruiser equipped with a new type of radar that was tracking them. She soon took cover in the fog, but it was clear for Lütjens that their operation was no longer a secret and that the intelligence reports of a few days earlier were false. An hour later the Bismarck spotted another heavy cruiser to its port side – the HMS Norfolk – and Lütjens gave the command to open fire immediately. Five salvos were fired, but none of them scored a direct hit. Despite this, the Norfolk was unable to fight on equal terms with the much stronger warship, so she set a smokescreen and retreated into the fog. Still, thanks to the Suffolk’s radar, the British cruisers were able to trace the German group. Lütjens was informed that the Bismarck’s radar was malfunctioning due to the force of the blasts from her own powerful artillery. As a result, he ordered the Prinz Eugen to take the lead. At this point, he could have tried to turn back and retreat to the Norwegian Sea, but, being encouraged by the bad weather, he decided to continue the mission and steam south west, hoping to shake off the British cruisers during the night. Lütjens anticipated that the Royal Navy’s capital ships were either too far away to intercept his task force or were still anchoring in Scapa Flow. It was a risky, but still viable, plan. Unfortunately, the bad news was still coming. Six hours later, at dawn, Prinz Eugen’s hydrophones detected the propeller noises of two ships on her port side. Lütjens expected another two British cruisers, but as these warships got closer, he realised from the size of their superstructures that heavier units were about to challenge him. Vice-admiral Lancelot Holland was approaching the German battle group with a force consisting of two capital ships in the lead: the mighty battlecruiser HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy and a brand new battleship, the HMS Prince of Wales. The reason behind Holland’s aggressive course lay in the characteristics of the Hood’s armour. Though her main belt armour was thick, the deck received relatively little protection, leaving the ship vulnerable in long-distance exchanges where the plunging fire could easily penetrate the armour of her deck. Being over 12 miles away, the British ships opened fire with their forward turrets. While the Prince of Wales correctly tracked the more dangerous threat of the Bismarck, the Hood mistakenly aimed at the Prinz Eugen, which was leading the line and had quite a similar silhouette to the Bismarck’s. British initial salvoes missed and soon the Prince of Wales had to fight with malfunctioning armaments, a somewhat expected teething pain. In the meantime, the Hood’s next salvoes were much closer, throwing splinters across the Prinz Eugen’s boards. But the German guns remained silent. Lütjens was reluctant to return fire, even though it seemed that engagement was unavoidable. He still had Raeder’s orders in mind, which urged him to avoid encounters with equal British units at all costs as his primary mission was commerce raiding, but it seemed that there’s no way out. His artillery officers made a number of requests to open fire, but Lütjens first took the time to ensure that both of his ships’ armaments were aiming at the Hood and then waited until the optimal moment to strike. Eventually, the Bismarck’s guns roared in a full broadside fire followed by the Prinz Eugen’s salvo shortly thereafter. The initial fire yielded immediate results, as the Prinz Eugen scored a direct hit on the Hood with a high explosive shell causing a substantial fire on boards. At this point, the British shells of the Prince of Wales finally reached the Bismarck, penetrating her bow and causing a fuel leak. The Germans still held the advantage, firing full broadsides while the Prince of Wales used just half of her guns and the Hood still mistakenly concentrating her fire on the Prinz Eugen. Vice-admiral Holland ordered both of his ships to turn to port so all British guns could shoot at the Germans thus equalizing the encounter, but virtually a minute later the unexpected happened. From a distance just short of 9 miles, the Bismarck’s fifth salvo reached its target and one or more shells penetrated the Hood’s deck, seemingly without effect. British gunnery officers believed it was a dud, but seconds later an enormous magazine explosion tore the mighty Hood in two. The explosive effect of the Bismarck’s momentous direct hit left German sailors staring in awe, but admiral Lütjens remained calm and unmoved. Within next three minutes the blazing pride of the Royal Navy and for a long time the biggest warship of the world, disappeared from the ocean’s surface. She sunk with her entire 1,400 men crew. Just three seamen survived. But the battle didn’t end. The Prince of Wales adjusted her course to avoid the sinking wreck of the Hood and soon suffered concentrated fire from both of the German units which were both well positioned to switch targets. The distance between all opponents decreased, allowing even the Prinz Eugen to fire its secondary armament and prepare torpedo tubes. Both of Lütjens’ warships scored hits on the remaining British unit, causing medium damage. The Prince of Wales, clearly at a huge disadvantage, launched a smoke screen and began to retreat. A few more salvoes were fired by both sides as the distance between the enemies increased, but none reached their targets. The short, yet shattering Battle of the Denmark Strait thus came to an end. While the Prinz Eugen was essentially intact, not having been hit in the battle, the Bismarck was damaged. Her speed was slightly reduced due to the flooding of one of her boiler rooms and suffered a slight list to the bow and port side. What was more worrying was that one of the British shells had ruptured her bow, causing flooding of one of the forecastle tanks and causing her to slowly leak precious fuel. Lütjens was considering his options. He was aware that the British would seek revenge for the loss of their symbolic battlecruiser, but he didn’t know that the Royal Navy had employed the majority of its available warships to seek and destroy the German task force. The hunt for the Bismarck was about to begin. The hunt for the Bismarck has begun! But if you want to experience manning the bridge of some of history’s most iconic battle vessels for yourself then you should play World of Warships, a strategic military history game. 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Great stuff. Not the battle of course but the video was presented very well.