Bismarck was lost on 27 May 1941 after a Royal Navy pursuit across the Atlantic. Three days earlier, the German battleship had sunk HMS Hood during the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Only three men from Hood survived.

That loss gave the pursuit public force, but the problem was also practical. Bismarck was still at sea. If she reached a French Atlantic port, she could be repaired and returned to service against British shipping. Britain depended on Atlantic routes for food, fuel, troops and supplies. A battleship of Bismarck’s power could not be left free in those waters.

The pursuit turned in the air. Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from HMS Ark Royal attacked Bismarck and damaged her rudder. The aircraft were slow and outdated by 1941, but their torpedo strike left Bismarck unable to steer properly. The ship could still fight, but she could no longer escape.

On 27 May, British warships caught Bismarck. HMS King George V and HMS Rodney opened fire, with other British ships involved in the action. Bismarck was hit repeatedly and disabled as a fighting ship. Torpedoes were also fired before she was finally lost.

The exact final cause of the sinking is usually treated with care. The British attack destroyed Bismarck’s ability to continue fighting, while the German scuttling is also part of the account. For Britain, the result was clear enough. The ship that had sunk Hood was gone.

Bismarck’s loss did not end the Battle of the Atlantic. U-boats remained the larger danger to British supply lines. But the sinking removed one major surface threat, and it came only three days after one of the Royal Navy’s heaviest shocks of the war.