Battle of The Denmark Strait - The Battle Begins

The Battle Begins

Hood opened fire at 05:52 at a distance of approximately 26,500 yd (24,200 m). Holland had ordered firing on the leading ship, Prinz Eugen, believing from her position that she was Bismarck. Holland soon amended his order and directed both ships to engage the rear ship, Bismarck. Prince of Wales had already correctly identified and targeted Bismarck, whereas Hood is believed to have continued to fire at Prinz Eugen for some time.

Holland, himself a gunnery expert, was well aware of the danger posed by Hood's weak horizontal protection. Therefore, he wanted to reduce the range as quickly as possible. At a shorter range, the trajectory of Bismarck's shells would be flatter and they would be more likely to hit the sides of the ship rather than the decking, or to glance off the top deck. However, he closed the range at an angle that placed the German ships too far forward of the beam. This meant he could use only 10 of his capital ships' 18 heavy guns while presenting the Germans more at which to aim than necessary. Those 10 guns became nine when a defect in one of Prince of Wales' forward guns rendered it inoperative after the first salvo. Both Suffolk and Norfolk attempted to engage Bismarck during the action, but both were out of range and neither cruiser had a sufficient speed advantage over Bismarck to rapidly close the range during the brief engagement.

The Germans also had the weather gauge, meaning the British ships were steaming into the wind, spray drenching the lenses of Prince of Wales "A" turret' 42 ft (13 m) Barr and Stroud coincidence rangefinder and both British ships' "B" turret 30 ft (9.1 m) rangefinders. This necessitated using smaller 15 ft (4.6 m) rangefinders in the director towers instead. In addition, Admiral Holland had Prince of Wales stay close to Hood, conforming to Hood's movements instead of varying course and speed. This made it easier for the Germans to find the range to both British ships, although it would have aided Holland's gunners if they had both fired upon Bismarck as originally planned, since they could then precisely time each other's salvos to avoid mistaking one ship's fire for the other. They could also use Concentration Fire, where both ships' main armament salvos would be controlled by one ship's fire control computer, probably Prince of Wales' modern Admiralty Fire Control Table.

Prince of Wales struck her target first. She would ultimately hit Bismarck three times. One shot struck the commander's boat and put the seaplane catapult amidships out of action (the latter damage not being discovered until much later, during an attempt to fly off the ship's War Diary on the eve of her final battle). The second shell passed through the bow from one side to the other without exploding. The third struck the hull underwater and burst inside the ship, flooding a generator room and damaging the bulkhead to an adjoining boiler room, partially flooding it. These last two hits caused damage to Bismarck's machinery and medium flooding. More importantly, the damage to the bow cut access to the forward fuel tanks' 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) of fuel oil. It also caused Bismarck to trail a visible oil slick and reduced her speed by 2 kn (2.3 mph; 3.7 km/h). Bismarck was soon listing 9° to port and her bow lost 2 m (6.6 ft) of freeboard.

The Germans held fire until 05:55, when both German ships targeted Hood. Admiral Lütjens did not immediately give the order to commence firing. After multiple inquiries by Bismarck's first gunnery officer Korvettenkapitän Adalbert Schneider, "Frage Feuererlaubnis"? (Permission to open fire?) did the commander of Bismarck Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann impatiently respond: "Ich lasse mir doch nicht mein Schiff unter dem Arsch wegschießen. Feuererlaubnis!" (I'm not letting my ship get shot out from under my arse. Open fire!) A shell hit Hood's boat deck, starting a sizable fire in the ready-use 4 in (100 mm) ammunition stored there, but this fire did not spread to other areas of the ship or cause the later explosion. Although unconfirmed, it is possible that Hood was struck again at the base of her bridge and in her foretop radar director.

There has been some contention over which German vessel struck Hood at this time. Prinz Eugen, under the command of Kapitän zur See Helmuth Brinkmann, was targeting Prince of Wales by this stage, following an order from the fleet commander. However, Prinz Eugen's Gunnery Officer, Paul Schmalenbach is quoted as confirming that Prinz Eugen's target was Hood.