Battle of the Denmark Strait 1941
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 24 May 1941 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1941 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: North America) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Battle of the Atlantic | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Nazi Germany, United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 67.7667, -31.0000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement in the Second World War, which took place on 24 May 1941 between ships of the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine. The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood fought the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping (Operation Rheinübung) through the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland.
Less than 10 minutes after the British opened fire, a shell from Bismarck struck Hood near her aft ammunition magazines. Soon afterwards, Hood exploded and sank within three minutes, with the loss of all but three of her crew. Prince of Wales continued to exchange fire with Bismarck but suffered serious malfunctions in her main armament. The British battleship had only been completed in late March 1941, and used new quadruple gun turrets that were unreliable. Prince of Wales soon broke off the engagement.
The battle was a tactical victory for the Germans, but its effect was short-lived. The damage done to Bismarck's forward fuel tanks forced the abandonment of the breakout and an attempt to escape to dry dock facilities in occupied France, producing an operational victory for the British.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Denmark Strait (revision 1378389495), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Other battles of the Battle of the Atlantic
- Last battle of Bismarck 1941
- Channel Dash 1942
- Battle of Sept-Îles 1943
- Battle of the Bay of Biscay 1943
- Battle of Audierne Bay 1944
All 6 battles of the Battle of the Atlantic →
Browse more: battles at sea · North America · World War II era battles