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It is worth mentioning that although they were both the pride of their navy the Bismarck was a WW2 battleship and the Hood was a WW1 battlecruiser, the was a gulf in build/design between the two, and also it was the initial confrontation with the Hood and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales that crippled the Bismarck allowing the RAF to find and paralyze it so the royal navy could catch up and finish it off.

To be fair neither the Hood or the Prince of Wales did enough damage to stop the Bismarck reaching France, its intended end plan after sinking Hood. It was the attack by Fairy Swordfishes that took out the rudder and crippled its ability to hold a consistent course that allowed the British Navy to catch it and sink it. Without the Swordfish attack the Bismarck would have easily made the French coast as the damage from Prince of Wales was in real terms minimal and caused ingress of around 2500 tones of water, nothing on a ship this size.

In the initial engagement the Hood was actually targeting the wrong ship, aiming for the Prinz Eugen at first until the spotters made the change to target Bismarck, the POW did too but realised quicker. No question the Hood was a generation behind however, though it was not ready until after WW1. For 20 years however it was pretty much the king of the ocean and its sinking was like 9/11 to this country. It really was a shock to a nation who saw this as the absolute pinnacle of British Empire power and gunboat diplomacy.

Two of my sources :)

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