On 24 May 1941 the German battleship Bismarck engaged in a gunnery duel with the flagship of the Royal Navy, the battlecruiser HMS Hood, and the newly commissioned King George V class battleship, HMS Prince of Wales. Within minutes, Hood found a watery grave beneath the devastating shellfire of the legendary German ship. Not much later, Prince of Wales made smoke and left the field of battle.But would it have been indeed so foolhardy to fight Bismarck alone? The purpose of this concise inquiry is to compare the relevant technical characteristics of the two ships and discover whether Prince of Wales alone could have achieved victory and, if so, under what conditions.
Highly technical, no-nonsense analysis based on primary sources including the British Admiralty's official documents dealing with the ballistic performance of the heavy armour plates of the German battleship Tirpitz, the armour-piercing projectiles of the King George V class battleships and more.
Lavishly illustrated with line drawings including armour penetration curves, immunity graphs, armour diagrams and more.
Lists of tables, figures and pictures to ease navigation.
Imperial + metric units