On May 18, 1941, the German battleship Bismarck began its first ever combat mission. It was the most powerful ship in Europe ...

In 1939, the warship Bismarck is built to attack American cargo ships in order to weaken Great Britain. However, the British navy plans to prevent this, leading to one of the largest naval battles ...

Hood was a battlecruiser - one of a new breed of warships developed before the First World War ... needed to be spared for a full refit. Bismarck, in contrast, was a much more modern ship.