Admiral Holland, Hood & Denmark Strait Bismarck had made a course alternation which Holland was unaware of and so when he came over the horizon, he was not in the position he wanted to be in and the position he wanted to be in was that which Bismarck was almost in.
Admiral Holland was an experienced man from a cruiser background, he had previously served in the Mediterranean.
Tovey’s plan to send him with Hood and Prince of Wales to the sea South of Iceland to support the cruisers was sound Bismarck was at sea and when she was found she had to be brought to battle very quickly. Tovey followed in KGV with the carrier illustrious other ships joining him from convoy escort (Nelson).
They were on their way to do a bloody business of this they had no doubt.
His approach had left his aft gun arcs closed and being aware of his own vulnerability opted to close the range as quickly as he could, before making a turn to open his arcs.
This decision and adaptation had to have been decided upon quickly as when he made visual contact the situation Holland would have been immediately aware of things being not as he wanted.
Holland approached in radio silence so the cruisers could not be involved in the action, certainly not in a coordinated manner.
On the eve of the battle during his approach, at 20:55, Admiral Holland sent a signal to the destroyers “If you are unable to maintain this speed I will have to go on without you. You should follow at your best speed.” So he would lose the help of his destroyers in the battle.
On paper, the British force was the stronger but given Hood’s age and Prince of Wales being a new, mechanically fragile and rapidly run-in ship she too had her problems.
As the first shots were exchanged, fortune and fate played their hands. Hood fired on Prinz Eugen, and very quickly the Prince of Wales experienced difficulties in her quad gun turret. Prinz Eugen was in the lead, Bismarck’s forward radar having been damaged by her earlier exchange with the cruisers.
Holland had gone to the Denmark Strait to fight and to either destroy or damage the German squadron, in doing so buying time for Tovey and the remainder of the Home Fleet to arrive.
As fate would dictate it was his Hood which would be destroyed and the new Prince of Wales which would seriously damage Bismarck.
Circumstances, luck, and decisions had shaped the Denmark Strait and they were also in the process of deciding Bismarck’s fate.
It would be Prince of Wales’ important hit on Bismarck’s bow that led to the flooding and the denial of fuel which would, in the long run, prove fatal to Bismarck.
