Brave gunners to the end. Numquam obliviscar

*As seen from the Bismarck:— ‘I heard a shout, “ She’s blowing up! ” The sight I then saw was something I shall never forget. At first the Hood was nowhere to be seen; in her place was a colossal pillar of black smoke reaching into the sky. Gradually at the foot of the pillar, I made out the bow of the battle cruiser projecting upwards at an angle, a sure sign that she had broken in two. Then I saw something that I could hardly believe: a flash of orange coming from her forward guns! Although her fighting days had ended, the Hood was giving a last salvo. I felt great respect for those men over there ’. (Kapit ä nleutnant Baron von Müllenheim-Riechberg, who was Control Officer in the Bismarck’s after director, ie, Beckwith’s opposite number. From Battleship Bismarck.) *Told to me by Captain Russel Grenfell, author of The Bismarck Episode.

From footnotes in the book Alarm Starboard by Geoffrey Brooke