"Hood" and "Bismarck"
This marks the 71st anniversiary of the World War II Atlantic battle and sinking of the British battlecruiser HMS "Hood" by the German battleship "Bismarck" on 24 May 1941 sinking of "Bismarck" by ships of the Royal Navy on 27 May 1941. "Hood" lost all but 3 men of her crew of over 1,400, with the last survivor, Ted Briggs, dying in 2008. "Bismarck" lost around 2000 of her crew, with only 115 survivors, 112 of whom spent the rest of the war as POWs of the British. "Bismarck"'s wreck was located in 1989 by Robert Ballard, the same man who found "Titanic", 600 miles west of France, 15,000 feet down, 3000 feet deeper than "Titanic", and remarkably intact after the horrible pounding she took from the British in her last battle. "Hood" was found in 2001 under 12,000 feet of water between Iceland and Greenland, blown apart in 3 pieces from the enormous explosion of "Bismarck"'s 15-inch shells detonating the British ship's ammunition magazines, which accounted for the loss of nearly her entire crew. Ted Briggs came out to the ship leading the expedition to find the "Hood' and placed a memorial plaque by remote control next to "Hood"'s bow section to remember all of his shipmates who died there. Later, a plaque was also placed on "Bismarck"'s wreck in honor of the all the German sailors who died. Quite a tragedy in a senseless war, for certain.

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