#5: Bismarck: Eight Days That Shook the Royal Navy
Bismarck's entire operational career lasted just eight days (from May 19 to May 27, 1941) yet in that single week, she destroyed the pride of the Royal Navy, triggered the largest naval manhunt in history, and became the most famous warship of World War II. Her fifth salvo against HMS Hood detonated the battlecruiser's magazine, killing 1,415 men in an explosion visible 30 miles away.
At 50,300 tons with eight 15-inch guns, Bismarck was the most powerful battleship in the Atlantic when she sortied on Operation Rheinübung. After sinking Hood, the entire Royal Navy mobilized to find and destroy her, six battleships, two aircraft carriers, thirteen cruisers, and twenty-one destroyers were involved in the chase. A lucky torpedo hit from a Swordfish biplane jammed her rudder, and on May 27, Bismarck was pounded by over 400 shells before sinking with 2,086 of her 2,221 crew. Her wreck lies upright at 15,700 feet, and the debate over whether she sank from battle damage or was scuttled by her own crew continues among naval warfare historians to this day.
