- "SINK HER! SINK THE HOOD!"
- —Adolf Hitler
The Battle of Kristiansand was a Second World War naval battle between ships of the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine, fought on 26th June 1941. It was one of the largest naval actions of the war, and the last major naval action in the European theater. A British battle line engaged the surface forces of the Kriegsmarine, who were attempting to move to the Baltic Sea, out of range of British bombers.
The battle was considered a British victory, as it resulted in the near complete destruction of the Kriegsmarine's surface forces, and Germany participated in no further significant actions at sea for the remainder of the war.
The battle of Kristiansand is best remembered for the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck by the British battlecruiser HMS Hood.[1]
Participants[]
Britain[]
- HMS Ark Royal
- HMS Royal Sovereign
- HMS Royal Oak
- HMS Repulse
- HMS Hood
- HMS Nelson
- HMS King George V
- HMS Prince of Wales
- HMS Suffolk
- HMS Norfolk
- HMS Dorsetshire
- HMS Naiad†
- HMS Sheffield
- HMS Achates
- HMS Antelope
- HMS Anthony
- HMS Echo
- HMS Electra
- HMS Icarus
- HMS Cossack
- HMS Zulu
- HMS Maori
- HMS Tartar
- HMS Mashona
- HMS Sikh
- ORP Piorun
Germany[]
- Scharnhorst
- Bismarck†
- Emden†
- Deutschland†
- Graf Spee†
- Karlsruhe†
- Königsberg†
- Leipzig†