H.M.S. Hood vs. Bismarck: The Battleship Battle

by Theodore Taylor

An account of the WWII sea battle by the author of The “The story of the Bismarck is one of exciting high adventure, and [Taylor] captures it nicely.” —The New York Times From the award-winning author, this is a compelling history of the sinking of British battlecruiser H.M.S. Hood in the cold waters of the North Atlantic in 1941. It was a great loss to the Royal Navy and resulted in the deaths of more than fourteen hundred sailors. Soon the Allies were in hot pursuit of the Bismarck, the German fleet’s biggest and most fearsome ship. The Nazi battleship would meet its end just days after it sank the Hood—and this book tells the riveting story of this deadly confrontation at sea.

Genres: Nonfiction, War, History

121 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1989

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Stormcrow Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

After many years of sitting on my shelf, I finally picked up this book and read through it fairly quickly. At only 125 pages, I should have been able to read it in a day, but the style of writing kept me from running through it as quickly as I would have liked. First, the author mixes present and past tense. My guess is the writer present tense would lend a sense of urgency to the action, but it doesn't. Instead, it becomes disconcerting and almost confusing when the shift occurs. I honestly can't say if it was intentional or just bad writing. (Also, the book was written in 1982 when the battle was already over 40 years old so it was long in the past so it seems like a foregone conclusion to write in past tense.)

The action does pick up in the second half, but the attention to detail throughout the book is almost too overwhelming and we never get much sense of who the commanders are or the harrowing tale of any of the men who fought in the action. And there's no shortage of action. Thousands of sailors and seamen died in the battle. But I can't say more without getting into...

***SPOILERS***

You can imagine my surprise when I get to the midpoint of the book and the two title ships, the Hood and Bismark, square off for battle. Since the title is H.M.S. Hood vs. Bismarck, I imagined I was about to get into 60 pages of heated action. Instead, the Hood is sunk three pages after they meet! I was stunned. From that point on, the game becomes a cat and mouse chase as the British fleet pursues the wounded Bismarck so they can sink it before reaching the safety of port or the protection of other axis ships.

While the action is exciting, the presentation is not. There must be better books written about the battle. I suggest you find them.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this is book to be a easy read, and good read.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is "second in a series: the Great Sea Battles of WWII," the first being Taylor's The Battle off Midway Island, and shares all the virtues of Taylor's first volume. It is concise, accurate, detailed, and exciting to read. Despite my interest in World War II and the naval battles thereof, I hadn't read much about this singular contest between Bismarck (and its escort, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen) against the entire British navy, so I found this slim volume enlightening as well as entertaining.