Breaking the enemy's code: British intelligence deciphered Germany's top-secret military communications with colossus, an early vacuum-tube computer

On the dawn of May 24 1941 the German battleship Bismarck, on her maiden voyage, steamed majestically toward the exit of the Denmark Strait just off Iceland. There the battleship, the most powerful in the German Navy, met a pair of British cruisers, HMS Hood and Prince of Wales. Within minutes Hood was cut in two by a salvo from the Bismarck that ignited a magazine, killing 1416. Prince of Wales, having inflicted minor damage on the Bismarck, was forced to retreat.