The battle was a tactical victory for the Germans, but its impact was short-lived. Prince of Wales soon broke off the engagement. The British battleship had only been completed in late March 1941, and used new quadruple gun turrets that were unreliable. Prince of Wales continued to exchange fire with Bismarck but suffered serious malfunctions in her main armament. Soon afterwards, Hood exploded and sank within three minutes, with the loss of all but three of her crew. Less than 10 minutes after the British opened fire, a shell from Bismarck struck Hood near her aft ammunition magazines. The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood fought the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping ( Operation Rheinübung) through the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland. The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement in the Second World War, which took place on between ships of the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine.
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