Hood and Bismarck: The Deep-Sea Discovery of an Epic Battle

by David Mearns, Rob White

Tieing into the sixtieth anniversary of the battle between the Bismarck and the HMS Hood, this book will be a mixture of history and adventure and will include interviews with survivors of both ships. It will be illustrated throughout with state-of-the-art underwater photography of the wrecks, computer graphics and sonar scans as well as archive paintings and photographs showing this dramatic battle.

Genres: World War II, Maritime, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Ralph Wark · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, ordered it through Better World Books looking for an historic a narrative of the Hood/Bismarck battle. And indeed it describes the chase and sinking of the two mighty ships.

but at least half the book was taken up with the search for the shipwrecks, not what I was looking for. My fault, should have read the description
closer. And a very detailed recount of the search it is. Probably quite nice for those looking for such things.

I wasn’t, so frankly I skimmed those parts and looked at the pictures. Nicely done book, just not what I was looking for.

[Dennis Kocik · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting review of the expedition to locate and analyze the Hood and Bismarck. Would have loved to see more of the underwater photographs of both ships. Maybe they will produce a follow-up book?

[Robert Hepple · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 2001 C4 book produced in conjunction with documentaries that were aired on the subject around the time of the 60th anniversary of the epic sea battle. The is formatted in a similar way to the Ballard books on sea wreck investigation, with chapters on historical context interspersed with chapters on the latter day search for the wreck sites. Whilst it is arguable whether the Hood/Bismarck had any real impact on the course of the war, it is a highly emotive subject and the book tackles this aspect extremely well, though much of it is at a superficial level.

[Sue Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tickles two of my mental itches: underwater archaeology and naval history. It is the companion volume to a BBC4 2-part documentary. The history is a summary, but the technical details about how dives like these are managed was interesting. While the detailed analysis of the images was only just starting, the difference in the deaths of the two ships was starkly illustrated.