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BISMARCK ACTION 70...LIVE NAVY!...UK CARRIER BUILD UP-DATE...SSNs FOR AUSTRALIA’S FLEET? Battle of the BISMARCK ACTION 70 The Bismarck Action began with the clash between Hood and Prince of Wales, and Bismarck, the latter supported by the Prinz Eugen, on May 24, 1941. Here, in artist Paul Wright’s epic painting, Hood is already on fire after suffering heavy hits from Bismarck. She would soon explode killing all but three of her men. Prince of Wales escaped, but badly mauled, after landing hits that damaged Bismarck. Image: Commissioned by Ron Feltham and subsequently donated to the National Museum of the .

PURSUE AND KILL ROBERT FARLEY CONSIDERS to the defence of Crete BANDS OF THE MYTHS AND REALITY represented the first, and perhaps SURROUNDING DRAMATIC the more important, WW2 crisis EVENTS IN THE ATLANTIC for the Royal Navy. The overall SOME 70 YEARS AGO, IN strategic value of Crete was in WHICH THE ROYAL NAVY considerable question. While the PURSUED THE PRIDE OF island could help seal off part of the eastern Mediterranean, and HITLERS’ FLEET. provide a base for air attacks Brothers Even before she slipped beneath against Balkan targets, it would the waves, the inaugural cruise of always have been exceedingly USING ELEMENTS OF HIS RECENT BOOK ‘KILLING THE Bismarck was shrouded vulnerable to committed Axis in myth. For a week, Bismarck efforts. Even less defensible was BISMARCK’, IAIN BALLANTYNE TELLS THE STORY OF HOW captured the world’s imagination, the commitment to Crete well THE NOTORIOUS GERMAN BATTLESHIP MET HER END, BUT representing the fear that Nazi beyond the point at which it had FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF TWO ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS Germany might displace Great become clear that the island THAT PLAYED KEY ROLES, THE HMS COSSACK Britain as a dominant world could not be held. By the end of AND HMS DORSETSHIRE. THOUGH THE BRITISH power, having starved the British the battle, three RN and into submission. The dramatic six of its would be at VESSELS THEMSELVES WERE NOT TO SURVIVE LONG AFTER destruction of the battle-cruiser the bottom, with two THE BISMARCK ACTION, TO THIS DAY THEY BOTH HAVE HMS Hood, one of the most out of action for extended THRIVING VETERANS’ ASSOCIATIONS, WHOSE MOST RECENT famous and beautiful warships in periods. Although the Regia REUNIONS IAIN ATTENDED. HE MET SURVIVING WW2 the world, only added to Marina (the Italian Navy) had VETERANS AND HEARD THEIR REMARKABLE STORIES. Bismarck’s mystique. Inevitably, been battered by the twin blows myths and misunderstandings of Taranto and Matapan, it HMS Cossack returning to the carrier in about Bismarck would grow, retained potent capabilities for May 26, 1941 humiliation, for prior to immortalised in some cases by dominating the central film and song. The best approach Mediterranean. Into this strategic The Swordfish -bombers encountering Vian’s destroyers, the to busting the myths about picture charged the new German formed up on Lieutenant Swordfish had mistakenly attacked Bismarck is to place her journey battleship Bismarck. Seemingly Commander James Stewart-Moore’s the cruiser HMS , within the proper strategic terrifying, she was truly large and aircraft for the flight back to HMS fortunately causing her no harm. context of WW2. Hunting powerful, but not a particularly Ark Royal. His attention was drawn Rearmed and determined to make Bismarck wasn’t the only well designed ship. She did not to an aircraft in the formation up for their error, the young British challenge the Royal Navy faced in compare favourably with most equipped with air search radar. Via aviators that night found and . In the Mediterranean, foreign contemporaries, suffering attacked Bismarck, her steering the Germans and the Italians from a series of design flaws that semaphore flags, a young officer in combined to strike a blow even arose because of Germany’s long its crew was indicating to his leader damaged so badly she stood no more telling than the destruction holiday from battleship that a contact had been picked up, chance of reaching safety in Brest. of the Hood. Moreover, the construction and operation. Every around ten away. Destroyers The British naval aviators could feel potential escape of Bismarck other world navy had operated came into view below, which the well satisfied. There was now a solid should be understood not in battleships since WW1. Most had aviators at first suspected might be chance for the Royal Navy to avenge apocalyptic terms, but rather in embarked on dramatic German ships coming out to help the loss of 1,415 shipmates killed what she would have meant for reconstructions that upgraded escort Bismarck to a French port, just over two days earlier when the conduct of the rest of the the capabilities and remedied the Bismarck’s shells blew apart battle- war in the Atlantic, the defects of older ships. These but they flashed a British Mediterranean, and, as events lessons found their way into new identification signal. It was Captain cruiser Hood. For many of the men turned and twisted several construction. Lacking this Philip Vian’s 4th Destroyer Flotilla, in warships scattered across the months later, in the Pacific. May experience, Bismarck was a WW1 battling rough weather in poor Atlantic - all heading towards a 1941 quite simply tested what battleship constructed on a WW2 visibility as it struggled south. showdown with the Nazi high seas seemed to be the endless scale. Nonetheless, Hood and Aboard HMS Cossack, junior rating raider - it was a deeply personal resources of the Royal Navy to Prince of Wales discovered that Ken Robinson, a loader on the ship’s mission. Many of them had known the limit. From the perspective of even a poorly designed 45,000 2pdr pompom anti-aircraft weapon sailors and marines serving in Hood. its enemies, the RN always had tons battleship remains potent. A good few of them had at one time more. It could always bring After destroying the elderly Hood recalled that one of the biplanes another battleship to the fray, during the Battle of the Denmark flew ‘practically alongside as the even served in Hood themselves. along with more cruisers, Strait on May 24, Bismarck and pilot waved to us before they flew Now, crippled by a torpedo dropped destroyers, and even dozens of her consort Prinz Eugen allowed away.’ The torpedo-bombers turned by one of Ark’s strike aircraft, the Swordfish torpedo-bombers. The the new battleship Prince of Bismarck was a wounded buffalo strategically myopic commitment Wales to disengage. Had back towards Ark Royal. They were Continued on P53

WARSHIPS INTERNATIONAL FLEET REVIEW 51 BISMARCK ACTION 70 about to be brought down by seascape was dotted with pursuing wolves and torn to pieces. converging British warships: “There In the darkness of a stormy Atlantic were large White Ensigns flying all night, Cossack and the 4th Flotilla’s over the place and the Bismarck was other destroyers did their best to sporting two large swastika flags. cause more damage and maintain Shots were soon hitting the contact with the enemy. Out in the Bismarck, who returned fire with blackness, the British battleships her 15-inch guns.” During an action HMS King and HMS between capital ships, unless called Rodney loitered, awaiting their forward to make a torpedo attack, curtain call to make the kill after destroyers were required to keep dawn. Cossack led the way, aboard out the way. They circled on the her Telegraphist Eric Farmer feeling periphery, keeping watch for adrenalin pumping: “Now was our U-boats. Robinson saw Bismarck’s chance. Cossack, full speed ahead, ensign fluttering defiantly despite went in to attack. We are spotted her being turned into a wreck. It and Bismarck opens fire on us. The was an image that would remain Bismarck & Prinz Eugen would also have shifted the first salvo was 50 yards short. The imprinted on his memory for the dynamic in the Pacific. Ironically, next one burst over the rest of his life: “She was a right the unavailability of Prince of causing everyone to duck. The range mess. There was a lot of flame and Wales might have saved Repulse Norfolk was less than a now. A sharp smoke. The ship was just a mass of & Suffolk from being dispatched to her turn, several swishes as the wreckage under all that. I wouldn’t Hood sunk doom off Malaya, but it also torpedoes are fired...” Ken Robinson like to have been aboard her.” He would have put great pressure on recalled of the attack: “We went in noted with regret: “From the start of Hood & Prince of Wales the Allies in early 1942. The fast head to sea and fired a spread of the Bismarck Action, when Hood battleships of the US Navy might C. in C. not have been sent to the Pacific torpedoes. At the time, we thought was sunk, until the end, which was as early as they were; in one of them had hit.” Having tried four days, nearly four thousand November 1942 USS Washington her luck, Cossack did not hang seamen were killed.” could have found herself waiting around, Robinson remembering that follow Nelson’s instruction to his accurate in the Navy.” Dorsetshire Victorious for a sortie from Bismarck or his ship “turned and with the sea up HMS Dorsetshire sailors before the Battle of Trafalgar: turned broadside on and let rip Swordfish Scharnhorst instead of destroying May 25, 1941 attack contact Rodney HIJMS Kirishima. The fast carriers our stern, sped away at what ‘In case Signals can neither be seen with all eight guns. Flame rippled lost 4th Destroyer seemed to be the fastest we ever According to one contemporary Flotilla of the USN might also have or perfectly understood, no captain down her sides, dirty yellow-brown remained in the Atlantic longer, went, the sea throwing us all over account of the Bismarck Action, the can do very wrong if he places his smoke enveloping the cruiser’s giving Yamamoto a few more the place.” men of the cruiser HMS Dorsetshire Ship alongside that of an enemy.’ upper works. Dorsetshire began Bismarck King George V months to rampage. The window were filled with ‘remorseless George Bell was not much more getting the range and scoring hits. of vulnerability, however, would May 27 determination to get revenge’ for than a lad, at the time the Captain’s With their ship ceasing fire at not last forever. In 1943 the RN The following morning, as the sun Hood. Bert Gollop, one of her Messenger, tasked with taking around 10.15am the cruiser’s men and the USN commissioned contact enough fast battleships to peeped over the eastern horizon, to junior ratings described the feeling important instructions wherever gazed in horrified awe at the regained Sheffield reveal a storm-tossed scene, from aboard: “We had just left Cape Town needed in the ship and as such he stricken enemy ship. Bert Gollop detached counter both the German and Japanese threats. By 1944 none his upper position Robinson and the ship was escorting a large was stationed on the bridge of the thought “Bismarck was in an Bismarck sunk of this would matter; Allied naval scanned his surroundings. The convoy. Soon after we heard the cruiser. “Captain Martin told us what unbelievable shambles but refused superiority would be more than news of HMS Hood and we were all we were going to do, but we to sink…it must have been hell sufficient to manage both the devastated, could not believe it.” thought if Bismarck does come our aboard her.” With the big ships 0 100 200 Dorsetshire Germans and the Japanese. In Signals were scrutinised intently as way, gosh what chance do we withdrawing, Dorsetshire moved in miles some sense, however, all of this is they flashed back and forth between stand?”’ for the final act against the dying beside the point of the story of the Admiralty and other vessels giant, torpedoes leaping from her Bismarck and her pursuers. The being red hot...some raging inferno symbolic meaning of Bismarck actively involved in the pursuit of May 27 tubes. George Bell saw the decisive within burning out the heart of the PURSUE AND KILL Continued Bismarck, which had been After her long dash north through actions unfold: “I was on the and Hood goes beyond ship...[Bismarck] sank stern first and Bismarck enjoyed more luck with ignominious fate like that of calculations on the ledger of temporarily lost in the vastness of heavy seas, bows plunging into bridge wing, just down from the the waves covering her after a her ordnance, or if Lutjens had Gneisenau, laid up and forgotten naval power. Perhaps the biggest the Atlantic. The cruiser’s command gigantic waves and shaking them off compass platform. When the glorious fight against the odds...” been more aggressive, Prince of until the last days of the war. myth shattered by the chase of team pondered which direction before the ship hurtled on, Torpedo Officer got the order Franklin concluded: “The Hood has Wales might have suffered even This is not to say that Bismarck the Bismarck is the idea that war, Bismarck might be heading. Dorsetshire finally came within from the captain to fire I was right been avenged.” German survivors more badly. Although damage was irrelevant. Had she destroyed and especially war at sea, is Calculations were made. Nobody range of her quarry. George Bell alongside him and I saw him act to would later claim that they had received during the battle made a Prince of Wales, and then conducted rationally and without was keener for the fight than the waited on the cruiser’s bridge to launch them.“ As a precaution received orders to scuttle the ship break-out into the Atlantic escaped to France, the Royal emotion. We are accustomed to cruiser’s Commanding Officer, carry messages from Captain Martin. against any potentially lurking impractical, Bismarck still stood a Navy would have been hard think about war at sea in terms and this is what finally put Bismarck good chance of making it to a pressed in the Atlantic. HMS King of the great ships that hurl shells Captain Benjamin ‘Pincher’ Martin. Like every man in the British enemy Dorsetshire out of her misery, rather than and torpedoes at one another, warship, he knew the task at hand zigzagged as she went in to deliver French port. This outcome would George V would have been the May 26 Dorsetshire’s torpedoes. It is a point have been tragic, but it would only fast battleship remaining, at rather than in terms of the men was absolutely necessary: “We the decisive blows. that has been hotly contested ever hardly have turned the course of least until the commissioning of and women who sail those ships. At 11.00am, Dorsetshire intercepted closed to open fire, for the last thing Junior rating A. E. Franklin saw “a since. Captain Martin ordered a the war. If Bismarck had slipped HMS Duke of York. The rebuilt When we speak of how the Royal a report confirming Bismarck’s we wanted was to allow Bismarck tremendous explosion”, believing signal sent as ‘Most Immediate’, the Royal Navy, found her way HMS Queen Elizabeth might have Navy destroyed three Italian position and heading had finally under any circumstances to cause some of his ship’s torpedoes must which told the world of the German back to France, and even remained in the Atlantic instead cruisers at Matapan in early been fixed, the British cruiser and havoc among our convoys.” Amid have “planted themselves in the pounded a convoy along the of deploying to the 1941, or about the destruction of battleship’s end and her bravery as Graf Spee at the River Plate in her convoy being around 600 miles the bombardment by the big guns of bowels of the Bismarck far below she went down: ‘Torpedoed way, the effects surely would Mediterranean, and eventually to the west of Cape Finisterre. Rodney and King George V, salvos of the water-line amidships.” Franklin have been severe. They would the RN might even have been late 1939, we think about naval Bismarck both sides before she not, however, have substantially forced to bring the much- assets that will no longer be Bismarck was just 300 miles due the cruiser’s 8-inch shells hurtled saw Bismarck shake “from Bow to sank. She had ceased firing but her affected the ability of the Allies to maligned R Class battleships into available for future fights. The north, Captain Martin believing he towards the German battleship. Stern, like a piece of tissue colours were still flying.’ win the war. Bismarck’s presence the Mediterranean fray. Indeed, great expense of individual had a good chance of finding her if “We actually fired 250 rounds of 8- paper...” in France would not suddenly the effect of the Bismarck’s warships combined with the she was headed for Brest. He judged inch,” recalled Bell. “The 8-inch guns He saw Bismarck suddenly lurch CONTINUED on P54 have made the French ports survival might be most acutely ‘personality’ that each vessel has, the best thing he could do was were renowned as some of the most and then she turned over “her hull viable for raiders; in February felt in the Mediterranean, where allows us to think in this way. Here, : A Swordfish from HMS 1942 Bismarck surely would have the balance would tip back in the However, as the pursuit of Victorious skims low over the waves joined Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, favour of the Italians as they Hood’s killer demonstrates, the after the valiant, but unsuccessful and Prinz Eugen in the Channel recovered from Taranto and realities of naval warfare leave attack on Bismarck late on May 24, Dash. After that, she would have Matapan. Sea and air assets considerable room for rage, 1941. Above: A battle map depiction represented just another German otherwise destined for the Med courage, and thirst for revenge. of the Bismarck Action. raider, locked up by Allied naval would have gone to preventing a Finally, when the guns are silent Both images: Dennis Andrews. superiority. Eventually Bismarck German break-out from France, it also leaves room for mercy with Left: HMS Cossack, WW2 Tribal Class would have suffered the fate of as well as battering the French attempts by one foe to rescue destroyer. Photo: NMRN. Scharnhorst, falling victim to ports. Churchill’s government survivors of the now lost enemy Far left: Ken Robinson during WW2. superior British naval forces, or would surely have suffered from ship, as happened when the Photo: Ken Robinson Collection. something similar to Tirpitz - its perceived inability to do British attempted to offer Left, above: Ken Robinson today. holed up in a Norwegian fjord anything about the German salvation to the Bismarck’s Photo: Jonathan Eastland/AJAX. awaiting destruction - or even an raider threat. Bismarck’s survival survivors.

WARSHIPS INTERNATIONAL FLEET REVIEW 53 Ted Bodman, who was one of sickbay where doctors and other fighting and we respected theirs - were seamen doing their job of Dorsetshire’s signalmen, thought willing hands give succour to the regardless of what happened work, just like us,” he said. “We had this was a genuine tribute: “Captain fallen foe.” However, it all came to a elsewhere in the war, I think the done our job, which was to sink the Martin sent this signal saluting the halt 20 minutes after it started, when navies were different.” Bismarck and so now we offered bravery of the Germans in their there was a scare, Legend has it that, after a Bismarck them mercy.” Ted Bodman revealed fight, news of which was suppressed Captain Martin giving the order for officer was hauled up over the side that, during other postwar reunions, at the time, but he was a sailor slow ahead to remove Dorsetshire of HMS Dorsetshire, plucked from a he had been pleased to establish a playing tribute to the bravery of from peril. The cruiser accelerated watery grave by the willing hands of friendship of sorts with his former other sailors, even though they were through floating knots of Germans his enemies, he told his British foes. “After the war we did establish our enemy. Looking across at the who cried out in despair, faces rescuers: “Us today, you tomorrow.” good terms with the German Bismarck I couldn’t believe there etched with agony as their only And so it was in the months and survivors and I am glad to say they After abandoning ship, Captain’s just about to call off the search,” could be any survivors - she was so means of survival sped away. years which followed that his did attend a few of our reunions.” Steward Gerald Charles found reflected Kelly. The Dorsetshire will badly shot up.” The aftermath of Horrified British sailors staring over prediction came to pass for a However, when Dorsetshire, too, himself sinking into the ocean. be forever remembered as the ship Bismarck’s sinking saw desperate the side knew they were leaving number of the ships, their sailors was claimed by war’s bitter harvest, Then, miraculously, as he puts it that delivered the final, fatal blows calls for salvation from hundreds of fellow mariners to a slow, and marines, who had pursued the there was no such mercy shown by himself, he “popped up like a cork”, to Bismarck but we should never German survivors fighting to stay excruciating death. They threw mighty German battleship. Among the enemy on that occasion, the turning in the water to see his ship’s forget the bitter fate that awaited afloat amid oil and debris in a lifebelts and anything else that those lost was the Cossack and it cruiser’s men being machine- final moments. “Dorsetshire was her, and so many other Royal Navy strength-sapping cold sea. Captain would float overboard to give the took four days for her to give up the gunned in the water by the vertical,” he recalled, “and then she warships that took part in that Martin gave the order for Germans a slim, if vain, chance to fight after she was struck by a Japanese. The end came on 5 April slid into the deep forever.” triumph. The knowledge that the Dorsetshire to stop by the biggest stay afloat. Royal Marine gunner torpedo fired by U-563, west of 1942, in the Indian Ocean, under a Torpedoman Sam Cawthra felt lady cruel wheel of fate brings death and group of survivors and start rescuing Geoff Kitchen found it Portugal, just five months after she hail of bombs from Japanese carrier luck was watching over him that disaster in war as surely as it brings them, despite fears of U-boat attack “heartbreaking to hear their cries.” took part in the Bismarck Action. aircraft. Dorsetshire sank stern first, day: “I don’t know how I survived glory and survival is surely the and the likelihood of a Luftwaffe Some of the Germans hung The fatal hit blew off her bows and after sustaining ten hits and near and others did not.” primary, and timeless, lesson of the assault. Observed A. E. Franklin: stubbornly onto the ropes, only the destroyer suffered 159 deaths, misses that inflicted catastrophic Teenage junior rating Bill Kelly was Bismarck Action. “The foe is beaten and hearts go out letting go when washed away by the her 29 survivors picked up by other damage and great slaughter. The one of only four from the 18-strong • The stories of the loss of HMS in sorrow to them that are in the ship’s foaming wake. One lucky soul British warships. Ken Robinson lost fate for many of Dorsetshire’s 234 crew of a 4-inch gun to survive the Cossack and sinking of HMS water. Ropes come from nowhere. was pulled up and over the side many friends, but he was not aboard dead was every bit as horrific as that initial attacks, the others being cut Dorsetshire will be told in more Willing hands rush to haul inboard even as the cruiser accelerated away. at the time of his ship’s sinking as suffered by Bismarck’s men. With down by shrapnel from Japanese detail in future editions of this the survivors. More ropes, more he had broken his arm and was in a bombers having dealt the death bombs. When told to abandon ship, magazine. You can visit the web hands. Various groups of sailors Seventy Years On hospital ashore. blows to the ship, Zero fighters he walked down the side of the hull sites of the associations at hauling with all their might; one At this year’s annual reunion of the swept up and down, machine- and stepped off into the water, lucky www.dorsetshire.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk then another and then three are HMS Cossack Association, these AT this year’s HMS Dorsetshire gunning anyone who dared to move to find a piece of wreckage to keep www.hmscossack.org hauled inboard...willing hands give days mainly composed of veterans Association reunion, George Bell on the upper deck or in the sea. himself buoyant. The survivors were • ‘Killing the Bismarck - Destroying artificial respiration [while] the who served in the Korean War ship also pondered on the fact that there At the 2011 reunion, the remaining in the water for 30 hours before the Pride of Hitler’s Fleet’ is more serious cases are taken to the of the name, Ken Robinson reflected never was any personal enmity for survivors of the cruiser’s sinking being picked up. “And we were published by Pen & Sword Books on events during the Bismarck the foe. “When we went to pick up reflected on their luck at coming extremely fortunate, because the (£25.00, hardback). Action. Casting his mind back, he survivors, we did so because they through such a traumatic event. British warship that did spot us was www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Dorsetshire veterans at this year’s annual recalled that by the time the fighting reunion (clockwise from above): Bill Kelly, George Bell, Gerald Charles, Ted was over that day, all he and his Bodman and Sam Cawthra. Photos by shipmates wanted to do was get Richard Sunderland and Iain Ballantyne. some sleep. “What we needed above all was to get our heads down,” he 3866(5·63866(5·6 Below: HMS Dorsetshire. Photo used recalled. “Cossack was always in the courtesy of HMS Dorsetshire Association. thick of it and it was only the latest episode in an exhausting war.” He Š thought that while the men of the 580580 Royal Navy had been after revenge, it wasn’t true to say there was any hatred of the enemy. “I don’t believe 7+(2)),&,$/5802)7+(52<$/1$9$/$662&,$7,21 you should do things just for revenge,” he said. “We thought $YDLODEOHIURPZZZQDXWLFDOLDFRPZZZGULQNÀQGHUFRXN justice had been delivered for the loss of Hood. There really was no ZZZWKHGULQNVKRSFRPZZZOD]RXFKFRXNZZZERRNHUFRXN personal animosity because I think the Germans respected our way of 7+(25,*,1$/6($)$5(5µ65807+(25,*,1$/6($)$5(5µ6580

WARSHIPS INTERNATIONAL FLEET REVIEW 55 Salute to a Battle-cruiser A new museum in Glasgow is staging an exhibit to commemorate Hood’s loss. Hood & Bismarck A magnificent model of the Hood is centre-piece of the display, in Glasgow’s Riverside Museum, about the battle-cruiser’s construction at John Brown’s in (1916 - 1920), one of the Scottish city’s many construction yards at the time. It also tells the story of Hood’s interwar days, when she was the pride of the Royal Navy and Britain. Hood’s final three minutes in battle are also on view, via archive film and photographs. The curators hope they have created a display that tells Hood’s story in a thoughtful and informative way. The HMS Hood model is one of about 250 from Glasgow Museums’ world- class ship model collection to go on display at Riverside; their stories told, for the first time, in the context of a Clydeside setting. Located on the banks of the River Clyde, the prestigious Riverside Museum also has the 19th Century sailing ship Glenlee moored outside. To support the Riverside Museum’s fund-raising appeal and ensure a remarkable showcase for Glasgow’s amazing shipbuilding past continues to thrive visit: www.riversideappeal.org

Pictured: Left - A preliminary work that has contributed towards David Folland’s final composition for his Bismarck Action 70 project (Wallsmacker Art image); above - the stunning model of HMS Hood that is on display in Glasgow (Glasgow Museums image).

Wallsmacker Art Wallsmacker Art informs us that Mearns, whose deep-sea search for sale through the web site, Web Site Project Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, First skills were vital to the success of with ten per cent of the proceeds In the last edition of this Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, the expedition. Artist David being donated to the charities. magazine we revealed a unique has kindly agreed to sign the first Folland is most grateful for their A forum has now been launched art project to create two new print in a limited edition of 50 of contribution, which should make on the site where visitors can add paintings commemorating the the painting of HMS Hood, to be this a most collectable and their contributions and make 70th anniversary of the Bismarck donated to ‘The Big Salute’ for unique item. suggestions of suitable titles for Action. The paintings - one of auction in aid of British Forces’ Ten prints of the limited edition each painting. HMS Hood between the wars charities. of 50 of the Bismarck painting David invites all those interested and the other of battleship The print will also carry the will also be signed by Rob White to visit the web site and join in Bismarck firing during the Battle signatures of Rob White, co- and , as well as Iain his tribute to two lost capital of the Denmark Strait - are ordinator of the expedition that Ballantyne, author of the award- ships and their crews. making good progress and are on located the wreck of HMS Hood, winning book ‘Killing the target for completion in time for and rediscovered the remains of Bismarck’ (and Editor of this Visit: the anniversary (May 24 - 27). Bismarck, as well as that of David magazine). These will be available www.wall-smacker-art.com

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