
May 1941 · The North Atlantic
Bismarck
A breakout into the Atlantic. The loss of Hood. A pursuit whose outcome was never assured.

Battles, crises and the people within them
Follow the decisions that shaped events, the people who lived through them, and the evidence they left behind.

May 1941 · The North Atlantic
A breakout into the Atlantic. The loss of Hood. A pursuit whose outcome was never assured.

4–7 June 1942 · The Pacific
Intelligence, calculated risk and a battle that changed the balance of the Pacific war.

Yamato on trials, October 1941 — several years before the final sortie.
NH 73092 / Yamato Museum photograph, via Wikimedia Commons.6–7 April 1945 · Japan & Okinawa
A battleship sent towards Okinawa. Orders, fuel and the last voyage of Yamato.

Tirpitz and accompanying warships in Norwegian waters, October 1942, according to the Bundesarchiv catalogue.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J19316 / Boeckmann / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Supplied archive crop1942–1944 · Norway & the Arctic
A threat from the fjords. Convoys, hidden submarines and the long campaign against Tirpitz.
Read at your own pace. Follow a ship across its service, see what its weapons could do, or look closer at an original document.
Explore the connected profiles →