A macabre ending to the Denmark Straits battle

Denmark Straits, HMS Hood and Prince of Wales meet KMS Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. The RN cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk are in the area, but too far away to have a good view of the battle. They report a few garbled radio dispatches, and four large visible explosions over a period of 10 minutes. Rushing to the scene they find little wreckage and only a handful of survivors. The survivors know little of what happened.

How might this outcome affect the war, naval theory, and history?

I consider this to be a very low probability but still possible result of the battle.
 

Germaniac

Donor
Well the destruction of the Hood caused a serious amount of stress with the British people. The loss of BOTH the Hood and the brand new battleship will be extremely damning. While the loss of the Bismark happened anyway, the loss of the Eugen will be upsetting to Hitler but he will be too upset over the Bismark to care
 

Orry

Donor
Monthly Donor
Sounds like the Aliens in my time line have been in action :)

Be interesting to see what the new force Z would look like in 1941.

The loss of the dockyard workers on PoW might cause knock on effects.
 
After WWII the mystery results in several bestsellers, perhaps even some films. It get a lot of people interested in Naval History...and perhaps someone finds the wrecks and begins studying them.
 
Denmark Straits, HMS Hood and Prince of Wales meet KMS Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. The RN cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk are in the area, but too far away to have a good view of the battle. They report a few garbled radio dispatches, and four large visible explosions over a period of 10 minutes. Rushing to the scene they find little wreckage and only a handful of survivors. The survivors know little of what happened.

How might this outcome affect the war, naval theory, and history?

I consider this to be a very low probability but still possible result of the battle.

Conspiracy theories ensue about the naval battle that ended in a bloody draw. Rumors go around Britain that the destruction of the Prince of Wales and the Hood was an inside job. The SS, convinced that someone had set explosives on the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen before they set off, go on a rampage to try to root out those responsible.

Be interesting to see what the new force Z would look like in 1941.

No difference there- It still gets screwed over by Japanese aircraft unless Admiral Philips approached the situation with caution. If he is really lucky (which I doubt), the Admiralty may just deploy another battleship to replace the Prince of Wales.
 
One problem in this scenario is the mentioning of both British heavy cruisers out of sight, while they actually were essential to keep a watch on the German ships BEFORE any engagement of heavy units could take place. Both HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales carried radar, but both of inferior type, compared to HMS Suffolk, while HMS Norfolk followed the German squadron within gunrange of her own 8 inch battery, since she kept a vissible sighting contact. (Vissibility at the OTL 24th of may 1941 was propably less than 10 miles, since that was about the range the first sighting occured of the British battlegroup by the Germans.)

So at least HMS Norfolk, who actually in the OTL fired several salvo's at the German squadron, while the HMS Hood engaged, would be within range to see what was going to happen.
 
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