It was evident to Lutjens and Captain Helmuth Brinkmann that Prinz Eugen was not long for this world. The torpedoes had already flooded the forward boiler room forcing it to be evacuated, coupled with damage from the hit to amdiships from Norfolk this caused irreparable damage to Prinz Eugens machinery. As a result Prinz Eugen couldn’t maintain speed with Bismarck and was a liability to Lutjens by this point. Brinkmann, however, was not planning on going down without a fight. With Lutjens best wishes, Brinkmann ordered Prinz Eugen to turn towards the British fleet, Brinkmann vowing to “fight on to the last man and shell, long live the Fuhrer, long live the 3rd reich”
For a ship that was heavily damaged, Prinz Eugen came out swinging. Since the last engagement with Repulse and Norfolk, her damage control teams had restored “Bruno” turret to operation and “Anton” turret was also operational, albeit jammed 45 degrees to port. She also managed to surprise Admiral Wake-Walker by her sudden abrupt turn, throwing the British forces off their feet for a moment. Within moments Prinz Eugen fired at HMS Norfolk which was now the leading ship in the British formation. A salvo of 8 inch shells rained down on Norfolk, straddling the British cruiser. The next salvo found its mark, two 8 inch shells slammed into Norfolks forward superstructure, killing Admiral Wake-Walker and the majority of his staff, as well as Captain Alfred J. L. Phillips. Another salvo came in, 2 shells straddling the ship and a 3rd impacting the top of “A” turret, knocking it out and nearly starting a fire in the handling rooms below. By this time however, Norfolk was already fring back, using secondary rangefinders or turret rangefinders, since the main rangefinder and radar set was smashed to bits. Prince of Wales and Repulse were also sending salvos down range, 14 inch and 15 inch shells rained down all around and hitting the Prinz Eugen. A salvo of 14 inch shells obliterated Prinz Eugens forward superstructure and bridge, this was followed by 15 inch shells destroying “Caesar” and “Dora” turrets. By 3:30 AM, Prinz Eugen was a burning, sinking wreck. 20 minutes later the German heavy cruiser capsized, soon followed by an explosion as the fires breached the magazines.
While Prinz Eugen had been busy with the British, Bismarck had attempted to slip away. Fortunately one of Wake-Walker's final acts was to order HMS Suffolk to split off from his force and continue to shadow Bismarck, just before Prinz Eugens shells started raining down around him. So Suffolk, with the help of radar, shadowed Bismarck from a relatively safe distance.
Earlier, after his first engagement with Repulse and PoW, Lutjens had reported to Berlin his status, including how the British ships had damaged his ship and how they were harassing him, making it difficult to return to Nazi controlled waters. The loss of Prinz Eugen only made matters worse. Needless to say, Hitler, upon receiving bad news after bad news, was not pleased. Launching into a legendary irate rant about the ineptitude and cowardice of the Kriegsmarine. Especially when it was evident that the possibility Germanys newest battleship may be very well lost on her maiden voyage.
