At the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941, was sunk, probably by "Bismarck". The hydrophones on "Prinz Eugen" detected a foreign ship to port at 05:00. The Germans sighted the smokestacks of two ships at 05:45, which the first gunnery officer Lieutenant Commander Adalbert Schneider initially reported as two heavy cruisers. The first British salvo revealed them to be battleships, but not until the British task force turned to port was their precise identity revealed. The British ships started firing at the German task force at 05:53. Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland planned on targeting "Bismarck" first, but due to the reversed German battle order, "Hood" opened fire on the "Prinz Eugen" instead. The German task force was still waiting for the order to commence firing, which Admiral Lütjens did not give immediately. Two minutes later, after multiple inquiries by Schneider, ""? (Permission to open fire?), an impatient Lindemann responded: "" (I'm not letting my ship get shot out from under my arse. Open fire!) At 06:01, the fifth salvo by "Bismarck", fired at a range of about , was seen to hit "Hood" abreast her mainmast. It is likely that one shell struck somewhere between Hood's mainmast and 'X' turret aft of the mast. A huge jet of flame burst out from "Hood" from the vicinity of the mainmast. This was followed by a devastating magazine explosion that destroyed the aft part of the ship. This explosion broke the back of "Hood", and she sank in only three minutes, her nearly vertical bow last to descend into the water.