The sinking of the 'Bismarck', 27 May 1941, c.1941 (oil on canvas)

Creator: Charles E. Turner The culmination of a famous episode during the Second World War, 1939-1945, when the battleship 'Bismarck' was running for shelter in the occupied French port of Brest. She and the heavy cruiser 'Prinz Eugen' had sailed from Kiel in the Baltic on 18 May 1941, aiming to break out into the Atlantic and threaten British convoys. However, an air sighting as they refuelled near Bergen led to a massive naval and air operation to prevent this. In the painting 'Bismarck' is shown wallowing in the sea, in starboard-bow view, listing to port. There is a huge hole in her fo'c'sle from which flames and smoke are pouring. 'Dorsetshire' is in the right background in port-broadside view, about to launch torpedoes.