HMS Mashona was returning from the Bismarck operation at economical speed because the destroyers were short of fuel when German reconnaissance found them south of Ireland. Repeated bomber attacks initially missed, but a bomb with a visibly bent fin penetrated her forward boiler room and wrecked the surrounding bulkheads. The crew fought flooding for about forty-five minutes before the captain ordered abandon ship during a lull in the attacks. Mashona's resistance did not end there: Tartar's torpedo failed to sink her, and the destroyers Sherwood and St. Clair finally had to finish the crippled ship with gunfire. Her loss connects fuel endurance, air attack, damage control, and the stubborn buoyancy of the Tribal design.
Chapter · 1:55:47-1:58:57
Mashona's loss after the Bismarck operation
Mashona's destruction on the fuel-limited return from the Bismarck hunt shows how one bomb could overwhelm a hard-used destroyer far from safety.