Spot on.
Captain Edward Kennedy was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches for his unequal fight against both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during which his ship, the Armed Merchant cruiser Rawalpindi was sunk. She mounted the grand total of eight six inch guns against eighteen eleven inch on the German vessels.
Considering that the captain of HMS Jervis Bay got the VC for a similar action I wonder if Kennedy was a little short changed.

By 1941 the Royal Navy was routinely taking to sea better quality Radar, ( they still called it RDF) than the Kreigsmarine. German radar development at sea lagged well behind that of the British. As Moggy mentioned earlier, at Matapan the British battleships sat quite calmly watching the range come down as the Italian cruisers approached, just waiting for the right moment. When they eventually opened fire the Italians were caught completely unawares.
Graf Spee carried an early, experimental form, of Seetakt radar which was of no advantage on the day because visibilty exceeded the range of the radar set. Also, throughout the war, the Kreigsmarine was extremely cautious about using Seetakt, ( which they did not significantly develop), because they feared the possibility that detection equipment on allied warships might pick up radar transmissions and use them to home in on enemy vessels; when Scharnhorst was engaged by the cruiser Norfolk at North Cape she was caught with her guns trained fore and aft and unaware of the presence of British ships. As luck would have it, Norfolk’s first, radar aimed, salvo took out Scharnhorst’s own, switched off radar. Later, Duke of York would engage Scharnhorst almost entirely using her type 284 gunnery radar to spot for her guns. Conversely, the radar operators, as in Hood at Denmark Strait, could call the incoming shells from the opposition as they saw them approach on that same radar.
At the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the crews in Bismark and Prinz Eugen were aware for some time of the approach of British ships; they could hear them on their hydrophones, but they didn’t spot them on radar, (switched off for the reason given earlier). The British, on the other hand, detected the Germans earlier on radar but Admiral Holland was forced by circumstance to make a slower approach than he had originally intended because Norfolk and Suffolk temporarily lost contact with Bismark and couldn’t provide homing information.
Holland’s original intention was to close the range fast, then turn to slug it out once Hood was safe from plunging fire which might easily pierce her deck armour. Sadly he was instead forced into a compromise which slowed his rate of approach and exposed Hood for longer than he wished. He had literally just amended his plan and signalled an alteration of course to open up the arcs of fire for his after turrets when Hood received her fatal damage.
Couple of points: many naval tacticians have speculated that a better course of action would have been for Holland to close in fast with Hood and leave the better armoured Prince of Wales to exchange fire at long range, thus splitting the German response. Instead he chose to manoeuvre his ships as a force, a cumbersome move. Also, the British misidentified the German ships and fired upon the leading vessel which was standard practice for them; unfortunately the leading ship was Prinz Eugen and so Bismark was left unchallenged at first; again the mistake was spotted but corrected too late.
The Germans were acutely conscious of the presence, in their rear so to speak, of the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk and expected them to take a hand; they did not and it’s an interesting thought as to what might have happened if they had. Their job, as far as Admiral Holland was concerned, was to shadow and report and this is what they did and as things turned out, just as well.
Remember too that radar had a detection range very much less than visual under most conditions and both Suffolk and Norfolk were inside Bismark’s gun range for a lot of the time that they were shadowing. Given their almost non existent deck armour that’s a sobering thought.
Finally, one of the British ships, sentiment likes to suggest it was Hood, scored a telling hit on Bismark. The latter’s forward fuel transfer valves were knocked out and so several hundred vital tons of fuel became inaccessible. This dictated Admiral Lutjens future moves and forced him to turn for the French coast. And that, in no small measure, was the reason that Force H with Ark Royal’s swordfish, were able to slow her up for the Home Fleet to finish her off; an interesting study in cause and effect.
Best account of the story? In my humble opinion, ‘Pursuit’ by Ludovic Kennedy. Terrific and unbiased account written by an outstanding journalist who served in one of the destroyers involved in the chase.

Perhaps the fact that the bell is going to form a memorial, with the sanction of MOD, is relevant.

Believe so, Charlie.
Everyone has a favourite line from ‘Minder’. Mine comes from a Christmas special, (I think), when fir some reason a boat was required. Arthur, spying the craft for the first time, says, “Ah, Purse e fone! Nice name!”
I cannot begin to explain why, but this cracked me up then and does still. I simply cannot think of Persephone any other way.

Fingers cautiously crossed.
Just hope the syndrome mentioned in Wokka’s comment isn’t about to rear it’s ugly head!

Now this is sad news indeed. Loved all the things I ever saw him in. Anyone remember ‘Cottage to Let? A positive who’s who of British character acting. George Cole, ( a child role), Alistair Sym, Leslie Banks and John Mills, (as a baddie!).
Lovely film and all the above among my favourites.
RIP, George. You gave pleasure to millions.

Yup!
Oh, the folly of youth!

Hmm, if I had a quid for every time I have been faced with a ‘True Brit’ who, usually in loud tones and accompanied by table thumping, announced that, ‘if I woz a *****ing foreigner you’d give me a house now!’
Hacks me off, I can tell you. It doesn’t work like that. Wasters come in all shapes and sizes, British and not. Everyone who sits in front of me gets the same level of polite service, even after the, ‘I know where you live’ threat.