Paul Allen.

It was one of the most memorable and tragic of naval events of World War II ... the sinking of battleship HMS Hood, pride of the Royal Navy, by the Bismark.

What shocked Malta and the world was how quickly the Hood went down

In an instant, at 0553, on the morning of May 24, 1941, Britain lost the symbolic flagship of its Mediterranean fleet and 1,415 men. Only three crewmen survived.

It was the biggest loss of life suffered by any British warship in naval history. It split in half and sank ... all in the space of three minutes.

Until that moment the Hood, which had been refitted in Malta, had seemed invincible.

At 41,200 tons and 860ft seven inches long, it had been the largest and most prestigious fighting machine in the world.

And now, as it rusts on the seabed, philanthropist Paul Allen, the flamboyant billionaire Microsoft co-founder, is determined to remember the men who died.

He has offered his private multi-million euro yacht Octopus to be used free of charge in a bid to recover the bell of the mighty battlecruiser so it can be used as a monument to their memory.

A preliminary deep-sea investigation of the wreckage by diving company Blue Water Recoveries has discovered the bell near the ship’s hull where it went down in the Denmark Strait.

The sinking followed one of the most famous sea engagements of World War II and has been the topic of books, films and TV documentaries.

What shocked Malta and the world was how quickly the Hood went down ... unlike today there was no black box counting down her final, fatal seconds. Finding out exactly what had happened was a difficult task.

Finally, two subsequent Admiralty Boards of Inquiry concluded that one or more 15”/38cm shell from Bismarck penetrated the battlecruiser causing an explosion in her aft magazines.

The blast broke the ship’s back and caused her to split in half. The stern sank immediately, followed by the bow shortly after ... and all in 180 seconds.

Last year Paul Allen gave $372.6 million to a variety of foundations supporting the arts, culture, education and social service programmes.