[DemonDeac]

I took it to mean a small arms battle.

[Jeff Head]

There were small arms battles in WW II on the high seas. ie. with PT boats and the likes against small Japanese vessels, and even off the coast of Eurpoe.

But what the artcile said was a "shoot out", and if the battles leading up to the sinking of the Bismark (ie. the loss of the Hood) was not a shoot out, there never was one.