Hell-bent on destroying the neighbourhood
Glasgow Times, 4 August 2022. Headline about fires caused by vandals in Glasgow
Usage
The phrase hell-bent on doing something means "determined to do something". Athletes are hell-bent on winning gold. Young entrepreneurs are hell-bent on making their business a success. They will do everything in their power to make sure they reach their goals, whatever the cost.
It is a phrase that suggests great determination, extreme single-mindedness and a certain "all-or-nothing" approach. It can also imply recklessness — someone who's hell-bent on doing something tends to ignore the risks involved in their actions.
"Hell-bent on" can be used critically or ironically, especially with the verb "seem". Drug addicts seem hell-bent on destroying their own lives. In the news story quoted above, young vandals seem hell-bent on destroying a playground in their own neighbourhood.
In German, you could say someone is wild entschlossen, etwas zu tun or völlig versessen or ganz wild auf etwas. But, as always, the translation depends on the context. In sentence A for example, you could use two different phrases in German: er setzt alles daran, die Firma wieder aufzubauen - und sinnt unerbittlich auf Rache.
Background
Although it is rarely used in modern English, "bent on doing something" means "determined to do it". The addition of the word "hell" before "bent" gives the expression a sense of evil or danger. In times gone by, witches were often described as being "hell-bent" - meaning that they were "driven by the devil". The first-recorded use of the phrase was in 1731.