Tuesday - May 24, 2005

In Memorium:  H.M.S. HOOD

BATTLE OF THE DENMARK STRAIT
HMS HOOD OPENS FIRE
24 MAY 1941
by Marii Chernev

http://www.milartgl.com/HTML_2/hms_hood_opens_fire.htm

Battle cruiser Hood, popularly known in the Royal Navy as the “Mighty Hood,” was the largest warship in the world on commissioning in 1920.  She was perhaps the ultimate symbol of British imperial strength between the wars, and at the outbreak of World War II, she was likely the most famous warship afloat.

Hood possessed the fine lines of the battle cruiser that she was, slender, long-hulled and elegant.  Many still consider her the most beautiful capital ship ever built.  Her main armament of eight 15-inch guns placed her, in terms of hitting-power, on a par with the strongest battleships of her day, and her power plant gave her a speed on trials of 32 knots.  This made her the fastest capital ship of her day, faster by seven knots than the Royal Navy’s fastest battleships, the Queen Elizabeth class.

At the outbreak of World War II, Hood was still among the world’s fastest capital ships.  However, she bore the insufficient protection of the battle cruiser that she was, and on 24 MAY 1941 in the Battle of Denmark Strait against the Bismarck, Hood paid the price within minutes of opening fire.

Capital ship designers always had to arrive at a compromise involving the weight and space requirements for offensive power (armament), defensive power (primarily armor), speed (power plant), and sea-keeping ability (accommodations for the crew and the supplies necessary to sustain the ship at sea, particularly fuel).  Until the advent of the fast battleship classes of the World War II period, battleships were typically built to stress offensive and defensive power at the expense of speed.

The battle cruiser, however, was designed to stress offensive power and speed at the expense of defensive power, i.e., protection.  It was thought that the speed of the battle cruiser, which would make it a more difficult gunnery target, could provide it with as much protection, for all practical purposes, as a heavy citadel of armor.

At Jutland, however, three battle cruisers (Invincible, Queen Mary, Indefatigable) paid the price for this reasoning.  All blew up when German shells penetrated their inadequate armor protection and reached their magazines.

Hood was building at the time (May 1916), and her construction was halted and her design altered, in order to incorporate the lessons of Jutland.  Hood’s armor was considerably strengthened, but mostly on her sides, as opposed to her decks.  Her comparatively weak deck armor, in the end, was her Achilles heel.

The highlight of Hood’s career in the interwar period was her famed “Empire cruise” in 1923-24.  This cruise took Hood to the Far East, Australia, Hawaii, the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada, among other places.

While at Hawaii, Hood’s commanding admiral learned that a Boy Scout bound for a convention in Denmark had missed passage to the mainland, and he gave the lad free passage aboard Hood, earning wide commendation in the American press.  Hood’s visit to San Francisco commanded national press attention, and so did her transit of the Panama Canal, on her way back into the Atlantic.

Valuable as such cruises were to the imperial image and strength, Hood served her country in another crucial way between the wars.  As Ernle Bradford notes in his biography of the ship, The Mighty Hood (Cleveland: World Publishing, 1959), “…thousands of officers and men…were taught the seaman’s trade in the Hood during those years…The body of trained men which such a ship gave as a legacy to the nation was well worth…her upkeep.  If the Hood had been scrapped before the next war broke out she would still have paid her way.”

Hood served with the Home and Atlantic Fleets until 1936, when she was transferred to the “Med.” During the Spanish Civil War, Hood acted to protect British shipping endangered by the combatants.  She was due for a major refit in 1939, including the removal of her 600-ton conning tower and improvements to her deck armor.  But with too few capital ships available, and with war clouds darkening Europe, she could not be spared.

On the outbreak of war, Hood was based at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands, with the Home Fleet.  In June 1940 she was allocated to Force H, based at Gibraltar under Admiral James Somerville, and assigned to take over duties in the western “Med” formerly borne by the French Navy.  Force H’s first task was a distressing one, a task to neutralize (and in the event, destroy) a French squadron based at Oran in Algeria, in order to keep it from falling into German hands.  In this engagement, on 3 JUL 1940, the elderly battleship Bretagne was blown up, and battleships Provence and Dunkerque badly damaged.

After several months in the “Med,” Hood returned to Scapa Flow and the Home Fleet, and on 19 MAY 1941 she sailed with the brand-new battleship Prince of Wales (King George V class, ten 14” guns) to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and her consort cruiser, Prinz Eugen, on their attempted breakout into the North Atlantic.  Based on reports signaled by cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk, which had picked up Bismarck on her way through Denmark Strait, Admiral Holland in Hood made contact with Bismarck in Denmark Strait on the morning of 24 MAY 1941.

Admiral Holland ordered his ships to close the range, and shortly before 0600 both sides opened fire.  Bismarck’s fifth salvo hit the Hood amidships, piercing her inadequate deck armor and penetrating a secondary armament magazine.  Its detonation touched off the after main armament magazine, resulting in a catastrophic explosion which tore the ship in half.  The wreckage sank in a matter of minutes.  Of Hood’s crew of over 1400 men, there were only three survivors.

The shock of Hood’s loss stunned Britain, as if a pillar of the Empire itself had been knocked away.  Prime Minister Churchill instantly gave destruction of the Bismarck priority over every other operation, and the Royal Navy mounted the epic pursuit of the Bismarck that culminated in her loss, and the removal of a dire threat to the North Atlantic supply lifeline that sustained Britain.

For more information, visit the HMS Hood Society at http://www.hmshood.com.

Posted by Tannenberg     on 05/24/2005 at 01:49 PM   
Filed Under: • War-Stories •  
• Comments (17) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner