The Mighty HMS HOOD 1918-1941

HMS Hood was the pride of the Royal Navy.To all intents, HMS Hood was considered to be one of the most powerful battlecruisers afloat in World War Two.
However, the Hood suffered from one major flaw -- she did not have the same amount of armour as the Bismarck.
She was one of four Admiral-class battlecruisers ordered in mid-1916 under the Emergency War Programme.

Construction of Hood began at the John Brown & Company shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland, on 1 September 1916.

She was launched on 22 August 1918 by the widow of Rear-Admiral Sir Horace Hood a great-great-grandson of the famous Lord Hood for whom the ship was named and who was killed while commanding the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron and flying his flag in HMS Invincible - one of the three battlecruisers which blew-up at the Battle of Jutland.
After fitting out and trials, she was commissioned on 15 May 1920, under Captain Wilfred Tomkinson, C.B. and became flagship of the British Atlantic Fleet's Battle Cruiser Squadron.
She had cost £6,025,000 to build. With her conspicuous twin funnels and lean profile.HMS Hood was widely considered a very graceful warship.

On May the 24th 1941, the two titans located each other.

At 05.52 AM on the 24th May 1941 Hood opened fire on Bismarck.Two minutes later,DKM Bismarck responded to Hood's gunfire and the Battle of Denmark Strait began.

At 06.00, a gigantic explosion with a thunderous flame ripped the Hood into two and Hood dissappeared.
In less than ten minutes of battle, Hood was lost.Only 3 men survived and more than 1400 died aboard the battlecruiser.

Hood was very powerful, fast and beatiful ship. She had 8 X 38 cm. main guns and a top speed of 31 knots but her armor was not as thick as a battleship armor.When Bismarck's heavy 38 cm. shells hit and penetrated her citadel armor and detonated inside an ammunition store, this battlecruiser' s end came quickly.

Within 1-2 minutes, the massive 48.360 ton battlecruiser sunk due to a thunderous explosion. But the British people never forgot their brave battlecruiser.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• bismarck
• Royal
• Navy
• Sink
• HMS
• Hood
• sunk
• battleship
• German
• WWII
• war
• Silent
• Hunter
• III
• pursuit
• 1941
• Battle
• Denmark
• Strait

[nialltommy13]

why are all the comments flagged?

[dazaro3]

@nialltommy13

Not sure ,they where all fine the other day,i will look into it.

[menknurlan]

the mighty hood....Till it was blown up by the Bismarck^^

[TheFflynnie]

my great uncle went down with the Hood, great video they will never be forgotten.

[SuperAncientmariner]

What figging idiot has flagged the entries. Some Frog no doubt.

[SuperAncientmariner]

@tmmitzzie It is, taken from the flight deck of Ark Royal. The stern of Warspite to the left.

[JBC814]

@SuperAncientmariner Yes, the Queen was related to the Kaiser and the Czar of Russia, I believe, as well. Unfortunately, she did not use her influence very much to persuade her gov't to accept Germany as a partner in world affairs, and the Kaiser was not communicating the same to the Queen, I presume, so relations remained strained. Buchanan explains it rather well in his book "Unnecessary Wars". The Queen did not realize that Britain's empire fizzled out when George lost the States.

[JBC814]

@SuperAncientmariner One year later and I've nothing new to add, except that I remember reading a passage in Buchanan's "Unnecessary Wars" that stated there was an agreement between all the Naval powers that limited Germany's force to 2/3's the size of Britain's before WW1. However, I haven't found the quote again in order to confirm that info, seems I've misplaced the book and shall have to check the library for it. In any case, the Kaiser was, of course, displeased about it.

[Digmen1]

@JBC814

I don't think there were any restrictions on fleet size before WWI

There was a treaty after WWI

Germany wanted a bigger fleet to project naval power.

Britain just kept building more ships to keep its navy bigger than Germany and France combined. - "We want eight and we won't wait!"

[ReinikeVoss]

HMS Hood and the Bismarck were wonderful ships with wonderful crews. The battle is sad and never should have happened.