HMS Hood (51)

History of the HMS Hood (51)

HMS Hood has been the pride of the Royal Navy for over two decades. Built at the end of World War I, at the height of the global maritime arms race, she circumnavigated the world between World Wars only to serve again in World War II. Despite her speed and firepower, she was ill-equipped to deal with the German Navy's newest artillery, and age had begun to take its toll on her structure. On May 24, 1941, during the naval battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was lost at sea after being entangled with the mighty German battleship Bismarck. The British public proudly referred to their ship as "The Mighty Hood", a one-of-a-kind ship and the most powerful and largest of her time.

She fought under the motto "Ventis Secundis" ("Tailwind") and was deployed under the delta flag "51".

HMS Hood vs Mackenson

HMS Hood, considered the capital ship of her Admiral-class battleships, ranked fourth overall, designed to counter the upcoming German battlecruiser McKenson, was under construction at the time. Mackenson would also lead four powerful battlecruisers, including Graf Spee, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, and First Bismarck. However, the German Navy's precedent at the time was to focus production on the fearsome U-boats.

As a result, Mackenson and her ilk remained unfinished until the end of the warall her classes were unfinished, and she became the last battlecruiser to be ordered for Germany. The rest of the four were disbanded shortly after the breakup of Germany under the Treaty of Versailles.

The Battle of Jutland revealed a weakness

The Battle of Jutland exposed some weaknesses in British battlecruiser design, resulting in the loss of three such ships in battle. The fighting began on May 31, 1916 and ended on June 1. The battle, centered in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark, failed to win a victory between the Royal British Empire and the German Imperial Navy. By the end of the conflict, the Battle of Jutland was recorded as the largest single naval battle of World War I - 28 Royal Navy battleships against 16 Imperial Navy battleships, plus several battlecruisers, destroyers and small ships present.

In the end, 6,094 Royal Navy sailors were killed, joined by 2,551 German sailors on the other side. Hundreds of people were injured or arrested in the riots.

The key to the German side was the loss of three British battlecruisers (due to subsequent internal magazine explosions) and the loss of eight destroyers of one German battlecruiser.

Compensation for past mistakes

As a result, the HMS Hood's design was modified to incorporate around 5,000 tons of additional armor (over a quarter of the final product's displacement) and struts to protect her life force from more powerful main guns . Her main belt is 12 inches thick, while her middle belt has 7 inches of armor. Her upper waistband is 5" long, except for the 4" guard at the rear.

Plating along the main deck was done very late in the construction of the hood. Their forward-facing turrets boast up to 15 inches of armor, while their sides are up to 12 inches. Their tops are limited to 5 inches of protection.

Torpedo protection was addressed by the then common practice of "torpedo bulges" along her lower hull - this consisted of an empty hull space, further supported by rebar. During testing, it was determined that the hood could barely provide adequate armor protection for the next range of weapon calibers and projectiles under development. Additionally, their armor design would prove to be very susceptible to "diving fire," i.e. enemy fire coming in from above rather than the side.

Still, the hood was allowed to exist because at that point, there was no turning back for its construction.

Wrong direction

While this armament address was a novel attempt, the final product turned out to be a rather hasty modification that never fully achieved full protection of the ship - let alone made it a heavier than initially expected Virgo. She had a three-deck layout, assuming the upper deck would contain and delay the detonation of any incoming shells. However, by the end of World War I, delayed fuze projectiles became the norm, rendering the three-deck theory more or less useless.

Delayed fuze projectiles can penetrate the upper deck but still explode below deck, close to vital parts of the ship, eventually sinking or paralyzing it. As a result, the hood sits lower than expected in the water and always puts a lot of pressure on her landing gear.

Despite these shortcomings, the boat was pushed into the water and surveyed satisfactorily.

The Birth of the Hood

The HMS Hood was ordered along with three other sister battlecruisers as part of the Admiral class as part of an emergency war program during World War I. In addition to Hood, there are HMS Anson, HMS Howe and HMS Rodney. However, construction of the three ships was quickly halted in March 1917, although work on the hoods was allowed to continue. It was clear that any future work by the Germans on their own battlecruisers was seriously challenged given the changing nature of warfare. The HMS Hood was ordered on 7 April 1916 and laid later that year in Clydebank, Scotland by shipyard John Brown & Company. She was launched on August 22, 1918, and officially commissioned on May 15, 1920.

She wears the same clothes as Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, who is remembered for his service in the American and French Wars of Independence, and who himself was a mentor to Horatio Nelson in the Napoleonic Wars . The widow of Rear Admiral Sir Horace Hood - the great-grandson of Lord Hood - was the sponsor. Captain Wilfred Tomkinson took the helm as her first commander, and HMS Hood became the flagship of the battlecruiser squadron of the British Empire Atlantic Fleet.

In 1920, her first trip took her to Scandinavia, then to Brazil, and finally to the West Indies.

Tour the HMS hood

As far as ships go, the HMS Hood is a majestic design. She had two funnels above the midship superstructure, with the bridge just ahead of them. Her bow is clean, relatively uncluttered, and streamlined for maximum efficiency required to traverse the fickle Atlantic waters. Forward of her bridge are a pair of 4 x 2 BL 15" (381 mm) Mark I/42 guns (standard on Royal Navy capital ships), and the aft system is raised above the bow for unobstructed views.

Likewise, there are a pair of 15-inch turrets in the stern, for a total of 8 15-inch guns on this large ship. Each turret has sloping side armor and flat upward armor, with at least 120 projectiles per turret. Backing this primary weapon are no fewer than a dozen individually mounted BL 5.5" (140 mm) Mk I series guns. Anti-aircraft defense is provided by 4 x QF 4" (102 mm) Mark V series guns.

To counter the threat of enemy surface ships, Hood was equipped with 6 x 21 in (533 mm) Mark IV torpedo tubes, which were mounted midship on the starboard and port sides for maximum effectiveness. HMS Hood was known to be a powerhouse of the Royal Navy during her tenure, one of the most powerful warships of her era, not to mention the largest watership of the time and the longest (by length) serving capital ship.

Hood The HMS combines battleship-like firepower with cruiser-like speed, often leading many to question whether she is a true "battlecruiser", while according to some she is more of a "fast battleship".

Available Ammo

Various types of projectiles are available to the crew of each gun cell. These include the standard 1,920-pound Common Pointer (CPC) round and the Armor Piercing Cap (APC) round of equal weight. Practice rounds are available, albeit in smaller numbers, and shrapnel-based projectiles are even fewer - and these only feed the front turret.

All guns, including 5.5" systems, have an elevation range of -5 to +30 degrees.

On board

During her tenure, USS Hood used a variety of carrier-based aircraft for patrol missions. Originally, this appeared in the 1920s in the form of traditional biplane (fixed landing gear) naval aircraft, which were later replaced by specialized seaplane types in the early 1930s.

The seaplane was launched via a positioning catapult mounted on the quarter deck. It will then complete its reconnaissance mission and return to the waters alongside the ship. The ship's crane will then tow the seaplane back to the ship for reuse.

The catapult was later dropped from the design in 1932 due to the Hood's lower waterline at high speed and at sea.

Hood Tour

During the interwar period, the Hood spent most of her time at sea doing standard overseas power tours. From late 1923 to late 1924, she was part of the "Special Services Squadron Cruise" - a multi-ship global cruise. After the cruise, she was assigned to the Atlantic and Home Fleet in 1925. She was overhauled from May 17, 1929 to June 16, 1930, with an upcoming modernization program planned for sometime in 1941. In the second half of September 1931, her crew took part in the "Invergordon Mutiny" as part of a military campaign to combat defense cuts in the Royal Navy during the Great Depression.

The strike lasted two full days and affected more than 1,000 Royal Navy sailors. The overhaul added a new 15" APC cartridge to its strength, but did not receive the necessary gun modifications to fire the cartridge before it ended.

As tensions across Spain erupted into a full-scale civil war, Hood was deployed to the Mediterranean to help protect British interests in the region.

Retrofit does not stop the aging process

For many years, the pride of the Royal Navy, Anning alluded to the Hood, who was forced to maintain a presence at sea almost every month. As a result, her structure and internal systems were never allowed to be completely replaced or restored to their original original operating condition.

In 1931, two octets were added for the QF 2-pdr Mark VIII 40mm gun. In 1933, 2 quads were added for the .50 caliber Vickers Mark III heavy machine gun. As World War II engulfed Europe in the second half of the 1930s, HMS Hood left in July 1936, deploying uninterruptedly in the Mediterranean. In 1937 her QF 4" Mark V guns were added as 4 x twin QF 4" L/45 Mark XVI guns. Three Mark XIX mounts replaced the remaining 4" single guns and added a third QF 2-pdr Mark VIII 40mm gun, also in 1937.

In 1937 it also added an additional 2 x .50 Caliber mounts, as well as missile auxiliary cables, were designed to capture low-flying enemy aircraft. In June 1939, she was part of the Home Fleet battlecruiser squadron in Scapa Flow. All-out war with Germany followed.

1940's Another overhaul removed her 5.5-inch guns, two of which ended up as coastal fortifications on Ascension Island between Africa and Brazil.

Their primary role initially was to provide defense for the important convoys needed on the Continent. This defense would roam the waters with enemy aircraft, surface ships and fearsome German submarines.

During one operation, an aircraft bomb successfully hit the hood but caused minor damage to her structure. Their early patrols placed them near Iceland and attempted to contain the German fleet in the Atlantic.

give up, otherwise

When France was invaded by Germany in June 1940, Britain had reason to fear that the remaining French fleet would soon be under the power of advancing German and Italian armies. In July 1940, the French fleet docked at the port of Mers-el-Kebir (Algeria), and the British Admiralty ordered French sailors to destroy their ships before they fell into enemy hands.

The British government understands that it can rival the German navy to a certain extent, but that the German navy's drag with the French navy could trump the island nation -- making it harder to derail or defend against a British island invasion. Meetings between French and British commanders did little to resolve the issue. Over time, British leader Winston Churchill forced the captain of HMS Hood - Captain C.S.

Holland - to issue an ultimatum to dutifully end the situation before it was too late. When the initial period of surrender ended, HMS Hood furiously fired her cannons on the moored (and unsuspecting) French fleet for the first time in her history.