Hood

Design

The inception of what was to become HMS Hood began as a request to the Director of Naval Construction to design a class of ships that would succeed the Queen Elizabeth-class super dreadnoughts and would incorporate the latest design of underwater torpedo protection. After a few proposed designs, an intervention by Admiral Jellicoe, the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy, argued a change of the design to that of a battlecruiser, in order to provide a response to the new Mackensen-class battlecruisers being constructed by the Imperial German Navy at the time. After a second round of design proposals that prioritized speed over protection, design “No. 2” as it was known, became selected as the plan for the Admiral-class battlecruisers we know today.

HMS Hood, planned at 860 feet was a long ship by design, as there was an emphasis on hull elongation in order to reduce the drought of the ship – in order to improve underwater integrity – and to increase free-weight freeboard – that had the effect of making her a stable artillery platform. As well, she incorporated the new design of anti-torpedo blisters approved by the Admiralty. A two-layer system – outer layer filled with air and inner layer filled with crushing tubes – in order to both absorb and spread out the shock of explosions. As added security, the blisters were positioned over the oil-fuel cells, which were designed watertight and separate from the rest of the ship. Initially designed, Hood was to have 8 inches of sloped main belt armour and 1.5-2 inches of horizontal protection to match the survivability of the Queen Elizabeth-class. The outcome of the Battle of Jutland necessitated a redesign of Hood’s armour protection. Her belts and barbettes were increased to 12 inches, and her primary decks were increased to 3 inches of thickness.

While it was the apt decision to improve her survivability, history would prove that the measures taken were not adequate. As her ancestors, Hood still possessed deplorable protection against plunging fire; in-fact, Hood did not possess an armoured main deck, only multiple decks of reinforced thickness. This was adequate for shells that used a direct fuse, but not for delayed-fuse shells that came into service by the Second World War. Another inherent fault of British battlecruiser designs: the magazines were placed on top of the shell rooms, which made them a hazard if damaged. In the end, the Hood became another victim of her pedigree.

True to her nature, Hood was a fast ship; rated for 32 knots at top speed. To achieve such speeds, the designers took advantage of her immense size and mounted no less than 24 Admiralty boilers that fed to four multi-geared turbines. She was an innovator; being the first ship in the Royal Navy to use small-tube boilers that gave her more power for less weight. In fact, she generated 30% more power than Renown-class. At 150,000 shaft horsepower, she was the most powerful ship in the world upon her completion. But such performance paid a price: at top speed she was horrendously fuel-inefficient, burning 70 tonnes of fuel per hour.

Hood mounted what was considered the staple of Royal Navy capital ships: eight 15-inch Mark II rifles in four twin-gun turrets, arranged super-firing pairs forward and aft. The Mark II were improved versions of the Mark I; they could elevate up to +30º, to increase range. The 15-inch Mark I are a direct enlargement of the 13.5-inch Mark V rifles. The change in armament reflects a change in priority. The 15-inch guns are trade-in shell velocity for shell weight, believing that penetration will not be compromised due to increased hitting power.

HMS Hood, the lead – and only – ship of the Admiralty-class battlecruisers was laid down 1 September 1916 at John Brown & Co. Shipyards at Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched 22 August 1918, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 15 May 1920. What was revealed was a beautiful amalgamation of old and new: she still retained a tripod mast and hand-operated secondary guns, but also incorporated novelties like a fully enclosed bridge, and fire-control from elevated directors. She also brought back the clipper-bow, something not seen on Royal Navy ships since the 1860s.

Service

Shortly after commissioning, HMS Hood became the flagship of the Battlecruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet. Much of Hood’s service during the 1920’s was goodwill visits, regular patrols and circumnavigations. Hood became the poster ship of the Royal Navy, dubbed “The Mighty Hood”, sailing around the world as the embodiment of British pride and power. She participated in a circumnavigation from east to west via the Panama Canal alongside the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and several Danae-class Cruisers starting November 1923, to return home 10 months later after having visited South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, and several smaller colonies en route. While in Australia in 1924, she escorted the battlecruiser HMAS Australia out to see where she was scuttled, in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty. After visiting Lisbon, Portugal, in 1925 to participate in Vasco da Gama, Hood spent the rest of the decade largely performing winter training and exercises in the Mediterranean.

Hood’s first major refit stretched from 1929 to 1931, resuming her role as flagship of the Battlecruiser Squadron afterwards. Her squadron made a Caribbean cruise in 1932, followed by a brief refit, and then another brief refit in 1934. The first major damage Hood sustained was from an accidental ramming from the battlecruiser HMS Renown in early 1935, resulting in the destruction of her left outer propeller and an 18-inch dent. Following repairs, she was the center of attention at King George V’s Silver Jubilee Fleet Review in August 1935. She was attached to the Mediterranean fleet shortly afterwards, stationed in Gibraltar at the outbreak of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, later being formally transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Hood’s second last refit was in 1937, but while her constant service made her the most battle-worthy fast capital ship in the Royal Navy, her material condition had degraded, and by the mid to late 1930’s she was in bad need of a lengthy overhaul. Her next big modernization was planned for 1941 to bring her up to date with the other modernized WW1-era capital ships, but the outbreak of WWII in 1939 made it impossible to remove her from service.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Hood was assigned to the Home Fleet’s Battlecruiser Squadron, and after the war broke out later that year, she vigorously patrolled the seas around Iceland and the Faroes to protect convoys and intercept German merchant raiders and blockade runners. Hood’s first major combat sortie was her participation in Operation Catapult in 1940; the Destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir. Joining Force H as the flagship alongside the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the results of Hood’s fire upon the French warships is not entirely known, but it is confirmed that she damaged the French battleship Dunkerque enough to force her to beach herself. Hood was later relieved by Renown as the flagship of Force H, after returning to Scapa Flow. Hood was later positioned at Rosyth alongside the battleships HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney, to be in the prime position to intercept a German invasion fleet. Hood sortied from Rosyth twice in 1940, once in late October to intercept the German panzerschiffe Admiral Scheer, and on Christmas Eve to locate the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, but she failed to find either ship.

In January 1941, Hood received what was to be her last refit. Even after this refit she was still in poor condition, but the Royal Navy couldn’t afford to keep in the drydocks for too long until more of the new King George V-class battleships came into service. Hood was ordered to intercept the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau upon completion of her refit, but again was unsuccessful in finding the pair. She patrolled the Bay of Biscay to prevent a breakout from the German ships anchored in Brest, before moving to the Norwegian Sea in April following false reports that the German battleship Bismarck had sailed from Germany. Hood had returned to Scapa Flow by early May, again poised to receive the order to sail again.

On the 24th of May, 1941, that order came. The day before, the heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Suffolk sight the German warships Bismarck and Prinz Eugen in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland. Hood, together with the new commissioned battleship HMS Prince of Wales steamed to intercept the pair of German warships before they can break through to the vulnerable Atlantic. Hood and Prince of Wales sighted Bismarck and Prinz Eugen at 05:37, but the Germans were already aware of their presence. Hood’s fight at the conflict that came to be known at the Battle of the Denmark Strait lasted less than an hour. The British opened fire on the German duo, with the Germans returning fire shortly afterwards, both ships focusing on Hood. Prinz Eugen likely scored the first hit on Hood, striking amidships and starting a large fire from the ready-use ammunition and rockets for her AA guns and UP mountings. At 06:00, Hood turned to bring her full broadside to bear on the Germans, before being struck by Bismarck’s fifth salvo from a range of approximately 16,650 meters. Shortly after, a ginormous jet of flame erupted from the vicinity of the mainmast, before Hood catastrophically exploded with a loss of 1418 men, and three survivors. Prince of Wales, now outnumbered and struggling to fight from a mix of mechanical failures and sustained damage, was forced to withdraw, while Bismarck, not undamaged herself, retreated to German-occupied France. In the duel against infamous Bismarck and her escort Prinz Eugen, the pride and joy of the Royal Navy was lost with nearly all hands, including her captain Ralph Kerr and Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland.

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  Profile drawing of Hood as she was in 1921, in Atlantic Fleet dark grey.

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  Close-up of Hood's aft 15-inch Mark I guns in 1926.

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  Aerial view of Hood in 1924. The two forward gun turrets are visible with their prominent rangefinders projecting from the rear of the turret. Behind the turret is the conning tower surmounted by the main fire-control director with its own rangefinder. The secondary director is mounted on top of the spotting top on the tripod foremast.

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  HMS Hood in Sydney Harbor shortly after arriving with the other ships of the Special Service Squadron, 9 April 1924.

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  Future enemies at peace. Hood (background), Resolution (center), and the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee (foreground), anchored at Portsmouth for King George VI's Coronation, May 1937.

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  Last photograph of Hood, seen from Prince of Wales.

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  Privately owned propeller fragment.