HMS Hood

Lore & Background

Hood was involved in many showing the flag exercises between her commissioning in 1920 and the outbreak of war in 1939, including training exercises in the Mediterranean Sea and a circumnavigation of the globe with the Special Service Squadron in 1923 and 1924. She was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet following the outbreak of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935. When the Spanish Civil War broke out the following year, Hood was officially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until she had to return to Britain in 1939 for an overhaul. By this time, advances in naval gunnery had reduced Hood's usefulness.

She was scheduled to undergo a major rebuild in 1941 to correct these issues, but the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 kept the ship in service without the upgrades. When war with Germany was declared, Hood was operating in the area around Iceland, and she spent the next several months hunting for German commerce raiders and blockade runners between Iceland and the Norwegian Sea. After a brief overhaul of her propulsion system, she sailed as the flagship of Force H, and participated in the destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir.

Return to home waters

Transferred to the Home Fleet shortly afterwards, Hood was dispatched to Scapa Flow, and operated in the area as a convoy escort and later as a defence against a potential German invasion fleet. In May 1941, Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic. On 24 May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded, and sank with the loss of all but 3 of her crew of 1,418.

The Royal Navy conducted two inquiries into the reasons for the ship's quick demise. The first, held soon after the ship's loss, concluded that Hood's aft magazine had exploded after one of Bismarck's shells penetrated the ship's armour. A second inquiry was held after complaints that the first board had failed to consider alternative explanations, such as an explosion of the ship's torpedoes. It was more thorough than the first board but concurred with the first board's conclusion.

Common Misconceptions (Editorial)

Some believe HMS Hood was a battleship, but she was designed and classified as a battlecruiser. Others think her nickname "the largest submarine in the Navy" referred to stealth or diving ability, but it actually came from water constantly flowing over her quarterdeck and into living spaces due to her increased draught.

Why It Matters (Editorial)

HMS Hood endures as a symbol of both the power and the peril of interwar naval design—a fast, imposing warship whose flaws were revealed in tragic loss. Her service history, from hunting German raiders to the controversial assault at Mers-el-Kebir, reflects the Royal Navy’s global reach and difficult decisions during a period of rapid technological and political change.

Reader's Guide

The Admiral-class battlecruisers were designed in response to the German Mackensen-class battlecruisers. The design was revised after the Battle of Jutland to incorporate heavier armour and all four ships were laid down. Only Hood was completed, because the ships were very expensive and required labour and material that could be put to better use building merchant ships. As completed, Hood had an overall length of 860 ft, a maximum beam of 104 ft, and a draught of 32 ft at deep load.

She displaced 42,670 long tons at load and 46,680 long tons at deep load. The ship had a metacentric height of 4.2 ft at deep load. The additional armour added during construction increased her draught by about 4 ft at deep load, which reduced her freeboard and made her very wet, earning her the nickname 'the largest submarine in the Navy'.

The ship's complement varied; in 1919 she was authorised 1,433 men as a squadron flagship; in 1934 she had 81 officers and 1,244 ratings. The Admirals were powered by four Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by 24 Yarrow boilers. The battlecruiser's turbines were designed to produce 144,000 shp, but during sea trials in 1920, Hood's turbines provided 151,280 shp, allowing her to reach 32.07 knots. She carried enough fuel oil to give an estimated range of 7,500 nautical miles at 14 knots.

Armament

The main battery consisted of eight BL 15-inch Mk I guns in hydraulically powered twin gun turrets. The ship's secondary armament consisted of twelve BL 5.5-inch Mk I guns. The original anti-aircraft armament consisted of four QF 4-inch Mk V guns on single mounts. In 1931, a pair of octuple mountings for the 40 mm QF 2-pounder Mk VIII gun 'pom-pom' were added.

Two quadruple mountings for the Vickers 0.5-inch Mk III machine gun were added in 1933. Five unrotated projectile launchers were added in 1940. The Admirals were fitted with six fixed 21-inch torpedo tubes, three on each broadside.

Fire control

The ship's main battery was controlled by two fire-control directors. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the bridge. The anti-aircraft guns were controlled by a simple high-angle 2 m rangefinder. Three torpedo-control towers were fitted, each with a 15 ft rangefinder.