August 4, 2020. HMS Repulse was one of two Renown -class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Their sacrifices were not in vain: Though they were lost, the action in the Denmark Strait did end Bismarck's sortie. THE only three British sailors to have survived the sinking of HMS Hood after an attack by the Nazis have spoken about their terrifying ordeal the day after the 75th anniversary of D-Day. [57], Captain Irvine Glennie assumed command in May 1939 and Hood was assigned to the Home Fleet's Battlecruiser Squadron while still refitting. To request a crew list to view in the reading room, please . Hood Roll of Honour Database. The HMS Hood at Table Bay in Cape Town with the HMS Repulse behind, January 1924. HMS Legion sailed aside her to begin evacuating her 1,487 crew as her list got worse progressively, reaching 27 degrees about 13 hours after the hit. Her 5-inch upper-armour strake would have been removed and her deck armour reinforced. Updated 11-Apr-2022. The Royal Navy were fully aware that the ship's protection flaws still remained, even in her revised design, so Hood was intended for the duties of a battlecruiser and she served in the battlecruiser squadrons through most of her career. It ended peacefully and Hood returned to her home port afterwards. Unsuccessful, she was ordered to patrol the Bay of Biscay against any breakout attempt by the German ships from Brest, France. The stern of the Hood was located, with the rudder still in place, and it was found that this was set to port at the time of the explosion. Hood Association-Battle Cruiser Hood: Crew Information - H.M.S. On paper, Hood retained the same armament and level of protection, while being significantly faster. Victor White trained at HMS Royal Arthur as an Ordinary Telegrapher from 20/07/1943 to 12/08/1943. One of these hits contaminated a good portion of the ship's fuel supply and subsequently caused her to steer for safety in occupied France where she could be repaired. The spectacular end of HMS Hood demonstrated what many in the Royal Navy already knew . The database remains a "work in progress" and records are added to it at regular intervals. At 2002, a message from cruiser HMS Suffolk reported the enemy as one battleship and one cruiser, course 240 degrees, in a position that translated to some 560 kilometers distant and almost directly north of the battlecruiser force. Through their deaths, the resolve of the British Empire was restored with a vengeance. "[70] The first formal board of enquiry into the loss, presided over by Vice-Admiral Sir Geoffrey Blake, reported on 2 June, less than a fortnight after the loss. [43] Her size and powerful armament earned her the nickname of "Mighty Hood" and she came to symbolise the might of the British Empire itself. HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy (RN). Ratings & officers known to have served in Hood, Crew Complements The single guns were removed in mid-1939 and a further three twin Mark XIX mounts were added in early 1940. The Prince of Wales was joined by HMS Hood in a battle of mythical and historical proportions. [28] As completed, Hood remained susceptible to plunging shells and bombs. David Hunt. Hood, Renown and Repulse were deployed to the Bay of Biscay on 5 November to prevent the "pocket battleship" Admiral Scheer from using French ports after she had attacked Convoy HX 84, but the German ship continued into the South Atlantic. [40] In addition, she was grossly overweight compared to her original design, making her a wet ship with a highly stressed structure. The loss of HMS Hood, with 1,400 crew was the Royal Navy's darkest hour. In Jurens's opinion, the popular image of plunging shells penetrating Hood's deck armour is inaccurate, as by his estimation the angle of fall of Bismarck's 15-inch shells at the moment of the loss would not have exceeded about 14, an angle so unfavourable to penetration of horizontal armour that it is actually off the scale of contemporaneous German penetration charts. Updated 01-Jan-2020. As such, it remains a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986. Of the known surviving pieces, one is privately held and another was given by the Hood family to the Hood Association in 2006. The Admiralty dissented from the verdict, reinstated Sawbridge, and criticised Bailey for ambiguous signals during the manoeuvre. When Briggs fought his way to the surface, he could see only two other . [45], Captain John Im Thurn was in command when Hood, accompanied by the battlecruiser Repulse and Danae-class cruisers of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, set out on a world cruise from west to east via the Panama Canal in November 1923. It endorsed this opinion, stating that: (c) (The) probable cause of the loss of HMS Hood was direct penetration of the protection by one or more 15-inch shells at a range of 16,500 yards [15,100m], resulting in the explosion of one or more of the aft magazines.[71]. The official Admiralty communiqu on the loss, broadcast on the day of the sinking, reported that: "during the action, HMS Hood received an unlucky hit in a magazine and blew up. Hood Crew List -H.M.S. Over 40.000 pages on the officers, the boats, technology and the Allied efforts to counter the U-boat threat. HMS Challenger: a trailblazer for modern ocean science 150 years ago, HMS Challenger departed England on a quest to explore the world's oceans. [32], Construction of Hood began at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland, as yard number 460 on 1 September 1916. Force H took part in the destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kbir in July 1940. The Hood had been launched in 1918 and was armed with 8 x 15 inch guns, 12 x 5.5 inch guns, 8 x 4 inch AA guns, 24 x 2 pound guns and [44], Shortly after commissioning on 15 May 1920, Hood became the flagship of the Battlecruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Roger Keyes. Captain Harold Reinold relieved Captain im Thurn on 30 April 1925 and was relieved in turn by Captain Wilfred French on 21 May 1927. The discovery of the ship's wreck in 2001 confirmed the conclusion of both boards, although the exact reason the magazines detonated is likely to remain unknown since that portion of the ship was obliterated in the explosion. Hood was well known as a top sporting ship. But, even in the case of those for whom records are available, relatives often hold far more information about individuals than can be gleaned from the necessarily impersonal nature of their official records. She displaced 42,670 long tons (43,350t) at load and 46,680 long tons (47,430t) at deep load, over 13,000 long tons (13,210t) more than the older ships. Moreover, computer-generated profiles of Hood show that a shell falling at this angle could not have reached an aft magazine without first passing through some part of the belt armour. The Nelson-Class Battleship Pennant number 29, HMS Rodney was one of only two Nelson -class battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1920s. what was the premier league called before; Tags . Three torpedo-control towers were fitted, each with a 15-foot (4.6m) rangefinder. The captains of both ships were court-martialled, as was the squadron commander, Rear Admiral Sidney Bailey. Bertie Jack Tomlinson TELEGRAPHIST CLASS A Served from 1943 - 1946 Served in HMS Royal Arthur Paul Graham Duddle L/COOK Served from 1970 - 1979 Served in HMS Royal Arthur Nicholas Sparey LEADING HAND Served from 1990 - 2002 Served in HMS Royal Arthur Lawrence Johnson HMS Barham Crew List; . . The main waterline belt was 12 inches (305mm) thick between 'A' and 'Y' barbettes and thinned to 5 to 6 inches (127 to 152mm) towards the ship's ends, but did not reach either the bow or the stern. Furthermore, the current position of the plates at the edge of the break reflects only their last position, not the direction they had first moved. In addition to the two inscriptions, the bell still wears vivid royal blue paint work on its crown as well as its interior. Joseph Steward. He joined HMS Copra on the 7th of November 1943 and was lent three times to HMS Dundonald. It was more thorough than the first board but concurred with the first board's conclusion. Crew Lost During the Sinking of Hood, 24th May 1941 In addition to the above, submissions by individuals remains a valuable contribution to the database. The probability is that the 4-inch magazines exploded first. This position shows the rudder locked into a 20 port turn, confirming that orders had been given (just prior to the aft magazines detonating) to change the ship's heading and bring the aft turrets 'X' and 'Y' to bear on the German ships. The U-boat War in World War Two (Kriegsmarine, 1939-1945) and World War One (Kaiserliche Marine, 1914-1918) and the Allied efforts to counter the threat. Patrick Drennan. Whatever caused the explosion, it proved fatal for the ship and most of her crew. In 1934, the "pom-pom" directors were moved to the former locations of the 5.5-inch control positions on the spotting top and the 9-foot (2.7m) rangefinders for the 5.5-inch control positions were reinstalled on the signal platform. Some 5,000 long tons (5,100t) of armour were added to the design in late 1916, based on British experiences at the Battle of Jutland, at the cost of deeper draught and slightly decreased speed. These were joined in early 1939 by four twin mounts for the QF 4-inch Mark XVI dual-purpose gun. HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy (RN). [21], For protection against torpedoes, she was given a 7.5-foot (2.3m)[27] deep torpedo bulge that ran the length of the ship between the fore and aft barbettes. It was the opinion of Mearns and White who investigated the wreck that this was unlikely as the damage was far too limited in scale, nor could it account for the outwardly splayed plates also observed in that area. [65] A shell from this salvo appears to have hit the spotting top, as the boat deck was showered with body parts and debris. May 2016 is the 75th anniversary of Hood's sinking. Positions authorised to be filled aboard Hood, Crew Biographies HMS Hood (hull number 51) was a battleship of the Royal Navy (RN). H.M.S. Wherever possible, records were cross-referenced and/or supplemented with information from the database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), Northeast War Memorials Project, FLEET-DNPERS, The National Archives (TNA), various Admiralty 104 series documents, Navy Lists, the H.M.S. Bismarck was temporarily able to evade detection, but was later spotted and sunk on 27 May.[69]. The explosion was initiated by 4-inch ammunition stored outside the magazines. The battlecruiser's turbines were designed to produce 144,000 shaft horsepower (107,000kW), which would propel the ship at 31 knots (57km/h; 36mph), but during sea trials in 1920, Hood's turbines provided 151,280shp (112,810kW), which allowed her to reach 32.07 knots (59.39km/h; 36.91mph). The British opened fire at 05:52 with Hood engaging Prinz Eugen, the lead ship in the German formation, and the Germans returned fire at 05:55, both ships concentrating on Hood. Despite the official explanation, some historians continued to believe that the torpedoes caused the ship's loss, while others proposed an accidental explosion inside one of the ship's gun turrets that reached down into the magazine.