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May 24, 1941 - The Mighty Hood Goes Down (Read 1525 times)
May 23rd, 2004 at 9:02pm

Felix/FFDS   Offline
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... with the loss of all crew save 3, sunk by the Bismarck which would go down three days later.

 

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Reply #1 - May 24th, 2004 at 3:41am

Ivan   Offline
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that was one hell of a lucky hit by the bismarck... straight in the ammo stores

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Reply #2 - May 24th, 2004 at 6:31am

ozzy72   Offline
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It still amazes me that 3 of the crew survived Shocked
 

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Reply #3 - May 24th, 2004 at 7:23am

Woodlouse2002   Offline
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Alas, this is why Battlecruisers should not be sent against Battleships. They may have the same armament, but the armour is nothing like as thick.

I had a great uncle who served as a gunner on Hood. Fortunately for him, he was on leave when she went out hunting Bismarck.
 

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Reply #4 - May 24th, 2004 at 7:56am

Felix/FFDS   Offline
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Quote:
Alas, this is why Battlecruisers should not be sent against Battleships. They may have the same armament, but the armour is nothing like as thick.

I had a great uncle who served as a gunner on Hood. Fortunately for him, he was on leave when she went out hunting Bismarck.



The Bismarck was a battlecruiser.  THe HOOD was actually a little bit larger than its German opponent.  The main difference was that the HOOD was state of the art - for 1920.  The Bismarck was state of the art - for 1940:  better optics/firing controls; internal compartmentalization; etc.



 

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Reply #5 - May 24th, 2004 at 10:18am
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But equipped with a vulnerable rudder. One torpedo fired from a flying piece of wood with strings and *bang* the best german battlecruiser is a turkey on display. Roll Eyes  Tongue
 
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Reply #6 - May 24th, 2004 at 11:16am

Felix/FFDS   Offline
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Quote:
But equipped with a vulnerable rudder. One torpedo fired from a flying piece of wood with strings and *bang* the best german battlecruiser is a turkey on display. Roll Eyes  Tongue


Lucky shot.  If you realize how the torpedos were actually dropped from the "Stringbags"; basically a pair of gridded "arms" which the pilot had to guess the target's speed, etc.  The pilot was trying to hit someplace amidships; if he'd dropped a half-second later, it would have missed entirely, which makes the feat all the more remarkable!



 

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Reply #7 - May 24th, 2004 at 11:19am

Woodlouse2002   Offline
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Actually Felix, Bismarck was a Battleship. Both in class and design. The whole point of a Battlecruiser is armed reconisence for the main fleet of Battleships and they should never be commited to a duel against ships of equal firepower. Therefore fights with Battleships are a bit no no.

Bismarck was a battleship. Designed to fight battleships. Therefore she had the armour to protect herself from incoming fire. Hood however, was not armoured to nearly the same level. This meant that Hood was a good 5 knots faster than Bismarck but far more vulnerable for it.

Hood had just had a refit by 1940. This means she was pretty much state of the art for the 1940's. However, German rangefinders and optics were always superior to the British ones.


Exploder, the rudder is the most vulnerable part on any warship as it is impossible to protect or armour. Both Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk in 1941 by japanise air attack and both of them suffered hits to their rudders that all but immobilised them.
 

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Reply #8 - May 24th, 2004 at 11:58am

Hagar   Offline
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I'm no authority on matters naval & could be quite wrong. I read somewhere that some of the intended armoured deck plating was not fitted to HMS Hood for various reasons. (This adds a lot of weight for one thing.) Not that deck armour would have helped on this occasion as I beilieve the fatal hit went straight down one of the funnels, exploding in the magazines. When she was originally designed nobody had thought of shells being "lobbed" accurately from any sort of range so the thickest armour plating was concentrated on the hull above the waterline. Lobbing shells was exactly what the Bismarck's gunners were good at.
 

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Reply #9 - May 24th, 2004 at 12:22pm

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If the shell went straight down the funnel I would assume that it would explode in the boiler, not the magazine.

Having said that a boiler explosion would be horrible enough.

It seems that the Admiralty knew of the dangers of Hood's poor protection as early as 1920.  They did nothing as was common with the British between the wars... Undecided
 

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Reply #10 - May 24th, 2004 at 12:50pm

Felix/FFDS   Offline
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Quote:
Actually Felix, Bismarck was a Battleship. Both in class and design. The whole point of a Battlecruiser is armed reconisence for the main fleet of Battleships and they should never be commited to a duel against ships of equal firepower. Therefore fights with Battleships are a bit no no.
.



I stand corrected - my immediate perception was that the HOOD, having been built as a battlecruiser, was actually slightly larger than the Bismarck, but the Bismarck, being newer, was a bit faster (in 1940/41).

The following site offers an intersting account of the HMS HOOD's last action, and some photographs.

http://www.hmshood.com/ship/history/bmhood/BMHood.html
 

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Reply #11 - May 24th, 2004 at 1:15pm

SilverFox441   Offline
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There is actually a growing body of evidence that Bismarck may not have sunk Hood, it may have been Prinz Eugen.

At the engagement range Bismarck's fire would have been going into Hood's armour belt, the lower calibre fire from PE would have been plunging from high angle.

It's not as unlikely as it sounds, American cruisers that were very similar to PE were capable of defeating Japanese ships that were similar to Hood, at very similar ranges. One on one a '20s BC or even BB could be taken by a '40s heavy cruiser...if it all worked out right.

I used to play out these types of engagements using "Action Stations" and found that if you could get a cruiser to the right range it had a very decent chance of winning. If the range was long though...run. Smiley
 

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Reply #12 - May 24th, 2004 at 1:29pm

Felix/FFDS   Offline
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And Queen Victoria would have celebrated her 122d birthday the day the Hood was sunk.
 

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Reply #13 - May 24th, 2004 at 5:10pm

Woodlouse2002   Offline
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Quote:
I stand corrected - my immediate perception was that the HOOD, having been built as a battlecruiser, was actually slightly larger than the Bismarck, but the Bismarck, being newer, was a bit faster (in 1940/41).


You were right about Hood being bigger than Bismarck. But the difference was only 40 odd feet (Hood being 860 feet in length and Bismarck being 823).

Also, on the point of Prinz Eugen sinking Hood, it is very possible. Prinz Eugens 11" guns would have been more than capable of peircing Hoods unarmoured decks.
 

Woodlouse2002 PITA and BAR!!!!!!!!&&&&Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of King George the First for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King.&&&&Viva la revolution!
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Reply #14 - May 24th, 2004 at 10:05pm

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Arrg......lucky hit by the Krauts. Too bad their luck was short lived..............went down cuz of a torpedo from a obselete piece of British junk...........no offense to the brits Grin

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