She formally transferred to the Mediterranean fleet on 20 October, shortly after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The database remains a "work in progress" and records are added to it at regular intervals. [74], Memorials to those who died are spread widely around the UK, and some of the crew are commemorated in different locations. It was introduced in Update "Danger Zone" . [36] To add to the confusion, Royal Navy documents of the period often describe any battleship with a maximum speed over 24 knots (44km/h; 28mph) as a battlecruiser, regardless of the amount of protective armour. 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. That said, it is the work of more than 20 years, and is unlikely to be surpassed elsewhere else. HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. John Woodcock. This theory was ultimately adopted by the board. HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. Memorials to all those who died while building or serving in Hood, Crew List The heavily armoured conning tower is located by itself a distance from the main wreck. These memorials are dedicated to those who died whilst building and serving aboard Hood. Hood Crew List Updated 07-Mar-2010 This part of the site offers a searchable database of the H.M.S. The crew was safe and later returned to HMS Ark Royal. Evidence given to the second board indicated that the doors for the 4-inch ammunition supply trunks were closed throughout the action. The upper belt was 5 inches thick amidships and extended forward to 'A' barbette, with a short 4-inch extension aft. While Type 279 used two aerials, a transmitter and a receiver, the Type 279M used only a single transceiver aerial. [41] After her sea trials, she was commissioned on 15 May 1920, under Captain Wilfred Tompkinson. 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. 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. [61], When Bismarck sailed for the Atlantic in May 1941, Hood, flying the flag of Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland, together with the newly commissioned battleship Prince of Wales, was sent out in pursuit along with several other groups of British capital ships to intercept the German ships before they could break into the Atlantic and attack Allied convoys. Information about men who served in Hood, NAAFI Men Here you will find our attempt at creating such a listing. For instance, the never-built G3 battlecruiser was classified as such, although it would have been more of a fast battleship than Hood. As such, it remains a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986. When the threat of an invasion diminished, the ship resumed her previous roles in convoy escort and patrolling against German commerce raiders. [4], The additional armour added during construction increased her draught by about 4 feet (1.2m) at deep load, which reduced her freeboard and made her very wet. Already under construction when the Battle of Jutland occurred in mid-1916, that battle revealed serious flaws in her design despite drastic revisions before she was completed four years later. 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. He then joined HMS Letchworth and was promoted to Wireman (LC) on 26/10/43. Admiral Tom Phillips and others criticised the conduct of the inquiry, largely because no verbatim record of witnesses' testimony had been kept. The crew in each gunhouse had access to a variety of projectile types. For almost 2 decades, she was the largest and most powerful warship afloat. HMS Ledbury saved some of her crew out of the blazing sea. 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. Despite these problems, she had hit Bismarck three times. Hood Rolls of Honour Memorials to Men Lost in the Sinking of Hood, 24th May 1941 Updated 07-Mar-2010 This page contains a listing the 1415 men who were lost when Hood was sunk on 24th May, 1941 [93] Bill Jurens points out that there was no magazine of any kind at the location of the break and that the location of the break just forward of the forward transverse armoured bulkhead suggests that the ship's structure failed there as a result of stresses inflicted when the bow was lifted into the vertical position by the sinking stern section. At 0925 hours, when the Ohio, . [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. Unsuccessful, she was ordered to patrol the Bay of Biscay against any breakout attempt by the German ships from Brest, France. H.M.S. "[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. 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. 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 [57], Captain Irvine Glennie assumed command in May 1939 and Hood was assigned to the Home Fleet's Battlecruiser Squadron while still refitting. [48], Hood was given a major refit from 1 May 1929 to 10 March 1931, and afterwards resumed her role as flagship of the battlecruiser squadron under the command of Captain Julian Patterson. 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 needed to replace those lost to the German U-boat campaign. Force H took part in the destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kbir in July 1940. The names can be accessed by clicking on the links at right (alphabetical by surname or a listing of all names). Hood. Navy Artwork. Hood was the first of four Admiral-class ships planned to be built during World War I. [12], The Ascension Island guns saw action only once, on 9 December 1941, when they fired on the German submarineU-124,[105] as it approached Georgetown on the surface to shell the cable station or sink any ships at anchor. Hood was ordered to the Norwegian Sea on 19 April when the Admiralty received a false report that the German battleshipBismarck had sailed from Germany. Hood Association. Updated 06-Jun-2022. over 3 years). The search team also planned to stream video from the remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) directly to Channel 4's website. She sported two funnels amidships about her superstructure with the bridge stationed ahead. HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy - and was lost while chasing the most infamous battleship of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine - the Bismarck. The Battle of the Denmark Strait was effectively part of the larger Battle of the Atlantic, the conflict fought as Germany tried to isolate Britain from its colonies and allies in hopes of forcing a negotiated peace. 24-03-2018. View of the British Royal Navy battle cruiser HMS Hood, possibly late 1930s. It remains possible that a door or trunk could have been opened up by an enemy shell, admitting flames to the magazine. H.M.S. The secondary armament was primarily controlled by directors mounted on each side of the bridge. The Board came to a conclusion almost identical to that of the first board, expressed as follows: That the sinking of Hood was due to a hit from Bismarck's 15-inch shell in or adjacent to Hood's 4-inch or 15-inch magazines, causing them all to explode and wreck the after part of the ship. The Special Service Squadron are on a tour around the world. Hood Crew List Updated 06-Jun-2022 It is estimated that as many as 18,000 men, perhaps more, served aboard the "Mighty Hood" during the operational portion of her 21 year career. King George V and Smaller Vessels of RDF279", "Memorials in Southsea Portsmouth Naval Memorial", "The July 2001 Channel 4 Expedition to Locate and Film the Wrecks of, "Statutory Instrument 2006 No. Its main conclusion is that the loss was almost certainly precipitated by the explosion of a 4-inch magazine, but that there are several ways this could have been initiated, although he rules out the boat deck fire or the detonation of her torpedoes as probable causes. [4] The ship's secondary armament consisted of twelve BL 5.5-inch (140mm) Mk I guns, each with 200 rounds. 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 Admiral-class battlecruisers were designed in response to the German Mackensen-class battlecruisers, which were reported to be more heavily armed and armoured than the latest British battlecruisers of the Renown and the Courageous classes. However, the additional armour was never fitted pending further trials. 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. [88], After footage of Bismarck was collected, Mearns and the search team began scanning a 600-square-nautical-mile (2,100km2) search box for Hood; completely covering the area was estimated to take six days. HMS Hood was the pride of the British fleet and the Bismarck ended her existence. The HMS Hood at Table Bay in Cape Town with the HMS Repulse behind, January 1924. 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. All crew were off the ship at 0430 on 14 Nov as the list increased to 35 degrees. Here you will find our attempt at creating such a listing. 1935 was stamped on one surviving example, and "Hood V Renown off Arosa 23135" on another. [60], In January 1941, the ship began a refit that lasted until March; even after the refit she was still in poor condition, but the threat from the German capital ships was such that she could not be taken into dock for a major overhaul until more of the King George V-class battleships came into service. When war broke out later that year, she was employed principally to patrol in the vicinity of Iceland and the Faroe Islands to protect convoys and intercept German merchant raiders and blockade runners attempting to break out into the Atlantic. May 24th marks the loss of the battlecruiser HMS Hood and 1415 of her crew. [68], Prince of Wales was forced to disengage by a combination of damage from German hits and mechanical failures in her guns and turrets after Hood was sunk. Hood Crew Information [32], Construction of Hood began at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland, as yard number 460 on 1 September 1916. After the sinking of Hood, seven large caliber shells hit Prince of Wales forcing the battleship to disengaged under a smokescreen and joined HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk. [27] The torpedo-warhead armour was reinstated during the ship's 19291931 refit. Three torpedo-control towers were fitted, each with a 15-foot (4.6m) rangefinder. A meeting place for Association members and Hood enthusiasts. With the backing of the HMS Hood Association, Mearns planned to return the bell to Portsmouth where it would form part of the first official and permanent memorial to the sacrifice of her last crew at the newly refitted National Museum of the Royal Navy. Hood, H.M.S. But, three survivedWilliam Dundass, Bob Tilburn, and Ted Briggs. Whatever caused the explosion, it proved fatal for the ship and most of her crew. We are using the few, fragmentary crew lists known to exist, Navy Lists, various official reports, public records, and most importantly of all, inputs from the families of former crew. At the second board, eyewitnesses reported unusual types of discharge from the 15-inch guns of, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 14:06. [11] Two of these guns on the shelter deck were temporarily replaced by QF 4-inch (102mm) Mk V anti-aircraft (AA) guns between 1938 and 1939. A look at the animal sailors who made up a special part of Hood's crew, Sport & Athletics In addition to the two inscriptions, the bell still wears vivid royal blue paint work on its crown as well as its interior. Below are just some of our members who have served at HMS Royal Arthur. A Queen Elizabeth -class battleship, Warspite was completed in 1915 and fought at Jutland the following year. Captain Thomas Binney assumed command on 15 August 1932 and the ship resumed her previous practice of a winter cruise in the Mediterranean the next year. 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. 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. While dry-docked for repairs, Renown had fragments of this propeller removed from her bilge section. HMS Challenger: a trailblazer for modern ocean science 150 years ago, HMS Challenger departed England on a quest to explore the world's oceans. As a result, a second Board was convened under Rear Admiral Sir Harold Walker and reported in September 1941. This high position allowed them to be worked during heavy weather, as they were less affected by waves and spray compared with the casemate mounts of earlier British capital ships. ENGINEER Served from 1941 - 1943 Served in HMS Rodney. They were and are the very heart and soul of the ship. [103] A third piece was found in Glasgow, where Hood was built. Its impact is still felt today . [85], The evidence of the wreck refutes Goodall's theory of a torpedo explosion, while the eyewitness evidence of venting from the 4-inch magazine prior to the main explosion conflicts with the theory that the Hood was blown up by her own guns. H.M.S. Retained after World War I, it moved between postings in . C.P.O. Hood's crew gained their first clue that something was developing at 1939, 23 May when full speed was ordered. 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. Despite the appearance of newer and more modern ships, Hood remained the largest warship in the world for 20 years after her commissioning, and her prestige was reflected in her nickname, "The Mighty Hood". No hits were scored, but the submarine crash-dived and retreated. In the early days of the database, information came to us mainly from relatives of individual men. Joseph Steward. [55] The ship's near-constant active service, resulting from her status as the Royal Navy's most battle-worthy fast capital ship, meant that her material condition gradually deteriorated, and by the mid-1930s, she was in need of a lengthy overhaul. To make room in the shipyard for merchant construction, Hood sailed for Rosyth to complete her fitting-out on 9 January 1920. [12], The ship's original anti-aircraft armament consisted of four QF 4-inch Mk V guns on single mounts. Afterwards, she patrolled the North Atlantic before putting into Scapa Flow on 6 May. Hood. It is estimated that as many as 18,000 men, perhaps more, served aboard the "Mighty Hood" during the operational portion of her 21 year career. Lutjens, commander in chief of the German Fleet, the Bismarck sunk the Hood, resulting in the death of 1,500 of its crew; only three Brits survived. 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. Moreover, Sir Stanley V. Goodall, Director of Naval Construction came forward with an alternative theory, that the Hood had been destroyed by the explosion of her own torpedoes. The captains of both ships were court-martialled, as was the squadron commander, Rear Admiral Sidney Bailey. [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. This is a public FB page for the H.M.S. [64], Just before 06:00, while Hood was turning 20 to port to unmask her rear turrets, she was hit again on the boat deck by one or more shells from Bismarck's fifth salvo, fired from a range of approximately 16,650 metres (18,210yd). Basil O'Neill. Beam: 104 ft. 2 in. Before being installed on the battlecruiser, the bell was inscribed around its base with the words: "This bell was preserved from HMS Hood battleship 18911914 by the late Rear Admiral, The Honourable Sir Horace Hood KCB, DSO, MVO killed at Jutland on 31st May 1916. 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. At this point, the order to abandon ship was given. William was born in Jarrow 1929, the son of Thomas and Catherine Ramshaw (nee Gibson) of Jarrow. The fact that the bow section separated just forward of 'A' turret is suggestive that a secondary explosion might have occurred in this area. HMS Hood was a massively armed battlecruiser and was considered to be one of the most powerful battlecruisers afloat in World War Two. [13] In 1931, a pair of octuple mountings for the 40-millimetre (1.6in) QF 2-pounder Mk VIII gun "pom-pom" were added on the shelter deck, abreast of the funnels, and a third mount was added in 1937. The Hood had been launched in 1918 and was armed . This was to be used for a major event documentary to be aired on the 60th anniversary of the ships' battle. [23], The armour scheme of the Admirals was originally based on that of the battlecruiser Tiger with an 8-inch (203mm) waterline belt. . . The complement of "The Mighty Hood", as she was affectionately known, was 1,421. Although these give the date on which any man joined the ship, they do not give the date on which he left. Hood sank stern first with 1418 men aboard. The fire on the boat deck penetrated to a magazine. It is estimated that as many as 15,000 men may have served in her from 19201941. Colin Kitchen. The Hood was a truly mighty warship and if you yourself served in any of the Royal Navy's battleships (Hood was a battlecruiser) you will know what 40-odd thousand tons of grey coloured steel looks like, but if you didn't, you can still see that spectacle in the U.S.A., where several of her battleships of around this tonnage are parked as museums. The memorials were assembled by blending official records with public casualty listings. Updated 11-Apr-2022. She was attached to the Mediterranean fleet shortly afterwards and stationed at Gibraltar at the outbreak of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in October. AB Served from 1946 - 1955 Served in HMS Duke Of York. Victor Noel White HMS Copra . 20th May 2021, 5:19pm. Prinz Eugen was probably the first ship to score when a shell hit Hood's boat deck, between her funnels, and started a large fire among the ready-use ammunition for the anti-aircraft guns and rockets of the UP mounts.