I have a picture of the Hood that my dad took when she was in harbour in Iceland and about two hours before she left to confront the Bismarck !!! He was on troopship of Canadian soldiers who were part of the Icelandic invasion force...
@@vancemarin8022 Yeah I suppose that is the more appropriate place with her being a British ship and all. Still I hope both countries share such documents for redundancy and backup.
Well, it didn't die for the same reasons as the ones that blew up at Jutland did. It suffered a catastrophic explosion for entirely different reasons :p
Thanks for this mate, my great grandad was among the crew on the HMS Hood the day it was sunk. If this ship didn't get sunk though my grandad would never have been an orphan and left his City, and in turn i would never have been born.
I don't expect a reply but I found this incredibly useful. My great grandad was a stoker on board the mighty Hood during World War II, by the last name of Hardy. All I know from my grandad is that a change of crew or having been re-assigned to another vessel when in port, no less than a few days and no more than a week before the Hood was scrambled to intercept the Bismarck is what set my great grandads fate aside from the brave men who encountered the Bismarck that day. Unfortunately he passed away well in excess of 15 years before I was born (2000YoB), and as such the stories of his Naval career were lost with him. My Grandad said he never really used to talk about the war, so its a mystery to my whole family. We have his medals still, of which I'm tracking down what ones they are and what they were awarded for. Thank you for providing myself and family with some insight into the mighty Hood's wartime activity, sharing the fact he may well have taken part at Mers el Kebir.
@@robinsonsstudios It was less about the Bismark's armour than the layout of her armour. Her fire and steering control centers were vulnerable to Rodney's shells and it was her inability to effectively fight combined with her steering damage that ultimately destroyed her.
It's not debatable, it's a fact. Bismarck was designed for close range engagements, which is why the RN would have sunk her quicker if they had stayed further back.
@@aristosachaion_ Provided they could hit her enough times; at longer ranges even radar fire control was a lot less effective than often assumed. As an example, even though the 16"/50 gun was literally designed to engage at distances beyond 30,000 yards, live-fire tests showed that this wasn't feasible in practice because even radar fire control couldn't hit capital ship-sized targets reliably at those ranges. That said, Bismarck's armour scheme was bad enough that it put her at a disadvantage even in close quarters, because it made for a thinner belt, and meant that she could literally be sunk without having her citadel damaged at all (because of lack of reserve buoyancy)
Interestingly while chasing Strasbourg,, both Hood and Strasbourg, had similar machinery issues. With Strasbourg essentially losing a turbine. In fact had Hood continued the chase , it would have gotten the french ship since'- quoting from memory- Hood was still able to make almost 25 knots while Strasbourg was not able to exceed 23
Even as a full blood German (my Grandfather served in the Kreigsmarine on the Schleswig-Holstein, Admiral Scheer and minesweepers at the end) I can say without doubt the Hood was the most beautiful ship ever built. Damn sexy and graceful
I have some relatives that served on the Roma. I’m not sure where they fit in my family tree, but it is really interesting that my grandfather on my father’s side fought in the US army during the war, but some of my other relatives fought in the Regia marina
@@titanicww2345 in a way true but at the same time somewhat imprecise : when it was commissioned it as armored as the most armored ships in the royal navy, something that Drachinifel even mentions so it did not really sacrificed that much armor when it had essentially the same armor as its contemporary british batteships.
Kevlar is you want speed and amour just make your ship longer . Length=speed . That’s why the Iowa and Montana where built long and slim whilst well armored . I do believe the Iowa was the fastest battleship and still is one of the fastest warships of all time
You probably know this already but you were "mentioned in dispatches" (that is, recommended) over on MH(not)V with the expanded WWII ship classes video. Congrats!
Until the late 1930s (which saw things like the KGVs coming online and, more importantly, the ascendance of naval aviation), she was the most capable capital ship in the world.
I have spent over forty years playing naval simulations from "Action Stations" to the NWS mod of "Fighting Steel". I have yet to replicate the destruction of the HMS Hood. This implies that her loss was nearly a random event, or as some American combat pilots call it, "the Golden BB", a hit that does unpredictable damage. A point to remember is that the RN's tactical doctrine after 1930 defined "effective battle range" as around 15,000-16,000 yds. The protection of the "King George V" class was designed around this doctrine, giving up gunpower to meet the protection requirement. This doctrine also explains why the tower bridge with lower (height above WL) fire control stations was acceptable. Consider that the effective sight horizon at 100 feet is ~24,000 yds. If 15,000-16,000 yds was the optimal engagement range, then fire control directors did not need to be higher than 70" or so. It is ironic that one of the longest range hits on an enemy ship was made by a modified "Queen Elizabeth" with a tower bridge. This is in contrast to both Japanese and US naval tactical doctrine that sought to engage at 30,000 yds (even 35,000 yds with the Japanese) with aerial spotting, requiring the seizure of air supremacy. The RN recognized this, and it hoped torpedo attacks by aircraft and destroyers would so slow the enemy battle line that the British could charge through the "danger zone" to reach their optimal engagement range. Naval simulations with the IJN destroying or damaging the British carriers, conducting night over the horizon torpedo attacks, eventually lead to the British battle line facing an enemy that refused to close until they were no longer able to resist the coup de grace. But the British designed their "fast" battleships with North Sea and Med engagements, despite Japan being the most likely enemy from 1921 to 1938. But the RN wasn't the only navy with confusion and contradiction in strategic planning, tactical doctrine and ship design.
Interesting. I refought the action using the old 'Dreadnought' board wargame and on a tabletop using rules from a magazine (maybe 'Military Modelling'). Both times Bismarck sank Hood within several salvos. Lucky hits certainly and iirc Bismarck suffered heavier than historical damage from the RN. What happened to Prinz Eugen is lost to my memory. I must give the battle a go using 'Atlantic Fleet' at some point soon.
Cheers Tony. I meant in my games not in real life. But yes I agree that it was a most undignified end for the ship. I'm hoping Drach will do a video on the Kriegsmarine operations in the Baltic during 1944 and 1945 because the heavier units, such as Prinz Eugen, played an important role supporting and evacuating German troops pinned near the coast.
@@seeingeyegod You mean board game or computer game? If the former 'Avalanche Games' have a whole slew of naval board wargames although availability outside the USA seems very limited. If computer games I'd suggest 'Atlantic Fleet'. NWS do some detailed stuff (the aforementioned mod for 'Fighting Steel' is nice) but they're not cheap and the graphics tend to be horrible. If you want to go WW1 'Stormpowered' have a nice set of games centered on Jutland. They are getting a bit old and they could do with being discounted but there is nothing else like them on the market right now. stormpowered.com/stormcloud/store/index.asp
Love your videos, always awesome when my notifications tell me you have uploaded something. Hearing Mr Ted Briggs talk about the sinking always chilled me to the bone. As did the thought that only 3 men survived the sinking. My brain has a hard time understanding how more men didn't get off before she went down. Mainly those in top side stations. I can imagine a wall of fire swept through the lower decks, blowing open water tight doors and flash cooking everything.
Admiral Tiberius Only 3 survived because the the water was about the temperature of melted ice . Can you imagine yourself in that water that would explain that
Based on the accounts of the survivors, Hood's deck crew had suffered tremendous losses in a number of hits from Prinz Eugen, one hit supposedly hitting exactly where a lot of them were huddled (near the base of the superstructure). Another hit from Bismarck took out the spotting top, resulting in a macabre shower of bodyparts onto compass bridge. And finally yet another hit resulted in Robert Tilburn seeing his mates get killed and had to relieve his stomach over the side, and when he looked up again the ship was in the process of blowing up (thus it is likely that it was a second hit in the same salvo that set off the magazine, as Tilburn was on the port side of the ship thus not in the way to the magazine). Briggs' account does seem to indicate that considerably more people got off the ship, but the quick sinking must have dragged a lot of them down, and yet others probably didn't make it in the bad weather and cold waters, as Tilburn felt himself losing the fight near the end. It really is sobering to read these accounts, and it is equally tough to consider that Dundas never spoke of the sinking, privately or publicly. No wonder, considering the accounts from Tilburn and Briggs. By the way, and this might sound somewhat macabre to suggest, but there are some really powerful accounts from the Battle of Jutland as well. One of them from a crewman in a turret that got hit (and then had the magazine explode beneath him, and being stuck in the turret as the ship went down). I find these men's stories to be important, because all too often we are left unaware of the last terrible moments, sometimes leaving us without comprehension of just how bad it must have been.
Thank you! I very much enjoy your videos. I have been a history "Buff" since the first book I remember reading was about The Monitor and the Merrimac and the great Engineer & Inventor:John Ericsson. My mother gave it to1 me for my eight birthday in 1955. I am a twice retired US Army Metrology technician with my last duty station in uniform and as civilian was The US Army's armored vehicle rebuild center at the Anniston Army Depot. One of my duties before my final retirement in 2013 was the certification of the turret ring and target board used for the final assembly alignment of the 120mm main gun and the 7.62mm coax MG on the M1A1 Abrams MBT. At 4.72 inches the gun is near to size of the secondaries on most Battleships. I have read/listened to R. Massie's books: "Dreadnought..." and "Castles of Steal" also Tull's: "Battle of Surigao Strait" along with going over many a "Jane's Fighting Ships" in many Post Libraries" over the years I keep a copy of Mr. Millers: "Illustrated Directory of War Ships..." to hand. I have toured BB60 USS Alabama and my Uncle Robert Swiggum served as a gunners mate on BB64 The USS Wisconsin in one of , as you have noted, plethora of 20 or 40mm Bofors cannons, He told me it was one of the fantail mounts. Well enough of my blather, as I am also a Civil War "Buff", I would like to request of you one of your excellent Video's about The Patuxent Class of twin turret Monitors, I believe they served in South American navies until the late 1800's. Thank you again. Yours Truly; Francis C. Howland Jr. Msg USA Ret. Oxford on the Choccolocco, Alabama
For anyone confused about or wanting more detail on the different theories, I strongly recommend William Jurens' 1987 article, which is available for free at the end of a Google search. It is also worth pointing out that the most likely impact really was incredibly unfortunate: in the big refit that changed the secondary armament, the secondary magazine was extended aft. The very end of this extension was not fully covered by the extra armour over the magazines. It is most likely that Bismarck managed to put a shell in this spot, which at the relative angles required hitting a 1x3m patch of Hood. Outside of this patch, the shell would have been bounced by armour or ended up off the ship.
Honestly, if you don’t go into never-finished ships, Hood may well be the most notable of the “she deserved a more glorious career and fate” category...
Clay Pidgeon Really, most big-gun ships fit in that category. Battleship engagements were just too few and most of them (at least in WWII) weren’t necessary Hood is almost a foreshadowing of what was to come with battleships two decades later; in retrospect she was the first of the huge, fast, heavily armed capital ships that everyone would start building in the 1930s, and like all of them, she would be ill-fated to never live up to her reputation.
Chris George Her career in WWII isn’t actually that notable once you get into the details; everything she did, non-battleships could have done more efficiently.
Chris George The longest-range hit happened in a battle where battleships were unnecessary (carriers would have been a better option there). Surviving a Fritz X hit does not equal actually doing her job. By your logic, a soldier that survives serious injuries but fails all his/her objectives is a good soldier.
So, Hood was fighting with one arm tied to her back, slowly deteriorating, and not properly maintained despite being the pride of the royal navy. Now that I think of it, Hood existed only because she was the only member of her class to reach sufficient progress in construction which saved her from scrapping. So, she basically had almost no right in serving the royal navy, if you know what I mean, which is honestly quite sad.
I absolutely have to give an honourable mention here to the late Ted Briggs. The only of the three survivors who was actually willing to talk about the sinking and was the lust survivor of Hood’s sinking. I personally met him a little over a decade ago and was very good man. A little fun fact, the memorial plate with the names of the crew on it that was placed there during the first attempt at the Bell’s retrieval was in fact placed by Briggs.
The hood thought the Prinz Eugen was the Bismarck as the Start so the Bismarck could have still easily sank the hood. The Bismarck took hundreds of shells from the Royal Navy fleet so one ship wouldn’t have been able to sink the Bismarck.
@@CarterWills1 it might have stayed afloat for a while but after the first few broadsides from KGV and Rodney the Bismarck was completely crippled and unable to fight back at all. It basically became target practice for the Royal Navy
I don't know about "easily". She would have the advantage of first blood if her shells hit, but no amount of speculation can determine who might have definitively won the battle.
It is interesting that people often concede Hood's characteristics were such she fit the description of a fast battleship. But because there were more powerful guns in service by WW II, that made her a battlecruiser by then? Japan's Nagato class were from Hood's era also. Because their armor was not as proof against 1940's guns as it was against guns in the 1920's when they were built, does that make them a different kind of ship circa 1941? They remained battleships because that is what they were built to be. Side note: Given that Hood was officially a battlecruiser, but that post Jutland the Royal Navy revised the battlecruiser role to encompass the ability to stand in the battle line and be able to withstand heavy gunfire, it could be argued that post Jutland the term "battlecruiser" referred to essentially the same type of ship as what was meant by "fast battleship". The issue was clouded by the fact that Hood was the only post Jutland "battlecruiser" built to these revised criteria, and remained in service alongside older battlecruisers of the the pre-Jutland variety. In any case, being an earlier model fast battleship does not mean that the ship changes type as technology progresses. Just that the ship required modernization to meet modern standards, such as was done to several of the Queen Elizabeth's. Or the American Tennessee/West Virginia ships.
@@williambradley9419 Lol. I know. I tried... Don't confuse them with facts. They just want to repeat the mantra/myth that Hood 'Sploded cause she was a thin armored battlecruiser. Even though every big gun ship pre-1925 had 3 inches of deck armor at best.
@Drachinifel A couple of ships that would be nice to see would be the 1889 Greek ironclad Hydra and the 1907 Japanese armored cruiser/battle cruiser Ibuki.
In other words, the Germans had hella good RNG that day, much to the HMS Hood’s detriment. Such a beautiful vessel, the likes the world has never seen since. After my HMS Nelson build I’ve got a lovely 1:700 Tamiya kit of Hood that needs to be built. Can’t wait.
She was lovely. 'Tiger' shades it for me, at least among British capital ships. Whisper it quietly though because I have a thing for the WW2 era 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau'. I think it's the high prow and the single smokestack amidships that make it look better side on. Looking at 'Hood' and 'Scharnhorst' from the front I'd be hard pressed to pick my favourite.
@keith moore Warships are strange things to regard as 'appealing' given their purpose. Beautiful and terrible. When 'Hood' was flagship of the RN and was 'flying the flag' in full glory she was supposedly a very impressive looking vessel. Sadly we don't have colour photos or film of her like that. Perhaps if we had we'd regard her differently.
@keith moore I can understand that. I have similar feelings about 'Scharnhorst'. I prefer single smokestacks so she gets it over the 'Iowa' but otherwise the two ships/classes are very similar ('Iowa' being larger, obviously) in terms of looks.
To any World of Warships player who purchased the Hood, you all know her propensity to attract those rare golden bbs that result in you suddenly have your entire health pool drained or exploding.
A nice presentation! Years ago I read Ludovic Kennedy's book "Pursuit" about the action against the Bismarck. A good read. Admiral Tovey ALMOST ordered Admiral Holland to take up station astern of Prince of Wales, thinking the Bismarck might open on the lead ship. Kennedy said, "...he was to wish profoundly that he had". I believe (as you mentioned) Admiral Holland was trying to race in and close the gap to protect Hood's weak deck armor from plunging, long range shot. Terribly tragic day. A Drydock question might be: Was the "stable vertical" gyro device the key to making Hood's light deck armor obsolete?Thanks
Here are my suggestions for future videos HMS Neptune (1909) HMS Campania HMS Jervis Bay SMS Graf Von Goetzon USS Texas (1892) USS Oregon (BB-3) USS Allen (DD-66) Battle of Rio de Oro (SMS Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse VS. HMS Highflyer) Battle of Trindade (HMS Carmania VS SMS Cap Trafalgar) Admiral class pre-dreadnought battleship Tennessee class armored cruiser Tsukuba class "battlecruiser" Satsuma class "semi-dreadnought" battleship
I don't know his department but here is the info from the Hood association. Ordinary Seaman John Robert Gillis, Service Number: P/JX 212482 I tried contacting one place the Hood association recommended, which I can't remember but never heard back. Any help would be great, I am building a model of her and would like to add some info about him. I wanted to also see if there were any models awarded to the crew posthumously so I could add photos of them as well. Thanks Larry
@@arohk1579 I'll see what I can find, there is also a government form where you can't request a relatives service record (for this period of history) if you are the closest living relative, otherwise you'll need said relatives signature, but either way that's a good route to go down.
That's one thing to look at, not sure who that might be. I guess since my mom and bio dad got recorded and he died it wouldn't be her, however it could be my brother. Thank you for all your help, I really do appreciate it. Larry
For the Q&A: What if the roles of the Scharnhorst, Bismarck and H classes of Battleships were swapped with the Graf Zeppelin, with the former three being designed as Carrier's from the start, and the latter designed as a Battleship?
A friend of mine's father served on HMS Hood in the late 1930s. Shortly before the war began his girlfriend (fiancé?) ran off with another man to Australia. Shortly thereafter she had regrets and contacted him. He deserted and went to Australia to bring her back to England. He was court martialed and so was not in service when the Hood sank. As the war progressed, because of the need for experienced sailors, he was allowed to re-enter the service. He served for the rest of the war into the 1950s and retired as a chief petty officer. He married the woman who ran off, and my friend was born in 1941. She told me that at night she would say goodnight to daddy, directing her words to a picture of the ship on which he was deployed. If she told me what ship that was, I do not remember, except I think it was another battleship.
You asked for ideas, I have a few: HMAS Sydney (i) and SMS Emden, HMAS Sydney (II) and the Kormoran, The Japanese attack on Sydney Harbour, the actions of AE-2 and the 107 year old mystery of AE-1 (only recently found).
Had Admiral Holland placed Prince of Wales as the leading ship, matters might have gone otherwise. Speculation as to the cause has a fascination, and seemingly without resolution. The Hood enigma ...
The Prince of Wales was unworked up, and still had dockyard mateys trying to sort out things in the gunnery systems. Hood was fully commissioned and worked up. After Hood sank, POW correctly withdrew. Churchill wanted Captain Leach court martialled. The CinC Admiral Tovey, (I think) said if he was, he, Tovey would resign and defend Captain Leach. I am an Royal Naval officer, albeit 83. The RN, does not differentiate between Retired and Serving unless necessary, such as writing to the newspapers. I am on the Retired List of the Royal Navy, but am able to use RN after my name. Doesn't cut much ice really, but I love it. Sadly I am no relation to Vice-Admiral Holland. As a Signal Officer I did meet Ted Briggs, but he was bored out of his skull talking about the Hood.
@@cliveholland7846 The signal officer who brought the signal to Tovey Hood blown up was asked to calculate if the signal was actually something else. Toveys opinion was that the boat deck fire was the root cause of the explosion, and he lamented Holland had not headed straighter in to minimise the target further.
Seems like a shell plunged down trough the deck because of the ship rolling to bear the rear turrets on the Bismarck, setting off the 4.5inches ammo which were stored directly beside the 15 inches frontal turrets magazine. Proof is the wreck, that shows the frontal part of the ship was shredded upwards because of a big explosion, occured between under the front turret and under the command bridge( where the 4.5 magazines were located) So this was indeed the unluckiest shot for the poor brit sailors.
Largest warship when built (and thanks to naval treaties close to largest, if not, when sunk) but most powerful... I'd say the 9 16" on Nelson class, the 8 16.1" on Nagato class, and the 8 16" on Colorado class were more powerful.
As for being the most powerful, that's debatable. You could argue that 12 14" guns could be considered at least as, if not more powerful than, 8 15". One thing you may not be considering when commenting on the speed of US BB's is that the vast majority of the world's Battleships were in the 21-23 kt range (despite what World of Warships would have people believe).
The 15" were guns used on Vanguard because they were in storage (having been removed from Courageous and Glorious after they were converted to aircraft carriers) and thus the only way the RN could get a new battleship in a somewhat timely fashion.
Hood could simply outrun all of these ships....she’s honestly a foreshadowing of what was to come in the 1930s and early 40s, except unlike those ships she didn’t have to face seas ruled by carriers upon launch.
The modernization scheme looks good but just my twocents is to keep the tripod mast on top of the bridge and the conning tower. Its just one of those things thats so unique to Hood
Do you think that an armor distribution, on the line of the all-or-nothing scheme, would have made less possible the explosión? On the other hand, i not quite sure if am right on this thought ( correct me if not) but i would bet that if the 3 losses at jutland had not ocurred, the battlecruiser, as Fisher wanted, in all likehood would have replace the battleships all over the world, or at least in the royal navy as the expected money-saving, fast response vessel that he wanted for the protección of the empire
Doge Maverick was referring to Britain 🇬🇧 who is always in situations they need/ coerce help from America to get out of If they liked war so much why could they not fight for themselves instead of some trickery to have others finish it for them??
I was once asked what was so special about the Bismark. I said it may not look like much but it really blows them out of the water once you get under the Hood.
I've always wondered: would the WW1 Kriegsmarine (1914) win in a fight against the WW2 Kriegsmarine (1939)? No U-Boats, but everything else is allowed. Ships commissioned afterwards are commissioned on schedule for the sake of this thought experiment.
We still have, and you are part of it, except many of you do not realise that. Its called the Anglosphere. We are the grandpa now, and one of the kids has taken over the day to day running of the family business, but we are still a substantial shareholder, and are the link that keep the family together.
@@Simonsvids I know about the Commonwealth of Nations, it's just a cringy joke that you could use for almost every country, ie. the German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch colonial empires. Just when it's about a British ship choosing the nation that the mentioned ship belongs to makes way more sense, if you want to make a quick joke :)
Everything I read about the Lexingtons, and their, what, 3rd or 4th design, says they were inspired by the Hood. Yet, before the Lexingtons were laid down, the Admiralty decided it didn't want any more ships like the Hood, scrapped the other three Admirals on the ways, after spending some 1.6M Pounds on them, and went back to the drawing board. The USN pressed on with the thin skinned Lexingtons regardless. Another case where the Washington Treaty probably saved the USN from making another mistake. The flaw in the thinking behind the battle cruiser is there are some situations where running is not an option. The US forces off Samar Island in 44, known as "Taffy 3" were wildly outmatched, but running was not an option. They had to stand and fight.
Hi, my Dad served in the RN from 1927 -1949. Could you cover H.M.S. Afridi . He served on this Destroyer from when she was commissioned & operated in the Med. until she returned to N/E England. This was to prepare for the evacuation of the troops in Norway 1940, his last day was helping to oversee resupply. Then, he left to join another ship & despite many sailors feeling uneasy they set sail & she met her demise.
I would like to echo several others by saying how much better these videos are without the roboVoice. I've binge watched a ton of your videos, and your own voice is the way to go. Anyway I would like to suggest a video on IJN Chikuma. I'm just starting to build a model of this ship. I really like the weirdness of the layout. Also, what is that music you're starting your videos with? It sounds super familiar.;
It was well know that deck armor was the weak point of battleships. The large number of 12 inch mortars employed by the US and Britain in coastal defense batteries proves it as does the explosion of Hood and Arizona when penetrated by 15" and 16" armor piercing rounds respectively.
@The Gaming Gecko No problem. It's thought that Arizona was hit by four of these babies but only one stuck and exploded in just the right place--very much like Bismarck's "lucky" hit on Hood.
@@thegaminggecko1255 the Japanese were using modified 16 in AP shells dropped by Kates from 10,000 ft. They knew the armor weakness on our older battleships as well as Germans knew Hood's.
Theirs theories that b turret magazine also blew up if it did I imagine it would of killed ted Briggs but he survived but it couldn't explain why the fire directors are so far apart and the ships being ripped into 3 places if someone could tell how this happened it would be pretty useful
The Hood is a curious case of a "battlecruiser" which is longer and heavier than all battleships ever fielded by RN. Also, only two RN ships (of the gun era, before missiles) were more heavily armed. How exactly was this beast a "battlecruiser"? Because it could achieve 32kn??
Good evening, I was wondering what condition the Hood’s 15” cannons were in? We’re they at the end of their lives and maybe needed replacements, did they have linings that were off in dia.”, or were they half life? I ask this because they were tracking the ships in probable positions before actually for firing? Were the gun crews having a bad morning because it took them a rather longer time to range the enemy. It took PoWales was quite accurate in comparison. Hood had problems in hitting Prince Eugene and then when they changed ships, I don’t remember if she even got close to Bismarck? She did have allot of fire missions prior to being sacrificed in the Bismarck affair? Forever in His service
I have a picture of the Hood that my dad took when she was in harbour in Iceland and about two hours before she left to confront the Bismarck !!! He was on troopship of Canadian soldiers who were part of the Icelandic invasion force...
Vance Marin
Holy shit. That may be one of the last pictures ever taken of her.
Get that copied or digitized and sent to the library of congress or Smithsonian. It's probably the last picture of her.
The digitized picture is in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa ,Canada.
@@vancemarin8022 Yeah I suppose that is the more appropriate place with her being a British ship and all. Still I hope both countries share such documents for redundancy and backup.
@@vancemarin8022 those Canadians were pretty badass in wwii
Re-designed to prevent catastrophic explosions, eh?
Well, it didn't die for the same reasons as the ones that blew up at Jutland did. It suffered a catastrophic explosion for entirely different reasons :p
Drachinifel
We would call that a high order sympathetic explosion of the warheads overpowering any low order powder kick off .
@TJ Bowman I think you missed the joke man...
@@Silamon2 Yeah. 2,000 men dying is somehow a joke to some people, apparently.
@TJ Bowman Barham's magazine wasn't hit. She exploded as she rolled over after a torpedo hit.
clearly Holland forgot to equip his ship with the juliet charlie signal!
Robinson K 🤦♂️👏👏👏
Juliet Charlie?
@@MaxwellAerialPhotography its a world of warships flag that prevents detonation
@@dutchthespitfire3204 .....you clearly missed the joke...
@@dutchthespitfire3204 well he was in command
Thanks for this mate, my great grandad was among the crew on the HMS Hood the day it was sunk. If this ship didn't get sunk though my grandad would never have been an orphan and left his City, and in turn i would never have been born.
You have a great ancestor, he lived with pride and dignity to be on that ship, god bless.
I've gotta say the line drawing of the modernized Hood looks really good
When I've got money spare I am going to kitbash a refit Hood out of a Hood and PoW/KGV or Warspite kit (if i can find one).
@@bairdrew Trumpeter make the Hood and DMLand Academy make a Warspite, Tamiya make KGVs.
Very nice
I don't expect a reply but I found this incredibly useful. My great grandad was a stoker on board the mighty Hood during World War II, by the last name of Hardy. All I know from my grandad is that a change of crew or having been re-assigned to another vessel when in port, no less than a few days and no more than a week before the Hood was scrambled to intercept the Bismarck is what set my great grandads fate aside from the brave men who encountered the Bismarck that day. Unfortunately he passed away well in excess of 15 years before I was born (2000YoB), and as such the stories of his Naval career were lost with him. My Grandad said he never really used to talk about the war, so its a mystery to my whole family. We have his medals still, of which I'm tracking down what ones they are and what they were awarded for. Thank you for providing myself and family with some insight into the mighty Hood's wartime activity, sharing the fact he may well have taken part at Mers el Kebir.
Ironically, the ship that sank her had the exact same problem of horrible deck armour....
thats debatable at best
@@robinsonsstudios It was less about the Bismark's armour than the layout of her armour. Her fire and steering control centers were vulnerable to Rodney's shells and it was her inability to effectively fight combined with her steering damage that ultimately destroyed her.
@@Deevo037 I can agree with that
It's not debatable, it's a fact. Bismarck was designed for close range engagements, which is why the RN would have sunk her quicker if they had stayed further back.
@@aristosachaion_ Provided they could hit her enough times; at longer ranges even radar fire control was a lot less effective than often assumed. As an example, even though the 16"/50 gun was literally designed to engage at distances beyond 30,000 yards, live-fire tests showed that this wasn't feasible in practice because even radar fire control couldn't hit capital ship-sized targets reliably at those ranges.
That said, Bismarck's armour scheme was bad enough that it put her at a disadvantage even in close quarters, because it made for a thinner belt, and meant that she could literally be sunk without having her citadel damaged at all (because of lack of reserve buoyancy)
The late Jon Pertwee served on the Hood during the war and had just transferred off when she was sent after Bismarck
As did my great grandfather, also transferred off before the Bismarck scramble! He was a stoker by the name of Hardy.
My uncle was taken off with appendicitis just before she went after Bismarck. Family didn't know, and thought he'd gone down with it.
Interestingly while chasing Strasbourg,, both Hood and Strasbourg, had similar machinery issues. With Strasbourg essentially losing a turbine. In fact had Hood continued the chase , it would have gotten the french ship since'- quoting from memory- Hood was still able to make almost 25 knots while Strasbourg was not able to exceed 23
WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER THE HOOD R.I.P.
BOOM!! There she went!
Twenty five years after Jutland, and there's STILL something wrong with our bloody ships today.
It`s that nasty german habit to shoot at british ships! DO NOT MENTION A "Bismarck"in the comment section!!
Even as a full blood German (my Grandfather served in the Kreigsmarine on the Schleswig-Holstein, Admiral Scheer and minesweepers at the end) I can say without doubt the Hood was the most beautiful ship ever built. Damn sexy and graceful
Hood's beauty is really debatable but her personality would be that of a lady!
Sorry but I gotta disagree with you. The best looking ships of the war is a tie in between the Yamato and Iowa.
I have some relatives that served on the Roma. I’m not sure where they fit in my family tree, but it is really interesting that my grandfather on my father’s side fought in the US army during the war, but some of my other relatives fought in the Regia marina
Jason Irwin Nah, its a tie between RM Roma, or USS Atlanta
Gracefully split and half and sunk to the bottom of the Ocean
HMS Hood; failing to survive detonation jokes since 1941.
That is what happens when you sacrifice armor for speed.
@@titanicww2345 "Speed is armour!" An idiot.
@@titanicww2345 in a way true but at the same time somewhat imprecise : when it was commissioned it as armored as the most armored ships in the royal navy, something that Drachinifel even mentions so it did not really sacrificed that much armor when it had essentially the same armor as its contemporary british batteships.
Gaming Gecko greatest line ever!!! LMAO
Kevlar is you want speed and amour just make your ship longer . Length=speed . That’s why the Iowa and Montana where built long and slim whilst well armored . I do believe the Iowa was the fastest battleship and still is one of the fastest warships of all time
You probably know this already but you were "mentioned in dispatches" (that is, recommended) over on MH(not)V with the expanded WWII ship classes video. Congrats!
Huzzah!
In 1921, the Hood was the most badass ship in 'da hood ⚓⚓
Yeah but bismarck did end it all of a sudden
Until the late 1930s (which saw things like the KGVs coming online and, more importantly, the ascendance of naval aviation), she was the most capable capital ship in the world.
@@penkagenova7073 Then yamato came and stole the title away from bismark
@@metaknight115
Littorio had easily taken that title away from Bismarck (and Hood by extension) before Bismarck was even in service.
@@bkjeong4302 But Littorio's guns were horrifically inaccurate, and her armor scheme was questionable.
RIP crew of the HMS Hood. One of the most beautiful ships ever.
I have spent over forty years playing naval simulations from "Action Stations" to the NWS mod of "Fighting Steel". I have yet to replicate the destruction of the HMS Hood. This implies that her loss was nearly a random event, or as some American combat pilots call it, "the Golden BB", a hit that does unpredictable damage. A point to remember is that the RN's tactical doctrine after 1930 defined "effective battle range" as around 15,000-16,000 yds. The protection of the "King George V" class was designed around this doctrine, giving up gunpower to meet the protection requirement. This doctrine also explains why the tower bridge with lower (height above WL) fire control stations was acceptable. Consider that the effective sight horizon at 100 feet is ~24,000 yds. If 15,000-16,000 yds was the optimal engagement range, then fire control directors did not need to be higher than 70" or so. It is ironic that one of the longest range hits on an enemy ship was made by a modified "Queen Elizabeth" with a tower bridge. This is in contrast to both Japanese and US naval tactical doctrine that sought to engage at 30,000 yds (even 35,000 yds with the Japanese) with aerial spotting, requiring the seizure of air supremacy. The RN recognized this, and it hoped torpedo attacks by aircraft and destroyers would so slow the enemy battle line that the British could charge through the "danger zone" to reach their optimal engagement range. Naval simulations with the IJN destroying or damaging the British carriers, conducting night over the horizon torpedo attacks, eventually lead to the British battle line facing an enemy that refused to close until they were no longer able to resist the coup de grace. But the British designed their "fast" battleships with North Sea and Med engagements, despite Japan being the most likely enemy from 1921 to 1938. But the RN wasn't the only navy with confusion and contradiction in strategic planning, tactical doctrine and ship design.
Interesting. I refought the action using the old 'Dreadnought' board wargame and on a tabletop using rules from a magazine (maybe 'Military Modelling'). Both times Bismarck sank Hood within several salvos. Lucky hits certainly and iirc Bismarck suffered heavier than historical damage from the RN. What happened to Prinz Eugen is lost to my memory. I must give the battle a go using 'Atlantic Fleet' at some point soon.
@@kevinjohnbetts PE survived the war and became a test ship in the Atomic bomb tests.... a sad end tbh
Cheers Tony. I meant in my games not in real life. But yes I agree that it was a most undignified end for the ship. I'm hoping Drach will do a video on the Kriegsmarine operations in the Baltic during 1944 and 1945 because the heavier units, such as Prinz Eugen, played an important role supporting and evacuating German troops pinned near the coast.
What is a good current game like that?
@@seeingeyegod You mean board game or computer game? If the former 'Avalanche Games' have a whole slew of naval board wargames although availability outside the USA seems very limited. If computer games I'd suggest 'Atlantic Fleet'. NWS do some detailed stuff (the aforementioned mod for 'Fighting Steel' is nice) but they're not cheap and the graphics tend to be horrible.
If you want to go WW1 'Stormpowered' have a nice set of games centered on Jutland. They are getting a bit old and they could do with being discounted but there is nothing else like them on the market right now. stormpowered.com/stormcloud/store/index.asp
Thank you for sharing, I don't believe we can underestimate the shock the United Kingdom felt at the ships loss at that time.
Love your videos, always awesome when my notifications tell me you have uploaded something. Hearing Mr Ted Briggs talk about the sinking always chilled me to the bone. As did the thought that only 3 men survived the sinking. My brain has a hard time understanding how more men didn't get off before she went down. Mainly those in top side stations. I can imagine a wall of fire swept through the lower decks, blowing open water tight doors and flash cooking everything.
Admiral Tiberius
Only 3 survived because the the water was about the temperature of melted ice . Can you imagine yourself in that water that would explain that
@@oceanhome2023 With the Bismarck 70 percent of the survivors were left in the water by the British.
Based on the accounts of the survivors, Hood's deck crew had suffered tremendous losses in a number of hits from Prinz Eugen, one hit supposedly hitting exactly where a lot of them were huddled (near the base of the superstructure). Another hit from Bismarck took out the spotting top, resulting in a macabre shower of bodyparts onto compass bridge. And finally yet another hit resulted in Robert Tilburn seeing his mates get killed and had to relieve his stomach over the side, and when he looked up again the ship was in the process of blowing up (thus it is likely that it was a second hit in the same salvo that set off the magazine, as Tilburn was on the port side of the ship thus not in the way to the magazine).
Briggs' account does seem to indicate that considerably more people got off the ship, but the quick sinking must have dragged a lot of them down, and yet others probably didn't make it in the bad weather and cold waters, as Tilburn felt himself losing the fight near the end.
It really is sobering to read these accounts, and it is equally tough to consider that Dundas never spoke of the sinking, privately or publicly. No wonder, considering the accounts from Tilburn and Briggs.
By the way, and this might sound somewhat macabre to suggest, but there are some really powerful accounts from the Battle of Jutland as well. One of them from a crewman in a turret that got hit (and then had the magazine explode beneath him, and being stuck in the turret as the ship went down). I find these men's stories to be important, because all too often we are left unaware of the last terrible moments, sometimes leaving us without comprehension of just how bad it must have been.
@@UnintentionalSubmarine Thank you for that reply....it was awesome.
I am glad you appreciated it.
Didn’t know they recovered her Bell...May she Ever Rule the Waves.
Killed many more Frenchmen than Bismarck.
Thank you! I very much enjoy your videos. I have been a history "Buff" since the first book I remember reading was about The Monitor and the Merrimac and the great Engineer & Inventor:John Ericsson.
My mother gave it to1 me for my eight birthday in 1955. I am a twice retired US Army Metrology technician with my last duty station in uniform and as civilian was The US Army's armored vehicle rebuild center at the Anniston Army Depot. One of my duties before my final retirement in 2013 was the certification of the turret ring and target board used for the final assembly alignment of the 120mm main gun and the 7.62mm coax MG on the M1A1 Abrams MBT. At 4.72 inches the gun is near to size of the secondaries on most Battleships. I have read/listened to R. Massie's books: "Dreadnought..." and "Castles of Steal" also Tull's: "Battle of Surigao Strait" along with going over many a "Jane's Fighting Ships" in many Post Libraries" over the years I keep a copy of Mr. Millers: "Illustrated Directory of War Ships..." to hand. I have toured BB60 USS Alabama and my Uncle Robert Swiggum served as a gunners mate on BB64 The USS Wisconsin in one of , as you have noted, plethora of 20 or 40mm Bofors cannons, He told me it was one of the fantail mounts. Well enough of my blather, as I am also a Civil War "Buff", I would like to request of you one of your excellent Video's about The Patuxent Class of twin turret Monitors, I believe they served in South American navies until the late 1800's. Thank you again.
Yours Truly;
Francis C. Howland Jr. Msg USA Ret.
Oxford on the Choccolocco, Alabama
Today marks 79 years since the Hood's loss. God bless those sailors. Just three survivors. Wow.
"Showing your citadel, that's a paddling"
~German commander
For anyone confused about or wanting more detail on the different theories, I strongly recommend William Jurens' 1987 article, which is available for free at the end of a Google search.
It is also worth pointing out that the most likely impact really was incredibly unfortunate: in the big refit that changed the secondary armament, the secondary magazine was extended aft. The very end of this extension was not fully covered by the extra armour over the magazines. It is most likely that Bismarck managed to put a shell in this spot, which at the relative angles required hitting a 1x3m patch of Hood. Outside of this patch, the shell would have been bounced by armour or ended up off the ship.
I get my nerd-love-info-big-WWII-ship fix from this site. Please keep it up!
Honestly, if you don’t go into never-finished ships, Hood may well be the most notable of the “she deserved a more glorious career and fate” category...
Clay Pidgeon
Really, most big-gun ships fit in that category. Battleship engagements were just too few and most of them (at least in WWII) weren’t necessary
Hood is almost a foreshadowing of what was to come with battleships two decades later; in retrospect she was the first of the huge, fast, heavily armed capital ships that everyone would start building in the 1930s, and like all of them, she would be ill-fated to never live up to her reputation.
Chris George
Her career in WWII isn’t actually that notable once you get into the details; everything she did, non-battleships could have done more efficiently.
Chris George
The longest-range hit happened in a battle where battleships were unnecessary (carriers would have been a better option there).
Surviving a Fritz X hit does not equal actually doing her job. By your logic, a soldier that survives serious injuries but fails all his/her objectives is a good soldier.
Yamato:Am I a joke to you
We rememberall who served in HMS Hood on the anniversary of her loss. RIP
And that's why you always use the juliet charlie signal in WOWS just to be on the safe side.
This is a certified Hood classic.
So, Hood was fighting with one arm tied to her back, slowly deteriorating, and not properly maintained despite being the pride of the royal navy. Now that I think of it, Hood existed only because she was the only member of her class to reach sufficient progress in construction which saved her from scrapping. So, she basically had almost no right in serving the royal navy, if you know what I mean, which is honestly quite sad.
One of those ships really screwed over by their own nations.
I absolutely have to give an honourable mention here to the late Ted Briggs. The only of the three survivors who was actually willing to talk about the sinking and was the lust survivor of Hood’s sinking.
I personally met him a little over a decade ago and was very good man.
A little fun fact, the memorial plate with the names of the crew on it that was placed there during the first attempt at the Bell’s retrieval was in fact placed by Briggs.
I value your evaluation of the causes of the loss of the Hood. Thanks!! Ship [class] Suggestion: HMS Apollo [protected cruiser]?!
Renown collided with Hood, the communication process in Hood concluded, Renowns coming inboard!! The controversy is well worth an episode from Drach.
Looking forward to seeing the upcoming Derfflinger-class video soon!
Had she been modernized I imagine her fight with Bismarck may have ended very differently.
If they let her keep her Armor,they might have won
The hood thought the Prinz Eugen was the Bismarck as the Start so the Bismarck could have still easily sank the hood. The Bismarck took hundreds of shells from the Royal Navy fleet so one ship wouldn’t have been able to sink the Bismarck.
@@CarterWills1 it might have stayed afloat for a while but after the first few broadsides from KGV and Rodney the Bismarck was completely crippled and unable to fight back at all. It basically became target practice for the Royal Navy
This. They pummeled that ship for a solid hour or so, but she was effectively neutralised long before that. You don't fuck with 16 inch shells.
I don't know about "easily". She would have the advantage of first blood if her shells hit, but no amount of speculation can determine who might have definitively won the battle.
It is interesting that people often concede Hood's characteristics were such she fit the description of a fast battleship. But because there were more powerful guns in service by WW II, that made her a battlecruiser by then? Japan's Nagato class were from Hood's era also. Because their armor was not as proof against 1940's guns as it was against guns in the 1920's when they were built, does that make them a different kind of ship circa 1941? They remained battleships because that is what they were built to be.
Side note:
Given that Hood was officially a battlecruiser, but that post Jutland the Royal Navy revised the battlecruiser role to encompass the ability to stand in the battle line and be able to withstand heavy gunfire, it could be argued that post Jutland the term "battlecruiser" referred to essentially the same type of ship as what was meant by "fast battleship". The issue was clouded by the fact that Hood was the only post Jutland "battlecruiser" built to these revised criteria, and remained in service alongside older battlecruisers of the the pre-Jutland variety.
In any case, being an earlier model fast battleship does not mean that the ship changes type as technology progresses. Just that the ship required modernization to meet modern standards, such as was done to several of the Queen Elizabeth's. Or the American Tennessee/West Virginia ships.
Nice write up Gary. Unfortunately it won't dissuade the stupids from believing she was equivalent to a WW1 "invincible" class.
@@williambradley9419 Lol. I know. I tried...
Don't confuse them with facts. They just want to repeat the mantra/myth that Hood 'Sploded cause she was a thin armored battlecruiser. Even though every big gun ship pre-1925 had 3 inches of deck armor at best.
Love the videos keep up the amazing work. 3 videos in 1 day?
Robo Voices are for memes. Glad you are now using your real voice.
hood visited australia melbourne port phillip bay
Awesome stuff man! Subbed!
Hood attacked Dunkerque -> sank by detonation
Barham attacked Richelieu -> sank by detonation
WoWS anti team kill system by fun & engaging OP plz nerf
Your history isn't very good, because the Hood attacked the Bismark and Prinz Eugen and was sunk.
@@OscarGKing Both of them attacked French battleships and were later sunk... the point he is making is not that the French sank Barham and Hood...
@@OscarGKing You didn't get the joke?
@@reymiguelperez6643 No, because i don't play computer games, i usually have better things to do.
I cried for weeks after she was sunk. :(
@Drachinifel A couple of ships that would be nice to see would be the 1889 Greek ironclad Hydra and the 1907 Japanese armored cruiser/battle cruiser Ibuki.
I know the Hydra's are down for a video at some point.
Grim Reaper: It’s time to go
Hood: Was I a good Battlecruiser?
Grim Reaper:No, I heard you were the best
Chris George Exactly! She deserved a refit more than any other
Chris George Agreed, it was a death sentence to send her out with her deck armor being so weak
In other words, the Germans had hella good RNG that day, much to the HMS Hood’s detriment. Such a beautiful vessel, the likes the world has never seen since. After my HMS Nelson build I’ve got a lovely 1:700 Tamiya kit of Hood that needs to be built. Can’t wait.
Most beautiful ship ever built
She was lovely. 'Tiger' shades it for me, at least among British capital ships. Whisper it quietly though because I have a thing for the WW2 era 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau'. I think it's the high prow and the single smokestack amidships that make it look better side on. Looking at 'Hood' and 'Scharnhorst' from the front I'd be hard pressed to pick my favourite.
@keith moore You're entitled to your wrong opinion.
Only joking, the Iowas are indeed beautiful ships.
@keith moore Warships are strange things to regard as 'appealing' given their purpose. Beautiful and terrible.
When 'Hood' was flagship of the RN and was 'flying the flag' in full glory she was supposedly a very impressive looking vessel. Sadly we don't have colour photos or film of her like that. Perhaps if we had we'd regard her differently.
@keith moore I can understand that. I have similar feelings about 'Scharnhorst'. I prefer single smokestacks so she gets it over the 'Iowa' but otherwise the two ships/classes are very similar ('Iowa' being larger, obviously) in terms of looks.
@@kevinjohnbettsI know this is late, but here's a pretty great one:
ua-cam.com/video/pAthCvk5Gro/v-deo.html
We will always remember the HMAS Sydney.
If the turn had been made just 30 seconds sooner the result would have been totally different.
Yeah detonation amidship then.
Thanks for posting it right after
Well when Hoods bow was in the air it's very front turret fire's a final defiant salvo before slipping into the dark water.
GOD DAMNIT, BISMARCK!
To any World of Warships player who purchased the Hood, you all know her propensity to attract those rare golden bbs that result in you suddenly have your entire health pool drained or exploding.
Really good- what a beautiful ship and a sad end
A nice presentation! Years ago I read Ludovic Kennedy's book "Pursuit" about the action against the Bismarck. A good read. Admiral Tovey ALMOST ordered Admiral Holland to take up station astern of Prince of Wales, thinking the Bismarck might open on the lead ship. Kennedy said, "...he was to wish profoundly that he had". I believe (as you mentioned) Admiral Holland was trying to race in and close the gap to protect Hood's weak deck armor from plunging, long range shot. Terribly tragic day. A Drydock question might be: Was the "stable vertical" gyro device the key to making Hood's light deck armor obsolete?Thanks
To the boy sailors and and men of Hood who never returned. #wewillrememberthem
Here are my suggestions for future videos
HMS Neptune (1909)
HMS Campania
HMS Jervis Bay
SMS Graf Von Goetzon
USS Texas (1892)
USS Oregon (BB-3)
USS Allen (DD-66)
Battle of Rio de Oro (SMS Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse VS. HMS Highflyer)
Battle of Trindade (HMS Carmania VS SMS Cap Trafalgar)
Admiral class pre-dreadnought battleship
Tennessee class armored cruiser
Tsukuba class "battlecruiser"
Satsuma class "semi-dreadnought" battleship
Very cool video, I always wondered where on the Hood my uncle was. There is very little info I have.
Do you know his rank and/or department?
I don't know his department but here is the info from the Hood association.
Ordinary Seaman John Robert Gillis, Service Number: P/JX 212482
I tried contacting one place the Hood association recommended, which I can't remember but never heard back.
Any help would be great, I am building a model of her and would like to add some info about him. I wanted to also see if there were any models awarded to the crew posthumously so I could add photos of them as well.
Thanks
Larry
@@arohk1579 I'll see what I can find, there is also a government form where you can't request a relatives service record (for this period of history) if you are the closest living relative, otherwise you'll need said relatives signature, but either way that's a good route to go down.
That's one thing to look at, not sure who that might be. I guess since my mom and bio dad got recorded and he died it wouldn't be her, however it could be my brother.
Thank you for all your help, I really do appreciate it.
Larry
Fletcher class destroyers, I dad served on several but never really talked about the war or his sea service, I'd like to learn more.
Thanks for this 👍
For the Q&A: What if the roles of the Scharnhorst, Bismarck and H classes of Battleships were swapped with the Graf Zeppelin, with the former three being designed as Carrier's from the start, and the latter designed as a Battleship?
nice. i actually just fineshed a model of it and am planning to make a video on it once i paint it.
A friend of mine's father served on HMS Hood in the late 1930s. Shortly before the war began his girlfriend (fiancé?) ran off with another man to Australia. Shortly thereafter she had regrets and contacted him. He deserted and went to Australia to bring her back to England. He was court martialed and so was not in service when the Hood sank. As the war progressed, because of the need for experienced sailors, he was allowed to re-enter the service. He served for the rest of the war into the 1950s and retired as a chief petty officer. He married the woman who ran off, and my friend was born in 1941. She told me that at night she would say goodnight to daddy, directing her words to a picture of the ship on which he was deployed. If she told me what ship that was, I do not remember, except I think it was another battleship.
A lovely ship.
You asked for ideas, I have a few: HMAS Sydney (i) and SMS Emden, HMAS Sydney (II) and the Kormoran, The Japanese attack on Sydney Harbour, the actions of AE-2 and the 107 year old mystery of AE-1 (only recently found).
Had Admiral Holland placed Prince of Wales as the leading ship, matters might have gone otherwise. Speculation as to the cause has a fascination, and seemingly without resolution. The Hood enigma ...
The Prince of Wales was unworked up, and still had dockyard mateys trying to sort out things in the gunnery systems. Hood was fully commissioned and worked up. After Hood sank, POW correctly withdrew. Churchill wanted Captain Leach court martialled. The CinC Admiral Tovey, (I think) said if he was, he, Tovey would resign and defend Captain Leach. I am an Royal Naval officer, albeit 83. The RN, does not differentiate between Retired and Serving unless necessary, such as writing to the newspapers. I am on the Retired List of the Royal Navy, but am able to use RN after my name. Doesn't cut much ice really, but I love it. Sadly I am no relation to Vice-Admiral Holland. As a Signal Officer I did meet Ted Briggs, but he was bored out of his skull talking about the Hood.
@@cliveholland7846 The signal officer who brought the signal to Tovey Hood blown up was asked to calculate if the signal was actually something else. Toveys opinion was that the boat deck fire was the root cause of the explosion, and he lamented Holland had not headed straighter in to minimise the target further.
Seems like a shell plunged down trough the deck because of the ship rolling to bear the rear turrets on the Bismarck, setting off the 4.5inches ammo which were stored directly beside the 15 inches frontal turrets magazine.
Proof is the wreck, that shows the frontal part of the ship was shredded upwards because of a big explosion, occured between under the front turret and under the command bridge( where the 4.5 magazines were located)
So this was indeed the unluckiest shot for the poor brit sailors.
Largest warship when built (and thanks to naval treaties close to largest, if not, when sunk) but most powerful... I'd say the 9 16" on Nelson class, the 8 16.1" on Nagato class, and the 8 16" on Colorado class were more powerful.
As for being the most powerful, that's debatable. You could argue that 12 14" guns could be considered at least as, if not more powerful than, 8 15". One thing you may not be considering when commenting on the speed of US BB's is that the vast majority of the world's Battleships were in the 21-23 kt range (despite what World of Warships would have people believe).
The 15" were guns used on Vanguard because they were in storage (having been removed from Courageous and Glorious after they were converted to aircraft carriers) and thus the only way the RN could get a new battleship in a somewhat timely fashion.
Hood could simply outrun all of these ships....she’s honestly a foreshadowing of what was to come in the 1930s and early 40s, except unlike those ships she didn’t have to face seas ruled by carriers upon launch.
The modernization scheme looks good but just my twocents is to keep the tripod mast on top of the bridge and the conning tower. Its just one of those things thats so unique to Hood
I have a request you do a video on USS Samuel B. Roberts DE 413 and or a battle between Bismarck vs Post 1942 planned large repair/refit HMS Hood
Do you think that an armor distribution, on the line of the all-or-nothing scheme, would have made less possible the explosión?
On the other hand, i not quite sure if am right on this thought ( correct me if not) but i would bet that if the 3 losses at jutland had not ocurred, the battlecruiser, as Fisher wanted, in all likehood would have replace the battleships all over the world, or at least in the royal navy as the expected money-saving, fast response vessel that he wanted for the protección of the empire
WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER THE BISMARCK R.I.P.
@Doge Maverick The Kreigsmarine sailors are just as deserving of remembrance, even if they were the enemy at the time.
Doge Maverick must be from that nation who needs help for just about everything
Doge Maverick was referring to Britain 🇬🇧 who is always in situations they need/ coerce help from America to get out of
If they liked war so much why could they not fight for themselves instead of some trickery to have others finish it for them??
Doge Maverick kriegsmarine could have been better if better supported at home. But it’s just hard to live down the Lusitania episode
Well the hms hood and Bismarck were beautiful ships but sunk.
It's official. Hood is Drachinifel's best girl.
I was once asked what was so special about the Bismark. I said it may not look like much but it really blows them out of the water once you get under the Hood.
@ 2:43- Aaaand ironically they went and built another capital ship destined to be destroyed in a 'catastrophic explosion' -_-
I just decided to give in and watch the text to speech one last night >:[ (good vid though)
Now that’s a critical hit if I’ve ever seen one.
What diffrences where there between the hood and the rest of the planned admiral class.
I've always wondered: would the WW1 Kriegsmarine (1914) win in a fight against the WW2 Kriegsmarine (1939)? No U-Boats, but everything else is allowed. Ships commissioned afterwards are commissioned on schedule for the sake of this thought experiment.
Without a doubt
Dang the last time I was so early the British still had an Empire.
We still have, and you are part of it, except many of you do not realise that. Its called the Anglosphere. We are the grandpa now, and one of the kids has taken over the day to day running of the family business, but we are still a substantial shareholder, and are the link that keep the family together.
@@Simonsvids I know about the Commonwealth of Nations, it's just a cringy joke that you could use for almost every country, ie. the German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch colonial empires. Just when it's about a British ship choosing the nation that the mentioned ship belongs to makes way more sense, if you want to make a quick joke :)
Murfly, your time in the sun is also drawing to a close. Enjoy it while you can.
Given that Hood was very well-armoured for her time, should she be called the first real fast battleship?
Everything I read about the Lexingtons, and their, what, 3rd or 4th design, says they were inspired by the Hood. Yet, before the Lexingtons were laid down, the Admiralty decided it didn't want any more ships like the Hood, scrapped the other three Admirals on the ways, after spending some 1.6M Pounds on them, and went back to the drawing board. The USN pressed on with the thin skinned Lexingtons regardless. Another case where the Washington Treaty probably saved the USN from making another mistake. The flaw in the thinking behind the battle cruiser is there are some situations where running is not an option. The US forces off Samar Island in 44, known as "Taffy 3" were wildly outmatched, but running was not an option. They had to stand and fight.
That is actually the Bismarck firing at 08:10
2:50 What an absolute looker!
Hi, my Dad served in the RN from 1927 -1949. Could you cover H.M.S. Afridi . He served on this Destroyer from when she was commissioned & operated in the Med. until she returned to N/E England.
This was to prepare for the evacuation of the troops in Norway 1940, his last day was helping to oversee resupply. Then, he left to join another ship & despite many sailors feeling uneasy they set sail & she met her demise.
I would like to echo several others by saying how much better these videos are without the roboVoice. I've binge watched a ton of your videos, and your own voice is the way to go.
Anyway I would like to suggest a video on IJN Chikuma. I'm just starting to build a model of this ship. I really like the weirdness of the layout.
Also, what is that music you're starting your videos with? It sounds super familiar.;
Suggestion: German E-Boat S-130, or it's class, from WW2. :)
plz do the hydra-class ironclad battleships or the aetos-class destroyers
Yeah Boi!!!!!!!! mAh Favorite from the Royals!!!!!!!!
It was well know that deck armor was the weak point of battleships. The large number of 12 inch mortars employed by the US and Britain in coastal defense batteries proves it as does the explosion of Hood and Arizona when penetrated by 15" and 16" armor piercing rounds respectively.
Arizona? I think you're getting confused by that one the Arizona was sunk at pearl harbor by AIRCRAFT.
@The Gaming Gecko Arizona was sunk by a 16" armor piercing naval round modified to be dropped by aircraft.
@@longlakeshore well i gotta say i didn't know about that, my apologies.
@The Gaming Gecko No problem. It's thought that Arizona was hit by four of these babies but only one stuck and exploded in just the right place--very much like Bismarck's "lucky" hit on Hood.
@@thegaminggecko1255 the Japanese were using modified 16 in AP shells dropped by Kates from 10,000 ft. They knew the armor weakness on our older battleships as well as Germans knew Hood's.
Have you ever done a a specific refit for the Hood, like one that the Renown received.
Love that battle ship RIP
You really need to do a bibliographic video someday, to review some of your best source materials.
Theirs theories that b turret magazine also blew up if it did I imagine it would of killed ted Briggs but he survived but it couldn't explain why the fire directors are so far apart and the ships being ripped into 3 places if someone could tell how this happened it would be pretty useful
And the best tea facilities ever put on to sea
gj drac =)
The Hood is a curious case of a "battlecruiser" which is longer and heavier than all battleships ever fielded by RN. Also, only two RN ships (of the gun era, before missiles) were more heavily armed. How exactly was this beast a "battlecruiser"? Because it could achieve 32kn??
Basically. The British also called the G3s battlecruisers, even though they had better armour than most battleships.
They did find out wat sank the Hood. A lucky shell detonated the 15 inch ammo.
Freaking Hood, Dude!!!
Good evening,
I was wondering what condition the Hood’s 15” cannons were in? We’re they at the end of their lives and maybe needed replacements, did they have linings that were off in dia.”, or were they half life? I ask this because they were tracking the ships in probable positions before actually for firing? Were the gun crews having a bad morning because it took them a rather longer time to range the enemy. It took PoWales was quite accurate in comparison. Hood had problems in hitting Prince Eugene and then when they changed ships, I don’t remember if she even got close to Bismarck? She did have allot of fire missions prior to being sacrificed in the Bismarck affair?
Forever in His service
I'm American so I'm partial to the Iowa's and Dakota class but I have to admit....the hood sure was a handsome ship.