HMS Hood

Commissioned in 1920, HMS Hood was the last battle cruiser built for the Royal Navy. Although known as ‘The Mighty Hood’, she had design limitations. Following inter-war service in the Mediterranean, Hood returned to Britain for an overhaul in 1939. By this time, advances in naval gunnery had reduced Hood's usefulness. She was scheduled to undergo a major rebuild in 1941 to correct these issues, but the outbreak of war forced the ship into service without the upgrades.

When war was declared, Hood was operating in the area around Iceland, and she spent the next several months hunting for German commerce raiders and blockade runners between Iceland and the Norwegian Sea. After a brief overhaul of her propulsion system, she sailed as the flagship of Force H, and participated in the destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. Relieved as flagship of Force H, Hood was dispatched to Scapa Flow, and operated in the area as a convoy escort and later as a defence against a potential German invasion fleet.

In May 1941, Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic where they were to attack convoys. On 24 May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was destroyed when hit by three German shells. She sank in three minutes with the loss of 1,415 men - 93 officers, 1,150 ratings, 161 Royal Marines, 4 Royal Australian Navy ratings and 7 NAAFI employees. 90 boys were listed amongst the dead. Only three men survived the disaster - Midshipman William John Dundas, Ordinary Signalman Ted Briggs and Seaman Robert Tilburn.

Various theories for Hood ‘s rapid demise have been advanced including the explosion of her own torpedoes, a detonation within her own guns, a shell striking below the water line or a spreading fire from the boat deck. However, the discovery of the ship’s wreck in 2001 seemed to confirm a Naval Board’s initial conclusion that Hood's aft 102 mm magazine exploded after one of Bismarck's 380 mm shells penetrated her armour. It seems that rapidly expanding combustion gases from exploding cordite swept through the ship causing catastrophic structural failure. Due to Hood’s publicly perceived invincibility, the loss affected British morale.

Twenty nine men with strong connections to Nottinghamshire were amongst the 1,415 lost aboard HMS Hood on May 24th 1941. They were:

William Brierley, William Callon, George Carlin, Jack Clark, Stanley Clayton, Thomas Clements, George Cole, John Cruttenden, Ronald Dennis, Kenneth Duckworth, John Gregory, Geoffrey Hartman, Maurice Herod, Kenneth Javin, John Machin, Ronald Neal, Kenneth Radley, Peter Reddall, John Rhodes, Jack Scott, George Smith, John Sulley, Harold Thompson, Herbert Wells, Harry White, Harry Wilcockson, Frederick Wilkinson, James Wilkinson, Frederick Williams.

NB. Unless otherwise stated, the photos in this section are courtesy of the HMS Hood Association: https//www.hmshood.org.uk

Thanks also to Michael and Elizabeth Szarelis for their contributions.