[96], In 2012, the British government gave permission for Mearns to return to the site of Hood's final resting place to retrieve one of her two ship's bells which were lying in a small open debris field some way from the wreck herself. H.M.S. Her secondary and antiaircraft fire-control directors were rearranged during another quick refit between 1 August and 5 September 1934. Hood, Renown and Repulse were deployed to the Bay of Biscay on 5 November to prevent the "pocket battleship" Admiral Scheer from using French ports after she had attacked Convoy HX 84, but the German ship continued into the South Atlantic. A second inquiry was held after complaints that the first board had failed to consider alternative explanations, such as an explosion of the ship's torpedoes. It was more thorough than the first board but concurred with the first board's conclusion. Roster entries: 90,827 (for 89,120 people) Service Persons; Merchant Navy: 43,355: RN: 13,428 . We work with our members around the world in remembering the Mighty Hood and all those who sailed in her. Updated 06-Jun-2022. David Hunt. These were joined in early 1939 by four twin mounts for the QF 4-inch Mark XVI dual-purpose gun. Hood Crew List Updated 11-Apr-2022 Background 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. In the early days of the database, information came to us mainly from relatives of individual men. Captain Arthur Pridham assumed command on 1 February 1936 and Hood returned to Portsmouth for a brief refit between 26 June and 10 October 1936. A meeting place for Association members and Hood enthusiasts. She would have received new, lighter turbines and boilers, a secondary armament of eight twin 5.25-inch (133mm) gun turrets, and six octuple 2-pounder "pom-poms". [65] A note on a survivor's sketch in the RN Historical Branch Archives gives .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}6320N 3150W / 63.333N 31.833W / 63.333; -31.833 as the position of the sinking. They served as tragic reminders as to why the war was being fought and why it had to be won. Sir Horace Hood had been killed while commanding the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron and flying his flag on Invincibleone of the three battlecruisers which blew up at the Battle of Jutland. [50], The ship participated in King George V's Silver Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead the following August. When war with Germany 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. Updated 11-Apr-2022. [2] Her 5-inch upper-armour strake would have been removed and her deck armour reinforced. HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. Click here to access the list of dates men joined the ship. When the threat of an invasion diminished, the ship resumed her previous roles in convoy escort and patrolling against German commerce raiders. [14] When they detonated, the rockets shot out lengths of cable that were kept aloft by parachutes; the cable was intended to snag aircraft and draw up the small aerial mine that would destroy the aircraft. The principal theories include the following causes: At the second board, expert witnesses suggested that what was observed was the venting, through the engine-room ventilators, of a violentbut not instantaneousexplosion or deflagration in the 4-inch shell magazines. 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. The catapult and crane were removed in 1932, along with the flying-off platform on 'B' turret. [29], Hood was initially fitted with flying-off platforms mounted on top of 'B' and 'X' turrets, from which Fairey Flycatchers could launch. The middle armour belt had a maximum thickness of 7 inches over the same length as the thickest part of the waterline armour and thinned to five inches abreast 'A' barbette. The design was revised after the Battle of Jutland to incorporate heavier armour and all four ships were laid down. This explosion broke the back of Hood, and the last sight of the ship, which sank in only three minutes, was her bow, nearly vertical in the water. In May 1941, Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the German battleshipBismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic, where they were to attack convoys. [32][33], Around 1918, American commanders, including Vice Admiral William Sims, commander of US naval forces in Europe, and Admiral Henry T. Mayo, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, became extremely impressed by Hood, which they described as a "fast battleship", and they advocated that the US Navy develop a fast battleship of its own. The spectacular end of HMS Hood demonstrated what many in the Royal Navy already knew . [40] In addition, she was grossly overweight compared to her original design, making her a wet ship with a highly stressed structure. Draft: 32 ft. Ted Briggs was the last survivor of the battle cruiser HMS Hood, sunk by the German warship Bismarck in the North Atlantic during the Second World War. The memorials were assembled by blending official records with public casualty listings. They were and are the very heart and soul of the ship. The turrets were designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from bow to stern,[10] and 120 shells were carried for each gun. The Prince of Wales was joined by HMS Hood in a battle of mythical and historical proportions. 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. Hood was the first of the planned four Admiral-class battlecruisers to be built during the First World War.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. For instance, the never-built G3 battlecruiser was classified as such, although it would have been more of a fast battleship than Hood. Hood Roll of Honour Database. The stern of the Hood was located, with the rudder still in place, and it was found that this was set to port at the time of the explosion. 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. Armed Merchant Cruisers such as HMS Jervis Bay, were made up of various naval forces, and although she was a British ship, her crew were not all British, with some from the Commonwealth countries around the world. She formally transferred to the Mediterranean fleet on 20 October, shortly after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. In addition to the above, submissions by individuals remains a valuable contribution to the database. Ord. They were supplemented by two additional control positions in the fore-top, which were provided with 9-foot (2.7m) rangefinders, fitted in 19241925. [66] A huge jet of flame burst out of Hood from the vicinity of the mainmast,[Note 1] followed by a devastating magazine explosion that destroyed the aft part of the ship. H.M.S. 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. To these were added five unrotated projectile (UP) launchers in 1940, each launcher carrying 20 seven-inch (178mm) rockets. [11] The antiaircraft guns were controlled by a simple high-angle 2-metre (6ft 7in) rangefinder mounted on the aft control position,[17] fitted in 19261927. 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. [27], Live-firing trials with the new 15-inch APC (armour-piercing, capped) shell against a mock-up of Hood showed that this shell could penetrate the ship's vitals via the 7-inch middle belt and the 2-inch slope of the main deck as a result 3-inch plating on the main deck over the slopes was added alongside the magazine spaces at a very late stage of construction and the four aftermost 5.5-inch guns and their ammunition hoists were removed in partial compensation.. A proposal was made to increase the armour over the forward magazines to 5inches and 6inches over the rear magazines in July 1919 in response to these trials. Kenneth Ellison. HMS Hood vs Bismarck : 860ft long and weighing over 43,000 tons, HMS Hood was a global star. For other ships of the same name, see, According to the testimony of Captain Leach, "between one and two seconds after I formed that impression [of a hit on, Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 14:06, destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kbir, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, "ADM 220/76: Reports of Performance in H.M.S. As before, with the exception of the attempted retrieval of the ship's bell, a strict look-but-don't-touch policy was adhered to. It is estimated that as many as 15,000 men may have served in her from 19201941. Hood Crew List -H.M.S. The fleet was spotted by the Germans and attacked by aircraft from the KG 26 and KG 30 bomber wings. [74], Memorials to those who died are spread widely around the UK, and some of the crew are commemorated in different locations. The German ships were spotted by two British heavy cruisers (Norfolk and Suffolk) on 23 May, and Holland's ships intercepted Bismarck and her consort, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland on 24 May. Below are just some of our members who have served at HMS Royal Arthur. Two quadruple mountings for the Vickers 0.5-inch (12.7mm) Mk III machine gun were added in 1933 with two more mountings added in 1937. Though mighty, the battle cruiser H.M.S. HMS Warspite bombarding defensive positions off Normandy, 6 June 1944. Another "pom-pom" director was added on the rear superstructure, abaft the HACS director in 1938. We are particularly grateful to Barry Roberts who has dedicated many hours undertaking this task and has identified several thousand "Hood men" thereby. ENGINEER Served from 1941 - 1943 Served in HMS Rodney. Only three survived: Ordinary Signalman Ted Briggs (19232008), Able Seaman Robert Tilburn (19211995), and Midshipman William John Dundas (19231965). 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. Victor White trained at HMS Royal Arthur as an Ordinary Telegrapher from 20/07/1943 to 12/08/1943. over 3 years). 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. For almost 2 decades, she was the largest and most powerful warship afloat. Two years later, the "pom-pom" directors were moved to the rear corners of the bridge to get them out of the funnel gases. -H.M.S. Hood Association Archives and various family sources. This work is still very much in development but we have about one-third of the people who died already listed. An excellent place to post guestbook greetings & share photos/information concerning the ship and crew. Hood Crew Information- H.M.S. One of these hits contaminated a good portion of the ship's fuel supply and subsequently caused her to steer for safety in occupied France where she could be repaired. HMS Challenger: a trailblazer for modern ocean science 150 years ago, HMS Challenger departed England on a quest to explore the world's oceans.
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