Our ex military members may be interested in the links.
80 years ago today at 0600 HMS Hood blew up and sank within three minutes taking 1415 men of her crew with her. Three men survived. 3 days later the Bismark was sunk with the loss of all but 116 of her 2365 crew.
My great grandfather (my mother’s grandfather on her mother’s side) was due to be on the Hood but for a reason I can’t remember (possibly one of his parents was ill) he was called off of it
Chances are it that hadn’t have happened then I probably wouldn’t be here today
theboardgamingway.com/what-happ … -analysis/
All killed by government cost cutting.
No doubt followed by the same excuse as used before at Jutland ( there’s something wrong with our bloody ships ) obviously left all the fire doors open to make loading faster.Yeah right. 
Also bearing in mind that the new King George V class ships were laid down on Chamberlain’s watch.Like the Spitfire built during the time that his waved piece of paper bought us. 
Interesting naval history which crops up on TV now and again.Horrific loss of life.I believe the “Hood” was sunk by a freak hit and the “Bismarck” technically was scuttled with its commander doing the officer and gentleman thing.Remarkable courage.
Gidders:
Interesting naval history which crops up on TV now and again.Horrific loss of life.I believe the “Hood” was sunk by a freak hit
They knew that Hood’s deck armour was vulnerable to plunging shell fire even before the war had started.Hood’s Captain’s whole compromised battle strategy against Bismark was based on that knowledge.
While if the Jutland casualties had supposedly been caused by leaving fire doors open to speed up loading why were the King George V class ships later given armour design based on prioritising protection of magazines reputedly based on ‘WW1 experience’.
Also why didn’t the supposed fire doors being left open excuse apply the same to the Queen Elizabeth class Battleships at Jutland.
As opposed to the ‘Cruisers’ Indefatigable, Invincible and Queen Mary meeting a similar fate to Hood with the combined loss of over 3,000 lives.
All very convenient let’s blame their crews to help divert attention from the fact that Hood’s crew had been put in the same situation by our unfit for purpose government.
Some detail about HMS Hood, its loss and what might have been.
youtube.com/watch?v=OjtG_mYuLxM
cav551:
Some detail about HMS Hood, its loss and what might have been.youtube.com/watch?v=OjtG_mYuLxM
I don’t get his ideas regarding range v fall of shot ?. 
You can actually land two shells on the same target at the same time fired from the same gun just by using a relatively higher and lower trajectory for each shot respectively.
Closer range doesn’t rule out a higher v lower elevation/trajectory being used.
I think it’s reasonable to assume that Hood was destroyed by a high trajectory shot falling through the decks that all sides knew she was vulnerable to.It’s obvious that gunnery would regularly be trying to do exactly that to circumvent the stronger hull/belt armour.That was the consensus in the day.
Forgive my ignorance but was HMS Hood huge loss of life due from having her ships windows open in hot weather, and from the speed of her sinking there was no time to shut the windows for the crew quarters which were close to the level of the sea ?
Tarmaceater:
Forgive my ignorance but was HMS Hood huge loss of life due from having her ships windows open in hot weather, and from the speed of her sinking there was no time to shut the windows for the crew quarters which were close to the level of the sea ?
Hood blew up in a massive explosion which tore the ship apart and it actually sank in two seperate halfs rear and front nothing to do with open windows.
Although it was late May the Battle of Denmark Straight - between Iceland and Greenland - was fought just before and after 0600 so it would not have been exactly shirt sleeve weather. Certainly Hood ran low in the water but the reason she sank was because an ammunition magazine exploded and the ship broke in half. The Hood was hit by an 800kg 38cm shell, some 1.7 metres long, initially travelling at around 1800 mph. This penetrated the ships armour and exploded deep inside the hull. Some reports claim that one of Hood’s 15" gun turrets, which weighed several hundred tons, was blown high into the air.
Two of the survivors did speak of their experiences of the battle, these are available on line but their accounts are too graphic to post in case they should rekindle traumatic memories among our ex military members, who would prefer just to remember and respect their onetime fellow servicemen. The third survivor never spoke about what happened.
A repeat of the link to the sinking.
youtube.com/watch?v=CLPeC7LRqIY&t=284s
There was a programme about this a short time ago on “Yesterday” channel. A series using computer graphics and scanning technology and some imagination which basically drains the sea to expose sunken ships as they took their final resting place.The Battle of Jutland was one of these programmes.
Gidders:
There was a programme about this a short time ago on “Yesterday” channel. A series using computer graphics and scanning technology and some imagination which basically drains the sea to expose sunken ships as they took their final resting place.The Battle of Jutland was one of these programmes.
youtube.com/watch?v=imh9vc-iOdc 24.35-
Ironically our major ship losses at Jutland were the lesson that was ignored when they sent Hood to war with all too predictable results.
By then they knew that German gunnery tactics clearly aimed for any weak deck protection and Hood’s captain knew it.
The mistake seems to be the thinking that there is any automatic link between range and trajectory.In which case Hood’s captain was following a flawed plan that closing the range would supposedly protect the ship from plunging fire.
When it’s obvious that at anything like such ranges a battleship gun could be trained similar to a mortar by setting it to maximum elevation and then waiting for the ship to roll in the right direction adding to that elevation.
Realistically Hood’s crew would have had to realise the armour protection flaw in their ship and the resulting danger they were being sent into because they would have known all about the doomed closing the range tactic and why it was being implemented.
Probably in a similar way as allied tank crews didn’t flinch from going up against 88 mm anti tank guns both artillery and tank mounted and superior German armour.
As opposed to spending the cash needed to provide the guns needed to hit the Germans at a longer range than they could hit us and the armour needed to survive a hit.
To which the Brit government hid behind bs naval arms treaties which no country was actually bound by if they chose not to be.
No surprise that it was the 16 inch guns of Rodney and the more modern design of the King George V class that stopped Bismark.
youtube.com/watch?v=VGaGBImx62A
A bit like it was a Sherman Firefly that finally stopped Wittman’s rampage among others.
If there any scuba divers out there I can recommend diving at the Scapa Flow to see the sunken German navy warships , what an experience and definitely spooky in the descent down in darkness then you see the ship upside down.
Brave divers go inside the ship using rope as you can get lost if visibility is lost .
The late actor Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who, Worzell Gummidge etc) was a crew member on HMS Hood but was transferred off of the ship for officer training shortly before its demise. My mother and grandmother (along with other members of the public) toured the ship while moored in Portsmouth before WW2.
Pete.
Starting at around 32 minutes some of the factors to take into account to illustrate that naval gunnery is a bit more complicated than just “up a bit, down a bit”.
The ‘Sink the Bismarck’ film even though its b&w and special effects are a bit clunky never fails to entertain. Kenneth More was the star, but for me, Michael Hordern steals the show as the Commander who gives the Bismarck the coup de grace, despite some saying she was scuttled.
The 2000 odd German sailors who died were fitting retribution for the loss of the crew from the Hood.
Amazing to think that Bismarck, the last word in warship design at the time was stopped by those antique Fairey bi-planes. The irony being they were so slow that the German guns struggled to target them. What bravery of those pilots though.
cav551:
Starting at around 32 minutes some of the factors to take into account to illustrate that naval gunnery is a bit more complicated than just “up a bit, down a bit”.
To be fair if you’re intending to drop a shell through thinly armoured decks as opposed to through the side of a thickly armoured hull that’s obviously all about trying to make an artillery shell behave like a mortar round.
There was obviously no problem with Bismark’s range finding or fire control. 
Janos:
The ‘Sink the Bismarck’ film even though its b&w and special effects are a bit clunky never fails to entertain. Kenneth More was the star, but for me, Michael Hordern steals the show as the Commander who gives the Bismarck the coup de grace, despite some saying she was scuttled.
The 2000 odd German sailors who died were fitting retribution for the loss of the crew from the Hood.
Amazing to think that Bismarck, the last word in warship design at the time was stopped by those antique Fairey bi-planes. The irony being they were so slow that the German guns struggled to target them. What bravery of those pilots though.
It was actually the damage done by ( Chamberlain’s ) King George V class Prince of Wales and the fact that, unlike Hood, she could withstand Bismark’s fire, that ensured Bismark’s demise.It was the smashed and flooded bow section and with it fuel storage that stopped her and Rodney’s 16’’ guns that finished her.