HMS HOOD

Launched on Clydebank on 22nd August 1918, HMS Hood was the only Admiral class battlecruiser to be built.

Hood was the largest battleship afloat in the world for nearly twenty years, seen by many to symbolise the might of the British empire.

Hood was often used, in “showing the flag” operations around the globe including time allocated to the special service squadron, along with HMS Renown and HMS Dauntless 1923 - 1924.
Assigned to the Mediterranean fleet in 1936 at the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, she returned to home waters in 1939 for a much needed overhaul and modernisation.

However the outbreak of the second world war in September 1939, prevented this being undertaken, and Hood was deployed to hunt German commence raiders in the waters between Iceland and the Norwegian coast.

Now as the flagship of Force H, she participated, with HMS Ark Royal, in the attack of the French port of Mers-el-Kebir, as part of Operation Catapult, which was designed to destroy all French navy ships to prevent them being utilised by the enemy.

Transfer to the home fleet, saw HMS Hood dispatched to Scapa Flow as a convoy escort, then as part of the defence of a potential German attack.

On 24th May 1941 HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the German battle ship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, who were on route to attack the Atlantic convoys via the Denmark Strait, between Iceland and Greenland.

Shortly before 6am, the British opened fire on the German ships, but less than 10 minutes into engagement, shells from the Bismarck struck Hood, near her ammunition stores causing a catastrophic explosion, causing the back of the ship to break.

HMS Hood sunk in less than 3 minutes.

With a crew of 1,418, only 3 survived.

Ordinary Signalman Ted Briggs (1923-2008),Able Seaman Robert Tilburn (1921- 1995), Midshipman William John Dundas (1923 - 1965) were picked up by the destroyer, HMS Electra roughly two hours after the sinking.

Such was the huge loss of Hood to British morale, Prime minister Winston Churchill ordered the destruction of the Bismarck said “I don’t care how you do it, you must sink the Bismarck”.

On May 27th 1941, the already damaged Bismarck was attacked by a plethora of British ships which resulted in the ship sinking, with the loss of 2,086 crew.

The wreck of HMS Hood was discovered in 2001 by shipwreck hunter, David Mesans as part of a television documentary to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the battle.

The site was visited again in 2015 by David Means and his team to retrieve one of the ships bells, which was located in a small debris field away from the main wreckage, and not touching any other part of the ship, as a protected war grave site, the greatest care was taken.

The Bell was to form, the first and official memorial to the 1,415 ships crew, and can be located at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth.


Photo credit for badge : R Payling