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The '''HMS Hood''' was a [[British]] [[World War II]] ship. It was ordered during [[World War I]] but would not be commissioned until after the end of that War. She was one of Britain's most powerful ships, but would be destroyed by the [[German]] [[battleship Bismarck]] during the [[Battle of the Denmark Strait]].  Only three men survived the sinking, in part because of a fear of German U-Boats and the need to follow the Biskmark.

'''HMS ''Hood''''' was a ''battlecruiser'' in service to the [[United Kingdom]]'s [[Royal Navy]] in the period between the World Wars, known as the pride of the fleet and a sailing ambassador world-wide.  Her loss to the German battleship ''Bismarck'' in 1941 shocked the nation.

HMS ''Hood'', a 42,100-ton battlecruiser built at Clydebank, [[Scotland]], was completed in March 1920. For more than two decades, she was the world's largest warship and, with her long, low hull and finely balanced silhouette, was to many the embodiment of "big-gun" era seapower. During her travels in European waters and far away, ''Hood'' actively represented Great Britain throughout her career. Her first cruise, in 1920, was to [[Scandanavia]]. The next year she went down to [[Gibraltar]] and [[Spain]] and in 1922 visited [[Brazil]] and the [[West Indies]]. After a brief call on [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]] in 1923, ''Hood'' was flagship on a eleven-month cruise around the world, accompanied by the smaller battlecruiser ''Repulse'' and a number of light cruisers. In 1925, she called on [[Lisbon]] to help commemorate [[Portugal]]'s contributions to navigation and exploration.

 

For ten years after 1925, ''Hood'' was assigned to the Royal Navy's Home and Atlantic Fleets, operating primarily around [[Europe]], with a visit to the West Indies in 1932. She served with the Mediterranean Fleet in 1936-39, protecting British interests during the [[Spanish Civil War]]. Back with the Home Fleet after mid-1939, ''Hood'' operated in the North Atlantic and North Sea through the first part of [[World War II]] and received minor damage in a German air attack on 26 September 1939, an event that demonstrated the relative ineffectiveness of contemporary anti-aircraft gunfire. In June and July 1940, the battlecruiser was in the Mediterranean area. She was flagship during the [[Battle of Mers-el-Kebir]] on July 3, the most dramatic and destructive of several incidents in which the British Navy seized, interned, destroyed or attempted to destroy the warships of their recent ally, [[France]]. These acts were undertaken on Government orders to allay fears that the [[French Navy]] might fall into German hands.

 

''Hood'' spent the remainder of her service operating from [[Scapa Flow]], covering the North Sea and Atlantic from the threat of German [[surface raiders]]. She was now elderly, overloaded, and burdened with an inadequate armoring arrangement. However, her great operational value had acted through the 1930s to prevent the Royal Navy from taking her out of service for a badly-needed modernization, specifically to add armor plating to her deck, and now it was too late. In May 1941, in company with the new battleship [[HMS Prince of Wales|''Prince of Wales'']], she was sent out to search for the German battleship [[Battleship Bismarck|''Bismarck'']], which had left Norway for the Atlantic. On the morning of 24 May, the two British capital ships found the enemy to the west of [[Iceland]]. In the resulting Battle of the Denmark Strait, five salvos were fired at ''Hood''; the fourth salvo straddled the ship and gave the range ''Bismarck'' was looking for, and a shell from the fifth salvo penetrated the unprotected deck behind the aft funnel, penetrating into a magazine and causing a massive explosion.  ''Hood'' broke in two - the bow section lifting clear of the water to nearly vertical - and sank in moments. Of a crew of over 1400 officers and men, only three survived.

 

''Hood's'' loss was an event that shocked the Royal Navy, the British nation and the entire world, which the British at the time would equate with the attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] several months later. ''Hood's'' remains were located and photographed by a British deep sea expedition in July, 2001.

 

==References==

==References==

*[http://www.hmshood.com/ HMS Hood Association]

*[http://www.hmshood.com/ HMS Hood Association]

 

[[Category: United Kingdom History]]

[[Category: United Kingdom History]]