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[[Image:HMS_Hood.JPG|right|thumb|300px|HMS Hood photographed in the Port of Fremantle, Western Australia, 1924.]]

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!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: teal  no-repeat scroll top left;"|HMS ''Hood'' photographed in the Port of Fremantle, Western Australia, 1924

!align ="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: teal no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:Royal Navy Ensign.png|48px|Royal Navy ensign]]

'''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''''' 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.

   

   

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.

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 the ship's crew of 1,418, only three men survived.

''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; due to previous additions, her speed had dropped from 32 knots at the time of her commissioning to 29 knots in 1941; her weight increased from 45,200 to 48,360 tons; her crew complement increased by over 350 men; and she was still without vital armor plating on her decks, which would prove to be her Achilles heel. 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 the ship's crew of 1,418, only three men 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.

''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.