Aboard HMS Lapwing (U 62) when hit on 20 Mar 1945 Rapid expansion of the resulting combustion gases from the conflagration then caused structural failure, passing out through the sides of the ship as well as forward and upwards via the engine room vents, expelling the aft main battery turrets and causing the stern to be detached from the rest of the hull at the aft armoured bulkhead. In addition, the conning tower would have been removed and her bridge rebuilt. HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. Hood Crew List The HMS Hood is exceptional in more ways than one: She was the last battlecruiser, launched way after the Japanese Kongo class ships. The British opened fire at 05:52 with Hood engaging Prinz Eugen, the lead ship in the German formation, and the Germans returned fire at 05:55, both ships concentrating on Hood. The terms were rejected and the Royal Navy opened fire on the French ships berthed there. Crew Lost During the Sinking of Hood, 24th May 1941, Crew & Dockyard Workers Lost Prior to the Sinking (Sept 1916 - May 1941). [52] Hood was refitted at Malta in November and December 1937, and had her submerged torpedo tubes removed. Deborah. On 24 May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded, and sank with the loss of all but 3 of her crew of 1,418. 2616 The Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986 (Designation of Vessels and Controlled Sites) Order 2006", "HMS Hood's bell unveiled at Navy museum Portsmouth", "Conserved HMS Hood bell rings out on 75th anniversary of largest ever Royal Navy loss", "Photos of the Wreck of H.M.S. Terms & Conditions! The fire on the boat deck penetrated to a magazine. [94], The forward section lies on its port side, with the amidships section keel up. Hood Crew Information- A look at the often overlooked members of Hood's crew, Miscellaneous Crew Photos Hood continued this pattern of a winter training visit to the Mediterranean for the rest of the decade. Issue 22 4 knots. The lower deck was 3inches thick over the propeller shafts, 2inches thick over the magazines and 1inch elsewhere. Updated 06-Jun-2022. The Battle of the Denmark Strait was effectively part of the larger Battle of the Atlantic, the conflict fought as Germany tried to isolate Britain from its colonies and allies in hopes of forcing a negotiated peace. At 2002, a message from cruiser HMS Suffolk reported the enemy as one battleship and one cruiser, course 240 degrees, in a position that translated to some 560 kilometers distant and almost directly north of the battlecruiser force. The turrets were designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from bow to stern,[10] and 120 shells were carried for each gun. View of the British Royal Navy battle cruiser HMS Hood, possibly late 1930s. This work is still very much in development but we have about one-third of the people who died already listed. We are particularly grateful to Barry Roberts who has dedicated many hours undertaking this task and has identified several thousand "Hood men" thereby. The amidships section, the biggest part of the wreck to survive the explosions, lies inverted south of the eastern debris field in a large impact crater. The battlecruiser squadron made a Caribbean cruise in early 1932, and Hood was given another brief refit between 31 March and 10 May at Portsmouth. [23], The armour scheme of the Admirals was originally based on that of the battlecruiser Tiger with an 8-inch (203mm) waterline belt. The Special Service Squadron are on a tour around the world. 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. These were joined in early 1939 by four twin mounts for the QF 4-inch Mark XVI dual-purpose gun. Captain Ralph Kerr assumed command during the refit, and Hood was ordered to sea in an attempt to intercept the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst upon the refit's completion in mid-March. 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. She was attached to the Mediterranean fleet shortly afterwards and stationed at Gibraltar at the outbreak of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in October. The Board came to a conclusion almost identical to that of the first board, expressed as follows: That the sinking of Hood was due to a hit from Bismarck's 15-inch shell in or adjacent to Hood's 4-inch or 15-inch magazines, causing them all to explode and wreck the after part of the ship. The names can be accessed by clicking on the links at right (alphabetical by surname or a listing of all names). [4], The main battery of the Admiral-class ships consisted of eight BL 15-inch (381mm) Mk I guns in hydraulically powered twin gun turrets. Before being installed on the battlecruiser, the bell was inscribed around its base with the words: "This bell was preserved from HMS Hood battleship 18911914 by the late Rear Admiral, The Honourable Sir Horace Hood KCB, DSO, MVO killed at Jutland on 31st May 1916. Unfortunately, there is no surviving official single listing of ALL men who served in her. Anecdotes and remembrances concerning Hood, Hood's Mascots Temporary repairs were made at Gibraltar before the ship sailed to Portsmouth for permanent repairs between February and May 1935. As mentioned above, for officers, the main source, which is a complete listing of all officers who served in Hood, is the Navy Lists. [25], The armoured belt consisted of face-hardened Krupp cemented armour (KC), arranged in three strakes. 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. Just eight days after the French surrender, the British Admiralty issued an ultimatum that the French fleet at Oran intern its ships in a British or neutral port to ensure they would not fall into Axis hands. All the 5.5-inch guns were removed during another refit in 1940. The damage to Hood was limited to her left outer propeller and an 18-inch (460mm) dent, although some hull plates were knocked loose from the impact. The complement of "The Mighty Hood", as. The stern section rises from the seabed at an angle. [103] A third piece was found in Glasgow, where Hood was built. HMS Warspite bombarding defensive positions off Normandy, 6 June 1944. Hood Association Archives and various family sources. Of the known surviving pieces, one is privately held and another was given by the Hood family to the Hood Association in 2006. Despite these problems, she had hit Bismarck three times. The decks were made of high-tensile steel. [93] Bill Jurens points out that there was no magazine of any kind at the location of the break and that the location of the break just forward of the forward transverse armoured bulkhead suggests that the ship's structure failed there as a result of stresses inflicted when the bow was lifted into the vertical position by the sinking stern section. 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". CREWMAN Served from 1942 - 1941 Served in HMS Rodney. For instance, the never-built G3 battlecruiser was classified as such, although it would have been more of a fast battleship than Hood. (7) 30 May 1940 The troopships Antonia (British, 13867 GRT, built 1921) and Duchess of Richmond (British, 22022 GRT, built 1928) departed Liverpool for Halifax. [15], The Admirals were fitted with six fixed 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes, three on each broadside. As a result, the greater part of the infomation that we have brought together in this database has come from the service records of individual men. HMS Legion sailed aside her to begin evacuating her 1,487 crew as her list got worse progressively, reaching 27 degrees about 13 hours after the hit. Many men - particularly those who formed the crews of the late 1930s and early 1940s - fall outside the publicly available records. Two years later, the "pom-pom" directors were moved to the rear corners of the bridge to get them out of the funnel gases. Dundass survived by kicking out a starboard side window and swimming away. Basil O'Neill. HMS Hood Walk-Around HMS Hood was something of a majestic design in terms of warships. H.M.S. The results of Hood's fire are not known exactly, but she damaged the French battleshipDunkerque, which was hit by four fifteen-inch shells and was forced to beach herself. Hood Crew List -H.M.S. They both had on board 5 million in gold bullion. This included the standard-use 1,920lb Common Pointed Capped (CPC) shell and the equal . [89] Mearns had spent the previous six years privately researching the fate of Hood with the goal of finding the battlecruiser, and had acquired the support of the Royal Navy, the HMS Hood Association and other veterans groups, and the last living survivor, Ted Briggs. Hood sank stern first with 1418 men aboard. [19], During Hood's last refit in 1941, a Type 279 early-warning radar for aircraft and surface vessels and a Type 284 gunnery radar were installed,[20] although the Type 279 radar lacked its receiving aerial and was inoperable according to Roberts. AB Served from 1946 - 1955 Served in HMS Duke Of York. 20th May 2021, 5:19pm. It has also been supplemented with a great deal of in-depth information from other researchers, most notably Don Kindell, Mary Mckeown, Mary Mochan and the Director of Naval Personnel (Disclosure Cell), Navy Command HQ, to whom we are eternally grateful. Monthly listings of officers who served in Hood, Admirals & Captains On the other hand, the 12-inch belt could have been penetrated if Hood had progressed sufficiently far into her final turn.[84]. HMS Hood broke in two and sank in a mere matter of minutes. [16], The ship's main battery was controlled by two fire-control directors. Hood Rolls of Honour HMS Hood was a battlecruiser not a battleship, a flawed concept from the Edwardian age that sacrificed armour for speed in the mistaken belief the latter would protect her when under fire from 'heavy' opponents. [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. Crew & Dockyard Workers Lost Prior to the Sinking (Sept 1916 - May 1941) 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. HMS Prince of Wales caught a disastrous direct hit to her bridge that forced . These memorials are dedicated to those who died whilst building and serving aboard Hood. Writing in 1979, the naval historian, The ship was blown up by her own guns. Transferred to the Home Fleet shortly afterwards, Hood was dispatched to Scapa Flow, and operated in the area as a convoy escort and later as a defence against a potential German invasion fleet. The relevant series of documents are ADM188 (men joined before 1926), ADM362 (men joining 1926-1928) and ADM363 (service after 1929 for men joining before before that date). One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and was fitted with a 30-foot (9.1m) rangefinder. HMS Hood was 44,600 tons, had a crew of 1,419 and was faster than the Bismarck with a maximum speed of 32 knots. The upper belt was 5 inches thick amidships and extended forward to 'A' barbette, with a short 4-inch extension aft. C.P.O. [65] A shell from this salvo appears to have hit the spotting top, as the boat deck was showered with body parts and debris. As completed, Hood had an overall length of 860feet 7inches (262.3m), a maximum beam of 104feet 2inches (31.8m), and a draught of 32 feet (9.8m) at deep load. -H.M.S. You can also click below to view a single list of all names -H.M.S. Such a shell could only have come from. Later that year, her crew participated in the Invergordon Mutiny over pay cuts for the sailors. Three torpedo-control towers were fitted, each with a 15-foot (4.6m) rangefinder. Updated 10-Apr-2022. Hood reported an accuracy of 3 degrees with her 279M set. Hood Crew List Updated 06-Jun-2022 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. [99][98][100], The recovered bell was originally carried on the pre-dreadnought battleship Hood. She was also the largest warship afloat when she was commissioned, and retained that distinction for the next 20 years. However, the additional armour was never fitted pending further trials. [4], The additional armour added during construction increased her draught by about 4 feet (1.2m) at deep load, which reduced her freeboard and made her very wet. HMS HOOD - 15in gun Battlecruiserincluding Convoy Escort Movements. Hood Crew Information- H.M.S. She had cost 6,025,000 to build. It is estimated that as many as 15,000 men may have served in her from 1920-1941. A meeting place for Association members and Hood enthusiasts. HMS Janus (F53), named after the Roman god, was a Javelin or J-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, she was ordered from the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Limited at Wallsend-on-Tyne as part of the 1936 Build Programme and laid down on 29 September 1937, launched on 10 November 1938 and commissioned on 5 August 1939. A shell, falling short and travelling underwater, struck below the armoured belt and penetrated a magazine. This is a database on the people who perished or survived attacks by German U-boats during WWII. The development of effective time-delay shells at the end of the First World War made this scheme much less effective, as the intact shell would penetrate layers of weak armour and explode deep inside the ship. Although these give the date on which any man joined the ship, they do not give the date on which he left. . Hood Crew Information- H.M.S. The guns were restored by the RAF in 1984. The Admiral-class, HMS Hood, 1941 is a rank V British battlecruiser with a battle rating of 7.0 (AB/RB/SB). To compensate for the additional weight, the 4 midships above water torpedo tubes and the armour for the rear torpedo warheads were removed, and the armour for the aft torpedo-control tower was reduced in thickness from 6 to 1.5 inches (38mm). 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. [35], Influences from Hood showed on subsequent Lexington designs, with the reduction of the main armour belt, the change to "sloped armour", and the addition of four above-water torpedo tubes to the four underwater tubes of the original design. Two of these were submerged forward of 'A' turret's magazine and the other four were above water, abaft the rear funnel. At this point, the order to abandon ship was given. Here you will find our attempt at creating such a listing. Harold Thorpe. Despite the official explanation, some historians continued to believe that the torpedoes caused the ship's loss, while others proposed an accidental explosion inside one of the ship's gun turrets that reached down into the magazine. Ord. HMS Hood bore the motto "with favorable winds" and was named after Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, a victorious commander in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War . HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy (RN). In 1941, 'The Mighty Hood' and the battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the . -H.M.S. [78], An extensive review of these theories (excepting that of Preston) is given in Jurens's 1987 article. One of four Admiral-class battlecruisers ordered in mid-1916, Hood had serious design limitations, though her design was drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction. The men lost in the sinking are not the only ones who died whilst serving in Hood: It is known that nearly 40 men, possibly more, died whilst building or assigned to Hood between 1916 and her loss in May 1941. It was the opinion of Mearns and White who investigated the wreck that this was unlikely as the damage was far too limited in scale, nor could it account for the outwardly splayed plates also observed in that area. [90] In 2015, the same team attempted a second recovery operation and Hood's bell was finally retrieved on 7 August 2015. The objective of the cruise was to remind the dominions of their dependence on British sea power and encourage them to support it with money, ships, and facilities. [50], The ship participated in King George V's Silver Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead the following August. H.M.S. David Hunt. Updated 01-Jan-2020. Inspection of the wreck has confirmed that the aft magazines did indeed explode. She displaced 42,670 long tons (43,350t) at load and 46,680 long tons (47,430t) at deep load, over 13,000 long tons (13,210t) more than the older ships. [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. The hit split the ship in two and it sank in three minutes! Patrick Drennan. At full speed, or in heavy seas, water would flow over the ship's quarterdeck and often entered the messdecks and living quarters through ventilation shafts. HMS Hood v Bismarck The fame Bismarck received for sinking HMS Hood and then being hunted in turn have turned her into a legend. She had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her drydock when she was attacked and damaged by German aircraft. For officers, the situation is easier as The Navy Lists do list all Commissioned and Warrant officers serving in Hood at any given time. HOOD-Class battle ordered on 7th April from John Brown of Clydebank. Another "pom-pom" director was added on the rear superstructure, abaft the HACS director in 1938. . It ended peacefully and Hood returned to her home port afterwards. HMS Hood, HMS Repulse, HMS Furious, HMS Somali, HMS Eskimo, HMS Mashona, HMS Punjabi and . [29], Hood was initially fitted with flying-off platforms mounted on top of 'B' and 'X' turrets, from which Fairey Flycatchers could launch. Unfortunately, there is no surviving official single listing of ALL men who served in her. 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. To request a crew list to view in the reading room, please . [34] However, the US continued with their established design direction, the slower, but well-protected, South Dakota-class battleship and the fast and lightly armoured Lexington-class battlecruiser, both of which were later cancelled in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.