Hood was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in July 1936. In June 1939, she joined the Home Fleet's Battle Cruiser Squadron at Scapa Flow; when war broke out later that year, she was employed principally in patrolling the vicinity of Iceland and the Faroes to protect convoys and intercept German raiders attempting to break out into the Atlantic. In September 1939, she was hit by a 250-kg (550-lb) aircraft bomb with minor damage. As the flagship of Force H, she took part in the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in July 1940. In August, she rejoined the Battle Cruiser Squadron and resumed patrolling against German raiders. From 13 January to 18 March 1941, she underwent a refit at Rosyth. Even after the refit she was still in poor condition, but the threat from the German capital ships was such that she could not be taken in hand for a major overhaul until more of the King George V class battleships came into service.
When the Bismarck sailed in May, Hood was sent out under the flag of Admiral Holland together with the newly-commissioned Prince of Wales to intercept the German ships before they could break into the Atlantic and attack the Allied convoys. Holland's ships caught up with Bismarck and her consort Prinz Eugen in the straits between Greenland and Iceland on May 24.
During the subsequent Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941, Hood suffered from a series of unfortunate events which culminated in her destruction. She first engaged Prinz Eugen instead of Bismarck. When the German ships found the range of the Hood, she was hit first by an 8-inch shell from the Prinz Eugen on the boat deck which ignited ammunition and rockets, causing a fire though not endangering the ship. Then, as Hood was turning to bring all her guns into arc onto the Bismarck, at 0601 a 15-inch salvo from Bismarck striking her led to a huge jet of flame reaching skyward from her aft. This was immediately followed by an explosion that destroyed the after part of the ship. The stern rose and sank shortly before the fore part did the same. Of the 1,418 aboard, only three men (Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas) survived, and were rescued about two hours after the sinking by the destroyer HMS Electra.
The exact cause of her loss was never ascertained. The Royal Navy's war-time Board of Inquiry concluded that her loss was:
due to a hit from BISMARCK's 15-inch [381 mm] shell in or adjacent to HOOD's 4-inch or 15-inch [102 or 381 mm] magazines, causing them all to explode and wreck the after part of the ship
but no determination was made as to exactly how such a shell penetrated Hood's armour to reach the magazines. A recent lengthy technical analysis has confirmed that conclusion, and also discovered several paths by which a lucky hit might have reached the magazines, and suggests that the much-maligned deck armour was almost certainly not a factor.
One possible cause of her destruction is that one of Bismarck's shells penetrated into the after secondary magazine just ahead of the edge of the deck armour added around the 15-inch turrets and magazines during construction. The resulting explosion reached the 15-inch magazines, which blew the after end of the ship apart. This alone would have been enough to sink the Hood, but the explosion entered the starboard fuel tanks, igniting the fuel oil as it went, reached the forward 15-inch magazines and causing at a partial detonation there.
The dramatic loss of such a well-known symbol of British naval power had a great effect on many people; some later remembered the news as the most shocking of World War II.
A beautiful looking ship unfortunately with one mega glass jaw.
Once met Ted Briggs the last surviving crew member back in the seventies when he had recently retired from the Andrew as a Lt Cdr. A small dapper bloke totally into Pusser and the Hood.
It was at a Folk Club in Saltash where this Folk Singer called Cyril Tawney (who lost his Uncle on the Hood and was a ex matelot himself) sang a song entitled "The lost 1400" in reference to the poor souls who went down with the ship. Ted had been invited as Guest of Honour as it was the first public airing of the song. Very humbling atmosphere that night I can tell you.
Ted told me that in a spot of "roughers" the freeboard of the Hood was such that at times it was more like being on board a semi submerged Submarine than a Battle Cruiser.
