HMS Hood (51) - "The Mighty Hood"

[ItssLuBu 1,798]

HMS Hood

 

 

Background & History

 

HMS Hood was one of four planned Admiral class Battlecruisers ordered for construction by the Royal Navy towards the closing stages of the First World War. She is unquestionably the most famous Royal Navy warship since Victory, particularly from a British perspective and would be the last ever Battlecruiser to be built. Ultimately her duties as a political pawn in maintaining Pax Britannica for almost two decades would deny the refits to make her both water tight and less vulnerable to plunging fire. Hood was laid down in September 1916 at John Brown & Co. and would miss any action in the First World War before eventually being commissioned in May 1920. She was given Pennant number 51 with a design created at a time of the greatest naval arms race in history.

 

Strength of the hull came from 25 watertight sections with her advanced boiler and turbines permitting Hood to develop a third more power for the same weight than the Renown class completed a few years prior. Gunnery trials at Greenock in March 1920 were deemed a success and she was able to reach a touch over 32 knots on approximately 150,000 shp. Displacing 46,680 long tons at deep load, armed with 8x 15 inch guns in combination with her speed made Hood by some distance the most powerful capital ship in the world at the time of her commission. This performance however came at a cost, for a price of just over £6 million she was almost twice that of the earlier Renown with approximately 25% greater expense if materials would be factored in.

 

'HMS Hood 1931 - note the aircraft catapult which would later be removed'

 

Throughout the 1920's Hood was used as a sign of British Naval might, so much so that she would even undertake a world cruiser at the end of 1923 visiting many of the dominions in an attempt to encourage (remind) them to support their dependance of British sea power. She would be given a major refit lasting between May 1929 and March 1931 in which HMS Tiger (see my other suggestion) would resume duties as part of the three-ship Battlecruiser squadron. Here Hood would see the repositioning (removal of current) 'flying off' platforms and the addition of 2x 8 barrelled 2-pdr pom poms. This aircraft catapult added would be removed the following year, making Hood one of the few major warships in service with the Royal Navy to lack her own scouting aircraft.

 

She would again resume duties in the 1930's and on the outbreak of the Second World War would be assigned to the home fleet. Deemed too valuable a political asset to have wasted for the 2/3 years a major refit would again take towards the end of the 1930's Hood was sail into the Battle of the Denmark Straight with virtually the same armour protection as when commissioned the best part of two decades prior. Her initial actions in the war would see her involvement in the Allied attack on Mers-el-Kebir and the covering of troop convoys before sailing her final fateful mission in May 1941.

 

'HMS Hood coming into habour in Malta sometime in 1938'

 

Attempting to break out and sortie into the Atlantic were the newly commissioned German ships Prinz Eugen and the battleship Bismarck. Initially Holland had wanted to approach the pair off the port bow in an attempt to reduce the distance quickly and minimise the number of guns that could be brought to bear. However through the early hours of May 24th HMS Suffolk then shadowing (using search radar) had lost contact due to bad weather. When contact was regained however, the convoy was some 35 miles distance so this initial tactic would no longer be possible. Vice Admiral Holland, a veteran of the First World War was acutely aware of the vulnerability his ship had to long range plunging fire. British practise at the time and through experience of this conflict was to close the range and bring the enemy to bear at all costs, even in this instance if it now meant a significant risk. Hood was be fatefully hit by a shell from one of Bismarks 15 inch guns at a range of roughly 16,650 metres which resulted in the explosion of the aft magazine. She would rapidly sink in 3 minutes, with all but 3 of her then 1418 crew surviving.

 

 

Armour & Armament

 

At the time of her commission the amour protection of Hood was considered good enough for the concept it was designed around. Her belt armour was 12 inches thick tapering to 5 inches forwards and 6 inches aft measuring 562ft (171.3m) by 9ft 6in (2.9m). Lower armour belt was 7 inches with 4 or 5 inch bulkheads and 12 inch barbettes. Turret armour (gun houses) face of 15 inches with 11-12 inch sides at 5 inches on the roof. Deck armour however was never refitted or improved and as such was relatively thin, making her vulnerable from plunging fire and the growing threat of air power. As such deck armour was only between 0.75 and 3 inches in thickness which would be her undoing.

 

HMS Hood carried 8x 15inch guns, four of which are directed here for the camera in the early 1930's

 

HMS Hood was armed with 8x 42 calibre BL 15 inch (381mm) guns in two pairs superfiring, one forward of the main superstructure and one aft. Each gun measuers over 54 feet in length weighing exactly 100 tons along with the breech mechanism. With a maximum elevation of 30 degrees this gun was capable of firing a 870kg projectile a distance of 27,600 metres (over 17 miles). This was capable of penetrating (with an armour piercing cap) 15 inches of Krupp Cemented plate at a touch over 13km. Each barrel was 2 to 3 years in the making, almost as long as the ship itself and would be able to give a firing rate of approximately 2 rounds per minute (30 seconds per gun). Secondary armament at the time of her fateful sinking was to be 8x 4inch Dual Purpose Mark XVI guns replacing the earlier singles with 3x twin Mark XIX mounts later added in early 1940. Anti air battery was to comprise 24x 2-pdr pom poms (3x8) and 16x 0.50cal machine guns (4x4). This was rounded off with 4x fixed dual mount 21 inch (533mm) torpedo tubes (4x2) on each side.

 

 

 

Specifications

 

Length - 860ft 7in

Beam - 104ft 2in

Draught - 32ft

Displacement - 42,462 tons 'light' and 48,360 long tons under 'deep load'

Speed - 4x Brown-Curtis steam turbines for approx 150,000shp for 32.07kts with a range of approx 5,332nm at 20kts

Main Belt - 6-12 inches (152–304 mm)

Deck Belt - 0.75-3 inches (19-76 mm)

Turret Front Amour - 15 inches (381mm)

Turret Side Armour (inc rear) - 11-12 inches (279-304mm)

Turret Roof Armour - 5 inches (127mm)

Barbettes - 12 in (304 mm)

Conning Tower - 9-11 inches (228-279mm)

Armament - 8x 15 inch BL L/42 Mk 1 guns (4x2)

Secondary - 8x 4inch Dual Purpose Mark XVI (4x2)

Anti Air Battery - 24x 2-pdr pom poms (3x8) and 16x 0.50cal machine guns (4x4)

Torpedoes - 8x 21-inch torpedo tubes (4x2)

 

 

Sources

 

Antony Preston; Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II, Bracken Books London (ISBN: 9781851701940)

Angus Konstam; British Battlecruisers 1939-45, Osprey Publishing (ISBN: 9781841766331)

Bruce Taylor; The Battlecruiser HMS Hood, Seaforth Publishing (ISBN; 9781848322486)

Steve Backer; British Battlecruisers of the Second World War,  Seaforth Publishing (ISBN; 9781844156986)

http://www.hmshood.com/ship/hoodspecs1.htm

http://www.hmshood.com/ship/hoodspecs2.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_15-inch_Mk_I_naval_gun

https://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/detail.asp?ship_id=HMS-Hood-51

Edited June 21, 2020 by ItssLuBu

[leroyonly 4,310]

Open for discussion. 

[Admiral_Aruon 2,264]

and this is why you modernize! +1

 

also jesus christ LuBu you are on one hell of a suggestion streak. just how long have you have you been putting these together?

[random_guy888 23]

my fav ship from ww2 +1

[ItssLuBu 1,798]

10 hours ago, Admiral_Aruon said:

and this is why you modernize! +1

 

also jesus christ LuBu you are on one hell of a suggestion streak. just how long have you have you been putting these together?

 

Trying to drum up interest for Naval Suggestions a little . Not that long, it takes longer to gather the books etc. This one took a little longer given the ship in question though.

[Milocat 4,848]

+1 from me, if we get battleships and battlecruisers the Hood is a must-have.

[Z3r0_ 4,127]

The Hood is a must-have ship, however brief its wartime career was.

[Shrike142 1,682]

+1

The Queen of Battlecruisers is a must for the tech tree

[Admiral_Aruon 2,264]

hey, found a pretty cool video from a youtube channel called "Neural Networks and Deep Learning", which has a bunch of historical videos that are denoised, colorized, and 4K upscaled at 50/60 FPS via neural network. video linked starts at 16 seconds and shows just about all of HMS Hood leaving for exercises in the 1930s.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Admiral_Aruon

[aizenns 3,590]

The best battlecruiser of the world. I hope she comes in game near future.

[Packal 7,644]

Battlecruiser or fast battleship?

[aizenns 3,590]

Very detailed drawing of HMS Hood in the collection of Japanese ship designer Admiral Hiraga.

This collection have each section views and each deck plans.

https://iiif.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/repo/s/hiraga/document/1b27a22f-dfb2-44bb-b0e7-4213297e5233#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-659%2C0%2C8261%2C4927&r=0

[eleks12 1,079]

+1

[Shrike142 1,682]

With gaijin's policy for ships, we could also get the planned refits for Hood, 'A' and 'B' (much less of a stretch than the Soviet capital ship line will be).

This model from terranrhea is of 'A' refit for Drachinfel's video. Suffice to say, a no fly zone is in effect.

 

 

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZGd1LN

[CokeSpray 7,272]

Suggestion passed to the developers for consideration.

[leroyonly 4,310]

As the HMS Hood has been implemented with update 2.17 Danger Zone,

 

Moved to Implemented Suggestions.