Wasn’t the hood sank by a lucky shot by the bismark that landed up in the main ammunition store?
No, the German Battlecruiser
Prinz Eugen was first fired on by
HMS Hood as she closed in on her and the
Bismark, which
Hood initially misidentified as the
Prinz Eugen and fired on the leading ship,
Prinz Eugen from her 'A' and 'B' forward turrets. The German ships held their fire for at least two minutes as both
HMS Hood and the accompanying
HMS Prince of Wales fired off salvos. Although
HMS Hood's error in attacking
Prinz Eugen and not the
Bismark was soon realised,
HMS Hood still continued to fire at the battlecruiser whilst the
Prince of Wales fired on
Bismark It is believed from witnesses of the time that
Prinz Eugen fired off two salvos at the
Hood after the initial delay,
HMS Hood was still turning to port to allow her aft guns to lay fire on the German ships by allowing more of her starboard side so as to present her main X and Y turrets turrets to a fire position. But as she executed this turn the
Bismark landed a salvo over the
Hood exactly where Prinz Eugen had landed her last salvo, at the base of the aft mast.
The
Prinz Eugen salvo had immediately set off explosions over this portion of the deck, when the
Bismark's 15" shell hit. Witnesses on
HMS Prince of Wales reported seeing a giant shaft of fire going up in the air, without any noise, like a massive torch. Then immediately the rear decks exploded, the stern blew off and with the whole ship enveloped by smoke, the bows blew off. The middle section sank, and the stern and bow sections disappeared two minutes later. Within 3 minutes 1415 men had been killed, with just 3 left bobbing in the water as survivors, one of whom my father knew well, a CPO
Ted Briggs.
The
Hood had the defects known from
Jutland days with the British battlecruisers, with weak deck armour so she was a "fast battleship", just like the Japanese
Hiei.
HMS Hood had 8 times 15" main armament, that matched
Bismark's, but although when
Hood was built in 1917 her top speed was considered fast, at 32 knots, for such a large war ship, she paid for that by having the aforementioned weak deck armour, added to that by 1941 her top speed was reduced to 30 knots, which was equal to the top speed of
Bismark. Therefore, although the
Hood was a good match for the
Bismark in so many ways, the latter had the massive advantage of having heavy armour on her decks along with her hull plates, let alone being a very modern battleship.
No, it has to be said that the lessons that should have been learnt at
Jutland were not followed through with, due to no doubt the continuing arrogance of the Senior Service, the Royal Navy. Although her fire control may have been greatly improved since the Great War, that caused the loss of the three battlecruisers at
Jutland, it was still not sufficient to stop what is now considered as a catastrophic flash over on
HMS Hood from the aft magazine to the forward one that took off both stern and bow sections, and would have instantly killed any man below decks, probably about 1200 of the 1415 killed, instantly.
A sad day, only revenged by the sinking of the
Bismark by the likes of the battleships
HMS King George V and
HMS Rodney, combined first with the crippling of her by air power, on 27th May 1941 which cost the lives of 2,131 German sailors.
May all 3,546 British and German sailors lost be remembered. RIP.