The Battlecruiser Hood

Author(s)

John Robers
Publisher
Conway Maritime Press
Date
2001
Pages
133
Format
pdf
Size
77.5 Mb

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Between the two World Wars the Royal Navy operated against a background of financial restrictions, a strong campaign for naval disarmament and a widely held belief that the battleship had been made obsolete by aircraft and submarines. This led the Admiralty to court public support by promoting its belief in the battlefleet, and emphasising the quality of its ships, men and equipment. Of these ships Hood, more than any other, lent herself to a public relations exercise. Apart from the endless lists of amazing facts which could always be produced for a battle unit, she was the largest, fastest and one of the most handsome capital ships in the world. Early in her career, being the newest and most prestigious ship of the fleet, she was employed on several international assignments as a representative of the British Empire, culminating in ‘showing the flag’ on a grand scale in the world cruise of 1923-24, and for most of her life she enjoyed the glamorous status of flagship of the battlecruiser force. Thus she became one of the major symbols of the Royal Navy, a position she would no doubt have occupied without Admiralty help, and was held in high regard by both the British public and the men of the Fleet to whom she was affectionately known as “the mighty Hood”. Little wonder that the news of her destruction in action with the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941 was received with shocked disbelief throughout the country…
Category: ANATOMY OF THE SHIP SERIES