During World War II, some warships were successful in battle, and some warships were sunk as soon as they went out. If there is anyone who is the most miserable among the battleships, it should be the Japanese army's "Yamato and Musashi"! Then among the cruisers, the British "Hood" should be the most miserable of the cruisers!
HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy. On 15 May 1920, the Hood was commissioned. Its hull is 266.3 meters long, the waterline is 247 meters long, the ship is 31.7 meters wide, the maximum draft depth is 10.2 meters, the initial standard displacement is 41125 tons, and the initial full load displacement is 46880 tons. Four turbo steam turbines were installed, with a maximum horsepower of 151,280 horses and a maximum speed of 32.07 knots, with an endurance of 5,950 nautical miles at a speed of 18 knots, and the full ship was staffed between 1,341 and 1,421 men.
USS Hood
In terms of defensive armor, the main armor belt in the middle of its hull is 305 mm thick, the upper part is 127 mm thick and the lower part is 228 mm thick. The turret is 381 mm thick in front armor and between 280 and 305 mm on the sides. The thickness of the front armor of the command tower was between 228-280 mm. The thickness of the main armored deck is between 38-76 mm.
In terms of armament, the main gun is 8 381 mm MKI naval guns, and the secondary gun is 12 50×diameter 5.5 inch naval guns. In terms of anti-aircraft weapons, a total of 22 3 models of 102 mm anti-aircraft guns, 24 40.5 mm anti-aircraft guns and 16 63×0.5 inch machine guns were installed. Five 76 mm rocket launchers, four 533 mm on the water and two 533 mm torpedo tubes underwater were also installed. (The above data are the configurations installed at the beginning, and the weapon configurations have changed in the later stages)
After entering service, Hood became the world's largest battlecruiser at the time, and from 1920 to 1929, Hood toured the world many times, with the idea of showing the world the strength of the Royal Navy! In the process of touring the ocean, the Hood can be said to have been in the limelight, and everywhere it went, it was full of hospitality.
In September 1939, Hood experienced the devastation of war for the first time, and on September 25, the British submarine "Sailfish" was damaged by a German warship in the North Sea, for which the Hood and the other three warships of the British Home Fleet went to the rescue, but by the time they reached the scene of the incident, the enemy warship had already run away. But they did not run in vain, because on the way back, 13 German Junker-88 bombers sent a special gift to the fleet. Thirteen Junker bombers dropped dozens of bombs on the Home Fleet, and the starboard side of the Hood was injured by a bomb, but fortunately it was not a big problem.
In July 1940, the French fleet of the Royal Navy's H Fleet Allied forces engaged in engagement at Milxbill Harbour. During the engagement, the main gun of the Goode fired 56 times at the French "Brittany" and "Dunkirk", during which the French battleship "Brittany" was sunk by the Gourde, and the cruiser "Dunkirk" was also seriously wounded by the Hood, but eventually escaped.
This battle was also the best record of the Hood's life. But this was an uneven battle, the French army was far inferior to the British army, and the French fleet was still surrounded by the British fleet in the harbor. This was not so much the biggest victory of the Hood's life as it was the biggest mistake the Hood made in his life! Because the British were attacking France, an allied army on the same front as themselves!
Soon, the Hood also exchanged back pain for his own mistake!
In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen prepared to break into the Atlantic to attack the Allied transport crew. However, he was discovered by the British on the way. The British sent the cruiser HMS Hood, the battleship Prince of Wales and five other destroyers to intercept the two German warships. After several days of searching, on May 24 found two German warships, when sailing to a distance of more than 20,000 meters, Hood took the lead in firing, originally intended to fight the "Bismarck" battleship first, but because the appearance and livery of the two German warships were almost exactly the same, the result was that Hood hit the wrong target, taking the "Prinz Eugen" as a "Bismarck" battleship ~ and this misjudgment also directly sent the Hood on the way back to the west!
Bismarck
After the mistaken firing, the German warship directly went around to the position where the British battleship could not salvo the entire ship's main gun, and could only shoot with the main gun of the bow. The German ships, on the other hand, were able to fire all of their guns at the British ships. During the engagement, first the British Prince of Wales hit Bismarck, and then at about 5.54 minutes, a 203 mm shell of the German "Prinz Eugen" hit the middle starboard deck of the Hood, but detonated the 4-inch anti-aircraft shells and UP rocket ammunition on the Hood, and caused a fire on the deck. Just a few minutes later, another shell hit the Hood.
At exactly 6 o'clock, Bismarck's fifth salvo hit the rear of the Hood's main mast, causing the rear half of the battleship Hood to be covered in black smoke. This was followed by a massive explosion in the middle and rear of the hull, resulting in the death of a large number of crew members and the destruction of a large number of ship's surface installations. The rear of the hull was then almost a pile of scrap. And the rear of the hull immediately fell to the left into the sea, and the front of the hull was also lifted off the sea by the sunken rear. Immediately after that, the hull of the ship entered a large amount of water and then sank into the sea.
Prinz Eugen
From being hit by Bismarck's fifth main gun salvo, to exploding, to sinking the Hood, the Hood sank from the surface of the sea in less than 3 minutes! Before the captain could issue the order to abandon the ship, the ship sank, which left only 3 of the Hood's crew surviving!
After the Hood was sunk by Bismarck, the British sent 42 warships of various types to pursue two German warships. The wounded battleship Bismarck, in order to cover the retreat of the wounded cruiser Prinz Eugen, left alone to break the queen. But the final ending is also very sad
The incident in which the Bismarck battleship single-handedly picked 42 British warships was not how powerful the Bismarck battleship was, but the main reason was bright. One was that one of Bismarck's legs was broken, making the speed drop unable to keep up with Prinz Eugen's pace. The second is that Hitler gave the order that bismarck be cut off for Prince Eugen, and let Prince Eugen complete the unfinished task!