Hood´s punishment at DS

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Antonio Bonomi
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Hood received hits

Post by Antonio Bonomi »

Ciao all,

Summarinzing here the 4 hits on the following areas and time of events :

1) at 05.56 the highly probable Prinz Eugen 2nd salvo one that hit the boat deck, mainmast base area, and started the fire on the UP and 4 inch deposits.

2) about same time, at 05.57, after the first one and before the fatal one, another hit, and this can be from Bismarck 3rd salvo that was seen to straddle Hood, hitting the spotting top ( aloft director ) and causing bodies to fall down. ( Ref. Briggs ).

3) soon after, at 05.58, and before the fatal one another hit probably by Prinz Eugen on the main tower base that killed lots of person on the rooms they were sheltering ( ref. Tilburn, the Sunderland and Prinz Eugen observations ); this area was on the shelter deck : area of the reading room, bridge lobby, chaplain's cabin, dental surgery etc etc

4) at 06.00 the fatal hit of Bismarck 5th salvo that hit the aft section and entered the ammunition deposit's causing the explosion.

Ciao Antonio :D
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Antonio Bonomi
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Hood hits

Post by Antonio Bonomi »

Ciao all,

I am sure many already have purchased this fantastic book :

Bruce Taylor - ‘' The battlecruiser HMS Hood ‘’ - Chatam publishing ISBN 1-86176-216-X

if not do it as soon as you can :D because to me is the best book about a warship ever made, fantastic 3D's and photos.

On that refer to pages 219 till 222 for Bruce explanation of the above listed 4 hits.

Than you can see Hood decks drawings and realize perfectly were the crew was sheltering and the hit occurred on the shelter deck ( reading room - bridge lobby area ).

But many probably do not have this book and report :

From: Max Arthur - ‘' The navy 1939 to the present day ‘' - Coronet Book ISBN 0-340-68470-4

Page 91 Able Seaman Robert (Bob ) Tilburn from HMS Hood
‘’ …
I was manning one of the 4 inch (105 mm) AA guns on the port side.
The Bismarck answered immediately with three shells, getting closer and closer.
Then the fourth, fifth and sixth shells hit us.
Everyone, even the gun crew was ordered to go into the shelter deck (bridge lobby and reading room area).
There were three of us from our gun who didn’t take cover.
Then a shell hit the upper (boat) deck and started a fire (Prinz Eugen second salvo on mainmast area).
The ammunition in our ready use locker was on fire, and started exploding (UP rockets and 4 inch shells).
The gunner’s mate ( P.O. Bishop) told us to put out the fire, but we said, ‘When it stops exploding, we will’.
He went back inside to report to the gunnery officer and at that moment a shell flew into the shelter (shelter deck bridge lobby) and killed the lot – 200 blokes.
We three were still alive, lying flat on our faces on the deck with everything going off around.
The next shell came aft and the ship shook like mad (Bismarck fifth fatal salvo).
I was next to the gun shield, so I was protected from the blast, but one of my mates was killed and the other had his side cut open by a splinter.
………’’
Ciao Antonio :D
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Karl Heidenreich
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Post by Karl Heidenreich »

Antonio:
Page 91 Able Seaman Robert (Bob ) Tilburn from HMS Hood

Quote:
‘’ …
I was manning one of the 4 inch (105 mm) AA guns on the port side.
The Bismarck answered immediately with three shells, getting closer and closer.
Then the fourth, fifth and sixth shells hit us.
Everyone, even the gun crew was ordered to go into the shelter deck (bridge lobby and reading room area).
There were three of us from our gun who didn’t take cover.
Then a shell hit the upper (boat) deck and started a fire (Prinz Eugen second salvo on mainmast area).
The ammunition in our ready use locker was on fire, and started exploding (UP rockets and 4 inch shells).
The gunner’s mate ( P.O. Bishop) told us to put out the fire, but we said, ‘When it stops exploding, we will’.
He went back inside to report to the gunnery officer and at that moment a shell flew into the shelter (shelter deck bridge lobby) and killed the lot – 200 blokes.
We three were still alive, lying flat on our faces on the deck with everything going off around.
The next shell came aft and the ship shook like mad (Bismarck fifth fatal salvo).
I was next to the gun shield, so I was protected from the blast, but one of my mates was killed and the other had his side cut open by a splinter.
………’’
Incredible, cruel, sad and (at the same time) awesome account: what a nightmare in Hood was those minutes! Most people would be paralysed of fear facing such an inferno. Just think: a vessel designed, built and operated for war with more than 20 years in service, and in her first real ship vs. ship classical naval duel it became straddled so soon, so deadly by Schneider´s precise and lethal gunfire... As I posted before, the Hood was like JFK in Dealey Plaza, there was no way it could come alive of the ordeal, there was no possible physical way to disengage before being destroyed.
The "just a lucky hit of amateur German sailors" theory became to bits with this kind of accounts. In less than four minutes the Bismarck + PE scored four hits, all of them important, blowing the UP and 4" amunition, the spotting top, the bridge lobby with 200 instant casualties and the deadly fifth salvoe. No lucky hit at all! It was the product of the firing method of the Germans.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill
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Antonio Bonomi
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Hood hits and battles

Post by Antonio Bonomi »

Ciao Karl and all,

YES, I agree very cruel and tragic moments.

This was the situation the Hood crew faced as soon as the decision Admiral G. Lutjens took was transformed into real facts.

PoW was free of disturbs firing to Bismarck, but Hood faced the hell of all the German guns shells fired to her.

Soon after also PoW faced same situation with 7 hits scored to her as well within 4 minutes.

No, it was not Hood first ''battle'' against a battleship, she participated to the French fleet gunfire action in Mers El Kebir :

http://www.hmshood.org.uk/reference/off ... 4-317.html

but on the sea warfare, one day you are the stronger and you win, the other are defeated.

It can happen that few days or months after you are the weakear and you are defeated.

This was the battleships era, and Bismarck and Hood are 2 of the most famous examples of that period, .....

......... probably 'the' most famous ,........

Ciao Antonio :D
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Karl Heidenreich
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Post by Karl Heidenreich »

Hi, Antonio :D

I know that it was not the first operation in which Hood was, but it was her "Fire Bapthism". She was firing and fired upon. A combat in which, in the moment it started, nobody knew what was going to happen (only the people of http://www.combinedfleet.com and the Nathan Okun penetrator calculator say they could). Hood didn´t face danger in Mers El Kebir as, obvious, in DS.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill
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RF
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Post by RF »

Looking at the damage caused by these four hits, has any analysis been done to ascertain whether the proposed strengthening of Hoods deck armour, as proposed in the 1930's, if it had been done, would have saved the ship from blowing up?
I presume the work would not have prevented the degrading of Hood's fire control or saved any of the 200 men on the ''shelter'' deck.
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