Sunk by the Bismarck: The life and death of the battleship HMS Hood

by Edwin P. Hoyt

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880292199
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Military Heritage Press
• Length: 149 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A PAGE TURNING TRIBUTE TO A PROUD TRADITION THAT ENDED AN ERA

IN A NUTSHELL: THE LIFE - TIME - MISSIONS & MEN OF THE H.M.S. HOOD This reads like a sort of requiem for a legendary ship, its men and the swan song for the era of invincibility that they represented. The ship lived, like the story about it for 199 pages out of the first 200, before it was struck by trouble. The trouble, so to speak was but a nano-second in the life of the ship, but it delivered instant doom to the ship, the crew [all but 3 died] and the feelings of security that the western world had held for a century. OF COURSE IT WAS MADE OF EVENTS AND PEOPLE -- BUT MOSTLY THE SHIP: Yes, and this book is filled with these events, such as the debacle over the surrender or sinking of the French fleet after France fell in 1940. There was also much made about the overdependence, and resulting overuse that the Royal Navy had to subject the ship and its men to. What started out as a wonder of the world, somehow became something that was due for scrapping prior to its eternal meeting with the Bismarck, just 20 years later. Bismarck too, only a few days later suffered the same fate as the Hood, as did the men on both ships. On a larger scale, many of these same vessels that survived the war were "expended" in atomic bomb testing at places like Bikini atoll only a few years later. Friendly or enemy vessel -- it made no difference as they were all made completely obsolete by another man-made wonder. A rather horrible image I have of the Bikini atoll atomic test is the American Battleship Arkansas in a vertical position, above the water, about a mile from ground zero. That's right - vertical! BACK TO THE SHIP: MANY LESSONS ARE HERE TO BE LEARNED In the end, this is a real page turning piece of non-fiction that answers most of the questions and fills most of its pages with interesting and useful stuff -- if this is the stuff that interests you -- as it does me. If you always wanted to know more than just how the Bismarck sunk the Hood, this book is for you. Sure, the short exchange and the survivors accounts are included, short but not so sweet as they are. However, this book does get into the decisions that were made involving the design of the great Hood. How the lessons of Jutland, which exposed the obvious shortcomings of other earlier English Battlecrusiers was addressed in the design and redesign of the Hood. Also, of equal importance was the effect of the Washington Naval Treaty and the later London treaty which was thought to compell other nations to reduce the size, and number of their capital ships, and the armor and armaments that were available within the treaty limits. The rsult was that England and the United States had smaller and less well armed and protected capital ships than they could have. The author implies [and he may be correct] that the Bismarck was not built within the limits of the treaty, unlike the Prince of Wales, that accompanied the Hood to meet the Bismarck. In theory, Bismarck and Prince of Wales were subjected