Lawrence, Martin Last Resting Place

The Loss of HMS Hood and other British Capital Ships 1939–45

The book deals with the loss of each of the ten Royal Navy capital ships that were sunk during the Second World War. The stories of some of these sinkings are well known and are now simply considered part of the fortunes of war. Naval warfare means battles, and in naval battles, sooner or later, the protagonists are sunk. However, in some of the battleship losses, the stories of how the disaster came about are not quite so clear-cut. The sinking of HMS Hood, for example, has led to doubts about the verdict of the official inquiry for many years, even to this day. At the time, it was concluded that the Hood was sunk by a lucky shot from the Bismarck, which pierced the ship and set fire to an ammunition store in the stern. Although the investigation considered various possibilities in detail, this was the most plausible of three alternatives considered and was left at that. However, the fact that the Hood had undergone numerous repairs in dock before its last mission some of them serious was never mentioned, which is a surprising omission, especially since the First Sea Lord had remarked shortly before the outbreak of war: She (the Hood) needs a complete replacement of her engines, as they are twenty years old, and the probability of her being able to run at high speed over a long distance must be considered small. Why was the mechanical defect overlooked? The author's detective work has brought to light some radical new conclusions. In the case of several other ships, such as the Ark Royal and the Hermes, the wrecks were found on the seabed miles away from their officially reported position of sinking, and the loss of the Royal Oak in Scapa Flow was a preventable disaster. Even more controversial was the loss of the Glorious, which had been sent to Norway to recover some hopelessly obsolete Gloster Gladiator aircraft and was lost on the return voyage when it encountered the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The results of the investigation into her sinking were later kept under wraps for 100 years, a decision that has led to much speculation about the real purpose of her mission and what is being hidden from the public. In ten chapters, the author analyses what happened to these magnificent ships, how they were sunk and where their wrecks are located; he also deals in detail with theories, causes and conclusions surrounding the sinkings. It is a fascinating compilation for anyone interested in the history of the Royal Navy's great battleships and sheds new light on the catastrophic destruction of almost half of these ships during the war.