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Post by welshofficer on Jul 12, 2015 0:51:28 GMT -6
HMS Hood (1939)
Some interesting rare colour footage from 1939.
Not just of the Hood after her limited 1939 overhaul, but also of the Repulse, Warspite and Ark Royal amongst others.
WO
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Post by Beth on Jul 12, 2015 1:34:28 GMT -6
What a cool time capsule. I agree with one of the commenters now I understand why the Hood was called a wet ship. Reading is one thing but actually seeing how the waves just washed over the deck is another.
Beth
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Post by welshofficer on Jul 12, 2015 2:25:43 GMT -6
What a cool time capsule. I agree with one of the commenters now I understand why the Hood was called a wet ship. Reading is one thing but actually seeing how the waves just washed over the deck is another. Beth Beth,
Much additional armour was incorporated into the design after Jutland, which added something like 4 foot to her draught and reduced her freeboard.....
WO
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Post by Beth on Jul 12, 2015 3:02:28 GMT -6
If that translate to she sat really low in the water, I agree. The thing that really caught my attention though was the sidewheeler you see in the first couple minutes and a glance of what I am assuming is the HMS Victory.
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Post by welshofficer on Jul 12, 2015 5:13:57 GMT -6
Beth,
Yep, she sat really low in the water!
That was HMS Victory.
WO
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Post by quincannon on Jul 12, 2015 6:54:10 GMT -6
I was surprised to see Hood in what appears to be the darker wartime paint job that early.
I have a reissue model of Hood on the way, and look forward to building her. The model depicts her in about 1936, and I generally much prefer the prewar ships for they are not yet cluttered with all of that add on AAA, and present much cleaner lines.
Hood had a low freeboard before that add on armor, and those additions made low, much lower in profile.
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Post by welshofficer on Jul 12, 2015 7:11:38 GMT -6
QC,
The Admiralty knew, after the September 1938 Sudetenland crisis, that she would be going to war long before her scheduled reconstruction was due to begin in 1941. She was given an overhaul January-August 1939 and the colour footage is of her sea trials in August 1939 (a few weeks before WW2 began, for some of us!).
WO
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Post by Yan Taylor on Jul 12, 2015 7:18:55 GMT -6
I was surprised on how much the sinking of the Hood effected moral back home, it was a real kick in the teeth, after that the RN hunted the Bismarck down like a dog with every available vessel, even striping convoys of their escorts and sank her without mercy, they had to do and this would help restore the home moral.
Ian.
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Post by welshofficer on Jul 12, 2015 7:24:56 GMT -6
Ian,
The German operational response was interesting. Lindemann just wanted to carry on with the sortie. The more politically astute Lutjens understood the political implications and just wanted to safely get to Brest. If he had realised he had shaken off Tovey and hadn't broken radio silence as a result, he would have made it. It must have been hell on Bismarck once KGV and Rodney started shelling her to pieces...
WO
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Post by tubman13 on Jul 12, 2015 7:42:30 GMT -6
Learnings not confined to LBH most welcome. Good stuff, thanks.
Regards, Tom
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Post by Yan Taylor on Jul 12, 2015 7:43:01 GMT -6
Yes Justin, one of the most powerful ships in ww2 crippled by a few string bags, how them swordfish carried through there attacks is beyond comprehension, brave men flying slow moving bi-planes against a ship bristling with 20mm canon, they were all heroes.
Ian.
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Post by quincannon on Jul 12, 2015 7:54:39 GMT -6
As bad as it was on Bismarck, I think it was even worse on Scharnhorst off North Cape.
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Post by Yan Taylor on Jul 12, 2015 8:28:48 GMT -6
Chuck, I wouldn't want to be on the Tirpitz when the RAF dropped them "tallboy" bombs on her.
Ian.
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Post by quincannon on Jul 12, 2015 8:57:13 GMT -6
I think if memory serves Ian that Prinz Eugen was the only large unit of the German Navy to survive the war. Some literature I have read suggests that she was in such a poor material state that she had to be towed to her final resting place, and understand the bottom of her hull is still visible. We also got the Z39, and while relatively new, 3 years old I think, she was in pretty bad shape materially as well. I have some very good pictured of the 39 in Dry Dock Number 4 at the South Boston Navy Yard Annex just after the war. We ran her for awhile for testing and gave her a DD number.
All of the big German ships have some rather interesting stories associated with them. I think my favorite though is DKM Admiral Graf Spee.
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Post by welshofficer on Jul 12, 2015 11:24:38 GMT -6
Yes Justin, one of the most powerful ships in ww2 crippled by a few string bags, how them swordfish carried through there attacks is beyond comprehension, brave men flying slow moving bi-planes against a ship bristling with 20mm canon, they were all heroes. Ian. Ian,
Because the Swordfish were flying too slow for the German gunners, a typically British way to overcome Teutonic efficiency! The Achilles heel of battleships, and no matter how bristling with guns, you can't put a propulsion system inside the armoured citadel. The Bismarck was doomed by a biplane dropping a torpedo that jammed its rudder. 6 months later, the Prince of Wales was doomed off Malaya by a torpedo wrecking a propeller shaft.
WO
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