Royal Navy Ships in WWII: Sunk or Sailed On? Quiz

Answer: Battleship/battlecruiser

Possibly the most famous Royal Navy ship sunk during WWII, "HMS Hood" fell victim to the guns of the "Bismarck" on 24 May 1941 in the Denmark Strait.

She was launched in August 1918, and for the next 20 years she was the largest warship in the world - the "Mighty Hood". Most of those 20 years were spent on showing-the-flag exercises around the world. However by the outbreak of WWII she was to an extent obsolescent, especially in terms of her guns.

She took part in the destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940, to prevent its ships falling into German hands. Her next engagement was the fatal encounter with the "Bismarck" and the "Prinz Eugen". After just a couple of salvos she blew up and sank; only three men survived from her crew of 1,418. Exactly what brought about this explosion is still a matter for debate.

Answer: Battleship/battlecruiser

"HMS Royal Oak" was a Revenge-class battleship launched in November 1914. She took part in the Battle of Jutland, but by the outbreak of WWII she was deemed too slow to take part in any action.

On 14 October 1939 she was anchored in Scapa Flow, considered to be one of the safest anchorages in the British Isles. However in a stunning piece of navigation Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien of the "U-47" penetrated the ring of defences around the Flow and torpedoed her. She capsized and sank in 13 minutes. Of the 1,234 crew 835 died, of whom 134 were boy seamen aged under 18 years old.

Answer: Battleship/battlecruiser

Launched in December 1914, "HMS Barham" was one of five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships built; "HMS Warspite" and "HMS Malaya" were among her sister ships. She was part of the Grand Fleet at Jutland, but payed little part in the rest of the war.

When WWII broke out she was in the Mediterranean, and on her voyage home she collided with and sank "HMS Duchess", one of her destroyer escorts. She took part in the Battle of Dakar in September 1940, and was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet to cover the dangerous Malta convoys. Perhaps the highlight of her career was participating in the Battle of Cape Matapan, a crushing defeat of the Italian navy in March 1941.

On 21 November 1941 she was cruising off the Egyptian coast when she was torpedoed by "U-331", captained by Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen. She turned on her side and blew up, just four minutes after she was hit; this accounts for the large number of crew who died, 862 out of about 1,347. Astonishingly, the sinking was captured on film by a cameraman from Pathé News who was aboard "HMS Valiant", and this is available on "YouTube".

Answer: Battleship/battlecruiser

"HMS Prince of Wales" was a King George V-class battleship, launched in May 1939. She saw a lot of action during WWII, including the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941. In this action she scored three hits on the "Bismarck", forcing it to head to port for repairs. She then did escort duty on a Malta convoy before being sent to the Far East.

On 10 December 1941 she and "HMS Repulse" were tasked with attacking Japanese transport troop convoys carrying soldiers for the invasion of Malaya. Both ships were attacked by Japanese aircraft, and "HMS Prince of Wales" was hit by a torpedo that disabled her. She was then hit by three more torpedoes and a large bomb, after which she capsized and sank. There were 327 crew lost.

Answer: Battleship/battlecruiser

"HMS Repulse" was a Renown-class battlecruiser, launched in January 1916. She saw little action during WWI, and then during the inter-war years she went on a round-the-world cruise with "HMS Hood", showing the flag.

In WWII she participated in the Norway campaign during the early months of 1940 and in the hunt for the "Bismarck", before being sent to the Far East with "HMS Prince of Wales". On 10 December 1941 the two ships were attacked by Japanese aircraft; "HMS Repulse" put up a strong fight, dodging about 19 torpedoes. Eventually, however, she was caught in a simultaneous attack by 17 planes and she was hit by four or five torpedoes. She quickly capsized and went down with the loss of 508 crew. She was the first capital ship to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, with "HMS Prince of Wales" following about 50 minutes later.

Answer: Aircraft carrier

"HMS Courageous" led a very chequered life. She was originally built as a battlecruiser and launched in February 1916, but from 1924 to 1928 she was decommissioned and totally rebuilt as an aircraft carrier.

WWII had only just broken out when on 17 September 1939 she was patrolling for U-Boats off the west coast of Ireland with an escort of four destroyers. Captain-Lieutenant Otto Schuhart on the "U-29" trailed her for two hours before firing three torpedoes, two of which hit. She capsized and sank within 20 minutes with the loss of 519 of her crew; "U-29" escaped.

Answer: Aircraft carrier

A sister ship of "HMS Courageous", "HMS Glorious" was built as a battlecruiser and launched in April 1916. But like her sister ship, she too was decommissioned and rebuilt as an aircraft carrier between 1924 and 1930.

Between April and June 1940 she provided air support for the Norway campaign, but she left that operation with an escort of two destroyers to return to Scapa Flow. However the German Navy had dispatched the battleships "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau", the heavy cruiser "Admiral Hipper" and four destroyers with orders to attack the British in Norway. More-or-less by accident this task force encountered "HMS Glorious" and her escort on 8 June. All three British ships were sunk by the German battleships' gunfire. The German ships did not stop to pick up survivors, of the 1,245 crew of "HMS Glorious" only 43 survived, while the two destroyers between them lost 312 men with only two survivors.

Answer: Aircraft carrier

The aircraft carrier "HMS Ark Royal" was launched in April 1937, the first of a newly-designed type of carrier in which the hangars and flight deck were integral parts of the hull rather than add-ons or part of the superstructure.

She was very active during WWII: she was involved in anti-submarine operations, the Norway campaign, the search for the "Admiral Graf Spee" and the Malta convoys. Her role in the destruction of the "Bismarck", however, is arguably the most important.

After the "Bismarck" sunk "HMS Hood" on 24 May she managed to evade detection until she was spotted by one of "HMS Ark Royal"'s Fairey Swordfish aircraft on 26 May. She was in flying range of the "Bismarck", and launched a flight of Fairey Swordfishes - old, slow biplanes. The first attack was a massive blunder - it was on "HMS Sheffield"! Fortunately the torpedoes all either detonated on impact with the water or were evaded.

The pilots returned to "HMS Ark Royal" for refueling and rearming and went in hunt of the "Bismarck" again in a Force 9 gale. They located her and attacked, scoring two hits, one of which jammed the ship's rudders. This made the "Bismarck" unmanoeuvrable and unable to escape to port in France - in fact all she could do was to sail towards the rapidly approaching British warships. Between them, "HMS King George V", "HMS Rodney", "HMS Norfolk" and "HMS Dorsetshire" scored over 400 hits on the "Bismarck" without being able to sink her; its probable that her few remaining crew scuttled her.

"HMS Ark Royal" survived a number of near misses from bombs and torpedoes, especially in the Mediterranean, thus gaining the reputation of being a "lucky ship". However her luck ran out on 13 November 1941 when she was torpedoed by "U-81" and badly damaged. An attempt was made to tow her to Gibraltar but the next day she turned on her side, broke in two and sank. Remarkably, only one man was lost out of her crew of 1,488.

Answer: Aircraft carrier

Launched in September 1919, "HMS Hermes" was the first naval vessel in the world to be designed and built as an aircraft carrier. Owing to design issues it took five years for her to be commissioned; thereafter she spent almost all her time assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and then to the China Station.

With the outbreak of WWII she spent some time on anti-submarine patrols on the Western Approaches before moving to Dakar where she took part in operations against the French fleet after the German invasion of France in June 1940. 1941 was spent in the Indian Ocean and then in February 1942 she joined the Eastern Fleet at Trincomalee in Ceylon.

Upon receiving warning of a raid by Japanese forces into the Indian Ocean on 8 April 1942 she set sail for the Maldives, but with no aircraft on board. She was spotted by a Japanese plane on 9 April and then attacked by 85 dive bombers. With none of her own air cover she was a siting duck; she was quickly sunk, with the loss of 307 of her crew.

About 60 years later the wreck of "HMS Hermes" was discovered by a local diver, roughly 45 mile northeast of Batticaloa. Diving to see the wreck has become quite popular with recreational divers and it's frequently visited by tourists.

Answer: Aircraft carrier

"HMS Eagle" was originally ordered by the government of Chile as a battleship, but in 1918 the British government bought her and by 1924 had transformed her into an aircraft carrier.

She saw action in WWII in various theatres, particularly the Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic and the Mediterranean. She spent the first half of 1942 in the Mediterranean, delivering fighter planes to Malta and escorting the convoys.

On 11 August she was 80 miles south of Majorca when she was hit by four torpedoes from "U-73"; she sank within four minutes. Of the 1,060 crew the great majority - 929 men - were rescued with 131 being lost.

Answer: Sailed on

"HMS Warspite" is one of the great names in WWI and WWII Royal Navy history. She was launched in November 1913 as one of five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships; "HMS Barham" and "HMS Malaya" were among her sister ships. She was a ground-breaker in many ways, being fueled by oil and having 15 inch guns as her main armament.

She took part in the Battle of Jutland in May/June 1916. Her steering gear was damaged early on, and as a consequence she twice sailed in a circle between the British and German fleets. An easy target, she was hit multiple times but survived. On her way home after the battle she was attacked by a submarine, but all three of its torpedoes missed.

Between the wars she became the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, but at the outbreak of WWII she rejoined the Home Fleet. She played a prominent role in the Norwegian campaign in both Naval Battles of Narvik, sinking a destroyer and severely damaging two others. Returning to the Mediterranean she took part in the Battles of Calabria in July 1940, Taranto in November and Matapan in March 1941; during the latter engagement three Italian cruisers and two destroyers were sunk. After a refit she spent a year in the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean where she took part in the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy; she then fired the first shell of the naval bombardment on D-Day in June 1944.

At the end of the war it was decided that she should be scrapped. She was being towed from Portsmouth to Scotland when the tow ropes parted in a storm and she ran aground in Prussia Cove in Cornwall. She was eventually moved to Marazion beach near St. Michael's Mount, where she was scrapped.

The actions in which she was involved earned her the most battle honours ever awarded to an individual ship in the Royal Navy.

Answer: Sailed on

"HMS Renown" was a battlecruiser launched in March 1916. She saw no action during WWI, but in WWII she was involved in patrolling and convoy duties in the Mediterranean and Arctic convoys. She also spent some time ferrying Winston Churchill to and from across the Atlantic. She was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean, where she supported many of the Allied landings on Japanese-held islands. However she took no part in any major battle.

After the war she was judged to be surplus to requirements and she was scrapped in 1948.

Answer: Sailed on

"HMS King George V" was launched in February 1939. During WWII she operated in all three of the major naval theaters of war, the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific. Her most prominent action, however, was her participation in the pursuit of the "Bismarck"; she was in at the death as the crippled "Bismarck" was destroyed by her and "HMS Rodney"'s gunfire.

After that she took part in the Arctic convoys before heading for the Mediterranean and then the Pacific, where she took part in operations against Japanese-held islands.

After the war she became a training ship, before being mothballed in 1950 and then eventually scrapped in 1958.

Answer: Sailed on

"HMS Revenge" was launched in February 1915, taking part in the Battle of Jutland during which she damaged two German battlecruisers. However she took no further part in WWI.

In WWII she started off being involved in convoy escort duties, but as tension rose in the Pacific she was ordered there. However she was judged to be too old to be useful in the Far East Fleet, so she was sent back home to resume escort duties. In 1943 she was withdrawn from service and then used as a training ship until she was scrapped in 1948.

Answer: Sailed on

A sister ship to "HMS Warspite" and "HMS Barham", "HMS Malaya" was launched in March 1915. She took part in the Battle of Jutland: she scored numerous hits on the battlecruiser "SMS Seydlitz", but was herself badly damaged after being hit eight times. She saw out the remainder of the war on escort and training duties.

Going to the Mediterranean in June 1940 she took part in the Battle of Calabria along with her sister ship "HMS Warspite". After this she took up convoy duties in the Atlantic until she was placed in reserve in 1943 and scrapped in 1948.