HMS Hood Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lord Samuel 1st Viscount Hood

The 'Mighty Hood' was not, as is widely believed, named specifically after Admiral Sir Horace Hood who died at Jutland. She was named for the greatest of the naval Hoods, Lord Samuel 1st Viscount Hood.

Answer: The Cornish chough holding an anchor on a blue field

The crest was that of Lord Samuel 1st Viscount Hood , the Cornish chough holding an anchor on a blue field, that the ship used.

Answer: 1918

22 August 1918 Hood launched at 1.05pm. The ship was christened by Lady Hood, widow of the late Admiral Sir Horace Hood, who had died on board HMS Invincible at Jutland in 1916.

Answer: The John Brown Works

In April 1916, the Admiralty placed orders for three vessels of the so-called New 'Admiral' class: Hood, to be built by John Brown and Company Ltd, at Clydebank, Howe, to be built by Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd and Rodney from Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Ltd. Sometime later, a fourth ship, Anson, was contracted from W.G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company, Ltd.

Answer: False

The design and adaption made to HMS Hood were influenced by events on 31st May 1916 at Jutland some months before HMS Hood' hull was laid down. On 31 May 1916, the great naval battle at Jutland took place. Although the British achieved a strategic victory, they had paid a high price: three battle cruisers were lost with appalling loss of life- H.M.S.

Invincible (the very first battle cruiser and the command ship of Admiral Sir Horace Lambert Alexander Hood, descendant of the great naval Hoods), Queen Mary and Indefatigable were all destroyed by massive explosions- plunging German shells had easily penetrated their scant deck and turret armour and detonated their magazines.

Another battle cruiser, H.M.S. Lion, was nearly lost as well. Only quick thinking and excellent damage control (magazine flooding) saved her.

After investigating these tragedies, it became abundantly clear that the key problems had been the lack of adequate armour protection, poor flash-fire proofing and unstable cordite.

It also became clear that unless modified, the new Admiral class design would suffer from the same flaws as its predecessors.

Answer: Operation Catapult

The action against the French fleet stationed at Mers-el-Kebir.

Answer: Prinz Eugen

HMS Hood actually began by firing on KMS Prinz Eugen, an 8' Admiral Hipper Class Heavy Cruiser, mistaking her the lead ship for KMS Bismarck. The reasons for the initial misidentification are quite understandable, Given the extreme ranges and angles at which they were first sighted, the German ships were virtually indistinguishable as they both had very similar silhouettes.

Answer: Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland

Vice Admiral Lancelot Ernest Holland - born in 1887, died on 24th May 1941 - aboard HMS Hood.

Answer: 3

The Hood was gone. Out of her crew of 1,418 men, only three, Midshipman William Dundas, Able Seaman Robert Tilburn and Signalman Ted Briggs remained. There was no trace of the other 1,415 men alive or dead. Of Hood herself, all that remained on the surface was a mass of floating debris and an oil slick 4' deep. Fire flickered here and there among the debris.

Answer: She was herself sunk 3 days later

During the morning of 27th May, the combined British fleet, led by King George V and Rodney, finally caught and engaged Bismarck. The German battleship, with its jammed rudders, was unable to manoeuvre effectively. Neither the ship or its crew was in peak condition.

The result of which was that in the ensuing action, Bismarck managed to straddle both Rodney and King George V early on, but was unable to cause any direct hits or significant damage. The British made quick work of the crippled ship and it was soon a slowly sinking blazing shambles of its former self.

At just after 1030 hours, utterly defeated, it was at last sent to the bottom by the torpedoes of H.M.S. Dorsetshire (possibly in concert with scuttling efforts on the part of the Bismarcks crew).

The German death toll was over 2,000 with 115 picked up by British and German vessels. The hundreds that had survived the sinking, but were not rescued, eventually died of hypothermia or from their wounds. Although relieved that the German threat had been nullified, the survivors of Hood were not overjoyed at the news - they fully understood what the crew of Bismarck had gone through.