The Pittsburgh Press (May 25, 1941)
WORLD’S BIGGEST WARSHIP SUNK BY NAZIS IN GREENLAND BATTLE
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Hood sent to bottom by Bismarck; fear crew of 1,341 lost
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By Wallace Carroll, United Press staff writer
London, May 24 –
The Admiralty tonight announced its most serious loss since the Battle of Jutland, the blowing up of the world’s mightiest dreadnaught, the 42,100-ton Hood, in a battle off Greenland, with the German battleship Bismarck.
The loss of the Royal Navy’s pride, queen of the seas since her completion in 1920, was due to an “unlucky” hit by the 35,000-ton German battleship Bismarck. A shell from the Bismarck penetrated the Hood’s powder chamber and sent her to the bottom with the loss of virtually all her 1,341 officers and men.
The Admiralty’s grim communiqué furnished few details of the action, fought high in the iceberg-ridden sea of Greenland on the outskirts or possibly even within the limits of the American neutrality patrol zone.
But the Bismarck, the Admiralty said, was also hit and even now is being pursued by other units of the fleet whose white ensign has for a century signified lordship of the open seas.
The loss of the Hood was the cruelest single blow the British fleet has suffered in the war. It cost Britain her second capital ship since the start of hostilities. The first was the battleship Royal Oak, sunk by a U-boat in Scapa Flow.
Ironically, the Goliath of the Royal Navy went down at the hands of the very warship which German propagandists had proclaimed would dethrone her as the mightiest warship afloat.
The battle brought face to face two of the heaviest ships ever to clash at sea – each capable of hurling a seven-ton broadside from batteries of eight 15-inch guns. But the Bismarck was 19 years younger than the Hood and probably fought on better-than-even terms despite the Hood’s edge in weight of 7,000 tons.
The Bismarck, it was admitted, had the benefit of late improvements in hardened steel and increased gun firepower.
Britons, while grieving the Hood’s loss, took some comfort from the fact that the new King George V battleships are now in service and also from Britain’s present margin in battleships – she having 15 to Germany’s known four.
But there was speculation as to the purpose of the German battle squadron in ranging so far west as the Greenland area. It was noted by naval experts that use of battleships for commerce raiding is extremely wasteful because each capital ship requires a substantial escort of smaller warcraft.
Some British suggested, half humorously but with a tinge of seriousness, that possibly the Germans:
…have decided to protect Greenland against United States aggression.
The Admiralty reported that the Hood, carrying the flag of Vice Admiral L. E. Holland, intercepted a German naval force, apparently headed by the Bismarck, and gave battle.
A communiqué said:
British naval forces intercepted early this morning off the coast of Greenland German naval forces including the battleship Bismarck.
The enemy were attacked and during the ensuing action HMS Hood (Capt. R. Kerr, CBE RN) wearing the flag of Vice Admiral L. E. Holland, CB, received an unlucky hit in the magazine and blew up.
The Bismarck has received damage and pursuit of the enemy continues. It is feared there will be few survivors from HMS Hood.
Thus, the Royal Navy suffered its most grievous blow of the war and possibly of all time. Only the losses of the World War battle of Jutland, on which both the British and German fleets hammered each other unmercifully, appeared comparable to the disaster announced by the Admiralty tonight.
The Hood was one of the most heavily armored battleships afloat. Its construction was undertaken at the height of World War I, Sept. 1, 1916, at Clydebank, Scotland, and on March 5, 1920, she was completed.
The Hood had a speed of 32 knots, one of the few battleships which the British possessed capable of matching speed with the new German battleships and pocket battleships.
Because of her speed, huge armament and heavy armor, she had been considered ideal for operating with a small escort flotilla against sea raiders.
How the German shell came to penetrate the Hood’s magazine was not indicated. But it seemed obvious that it must have been a lucky hit, since the magazines were located in the depths of the great craft, heavily protected by slabs of armor plate and multitudinous devices.
Although the rated capacity of the Hood was 42,100 tons, she tipped the scales at 46,200 tons with full load. The great ship was 860 feet, 7 inches long with a beam of 105 feet, 2.5 inches.
Against the Bismarck, however, the Hood had only a slight edge in armament. The Bismarck had a speed about equal or slightly less than the Hood and, like the Hood, mounted a main battery of eight 15-inch guns. The chief difference between the two battleships was in armor plate. The Hood, with 15-inch steel plates on the face and 11 and 12-inch plates on the sides of her turrets, with 12, 7 and 5-inch slabs of steel on her sides amidships and only slightly less heavy slabs forward and aft, was a massive mountain of steel.
The British have also lost the aircraft carriers Courageous and the Glorious (both 22,500 tons). The cruisers Effingham, Calypso, Curlew, Southampton and Bonaventure have also been lost by the British. Except for the Effingham (9,770 tons), all of the cruisers were of 5,000 tons or less. The British aircraft carrier Illustrious has been damaged badly by bombs.
13 auxiliary cruisers, all of 14,000 tons or more and including the Carinthia (20,277 tons), have been destroyed.
The Admiralty had admitted the loss of 25 of its submarines, 43 British destroyers and 161 auxiliary craft of less than cruiser rank. Most of them were very small vessels of the trawler and minesweeper class.
Germany’s single greatest naval loss of the war was the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, scuttled off Montevideo after defeat at sea by three British cruisers. The Germans have also lost the cruisers Karlsruhe and Blücher and recently, the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst have been blasted repeatedly by the RAF at Brest.
Italy has suffered heavy losses in battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, torpedo boats and troop transports. She lost her entire Red Sea fleet as a result of British victories in East Africa.
The number of German submarines lost has never been totaled, because the Germans rarely admit submarine losses and the British Admiralty adheres to a policy of concealing victories over U-boats.
The audio courtesy of RRG of the German announcement of the sinking: