Legends Don't Die, They are Reborn

Prologue Hood

Hood- Sunk on the 24th May 1941, all but 3 hands lost

Mission report from John Catterall "John" Leach, Captain of the Prince of Wales for the 24th May 1941

Report
On the 24th May 1941, battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Hood engaged the battleship Bismarck and Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen at the Denmark Strait. Enemy sighted at 5:35 and engaged at 5:52. Hood fired fired first at the range of approximately 26,000 yards aimed at Prinz Eugen, all rounds missed. We Approached the German ships at an angle that prevented us from Using the aft guns at all. This has left us with 10/18 guns that could have been used. One of the forward guns on my ship became unserviceable after the first salvo, this left us with 9 guns. We were steaming into the wind, the spray from the sea prevented use from using the turrets' own range finders. We were forced to use the directory tower's instead. We were ordered to follow the Hood, we could not adjust our speed or course which would have made it more difficult or the Germans to find our range. We struck the Bismarck first, in the battle we only managed to have 3 hits in total due to lack of training on the guns and poor rate of fire. The Germans held their fire until 5:55 and one of their round struck the Hood and started a fire in the aft. We turned to port to ensure our main guns could bear on the two German ship. During this manoeuvre, a salvo from the Bismarck approximately 9 miles away struck the Hood between the mainmast and "X" turret. A huge pillar of flame bursted between the mainmast and "X" turret. This was followed by an explosion that blew off both aft turrets into the sea. The ship broke into two segments and the stern sank into the sea. The bow rose out of the water and for some reason as it sank a salvo from "A" turret was fired in its upright position by its doomed crew. Splinters of the Hood were found on my ship half a mile away. Only 3 survivors were picked up by HMS Electra. We were heading to the wreck of the Hood and I ordered an emergency hard to starboard to avoid her wreck. This left us in an easier position to target and were targeted by both ships. We were struck four times by Bismarck and three times by Prinz Eugen. Our shell out put was reduced by 26% after some malfunctions and we turned away making smoke at 6:04. The rear turret continued to fire to discourage them from pursuing us until the turret suffered a jammed shell ring that cut off the supply to the guns and make them unusable. We left the combat area at 6:10, just after reaching the range of Prinz Eugen's torpedoes.

Notes: When the Hood was sunk, a strange phenomenon was reported by the lookouts, apparently there was a bright light under the Hood as it sunk and "consumed" it. Our sonar confirmed this as the wreck disappeared well before reaching the maximum range of the sonar.