The Mighty Hood: The Battleship that Challenged the Bismarck

by Ernle Bradford

Few historians immersed themselves in their topics like best-selling, noted author Ernle Bradford. Specializing in the Mediterranean world and naval topics, Bradford was an enthusiastic sailor himself and spent almost thirty years sailing the Mediterranean, where many of his acclaimed books are set. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, finishing as the first Lieutenant of a destroyer, and afterwards worked as an editor and correspondent for the BBC. Now, E-Reads is proud to present his engaging series of military histories to a new generation of readers.

THE MIGHTY HOOD
The Battleship that Challenged the Bismarck

When it was launched in 1918 the Hood, flagship of the Royal Navy, was the largest, fastest warship afloat and a symbol of British power, earning the nickname "The Mighty Hood." Her mere appearance on the horizon was enough to intimidate would-be aggressors. But for all the Hood's might, she had one fatal flaw: armor had been sacrificed for speed. In her first major engagement she confronted the almost legendary German warship Bismarck in a battle for supremacy of the Atlantic. A salvo from the enemy penetrated to the Hood's ammunition magazine, destroying and sinking the British ship in an awesome fireball, killing all but three of her crew of 1421 men and violently ending Britain's mastery of the seas. But it inspired Winston Churchill's vow to sink the Bismarck, and in time that vow was fulfilled. Bradford takes us on a thrilling journey through the birth and demise of one of the greatest ships of all time. 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military History, World War II

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford was a noted British historian specializing in the Mediterranean world and naval topics. Bradford was an enthusiastic sailor himself and spent almost thirty years sailing the Mediterranean, where many of his books are set. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, finishing as the first Lieutenant of a destroyer. He did occasional broadcast work for the BBC, was a magazine editor, and wrote many books.

Reviews

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Bradford tells a great story - enough detail to help the lay reader form a picture. He is able to create a sense of how the sailors are experiencing the journeys as well as making clear the strategy behind the manoeuvres and the long term implications of technological decisions.

The author clearly has a view about expenditure on upgrading the technology on naval vessels between the World Wars. Refitting is not a simple matter. Built at huge expense to withstand any side-on attack to her hull and to deliver state-of-the-art gun attack in World War I, the careful balance of weight and speed could not be sustained when heavier ammunition and extra gun power was added in 1939. Nor did the upgrade successfully secure the decks as naval warfare changed from side-on to long distance projectile attack.

The trouble with being the mightiest ship on the sea is that competitors will soon build a mightier using all that had been learnt from encounters with you. Against the Bismarck, the 1000+ crew of the Hood stood little chance. What had been state-of-the/art radar failed in the mist, fog and dark of the North Atlantic.

It was an almost inevitable tragedy.

My interest comes partly from my father’s WWII experience in the Royal Navy. While he spent time on convoys in the North Sea, in 1940-1 he was in the Mediterranean. He later served on the Antelope which accompanied the Hood into the North Sea.

My other interest comes from Johnny Horton’s ballad of the Bismarck - the refrain ‘We’ve got to sink the Bismarck to the bottom of the sea’ played continuously through my head as I read.

This is a thoughtful book. It raises, but does not attempt to resolve, the question of pointlessness. The race for better weapons and defender technology is open-ended. The race creates victims who have no control or defended. Winners are only short-term.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story of a battleship in ww2. The book flows just like reading a novel and kept me wanting to find out more about ships in the war

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ran into this book, while skimming books in my library app. I've always been fascinated by the Bismarck episode, so a book on the Hood was interesting to me. And this is a good book. It gives really a really vivid sense of what it was like to be on the Hood when it was first constructed and in its last years during World War II. The eyewitness account are interesting and the book is well-written.

But two concerns.

First, I was partly interested in this book because I was interested in the full history of the ship. And I got a lot of what I was interested in, but there is a curious gap in the early 1930s, which I found disappointing and distracting. In particular, I was interested in how the Hood's crew experienced the Invergordon mutiny in 1931, but there really is nothing here. That is, admittedly, a depressing subject, but it is part of the history and I wish some discussion was done on that.

Second, the overall tone is pretty patriotic. Harder questions could be asked, but really Bradford goes rather easy on the British Navy. That's a liability in this kind of writing, but just noting it here.

This book is still a good book to read and I think those interested in World War II naval history would find it an entertaining and interesting book to follow up on.

[Erik Empson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative portrait of HMS Hood which, in the inter-war years, was the largest warship on the planet. Laid down in WWI it had some of the weaknesses of British ships that were exposed at Jutland, namely poorly armoured decks and an issue with the way ammunition was brought to the turret, which made the magazine vulnerable. During the 1920s it sailed the world on a victory lap, visiting the colonies as a demonstration of British naval strength. It fought in the Mediterranean and was involved in the sinking of part of the French fleet at Oran. However, it was sunk by the Bismarck in an action off the west of Iceland, with almost all lives lost. Accurate firing from the German boat, which had eclipsed the Hood as the largest battleship, seems to have caused a cordite fire, and a subsequent shell near blew her in half. She sank almost immediately.
The book gives a flavour of life on board but the ship itself is really the subject of this portrait.

[Russell perchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Build at the end of the first world war the Hood said every thing about the the British empire, we ruled the waves and enjoy the Empire that Great Britain had claimed. This time between the two wars saw a pride in our armed forces.
The senior service toured the empire showing why Britain was Great and most of the empire enjoyed the razzmatazz as the Hood held open days, parties and in general had a good break with lots of entertainment organised for the crews, but while the country
basked in all the adulation that was heaped upon our Royal Navy there were very few who saw what was happening in Germany and Italy.
Winston Churchill saw the conflict that was heading our way and lobbied for the country to rearm. and the rest as they say is history.

[Centaur06 · Rating 5 out of 5]

End of a great ship

The politicians of today should read and digest.

An interesting book, the descriptions of life on board a warship are spot on, and give an insight into the life of a sailor in the Royal Navy

[Rick Chagouri-Brindle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb account of the life and death of this magnificent ship.

[Johnny Linehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly well balanced about Hood.

Well written carries off the balancing act of technical details and human interest. It lost one star because I resented his vitriolic attacks on the Labour Party of the UK and the Labor Party of Australia.

Also any ship expert should know that 'the' is not used before the name of a ship just as it isn't before our names.

[Peter Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book - a bit dated now but still quite exciting as the chase to find and defeat the Bismarck is retold.Quite moving too to think that so many men died.