Billy Russell. [/size]
When war with Germany was declared
Hood was operating in the area around
Iceland, and she spent the next several months hunting between Iceland and the
Norwegian Sea for German
commerce raiders and
blockade runners. After a brief overhaul of her propulsion system, she sailed as the
flagship of
Force H, and participated in the
destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. Relieved as flagship of Force H,
Hood was dispatched to
Scapa Flow, and operated in the area as a convoy escort and later as a defence against a potential German invasion fleet. In May 1941, she and the
battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the
German battleship Bismarck and the
heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic where they were to attack convoys. On 24 May 1941, early in the
Battle of the Denmark Strait,
Hoodwas struck by several German shells and exploded; the loss had a profound effect on the British people.[/size]
The
Royal Navy conducted two inquiries into the reasons for the ship's quick demise. The first, held very quickly after the ship's loss, concluded that
Hood's aft
magazine had exploded after one of
Bismarck's shells penetrated the ship's armour. A second inquiry was held after complaints that the first board had failed to consider alternative explanations, such as an explosion of the ship's
torpedoes. It was more thorough than the first board, and concurred with the first board's conclusion. Despite the official explanation, some historians continued to believe that the torpedoes caused the ship's loss while others proposed an accidental explosion inside one of the ship's
gun turrets that reached down into the magazine. Other historians have focused on the cause of the magazine explosion. The discovery of the ship's wreck in 2001 confirmed the conclusion of both boards, although the exact reason why the magazines detonated will always be a mystery, as that area of the ship was entirely destroyed in the explosion.[/size]