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HMS Hood
Pride of the Royal Navy
by Andrew Norman
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This book will obviously attract most attention from the reader with a keen interest in historical and military subjects, particularly naval disasters, ancient and modern. HMS Hood, flagship and pride of the British Royal Navy, had been considered an unsinkable battle cruiser until her encounter with the German battleship Bismarck and her consort, Prinz Eugen on May 24, 1941. Only 3 crew members from the Hood survived; 1,418 went to their graves that day, a hideous waste of human life, as all such war casualties are. The author covers the death of the ship, the postmortem (Boards of Enquiry), the doubts over the official verdict, and some of the theories as to what went wrong, including one of his own. As a civilian from a later generation, I couldn't begin to offer an opinion on the theories. But the author's description of the battle (in which the battleship HMS Prince of Wales also took part) is vivid and shocking.
The first section of the book is easier reading for the non-military or non-history reader, covering as it does recollections of everyday life aboard the Hood before she was drafted into service for World War II. The Hood visited many ports on her world cruise (crossing the equator six times) and the crew had collected quite a menagerie on board, including a kangaroo. The anecdotes are often funny and eye-opening.
Some of the technical details (that is, military specs) can be a bit tedious for the lay reader, but naval buffs will certainly appreciate them. The book is well-written, well-researched, and full of original photographs from some of the men who served on HMS Hood, along with other unique and original source material. It is definitely a keeper!
© 2002 Shirley Ann Parker. All Rights Reserved.