How Did The Bismarck Manage To Sink HMS Hood So Quickly? | Full Documentary 

Hood was incredible unlucky. As I have worked out - inspired by an excellent video of Drachinifel - at the point blank range Bismarck's shells were following quite a flat track of about 11º-13º from horizontal (German Testing Data). There was therefor no plunging shells to penetrate the decks or the turrets. The 13" main armour on her sides would have stopped the shells on this flat trajectory , but these shells would penetrate the 5" secondary armour above it. Inside Hood however was an tertiary 3" armoured deck below (above the magazines) on which those penetrating shells would bounce of and explode; still damaging but not fatal. This armoured deck however was of a turtle-back design, meaning that the sides were sloped down about 60º. With Hood on an even keel an 11º penetrating shot clipping the upper edge of the main armour belt would still hit the horizontal deck and bounce of. The hood however was NOT on an even keel. She turned hard to port making her list towards Bismarck. She just had to list about 3º for a shell clipping the upper edge of the 13"main armour and penetrating the 5" armour above it to hit the bend down sides of the 3"armoured deck at about 76º, enough to penetrate into the powder magazine. If she listed more - which is likely - that 76º angle would become almost perpendicular making penetration easier. Other theories don't work in my opinion Listing in a turn would make the theory of penetrating the 3" upper deck armour unlikely as the deck armour was tested and could withstand 15" shells at angles below 20º; Hood would have been listing more than 7º to make that a possibility and that is quite a severe list. Even if she did and the shells penetrated the upper deck, the lower armoured turle-back deck would have stopped the shell that by then had lost most of its penetrating power. With the maximum elevation of Bismarck's turrets of 30º, Bismarck had no where near enough elevation to create plunging fire at the distance Hood was (17,000 yards). The second theory of a "short" hitting the water and proceed to penetrate beneath the main armour belt becomes IMO also unlikely when taking the turn into consideration. When at full speed in a straight line Hood would create a big bow wave with quite a deep trough near the aft magazines almost fully exposing the main armour belt at the deepest point. A 15" shell hitting that deepest point close to Hood might possibly penetrate beneath the armour belt and explode inside the magazine. But Hood wasn't going in a straight line, she was turning. As a result the trough would have flattened out putting the main armour deeper in the water, and the list in the turn would have put the main belt even deeper into the water making a "short" penetration IMO nearly impossible.

Short version: Bismarck's shell penetrated Hood's armor, which it was easily capable of at the shorter ranges they were shooting from, and the shell entered a powder room and detonated. There's really no other explanation. Bismarck's shells were capable of penetrating roughly 17" of British armor at those ranges (18k yards, less than 9 miles). Hood didn't have near that much armor. It wasn't plunging fire that went through the thinner deck armor...that only happens from long range, and this battle was not remotely long range. It was short to medium range. Less than 9 miles. I never have understood the need to make excuses for Hood or find another reason than the most obvious: Her armor was simply overmatched and the shell performed as designed. The shell could easily have broken up or hit a structural beam or machinery and been deflected inside the ship and not hit the magazine...but it didn't. Battleships are BIG. If you've never been on one, you simply can't grasp the scale. Shells, even the big ones, are tiny compared to a Battleship. Most of the time, it doesn't matter if your shells CAN penetrate your opponent's armor, it matters WHERE is penetrates. The magazines aren't but so big, and they're deep in the ship, so you can punch holes in the armor all day long and possibly never hit one. To do so, is simply pure luck. USS Washington outmatched IJN Kirishima in every way at Guadalcanal. Over 20 hits with 16" shells, penetrated everywhere including her armor belt...but no magazine explosion. Same range as Hood vs Biz. Kirishima was defeated and sank from Washington's shell hits...but none of them exploded in a powder magazine, because those hits are HARD to get. IMO, it's really that simple. It was just a very lucky hit in just the right spot. Bismarck almost got 2 of them, because they found an unexploded 15" shell deep in Prince of Wales that would likely have detonated her, too. If that shell hits Hood instead of the one that did, the battle most likely goes to the Brits.

Amazing how HOOD was so famous. My grandparents living in Burma literally half a world away from England, from both my mom and dad's side, who were just small children when WW2 broke out knew of the HOOD.

The captain of the Bismark knew when he sank Hms Hood he was doomed,he told naval command the British will not stop till we are sunk!

I was impressed on the rudder footage locked towards port. Holland did start the turn to fight side to side, but he ran out of time, and luck. Peace to all those souls, british and germans alike.

The video stated that the shell takes 50 seconds to reach its opponent. They also said the Hood can complete its turn to broadside in 30 seconds. (All approximate I’m sure) So I would think that AFTER the Bismarck fired the kill shot, the captain of the Hood ordered the turn. If the Hood had kept its previous course, the deadly shell from the Bismarck would have missed. The captain of the Hood turned his ship right under the falling Bismarck shell. Still good shooting by the Bismarck, but incredible luck was also involved.

" They have solved a major mystery ! " No, they haven't. The deck armour of HMS Hood was sufficient to stop plunging fire from any ship. There was amour plating on three different decks totalling 7", with blast spaces in between. There was no mystery about a magazine explosion. That was a given, considering the fact that Hood was blown in half. But another theory has more credence. Every ship sailing at speed ceates a bow wave. Like all waves, it creates a trough behind it that leaves a large section of hull exposed. Photographs of Hood in peacetime sailing show that this trough actually exposed the hull to below the belt armour. A shell hitting at that point could have easily penetrated the 4" magazine and set it alight. The resulting explosion would have blown through to the main gun magazine located just behind and above. Eye witness reports told of a pillar of fire escaping up through the torpedo flat vents, before the main explosion. A fire in the 4" magazine would have sent a flame up through that exact spot, as described. So the most probable cause was a hit below the belt amour, not through the deck armour. How could that happen if the ship was turning? Yes, the rudder was " hard over " but a ship of that size wont turn on a sixpence. It takes time and Hood didn't have enough time to escape the final salvo from Bismark. Hood had not turned, even though the order to turn had been given. Therefore the bow wave gave Bismark the chance it needed to score a fatal hit. Just rotten luck for everyone on HMS Hood.

Annother documentary on the Hood My uncle was a stoker on the Hood, and he did not survive. My mother told me that her brother was so proud to be chosen to serve on the Hood.

RIP to all the brave sailors, British and German,

Any ship has a massive detonation if its magazine is hit....Jutland, it happened many times. USS Arizona suffered a similar fate..I believe the Japanese used bombs modified from Amor pricing shells. When navies are shooting at each other from great distances...luck plays a tremendous part..

The ship you show at 0:09 is actually HMS Iron Duke, built 1913. She was serving as a depot and training ship by the beginning of WW2. Its definitely not Hood. Hood had a cruiser bow and 2 superfiring turrets forward. Iron Duke had by that stage lost her superfiring turret forward (as shown in this footage) but still has a ram bow, as was common in pre-WW1 dreadnoughts. The ship at 0:17 looks like one of the Renown class, probably HMS Repulse but I'm not certain. Same 15 inch guns as Hood, but only 6. Repulse was lost alongside Prince of Wales with Force Z in the Indian Ocean at the end of 1941.

Seriously, ten minutes into the video and already interrupted by eight commercials... 😖😖😖😖

The Hood was a truly beautiful BATTLE cruiser

HMS Hood Remembered: May the 1,415 officers and men who lost their lives aboard The Mighty Hood R.I.P. May the three men who survived but who have now passed also R.I.P. 🌼

Seems odd no one ever seems to comment on the German's outstanding gunnery. This goes back to Jutland, for Pete's sake! And the math of flight time vs. turning time means that Hood steered directly into her fatal blow, and that they should have begun that turn at the instant they saw Bismark's salvo. Perhaps indeed the order was indeed given then, and it took that long, or the lucky shot was in fact off the intended course a bit [I am no naval sailor]; but whatever, surely the most unlucky command-decision-execution timing ever. Damn...

That Capt. Dalby is one cool customer - would've liked to have heard more from him . . .

I've heard different stories about this. Firstly, Hood was out accompanying Prince of Wales which was on trials as a newly launched battleship. Hood was not specifically sent from Scapa Flow to intercept, but was sent on the hunt afterwards. As Hood was NOT A HEAVY BATTLESHIP but only a heavy cruiser Admiral was told not to engage Bismarck until British heavy battleships arrived - *but he engaged anyway.* Prince of Wales new gun design jammed after the first salvo, could not properly engage but did hit Bismarck's oil supply. Hood was scheduled for refit (installation of a heavy armored deck because Admiralty knew she was under armored) once finished trials with Prince of Wales. Someone took one hell of a risk sending Hood into battle against Bismarck. Rodney, the heavy battleship that silence Bismarck's guns, was much more of a match. Hood was a good-looking lightweight, built for speed. It's always a temptation to sensationalize a story like this, but the truth is that from the outset, lucky shot or not, Hood would likely have lost this contest.

It was not plunging fire penetrating the top deck of the Hood. Trajectory and range calculations clearly indicate the Bismark's main guns were striking the Hood at only around a15 - 20 angle. Most likely the hull was penetrated just at the waterline very near the magazine. The bow wake of the Hood created waves that undulated along the side of the Hood. This noticable undulation exposed the lower hull when the shell struck.

If Bismarck's angle of fire was only 11 degrees, the Hood's deck would only be exposed if she were in a hard-to-starboard turn. If she were in a hard-to-port turn, much of her port side would have been above the waterline. To the extant that port-side hull areas were exposed, the greater the likelihood of the Bismarck getting in a lucky shot below the Hood's armor belt.

Great documentary, thank you for sharing. The simple answer in How Did The Bismarck Manage To Sink HMS Hood So Quickly? HMS Hood was an outdated warship built in 1918, unlike the Bismarck, built at the outbreak of the WWII. At the time, there was nothing in the world comparable to German technology.

To get rid of the commercials fast forward to the end and then hit refresh. Enjoy

We have a 13 ft model of the Hood, and a model of the Bismark at a new model ship gallery in Marystown, NL Canada we are putting together. They were donated along with a lot of other ships last year. worth about half million just for these.

Baraham was a battleship. Hood was about to sail to the USA for armour to be added so it might fight Bismarck on an equal footing. Too late for that, biggest, Battle Cruiser.

Pride of a nation, a beast made of steel Bismarck in motion, King of the Ocean

Over thirty years ago I was at a gun show in Lansing, Michigan. There was an older gentleman there selling a book about his experience in the battle from the German side. He claimed to have been on the Prinz Eugen and talked with a German accent. In his book he claimed that it was an 8” AP shell from his cruiser that blew up the Hood, not the Bismarck. I have never heard that before or since. Wish I had bought his book.

Great, fantastic and immortal Bismarck!!! Respect forever!!!

why did they keep showing footage of renown and repulse? Like we wouldn't notice!

REST IN PEACE OFFICERS & CREW OF THE PRIDE OF THE ROYAL NAVY HMS HOOD

The Hood had a long and Flaunting that display globally career . Worth every penny the British spent on her . The Bismarck had a short expensive life , thank God . And the Tirpitz was right behind . Thank God again .

Churchill ordered, "Sink the Bismarck, Sink the Bismarck at all costs." Churchill wanted revenge and a few days later he got it when the Bismarck was sunk!

For a contrasting view of this tragic event; I suggest watching the following video from Drachinifel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CLPeC7LRqIY.html

Those German range finders will get you every time.

That's nice music and effects in the background. I now forgive Microsoft for making my job so difficult during the 90's and subsequent years. lol At least one of the Microsoft cats that got wealthy from MS Windows (The clownsuit for DOS) let us in on this video by loaning his awesome ship. Thanks.

I enjoyed this chronicle, but must lodge a complaint for the inordinate amount of ad's and overlay posts used. Extremely distracting!

Q: how did the Bismarck penetrate the heavily armored lower decks where ammo is stored??? A: the shell seems to have penetrated the armor and detonated the ammunition. Wow thanks.

Brilliant documentary, only spoiled by the tons of adverts.

It always bothers me when they speak about an enemy ship sinking one of ours they say it was a lucky shot or something to minimize what the bizmark did. Bottom line is the Bizmark and the Hood squared off in battle that fateful day in July and the Bizmark came away the victor it has nothing to do with luck it has nothing to do with design flaws it has everything to do with they were at war they knew what was at stake and the Hood was sunk. Say what you want about it but they were both lobbing shells at one another and the Hood took direct hits. Those hits came from a trained crew on a powerful weapon of war. These men on both sides were honorable men who were at war with one another and their job was to aim their guns from thousands of yards away and hit their opposition. The Bizmark did just that. So don’t be dishonorable by saying it was a lucky shot. Those men on the Bizmark did exactly what they were trained to do. They were doing the same thing the men on the hood were trying to do. The Bizmark just did a better job. There is no shame in that. But it is shameful to say they were just lucky. If it was just luck then why not send one or two ships after the Bizmark ? Why send half the fleet? The reason is because they now knew what that ship and skillful crew were capable of so they wanted to be sure it was taken out. Then to say 2000 men died when the Bizmark was sunk. Conveniently more men than was lost on the hood as to say you killed this many but we killed more. Just boastful bragging.They conveniently left out saying that it took multiple ships and AirPower to do what the Bizmark did by itself.

I would assume the shells from the Bismarck are to blame..

I wish my dad was still around to see this footage.i was in my late 20s before i found out out i had an uncle i never knew existed as my dad never really spoke about was a part of the crew on the hood.

44:20 "no battlecruiser would ever be built again" USSR sais "hold my beer"

The Bismarck got in a lucky shot that hit the Hood's powder magazines. The consequent explosion blew the Hood in half.

Spoiler Alert...the Hood had wooden decks that made her very vulnerable...

It's a shame the film makers can't distinguish b/t Hood and Renown/Repulse.

Very interesting and moving. Thank you.

A magazine blew up. Simple. Let the Hood and her brave sailors RIP

If you hit the magazines with a shell then it shall obviously form an atomic like explosion.

RIP the beautiful mighty HMS Hood, captain and crew. -- It's very interesting that fate ended them with one lucky shell strike to the 15 inch magazine. It's still shocking even after 74 years, now.

Omg is there an insane number of adds on this 😳

This is a piece of naval wartime incidents that will go down in military history, in a way, like pearl harbour.

Thank you Carson, that will be all...

Narrator. Hood sank in three minutes Me. Hit the magazine? 44 mins later... Maybe Me. Hit the magazine

In simple terms, one big shell hit vital place on the hood, split in two. Extra sad that nearly all the crew died and wreckage just disintegrated on the way down to the bottom.

What a shame they did not get the bell with them home to the UK.

The only other possibility is that the crew accidentally ignited the powder room themselves preparing for battle. It's not just the design of the ship but all the procedures that go with operating it. See the gun turret accident on the Iowa.

Bismarck ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Is it possible that the incoming Bismark shell hit a Hood shell coming up the shell elevator and this combined to flash down into the magazine?

By hitting it with a 14" shell. Simple.

Ez bismarck sunk the hood by hitting her ammo storage then it blew up

War is Ugly!, 1000 boys sailed 1000 miles from home

Goddamn, the hood was only built a few years after titanic and is way more advanced. What happened to this rate of technical change? Were the civilian vessels always so quaint by comparison?

How did the Hood sink so fast? Simple, She was hit in her main powder magazine which in turn exploded and ripped her in half. Look how much faster Titanic sank after she snapped in half.

I heard that Prinz Eugen actually hit Hood before Bismarck did and almost at the same location Hood was on fire when Bismarck hit her

The reality is that when you start firing shells of that size over that distance if they hit it’s going to make a mess..Bismarck sunk the hood the Bismarck was sunk…one a piece ..a twenty year ship for a new ship…I hate to say it with the great loss of life but I’d say an even trade …

The question I want answered is How did the "supposedly Best ship in the Royal Navy" fire thirteen salvo's and not hit anything ? I know in the first part of the battle Hood mistakenly fired at Prinz Eugen but they got nowhere close to that either. Could it be a case of far too much spit and polish and nowhere near enough shooting practice

The HMS Hook had a rate of fire of 2 rounds per minute with her 15 inch guns. The KMS Bismarck, when completed, his rate of fire, on paper was 2.25 rounds per minute. However, during sea trials the 15 inch gun crews managed 3 rounds per minute. The Command Crew may have followed their SOP concerning the possible belief that they timed their turn to port based on their own 15 inch guns rate of fire and had turned with a salvo of 15 inch AP rounds already inbound to the thin armor of the HMS Hood. The Zeiss Optics in general use by the Kriegs Marine were probably the finest in the world at that time, along with the Bismarcks shells.

This comment section may be better than the video. Thanks viewers for sharing insights!!

Trying to pick up that bell was like one of those drop and grab claw games you see on the boardwalk and probably about the same odds of success unfortunately.

There is still something to be said though for Bismarck the fact that it took so much of the British Navy hardware just to take one ship down I don’t think anything could’ve survived getting hit that much but if It didn’t take that hit and leave the oil slick they may not of sank it at least at that point

The fire ball was fuelled entirely by the explosive power packed in a concentrated space.

Gee how the mega rich do research,well the guys on camera call it and I love the emergency action shot’s and the scary music with the serious facial expressions. Really gripping stuff

Fascinating footage from June 1939 and not only of HMS Hood, as the other ship seen briefly just after the first shots of Hood, can surely only be the equally famous WW1 superdreadnought and Grand Fleet flagship at Jutland, HMS Iron Duke. By the 1930s (iirc) serving as a gunnery training ship.

This is why the Bismark was the most feared ship in WW2. 3mt that’s all it took to sink the Hood. Unbelievable

A British, troop ship, is now known to have taken some twice the number as the crew of the Hood.

The answer to the question "How did the Bismark manage to sink HMS Hood so quickly ?" Answer: The Bismark was state of the art and its crew were Germans, not Brits.

Salute to brilliant German gunnery

Drachnifel made good and definitive video.

Witnesses said there was a "torch" of flame straight up before the explosion. Maybe the propellant charges were hit first which burned like a torch and that detonated the 15" shells.

Some of those early shots are not even of the Hood. One of them was the eldery Iron Duke and another was of HMS Warspite.

She was originally designed as a Battlecruiser with thin armour as previous designs. But after the Battle of Jutland she was actually built with armour comparable to the Queen Elizabeth class Battleship. the most modern British Battleships of WWI. She was due for a re-build in the 1930s, but due to commitments this never happened. With computer simulations of Bismarck's shell trajectory, the deck penetration should not have happened. More likely was a hit to the ships side which passed under the armour belt? But we will never know for sure.

29:10. Nearly half the British empire navy to get one ship! How fascinating!

I don't get it...They went there to investigate what sank the ship but not looking for any survivors?? They could have saved lives but no.. We're just intrested in studying the wreck -.-

This video lasted 42 minutes longer than the hood. Just say the Hood got it's butt kicked.

Why on earth didn't they design the ROV with gripper arms that are seen on so many ROVs to lift/grab lighter things either to move or retrieve them ?

Hood was poorly armoured. She didn’t stand a chance.

And the answer is.... The Krauts blasted them.

I'm not buying anything advertised on RU-vid.

CHECK OUT the history of English warships dating back to the Battle of Jutland in WW1. Several of their ships EXPLODED when hit, indicating their CORDITE had ignited and destroyed the vessels. The problem was the CORDITE, which was also used in small arms ammo. It was phased out after WW2 - too late for the sailors on Hood !

One man did survive

The fleet commander Admiral Gunther Lutyens allowed his ego to get the better of his professional sense. He should have gone to port fixed those minor damages and moved back into battle. In companrison Admiral Isoroku Yamato had no ego He heard and recognzied the impact of other opinions. BUt he always made the final call and there was no mistake. He destroyed Pearl Harbour until there was nothing left. Now whether Franklin Roosevelt let the fleet to be parked there deliberately was more Americans hunting for self consolation. By all counts the Bismarck was a superior ship. Bur then my belief is Admiral Isoroku Yamamato was as greater Fleet Commander.

you see you can waste a salvo to get the range and when you get it you can pummel the target to pieces

So, with the rudder in position to turns towards the Bismarck the Hood actually sailed precisely into the trajectory of the shell. It seems the strategy of having a smaller profile by heading straight towards your enemy didn't work so well. But, if the Hood was 20 yards further to starboard or port then things would have been different, so still a extremely lucky shot.

They heard the Explosion in Reykjavik Iceland .

Why at 2:49 is Robert Downey Jr in the control room for the sub ?!

The "Octopus" is quite a "Kon-Tiki" raft/hovel ...

Holy shit that’s a huge boat,that’s awseme. I wish I could get a boat.

Considering it took everything the UK Navy could throw at the Bismarck I would say it was one potent ship period... Had Prince Oinker not run away into the night it would also be with the Hood

Plunging fire and lucky hits!

Too many mid roll ads to be enjoyable

Video starts at 32:10

She symbolized everything great with Great Britain, sinks in 3 minutes.