WORLD OF WARSHIPS "THE MIGHTY HOOD" BATTLECRUISER, MALTA 1938

Wallpaper Description:

HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1920, she was named after the 18th-century Admiral Samuel Hood. One of four Admiral-class battlecruisers ordered in mid-1916, Hood had design limitations, though her design was revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction. For this reason, she was the only ship of her class to be completed. Despite the appearance of new and more modern ship designs over time, Hood remained the largest and most powerful warship in the world for 20 years after her commissioning, and her prestige was reflected in her nickname, "The Mighty Hood".

The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement on 24 May 1941 in the Second World War, between ships of the Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine. The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood fought the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping (Operation Rheinübung).

Less than 10 minutes after the British opened fire, a shell from Bismarck struck Hood near her aft ammunition magazines. Soon afterwards, Hood exploded and sank within three minutes, with the loss of all but three of her crew.

Armament:
As built:
4 2 – BL 15-inch Mk I guns
12 1 – BL 5.5-inch Mk I guns
4 1 – QF 4-inch Mark V anti-aircraft guns
6 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
1941, as sunk:
4 2 – 15-inch (381 mm) guns
7 2 – QF 4-inch Mk XVI AA guns
3 8 – QF 2-pdr "pom pom" AA guns
5 4 – 0.5-inch Vickers machine guns
5 20-barrel "Unrotated Projectile" mounts
2 2 – 21-inch/ above water torpedo tubes