Channel 4: How the Bismark sunk HMS Hood
Discussion
Could be interesting:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-the-bismarc...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2191731/Bi...
Nice use for a proper explorer yacht.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-the-bismarc...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2191731/Bi...
Nice use for a proper explorer yacht.
Jimbo. said:
Find out why she sank? A 15" shell into the fully stocked magazine of one of the biggest, most feared battelships afloat should explain everything...
Exactly. This was agreed on as the reason when they "found" her the first time. Thought it was pretty unamamiusly agreed.Pedant hat....she was a battlecruiser, not a battleship
and was a bit of an old girl by the time she went to the bottom. Still an awesome ship though and a tragic loss.Plunging fire through the insufficiently armoured deck of a battlecruiser, and maybe (can't remember precisiely) coupled with leaving the flash doors open in the shell hoists (lesson not learned from Jutland).
Rather a lucky shot though. Hood should have closed the range asap to reduce time exposed to plunging fire.
Rather a lucky shot though. Hood should have closed the range asap to reduce time exposed to plunging fire.
Simpo Two said:
Plunging fire through the insufficiently armoured deck of a battlecruiser, and maybe (can't remember precisiely) coupled with leaving the flash doors open in the shell hoists (lesson not learned from Jutland).
Rather a lucky shot though. Hood should have closed the range asap to reduce time exposed to plunging fire.
IIRC was Hood also mid turn and so broadside on to Bismark making it an even easier target. I also recall it being said that while the rate of fire being better with our ships (seen as more prestigious) the Germans had far more accurate gunnery.Rather a lucky shot though. Hood should have closed the range asap to reduce time exposed to plunging fire.
theironduke said:
Wasn't this "done" by Channel 4 themselves a few years back? same yank explorer too?
They took the sole survivor out to the place where she sank and dropped a wreath.
Why go over it again?
Am I missing something?
This is the return trip from July 2012 (same team leader David Mearns from 2001) with more advanced equipment to refilm the wreck, the official task of retrieving the one of the two ships bell and further evidence to support or contradict previous findings.They took the sole survivor out to the place where she sank and dropped a wreath.
Why go over it again?
Am I missing something?
Underwater technology has advanced a fair bit in 11 years so the images and what they can check will hopefully be improved. As long as C4 don't do what they have done on previous programmes like this, 55 minutes of old programme and 5 minutes at the end of the update.
FourWheelDrift said:
As long as C4 don't do what they have done on previous programmes like this, 55 minutes of old programme and 5 minutes at the end of the update.
Probably 10 mins of funky graphics telling you how exciting the programme is going to be, 20 mins adverts and 30 mins of old programme.
Crafty_ said:
Liked to blow their trumpet "They've solved the mystery that two board of inquiry couldn't"
Errrm, really ?
The other program where they took Ted Briggs back (one of the few survivors) was better I think.
They were just guessing again.Errrm, really ?
The other program where they took Ted Briggs back (one of the few survivors) was better I think.
"Hood had started it's turn and probably half way through it" - All the rudder proves is that it had been turned, how far through it's turn could not be proven. Hood might not yet have responded to the rudder, partially turning, fully turned and every point inbetween.
The found explosive damage to the Admirals Cabin or Captains Cabin, they weren't sure which one it was I think but as you saw from the footage of HMS Barham exploding (200m QE Class battleship with same armament as Hood, 8x15" guns and magazines) the explosion is violent and expansive throughout the whole ship. The force would buckle and blow decks, cabins and bulkheads that are not near the initial explosion. If correct battle stations procedures were in place all watertight doors would be closed and all upper-deck hatches which would closed creating an equivalent of a sealed tin can, and if you heat a tin can it bursts with considerable violence.
Conjecture and no solid proof, still.
The only interesting thing I can every think is looking at Barham blowing up, that is a known magazine explosion, but it's all black and sooty, there's no external flash like the cordite explosions of the WWI Battlecruisers at Jutland and on the film taken from Prinz Eugen I'm pretty sure I saw a flash. Did anyone else see a secondary explosive flash, just as the ship and horizon were lost out of shot?
I'm no expert, but from everything I read Hood was a bit of a mongrel anyway, initially designed during WWI the design was "more of the same" than moving forwards, the design was then changed mid construction after Jutland it was a compromised ship to the point that they didn't make any more. The changes were a compromise and so much weight was added she always sat very low in the water.
She had poor ventilation and TB was an issue on board due to this.
By the time WWII came around she was seriously old and out of date, nevertheless she was often praised as the "mighty hood" and was considered a flagship. She was due a refit in 1939, but the outbreak of war delayed this until late 1941, she never reached the dockyards.
Far from being "a lucky shot" as they portrayed in the program I think she was pretty much doomed, she only had 3" of armour at most, nothing for a big shell thats just been lobbed 15 miles. Amazing that only 3 survived though.
She had poor ventilation and TB was an issue on board due to this.
By the time WWII came around she was seriously old and out of date, nevertheless she was often praised as the "mighty hood" and was considered a flagship. She was due a refit in 1939, but the outbreak of war delayed this until late 1941, she never reached the dockyards.
Far from being "a lucky shot" as they portrayed in the program I think she was pretty much doomed, she only had 3" of armour at most, nothing for a big shell thats just been lobbed 15 miles. Amazing that only 3 survived though.
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