What You Need to Know: HMS Hood, the pride of the British Royal Navy, symbolized British imperial power during the interwar years. Designed under the Washington Naval Treaty, this fast and powerful battlecruiser aimed to showcase British naval dominance.
-However, during World War II, the Hood tragically met its end in a battle with Germany’s Bismarck, exposing the limitations of outdated assumptions in naval strategy.
-This loss marked Britain’s waning global power.
-Today, Hood serves as a cautionary tale for U.S. naval planners, suggesting a re-evaluation of heavy reliance on aircraft carriers and advocating innovation in military strategy.
HMS Hood’s Tragic Demise: A Cautionary Tale for U.S. Naval Strategy Today
The British Empire was the equivalent of the world’s superpower for centuries. Since Britain successfully colonized dusty, far-flung lands from her grey rock in the North Atlantic, she was catapulted to world primacy. Her industry ensured Britain remained the world’s leader, and her Royal Navy enforced the crown’s (and, later, parliament’s) will upon the world.
But by the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, the empire was declining.
Financialization of the imperial economy as well as the embrace of the equivalent of “free trade” started hollowing out Britain. Fierce competition from the likes of the United States and the recently united Germany also started complicating Britain’s dominance. Then, of course, some wrong turns in the military and foreign policy domain only exacerbated these woes.
Following Britain’s pyrrhic victory over the Germans in World War I, like the other “victorious” Allied nations, the empire was skittish about another great power conflict.
The Rise of HMS Hood
In 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty that was intended to bring balance between three great naval powers—the British Empire, the United States, and the Japanese Empire—only helped to set the stage for the next round of great power conflict, as the Japanese believed they were jilted by their World War-I Anglo-American allies. That controversial treaty, however, significantly influenced the design of multiple warships. Including the British Royal Navy’s iconic battlecruiser, the HMS Hood.
Indeed, Hood was considered the embodiment of naval prowess and was the great pride of the British fleet of the interwar years. Considered a “battlecruiser” as opposed to a full-blown “battleship” (because of the limitations imposed by the aforementioned Washington Naval Treaty), her design was inherently a compromise between the desire for naval dominance and the need for diplomacy among the great powers. Britain wanted to outgun and outrun any ship she might encounter.
So, Royal Navy designers equipped this steel beast with eight 15-inch guns in four twin turrets, capable of firing shells over 20 miles.
Her speed was legendary, reaching as high as 32 knots. Because of this, she was one of the fastest capital ships of her time. That’s because the British used oil rather than coal. As a result, this reduced the crew size needed to handle fuel (coal-powered ships required more hands to maintain the coal when underway).
The Ultimate Symbol of British Military Power
HMS Hood was the ultimate symbol of British imperial power in the interwar years. Much like America’s massive nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, Hood traveled the world, waving the Union Jack for all to see, symbolizing the reach and power of the British Empire. When deployed to international hotspots, her mere presence was enough to send rivals scattering.
Once World War II erupted, Hood was thrust into action. She was tasked with engaging targets related to German commerce. Inevitably, she was called to action against the German battleship Bismarck. It was during this operation that the limits of the HMS Hood were brutally exposed.
The Loss of the Hood
While transiting the Denmark Strait on the evening of May 24, 1941, HMS Hood and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales engaged the legendary German battleship Bismarck and the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Within the first five minutes of the engagement, the HMS Hood, the pride of the British Royal Navy and symbol of unchecked British imperial power worldwide, was obliterated by a shell fired from the Bismarck after it penetrated Hood’s magazine, leading to an explosion that cut the ship in half.
Minutes thereafter, the HMS Hood suffered a loss of all but three of her crew of 1,418 men. The loss of Hood, and the way in which she was so quickly cut down in the prime of her service life, was a massive blow to the British Royal Navy and Britons everywhere. In many respects, her loss represented the profound decline that the British Empire had endured since the height of its empire during the Victorian Era. London had built its iconic Hood based on premises that were flawed and no longer reflective of the real strategic environment the British military faced in 1941.
A Lesson for U.S. Naval Planners Today
Indeed, the loss of HMS Hood in 1941 is a history lesson not just for understanding what declining empires look like. It’s a warning from history to current U.S. Navy war planners to challenge their best laid assumptions and plans. Notably, to have a second look at their reliance on aircraft carriers, the battlecruisers of their day.
Like the British obsession with battleships and related platforms in the interwar years, the Americans have overcommitted to their carrier force and now run the risk of losing them in unplanned for ways to adversaries who could never hope to match the power of the U.S. Navy.
Americans must stop relying on the status quo and instead begin innovating to rethink what platforms they rely upon to project U.S. military power.
About the Author
Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is available for purchase wherever books are sold. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image Credit: Creative Commons.