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HMS Hood: Pride of the Royal Navy | 
 enlarge | Author: Andrew Norman
Publisher: The History Press
Category: Book
List Price: $30.95
Buy New: $20.43
You Save: $10.52 (34%)
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 4478898
Media: Paperback
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
ISBN: 1862274533
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.545941
EAN: 9781862274532
ASIN: 1862274533
Publication Date: January 1, 2009 (In 31 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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Product Description
When the battle cruiser HMS Hood was sunk by the Bismark and her consort Prinz Eugen in May 1941, the shock to the Royal Navy, Britain, and the world was immense. The Hood had seemed invincible and the epitome of naval power with her eight 15-inch and eight 4-inch guns. She would prove be anything but, and would become the tomb of 1,418 men. Basing his narrative on primary sources at the Royal Naval Museum and in Germany, plus a unique interview with one of only three survivors of the disaster, Andrew Norman offers his own theory for the ship's fantastically rapid loss. Doubts were immediately raised over the official verdict. Just how could an inboard fire break a ship this large in two? And why did she sink in just seven minutes? Andrew Norman suggests a new answer.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Its not all that bad January 28, 2006
James V. Maclean (Lansing, MI United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Some of the criticism leveled against this book are fair, but in the same breath it is unfair to dismiss the book entirely based upon the authors assertion that the Prince Eugen was responsible for the sinking of the HMS Hood. There is much more to this book, it contains a snapshot of shipboard life that no longer exists in this day and age. For a less insulting, highly professional discussion of the sinking of the HMS Hood read the article at http://www.warship.org/no21987.htm
 A mess August 1, 2004
John S. Cunningham (Las Vegas, nv United States)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Spotty history, technical speculation, second rate naratives.
Don't waste your time with this mess of a book. I knew I was in trouble when the author had already refered to the Bismarck as a "pocket" battleship in the prologue.
It covers little to nothing on the design of the Hood. It spends an entire chapter covering some obscure world cruise but has zero account of the Hoods pre-Bismarck battles (as part of Force H), zips straight through the Denmark straight fight, then dives into poorly thought out conjecture and speculation as to why the ship was lost.
His grand conclusion is that an 8" plunging shell (HE by the way, not AP) from the Prinz Eugen somehow passed straight down one of the stacks, penetrated the steel bar supports and armor, and exploded in the boiler room. Here superheated steam (itself a massive fire supressant) and pre-heated oil were released and flashed into a major fire that broke the ship in two and sank it. All this theory is based on the fact that something similar happend to a cargo ship bombed by a brit naval aircraft at some other point in the war. You gotta be kidding me.
I picked this title up for $5 at a remainder sale, and it was overpriced at even that price. Spend your money on something educational like a comic book. This title has no place in the library of any serious naval historian.
Hoodwinked January 8, 2004
Richard Worth (MO, USA)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
The author's potential contribution to the study of HMS Hood lay in recording the memories of her crewmen. Surprisingly though, the "recollections" section takes up a mere 40 pages--published separately as a booklet, this might have been worth a modest price. Here I will discuss the remaining 100+ pages with their focus on technical/historical material: warship design, naval combat, and battle history, none of which Norman understands. From a vast list of errors, I have selected a few representative examples.
NORMAN on warship design: Regarding deck protection, "Hood's armor was not plate, but of the cemented type...." This is pure gibberish. Hood did have British C armor ("C" for "cemented") in thicknesses up to 15-inch, but not on her decks, which instead had lesser steel with no individual plate more than about 2-inch. No mere detail, this bears directly on the cause of Hood's loss, and the author cannot even correctly parrot the fundamentals.
NORMAN on battle history: "Most, if not all [of Bismarck's shells], failed to explode or did so only partially." In reality, German shells indeed underachieved, but it was Prinz Eugen's ammunition that gave a demonstrably poor performance, not Bismarck's. Norman says that, if Bismarck hit Hood with a shell, "chances were that it had not exploded"--opening the door for his theory that Eugen fired the fatal shell. Norman's theory depends on ignorance of the basic facts.
NORMAN on naval combat: When sunk, Hood was "well within" her immune zone, "defined as a range no closer than 12,000 yards, and the outer limit beyond 25,000 to 30,000 yards." The concept of an immune zone--the area where both the belt armor and the deck armor are likely to resist the armor-piercing shells--did not apply in this instance for the simple reason that Hood had no immune zone. Quite the contrary, through much of Norman's specified zone, neither Hood's belt nor her deck would suffice to keep out Bismarck's shells. She was doubly vulnerable! But Norman again is steering us toward his Eugen theory, puzzling though it is--if Hood was immune to Bismarck's 800kg armor-piercing shells, what could Eugen achieve with shells that were 122kg and not armor-piercing? Norman claims Eugen's shells could by-pass Hood's armor, plummeting straight down Hood's funnel, though he offers no explanation how the shells could achieve the great heights necessary for this trajectory. In fact, Eugen's shells were descending from an angle only about 20 degrees above the horizontal; so unless the Germans managed a bank shot off a low-flying billiards table, this theorized hit was physically impossible.
Given the availability of many fine books on Hood and Denmark Strait, this one earns little regard. The final word on Norman's research appears on page 82 with a photo captioned "Hood at speed"--a dramatic photo which, unfortunately, depicts the battleship Royal Oak, a ship four years older than Hood and from an entirely different class.
 HMS Hood, invincible flagship of the British Royal Navy April 9, 2002
Shirley Ann Parker (West Hills, CA USA)
14 out of 21 found this review helpful
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! ...
Perhaps it wasn't the Bismarck after all. February 13, 2002
Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author)
Having found the last resting place of the Titanic and Bismarck, it was only a matter of time before someone would find the "Hood." This ship was indeed the pride of the Royal Navy and fondly regarded as the most beautiful ship wherever she went. With her recent discovery, there were bound to be a plethora of books on the subject giving rise to the age-old debate of how and why this magnificent Battle Cruiser sank so quickly.
Andrew Norman favours one particular theory for the sinking of the Hood - and I must say, it really is as plausible as any I have read (except for the "Built from the same faulty batch of steel as the Titanic" theory.). His description of the "Concept of the Immune Zone" is easily understandable - and something of which I was previously unaware. His conclusions that an 8 inch shell from the Prinz Eugen sank the Hood is, therefore, as sound as any. That said, it is the job of any good author to write his book in such a way as to lead the reader to that same conclusion.
HMS Hood - Pride of the Royal Navy is hardback, measuring 9 in x 6 in and contains over 150 pages of information and dialogue presented in an easy-to-read style. There is also a liberal sprinkling of very relevant b & w photographs throughout. Altogether, a very competent piece of work, where the author sets the scene by telling us all about the ship through the recollections of a variety of very different people who served on board at different times. This gives the reader a good "feel" for the ship before arriving at the events of May 1941 - which are described in even closer detail. As the jacket states "In these pages you will meet" and then lists 5 of those individuals - two of whom had the great fortune to be amongst the three survivors on that fateful day.
Doubtless, those who subscribe to a different "reason" as to why the Hood sank so quickly, will knock this book in order to place their own favoured theory at the top of the pile. Personally, I don't know because I wasn't there - but I do believe this book should be read alongside all other theories in order to provide a balanced view. Unlike many, it is a very good read.
NM
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