[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by edslunch

While the Hood was indeed the pride of the Royal Navy it was technically a battlecruiser not a battleship. Battlecruisers were a (misguided) design from before WW1 up to and including Hood that put an emphasis on speed over protection. They weren't intended to go one on one with more heavily armoured battleships, and if they did the theory was they could use their speed to close the range and avoid high trajectory shots hitting vulnerable points from above.

The British lost 3 battlecruisers at the battle of Jutland the same way as Hood - a penetrating shot to the deck or turret roof resulting in a catastrophic explosion. The captain of the Hood was well aware of this weakness and was trying to close range when she got hit.

In reality the Hood was not a good match for the Bismark. She was accompanied by a more modern battleship - Prince of Wales - which should have tilted the scales in favour of the British but it was still being commissioned at the time and was only partially functional. Still, she managed to get one hit on Bismarck that punctured an oil tank, forcing her to head to port in France, giving the British a chance to intercept her by air and the rest is history.

The same Prince of Wales was sunk by Japanese aircraft shortly after Pearl Harbour, confirming that the end of the battleship era was at hand.

Its interesting to note, that The Prince of Whales was one of the first major capital ships that was sunk strictly through the use of air power when it was sunk two days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.