Quote:
Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler
They had absolutely no defense beyond passive defense (i.e. armour), so no matter what you do, if you get hit by enough shells, bombs or torpedoes (or just a lucky hit in exactly the wrong place), you WILL sink. It is a weird psychological space I am sure...
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The Hood was even more vulnerable, being a WW1 era battlecruiser. The battlecruiser was a misguided attempt to mount large guns on more lightly armoured but faster ships, the thinking being they could use speed to their advantage. This design left them vulnerable to plunging fire that could penetrate their light deck and turret roof armour. Three such battlecruisers blew up from single shell hits in the WW1 battle of Jutland, yet they still built the Hood to the same philosophy.
If you look at the battle with the Bismarck, the Hood desperately tried to close the range between the ships so that its thicker side armour could take the punishment and was just starting to turn its broadside when it got hit with the fatal shell. So not only did the captain and crew know that with enough hits they could be done for, they knew a single hit could end them. They had to race into battle with half their guns unavailable. Awful....
Yet the Hood was the pride of the fleet, a beautiful, huge, fast ship. It must have been a huge blow to the navy and the population when she was lost.