Cheers Drittal and all, your minis are absolutely stunning mate, I certainly miss seeing your posts at 101, as I miss a lot of the old chaps...too many to mention. Id certainly like to see heaps more old time patrons start to get involved again, but I can respect that people move on, and develop other interest or are simply too busy to post more than they already do...
My problem is I liked building the minis we didn't have, but loathe painting them! Now with 3D printing there is no need for me to be building ships out of scale with less details. I tried to keep interest by building what ifs yet it escaped me
The big ships and big guns get the glory, but it was the merchant and amphip ships that won the war. Without them the war could not have been brought to Japan, Africa, Europe. Look at Germany. They had Britain on their knees but had no way to mount an effective ground assault on Britain or to sustain one.
She did achieve the hit that started the boat deck fire. The possibility of that subsequent fire causing her loss is very small assuming the 4" mag hoists and safety interlocks were not damaged during the battle and that were secured before battle. This also assumes fuel and ammunition was stored properly.
What could be seen of the fire, and of what was reported of its seriousness leads to the probability of it not being the cause.
However, we will never really know what was going on inside Hood. Were her hoists damaged? Was a fire raging internally? Was her ammunition properly stored? Was fuel present?
The biggest problem with analysis is the first hand witness reports from the first inquiry and investigation into her loss were not retained. A second, more comprehensive, investigation was launched months later. These are the RN witness reports we have to use. Many are contradictory. Some were completely disregarded by the admiralty as flights of fancy.
Most likely scenario is a penetration of 7" belt to explode in, or near the rear 4" mags to set in motion a chain deflagration of magazines.
Other scenarios like the torpedo room theory have virtually no chance of being the smoking gun.
However, other scenarios cannot be completely ruled out.
With the Dunkerques making a splash the Italians could try to updated existing ships to counter them or spend more time and resources designing and building a whole new class at nearly the same time as the Littorios. They had 70,000 tons to work with by treaty.
IMO the 4 rebuilt BB were much more capable and useful than they would be in their original form. 4 vs 2 they have the numerical advantage if not individual superiority over the Dunkerques they were intended to counter and IMO outclassed the other French dreadnoughts.
The USN also completely rebuilt a number of the Standards, the RN completely modernized some of the QE and Renown. Japan the Nagato and Kongo classes. Not to the extent of the Italians, but tied up a lot of resources nonetheless.
I think it does well to illustrate how unlikely it was for Hood to explode and sink just minutes into battle against an out gunned foe that was trying to avoid engagement if possible.
Iowa class is well regarded yet they largest warship they sank was a wounded Katori at ~14,500 yards.
While history tells us they were mishandled by tentative command, I doubt any of Italy's surface combatants had much chance of swaying the outcome of war from the confines of the Mediterranean.
Hood would be just as vulnerable to a penetrating 15" shell jn the Med as she was at Denmark Strait. The question remains would she have been hit by that golden Twinkie had it been the Italians lobbing the shells? Likely not. I
Maybe a greater concern for aging Hood in the Med is her vulnerability to air attack by land based Italian craft. She would present a very tasty target being arguably the most revered BB in history to that time.
I think it is unfair to say the Italians were worse at gunnery because they didn't fire the guns very often. The USN fast BB didn't get much live fire training with the big guns either. Lots of drill, but crews begging for live fire exercise that was few and far between. At least that was the case with WA.
The Italian navy suffered from poor quality control on their projectiles, combined with high MV and barrel interference they suffered large dispersion issues.
Boy, try bringing up that there is any other possibility for Hoods destruction other than penetration of the upper 7" belt and passing into the engineering spaces to explode adjacent to or in the 4" magazines in the Battleships and Battlecruisers FB page. Lol.
Or argue the Yamato has a chance against an Iowa.
BAN HAMMER!
Ask me how I know.
Also, the Pocket BB are not allowed to be posted because they are heavy cruisers but Alaska class are...