HMS Hood destroyer out at sea during World War II Loaded Progress 0:00 / 0:25 Video Quality 576p 540p 360p 270p more videos Watch video Moment hockey fan gets socked in the face at game after. A catapult would have been fitted across the deck and the remaining torpedo tubes removed. Served from 1931 - 1957 Served in HMS Rodney. The upper belt was 5 inches thick amidships and extended forward to 'A' barbette, with a short 4-inch extension aft. AB Served from 1946 - 1955 Served in HMS Duke Of York. The Hood had been launched in 1918 and was armed with 8 x 15 inch guns, 12 x 5.5 inch guns, 8 x 4 inch AA guns, 24 x 2 pound guns and HMS Prince of Wales caught a disastrous direct hit to her bridge that forced . The Admiralty dissented from the verdict, reinstated Sawbridge, and criticised Bailey for ambiguous signals during the manoeuvre. One of four Admiral-class battlecruisers ordered in mid-1916, Hood had serious design limitations, though her design was drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction. To these were added five unrotated projectile (UP) launchers in 1940, each launcher carrying 20 seven-inch (178mm) rockets. Hood Crew Information Updated 10-Apr-2022 Though mighty, the battle cruiser H.M.S. HMS Hood was avenged and it was a gallant end to the German warship. CCY (TCI) Served from 1942 - 1971 Served in HMS Duke Of York. . William was born in Jarrow 1929, the son of Thomas and Catherine Ramshaw (nee Gibson) of Jarrow. You can learn more about these men here. [40] In addition, she was grossly overweight compared to her original design, making her a wet ship with a highly stressed structure. But, even in the case of those for whom records are available, relatives often hold far more information about individuals than can be gleaned from the necessarily impersonal nature of their official records. H.M.S. The German ships were spotted by two British heavy cruisers (Norfolk and Suffolk) on 23 May, and Holland's ships intercepted Bismarck and her consort, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland on 24 May. Hood Crew Information- H.M.S. Anecdotes and remembrances concerning Hood, Hood's Mascots The Admiral-class, HMS Hood, 1941 is a rank V British battlecruiser with a battle rating of 7.0 (AB/RB/SB). [4], The additional armour added during construction increased her draught by about 4 feet (1.2m) at deep load, which reduced her freeboard and made her very wet. [8], The Admirals were powered by four Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by 24 Yarrow boilers. He is commemorated on the WW2 Roll of Honour Plaque in the . [4] About 28 torpedoes were carried. HMS Repulse was one of two Renown -class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Hood Association Archives and various family sources. Below are just some of our members who have served at HMS Royal Arthur. [43] Her size and powerful armament earned her the nickname of "Mighty Hood" and she came to symbolise the might of the British Empire itself. Colin Kitchen. The guns were restored by the RAF in 1984. It is further supposed that the small debris fields are the fragments from the aft hull where the magazines and turrets were located, since that section of the hull was totally destroyed in the explosion. Previously K 64910 (further details absent), Re-entered as Stoker 1st Class (Pensioner) now KX88498, Re-entered for 3 years non continuous service, Transferred to Supply Assistant MX50989 (service record not available), Victory I (Reverts from N.Z.N. Hood Crew List Updated 07-Mar-2010 This part of the site offers a searchable database of the H.M.S. Its impact is still felt today . The other theories listed above remain valid possibilities. H.M.S. In March Janus was involved in the battle of Cape Matapan, whilst a unit of the 14th DD Flotilla, under Captain Mack aboard . The Admiral-class battlecruisers were designed in response to the German Mackensen-class battlecruisers, which were reported to be more heavily armed and armoured than the latest British battlecruisers of the Renown and the Courageous classes. We therefore welcome and encourage anyone with information on the men who served in Hood to contact us to submit new or supplementary information or photos. Hood, Renown and Repulse were deployed to the Bay of Biscay on 5 November to prevent the "pocket battleship" Admiral Scheer from using French ports after she had attacked Convoy HX 84, but the German ship continued into the South Atlantic. For instance, the never-built G3 battlecruiser was classified as such, although it would have been more of a fast battleship than Hood. [7] The ship's complement varied widely over her career; in 1919, she was authorised 1,433 men as a squadron flagship; in 1934, she had 81 officers and 1,244 ratings aboard. The British opened fire at 05:52 with Hood engaging Prinz Eugen, the lead ship in the German formation, and the Germans returned fire at 05:55, both ships concentrating on Hood. [14] When they detonated, the rockets shot out lengths of cable that were kept aloft by parachutes; the cable was intended to snag aircraft and draw up the small aerial mine that would destroy the aircraft. She was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet following the outbreak of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935. Its main conclusion is that the loss was almost certainly precipitated by the explosion of a 4-inch magazine, but that there are several ways this could have been initiated, although he rules out the boat deck fire or the detonation of her torpedoes as probable causes. [16], The ship's main battery was controlled by two fire-control directors. Answer (1 of 4): Three. Basil O'Neill. -H.M.S. [96], In 2012, the British government gave permission for Mearns to return to the site of Hood's final resting place to retrieve one of her two ship's bells which were lying in a small open debris field some way from the wreck herself. Captain Ralph Kerr assumed command during the refit, and Hood was ordered to sea in an attempt to intercept the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst upon the refit's completion in mid-March. . [21] An Admiralty document indicates however that, following the 1941 refit at Rosyth, Hood's Type 279 radar was indeed functional. HMS Hood - Specifications: Displacement: 47,430 tons Length: 860 ft., 7 in. Also one Swordfish carried out a photographic reconnaissance of the east east of Bogen and the Herjangsfjord. Harold Thorpe. -H.M.S. [25], The armoured belt consisted of face-hardened Krupp cemented armour (KC), arranged in three strakes. HMS Hood was the pride of the British fleet and the Bismarck ended her existence. Hood Association Facebook Page . H.M.S. She formally transferred to the Mediterranean fleet on 20 October, shortly after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Lutjens, commander in chief of the German Fleet, the Bismarck sunk the Hood, resulting in the death of 1,500 of its crew; only three Brits survived. 1935 was stamped on one surviving example, and "Hood V Renown off Arosa 23135" on another. PO. It is estimated that as many as 15,000 men may have served in her from 1920-1941. One was mounted above the conning tower, protected by an armoured hood, and was fitted with a 30-foot (9.1m) rangefinder. Notes: (1) Casualty information in order - Surname, First name, Initial(s), Rank and part of the Service other than RN (RNR, RNVR, RFR etc), Service Number (ratings only, also . This explosion broke the back of Hood, and the last sight of the ship, which sank in only three minutes, was her bow, nearly vertical in the water. On paper, Hood retained the same armament and level of protection, while being significantly faster. [9] She carried enough fuel oil to give her an estimated range of 7,500 nautical miles (13,900km; 8,600mi) at 14 knots (26km/h; 16mph). 2616 The Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986 (Designation of Vessels and Controlled Sites) Order 2006", "HMS Hood's bell unveiled at Navy museum Portsmouth", "Conserved HMS Hood bell rings out on 75th anniversary of largest ever Royal Navy loss", "Photos of the Wreck of H.M.S. Conceptualized during World War I as the follow on to the Queen Elizabeth class super-dreadnoughts, which were some of the most powerful battleships in the world at the time, the Admiral-class . Other surviving relics are items that were removed from the ship prior to her sinking: Two of Hood's 5.5-inch guns were removed during a refit in 1935, and shipped to Ascension Island, where they were installed as a shore battery in 1941, sited on a hill above the port and main settlement, Georgetown,[Note 2] where they remain. Shipwreck [49], While en route to Gibraltar for a Mediterranean cruise, Hood was rammed in the port side quarterdeck by the battlecruiser Renown on 23 January 1935. She was also the largest warship afloat when she was commissioned, and retained that distinction for the next 20 years. As such, it remains a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986. [46], While in Australia in April 1924, the squadron escorted the battlecruiser HMASAustralia out to sea, where she was scuttled in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty. Captain Harold Reinold relieved Captain im Thurn on 30 April 1925 and was relieved in turn by Captain Wilfred French on 21 May 1927. Hood was hit by a 250kg (550lb) bomb from a Junkers Ju 88 bomber that damaged her port torpedo bulge and her condensers. These deaths constituted the Royal Navy's greatest single ship loss of the Second World War. The forecastle deck ranged from 1.75 to 2 inches (44 to 51 millimetres) in thickness, while the upper deck was 2 inches (51mm) thick over the magazines and 0.75 inches (19mm) elsewhere. Already under construction when the Battle of Jutland occurred in mid-1916, that battle revealed serious flaws in her design despite drastic revisions before she was completed four years later. 2016 is also the centenary of the Hood's keel laying. Deborah. August 4, 2020. H.M.S. [91] Other researchers have claimed that the final salvo fired by Hood was not a salvo at all, but flame from the forward magazine explosion, which gave the illusion of Hood firing for the last time. Hood sank stern first with 1418 men aboard. The battlecruiser squadron made a Caribbean cruise in early 1932, and Hood was given another brief refit between 31 March and 10 May at Portsmouth. On 25 September 1939, the Home Fleet sortied into the central North Sea to cover the return of the damaged submarine Spearfish. HMS HOOD - 15in gun Battlecruiserincluding Convoy Escort Movements. Though mighty, the battle cruiser H.M.S. 24-03-2018. Transferred to the Home Fleet shortly afterwards, Hood was dispatched to Scapa Flow, and operated in the area as a convoy escort and later as a defence against a potential German invasion fleet. [88], After footage of Bismarck was collected, Mearns and the search team began scanning a 600-square-nautical-mile (2,100km2) search box for Hood; completely covering the area was estimated to take six days. This position shows the rudder locked into a 20 port turn, confirming that orders had been given (just prior to the aft magazines detonating) to change the ship's heading and bring the aft turrets 'X' and 'Y' to bear on the German ships. Navy Artwork. For almost 2 decades, she was the largest and most powerful warship afloat. For this reason, she was the only ship of her class to be completed, as the Admiralty decided it would be better to start with a clean design on succeeding battlecruisers, leading to the never-built G-3 class. John Woodcock. When war broke out later that year, she was employed principally to patrol in the vicinity of Iceland and the Faroe Islands to protect convoys and intercept German merchant raiders and blockade runners attempting to break out into the Atlantic. [6] The persistent dampness, coupled with the ship's poor ventilation, was blamed for the high incidence of tuberculosis aboard. Commissioned in 1920, she was named after the 18th-century Admiral Samuel Hood. HMS Barham Crew List; . However, these records are only available for men who joined the Royal Navy before 1931. [52] Hood was refitted at Malta in November and December 1937, and had her submerged torpedo tubes removed. Hood Crew List Updated 11-Apr-2022 Background It is estimated that as many as 18,000 men, perhaps more, served aboard the "Mighty Hood" during the operational portion of her 21 year career. What is presented below is therefore necessarily incomplete in respect of Royal Navy ratings and Royal Marines. She sported two funnels amidships about her superstructure with the bridge stationed ahead. He joined HMS Copra on the 7th of November 1943 and was lent three times to HMS Dundonald. During the same action, The ship was destroyed by the explosion of her own torpedoes. If you have information about a man who served in the ship please contact William Sutherland by e-mail at crewsubs@hmshood.org.uk In the first instance if would help if you include in your e-mail the following information relating to the crew man: When he is able, William will reply to your e-mail so that we can draw it together into a page for the man concerned. It was more thorough than the first board but concurred with the first board's conclusion. Rapid expansion of the resulting combustion gases from the conflagration then caused structural failure, passing out through the sides of the ship as well as forward and upwards via the engine room vents, expelling the aft main battery turrets and causing the stern to be detached from the rest of the hull at the aft armoured bulkhead. what was the premier league called before; Tags . Crew lists from ships hit by U-boats HMS Lapwing (U 62) British Sloop Photo from Imperial War Museum (IWM), FL-9971 This is a listing of people associated with this ship. Despite the appearance of newer and more modern ships, Hood remained the largest warship in the world for 20 years after her commissioning, and her prestige was reflected in her nickname, "The Mighty Hood". The battlecruiser's turbines were designed to produce 144,000 shaft horsepower (107,000kW), which would propel the ship at 31 knots (57km/h; 36mph), but during sea trials in 1920, Hood's turbines provided 151,280shp (112,810kW), which allowed her to reach 32.07 knots (59.39km/h; 36.91mph). Draft: 32 ft. Over 40.000 pages on the officers, the boats, technology and the Allied efforts to counter the U-boat threat. The complement of "The Mighty Hood", as she was affectionately known, was 1,421. [32], Construction of Hood began at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland, as yard number 460 on 1 September 1916. Captain Thomas Binney assumed command on 15 August 1932 and the ship resumed her previous practice of a winter cruise in the Mediterranean the next year. She was scheduled to undergo a major rebuild in 1941 to correct these issues, but the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 kept the ship in service without the upgrades. Additional information on the service of individual officers is contained in the ADM196 series of records which are available on Ancestry (subscription required) or The National Archives (free if registered). As a battlecruiser, Hood was similar in size and had the offensive capability of. HMS Hood Walk-Around HMS Hood was something of a majestic design in terms of warships. Hood Crew List Also listed are the three survivors (coloured blue) - all of whom have now crossed the bar. [65] A shell from this salvo appears to have hit the spotting top, as the boat deck was showered with body parts and debris. HMS Warspite bombarding defensive positions off Normandy, 6 June 1944. Updated 01-Jan-2020. [72], Both boards of enquiry exonerated Vice-Admiral Holland from any blame regarding the loss of Hood. HMS Hood had a crew of 1,419 and was faster than the Bismarck with a maximum speed of 32 RN Northern Ireland - In Remembrance. The memorials were assembled by blending official records with public casualty listings. Click here to access the list of dates men joined the ship. Hood visited the Mediterranean in 1921 and 1922 to show the flag and to train with the Mediterranean fleet, before sailing on a cruise to Brazil and the West Indies in company with the battlecruiser squadron. The damage to Hood was limited to her left outer propeller and an 18-inch (460mm) dent, although some hull plates were knocked loose from the impact. HMS Hood was 44,600 tons, had a crew of 1,419 and was faster than the Bismarck with a maximum speed of 32 knots. The decks were made of high-tensile steel. Crew Lost During the Sinking of Hood, 24th May 1941, Crew & Dockyard Workers Lost Prior to the Sinking (Sept 1916 - May 1941). The Hood was a truly mighty warship and if you yourself served in any of the Royal Navy's battleships (Hood was a battlecruiser) you will know what 40-odd thousand tons of grey coloured steel looks like, but if you didn't, you can still see that spectacle in the U.S.A., where several of her battleships of around this tonnage are parked as museums. The U-boat War in World War Two (Kriegsmarine, 1939-1945) and World War One (Kaiserliche Marine, 1914-1918) and the Allied efforts to counter the threat. This work is still very much in development but we have about one-third of the people who died already listed. [56] The ship's condensers were in such bad condition by this time that much of the output from the fresh-water evaporators was required to replenish the boiler feedwater and could not be used by the crew to wash and bathe or even to heat the mess decks during cold weather, as the steam pipes were too leaky. HMS Janus (F53), named after the Roman god, was a Javelin or J-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, she was ordered from the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Limited at Wallsend-on-Tyne as part of the 1936 Build Programme and laid down on 29 September 1937, launched on 10 November 1938 and commissioned on 5 August 1939. [27] The torpedo-warhead armour was reinstated during the ship's 19291931 refit. Due to her publicly perceived invincibility, the loss affected British morale. ENGINEER Served from 1941 - 1943 Served in HMS Rodney. Many men - particularly those who formed the crews of the late 1930s and early 1940s - fall outside the publicly available records. [45], Captain John Im Thurn was in command when Hood, accompanied by the battlecruiser Repulse and Danae-class cruisers of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, set out on a world cruise from west to east via the Panama Canal in November 1923. Ord. At 2002, a message from cruiser HMS Suffolk reported the enemy as one battleship and one cruiser, course 240 degrees, in a position that translated to some 560 kilometers distant and almost directly north of the battlecruiser force. HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy (RN). All the 5.5-inch guns were removed during another refit in 1940. In January 1941 Janus assisted with convoy operations between Malta and Piraeus. This was 66 feet (20.1m) longer and 14 feet (4.3m) wider than the older ships. After conservation work, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, unveiled the bell at the museum on 24 May 2016 the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Denmark Strait. It is worth pointing out that in any warship at Action Stations, the vast majority of the ship's compa. Furthermore, the current position of the plates at the edge of the break reflects only their last position, not the direction they had first moved. Hood Roll of Honour List (24th May 1941), You can also try searching our database for a particular name The ship was laid down on 1st September 1916 and was launched on 22nd August 1918 as the 3rd RN ship to carry this, introduced in 1859 and previously used in 1891 for a battleship sunk as a blockship in 1918. Hood's wreck lies on the seabed in pieces among two debris fields at a depth of about 2,800 metres (9,200 feet). Hood Crew List -H.M.S. HMS Hood immediately entered a drydock. Unsuccessful, she was ordered to patrol the Bay of Biscay against any breakout attempt by the German ships from Brest, France. Despite the official explanation, some historians continued to believe that the torpedoes caused the ship's loss, while others proposed an accidental explosion inside one of the ship's gun turrets that reached down into the magazine. William Ramshaw HMS Janus (d.23rd Jan 1944) William Ramshaw served on board HMS Janus and died, age 19, on the 23rd January 1944 when his ship was bombed and sunk at Anzio. The probability is that the 4-inch magazines exploded first. Roll of Honour who match particular criteria such as rank / rating, age, home town etc. Armed Merchant Cruisers such as HMS Jervis Bay, were made up of various naval forces, and although she was a British ship, her crew were not all British, with some from the Commonwealth countries around the world. HMS Hood vs Bismarck : 860ft long and weighing over 43,000 tons, HMS Hood was a global star. P.O.TEL Served from 1943 - 1957 Served in HMS Duke Of York. It is estimated that as many as 15,000 men may have served in her from 19201941. It is estimated that as many as 18,000 men, perhaps more, served aboard the "Mighty Hood" during the operational portion of her 21 year career. HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy - and was lost while chasing the most infamous battleship of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine - the Bismarck. [30] During her 19291931 refit, the platform was removed from 'X' turret and a rotating, folding catapult was installed on her quarterdeck, along with a crane to recover a seaplane. When the Spanish Civil War broke out the following year, Hood was officially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until she had to return to Britain in 1939 for an overhaul. It was introduced in Update "Danger Zone" . It endorsed this opinion, stating that: (c) (The) probable cause of the loss of HMS Hood was direct penetration of the protection by one or more 15-inch shells at a range of 16,500 yards [15,100m], resulting in the explosion of one or more of the aft magazines.[71]. The process of identifying Hood men is, therefore, a time-consuming one which involves trawling all records looking for "Hood" as an entry in amongst the list of ships in each record. The destroyer HMS Ilex attempted to tow the ill fated destroyer, but failed and the vessel had to be abandoned, Janus was tasked to sink her. [24] Hood's protection accounted for 33% of her displacement, a high proportion by British standards, but less than was usual in contemporary German designs (for example, 36% for the battlecruiser SMSHindenburg). Hood Crew Information -H.M.S. Hood Rolls of Honour Updated 01-Jan-2020 These memorials are dedicated to those who died whilst building and serving aboard Hood. When the Battle of Jutland broke out in mid-1916, that battle revealed serious flaws in its design, before it ended four years later. H.M.S. Although these give the date on which any man joined the ship, they do not give the date on which he left. On 24 May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded, and sank with the loss of all but 3 of her crew of 1,418. 1,415 members of its crew perished. HOOD-Class battle ordered on 7th April from John Brown of Clydebank. Despite these problems, she had hit Bismarck three times. H.M.S. The loss of HMS Hood, with 1,400 crew was the Royal Navy's darkest hour. Alternative routes for admission of flame could have been the ventilation or venting arrangements of the magazines or, as Ted Briggs suggested, through the floor of a 15-inch gunhouse. Hood Crew Information- Another "pom-pom" director was added on the rear superstructure, abaft the HACS director in 1938. HMS Hood: Crew, History, Status. The memorials were assembled by blending official records with public casualty listings. HMS Hood bore the motto "with favorable winds" and was named after Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, a victorious commander in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War . [85], The evidence of the wreck refutes Goodall's theory of a torpedo explosion, while the eyewitness evidence of venting from the 4-inch magazine prior to the main explosion conflicts with the theory that the Hood was blown up by her own guns. There are 757 crew members registered for the USS Mount Hood (AE 29). Afterwards, she patrolled the North Atlantic before putting into Scapa Flow on 6 May. The captains of both ships were court-martialled, as was the squadron commander, Rear Admiral Sidney Bailey. [57], Captain Irvine Glennie assumed command in May 1939 and Hood was assigned to the Home Fleet's Battlecruiser Squadron while still refitting. [107], Coordinates: 6320N 3150W / 63.333N 31.833W / 63.333; -31.833, This article is about the Admiral-class battlecruiser. We are the official veterans, families and enthusiast association for British battle cruiser H.M.S. For other ships of the same name, see, According to the testimony of Captain Leach, "between one and two seconds after I formed that impression [of a hit on, Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 14:06, destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kbir, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, "ADM 220/76: Reports of Performance in H.M.S. HMS Legion sailed aside her to begin evacuating her 1,487 crew as her list got worse progressively, reaching 27 degrees about 13 hours after the hit. Hood reported an accuracy of 3 degrees with her 279M set. The Royal Navy were fully aware that the ship's protection flaws still remained, even in her revised design, so Hood was intended for the duties of a battlecruiser and she served in the battlecruiser squadrons through most of her career. Hood's crew gained their first clue that something was developing at 1939, 23 May when full speed was ordered. The exact cause of the loss of Hood remains a subject of debate. The HMS Hood, originally launched in 1918, . When war with Germany was declared, Hood was operating in the area around Iceland, and she spent the next several months hunting for German commerce raiders and blockade runners between Iceland and the Norwegian Sea. CREWMAN Served from 1942 - 1941 Served in HMS Rodney. The pieces of the propeller were kept by dockyard workers: "Hood" v "Renown" Jan. 23rd. [44], Shortly after commissioning on 15 May 1920, Hood became the flagship of the Battlecruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Roger Keyes. Admiral Tom Phillips and others criticised the conduct of the inquiry, largely because no verbatim record of witnesses' testimony had been kept. Unfortunately, there is no surviving official single listing of ALL men who served in her. Hood in 2001", "Relics of HMS Hood Ledger Container Lid", "HMS Hood v HMS Renown propeller fragment", Battle of the Denmark Strait Documentation Resource, Imperial War Museum Interview with survivor Robert Tilburn, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMS_Hood&oldid=1142099804, A direct hit from a shell penetrated to a magazine aft. HMS Hood, battlecruiser, lost two men in 1935 - one drowned, one to illness (Maritime Quest, click to enlarge) on to 1936 or return to inter-war casualties, 1918-1939 . [47] The battlecruiser squadron visited Lisbon in January 1925 to participate in the Vasco da Gama celebrations before continuing on to the Mediterranean for exercises. The search team also planned to stream video from the remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) directly to Channel 4's website. The main deck was 3 inches (76mm) thick over the magazines and 1 inch (25mm) elsewhere, except for the 2-inch-thick slope that met the bottom of the main belt. Captain Thomas Tower replaced Captain Binney on 30 August 1933. The middle armour belt had a maximum thickness of 7 inches over the same length as the thickest part of the waterline armour and thinned to five inches abreast 'A' barbette. In Jurens's opinion, the popular image of plunging shells penetrating Hood's deck armour is inaccurate, as by his estimation the angle of fall of Bismarck's 15-inch shells at the moment of the loss would not have exceeded about 14, an angle so unfavourable to penetration of horizontal armour that it is actually off the scale of contemporaneous German penetration charts. Three torpedo-control towers were fitted, each with a 15-foot (4.6m) rangefinder. [67] The three were rescued about two hours after the sinking by the destroyer Electra, which spotted substantial debris but no bodies. A shell, falling short and travelling underwater, struck below the armoured belt and penetrated a magazine.