Category: Battle Cruisers

A brief account of the development and service history of these ships in two world wars. Fully illustrated.

KONSTAM, Angus. British Battlecruisers 1939-45 (New Vanguard, 88). 48p., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2003. ISBN: 184176633X.

A heavily illustrated guide to the ships and their service with many tables and diagrams.

SANTARINI, Marco. Bismarck and Hood: The Battle of the Denmark Strait. A Technical Analysis for a New Perspective. 169p., bibliog., illus., index. Stroud: Fonthill, 2013. ISBN: 9781781552315.

An Italian Admiral and gunnery specialist has produced  a very dry technical account of the action replete with mathematical formulas and calculations of what happened.

ROBERTS, John. Battlecruiser Repulse: Detailed in the Original Builder’s Plans. 160p., bibliog., illus. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2019. ISBN: 9781526757289.

Reproduces two complete sets of plans from 1916 and 1936.

DATE, John C. Death of HMS Hood, 24 May 1941: a Discerning Account (Naval Historical Society of Australia, Monograph No. 54). 17p., illus. Garden Island, NSW : Naval Historical Society of Australia, 1997

A lecture given to the Society on 7th March 1997. Reprinted in 2002 as Monograph 154.

NORMAN, Andrew. HMS Hood: Pride of the Royal Navy. xvi, 160p., bibliog., illus., index. Staplehurst: Spellmount, 2002. ISBN: 081170789X.

Some interesting recollections precede an account of her last sortie and the controversial conclusion that her loss was due to a shell from Prinz Eugen dropping directly down the funnel.

MATTHEWS, Alan. Sailors' Tales: Life Onboard H.M.S. Repulse During World War II. 221, [xxi]p., bibliog., illus. Wrexham: author, 1997. ISBN: 0953121704.

Six seamen and marines recall their war service, linked by being on Repulse. The book is dominated by the sinking and the subsequent fate of these survivors.

HOYT, Edwin P. The Life and Death of HMS Hood. vii, 144p., bibliog., illus. London: Barker, 1977; New York: Stein & Day, 1980.ISBN: 0213166623.

A good but limited account of the career of this well-loved ship. US title: Sunk by the Bismarck, The Life and Death of the Battleship HMS Hood (ISBN: 0880292199). Reprinted with its US title in 1988 by the Military Heritage Press.

Appears to be an updated version of his 2004 work on Hood.

Possibly the definitive work on this iconic vessel.

The story of the Hood Association to which is added a whole series of reminiscences of life aboard her.

Continues his defence of the worth of the capital ship. Renown was one of the hardest worked capital ships and saw service from Norway to Force H and from Arctic convoys to the East Indies Fleet. Republished as The Battle-Cruiser HMS Renown in 2008 by Pen & Sword (ISBN: 1844157458).

The 16 battle cruisers - the "Splendid Cats" - built for the RN and RAN formed a ship type which lasted only 40 years but which was in the thick of the fray in two world wars. A sound history with no startling revelations.

Really her operational history in WWII.

One of the best reference books on the ship. This takes the ship apart in hundreds of fine line drawings.

An illustrated technical history.

This is an excellent and well illustrated technical description. Reprinted by Arms & Armour in 1981 as no. 6 in the Man o' War series. (ISBN: 0853681457).

He spent almost his entire war as an engineer in Hood and these sixty-seven letters home reflect the quiet ordinariness of routine in a big ship.

The autobiography of a Glaswegian Ordinary Seaman. He trained at Ganges then joined Cornwall for seatime before going to Repulse just before war broke out. He was member of A Turret gun crew at the time of the sinking. He later served in the North Atlantic in Vansittart. A rather disjointed account concerned to exonerate Phillips and blame the Foreign Office and the War Cabinet for the disaster of Force Z.

A brief, illustrated history and tribute to the officers and men of the Hood, in aid of the RNVR and RND Associations War Comforts Fund. The first published work after her loss.

A quite excellent biography of the ship, in two halves. Coles gives a conventional operational history to the start of the war, while Briggs, one of the three survivors of the sinking, gives a personal view of the 1939–41 period. Concentrates on the problems.

A good if undemanding mix of technical data and narrative popular history.

Hood was the epitome of British seapower until her tragic sinking in 1941 by the Bismarck. This very well written popular account has almost half its length devoted to her wartime service with the Home Fleet and Force H and, of course, devotes much space to the causes of the sinking.