[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 623 May 15, 1941

Operation Brevity. The key to holding the border between Libya & Egypt is Halfaya Pass, where the coastal road cuts up the steep escarpment onto the desert plateau, which is currently held by Italian & German troops under German Colonel Maximillian von Herff. At 6 AM, British Brigadier William Gott leads 3 battalions in armoured cars plus 24 infantry tanks & 29 cruiser tanks along the coast and across the desert, covered by RAF Hurricane fighters. Despite skirmishes with German tanks, British capture Halfaya Pass and Fort Capuzzo by noon (taking 347 prisoners, mainly Italian). Rommel sends a Panzer battalion plus anti-tank guns from Tobruk, allowing von Herff to counterattack and recapture Fort Capuzzo by 2.45 PM (taking British 70 prisoners). Fort Capuzzo has now changed hands 7 times since June 1940.

Ethiopia. Ethiopian guerrilla forces, South African troops advancing from the South and Indian troops crossing from Gumsa Hill to the East meet at the top of Triangle, a hill adjacent to the Italian stronghold at Amba Alagi. Allied shelling of the Italian fortifications damages a store of oil which leaks into the only source of drinking water.

Iraq. An Iraqi Bristol Blenheim bombs and strafes Kingcol, British column advancing from Rutbah to Habbaniya (no damage or casualties). British Fairey Swordfish, from aircraft carrier HMS Hermes in the Indian Ocean, bomb the Al Qushla (Ottoman Barracks) in the Iraqi city of Samawah. 1 Swordfish is shot down but Lieutenant James Dundas (Fleet Air Arm air-sea rescue) wins the DSC for rescuing the crew. RAF bombers raid Vichy French airfields at Palmyra and Damascus, Syria, to prevent transshipment of German planes to Iraq.

At 8.29 PM 400 miles off Sierra Leone, U-105 sinks British SS Benvenue (2 killed; 48 crew, 1 gunner and 6 army personnel picked up by British liner Empire Trader). 430 miles West of Brest, France, U-43 shells and sinks French 3 mast sailboat Notre Dame du Châtelet which is believed to be reporting the position of U-boats (28 dead, 10 survivors abandon ship in 2 lifeboats). German bombers sink Greek destroyer Leon in Salamis Navy Yard at Suda Bay, Crete.

At midnight, British cruisers HMS Gloucester & Fiji land 2nd Battalion Leicester Regiment at Heraklion, Crete, from Alexandria, Egypt.

[Larry381]

HMS HOOD

HMS Hood was commissioned in May 1920 as a battlecruiser.
The DNC's original design description of her as a battleship never seems to have been adopted despite the fact that she was in almost every respect, except her higher speed, an equal to the Queen Elizabeth class battleships.

Given this and post-war designs it seems that the Admiralty had begun to regard 'battlecruiser' as a designation for 'fast battleship'.
Hood was, however, something of a paradox. On completion she was the largest, fastest and in many ways one of the most powerful capital ships in existence. Compared with pre-Jutland designs she was a vast improvement, partly because she was of a size that would have been totally unacceptable in pre-war years - and partly because she incorporated a substantially improved underwater protection system. However, she was still an extension of pre-war ideas and having evolved directly from the Queen Elizabeth class, did not fully incorporate the lessons of the war, particularly with regard to protection which had been improved and patched together piecemeal since the time of Jutland.

Major improvements in the design of capital ships were envisaged for post-war ships but the imposition of International Treaty restrictions over the construction of such ships soon brought these plans to an end and enabled Hood to remain one of the world's most advanced designs well into the 1930s.

Hood had an elaborate system of internal protection, which was designed to explode large calibre shells before they could reach vital equipment deep Inside the hull, but the horizontal plating was inadequate to stop plunging shells fired al long range.
Vertical protection was better,with a sloped main armour belt 12in (305mm) thick and an Integral torpedo bulge, which consisted of an outer destruction space, filled with hollow 1in. (25cm) diameter steel tubes, each 8ft (2.4m) long and sealed at either end, an inner destruction space, normally used as an extra fuel bunker,and a series of longltudinal bulkheads.
The basic problem for Hood was that work had progressed too far to enable all the lessons of Jutland to be fully incorporated while the ship was under construction, but in the inter-war years the work would have taken too long and been far too expensive. In fact, a major reconstruction for Hood was planned to start in 1938, which would have included many improvements, including better armoured protection, a much revised secondary armament and new machinery, but the threat of war and the Royal Navy's urgent need for every capital ship it could lay Its hands on resulted in the work being cancelled.

HMS HOOD was, and still is, considered one of the most beautiful ships ever built by the Royal Navy.