It was the duty of HMS Hood to engage the enemy, and there were three good reasons why she was committed to battle against Germany’s Bismarck in May 1941. The first is simply that the Admiral-class Hood was the fastest battleship in the British fleet. Most British battleships were too slow to catch Bismarck: even the new King George V-class ships were three to four knots slower. With a top speed of 31 knots and a displacement of 47,000 tonnes, Hood could shoulder her way through any sea state and had a one-knot advantage over her German rival. The second reason is that Hood’s shortcomings in armour were well understood and were not sufficient to keep her home. She had 12 inches of armoured plate along her main belt, just three inches less than the new KGVs. It did thin out toward the ...