HMS Hood Footage - Colour & Battle

HMS Hood in Colour
There is no doubt that hood was filmed a lot over her early career,listed below is the rare colour footage, For many years we only had 20 seconds of colour, now we have almost 16 mins, along with the Prinz Eugen battle footage this really marks the end...unless some cans are hiding in a loft somewhere, there is the World Cruise footage, I do know that hood features very little in it.

HMS Hood footage (Pathe) 1930 -1935

1930 - 1935
More than enough to make a DVD.?One of my favourite Hood eras, she really has managed to capture the public's imagination around this time,
Even though some of the footage I've found shows only a passing glimpse I still think its worth having as part of her history, I hope you agree.

HMS Hood footage (Pathe) 1922 -1929

1922 - 1929
It seems quite a lot was filmed during the 1922 Brazil trip but nothing much on the World Cruise? I do like the Navy reviews of the time and the excitement created by the Hood just being there.

HMS Hood footage (Pathe) 1920 -1922

1920 - 1922

Finally British Pathe have moved some 85,000 videos over to YouTube with the added bonus of not having that horrid 'copyright - for preview only' across the bottom of the screen, but this time we have a nice logo on the top right, not interfering with the quality of the footage..also we can change the quality settings in YouTube.

Here is hopefully in some type of order (correction welcome), as much HMS Hood related footage, even the small bits, there just as important and we don't want to loose them.

Spithead & other Royal Navy Fleet Reviews 1914 - 1939 DVD

I only found this a few weeks back and knew it was going to be a good DVD, I wasn't wrong. A total runing time of 77mins, this includes some bonus features (more of that later), here is the brief run down of the DVD -

Bear witness to the enormity of the British Naval fleet in the dying days of the British Empire and in preparedness for the Second World War in the showcase events of the 'Royal Navy Reviews' at Spithead, Southend, Torbay and Portland! Events included :-

1914 - Spithead and HMS Iron Duke, World War I Mobilisation

Some really nice on board shots of HMS Iron Duke

H.M.S. 'IRON DUKE' & OTHER WARSHIP

NAVY AT SEA video newsreel film

H.M.S. IRON DUKE IN ACTION

British Pathe Footage - Leaving the River Clyde January 1920

Following the launch of HMS Hood in 22nd August 1918 this footage follows her leaving the Clyde, information is from British Pathe.
British Pathe
CLICK TO VIEW>>> Title Reads: £6M BATTLESHIP 'THE HOOD' (aka SIX MILLION POUND BATTLESHIP "HOOD")
HMS Hood the Royal Navy's new battleship leaves the river Clyde in Scotland for sea trials. L/S An impressive opening shot of the Hood (presumably still on the Clyde) looking towards her bow. Visible are an array of menacing looking gun turrets and masts. Smoke belches from her funnels. A number of Tugboats have lines attached, compared to these the Hood is truly enormous. M/S from the stern. A closer look at the ship from the starboard side reveals a hive of activity on the deck, sailors and other naval crew can be seen scurrying around, making sure the ship is in tiptop condition.
L/S On the dock side we can see a large crowd of people watching this spectacular occasion, nearby is a dry dock containing the large hull of another ship under construction.
Good L/S The Tugboats are now towing the ship from the bow and appear to be heading down river.
We also see a variety of C/U's, M/S's and L/S's showing the Gun turrets, life boats, the decks, the ladders, and the two huge funnels. This helps you to appreciate the true scale of the vessel in an era when the British Navy was still the envy of the world.
Note: There are no titles to the film

Date:12/01/1920 | Time: 5min 53sec | Sound: No | Canister: G632 |Film ID: 201.16

HMS Hood Association information - 09 January: Hood departs Clydebank under her own power. Trials commenced afterwards. Steam trials were conducted off the Isle of Arran that same day. Hood was possibly based at Greenock for her trials.

Another version of this film exists but runs for only 1min, I'll add that to this post soon.

British Pathe Footage - August 1935 'Navy Week'

Starting in no particular order I want to compile the footage I've seen on both TV, DVD & Web of the footage through the Hood's career. British Pathe seem to have quite a large amount and I'm always on there searching for any glimpse of her in the Hood's hey day.
British Pathe
CLICK TO VIEW >>> Titles read: 'JACK AHOY!'
Probably filmed at Portsmouth, Hampshire.Various shots of big warships in a harbour during Naval Week. Battleships and aircraft carriers are seen. Landlubbers are taken out to HMS Hood for a visit. Good shots of them waving to the sailors and coming aboard. Some ladies are shown around by a young sailors. Other people are shown the ship gun by another sailor. The group leave the ship and are taken back to shore on the launch.

Date:13/06/1935 | Time: 1min 32 sec | Sound: Yes | Canister: PSP 897 |Film ID: 1644.26

HMS Hood Association career timelime shows this entry for June 1935, Between 10th June and 11th July HMS Hood was at Portland. 

Navy Week in 1935 was held during August, I have found some footage [Portsmouth Navy Week] of the Duke Of York giving a speech aboard HMS Victory, the film is dated 8th August 1935, and clearly in the background is HMS Hood (see pictures below) 

HMS Hood Association show's Hood participated during 3rd - 10th August. So with this information I would hazard a safe guess the footage above is from early August 1935.

And finally this programme cover from that week in 1935 - Navy Days UK

HMS Hood Colour Film

Well it's simple, go to YouTube and find about 20sec of what to many  is only a short section of a far bigger chunk of Hood colour footage. In fact if you own the superb book by Bruce Taylor and turn to page 145 there are some amazing still's, 'War From The Hood'  filmed during summer 1939 and autumn 1940 this has to be the holy grail for all Hood fans, certainly it is for me, so lets savoir 20 secs.

I really don't know who owns the rights to this footage and the stills? but if the owner is looking at this then please comment below and I will add your name as copyright owner.

Royal Navy At War In Colour DVD

Precious pre-war film records the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in Malta and on exercise in the autumn of 1939, and the ships of the First Battle Squadron and the First Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean that same year. From spring 1939 comes rare colour film of the warships of the China Station.
Among the warships captured here in colour are the carriers Illustrious, Indomitable, Furious and Glorious, the battleships Rodney, Warspite, Barham, Nelson and Queen Elizabeth, the cruiser Birmingham, the destroyers Eskimo, Ashante, Cossack and Hermione and the mine-laying submarine Grampus, also shown is HMS Revenge during 1941.
This is the first of Roland R Smith's films that I picked up some years ago and to be honest it's still the best, just amazing footage.

Filmed in Malta in late 1939, I can see the HMS Rodney but unsure of the other ship, maybe the HMS Barham? The narration (which I am now led to believe is Roland R Smith himself) mentioned other capital ships (not HMS Hood) that were present. HMS Hood was at Malta during 1939 but I am unsure if the 
censors have cut that from the original footage?
The images below are dated possible before 1939 as the narrative mentions, maybe late 1938.

First battle Squadron led by HMS Warspite

HMS Barham

HMS Ark Royal

HMS Iron Duke at Scapa Flow (1940?)

If you are unsure about this DVD just look at the screen shot's, amazing, and priceless. Costing about £6 as well, what you waiting for?

Pick this title up at Amazon.co.uk

Every effort has been made to make contact to gain permission to use these still's, if you are the copyright owners could you please contact me, or leave a comment below for me to contact you. Thank you.

Finally HMS Revenge from 1941, amazing.

King George V Class battleships 1941-42 DVD - 'Hood footage'

I have got hold of a new dvd called King George V Class battleships 1941-42, part of the Roland R Smith series of the Royal Navy At War collection, another superb 1 hour collection from the best series of Royal Navy dvd titles and footage. See below for a link to buy at Amazon.co.uk.
After about 15mins in there was some footage showing the Hood at anchor at Scapa Flow in 1941.

I would say about 30secs of this footage, then the narration moved onto May 1941 with some Bismarck footage and stock footage of the Hood, probably around the 1930's.

Then this little bit of footage appeared, I've not seen this one before, a very light bit of film, maybe Hood departing Scapa Flow?

Now this next section of footage got me a little surprised, this is the naration over the footage -
"Filmed from the Prinz Eugen the Hood is observed to blow up on the horizon."
I have contacted Frank Allen of the Hood Association and he has confirmed with me that this footage is NOT the Hood blowing up.

This is very different footage than that already seen on youtube, much closer (maybe it has been magnified?) but all the same I have no doubt that this is genuine as the writer and producer Roland R Smith is not one for making mistakes. But footage Ive never seen before, maybe someone could tell me otherwise.
Next came Able Seaman Tilburn telling the camera what he remembers on that day, I would guess this footage was from around the mid to late 60's

A superb dvd that delivers just what is needed, no long drawn out narration and to the point, in some cases just the footage and no talking, brilliant.

Pick this title up at Amazon.co.uk


Every effort has been made to make contact to gain permission to use these still's, if you are the copyright owners could you please contact me, or leave a comment below for me to contact you. Thank you.

Britannia Goes To War - DVD - 'Hood Footage'

Created by Royal Navy historian Roland R Smith. Approx 2h. Includes pre-WWII footage including the 1924 Spithead Review, the Home Fleet engaged in war games, the 1937 Coronation Review, with aerial views, and the Hood sailing with the Ark Royal and the Repulse. Comprehensive film reviews of the battleship fleet, aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers, etc, etc. Early engagements feathers include the Battle of the River Plate, and there is footage of the loss of HMS Barham. The film also looks at how the Royal Navy changed in response to war, with coverage of the training of new recruits, and the development of new tactics

Some screen shot's of footage that has appeared of a DVD called Britannia Goes To War, they speak for themselves really, most of these shot are from the 1923/24 world cruise. 106 minute film was produced and only a small amount of this showed many ship, including the Hood.

Fo'castle of Hood filmed in 1923

A lot of this footage does show HMS Repulse and can get a little confusing but a few things can tell them apart, the bow port holes, Hood only had one row where Repulse had two rows of port holes at the bow. There are many more things that can tell them apart but for me head on shots are the hardest and I have many times confused Repulse with Hood, side shots are a lot easier.

Here is HMS Repulse during the 1923/24 cruise, even I got them mixed up:)

Filmed on the Hood with the Repulse in the background, but look how low in the water the stern is, damn, did they have to know what they were doing. In fact during the time my great grandfather served in 1922 they did lose a young sailor, I'm not sure if it was due to the pitch and roll of the ship but you can see how it could happen.

Another top quality DVD that runs for 2 hours, in fact I could do at least double that, but this is what I love about the Navy, between wars, British pride in our Royal navy at its best.

Pick this title up at Amazon.co.uk

Every effort has been made to make contact to gain permission to use these still's, if you are the copyright owners could you please contact me, or leave a comment below for me to contact you. Thank you.