EIGHTY years ago on Monday, HMS Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck with the loss of 1,415 men – the biggest single death toll in the history of the Royal Navy.

Four of the lost men feature on a happy times photo, taken of them standing at the taffrail of the Hood in their tropical white shorts. It was sent back to their hometown of Darlington to their mate in the railway workshops who had been left behind by a quirk of fate.

The Northern Echo: The four Darlington lads, all from the North Road railway workshops, on HMS Hood - they all died when it sank on May 24, 1941

“They had all served their time at North Road, but when they tried to join the Royal Navy my father, Reg, was kept back because he was a coppersmith, and was sent to work on warships in Wallsend,” says Alan Bean.

And the other four were sent to the “Mighty Hood”, the pride of the Royal Navy. When she had been launched in 1916, the Hood was the largest warship, and during the 1920s and 1930s, she had been the flagship and pin-up of the navy – when she wasn’t on active service, she would appear at British coastal towns on a PR exercise. The public regarded her as invincible.

The Northern Echo:

HMS Hood, which sank 80 years ago with the loss of 1,415 men

But by the outbreak of the Second World War, she was aging and deteriorating. The Germans had built a larger warship, the Bismarck, and when it was sent into the Atlantic Ocean to attack the shipping convoys that were coming from the US to keep the British war effort afloat, the Hood was sent to sink it.

Hood was accompanied by HMS Prince of Wales, and at 5.37am on May 24, they located Bismarck and a heavy cruiser, the Prinz Eugen, in the Denmark Strait, between Greenland and Iceland.

At 5.52am, Hood opened fire on Prinz Eugen.

At 5.54am, Prinz Eugen replied, hitting Hood with a shell which exploded on the deck and set fire to some ammunition. Despite plumes of black smoke, Hood should have been able to cope.

But at 6am, Hood was hit by at least one shell fired from Bismarck, 17,000 metres away. Rather than fire horizontally across the tops of the waves into the sides of the ship, Bismarck's fired shells high into the air so that they dropped down onto Hood's deck.

And this was Hood's Achilles' heel: her deck was not well armoured.

The shell passed through the deck and exploded in a magazine – an ammunition storage area. The ammunition exploded with such force that Hood rose out of the water, snapped in two, and sank within two minutes.

Of the 1,418 crew, only three survived. Forty-nine of the fatalities were from Yorkshire; 47 were from County Durham and at least seven were from Darlington.

Any of those seven could be among the four men in the white shorts on the taffrail.

They were Able Seaman Henry Fowle, 19 – his twin brother, Charles, lost his life 18 months later when his ship, HMS Ibis, sank. Joiner Harry Monument, 25. Able Seaman Ronald Naylor, 19. Able Seaman Raymond Park, 29, of Bates Avenue, Cockerton – he left his wife Lillian and son, Brian. Able Seaman Owen “Tiddley” Patton, 23. Stoker William Scott, 18. Stoker Arthur Worrall, 20.

“My father was very touchy about it,” says Alan, of Whorlton. “He had a lucky escape in being sent to Wallsend, and then in Wallsend he had another lucky escape – they had gone to the pub after work one day and when he got home, his house had gone, hit by a parachute mine.

“If he hadn’t have gone for beer, or if he had joined the Hood, I wouldn’t be here now.”

If you can identify any of the four on the picture, please get in touch: chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk

The Northern Echo: Stoker Jack Goodbody, of Trimdon, who died on HMS Hood, and his sister, Elsie

Stoker Jack Goodbody, of Trimdon, who died on HMS Hood, and his sister, Elsie

IN the pretty church of St Mary Magdalene in Trimdon Village there is an organ stool dedicated to Stoker Jack Goodbody, 23, who was born in Sedgefield but lived in the village. Indeed, the women of Trimdon, who included his sister Elsie, had sent him a food parcel, and he’d written back thanking them, and telling them not to worry because the Hood was “as good as new”.

He was on it when it went down, and as Elsie had just become organist at the church, the family paid for a stool to be dedicated in his memory. Elsie used it for 53 years until she died in September 1994.

The Northern Echo: Some of the crew of HMS Hood at the beginning of the war, including Danny Tuff, of Darlington, third from the right on the back row. Danny was transferred to HMS Cairo three months before the Hood sank

Some of the crew of HMS Hood at the beginning of the war, including Danny Tuff, of Darlington, third from the right on the back row. Danny was transferred to HMS Cairo three months before the Hood sank

OTHERS on the Hood who lost their lives included: Stoker John Carr, 24, of Trimdon Grange, was 24, left two children and his wife, Mary. He’d worked at Wheatley Hill Colliery before the war. Stoker Stanley Dinsdale of Stockton, 22. Stoker William Harness, 23, of Horden. Leading Stoker Hugh Hughes, 27, who was born in Bishop Auckland and lived in Spennymoor with his wife, Millicent. Writer Frank Potts, 21, who had been head boy of West Hartlepool Secondary School and as a “writer” was in charge of human resources on the Hood. Able Seaman Irving Raw, 21, who had been born in Bishop Auckland. Stoker William Scott, 18, of Darlington. Chief Stoker Josiah Walton, 36, from Teesdale who’d joined the navy in 1923. Sailmaker’s Mate (Temporary) Arthur Holroyd, 23, of Redcar. Able Seaman Arthur Jarvis, 35, of Northallerton, who’d joined the navy in 1921.

The Northern Echo: Ted Briggs, who lived at Fareham, was one of only three members of the crew of HMS Hood who survived the sinking.

Ted Briggs, of Redcar, who was one of only three survivors of the Hood

BUT one of the three who survived the sinking of the Hood was Signalman Ted Briggs, from Redcar. As a lad in the 1930s, he’d been impressed by the Hood on one of her PR journeys around the coast. “I stood on Redcar beach for some considerable time, drinking in the beauty, grace and immaculate strength of her,” he said.

The sight of Britain’s greatest warship inspired him to join the navy and, by coincidence, he was assigned to the Mighty Hood.

“It never once occurred to me that she might be sunk,” he said. “As far as I was concerned, she was invincible. And everybody on board shared this view.”

He spent four hours clinging to a raft, singing Roll Out the Barrell with two mates to keep themselves alive, before they were rescued. Ted was the last of the survivors when he died in 2008 aged 85.

The Northern Echo: The Bismarck, which was sunk three days after the Hood

The Bismarck, which was sunk three days after the Hood

THE Bismarck was another casualty. The Hood had damaged her, and the British were desperate to find her before she could limp back to port. A mad sea chase began, with Swordfish bombers from Ark Royal further damaging the Bismarck on May 26, and early the following day, she was surrounded by a group of British warships. Unable to manoeuvre, she was scuttled south-west of Ireland at about 9.30am on May 27. Of the 2,200 Germans on board, only 114 survivors were picked up.