REMEMBRANCE: HMS Hood tribute (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

REMEMBRANCE: HMS Hood tribute

10:31am Wednesday 5th November 2008

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A CRUISE ship changed course to remember those who died on HMS Hood during the Second World War after the captain learned a Stourport passenger’s father had died on the pride of the British fleet in 1941.

John Dowdell, 72, of Caldy Walk, was on board Fred Olsen Line’s Boudicca, along with his wife, when it was diverted 60 nautical miles in the Denmark Strait to conduct the ceremony.

The service took place little more than a day after the 67th anniversary of the Hood going down and at the exact spot.

Mr Dowdell said: “I asked a historian on board doing a lecture if he could find out the closest point to where the Hood went down.

“I was planning to throw a bouquet as we went past, for myself and my two sisters. Two hours later I was told the captain had decided to have a full blown ceremony on the very spot.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I expect anything like that. You could have knocked me down with a feather.”

During the ceremony, Mr Dowdell and Captain Bjarne Larsen dropped wreaths into the ocean above the wreckage.

The ship slowed to two knots, a bugle sounded Last Post and there was a two-minute silence observed by all on board.

The ceremony lasted for 20 minutes and included prayers for everyone who has suffered as a result of war.

Mr Dowdell said: “It was a fitting tribute. I can’t thank them enough. Everything was perfect. It was very emotional and really struck a chord.

“A lot of passengers came up to me afterwards and shook my hand. Many of them were in tears, remembering members of their own family who had died in the war.

“Everyone just remembered. It was a complete and utter Remembrance service.”

Mr Dowdell, a retired platoon sergeant in the Grenadier Guards, could not join the Navy because he was colour blind.

Captain Larsen gave Mr Dowdell the chart showing the diversion route to the grave of HMS Hood. Mr Dowdell was five when his father, William Dowdell, died.

The loss of the battle cruiser HMS Hood – the pride of the British fleet – was the worst single disaster in the 1939-45 Battle of the Atlantic, with the loss of 1,415 officers and men.

Hood sank in minutes after an engagement with the Bismarck, the famous German battleship, when a shell is thought to have penetrated her hull and exploded in one of her magazines.

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