Stoker 1st Class P/KX 96933 Norman Jeffs

Census details:
1939 Register - Not found. Norman is no in Cedar Close, Elson. Gosport at this time.

Notes:
Formerly from Sutton, St Helens. Will states left 112 6s 9d to Annie Jeffs (Wife of Walter Jeffs) Walter Jeffs, Brother of Norman born 1921, Died 1980, Manchester.

HMS [i]Hood[/i] (51) HMS Hood was not only one of the most famous ships of the Royal Navy but is also one of the most famous ships in history. Hood was commissioned in 1920 and was the last Battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. Weighing 47,000 tons and at 860 ft long she was one of the largest and most powerful ships of her age. [u]WW2.[/u] When [i]Bismarck[/i] sailed for the Atlantic in May 1941, [i]Hood[/i], together with the newly commissioned battleship Prince of Wales, was sent out in pursuit along with several other groups of British capital ships to intercept the German ships before they could break into the Atlantic and attack Allied convoys. The British squadron spotted the Germans at 05:37 (ship's clocks were set four hours ahead of local time - the engagement commenced shortly after dawn), but the Germans were already aware of their presence, [i]Prinz Eugen[/i]'s hydrophones having previously detected the sounds of high-speed propellers to their south-east. The British opened fire at 05:52 with [i]Hood[/i] engaging [i]Prinz Eugen[/i], the lead ship in the German formation, and the Germans returned fire at 05:55, both ships concentrating on [i]Hood[/i]. [i]Prinz Eugen[/i] was probably the first ship to score when a shell hit [i]Hood[/i]'s boat deck, between her funnels, and started a large fire among the ready-use ammunition for the anti-aircraft guns and rockets of the UP mounts. Right before 06:00, while [i]Hood[/i] was turning 20 degrees to port to unmask her rear turrets, she was hit again on the boat deck by one or more shells from [i]Bismarck[/i]'s fifth salvo, fired from a range of approximately 16,650 metres (18,210 yd). A shell from this salvo appears to have hit the spotting top as the boat deck was showered with body parts and debris. A huge jet of flame burst out of [i]Hood[/i] from the vicinity of the mainmast, followed by a devastating magazine explosion that destroyed the aft part of the ship. This explosion broke the back of [i]Hood[/i] and the last sight of the ship, which sank in only three minutes, was her bow, nearly vertical in the water. Of the 1,418 crew, only three men, Ordinary Signalman Ted Briggs, Able Seaman Robert Tilburn and Midshipman William John Dundas, survived; they were rescued about two hours after the sinking by the destroyer Electra. HMS [i]Electra[/i] spotted substantial debris, but no bodies. Stoker Norman Jeffs was aboard HMS Hood that fateful day. [u]Aftermath.[/u] [i]Prince of Wales[/i] was forced to disengage by a combination of damage from German hits and mechanical failures in her guns and turrets after [i]Hood[/i] was sunk. Despite these problems, she had hit [i]Bismarck[/i] three times. One of these hits contaminated a good portion of the ship's fuel supply and subsequently caused her to steer for safety in occupied France where she could be repaired. [i]Bismarck[/i] was temporarily able to evade detection, but was later spotted and sunk by the British on 27 May. Out of a crew of over 2,200 men, only 114 survived. [pic]imgs/S1PWHYAOTV/hms_hood_engaging.jpg[/pic][caption]Courtesy of [url=http://www.cityofart.net/bship/brit_bc_list.html]Cityofart.net[/url][/caption] [center][pic2]imgs/S1PWHYAOTV/Norman-Jeffs_HMS_Hood.jpg[/pic2][/center][caption]The panel on the Portsmouth Memorial bearing the name of Stoker 1st Class Norman Jeffs[/caption]