The
Admiral-class battlecruisers were to have been a
class of four British
Royal Navy battlecruisers designed near the end of
World War I. Their design began as an improved version of the
Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, but it was recast as a battlecruiser after
Admiral John Jellicoe, commander of the
Grand Fleet, pointed out that there was no real need for more battleships, but that a
number of German battlecruisers had been
laid down that were superior to the bulk of the Grand Fleet's battlecruisers and the design was revised to counter these. The class was to have consisted of
HMS Hood,
Anson,
Howe, and
Rodney — all names of famous admirals — but the latter three ships were suspended as the material and labour required to complete them was needed for higher-priority merchantmen and escort vessels. Their designs were updated to incorporate the lessons from the
Battle of Jutland, but the Admiralty eventually decided that it was better to begin again with a clean-slate design so they were cancelled in 1919. No more battlecruisers would be built due to the arms limitations agreements of the
interbellum.
Hood, however, was sufficiently advanced in construction that she was completed in 1920 and immediately became
flagship of the
Battlecruiser Squadron of the
Atlantic Fleet. She served as the flagship of the Special Service Squadron during its
round-the-world cruise in 1923-24.
Hood was transferred to the
Mediterranean Fleet in 1936 and spent much of the next few years on
Non-Intervention Patrolsduring the
Spanish Civil War, returning to the
United Kingdom before the beginning of
World War II and the Battlecruiser Squadron of the
Home Fleet.