Jean Hood is a maritime author and historian.
Jean Hood read English Literature at the University of Durham and began her professional career working in the cardboard industry as an advertising copywriter. Advertising soon led Hood to Lloyd's Register of Shipping where she became Information Officer during the 1980s. This posting marked a turn in her career; drawing on a continued passion for history, her job at Lloyd's Register of Shipping inspired a love for maritime history. She became an authoritative figure and consultant in this field, answering questions from private individuals, researchers and maritime art dealers. Her subsequent research on the 18c East Indiaman, ‘Winterton’, spanning two decades, became the subject of her first non-fiction book, Marked For Misfortune, published in 2003 by Conway Maritime Press.
In 2006, Hood released Come Hell and High Water, an examination of several infamous or less well-known shipwrecks, to general critical acclaim. Warship International Fleet Review wrote that it ‘reads like the best fiction, yet they are all true stories’. [1] It entered 2007's Good Book Guide, which commended the piece as ‘Meticulously researched and compelling.’ [2] Janet Dempsey writing for the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? magazine asserted ‘This is pure maritime magic’. [3] Her next book, Submarine an anthology concerned with personal accounts of submarine warfare during the Second World War, followed in 2007 and also attracted positive reviews: ‘Hood has created a lasting tribute to all those who fought and died in these "iron coffins".' [4]
In 2009 Hood wrote the foreword to Dark Navy: The Italian Regia Marina and the Armistice of 8 September 1943 by Dr Enrico Cernuschi and Vince O'Hara, published by Nimble Books LLC, which was described as "a masterful account of the Regia Marina's role in the [Italian] Armistice of 1943". [5]
In an interview with The Sentinel in August 2010, Hood explained the intention of her latest work, Carrier: A Century of First-hand Accounts of Naval Operations in War and Peace (2010): ‘my book tells the human, rather than the technical, story of aircraft carriers and naval aviation, using eye-witness stories from those who served.’ [6] Navy News described it as ‘probably the definitive book on life in the capital ship of the past seventy or so years… pretty much everything involving carrier operations, full stop, is covered.’ [7]
Hood lives in Cheshire, and has been quoted in her books as enjoying walking and opera. In 2010, Hood was commissioned to write the accompanying book to a major new exhibition on the war correspondent to be held at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, beginning the end of May 2011. According to the IWM, it will be 'the UK's largest ever exhibition about reporting war, featuring some of the people whose words, images, voices and faces bring the story from the frontline'. [8]
The Regia Marina (RM) or Royal Italian Navy was a navy of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic, the Regia Marina changed its name to Marina Militare.
Aquila was an Italian aircraft carrier converted from the transatlantic passenger liner SS Roma. During World War II, Work on Aquila began in late 1941 at the Ansaldo shipyard in Genoa and continued for the next two years. With the signing of the Italian armistice on 8 September 1943, however, all work was halted and the vessel remained unfinished. She was captured by the National Republican Navy of the Italian Social Republic and the German occupation forces in 1943, but in 1945 she was partially sunk by a commando attack of Mariassalto, an Italian royalist assault unit of the Co-Belligerent Navy of the Kingdom of Italy, made up by members of the former Decima Flottiglia MAS. Aquila was eventually refloated and scrapped in 1952.
The Capitani Romani class was a class of light cruisers acting as flotilla leaders for the Regia Marina. They were built to outrun and outgun the large new French destroyers of the Le Fantasque and Mogador classes. Twelve hulls were ordered in late 1939, but only four were completed, just three of these before the Italian armistice in 1943. The ships were named after prominent ancient Romans.
Antony Martin Douglas Leslie William Calhoun Preston was an English naval historian and editor, specialising in the area of 19th and 20th-century naval history and warship design.
Luigi Cadorna was an Italian Condottieri-class light cruiser, which served in the Regia Marina during World War II; named after Italian Field Marshal Luigi Cadorna who was commander in Chief of the Italian Army during World War I.
Eritrea was a colonial ship of the Italian Regia Marina constructed in the Castellammare Shipyards near Napoli. Construction started in 1935 and she was commissioned in 1937. She served mainly in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans.
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian Duca degli Abruzzi-class light cruiser, that served in the Regia Marina during World War II. After the war she was retained by the Marina Militare and upgraded. She was built by CRDA, in Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard Trieste and named after the Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi.
The Francesco Caracciolo-class battleships were a group of four super-dreadnought battleships designed for the Regia Marina in 1913 and ordered in 1914. The first ship of the class, Francesco Caracciolo, was laid down in late 1914; the other three ships, Cristoforo Colombo, Marcantonio Colonna, and Francesco Morosini followed in 1915. Armed with a main battery of eight 381 mm (15 in) guns and possessing a top speed of 28 knots, the four ships were intended to be the equivalent of the fast battleships like the British Queen Elizabeth class.
The Vifor class was a group of four destroyers ordered by Romania in 1913 and built in Italy during the First World War. The four ships were however requisitioned by Italy in 1915 and rearmed as scout cruisers (esploratori), subsequently seeing service in World War I. Two were re-purchased by Romania in 1920 and saw service in World War II. The other two were eventually transferred by Italy to the Spanish Nationalists and saw service during the Spanish Civil War.
The Gabbiano-class corvettes were a group of 59 vessels built for the Regia Marina of Italy for service during the Second World War. They were built to a war-time design and intended for anti-submarine and escort duties.
Italian submarine Luigi Torelli was a Marconi-class submarine of the Italian navy during World War II. The vessel operated in the Atlantic from September 1940 until mid-1943, then was sent to the Far East. After Italy's surrender in 1943, the Luigi Torelli was taken over by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, then, in the waning months of the war, the Japanese Imperial Navy. It was one of only two ships to serve in all three major Axis navies. The other, also an Italian submarine and a sister submarine of Luigi Torelli, was Comandante Cappellini.
Vincent P. O’Hara is a naval author and historian, residing in California.
Conway Publishing, formerly Conway Maritime Press, is an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It is best known for its publications dealing with nautical subjects.
The Acciaio-class submarine was the fifth subclass of the 600 Series of coastal submarines built by the Regia Marina. They were completed during the early 1940s and saw service in World War II.
The Argo-class was a class of two coastal submarines built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico in Monfalcone for Portugal but operated by the Royal Italian Navy after Portugal was unable to pay construction costs. The submarines were built in 1936, and both served in the Mediterranean Sea at the start of the Second World War. The boats were transferred to the BETASOM Atlantic submarine base at Bordeaux in 1940, but returned to the Mediterranean in 1941, where both were sunk within a few days of the September 1943 Italian armistice.
Beograd was the lead ship of her class of destroyers, built for the Royal Yugoslav Navy in France during the late 1930s, and designed to be deployed as part of a division led by the flotilla leader Dubrovnik. She entered service in April 1939, was armed with a main battery of four 120 mm (4.7 in) guns in single mounts, and had a top speed of 35 knots.
Lion was one of six Guépard-class destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.
Trombe was a Bourrasque-class destroyer built for the French Navy during the 1920s.
Beli Orao was a royal yacht built in 1938–39 for the Yugoslav Royal Navy, which intended her to serve as a patrol boat, escort, or guard ship in wartime. Upon completion, she was pressed into service as the admiralty yacht – used by senior admirals for transport and to review fleet exercises. She was captured in April 1941 by the Italians during the World War II Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. The Regia Marina replaced her guns and used her as a gunboat for harbour protection and coastal escort duties, briefly as Alba then Zagabria. She was then used to train anti-submarine warfare specialists from the naval base at La Spezia.
Aldo Fraccaroli was an Italian naval historian and photographer who specialized in 20th-century Italian naval history. He served in the Regia Marina during World War II and briefly in the Marina Militare during the 1950s.