Renown collided with Hood during an exercise off Spain in 1935 after a manoeuvre went wrong. The ship captains and squadron commander all faced courts-martial, and Renown's captain was initially removed. The Admiralty later reinstated him because it valued his aggressive qualities and concluded that Rear Admiral Sidney Bailey's signals had contributed to the accident. The episode shows how fleet manoeuvres distribute responsibility across bridge handling, signalling, and senior command. It also explains why formal court findings did not necessarily end the service's assessment of an officer.
Notable Point · 1:29:19-1:30:21
Renown's collision with Hood tested command accountability
The 1935 collision led the Admiralty to look beyond the ship captain and examine the squadron commander's ambiguous manoeuvring signals.