Re: lucky hit
Apparently the fatal shell not only penetrated the Hood's deck armor, but also several other decks, set off the aft magazine, and then the flash from that explosion traveled up some unblocked shell transfer passageway to the forward magazine and blew that up as well.
Not having the bulkhead doors closed in battle? This is the first time I hear it, but it does not surprise me. Grand idiocy for which in any other Navy from the beginning of the days of steam all the way to today you would have been court-martialed. You cannot do planned flooding of counter-compartments after a hit unless all bulkhead doors are closed to start off with. If they are in open state to start with by the time you get around to close them you are either capsizing or on the bottom.
The difference in between having them open and closed is also well documented - multiple German ships at the battle Jutland had hits in the gunpowder storage resulting in loss of everything vertically in that area including the guns on top. The ships continued fighting.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
