Search the Community

Now we can tell it! The Last Glorious Battle of the HMS Glowworm. The War Illustrated, Volume 9, No. 213, pages 236-237, August 17, 1945. In one of the boldest and bravest sea battles of the war, the 1,345-ton British destroyer H.M.S. Glowworm fought a close-range duel with the 10,000-ton German cruiser Hipper; then, battered and burning, she turned around in one last superb gesture of defiance and rammed the enemy giant that towered over her. On July 10, 1945, it was announced that Lt. B. Roope, R.N., the heroic commander of the Glowworm, had been awarded the V.C. It was not until the repatriation of the Glowworm's only surviving officer, 27-year-old Lt. Robert Ramsay, R.N., that the story of this epic battle was revealed. All that was previously known was that the Glowworm was sunk by a heavy enemy ship in the North Sea on April 8, 1940. Here's what happened: The Glowworm was escorting the battlecruiser Renown when a man was swept overboard in rough seas. In its efforts to find him, the destroyer lost contact with the main British force and, as the weather deteriorated, had to reduce speed to less than ten knots. Her gyrocompass failed and she had to steer by magnetic compass. At dawn on April 8, 1940, while attempting to join another British force, he spotted an unidentified destroyer. "We immediately hailed him," said Lieutenant Ramsay, "and he replied that he was Swedish - then opened fire." Moments later, another destroyer was sighted, and the Glowworm began its valiant fight - against all odds. The battle turned into a pitched battle, with the destroyers maneuvering at full speed and firing all their guns. "Very soon our director's control tower was swamped by rough seas," Lieutenant Ramsay continued. "The ship was tossing and rolling very hard. We lost two men overboard and several were injured by the rolling of the ship, but we hit the lead enemy destroyer. They did not hit us. Shortly thereafter, they broke off the action and were obviously trying to lead us into something more powerful." Even though the Glowworm's commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerard Roope, R.N., knew what the enemy was trying to do, he decided to continue the operation with the idea of finding out what large ships the Germans had at sea. He hoped to track them and report their movements. A few minutes later, the Hipper was in sight - the Hipper was armed with eight 8-inch guns, twelve 4.1-inch guns, and twelve 37-mm guns compared to the destroyer's four 4.7-inch guns. The weather conditions made it impossible to follow, and from then on, the Glowworm knew her fate was sealed. Lieutenant Commander Roope's only goal was to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy before being sunk, and the heroic battle began. Long before the Glowworm's guns were in range, the Hipper was dumping 8-inch shells on the destroyer and hitting it mercilessly. "We made smoke," said Lieutenant Ramsay, "and began to approach the enemy cruiser. When we got within range, I fired our torpedoes." Sirens wail unheard Meanwhile, the Glowworm was rapidly becoming a blazing inferno. One of its four guns was out of action. Her rangefinder was hit. The top of her mast had collapsed onto the siren wires and her sirens were wailing unheard in the fire of battle and the smell of cordite and black smoke. It was then that Lieutenant Commander Roope decided to ram the Hipper. Under a storm of 8- and 4-inch and machine gun fire, he headed for the enemy's starboard side. There was a muffled crack as the destroyer's bows crashed into the cruiser's armor. Men fell to the deck in a swirl of blood and seawater, fire and smoke. Those who could got up. As we were pulling away, we opened fire once more," said Ramsay. "We were hit at 400 yards. Our bows were very deep. One shell went through the wheelhouse. Another had burst in the transmission station, killing most of the crew and all the personnel in the radio office. A third entered the ship under the aft torpedo tubes, went through the ship and burst against the forward bulkhead of the captain's cabin. The cabin was used as an emergency station and the explosion turned it into a mess. This shell also blew a huge hole in the side of the ship near the engine room, and another completely destroyed the aft superstructure." "The captain was so far unharmed, and when the ship heeled to starboard, he gave the order to abandon ship. He sent me to the bridge and I tried to get as much wood and other floating material overboard as possible. There seemed to be very few casualties, but all we could do was to put life jackets on the wounded men in the hope that they would float." "The captain, who was the only other survivor on deck besides myself, then went below. E. R. A. Gregg stated that he went down into the boiler room and let out the steam to prevent an explosion when the ship sank. Shortly thereafter, at about 10 a.m., the Glowworm capsized. After floating on the bottom for a few moments, it sank." "The Hipper stopped and picked up the survivors. Our captain was not among them, although he was seen in the water. I was taken before the captain of the Hipper, who told me that our torpedoes had missed his ship by only a few yards. The ramming had damaged a set of her torpedo tubes, flooded two compartments and disabled her fresh water system. She took us to Trondheim, but later had to go to Germany to be docked for repairs." Plaque from Admiral Hipper recording the death "for his homeland" of Gunner Josef Ritter during combat with the H.M.S. Glowworm.