The Last Glorious Battle of the HMS Glowworm Versus Admiral Hipper

[Iceman 29]

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.

[IJNfan]

This is a really curious case, If the captain understood what the destroyers tried to do I wonder what his reasoning was to go ahead and do this kamikaze style rush. 

[Chewbacca]

Thanks for posting that Pascal.  A reminder of a great action in the finest tradition of the Royal Navy.  A few of those photos were new to me as well.

 

Interestingly, I prepared a presentation for the Royal Naval Association last year entitled War in the Fjords and although the central theme was the rescue of King Olaf and Norway's gold, of course I included this as part of the presentation.  There are conflicting reports from the other survivors, some of whom claimed that Lt Cdr Roope did not in fact order the ramming but that they had lost steerage by that point due to action damage and that GLOWWORM was effectively just continuing on her last known course.  At the time of the ramming, I think Ramsey was down aft trying to get the second set of torpedo tubes to bear.  I guess none of us will ever really know but whatever the details, the mere fact that Roope thought it appropriate to take on a 10,000 ton 8 inch cruiser with a tiny 4.7 inch destroyer should never be forgotten.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Pascal, I've seen most of those photos before but not the narrative, thanks for sharing. For those that are interested in the difference in size between the ships:-

All these are Airfix 1/600 scale models. In the foreground is the Hotspur kit, almost identical to Glowworm I think, except that Glowworm had ten torpedo tubes, not eight.

Behind her is Prinz Eugen, a sistership of the Hipper.

Behind Prinz Eugen is a German Narvik class destroyer. The two destroyers that Glowworm fought were just slightly smaller than this, larger than Glowworm and armed with five 5-inch guns each.

 

Rather stiff odds for HMS Glowworm. 

 

Pascal, as this is your thread and not mine please feel free to delete this if you wish. 🙂 Regards, Jeff.

[scotmid]

My understanding was Glowworm's captain did indeed understand the German destroyers were trying to lead him towards a heavy German warship. When he was engaged by the Admiral Hipper he made smoke but the cruiser had recently been equipped with radar and so maintained contact. He then carried out a torpedo attack on the Hipper that was nearly successful. I believe Capt Heye, the captain of Hipper informed the British authorities of Lt Cdr Roopes courage . No doubt one of the sites experts will be able to give much more detail.

Regards

Alasdair

[Iceman 29]

Tks!

 

Great story.

 

Un récit plus précis extrait de l'excellent livre probablement tiré du journal de bord du Hipper:

 

 

Enemy forces were also at sea at the time. HMS Glowworm (Lt-Cdr G. B. Roope) was one of four escort destroyers accompanying the battlecruiser Renown as part of Operation ‘Wilfred’, the intention of which was to mine the Norwegian inshore waters. Glowworm had a man washed overboard in heavy seas on 6 April, and, hav- ing abandoned the search, now found herself west-north-west of Trondheim and attempting to re-join the British group. At 0922 on 8 April, in a south-west gale Force 7–8, the Fleet Commander ordered Admiral Hipper to detach and search for the destroyer Bernd von Arnim, which, according to a signal from another destroyer, Hans Liidemann, was engaging an enemy destroyer in grid square AF 3834 (64°N 7°E) in heavy seas. At 0950 a look-out in the cruiser’s foretop reported mastheads off the port bow, and a second destroyer was soon made out to starboard. Neither ship could be identified, but at 0956 the right hand ship blinked a string of ‘As’ to Admiral Hipper, this being the standard British request for a ship’s identity. According to Fregattenkapitän Zollenkopf’s interrogation report of Glowworm’s only officer sur- vivor, Lt Cdr Roope had been misled by Hipper’s tall mainmast, and as no German units were expected in the area he had erroneously assumed Hipper to be a British cruiser. 

 

Admiral Hipper’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ main turrets opened fire on bearing 330° at 0959, upon which the British destroyer made a quarter turn towards the German cruiser, increased speed and returned fire. A salvo, probably the third, hit the destroyer’s bridge, severing communications with her engine room. Within two minutes the opponents were so close that ‘A’ turret could no longer be depressed sufficiently to engage and superfiring ‘B’ turret continued alone. Aiming was difficult in the sea conditions, and there was a long pause between each salvo. After the fifth salvo, Glowworm turned to port and made smoke while Hipper continued to face the enemy vessel bows-on so as to present her narrowest profile. This tactic masked the after turrets but reduced the cruiser’s exposure to torpedoes, which was Kapitän zur See Heye’s main concern. The sixth salvo was fired into the smoke and the seventh was seen to hit the destroyer’s forefunnel. 

 

 

 

The 10.5cm medium weapons were given permission to fire and began to demol ish the bridge, upperworks and guns of the target. The British vessel’s fire was very dispersed, but she did manage a hit on the cruiser’s starboard bow near the break  water. At 1007 Glowworm again sought cover behind her smoke screen and Hipper’s radar, which had not previously been used, even on exercises, was tuned in for ranging purposes. At 1010 the British destroyer emerged from her smoke and fired a fan of three surface-running torpedoes from a range of 3,000m: two passed down Hipper’s port side, one running within two metres of, and parallel to, the hull, and the third passed to starboard.

 

Admiral Hipper, 1942 (similar to Blücher but without additional Flak).  The German cruiser now penetrated the curtain of smoke while firing the tenth and eleventh salvos from ‘B’ turret: at 800m the 2cm Flak added to Glowworm’s plight by raking her decks and driving exposed personnel to cover. The proximity of the two ships was such that a grave risk of collision existed, but Heye dared not turn away for fear of the destroyer’s torpedoes.

 

At the critical moment Glowworm changed course and headed directly to ram. The surviving British officer stated that neither the helm nor the emergency rudder were manned at the time, and it would therefore appear that this last stage of the drama was brought about by a fortuitous rudder failure. In the heavy seas Admiral Hipper was slow to answer her own helm, and the destroyer collided with the cruiser just abaft her starboard anchor. 

 

Glowworm scraped her way down the cruiser’s side as far as the starboard torpedo tubes and, probably with her keel, tore open about 40m of outer plating. Mechanikergefreiter Ritter, a gunnery rating, was lost overboard. After the collision the British destroyer lay motionless and ablaze with a heavy list. As Hipper scoured the wavetops for Ritter, Glowworm’s boilers exploded and the gallant adversary sank within a few seconds at position 67°12’N 6°28’E, leaving about a hundred sur- vivors swimming in the oil from her ruptured tanks. By 1114 Admiral Hipper had succeeded in rescuing one officer and 39 other ranks, of whom two died aboard later. Lt-Cdr Roope became the first recipient of the Vic- toria Cross to be awarded the decoration on the recommendation of the enemy commander.

 

The ammunition expended by Hipper in the action was as follows: main arma- ment 31 rounds; 10.5cm 104 rounds; 3.7cm 136 rounds, 2cm 132 rounds. The ship’s Senior Gunnery Officer, Fregattenkapitän Wegener, reported: ‘Heavy Armament: Directed from foretop, using gauges, firing by stabiliser-VZW and SVZW.* Ship rolling and deviating by up to 9° from course. Barrel elevation HFS† not used because of doubt regarding machinery. Indirect‡ aiming expedient because of constantly changing situation. SVZW firing retained as ordered at beginning of battle for action at longer range. ‘In first phase of battle shooting by normal range-meter. For second salvo fresh calculation. As from second phase fresh range measurements necessary because of long loading times and changing speed and bearing. This procedure was the only possible method and proved successful. ‘Flak: As the starboard after Flak fire control had been jolted out of commission during a hard turn before the battle, Starboard II and III guns were linked up with the two heavy Flak batteries on the port side and the grouping fought the destroyer using independent fire control, initially indirect, and then direct§ when the range re- duced sufficiently...... 

[GrzeM]

Very interesting. I'm building now (very slowly) HMS Glowworm in 1/700 from its last battle painting scheme (IBG kit).

[Harlequin]

I look forward to seeing the results.  The Glowworm was the ship my Great Uncle went down on.  I still have the newspaper clippings round here that my Grandmother kept.