HMS Glorious (77)

HMS "Glorious" was a warship of the Royal Navy. Built as a "large light cruiser" during World War I, "Glorious", her sister "HMS Courageous", and half-sister "HMS Furious" were the brainchildren of Admiral Lord Fisher, and were designed to be "light cruiser destroyers". They were originally intended to be heavy support for shallow water operations in the Baltic Sea, which use ultimately never came to pass. She saw action in World War I, and then was converted into an aircraft carrier. Evacuating British troops, she was sunk in 1940, with the loss of over 1,200 lives.

Genesis

"Glorious" was built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast. The design was for a light battlecruiser; while having convert|15|in|mm|0|sing=on guns, she was actually classed by the British Navy as a light cruiser because of her light armour protection. Her keel was laid down on 1 May 1915, the ship was launched 20 April 1916, completed on 14 October 1916, and "Glorious" was commissioned in January 1917. She cost £2,119,065 to build.

Her machinery was essentially similar to an earlier light cruiser, "HMS Champion", with two sets to drive four shafts. During a test in 1917, "Glorious" managed to fire a torpedo out of one of her submerged torpedo tubes while moving at full speed. Under normal conditions, the firing of the underwater tubes could be done at speeds of no more than convert|23|kn|km/h|0, because of potential damage caused by water pressure at higher speeds. Her secondary guns were a new type of triple convert|4|in|mm|0|sing=on gun, intended to provide a high rate of fire against torpedo boats and other smaller craft. However, as it turned out, the loaders for the guns would get in each other's way, and the rate of fire was far slower than three single mountings. One interesting note is that it was observed that "Glorious" was actually 1½ knots faster on full load than when in normal loading condition. Because of her light construction and other faults, causing more than average time in the repair yard, she was nicknamed 'Uproarious'.When "Glorious" commissioned, she was the flagship of the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron, and later the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron. On 17 November 1917, along with "Courageous" and "Repulse", she engaged light German forces in the Heligoland Bight, sustaining no damage. In 1918, short take-off platforms for aircraft were mounted on both 15-inch turrets. On 21 November 1918, she was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet. In 1919, she was attached to the Gunnery School at Devonport as a gunnery training ship. Later, she became flagship of the Reserve Fleet.

Conversion

When the Washington Naval Treaty was signed in 1922, "Glorious" was surplus tonnage as a capital ship, so the decision was made to convert her to an aircraft carrier. The combination of a large hull and high speed, not to mention an unsuccessful original design, made her an ideal candidate for conversion. The vessel was converted to a carrier starting in 1924, and she was re-commissioned 10 March 1930. types were carried. "Glorious" could be distinguished from her sister "Courageous" by a longer round-down on her flight deck at the stern, and by a different type of mast.

On 1 April 1931 she collided with the French liner "Florida", sixty miles from Gibraltar, holing the liner severely; she took passengers on board and towed the other vessel to Málaga. Over thirty lives were lost, one of which was a member of the crew of "Glorious".

World War II

She served with the Mediterranean Fleet for a time after World War II broke out. In October 1939, she moved through the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean area for a short time to participate in the Indian Ocean hunting group searching for the "Graf Spee".

Norwegian Campaign

When the invasion of Norway occurred in April 1940, she was recalled to home waters. On 23 April, she and HMS "Ark Royal" arrived in Britain, and sailed the next day for Norwegian waters. She conducted a series of strikes on German positions in Norway with her Skua and Gladiator aircraft. On 27 April, she was detached to return to Britain to refuel, and returned to Norway on 1 May for further attacks. On this return trip, she brought some Gloster Gladiators to Norway to operate off of a frozen lake, but these were soon destroyed by the Germans. On 28 May, she delivered a squadron of Hawker Hurricane fighters to Bardufoss, which provided cover for the evacuation. On this voyage, she sailed without escort because there were no destroyers available. On 2 June, her aircraft assisted in providing cover in the Narvik evacuation. Starting on 5 June, "Glorious" took part in Operation Alphabet, the evacuation of Allied troops from Norway.

The Sinking

On 8 June, the "Glorious", under the command of Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes (who was a submarine specialist and had only ten months experience in aircraft carrier operations), had taken on board ten Gloster Gladiators and eight Hawker Hurricanes from No. 46 Squadron RAF and No. 263 Squadron Royal Air Force, the first landing of modern aircraft without arrestor hooks on a carrier. These were flown off from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation. "Glorious" left a larger convoy to proceed independently. While sailing through the Norwegian Sea to return to Scapa Flow, the carrier and her two escorts, the destroyers "HMS Acasta" and "HMS Ardent", were intercepted by the German battlecruisers "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau". The carrier and her escorts were sunk in two hours, roughly 170 nautical miles (315 km) west of Harstad, with the loss of 1,519 men; there were only 45 survivors. The single survivor from "Acasta" was rescued by the Norwegian steam merchant "Borgund" which also saved 38 men from one of "Glorious"' lifeboats. All 39 men saved by "Borgund" were set ashore at Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands on 14 June. [ [http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/borgund.html www.warsailors.com on D/S "Borgund"] ]

The "Scharnhorst" was badly damaged by a torpedo from "Acasta", and both German vessels took a number of 4.7-inch shell hits. The damage to the German ships was sufficient to cause the Germans to retire to Trondheim, which allowed the safe passage of the evacuation convoy through the area later that day. Bletchley Park had received information and reports that wireless traffic analyses indicated that "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" were out, but these were disregarded as insufficiently credible.

Lee (page 20) comments that four German radio broadcasts announcing the sinking were intercepted but were not acted on, as the Admiralty duty officer was not aware of the naval movements from Norway (because communications between the operational and intelligence sections were haphazard). The Glorious did not have time to send a radio message.

The 15-inch turrets that were removed from "Glorious" during the conversion were later installed as A and B turrets in "HMS Vanguard".

In 1997, Channel 4 (UK) screened a documentary in its "Secret History" series entitled "The Tragedy of HMS "Glorious" and interviewed one of the surviving RAF pilots. There is a degree of mystery about the sinking of the Glorious because papers relating to the sinking have a "100 year rule" embargo on their release.

Winton's book

Winton quotes opinions that Captain D'Oyly-Hughes was "off his head" and "as mad as a bloody hatter". The Glorious was sailing separately from the main evacuation convoy from Norway with two destroyers, but was not flying any air patrols. And Navy Intelligence had not sent any warnings that German naval forces were in the area, despite warnings from the Navy section at Bletchley Park (from a study of radio traffic, not decoding). D'Oyly-Hughes had left J. B. Heath the Commander (Flying) or "Wings" at Scapa Flow with a recommendation to court-martial him, and probably Lieutenant-Commander Paul Slessor, the Air Operations Officer as well. But no action was taken.

ee also

*List of shipwrecks in 1940

References

*"Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I" (Janes Publishing, London, 1919)
*"Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II" (Janes Publishing, London, 1946)
*Siegfried Breyer, "Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970" (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as "Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970", J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970). Contains various line drawings of the ship as designed and as built.
*John Roberts, "Battlecruiser", (Chatham Publishing, London, 1997), ISBN 1-86176-006-X, ISBN 1-55750-068-1
*Robert Gardiner, ed., "Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1922 - 1946" (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1980)
*Robert Gardiner, ed., "Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947 - 1982" (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1983)
*Roger Chesneau, "Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present; An Illustrated Encyclopedia" (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1984)
*Dan Van der Vat, "The Atlantic Campaign: World War II's Great Struggle at Sea" (Harper and Row, New York, 1988) ISBN 0-06-015967-7
*Correlli Barnett, "Engage the Enemy More Closely" (W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1991) ISBN 0-393-02918-2
*John Winton, "Carrier "Glorious": The Life and Death of an Aircraft Carrier" (Cassell Military, London, 1999) ISBN 0-304-35244-6 (first published 1986)
*Bruce Lee "Marching Orders: The Untold Story of World War II" (1995, Crown, New York) ISBN 0 517 57576 0

External links

* [http://www.glarac.com "Glarac Association website remembering those lost with HMS "Glorious"] - with complete CWGC casualty list.
* [http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/pages/aircraft_carriers/hms_glorious_77.htm Maritimequest HMS "Glorious" photo gallery]
* [http://www.warship.org/no11994.htm "The loss of HMS "Glorious"] - extensive article by Captain V.W. Howland, RCN (Rtd).
* [http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FGLOR "The Tragedy of HMS "Glorious"] - Churchill Collection; original materials related to the Channel 4 documentary.
* [http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/jonzpage/jonzpage2/dad/glorious.html "Crew member photos"]