"When A British Destroyer Rammed a German ..." Topic
5 Posts
All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.
In order to respect possible copyright issues, when quoting from a book or article, please quote no more than three paragraphs.
For more information, see the TMP FAQ.
Back to the WWII Naval Discussion Message Board
Areas of InterestWorld War Two at Sea
Featured Link
Featured Showcase ArticleMal Wright 's first experience with 1:4800 scale naval models.
Featured Profile ArticlePaul Glasser reports on the debut of Axis and Allies: Guadalcanal and the North African expansion.
Featured Book Review
|
Tango01 | 18 Aug 2018 9:54 p.m. PST |
…Cruiser In World War Two. "April 8, 1940, two ships found each other off the coast of Norway. One a German heavy cruiser the Admiral Hipper, the other, a British destroyer the Glowworm. Over the course of only an hour, they engaged in one of the most brutal naval actions of WWII. HMS Glowworm was laid down in 1934, as a G-Class destroyer. They formed a new, faster group of fleet ships for the Royal Navy. They were intended to seek out and destroy smaller enemy ships, protect convoys, and attack submarines. Her first experience at sea came during the Spanish Civil War, where she enforced neutrality, preventing any ships from entering Spanish ports. By 1938 she was in the Mediterranean with the 1st Destroyer Flotilla. While in the Mediterranean her career was almost cut short when she collided with her sister ship HMS Grenade, but luckily both survived. When the war was declared, she was transferred back to England, joining the Western Approaches Command in October 1939…" Main page link Amicalement Armand
|
Huscarle | 18 Aug 2018 10:59 p.m. PST |
This action is described in Peter Cremer's "U-333: Story of a U-boat Ace" when he was serving aboard the Admiral Hipper. He stated that it was the bravest action that he saw during the war. |
goragrad | 19 Aug 2018 3:53 a.m. PST |
That article downplays the ramming as more of an accident than is the account. In an article based on Lt.Ramsey's (the officer quoted in the wiki article as being the source for the ramming as an accident) account – link – the ramming is stated as being deliberate. That article is also the first I had seen indicating that Lt Cdr Roope initially thought the Hipper to be British. Brings up the point that history is subject to the filtering of those recounting it – there are even differing numbers given for the number of crewmen pulled form the water and how many of those survived. |
Pontius | 19 Aug 2018 10:29 a.m. PST |
Interesting that the illustration of the ship's crest has "Glow-worm", with a hyphen, but nearly everywhere it is written as "Glowworm". |
Bozkashi Jones | 26 Aug 2018 4:35 a.m. PST |
The bulk of the article seems to be taken from O'Hara, The German Fleet at War (Naval Institute Press, 2004). On intention, he writes: "While his conduct was certainly aggressive, it is not certain that [Roope] intended to ram Hipper. German interrogation of the only surviving officer indicated neither the helm nor the emergency rudders were manned when the collision occurred, presumably because of enemy fire. It could be that Glowworm's last defiant act was an accident." [p.20] Whether deliberate or not, Glowworm's actions were 'in the finest tradition of the service' and the Royal Navy's reputation for aggression probably saved more lives than in cost, when one considers actions such as Bear Island (01/05/42) and Barents Sea (31/12/42) amongst others where superior German forces were reluctant to 'engage the enemy more closely'. Nick |
|