On June 8, 1940,
HMS Glorious, one of
Britain's largest
and fastest aircraft
carriers, and a duo of
escorts, Ardent and Acasta,
detached from Vice
Admiral Lionel Wells' aircraft
carrier squadron and
set off towards England.
At the time, the
three-ship British convoy
had been taking part
in Operation Alphabet,
the evacuation of Allied
forces from Norway,
occurring simultaneously with
the more known Dunkirk evacuation.
Initially, the rough and
gloomy gray Arctic Ocean
was a dramatic change
for the 1,200 men crowded
inside the Glorious'
labyrinthine steel interior.
Thankfully, they were led
by a famous Commander,
Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes,
who was even said
to be a favorite of
Winston Churchill's.
By the end of the day, the
Royal Navy had suffered
one of its most devastating
defeats in all of the War.
The official story
caused controversy
even during the war.
Why was such an
important ship left
so unprotected?
New, darker theories
have emerged recently.
According to a British
parliament member: [QUOTE]
“HMS Glorious may well
have become detached
from the greater safety
of the convoy because
of a serious breakdown
in relations among her
senior officers. She
was an unhappy ship.”
Built For Conflict
In World War 1, HMS
Glorious, a Courageous-class
cruiser, spent the
better part of a year
hunting for the infamous
commerce-raiding German
cruiser Admiral Graf
Spee in the Indian Ocean.
Back then, naval warfare
was evolving amidst new
technologies that included
U-boats, a new kind of
submarine that shook
the Royal Navy to the core,
and the air power
potential of aircraft carriers.
With these shifting
strategies, in the 1920s,
Glorious was selected for
a substantial reconstruction.
After a nearly six-year-long
transformation, by
removing the ship's aft
turret and converting the
deck space into a flight
deck, she emerged out
of the dockyard as a
brand new aircraft carrier.
As with similar conversions in
other navies around the same time,
the result was, while
successful, awkward looking.
Glorious, whose flight deck
did not extend to the bow,
retained the classic
forecastle of the battle
cruiser that once chased
one of the most iconic
ships in history. Some
of her crewmembers
described her as an
old flattop barmaid.
The armament aboard
Glorious combined 4.5-inch
dual-purpose guns and
antiaircraft weaponry.
With these gunports and platforms
cantilevered all over, she lacked
the clean lines of
modern purpose-built
Royal Navy carriers
like HMS Ark Royal.
The new aircraft
carrier, HMS Glorious,
had a displacement
of around 22,700 tons
and a length of
approximately 786 feet.
Once converted, she
would participate in one
of the most pivotal moments of
the early stages of World War 2.
A Legend Aboard
The German Invasion of Norway in
April 1940 was a strategic move by
Germany to secure
control over crucial ports,
resources, and access
to the North Atlantic,
most importantly, of potential
blockade of the United Kingdom.
As the German forces
swiftly moved to capture
key Norwegian cities
and strategic points,
the British and their
allies responded with
a series of naval and
ground operations.
On April 24, 1940, HMS Glorious,
carrier Ark Royal,
and their escorts,
Ardent and Acasta, arrived
off the coast of Norway.
The difficulties in
the harsh climate and
the threat of German
forces constrained her
operations. As captain
of HMS Glorious,
Guy D'Oyly-Hughes led the group.
D’Oyly-Hughes’ reputation
was well-known in
the Navy. During World
War 1, as a submariner,
he once swam ashore carrying a
raft of explosives. Once on land,
he blew up a part of the
Constantinople–Baghdad Railway,
where the Germans
wished to establish a port
on the Persian Gulf, then
swam back to the sub.
No Fool
Between April and
June, Glorious and
her crew made
five round trips from
Norway to Scapa Flow, providing
air cover, transport aircraft,
and overall support to British
forces. Because of fuel concerns,
Navy Command kept
her in the battle zone for
short periods, usually
lasting only a few days.
On May 26, Glorious safely flew off
18 Hawker Hurricanes of the Royal
Air Force's 46
Squadron from the carrier
to land bases. But
during this mission,
things came to a head between
the captain and his air staff.
Glorious was slated
to leave Norway
in late May or the
early days of June
with her sister carrier, Ark Royal,
and a large complement of cruisers,
destroyers, and transports
in convoy back to England.
That day, his flight
commander, J.B. Heath,
refused to send his
planes in against German
shore targets, believing
the antiaircraft guns
and Luftwaffe fighters
would cut his squadron
of slow-flying Gladiator
biplanes to pieces.
Captain Guy D'Orly-Hughes became
incensed. Not used
to being refused,
he put Heath off the ship in
the Scapa Flow. Additionally,
he issued an order
for a court martial
for cowardice in the
face of the enemy.
That day, it was
clear to all aboard that
D'Orly-Hughes was not
someone to trifle with.
The Evacuation of Norway
A few days later,
as the situation in
Norway grew more
favorable to the Germans,
all British forces were
ordered to withdraw.
In Operation Alphabet,
the evacuation of Norway
began in the north
on the night of June 4,
with Glorious
arriving off the coast
two days later to provide support.
The converted carrier played
a role in transporting aircraft,
troops, and supplies to
support the Norwegian
resistance against the
invasion. Following this,
D'Orly-Hughes was
granted permission
to leave early with
minimal support.
On June 8, 1940, the
aircraft carrier Glorious
left for England with
only two destroyers,
HMS Acasta and HMS Ardent, and not
the usual four-destroyer minimum.
Her final mission
before retreat was to
evacuate ten biplane
Gloster Gladiator
fighters of the RAF's 263 Squadron.
In a remarkable feat of seamanship
and flying that had
never been achieved
before, seven Hawker
Hurricanes of 46
Squadron also
managed to land on her
flight deck. This
move was previously
thought impossible
for high-performance
monoplanes,
unadapted to naval work.
Soon, this ship would
break another far
more obscure record record,
one that would shake the Admiralty.
Spotted
Unbeknownst to her,
her captain, and her crew,
as Glorious transited
the Norwegian Sea, two
German battleships,
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau,
also roamed the area
as part of a fleet meant
to intercept the British
evacuation convoys.
The state-of-the-art
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
were the complete
opposite of Glorious. These
32,000-ton wolves of
the sea sported three
main turrets, with
three 11-inch guns each.
At 3:45pm, the German battleships
spotted Glorious and her escorts
when they saw smoke on the horizon.
The two battleships set a course
directly towards the unsuspecting
British, advancing at 30 knots.
Back inside Glorious,
sailing at half the
speed of the Germans,
she had only 12 of
her boilers lit. As
this was their fifth
voyage in the area,
the captain believed
the waters they were
on to be relatively safe
despite warnings by
Norwegian coastal watchers.
Additionally, that afternoon, she
had no planes in combat air patrol,
a lookout in her
crow's nest, or radar.
When the crew aboard
Glorious spotted the
German vessels only
20 miles away from them,
Captain D'Orly-Hughes ordered
the HMS Ardent to investigate.
But as Ardent flashed the
unknown vessels for identification,
the tiny destroyer
was answered by a
loud salvo from the
German battle's guns.
A Long Shot
At 4:20pm, now on the run
from the German vessels,
Glorious called up
five of her Swordfish
planes. As she
struggled to gain speed,
a crewmember made
a radio report that
they were under attack
by enemy vessels.
About 32 miles away,
the message was received
by the cruiser HMS
Devonshire. A ship on an
ultra-secret mission
transporting the Norwegian
royal family towards
safety. Operating in radio
silence, the captain
aboard had no choice
but to ignore the
request for assistance.
From a distance of only 14.7 miles
away, Glorious was attacked by the
German vessel's
long-range guns, with
the third salvo
hitting the flight deck,
blowing up two
aircraft being set up for
armament, and
starting a massive fire.
The damage wreaked
by these shells was one of
the longest-confirmed
naval shots in history.
As shrapnel from
the explosion pierced
a boiler casing
and smoke filled her
air intakes, the ship slowed down
due to a loss of steam pressure.
Amid the chaos,
destroyer Ardent bravely
ran in front of
Glorious while firing
at the German ships
more than 20 times her
size. This move planted
a large smokescreen,
which blocked the vision of
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
Still firing, Ardent
then sped through
the smokescreen and
landed one hit. She
also launched her
torpedoes, forcing
the two German
ships to change course.
Disaster Strikes
Just before 5:00
pm, a salvo hit right in
the middle of the
bridge of the Glorious,
taking the lives of
many command officers,
including Captain
D'Oyly-Hughes, and
severing the
communications system.
The escorts continued
to protect their
dwindling carrier
with a smoke screen,
but after 20 minutes,
the protection
dissipated, and the
Germans began one final
rain of shells down on
the converted aircraft
carrier, hitting her in
the engine compartment.
Still losing speed, HMS
Glorious began to list.
Exactly an hour after spotting the
Kriegsmarine duo,
Ardent sank. Meanwhile,
the enemy continued to
pound their main target
until she was on fire
from stem to stern.
Aboard Scharnhorst,
some of the crewmembers
filmed the attack upon
Glorious. The footage
shows large amounts of
water falling around the
carrier in the opening
moments of the battle,
followed by the frenzied
defense by the destroyers.
Finally, the video
captures the listing
of the mortally
wounded Old Barmaid,
with smoke and flames
covering her every
inch until she was
one with the ocean.
As the sole survivor, Acasta
attacked the battleships with
torpedos rather than retiring from
the fight, successfully blasting
one right into
Scharnhorst. The damage
caused a 30-foot-wide
hole in her hull.
Acasta continued to fight
on against both battleships,
more than 20 times her size, until
she, too, sank right after 6:00 pm.
As all three Royal Navy
ships disappeared from view,
the scared and injured
survivors went from
scorching heat to
bitter cold in minutes.
With one of them badly damaged, the
Germans quickly fled the scene to
a repair base in
mainland Norway, leaving
over 1,000 British
survivors to their luck.
Back in Britain, the
British Admiralty remained
unaware that the ships were lost
and even continued to radio orders.
In fact, the British only
received information about
the sinking until the Germans
announced them on the radio.
A day went by before they sent Ark
Royal out to the
area of the battle,
but no survivors were seen.
When Norwegian vessels
finally found them
nearly three days
later, only 40 men remained alive.
The death toll of the June 8,
1940, sinkings of Glorious, Acasta,
and Ardent at 1,519
casualties exceeded any
other great British naval
disasters of the war.
As such, controversy
began almost immediately,
with many demanding to
know how and why such a
disaster could have
occurred and whose fault
it was. Some believed
the three ships were
sacrificed to protect
HMS Devonshire and,
ultimately, the
Norwegian royal family.
The Truth Will Out
The Admiralty has
long maintained that
Glorious was sent home
on her own because
her evacuation
mission was complete,
and she was low
on fuel. During this
fateful journey, according to top
brass, she simply ran out of luck.
And yet, in 1980,
the Navy's official
historian, Captain
Stephen Roskill,
lifted the lid on a
controversy about
the incident years
later in an article
published in the
Sunday Times titled 'The
Cantankerous Captain
of HMS Glorious.'
Drawing upon
testimony from Captain
J.B. Heath, the
ship's senior aviator
who missed the sinkings
due to being left at
Scapa Flow when he
refused to follow orders,
the historian described
an unhappy ship run by a
tyrannic captain whose
World War 1 legendary acts
allegedly disguised
incompetence, bad leadership,
and even questionable
mental stability.
J. B. Heath
interviewed years later,
asserted that Captain
D'Oyly-Hughes had
a total lack of
knowledge of air affairs.
According to Roskill's
article, Glorious was
racing home without
proper protection and
was completely unprepared
for combat because
Captain D'Oyly-Hughes
was hungry for revenge
against Heath and
hurried to bring forward
the court martial
against his former officer.
Even more recently,
in 2019, Ben Barker,
the grandson of the
Commander of Ardent,
suggested that
Glorious was dispatched
early, as it was needed
for Operation Paul.
In this top secret
but unexecuted plan,
Britain planned to
mine the harbors of
neutral Sweden so
the Germans couldn't
export badly needed
iron. This operation
would have been akin
to an attack on a neutral
nation, hence the
secrecy of the Admiralty.
Perhaps it was the
court-martial, fuel,
the safekeeping
of the Royal family,
Operation Paul, or
a combination of all
that led to the tragic
sinking of Glorious,
Ardent, and Acasta
on the Norwegian Sea.
The whole truth of the incident
will not be revealed until 2041,
as the sinking of HMS Glorious
is the only British carrier loss of
World War 2 for which the records
have been sealed for 100 years.