The Last Battle of HMS “Glowworm”. The Story of A British Sailor. Battles of the Second World War

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Today we will read the true life story of a British sailor who was involved in the last battle of the British G-class destroyer, HMS “Glowworm”. It was built for the Royal Navy in 1936. On April 8, 1940, it was sunk in the course of an unequal battle with the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper to the west of Trondheim. The courage of British sailors impressed the German captain of the cruiser “Admiral Hipper” so much that he sent a letter through the Swiss Red Cross with a description of the battle to the British Admiralty recommending to award the crew of the British destroyer….

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Hello, my dear friends! Today we will read the true   life story of a British sailor who was involved in  the last battle of the British G-class destroyer,   HMS “Glowworm”. It was built for the Royal Navy  in 1936. On April 8, 1940, it was sunk in the  

Course of an unequal battle with the German heavy  cruiser Admiral Hipper to the west of Trondheim.   The courage of British sailors impressed  the German captain of the cruiser “Admiral   Hipper” so much that he sent a letter through  the Swiss Red Cross with a description of the  

Battle to the British Admiralty recommending  to award the crew of the British destroyer…. This video is sponsored by a free  online game – World of Warships!  The types of warships that are presented in this  video are of course available in the game too.

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Well, now let’s begin. On the morning of April 8,   1940, the “Glowworm”, in dense fog, faced the  German destroyers Z11 Bernd von Arnim and Z18   Hans Lüdemann. The destroyers were both part of a  German naval detachment, led by the heavy cruiser  

Admiral Hipper, escorting German forces for the  invasion of Norway. The “Glowworm” opened fire   and the German destroyers made an attempt to  disperse, while requesting reinforcements. The   “Admiral Hipper” reacted to the request shortly  thereafter. From the “Hipper” it was initially  

Hard to distinguish the “Glowworm” from the “von  Arnim”, but eight minutes later they opened fire   from a distance of 8,400 meters using their main  caliber. The “Glowworm” was overwhelmed by the   “Hipper’s” fourth salvo, and was damaged. The  vessel ceased fire attempting to break visual  

Contact with the “Hipper”, but the “Hipper” was  equipped with radar. When the destroyer came out   of the smoke screen, the distance was short to  fire the cruiser’s 10.5 cm guns. The radio cabin,   bridge and bow 4.7-inch gun were all destroyed,  and the destroyer was also hit in the engine room,  

Commander’s cabin and finally the mast.  The mast crashed, causing a short circuit,   turning on the vessel’s siren. At 10:10 a.m., the destroyer   fired a five-torpedo salvo from a range of  800 meters, but all torpedoes were failed.   The destroyer ran through its smoke screen to  gain time and prepare a second torpedo salvo,  

But the Hipper chased the “Glowworm” through the  smoke screen in an effort to knock it out before   it had time to fire the remaining torpedoes. The  two vessels had gotten extremely close when the   “Hipper” came out of the smoke screen, and the  British captain decided to ram. The clash broke  

Off the bow of the “Glowworm” while the rest of  the ship slid along the board of the “Hipper,”   ripping its hull. As a consequence of the clash,  one German sailor was pushed off overboard. About   500 tons of water entered the “Hipper” before  the leaks were localized. The “Glowworm” was on  

Fire and its boilers exploded at 10:24. The “Hipper” began rescuing its sailor   overboard and the remaining survivors. The  German sailor was never found, but 40 British   sailors were brought on board. The captain of the  British vessel fell off the lifeline and drowned. 

As I mentioned before, under the impression  of the courageous efforts of the “Glowworm”,   the captain of the “Hipper” sent a letter  through the Swiss Red Cross with a description   of the battle to the British Admiralty  recommending an award. This submission   resulted in Captain Roope being awarded the  Victoria Cross posthumously. Lieutenant Ramsay,  

The only surviving officer of the Glowworm,  was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Bert ‘Ginger’ Lowman was a 19 year old Stoker  mechanic on the Glowworm. He was knocked out   and badly injured during the fighting. He now  lives in retirement in Havant. Bert takes up  

The story on the morning of 8th April 1940: ‘At a quarter to eight the alarm bells went   for action stations. I was supposed to be on  watch at eight o’clock but once you go into   action you stay where you are. I went to the  Petty Officer’s Mess as an ammunition supplier,  

Where the number two gun support was situated. It  was those 15 minutes that saved my life because I   know my boiler room got blown out of the ship.  If I had been on watch at the time I wouldn’t  

Have been here now. I often think of the poor  devil that was down where I should have been. A shell exploded in the Petty Officers’ Mess but  luckily it exploded on the other side of the gun  

Support. The concussion knocked me out. When I  came to, I found that the back of my left hand   was gone and I had shrapnel in my left arm and  leg. The floor of the Petty Officers’ Mess was  

Covered in blood. It looked like a butcher’s  shop. I felt the ship listing over. She was   going down. I began sliding down with it. I  managed to crawl to the other side and up on   deck. I remember seeing one of our stokers  running along by the lifebelt lockers. He  

Didn’t seem to be injured. I didn’t know what  happened to him but he didn’t get picked up. Just as I got in the water she heaved right  over and I got caught up in ropes and wires   underwater. I thought to myself that I’ve had  it now. I struggled and struggled and all of  

A sudden my head popped out of the water. I  could see she was about to go down so I swam   as hard as I could to get away from her as I  didn’t want to get sucked down. I could feel  

Myself being drawn back. Eventually I managed  to get away from her. I was swimming with one   leg and one arm heading towards the Hipper.  I was one of the last to leave the Glowworm. I was lucky that I didn’t swallow any oil  when I was in the water. There were about  

Three or four inches of oil on the surface  of the sea. I know a lot of chaps swallowed   it. But as my mouth and nose became blocked  with it, I put my head under water below the  

Layer of oil and cleared it. I kept doing this  until I got picked up. The Germans put a rope   over the side with a loop in it. At first I  grabbed it with my good arm but half way up  

I didn’t have enough strength to hang on,  so I let go and went back into the water.   They put it down again. So this time I put  my right arm through the loop and I tucked  

It under my left armpit. As they pulled me  up like that, I could feel my arm coming out   from under my armpit. I thought that I would  let go again before they could get hold of  

Me. Just at the last minute as I began to let  go I could feel hands on me and blacked out. The next thing I remember I woke up in a  bunk in the German sickbay and there were  

A couple of German sailors rubbing me down  with towels getting all of the oil off of   me. They congratulated us on a good fight.  I didn’t realise we had rammed the Hipper   until the other chaps told me later on.  We must have injured a lot of them in the  

Battle as I looked to another part of the  sickbay which was full of German sailors. Somebody told me that during  the action Captain Roope’s   dog was sitting between his legs and was  killed by shrapnel but he wasn’t touched.

The next morning I was fast asleep when  all of a sudden their guns started firing,   which were right outside the sickbay. One of  the stewards came in who could speak perfect   English. I asked him what was going on.  He told me not to worry and that one of  

Our ships had been sighted but it wouldn’t  give them any trouble. I asked him if he   knew which ship? He replied that it was  the Renown. On hearing this I waited for   the whistle of the shells to come over as  I knew that the Renown’s 15 inch guns had  

A longer range than the Hipper’s. But the Hipper  managed to escape in the bad weather conditions. Back at home my sister was listening to  Lord Haw Haw who announced that I was one   of the survivors of the Glowworm and she  went rushing around to tell my Mum and Dad  

Who thought I was dead as they had heard  that the Glowworm had sunk with all hands. As a POW I was separated from the other  survivors and spent I lot of time at   Stalag 13. In Poland. Most of the chaps in  there were from the army. I mucked in with a  

Survivor from the armed merchant cruiser  the Rawalpindi. We kept ourselves busy   helping the officers to escape. The Germans  didn’t allow them out of the camp to work,   so we used to swap clothes with them. Quite a  few officers escaped this way. On one occasion  

Three of our Mosquito fighters flew over  the compound. The guard in the watch tower,   although he wasn’t supposed to, fired at them.  One of them broke off and flew straight at the   tower. As if to say to the guard ‘so you want  to play do you?’ The Mosquito pilot aimed and  

Fired his guns killing the guard so that all the  bullets landed outside the compound away from us. Towards the end of the War we were woken up one  night by the Germans in a terrible panic. We were  

Told to move there and then. When we asked why,  they replied “Russkies!” It appeared that the   Russians weren’t very far from our camp. We said  we wouldn’t leave without our large supply of Red   Cross parcels. We managed to find some carts  which we loaded up with them. I was glad we  

Did as the parcels kept us alive in the following  march into Germany during which many of us died. After the War I retired from  the Navy with the injuries I   got on the Glowworm. But I still managed to keep  

Fit by joining a cycling club for many years’. That’s all for today! If you liked this video,   be sure to support it with a like. Also leave  your ideas in the comments, because they often   become a source and motivation for new videos.  Well, let me remind you that if you want to  

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