Thread by @garius

Meet the 1,800t destroyer HMS Glowworm. In April 1940 she faced down the 16,000t German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper, plus escorts, single handed.

The action earned her captain one of only three WW2 Victoria Crosses recommended by the enemy /1

In April 1940, HMS Glowworm was escorting the battlecruiser HMS Renown during minelaying off the Norwegian coast.

The weather was terrible, and one of her crew was swept overboard in high seas. Her captain, Gerard Roope, was given permission to fall back and search for them.

Glowworm spent a day searching for her lost crewman without any luck, before getting underway again and heading off to rejoin Renown.

It was at this point she spotted two destroyers amid the rain and seas.

When hailed, they claimed to be Swedish.

Glowworm pointed out that this was interesting because Swedish ships tended to fly Swedish pennants.

The 'Swedish' destroyers responded to this excellent point by lobbing shells at Glowworm then frantically racing off in the other direction when she fired back.

They were German

The destroyers were bigger than Glowworm. They should have fought. This was not lost on Captain Roope, who immediately realised:

1) This meant they were escorting something even bigger
2) That something had evaded the Norwegian minefields
3) They were running back to that thing

Roope now faced a tricky situation. He could turn and run, but the invasion of Norway was expected. If there was a chance that the Germans were at sea, he had a duty to investigate, shadow and alert both Renown and the fleet.

So Glowworm raced after them, exchanging fire.

Two hours later, Glowworm discovered what the German destroyers were escorting when, out of the sea and squall, loomed the German Heavy Cruiser HMS Hipper, carry invasion troops for Norway.

Glowworm now found herself facing down two destroyers AND a warship 10x her weight.

Roope's nickname among his crew was 'Old Ardover', a nod to his ability to throw his nippy little destroyer around a lot.

This is what he now did, dropping smoke and going full 'Tokyo Drift' on the high seas to try and get in it before the Hipper's gunners could find her range.

Unfortunately for Glowworm, while this helped with her German destroyer problem it quickly became clear this wasn't going to work with Hipper. Hipper had recently been equipped with radar, and was now locked hard onto Glowworm. Hipper was fast, and already firing.

Unable to shake off the Admiral Hipper, Roope realised HMS Glowworm only had one option left now.

He turned Glowworm around and went for Hipper.

Now this wasn't suicidal bravado. Roope was a very good destroyer captain. He wanted to get his ship and crew out alive. Bonus points if Hipper was at the bottom of the ocean as well.

That meant he needed to get close. REALLY close. So his 4inch guns and torps could hurt her.

Which is why, a few minutes later, Captain Heye and the crew of the Admiral Hipper watched in amazement as HMS Glowworm shot out of the smoke screen and started lobbing torpedoes and four inch shells at them.

Unfortunately for Roope, Heye himself was a very good captain. He immediately realised what Glowworm was trying to do and swung Hipper round to minimise Roope's chance of scoring any hits with his torps or major damage from his guns.

Soon Glowworm was a mess from Hipper's guns.

HMS Glowworm was now on fire, her bridge gone, holed, out of torps and down to one gun.

Realising that his options had shortened from slim to none, Roope gave his final order:

"Stand by to ram."

On the Hipper, Heye watched in alarm as Glowworm, on fire and screaming (literally. A hit from Hipper had jammed her siren on) swung round and charged with all the speed she could muster at his ship.

He tried to swing the Hipper around and get out of the way. It was too late.

HMS Glowworm slammed into Hipper's side with so much force it snapped the destroyer's bow off. She then scraped down Hipper's side, doing more damage.

Heye watched as what was left of Glowworm then drifted away, burning, and opened fire with her last gun on Hipper AGAIN.

Hipper opened fire on Glowworm again, and finally silenced her last gun.

With no bow, on fire and sinking, Roope turned to one of his officers.

"I don't think we'll be playing cricket for a long time yet" He sighed, then gave the order to abandon ship.

As his crew scrambled to get off the sinking wreck of Glowworm, Roope himself went below to open the sea cocks, to prevent the Germans being able to board her before she sank.

Along with his crew, he then abandoned ship into the oil-filled, cold sea.

On the Hipper, Heye realised what was happening and ordered a rescue effort to begin. He moved the Hipper down current from the burning, sinking Glowworm and soon the German crew were throwing ropes and nets over the side to help as many survivors as possible out of the water.

Roope himself was one of those survivors. But rather than climbing up the nets himself, he stayed in the water helping wounded sailors get onboard.

By the time he tried to climb up himself, he was too weak. He lost his grip and was lost to the sea.

As survivors and German crew watched, Glowworm herself FINALLY gave herself to the sea, as she sank her siren finally gave out. An eerie silence descended, suddenly punctured by a giant explosion as her depth charges went off.

Just over 30 of the Glowworm's 137 crew survived.

Lieutenant-Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope became the first recipient of a Victoria Cross in WW2 for his actions. Other Glowworm crew also received gallantry awards.

What's incredible though is that this was largely because CAPTAIN HEYE OF THE HIPPER recommended him for one.

Because Captain Heye and the German crew of the Hipper were so impressed by the bravery and fight put up by Roope and HMS Glowworm, that Heye himself wrote up a recommendation for gallantry, included a full account of Roope's actions, and sent it to the British via the Red Cross

This makes Roope one of only three WW2 Victoria Cross recipients to have been granted Britain's highest award for gallantry based almost entirely on evidence provided by the person they were fighting.

(The other two are also navy-related, but those are stories for another day).

Anyway. There you go. Friday history thread.

If you enjoyed it, then you can buy me a coffee (or beer) here if you like, but don't feel like you have to!

ko-fi.com/garius

If you like naval gallantry, you may also be interested in my thread about Able Seacat Simon, the only feline recipient of the Dickin Medal. The highest award for gallantry that can be awarded to an animal in service.

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1416001580206338049

And you can find more of my history threads compiled here:

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1421397922550255619

Sources vary.

I tend to come down on the side that Glowworm got a message off, but because of the way the invasion played out it ultimately didn't help much.

https://twitter.com/WolfBaginski/status/1464249333713358851