HMS GLOWWORM
On the morning of April 8th 1940 during the German invasion of Norway. The British Destroyer HMS Glowworm encountered two German destroyers, the Bernd von Arnim and Hans Lüdemann. Glowworm began to open fire but the German destroyers, with there decks Laden with German assault troops chose to disengage and signaled for insistence.
After nearly two hours the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper arrived on the scene at 09:50. Glowworm at 1,345 tons and armed with four 4.7 inch guns now found herself up against the 18,000 ton Hipper boasting eight 8 inch main batteries. Hipper opened fire at a range 9,200 yards striking the Glowworm with two salvos. Slightly damaged, Glowworm started making smoke.
She then turned back into her own smoke screen in an attempt to break visual contact. But Hipper’s radar directed guns scored multiple hits on Glowworm's radio room, mast and knocked out her forward 4.7-inch gun.
When Glowworm emerged at 10.10, Hipper had closed the distance to a mere 870 yards, Lieutenant Commander Roope quickly ordered torpedoes launched towards Hipper in a tight spread. All five missed because Captain Hellmuth Heye had kept Hipper's bow pointed directly at Glowworm throughout the battle to minimize his risk from torpedoes.
Roope once again fell back within the smoke screen to buy time to reload Glowworms torpedo mounts. but Heye followed through the smoke to finish him off.
The two ships were very close when Hipper emerged from the smoke and Roope ordered a hard turn to starboard to reduce the range and ram the cruiser. Hipper was slow to answer her helm and Glowworm struck her just abaft the anchor. The collision broke off Glowworm's bow and the rest of the ship scraped along Hipper's side, gouging open several holes in her hull.
Hipper was stopped dead in the water and was flooding, before the leaks could be isolated she had taken on some 500 tons of water. Glowworm however was a blazing wreck when she drifted clear and exploded at 10:24, taking 109 of her crew with her.
Admiral Hipper remained on scene in order to pick up any survivors of which 40 British sailors were rescued. Lieutenant Commander Roope would drown when he could no longer hang on to a rope whilst being pulled up the side of the Hipper. He would be later posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the battle.
HMS GLOWWORM
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