HMS Glowworm And HMS Jervis Bay
Two cases of Extreme Valour at Sea
Copyright Ciamar Price and Ragged Angel Ltd 2010. Smashwords Edition
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Table of Contents
HMS Jervis Bay and Convoy HX84
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HMS Glowworm
Commanded by Lieutenant Roope, HMS Glowworm is chiefly famous for her battle against the German Battleship the Admiral Hipper, where her commanding officer won a unique Victoria Cross.HMS Glowworm was a G-Class British Destroyer, number H-92. On patrol in 1940 she encountered the German invasion force heading for Norway and, with her radio shot out and unable to run, she fought.
8th April 1945 - The Patrol
On 8th April 1940, HMS Glowworm was on patrol near Norway with HMS Reknown and a cruiser, searching for the German invasion force approaching Norway. In the poor weather HMS Glowworm lost a man overboard and became separated from the convoy while searching for him. They did not find their missing man, and their navigation equipment malfunctioned, leaving them reliant on a magnetic compass.
Trying to catch up with their convoy, the Glowworm sighted two German destroyers. Feeling correctly that these were part of the invasion force, Lieutenant-Commander Roope gave the order to engage them and radioed their location back to base.
HMS Glowworm opened fire and hit at least one of them, when the German destroyers broke off and turned north. Guessing correctly that they were heading for the main fleet, HMS Glowworm pursued, hoping to get sight of the German forces so that they could radio back position and numbers, and then retreat. Instead they found it was a trap.
The German Battleship
The two destroyers had led the Glowworm right under the guns of the Admiral Hipper, a German battleship.
A German Heavy cruiser, seven times the size of the destroyer, she easily outmatched the Glowworm. Worse, flanked by German destroyers and with the weather against them, it would be impossible for the HMS Glowworm to escape. Lieutenant Commander Roope broke radio silence to send the details of the engagement, and then the Admiral Hipper opened fire.
Combat
A full salvo destroyed the Captain's day room killing the doctor and medical staff, and brought down the wireless aerials preventing the Glowworm from transmitting further. The same shot triggered the siren on the Glowworm's funnel and its eerie wail lasted the rest of the battle.
In response, the Glowworm fired a spread of five torpedoes, but all ran wide, and made smoke to try to hide her location. Still under fire, she emerged from the smoke and fired a second spread of torpedos, one of which missed the Hipper by mere yards.
She had been badly damaged and was taking on water. Her speed reduced, she had no chance to escape the battle, and without a wireless she could not radio for help.
"Stand by to Ram"
Surrounded, outgunned and unable to retreat, Lieutenant Roope took the final option available. HMS Glowworm, shattered, taking on water and with shells still tearing through her, turned sharply in the water. Roope gave the famous order "Stand by to Ram" and engines at full, the Glowworm set a collision course for the Admiral Hipper.
The Admiral Hipper, believing she meant to fire torpedos at close range, began its own turn in an effort to evade. The battleship was too slow.
Impact
The impact as the Glowworm struck, going at nearly twenty knots, drove the battleship sideways in the water.
Scraping along the side of the Admiral Hipper, the Glowworm tore a huge hundred foot gash in the battleship's side and damaged the torpedo tubes.
It was the gallant ship's last strike. The impact, enough to damage the much larger battleship, had shattered her bow. She drifted clear aimlessly, on fire and raked by close weapons and small arms fire from the Admiral Hipper. Her remaining gun fired one last salvo, striking the battleship, before Roope gave the order to abandon ship.
Roope went below to open the watercocks to sink her. It was unnecessary as the ship turned over. The remaining crew were struggling into life jackets, trying to escape the doomed ship.
Rescuing the crew
Captain Helmuth Heye of the Admiral Hipper immediately ordered lines thrown and lifeboats lowered. Positioning his ship to pick up survivors he stayed in the area for an hour, despite knowing the Glowworm had signalled for British reinforcements. He managed to rescue thirty-one of the Glowworm's crew.
Roope was not among them. Early in the rescue he had been seen helping the crew into lifejackets and catching lines, but handing them off to his crew. When he finally caught a line himself he was exhausted. Halfway up the side of the Hipper he slipped and fell back into the water. He went under before another line could be thrown.
In Captain Heye's own words to the captured crew "Your Captain was a brave man."
The Victoria Cross
The first Victoria Cross earned by the Royal Navy in the Second World War, Lieutenant Roope's Victoria Cross is unique because of the circumstances under which it was obtained.
For the Victoria Cross to be issued the citation must be issued by an officer of regimental level and supported by three witnesses. No British officer of that rank survived. Instead the details of the action and suggest for decoration were received by the British Government through the Red Cross, sent by Captain Helmuth Heye of the Admiral Hipper.
It was the first Victoria Cross ever awarded at the recommendation of an enemy officer.
After the Battle
Both German destroyers went on to the invasion of Norway, but the Admiral Hipper had been badly damaged. She completed her escort mission and then had to return to port for repairs.
The Glowworm's crewmen were placed in POW camps for the remainder of the war. One survivor commented wryly that their ASDIC operators abruptly became torpedo men when questioned by the Germans.
Awards to the Glowworm’s crew
It was not until 1945 when the war ended and they were released that the full story emerged. As a result five medals were awarded.
Lieutenant Roope was awarded the Victoria Cross
Lieutenant Ramsay, the only surviving officer, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order
Three ratings were awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
HMS Glowworm
Type British G-Class
destroyer
Weight: 1,350 tons standard,
1,854 tons loaded
Max.Speed: 34-35 knots
Armament:
Two quintuple torpedo mounts firing
21-inch torpedos
4.7 inch guns
She was one of the few G-Class destroyers upgraded to quintuple mounts. As standard, they only fired four torpedos, not five.
Admiral Hipper
Type: German "Hipper class"
Heavy Cruiser
Weight: 14,247 tons standard,
18,400 tons loaded
Max. Speed: 32 knots
Main Armament:
Eight eight-inch guns
Twelve five-inch guns
Twelve twenty-one-inch torpedo tubes
The Admiral Hipper was the first and named ship of the Hipper class heavy cruisers.
Author’s note
I was extremely surprised to find that the story of the Glowworm is not more widely known. The only print matter available about it seems to be the Battle of the April Storm, a fictionalized account by Larry Forester. Otherwise it is mentioned only in passing in many histories of the war at sea.
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HMS Jervis Bay And Convoy HX84
HX84 was a British navy convoy in the second world war. When it was attacked by the German battleship Admiral Sheer, the convoy's sole armed escort, the converted liner Jervis Bay, moved into the path of the battleship to buy time for the convoy to escape.
The story of the Jervis Bay, the San Demetrio, the Beaverford and the other ships of convoy HX-84 is not just one of courage against incredible odds, but also one of how a small action can have consequences that can change the path of a war.
Convoy HX-84
During the Second World War the North Atlantic convoys were the lifeline that kept Britain from being starved out. Braving the dangers of the u-boat wolfpacks, the Luftwaffe and the sea itself, one of the greatest threats they faced was convoy raiders - German battleships designed to sink the defenceless merchant vessels.
When HX84 sailed from Halifax,Canada in 1940, the members of the convoy could hardly have realised that their voyage would be immortalised. A convoy of thirty-eight cargo vessels and one lightly armed ocean escort,they were bringing vital supplies to the UK from their North American ally Canada, for at the time the US had not yet entered the war.
The Escort
Once out in the Atlantic HX84 would meet with a fully armed escort ship, but until they joined them, the Jervis Bay was their only line of defense. The sole armed escort in the convoy, the Jervis Bay weighed 14,000 tons but her size was deceptive.
A converted liner, her entire armament consisted of six-inch guns, bolted to the deck and dating from World War One; virtually antique. She was unarmoured, and possibly a match for a U-boat or similarly converted raider. Against a battleship of any kind, she would be helpless, but with the shortage of armed ships she was the only escort available.
The Ambush
It was the 5th November 1940 at around 5:30 pm and nearing dusk when the encounter that guaranteed HX84 and the Jervis Bay's place in history occurred.
A strange ship was sighted on the horizon, approaching fast. The convoy, expecting to meet with its Atlantic escort, sent signals requesting it identify itself but received no answer. At the same time as the convoy identified it, the ship opened fire.
The Admiral Scheer was a German Pocket Battleship, designed to be able to outgun anything that could catch it, and outrun everything else. Fast, manoeverable and deadly, it carried eleven inch guns with considerable range. At 12,000 tons, it was literally a battleship in all but name.
The Pocket Battleship
With armour over a foot thick, a top speed of 26-28 knots, a main armament consisting of 6 eleven inch guns, eight six-inch guns and a torpedo battery, Pocket Battleships were effectively heavy cruisers, capable of taking on anything up to a Ship of the Line.
German Intelligence had learned the location of convoy HX84 and the Admiral Scheer, commanded by Admiral Krancke, had been ready to intercept. It was a convoy raider, and a ship of the same type had sunk eleven ships from one convoy in less than an hour.
Evasion
Instantly the order was given to scatter, and the convoy split up, dropping smokefloats to cover their retreat. This strategy was the best defense convoys had, but was often futile. A ship like the Admiral Scheer could simply plow through the smoke and run down the unarmed merchant vessels, as Captain Edward Fegen of the Jervis Bay was well aware.
As the convoy fled, the Jervis Bay alone turned towards the Admiral Scheer hoping to buy the merchant ships time.
If they could delay the raider until darkness fell, the ships would be able to hide in the Atlantic at night and the chances of the Scheer finding them were slim. Opening fire with its antiquated six inch guns, well out of range and unable to penetrate the armour of the battleship even if they were not, the Jervis Bay set course towards the Admiral Scheer.
The Sacrifice of the Jervis Bay
The Admiral Scheer's first shots fell wide, as Admiral Krancke realised the armoured liner was actually trying to attack. For the same reasons the Jervis Bay sought to delay it, the Scheer needed to get past the liner quickly.
The Admiral Scheer's initial volleys were an attempt to disable the escort ship efficiently, allowing them to bypass it and pursue the convoy. The Jervis Bay did not turn aside, and continued ahead at full speed. Knowing they were losing time, the Scheer changed tactics. The pocket battleship found their range and began to pound the approaching escort with full barrages. No longer trying to conserve ammunition, intending to quickly sink the vessel that was all that stood between it and the convoy, the Admiral Scheer opened fire with salvo after salvo of six-hundred-pound shells.
They tore through the converted liner like paper.
The Jervis Bay's bridge was struck, and Captain Fegen's left arm torn off. The engine was destroyed, but by that time the ship had built up momentum and continued to close on the Admiral Scheer, her six inch guns still firing futily and still falling short. With the next salvo an exploding shell hit the bridge, killing the Captain, and one of the forward guns was destroyed. Her remaining gun still firing, still falling painfully short, the Jervis Bay continued from sheer momentum.
Finally, inevitably, the Scheer's salvos hit something vital within the Jervis Bay. The ship shuddered and turned over, sinking. It was still out of range for its guns. One hundred and ninety men were lost.
Some sources say the Jervis Bay survived twenty-four minutes, others nearly an hour. Twenty four minutes sounds so little time when bought with the lives of the crew of the Jervis Bay. But however long the battle lasted, all agree, it was time enough for darkness to fall and the convoy to scatter.
The Admiral Scheer pursued the fleeing convoy, but it was far from the triumph they had expected when they sighted HX84. Instead of sinking eleven ships in an hour, they spent the night and next day in pursuit, expending fuel and ammunition.
Thirty-one of the thirty-eight convoy vessels got through, and Captain Fegen received a posthumous VC.
The Beaverford
The story of HX84 does not end with the sinking of the Jervis Bay. The Jervis Bay was gone, but its gallant sacrifice had bought time for darkness to fall. The convoy had had time to scatter, making it impossible for the Admiral Scheer to locate them all, but they were not out of danger. The raider set out in pursuit of the remaining ships, hunting the convoy ships using starshells.
Faster than the merchantmen, the Admiral Scheer overhauled part of the fleeing convoy and set the fuel tanker San Demetrio on fire. Then it went after the merchant freighter Beaverford.
An unarmoured merchant vessel equipped with a single four-inch gun, the Beaverford was no match for the convoy raider. Captain E. Pettigrew, knowing that his ship was lost, embarked on a dangerous game of cat and mouse, trying to further delay the raider. Because the Admiral Scheer was faster than any of the cargo vessels it hunted and could simply run them down, any further time that could be bought would improve the convoy's chances.
Undercover of darkness, the Beaverford managed to occupy the Admiral Scheer for a further five hours. The Admiral Scheer, unsure of what was facing it, was reluctant to close in the gloom and eventually torpedoed the freighter. It was sunk with all hands.
San Demetrio
Hit by the Admiral Sheer, the fuel tanker San Demetrio was set ablaze, but failed to sink. She was carrying highly explosive aviation fuel and, afraid of an explosion, the Captain ordered all hands to abandon ship.
As the crew climbed into lifeboats, the pocket battleship continued to fire on the burning ship before it moved on to other prey, certain that the San Demetrio was beyond recovery.
Two lifeboats were launched, one containing sixteen of the crew, one with twenty-six, but they drifted apart in the Atlantic. The twenty six crewwere eventually picked up and taken to Newfoundland.
Floating overnight in the cold, the smaller group of crewmen were delighted the next morning to see a ship on the horizon. Their delight turned to confusion when it revealed itself as the San Demetrio, still ablaze and still afloat. The next night the ship was still in view, and rather than spend a third night at sea, the decision was taken to reboard her. The crew managed to get the fires under control.
Without steering or navigational equipment, they jury-rigged a rudder and managed to work out their course from the path of the sun. The skeleton crew sailed the damaged San Demetrio over one thousand miles back to Britain, where she arrived on 16th November with her precious cargo almost intact.
The crew's heroism did not go unrewarded. By maritime law, it was decided they were entitled to the salvage rights for the vessel, worth between one and two thousand pounds each. The San Demetrio itself however, was sunk by a U-boat in 1942.
The Stureholm
The survivors of the Jervis Bay had no chance to survive in the icy waters of the Atlantic at night. The Admiral Scheer did not attempt to pick them up, as it was chasing the convoy members. None would have survived except for an act of exceptional courage.
One of the convoy ships took a huge risk for the survivors of the escort ship. Captain Sven Oleander of the Swedish vessel Stureholm turned back despite the presence of the Admiral Scheer, which was still hunting the fleeing vessels and firing star shells which illuminated the area. Using the cover of night he managed to pick up sixty-five of the survivors. The Stureholm returned to Halifax and arrived safely on the 12th November 1940.
Sadly despite this act of courage, the Stureholm was to meet its own fate in December of the same year. It was part of convoy HX-92, when it was attacked by U-boats in the North Atlantic and sunk with all hands. Some of the Jervis Bay survivors had signed on as crew, and were aboard.
The final fate of the convoy
The Admiral Scheer sank five vessels from the convoy, as well as their armed escort:
"Jervis Bay"
"Beaverford"
"Maiden"
"Trewellard"
"Kenbame Head"
"Fresno City"
The Stureholm turned back for Halifax with the Jervis Bay survivors. The San Demetrio was set ablaze and considered lost, until it was reboarded and sailed home. The remaining vessels made it successfully to British ports.
The Victoria Cross
"Valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect." reads the citation on Captain Fegen's VC. As a Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour, can only be awarded to one person in an action (usually suggested by those who took part), it was awarded to the gallant Captain of the Jervis Bay.
~ The End ~
Resources
Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org)
http://www.hmsglowworm.org.uk/
“The Lonely Sea” by Alastair McClean
“If the Gods are good; the Epic Sacrifice of HMS Jervis Bay” - Ralph Segman, Gerald Duskin
Further Reading:
http://www.squidoo.com/HMS-Glowworm
http://www.squidoo.com/Jervis-Bay
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About the e-Book
These pieces were originally produced for a local school, and are available online for free distribution. Aimed at a younger audience, they are a brief introduction to the events mentioned, designed to give an overview and as a starting point to more research.
Given the sensitive subject matter, I have tried to handle these essays with respect, and sincerely hope they cause no offense or distress to the relatives and survivors of these events.
With thanks to Ragged Angel for handling the formatting and upload of this e-book.
Ciamar Price (More on Smashwords)
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