HMS Glorious during the invasion of Norway, AprilJune 1940
On 7 April 1940, Germanys warships sorted to cover the invasion of Norway, necessary both to secure the Reichs northern border and approaches and to gain access to the open ocean north of the United Kingdom, as well as securing her supplies of iron ore from neutral Sweden. Coincidentally, the next day, ships of the Royal Navy left port to begin mine-laying operations along the Norwegian coast, and thus the scene was set for the first major naval confrontation of World War II.
COVERING THE INVASION FLEET
The German-Army came ashore at Kristiansand, Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik (and by parachute at Oslo and Stavanger), and the Kriegsmarine was present in considerable strength both to ferry fighting units and shield the transports. The first naval confrontation took place on 8 April, when the British destroyer Glowworm (1350 tons) courageously rammed the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper (14,500 tons) off Trondheim, causing her considerable damage and forcing her to return to Wilhelmshaven for repairs, but herself sinking.
The destroyer HMS Gurkha was also lost. The following day the light cruiser Karlsruhe was torpedoed by the submarine Truant off Kristionsond and sank, while the heavy cruiser Blcher was sunk by Norwegian shore batteries.
On 10 April it was the turn of the light cruiser Konigsberg, bombed which was put out of action off Bergen, and the next day the pocket battleship Ltzow was torpedoed by the submarine Spearfish in the Kattegat, losing both propellers and having to be towed back to Germany for repairs which took over a year. Meanwhile, a flotilla of five British destroyers had entered Narvik harbour and attacked the German units there, sinking two destroyers and damaging a third, and destroying six merchant ships, before they were set upon in turn by five more German destroyers, losing two ships and suffering serious damage to two more (though that wasnt the end of the affair, for on 13 April the British battleship Warspite, together with nine destroyers, arrived and sank all the surviving German destroyers plus a U-boat).
THE END OF THE GLORIOUS
By the third week of April, a combined British-French Task Force had been landed in Norway and on 28 May, after a month of non-stop fighting, they extensive damage.
succeeded in driving the Germans out of Narvik. Events elsewhere soon made it clear that Norway would have to be given up, however, and on 7 June the Task Force began to evacuate. The ships transporting the exhausted soldiers were escorted by the aircraft carrier Glorious, together with two destroyers, Ardent and Acosta, and on 8 June the convoy was set upon by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Glorious was crammed with aircraft rescued from Narvik, and she was unable to fly off attack planes before a salvo from the German 28cm (11 in) guns put her flightdeck out of action. The destroyers tried vainly to cover her with a smokescreen, but the battleships superior firepower overwhelmed them, and all were sunk, the destroyers both going down with their guns still firing. Acasta had previously hit the Scharnhorst with a torpedo, causing extensive damage.
