RN:
G class destroyer HMS Glowworm (H92) in 1937
1939-1940
Underway, making smoke and on fire as she begins her approach to try and ram the German cruiser Admiral Hipper during the Norwegian campaign, after failing to score hits with Torpedoes, on the 8th April 1940.
The destroyer was sunk when she hit the side of the German ship causing minor plate damage and small floods in the German ship.
Glowworm in flames after ramming
Hipper
Only 31 men survived. They were rescued by the Germans. The Hipper’s captain, impressed by Glowworm’s bravery, later reported Roope’s heroism to the British through the Red Cross.
On the morning of 8 April 1940
Glowworm was on her way to rejoin
Renown when she encountered the German destroyers
Z11 Bernd von Arnim and
Z18 Hans Lüdemann in the thick fog before 8:00 a.m. The destroyers were part of a German naval detachment, led by the heavy cruiser
Admiral Hipper, on its way to land troops at
Trondheim as part of
Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of
Norway.
Glowworm opened fire and the German destroyers attempted to disengage, signalling for help. The request was soon answered by
Admiral Hipper and
Glowworm was spotted at 09:50.
Hipper had difficulty in distinguishing
Glowworm from
von Arnim but opened fire eight minutes later at a range of 8,400 m (27,600 ft) with the 20.3-centimetre (8.0 in) main armament
Glowworm was hit by
Hipper's fourth
salvo and she made
smoke and turned into it but the cruiser's radar-directed guns were not affected by the smoke. When the destroyer emerged from the smoke the range was short enough for the cruiser's 10.5-centimetre (4.1 in) guns to open fire.
Glowworm's radio room,
bridge, and forward 4.7-inch gun were destroyed and she received more hits in the engine room, the captain's day cabin and the mast. As the mast fell it caused a short circuit of the wiring and the ship's siren turned on
At 10:10,
Lieutenant Commander Gerard Roope fired five torpedoes from one mounting at a range of 800 m (2,600 ft). The torpedoes missed because Captain
Hellmuth Heye had kept
Hipper's bow pointed at
Glowworm to minimize the risk from torpedoes. The destroyer fell back through her smokescreen to buy time to get her second torpedo mount working but Heye followed
Glowworm to finish her off before she could fire the rest of her torpedoes. The two ships were very close when
Hipper emerged from the smoke and Roope ordered a hard turn to starboard to ram the cruiser.
Hipper was slow to answer her
helm and
Glowworm struck the cruiser just
abaft the anchor.
The collision broke off
Glowworm's bow and the rest of the ship scraped along
Hipper's side, gouging several holes in its hull, destroying her forward starboard torpedo mounting, and one of her sailors was lost overboard by the collision.
Hipper took on some 500 t (490 long tons; 550 short tons) of water before the leaks could be isolated but was not seriously damaged.
Glowworm was on fire when she drifted clear and her boilers exploded at 10:24, taking 109 of her crew with her
