Posted on 04/08/2010 4:21:56 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm
Did you see the advert for the New York Times - “accurate, complete, unbiased”?
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/apr40/f08apr40.htm
British destroyer battles German cruiser
Monday, April 8, 1940 www.onwar.com
HMS Glowworm moments after the rammingIn the North Sea... Early in the morning the British destroyer Glowworm meets part of the German force bound for Narvik off Trondheim Fiord. After ramming the heavy cruiser Hipper, Glowworm is sunk. About midday the German transport Rio de Janeiro is sunk by a British submarine in the Skaggerak and many German soldiers are rescued by Norwegian fishing boats. Despite these and other indications the Norwegian authorities only alert the coastal forces in the evening. The British naval forces at sea are of course alerted, but are not kept up to date with all the information available to London and are, therefore, deployed too far out to sea to hope for interceptions of a landing force. Instead they guard against a raid out toward the Atlantic. The Royal Navy lays mines in Norwegian waters during the day.
In Britain... The troops embarking at Rosyth for the Anglo-French expedition to Narvik are sent back onshore and their cruiser transports sail. In fact these troops could easily have reached their objectives before the German landings, or at least have been on hand for an attempt on Narvik early in the campaign.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Glowworm_%28H92%29
On the morning of 8 April 1940 Glowworm was on her way to rejoin the Renown when she encountered the German destroyers Z 11 Bernd von Arnim and then the Z 18 Hans Lüdemann in the heavy fog around 08:00. The destroyers were part of a German naval detachment, led by the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, on its way to land invasion troops at Trondheim as part of the German invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung). A skirmish broke out and the German destroyers fled, signalling for help. The request was soon answered by the Admiral Hipper. Although hopelessly outgunned, Glowworm accepted the fight and, while receiving several heavy hits, fired torpedoes at the German cruiser. They missed and, in a final desperate effort to sink or at least seriously damage her opponent, Glowworm then attempted to ram Admiral Hipper. One of the Hipper’s shells hit the Glowworm’s mast. As this crashed down, it caused a short circuit of the wiring, causing the ship’s siren to start a banshee wail which nobody was able to stop. As the ships collided, Admiral Hipper suffered major damage, with a large underwater gash in her bow. With the two ships locked together, Glowworm fired one last shot at point-blank range into the Hipper. Glowworm was pushed under the cruiser’s bow and her entire forecastle was sheared off up to the bridge. For several minutes she drifted, on fire, alongside Admiral Hipper, then capsized and sank north-west of Trondheim. 111 of the ship’s company were killed and 39 were taken prisoner.
During the engagement Glowworm had broken radio silence and informed the Admiralty of her situation. She was not able to complete her transmission, and all the Admiralty knew was that the Glowworm had been confronted by a large German ship, shots were fired, and contact with the destroyer could not be re-established. In response, the Admiralty ordered the Renown and her single destroyer escort (the other two had gone to friendly ports for fuel) to abandon its post at the Vestfjords and head to the Glowworm’s last known location. At 10:45, the remaining eight destroyers of the minelaying force were ordered to join as well. The Admiral Hipper had meanwhile departed the scene damaged, and made her way to Trondheim.
The Glowworm’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope, killed when she sank, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, thus becoming the first VC recipient of the Second World War. The award was justified, in part, by the recommendation of his opponent, Captain Hellmuth Heye of the Admiral Hipper, who wrote to the British authorities via the Red Cross, giving a statement of the valiant courage Lt Cdr Roope had shown when engaging a much superior ship in close battle.
http://www.thedorsetpage.com/history/vc/gerard_broadmead_roope.htm
Gerard Broadmead Roope [1905-1940]
In April 1940 the Germans invaded Norway and among the many naval actions during the campaign there was one with connections to Weymouth, a David and Goliath tale of heroism leading to the award of a posthumous Victoria Cross to the Commanding Officer of a small British destroyer, Lieutenant Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope, a Weymouth man. So impressed were the Germans with the conduct of the action of the tiny British destroyer that the German Admiral recommended her Captain for the VC, believed to be the only time such a decoration had been awarded on the recommendation of an enemy.
The citation in the London Gazette of 6th July 1945, gives the following details:- On 8th April, 1940, H.M.S. Glowworm was proceeding alone towards West Fjord, Norway, when she met and engaged two enemy destroyers, hitting at least one of them. The enemy broke off the action and headed north. Lieutenant-Commander Roope, though appreciating the intention of the enemy to lead him on to his supporting forces, gave chase. The German heavy cruiser, Admiral Hipper was sighted closing the Glowworm at high speed, and an enemy report was sent, which was received by H.M.S. Renown. Because of the heavy sea it was not possible for the Glowworm to shadow the enemy, and the Commanding Officer decided to attack. Ten torpedoes were fired without success; then the Glowworm, badly hit and her speed reduced, closed and rammed the Admiral Hipper. As she withdrew the Glowworm opened fire again, and scored one hit at 400 yards range. Badly stove in forward and riddled with enemy fire, the Glowworm heeled over, and the Commanding Officer gave the order to abandon her. Shortly afterwards she capsized and sank; only 31 out of her complement of 149 were saved. The Victoria Cross is bestowed upon Lieutenant Commander Roope in recognition of his great valour.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/08.htm
April 8th, 1940
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN.
NORWAY: Early this morning the light cruiser Karlsruhe, the auxiliary Tsingtau and ten torpedo boats leave Germany for Kristiansund, and four mine sweepers head for Egersund, a terminal of the telephone and telegraph cable from England. Twenty eight submarines of the Kriegsmarine form a protective screen across the western approaches to Norway. (Andy Etherington)
During Operation WILFRED, Royal Navy destroyers lay a minefield, simulated and real, at three points off the Norwegian coast between Stadtlandet and Bodø located just north of the Arctic Circle. The Norwegian government is notified by the British and French that mines have been laid in their territorial waters. The destroyers are covered by battlecruiser HMS Renown and other destroyers. One of the screen HMS Glowworm, a ‘G’ and ‘H’ class destroyer, is detached to search for a man overboard, just as the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper heads into Trondheim. They meet to the northwest of the port and the destroyer is sunk at around 0900 hours about 140 miles (225 kilometres) northwest of Trondheim, but not before she rams and damages the Hipper. Lieutenant Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope RN (b. 1905) is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross (VC not gazetted until 1945, but the first deed for which the VC was awarded in the war). The Admiral Hipper picks up the survivors. At 1150 hours, the German transport SS Rio de Janeiro is sunk by the Polish submarine Orzel near the town of Lillesand and many German soldiers are rescued by Norwegian fishing boats. There is heavy loss of life, but Wehrmacht soldiers in full combat dress who reach shore in southern Norway, tell the Norwegians that they were on their way to Bergen to aid the Norwegians against the British. When the report of this sinking reaches Berlin, the naval staff assumed that the element of surprise had been lost and that the invasion fleet would now be meeting resistance at all points along the Norwegian coast, but within a few hours the German naval attache in Oslo advises Berlin that there were reliable signs that the Norwegian Administration had not been alerted, and that the navy were showing no signs of expected imminent danger. Despite these and other indications, the Norwegian authorities only alert the coastal forces in the evening. The chief communication officer of the Norwegian Admiralty staff is spending the evening with other important guests at the home of the German Air attache in Oslo, and is not called away until 2330 hours, and it is 0100 hours the following morning (9 April) before the Admiralty orders the activation of mines in the Oslo Fjord, but too late, as German ships had already entered the fjord. Also shortly after 0100 hours on 9 April, the Army Chief of Staff informs Lieutenant Colonel Nielsen, Chief of the General Staff Army Operations section, that fortresses at the mouth of the Oslo Fjord have been attacked, and to black out the city as a precaution; the lights go out in Oslo at 0158 hours on 9 April. (Andy Etherington, Alex Gordon and Jack McKillop)
The British naval forces at sea are of course alerted, but are not kept up to date with all the information available to London and are, therefore, deployed too far out to sea to hope for interceptions of a landing force. Instead they guard against a raid out toward the Atlantic thus missing a chance to stop the German invasion of Norway. (Andy Etherington)
Oslo and Copenhagen: 23:00 hours. Himer and Pohlman brief their respective Ambassadors on the forthcoming invasions.
The startling events in Norway, for all intents, found the Royal Navy’s Air Branch about as ill-placed as possible. The loss of HMS Courageous in September 1939 had left the Navy with six flight decks in commission. HMS Argus, the oldest and least serviceable, was operating out of Toulon, France as the Fleet’s Deck Landing Training carrier. HMS Hermes, the next smallest in size and effectiveness, was stationed at Freetown to cover the South Atlantic trade routes. HMS Eagle was in drydock at Singapore undergoing an extensive refit to repair the damage sustained from an accidental explosion in her bomb ready room. HMS Furious, the oldest of the Fleet’s fast carriers, having just completed a long refit at Devonport, was due to reenter service momentarily. The Fleet’s remaining two fast carriers had both just arrived at the new home of the Mediterranean Fleet, Alexandria, Egypt, intending to begin an extensive work-up period with their Torpedo-Spotter-Reconnaissance (TSR) squadrons. Finally, a seventh carrier, the first of the Fleet’s new armored carriers, HMS Illustrious, was fitting out at Devonport, scheduled to commission in late May. Thus, with the Fleet about to embark on the first naval campaign of the war, there was only one carrier, the navy’s oldest, in home waters!
When it came to its aircraft, the Fleet was only a little better off. Despite steady expansion since September 1939, the Fleet Air Arm consisted of but twenty first-line squadrons: There were fourteen Torpedo-Spotter-Reconnaissance squadrons, thirteen (810, 812, 813, 814, 815, 816, 818, 819, 820, 821, 823, 824, and 825) each operating nine to twelve Fairey Swordfish and one (826) that had just received the first batch of the Fairey company’s new Albacore, the Swordfish’s planned replacement. The remaining six were fighter squadrons: four (800, 801, 803, and 806) operating a combination of Blackburn Skua II fighter-dive bombers and Blackburn Roc turret-fighters, and two (802 and 804) operating Gloster Sea Gladiator biplane fighters.
As fortune would have it, while nine of the TSR and one of the fighter squadrons were embarked on the overseas carriers, the remainder were actually in the UK, although all were not fully worked up. Both 816 and 818 Squadrons were at RNAS Cambeltown (near Greenock) with nine Swordfish TSRs each, ready to embark on HMS Furious when her refit was completed. 815 (Bircham Newton) and 819 Squadrons (Ford) were working up with the RAF’s Coastal Command for ultimate deployment on HMS Illustrious. Finally, 826 was just beginning its working up Ford.
Three of the Fleet’s fighter squadrons, 800 (six Skua IIs, three Rocs), 803 (nine Skua IIs, three Rocs), and 804 (twelve Sea Gladiators) had for some time been concentrated at RNAS Hatston (in the Orkney’s) defending the Fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow. 801 Squadron (six Skua IIs, three Rocs), earmarked for HMS Furious, was at Evanton (Scotland) working up, while 806 Squadron (eight Skua IIs, four Rocs) was doing likewise at West Freugh in preparation for joining HMS Illustrious.
Unfortunately, the lack of available flight decks would, at least initially, limit these squadrons to operating from land bases. Tactically, this was a severe limitation as, other than the Skua fighter-dive bombers, none of the Fleet’s combat aircraft had the range to reach Norway from any base in the UK. Further, while the Skuas could reach the Norwegian coast in the Bergen area, it was at the extreme limit of their range, leaving only a miniscule fuel reserve to get home on after any strike. Thus, the Fleet’s ability to challenge the Luftwaffe over Norway would be greatly inhibited during the critical early phases of the invasion. (Mark Horan)
UNITED KINGDOM: The troops embarking at Rosyth, Scotland, for the Anglo-French expedition to Narvik, Norway, are sent back onshore and their cruiser transports sail. In fact these troops could easily have reached their objectives before the German landings, or at least have been on hand for an attempt on Narvik early in the campaign. (Jack McKillop)
GERMANY: Below the Danish border Lieutenant General Leonhard Kaupisch, Commanding the XXXI Corps, musters his troop and a collection of armed icebreakers, minesweepers, merchant ships and prepares to invade Denmark tomorrow. (Andy Etherington)
First operational sortie of the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 ‘Kondor’, when aircraft of KGrzbV 105 serve as both transports and maritime reconnaissance.
U.S.A.: Preliminary design studies for a very long range bomber are submitted by Boeing, Lockheed, Douglas and Consolidated. (Jack McKillop)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 221 April 8, 1940
After midnight, Marine Gruppe 3 departs Wilhelmshaven for Bergen (cruisers Königsberg & Köln, transport Karl Peters, minelayer Bremse & 5 torpedo-boats carrying 1900 troops). At dawn, Marine Gruppe 4 & 6 depart Cuxhaven carrying 1250 troops for the South coast of Norway; Marine Gruppe 5 leaves Wilhelmshaven Swinemünde for Oslo (cruisers Blücher, Lützow and Emden, 8 minesweepers & 3 torpedo-boats carrying 2000 troops) At 5 AM, British destroyers HMS Esk, Icarus, Impulsive & Ivanhoe lay mines in the Vestfjord, gateway to Narvik. At 6 AM, the Allies inform Norway of this action, to prevent passage of ships “carrying war contraband”.
At 8 AM, British destroyer HMS Glowworm encounters Marine Gruppe 1 heading to Trondheim. Glowworm is badly damaged by 8-inch shells from German cruiser Admiral Hipper, engaging the much heavier ship in close battle. Glowworm rams Admiral Hipper causing major damage & then sinks (118 lives lost, 31 taken prisoner by Admiral Hipper). Lieutenant-Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope, commanding HMS Glowworm, drowns after helping survivors put on lifejackets. He will be posthumously awarded the first Victoria Cross of WWII for his aggressive actions, in part due to the testimony of his adversary, Captain Hellmuth Heye of the Admiral Hipper, who wrote to the British authorities via the Red Cross giving a statement of Commander Roope’s courage. http://navalwarfare.blogspot.com/2009/06/hms-glowworm-h92.html
Only Vice-Admiral Max Horton commanding home-based submarines (alone among Royal Navy brass) correctly perceives German intentions to invade Norway. He deploys 6 more submarines to intercept ships sailing from German naval bases. HMS Ursula, Triad and Sterlet leave port to patrol the Skagerrak between Denmark and Norway. At noon, Polish submarine Orzel (part of Horton’s 2nd Submarine Flotilla, already on patrol in the Skagerrak) sinks German troop transport Rio de Janeiro. German troops rescued by Norwegian ships confess they are en route to Bergen. However, British minelaying dominates Norwegian thinking and they are not prepared for invasion by Germany. http://www.historynet.com/the-polish-submarine-orzel-july-96-world-war-ii-feature.htm/2
I’ve got quite a bit today so please bear with me for a moment. I’ll be starting with our weekly magazine subscription, and I just got another couple monthly’s to go with it. Some kid came to my door and sold me a bunch of magazines so he could go to youth camps or something.
On the 8th, London ordered the First Cruiser Squadron at Rosyth to leave its troops behind and join the Fleet - without telling Forbes until it had been done. Then the cruiser and six destroyers in the Clyde which were to escort the troop-transports waiting there, were ordered to Scapa Flow to back up the Home Fleet. The First Sea Lord, Admiral Pound, thereby made the execution of Plan R4 impossible. Also on the 8th, the Admiralty pulled the minelayers back from the approaches to Narvik, leaving it uncovered, while Forbes sent ships to look for the Glowworm, whos last signals he had heard. The minelaying destroyers were told by London to join the Renown - which had been ordered by Forbes to cover the area they abandoned.
The Atlantic Campaign, Dan Van der Vat, pp 153-153
As we had discussed last fall during the Graf Spee chase, it can be seen here that the Royal Navy knew no such thing as fear at sea. I do not mean to say that the Kriegsmarine was not brave, but there always seemed to be a slight bit of hesitancy on their part during sea operations. We will see this happen several times during the war.
I think we will find that a good deal of the Kriegsmarine’s hesitancy was due to Grossadmiral Erich Raeder.
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