DARING DESTROYER

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 7, 9 July 1945, Page 5

DARING DESTROYER

EPIC SEA FIGHT

RAMMED GERMAN CRUISER RUGBY, July 8. The 1345-ton destroyer Glow-worm, in one of the most daring and courageous sea battles of the war, fought a single-handed duel at point-blank range with the 10,000-ton German cruiser Hipper. Then, battered and burning, she turned in a last desperate gesture of defiance and rammed the enemy towering above her. Only now, with the repatriation of the Glow-worm's one surviving officer, Lieutenant Robert Ramsay, has the story of this epic fight come to light, says a naval correspondent. All that was known previously was that the Glow-worm was sunk by a heavy enemy ship in the North Sea on April 8. 1940. This is what happened: The Glow-worm lost touch with the main British forces in her efforts to find a man who was washed overboard by heavy seas. As the weather worsened she had to reduce speed, and, her gyro-compass failing, had to steer by magnetic compass. At daybreak on April 8, 1940, the Glowworm sighted and immediately challenged an unidentified destroyer, which replied that she was Swedish and then opened fire. A few moments later another destroyer was sighted, and the Glow-worm began her gallant fight—against odds from the start. BATTLE BEGINS. The battle developed into a slamming match, with the destroyers manoeuvring at full speed and firing all their guns. "Very soon our director control tower was flooded out by heavy seas," said Lieut. Ramsay. "We lost two overboard and several injured by the roll of the ship, but we secured a hit on the leading enemy destroyer. The enemy did not hit us, and shortly afterwards broke off the action, obviously trying to lead us on to something more powerful." Though the commanding officer of the Glow-worm' knew what the enemy was trying to do, he decided to follow with the idea of finding out what big ships the Germans had at sea. He hoped to shadow them and report their movements. A- minute later the Hipper moved in sight. Weather made shadowing impossible, and from then, on the Glow-worm knew her fate was sealed. The sole" purpose of the Glow-worm now was to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy before being suink, and a heroic battle between David and Goliath began. Long before the Glow-worm's guns were within rfcnge, the Hipper was pouring eight-inch shells at the destroyer, hitting her mercilessly. "We made smoke and began to close on the enemy. When we got within range I fired torpedoes," 1 said Lieut. Ramsay. Meanwhile, the Glow-worm was rapidly becoming a blazing inferno, and the captain turned in and rammed I the Hipper, the captain of which subsequently told Lieut. Ramsay that the ramming damaged one set of her torpedo tubes, flooded two compartments, and put her fresh-water system out of action. ORDER TO ABANDON SHIP. The action continued, and a shell from the Hipper turned into a shambles the GJow-worm's cabin, which was being used. as a first-aid station. This shell also made a hole in the ship's side abaft the engineroom, and another wrecked the aftersuperstructure. The captain was so far unhurt, and !as the ship heeled over to starboard he gave the order to abandon ship. "He sent me down from the bridge and I tried to get as much timber and other floating material over the side ss possible," said Lieut. Ramsay. "There seemed to be very few who were not wounded, but all that could be done was done to put lifebelts on injured men in the hope that they would float. The captain, who was the only other survivor on the bridge besides myself, then came down. Engine-room Artificer Gregg reported that he had gone to the boiler-room and let off steam to avoid an explosion as the ship went down. Then shortly afterwards the Glow-worm capsized. After floating bottom up for a few moments, she sank. "The Hipper stopped and picked up survivors. Our captain was not among them, though he was seen in the water. I was taken before the Hipper's captain, who told me our toroedoes had missed his ship by only a few yards. He told me of the extent of the damage by the ramming. "The Hipper took us to Trondheim, but later she had to go to Germany to be docked for repairs." Only 30 ratings out of 140 on board survived. Two died in captivity. The remainder have now been repatriated with Lieut. Ramsay.—B.O.W.