Disaster as HMS Glorious sunk

8th June 1940: A tragic end to the Norway campaign as the carrier and her two destroyer escorts are ambushed by the Scharnhorst

‘HMS Glorious in the Arctic’, Eric Ravilious, 1940.

The aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, a 1930 conversion from a World War I battle-cruiser, had been despatched on several trips back and forth to Norway, to augment Allied air power during the struggle for Narvik.

HMS Glorious, a cruiser converted into an aircraft carrier, in the 1930s.

On 7th June she had taken back on board the Hurricane fighters that had been based ashore. They had landed on HMS Glorious without the benefit of tail-hooks, instead relying on bags of sand placed in the tail end of the plane to provide the weight distribution necessary to make a carrier landing.

Then at 0300 on the 8th June she departed, escorted only by the destroyers HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta, back to Scapa Flow in Scotland¹.

But HMS Glorious was not a happy ship. Her captain, a former submariner, had been in dispute with his Commander (Air), over the conduct of air operations, including bombing raids. So much so, that Commander (Air) had been left back in Scotland, to face a court-martial on a charge of insubordination.

The 32,000 ton battleship or battle cruiser Scharnhorst, commissioned in 1939.

So, at 1615, HMS Glorious was not flying any Combat Air Patrols, had no aircraft on deck at readiness to fly off, and apparently did not even have a lookout. She was virtually defenceless when the Kriegsmarine battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau suddenly appeared and opened fire from a range of 9 miles.