... in a war zone. Oh, and no flying patrol? Dear god. Just spotting the Ugly Sisters an hour early might allow escape, or even a carrier air attack. This is "Boscoe" Wright levels of incompetence.
Unfortunately, we will never know what was going through D'Oyly-Hughes mind that day as he was one of those who died. He was on the way home to court martial his most senior flier, Commander (F) Heath, who he had already put ashore. He had already berated the next most senior for daring to offer advice. It was not a happy ship.
He was also reported to have said to the CO of the fighter squadron, who had suggested, after the attack had begun, launching Sea Glads to go find Ark Royal for help, DH "had repudiated his proposals in no uncertain terms, with a final statement to the effect that 'Surely you don't wish your pilots to behave like rats leaving a sinking ship'".
The speed was not at all unusual, even in a war zone. Even in 1945 fleet operating speeds, both USN & RN were generally in the 15-20 knot bracket, with 24-25 being the usual max. Even the KM had been operating at around 15-19 knots in that war zone, before working up to higher speeds on sighting Glorious & her consorts.
Her own air group had been reduced to half a squadron (6) of Swordfish & 9 Sea Gladiators, to leave space for her to bring home RAF Gladiators & Hurricanes (these were landed on without the benefit of arrester hooks, and was the first time a Hurricane had been deck landed). Why she wasn't operating even an AS patrol is one of the great unknowns. On sighting the twins a Swordfish torpedo strike was ordered, but the next problem was that only three aircraft were fitted with a torpedo rack, as the operations the previous day had been bombing missions. And earlier that morning the warheads had been removed and returned to their magazines. One survivor described a kind of "holiday" atmosphere aboard as leave was due on arrival!
Ships were returning to Britain in small groups. The tanker Oil Pioneer & her trawler escort were caught & sunk by the KM ships. The cruiser Devonshire was nearby travelling alone taking The Norwegian Royal Family to Britain. She picked up Glorious signals of the attack, but being under orders to maintain strict radio silence, did not pass them on.
There was an intelligence failure in neither detecting or deducing that the KM were at sea in force (Hipper & 4 destroyers were also involved in Operation Juno).
There was also an element if bad luck. The initial contact by S&G was by a lookout who spotted a wisp of smoke on the horizon some 28 miles distant. They opened fire at 14 miles, and with radar ranging S secured a hit with her third salvo which demolished 1 Swordfish on the flight deck before penetrating the flight deck and exploding in the upper hangar, amongst the Hurricanes stored there, and starting a serious fire. Almost the next salvo hit the bridge, destroying it and killing everyone there. And shortly after that a hit in the boiler uptakes caused a speed reduction and sealed her fate.
It was a very sorry episode in RN history.
Edit:- For those unfamiliar with this battleground here is a map. The action took place about 200 miles from the Norwegian coast
And a more detailed look at the ship movements. Note Glorious turning away from her attackers once She was aware of them and running.
www.secretprojects.co.uk
