What you see here is the one of the last photos ever taken of one of history's bravest warship crews. HMS Glowworm. During the German invasion of Norway in spring of 1940, Glowworm had been in the company of the battlecruiser Renown, but detached to rescue a missing seaman. Attempting to find Renown again in a gale, she found a large warship... just not the one she wanted to find. Instead, the 1800-ton Glowworm had found the 16,000 ton cruiser Admiral Hipper. The weather was far too rough for a torpedo attack, and one could understand if the Glowworm's captain simply made a run for it and tried to escape the hulking cruiser.
He didn't. He attacked instead.
Despite the rough seas a torpedo attack was attempted (it failed). The 4.7-inch guns didn't have the power to cause any real damage to the Hipper, and even the attempted smokescreen (seen above) failed to do much- the wind kept whipping it away too fast to really obscure the destroyer anyway. (Unbeknownst to the British, Hipper had just received a new radar system, so the smoke would have merely been an annoyance anyway) Only one weapon remained... ramming. Speed to flank, and slam into the Hipper, and hope that the Glowworm's sacrifice takes the cruiser with her- or at least hurts her bad enough to send her home for a long time.
Glowworm didn't catch her target the way she wanted, only striking a glancing blow, and sank very soon after as a result of repeated hits from 208 and 88 mm shell hits. A sad few survivors were rescued, and Hipper was forced to withdraw for repairs. One of history's great mismatches in naval warfare ended up being a strategic win for a hapless but incredibly brave British destroyer crew.
In a similar vein I give you HMS Acasta and Ardent:
On the way through the Norwegian Sea the funnel smoke from Glorious and her two escorting destroyers, Acasta and Ardent, was spotted by the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Scharnhorst opened fire on Ardent at a range of 16,000 yards (15,000 m), causing the destroyer to withdraw, firing torpedoes and making a smoke screen. Ardent scored one hit with her 4.7-inch guns on Scharnhorst but was hit several times by the German ships' secondary armament and sank. Scharnhorst switched her fire to Glorious and scored her first hit on her third salvo, at a range of 26,000 yards. A second shell hit the homing beacon above the bridge and killed or wounded the captain and most of the personnel stationed there. Ardent's smokescreen became effective enough to impair the visibility of the Germans so they ceased fire on Glorious. Glorious was hit again in the centre engine room and this caused her to lose speed and commence a slow circle to port. She also developed a list to starboard. The German ships closed to within 16,000 yards and continued to fire sinking Glorious. As the German ships approached Glorious, Acasta, which had been trying to maintain the smokescreen, broke through her own smoke and fired two volleys of torpedoes at Scharnhorst. One of these hit abreast her rear turret and badly damaged her. Acasta also managed one hit from her 4.7-inch guns on Scharnhorst, but was riddled by German gunfire and sank.
Survivors estimated that about 900 men abandoned Glorious. The Germans did not try to pick up survivors. The Royal Navy knew nothing of the sinking until it was announced on German radio. The Norwegian ship Borgund, on passage to the Faroe Islands, arrived late on 10 June and picked up survivors, eventually delivering 37 alive to Thorshavn of whom two later died. Another Norwegian ship, Svalbard II, also making for the Faeroes, picked up five survivors but was sighted by a German aircraft and forced to return to Norway, where the four still alive became prisoners of war for the next five years. It is also believed that one more survivor from Glorious was rescued by a German seaplane. Therefore, the total of survivors was 40, including one each from Acasta and Ardent. The total killed or missing was 1,207 from Glorious, 160 from Acasta and 152 from Ardent, a total of
1,519.
