The naval disaster Winston Churchill tried to hide

Three British warships were sunk by German naval gunfire on a dark day early in World War II, but the heroes who fought back received only muted recognition, possibly to avoid bad publicity,

- Peter Horwood.

At 5.38pm on 8 June 1940, the German battleship Scharnhorst’s third salvo struck the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious from a distance of over 24km, making it possibly the furthest naval gunfire hit on an enemy warship ever achieved. The 280mm shell penetrated the aircraft carrier’s flight deck and burst into the upper hangar, starting a massive fire. The hole in the main deck made it impossible to launch aircraft, and two Swordfish aircraft belatedly being readied for take-off were seen falling overboard.

HMS Glorious, with her two destroyer escorts – HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta had been surprised by the German battleships Gneisenau, commanded by Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, and Scharnhorst, commanded by Kapitän zur See (Sea Captain) Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann, off the coast of Norway.

HMS Glorious was assisting with the withdrawal of British forces from Norway and, apart from her own nine Sea Gladiator and five Swordfish biplanes, had in her hangars 10 Royal Air Force (RAF) Hurricanes and 10 RAF Gladiators.

SHROUDED IN SECRECY

All three British ships were sunk by the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in what was a naval disaster that then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill did his best to keep under wraps at a time during World War II when things weren’t going well for Britain – Germany was completing its conquest of Norway and Denmark, and the evacuation of British and French forces from Dunkirk was in its final phase.