HMS Gloucester: The Untold StoryOn 22 May 1941 the cruiser HMS Gloucester (The Fighting 'G') was sunk by aircraft of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Crete. Of her crew of 807 men, only 83 survived to come home at the end of the War in 1945. It is unknown how many men went down with the ship and how many died in the sea clinging to rafts and flotsam during the many hours before the survivors were finally rescued by boats searching for German soldiers who were victims of a previous British naval attack. The fact that Allied destroyers were in the proximity and were not sent to the rescue was a result of poor naval communications and indecision by the local fleet commanders. Gloucester had been low on antiaircraft ammunition and her crew exhausted before being dispatched from the main fleet to search for the stricken destroyer HMS Greyhound. With only HMS Fiji as company, she came under attack from German bombers and when Gloucester's ammunition was finally exhausted she suffered several direct hits and was set ablaze from stem to stern and left out of control.This book looks at the ship's history and operational successes from her launching in 1937 to her final demise. It includes many firsthand accounts from the surviving crew and the author's painstaking research has revealed the awful truth about one of the Royal Navy's greatest disasters during World War Two. |
Contents
First Gunfire | |
Our Captain is Dead | |
Convoys and Criticism | |
The Last Christmas | |
Indecision and Lack of Ammunition | |
Abandoned and Alone | |
Devastated at the Things I Saw | |
Where is our Navy? | |
Caiques and Kythira | |
Two Young Greek Heroes | |
Salonika to the Stalags | |
Liberation at Last | |
Incredible Bravery | |
Incredible Stress | |
Engaging the Italians | |
Churchill is difficult | |
Expectation and Exhaustion | |
Revenge in the Making | |
Church Bells and Babies | |
The Story Continues | |
Rounding the Circle | |
Roll of Honour | |
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Common terms and phrases
abandon ship action stations Admiral Cunningham air attacks aircraft Alexandria ammunition arrived ashore battle battle of Crete battle of Matapan battleship Billy Grindell bomb Boy Sea boy seaman British caiques Captain Garside Captain Rowley carley float Commander convoy Crete crew damaged deck destroyers Eastern Mediterranean enemy Ernie Evans escorting Fighting G Fiji fire flotilla Force H German Gloucester's Greece Greek harbour HMS Gloucester Illustrious island Italian fleet John Stevens joined Gloucester Kapsali Bay Ken Macdonald killed King’s Kythira later Ldg Sea Ldg Sto letter Lieutenant Lt Cdr Heap Lt Singer machine gunned Malta Marlag Michael Noonan miles naval night operation Ord Sea Petty Officer planes port prisoners raft raid Rawlings Rear Admiral recalled remembered rescue RN Lt Royal Marine Royal Navy sailed sailors Salonika sent ship’s ship's company sinking Stoker Suda Bay sunk survived Taranto torpedo troops Tubby Warspite whilst