HMS Gloucester

by Ken Otter

On 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.

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2004

Reviews

[JD · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read on the operational history of the HMS Gloucester told mostly through the first-hand accounts of its survivors and letters home from the ship's company. The ship had a very eventful service life, fighting mostly in the Mediterranean and being sunk during the Battle of Crete by the German Luftwaffe.

The Fighting G took part in all the major actions from June 1940 till May 1941 and it held the line for the Royal Navy during this time when it was hard pressed by all the Axis moves in the region. The ship and its men fought bravely till the end, but lack of air support and fatigue ultimately led to its demise. After the ship was sunk, the survivors had a harrowing night in the water when rescue by friendly forces did not materialize and many men died, in the end only 85 out of 810 were plucked from the water by German forces to be made POW's and suffered greatly during their early incarceration.

Overall a good book, but there are too many quotes taken from Admiral Cunnighams' memoir and too much of a political blame game is played between the Admiralty and the admiral in the pages. Still recommended for World War 2 naval reading.