WW2 100 – 8 June 1940 – Victim of a cover-up? Lieutenant Cyril Howlett (1913-40), Royal Navy, HMS Glorious
Continued from 29 May 1940
A casualty of Operation Dynamo: LIEUTENANT HUBERT CHARLES COURTNEY TANNER (1913-40), Royal Navy, HMS Grafton
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/02/ww2-75-29-may-1940-casualty-of.html
Cyril Howlett lost his
life in the sinking of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her two
escort ships HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta, on 8 June 1940. The event
was a disaster which shocked Britain, resulting as it did in the deaths of
1,519 men. It was also a triumph for the Nazis in the propaganda war, the sinking
being recorded by a German film crew and played to cinema audiences.
The Old Royal Naval College, on the south bank of
the river Thames in Greenwich, London, viewed from the north. Image credit: Wikipedia
Cyril had chosen the Royal Navy as a career well before the
outbreak of WW2. We find him with the rank of Acting Sub-Lieutenant (E) in
1935, the (E) indicating his specialist path for he took the course of
instruction in Engineering at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, from 26
September of that year.
Ramillies at anchor during the
First World War, painted in dazzle camouflage
He spent two years with the battleship HMS Ramillies
from 25 Aug 1936. The ship had been commissioned in 1917 but had never seen
action and its interwar career was uneventful.
Courageous as an aircraft carrier in 1935
Cyril was promoted to Lieutenant on 1 July 1937, and, on 1
September the following year, joined the cruiser HMS Courageous. Like Ramillies,
the ship was built during WW1 but had been rebuilt as an aircraft carrier during
the mid-1920s with facilities for carrying 48 aircraft.
So when Cyril joined HMS Glorious on 27 June 1939, a few months before war broke out in September, he had already had a year’s experience of life on board an aircraft carrier. And he had also enjoyed a year as a married man with his young wife Nancy. The wedding, registered in the Plymouth district, had taken place between April and June, 1938, and according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission his wife was from Budleigh Salterton, her maiden name being Crosby. But I’ve also seen her name written as Nancy May Hewlett.
So, some confusion. Nancy May Howlett/Hewlett’s name does not appear in the Budleigh parish records that I have seen. And Cyril’s name did not appear in the list of naval officers at www.unithistories.com which I consulted. I am grateful to the webmaster Hans Houterman for providing the above details about Cyril and his wife.
Glorious at anchor in 1935 Image credit: Wikipedia
While there is a relative shortage of information about them, the same cannot be said of HMS Glorious, the loss of which is still a subject of controversy more than 80 years after the event.
A squadron of Fairey Seals preparing for take-off from Glorious, 1936 Image credit: Wikipedia
Like Courageous, the battlecruiser HMS Glorious was a WW1 ship converted as an aircraft carrier in the 1920s, following which she spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean Sea. After the start of the Second World War in 1939, Glorious sailed via the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean, where she spent the rest of the year unsuccessfully hunting for the commerce-raiding German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee before returning to the Mediterranean in December.
Glorious photographed in May 1940 from the deck of Ark Royal; the destroyer with her is Diana Image credit: crew member of HMS Ark Royal - U.S. Naval Historical from Wikipedia
She was recalled to the Home Fleet in April 1940 to provide air cover for British forces landing in Norway. Various aircraft from 263, 802, 803 and 804 Squadrons RAF were flown aboard to be used for attacking enemy targets in and south of Trondheim before Glorious had to return to Scapa Flow late on 27 April to refuel and embark new aircraft.
She returned on 1 May, but had been unable to load
many new aircraft because of poor weather. The task force was under heavy air
attack by the Luftwaffe all day and was withdrawn that evening. Glorious
returned to Norway on three further occasions between 18 and 26 May, but the
order to withdraw was given to British forces a few days later.
British troops returning from Norway at Greenock on board a transport boat. Image credit: H. Marshall Bishop, War Office official photographer. Photograph N 383 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums.
The evacuation, named Operation Alphabet, began at the beginning of the following month and Glorious arrived off the Norwegian coast on 2 June to provide support and evacuate RAF fighter aircraft.
Captioned ‘Daring Submarine Officers’ this WW1
photo shows Lieutenant Guy D'Oyly-Hughes, right, with Commander Martin
Dunbar-Nasmith VC Image credit: Findagrave.com
At this point the role of the commanding officer
of Glorious, Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes comes into question. He was a
former submariner who had been executive officer of Courageous for 10
months, and was granted permission to proceed independently to Scapa Flow in
the early hours of 8 June to hold a court-martial of his officer John Benjamin
Heath, who had refused an order to carry out an attack on shore targets on the
grounds that the targets were at best ill-defined and his aircraft were
unsuited to the task.
On the way through the Norwegian Sea the funnel smoke from Glorious and her two escorting destroyers, Acasta and Ardent, was spotted by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Ardent was dispatched to investigate, but Glorious did not alter course or increase speed. No combat air patrol was being flown, no aircraft were ready on the deck for quick take-off and there was no lookout in Glorious's crow's nest.
Scharnhorst opened fire on Ardent 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 firing on Glorious, 8 June 1940. Photographed from the battleship Gneisenau. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Image credit: Wikipedia
Scharnhorst then switched her fire to Glorious and scored her first hit six minutes later on her third salvo, which burst in the upper hangar, starting a large fire. The hit destroyed two Swordfish being prepared for flight and the hole in the flight deck prevented any other aircraft from taking off. Splinters penetrated a boiler casing and caused a temporary drop in steam pressure. A second shell hit the homing beacon above the bridge and killed or wounded the captain and most of the personnel stationed there.
Glorious was hit again in the centre engine room and this caused her to lose speed, making her an easy target for the German ships. About 900 men abandoned her, but there were only 43 survivors. Acasta managed one hit from her guns on Scharnhorst, but was riddled by German gunfire and sank at around 6.20 pm.
The German ships had suffered extensive damage themselves, and unaware that Allied ships were not in contact with Glorious beat a hasty retreat, and did not try to pick up survivors.
The Royal Navy meanwhile, 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.
The sinkings and the failure to mount an effective rescue were embarrassing for the Royal Navy. Many questions have been asked about the events. All ships encountering enemies had been ordered to broadcast a sighting report, and the lack of such a report from Glorious was questioned in the House of Commons following the disaster. The absence of normal airborne patrols over Glorious and its destroyers, in conditions of maximum visibility, were named as contributors to the sinkings. The Admiralty Board of Enquiry made a rapid assessment and decided to keep its findings secret until 2041.
The Roaring Lion, a portrait by Yousuf Karsh at
the Canadian Parliament, December 1941. Did Churchill know the answer to the
puzzle of HMS Glorious? Image credit: Wikipedia
Questions continued to be asked, and in 1946 the government published a brief account of the events, stating that the aircraft carrier had been short of fuel and had decided to speed home ahead of its protective convoy. Many, including families of the deceased, refused to accept this explanation. The circumstances of the sinking were the subject of a further debate in the House of Commons as late as 28 January 1999.
For many years, following a theory put forward by the Navy’s official historian in 1980, Captain Guy D’Oyly Hughes, commander of the Glorious, was seen as arrogant and foolish, and held responsible for the disaster. Recently, fresh evidence leading to a rather different theory was uncovered by Ben Barker, grandson of Lieutenant Commander J. F. ‘Ben’ Barker, commander of the Ardent, who died in the battle. He has conducted research which uncovers evidence linking Glorious to Churchill’s Operation Paul. This was a secret plan to attack neutral Sweden and thus stop the export of iron ore to Germany.
You can read more about Ben Barker’s theory in his ‘HMS Glorious – The cover up of Churchill’s Operation Paul’ at www.hmsglorious.com
In Cumbria lies St Peters Church at Martindale in
the heart of the Lake District. In this church there are these memorial stained glass
windows to St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors. The windows are
dedicated to the memory to the men of HMS Glorious and represent a bird's eye
view of the aircraft carrier in full steam.
The above image is reproduced from the very fine tribute by The Glasgow Punter to his grandfather Rodger Donald Bailey who, like Cyril, was lost in the sinking of HMS Glorious. You can find it on his blog at http://glasgowpunter.blogspot.com/2015/03/75-years-ago-sinking-of-hms-glorious.html
The next post is for AIRCRAFTMAN 1ST CLASS JAMES WILLIAM COOPER (1920-40), RAF, 98 Squadron, who died on 17 June 1940 in the sinking of RMS Lancastria
You can read about him at
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/10/ww2-7512-casualty-of-operation-ariel.html
These ‘orphans’ are listed on Budleigh Salterton
War
Memorial, but have not been identified. Their first
names,
date of death and service numbers are not known.
They are recorded on the Devon Heritage website as
'Not yet confirmed’
If you know anything which would help to identify them,
please contact Michael Downes on 01395 446407.
F.E. Newcombe
P. Pritchard
F.J. Watts
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