And, how! This is shamelessly cut-and-pasted from Commander Salamander's blog. When you next take your tiny armored cruiser (or destroyer!) into harm's way against some of the leviathans deployed by our friends, remember that even tin cans accrue honor, when driven with honor! http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2...ay_17.html Fullbore Friday Place yourself on watch on the HMS Glowworm. You still are not happy going on liberty with "Glowworm" on your cover, but your nation is at war - and you suck it up. You have been detached from the main formation to look for a man overboard that in this water you know must be dead by now. After longer than you should, you give up the search and turn to return to your Task Force. You just received your second cup of tea for this watch.... Hiding in the showers, eh? Well, good Skipper, you head in as well - not to let Jerry get away from a proper battle. Then... In the very Navy way the Germans fought at sea in WWII,
I love this kind of story. The commander and crew of the Glowworm obviously needed huge pants just to cover their giant solid brass testicles. It is also cool in the fact that it shows that the German captain and crew were human beings afterall, not just blood-thirsty Nazis. The fact that they stayed in the area so long also shows that they had significant testicular fortitude as well. Great story.
I covered that one in an earlier post This being Christmas night, though... Godspeed, Captains Roope and Heye, and their men lost that night, wherever you are...
It looks like the bottom of the story got cut off, wish I'd noticed it before... After the battle, the captain of the Hipper sent a message via the International Red Cross to the Admiralty in England! He detailed the entire engagement, and furthermore in light of the incredible bravery on the part of Glowworm's captain, put in HIS recommendation (as senior naval officer present at the battle) nominating Captain Roope for the Victoria Cross! After the war, with corroboration from Lt. Ramsey (only surviving RN officer), the Royal Navy awarded Cdr Roope the Victoria Cross, the only time in British history that it has been awarded on the recommendation of a foreign officer.
A lot of the Kriegsmarine wasn't Nazi, either not at all, or only because they had to be to keep their jobs. Hitler hated boats because he got seasick in the bathtub
Indeed, didn't they even allow Jewish officers to retain their commissions much longer than the other services?
Yeah, the 'Sink the Bismarck' movie really did an injustice to the Kriegsmarine officer corps. If I could pick one movie to be given control of for a redo, that movie would be it. Valor on both sides accurately represented, the tension in Britain as they frantically search for the Bis, the tragedy of the Hood, awesome CG FX, and get someone good to write a strong musical score.
You want to know manliness? The newer DD, USS Laffey, sustained 6 kamakazis and 4 bomb hits, and you want to know what? She still fired with only one gun working. She was so determined that her gunners put a clean hole down the middle of a Val. The captain said "I will not abandon ship as long as one gun can fire"
I am well familiar with the tales of heroism from that engagement. I have even walked it's decks. But in all fairness, the crew of the Laffey is in second behind a 2-way tie for first place between the Glowworm and the DEs of Taffy 3.
Not to diminish the courage of the men aboard Laffey, the thongs of whose sandals I am not fit to tie, what I am saying is: The level of courage required to do AIII!!! (Ahead Flank Cavitate) TOWARDS overwhelming force in the face of certain doom is manlier than that required to 'merely' fight to survive. The DE's of Taffy 3 are my frikkin heroes. No man in Valhalla can look down upon them, and that's saying an awful lot. "Go tell the Spartans, thou who passest by, That here, obedient to their laws, we lie."
She was part of Kurita's fleet on that operation but did not make it to Samar. She was sunk on the way.
What I would love to see in the remake: The gun duel between Bismarck and the ORP Piorun, where the Polish Captain announces that they are Pol before firing, giving the British destroyers a chance to close and make their torpedo runs.