Carrier Glorious, John Winton
Carrier Glorious, John Winton
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Carrier Glorious
The Life and Death of an Aircraft Carrier

Author: John Winton

Narrator: Alex Wyndham

Unabridged: 11 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/25/2023

Synopsis

The engrossing but tragic history of the Royal Navy's worst loss of World War Two.

Ideal for fans of Jonathan Dimbleby, Max Hastings, and Craig L. Symonds.

On 8th June 1940, the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her two destroyer escorts HMS Ardent and Acasta were sighted by the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst and her sister ship Gneisenau. In a brutal gun battle that lasted over an hour, all British ships were sunk and more than 1500 men lost their lives.

Why had Glorious left the main troop convoy to proceed independently? Why was she so lightly protected? Why did British Intelligence give no warning that the German battlecruisers were close by? And why were the survivors left in freezing Arctic waters for three days before being picked up?

Official documents do not answer these questions and so John Winton has drawn testimonies from men who served on Glorious in the pre-war days as well as her very few survivors to understand how this ship functioned both before and during the war, what happened on that fateful day, and why is there still so much secrecy surrounding this heart-rending event.

About John Winton

John Winton joined the Royal Navy in 1949 as a cadet and retired in 1963 as a Lieutenant-Commander. He is widely known as a novelist and historian of the sea. His books include the novels A Drowning War and Aircraft Carrier, and works of non-fiction such as Find, Fix and Strike: The Fleet Air Arm at War 1939-45, War in the Pacific: Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, Air Power at Sea 1939-1945, The Death of the 'Scharnhorst', Ultra at Sea, and Ultra in the Pacific. He died in 2001.

Reviews

Goodreads review by G on June 07, 2022

An exceedingly detailed account of the life and death of the aircraft carrier HMS GLORIOUS which offers a glimpse into one of the great British naval tragedies of the Second World War. Built during the First War as a light cruiser and later converted to an aircraft carrier GLORIOUS, it becomes clear......more

Goodreads review by Maria on June 13, 2023

British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious was commissioned in WWI and spent the interwar years in the Mediterranean before being sent to support the Norway campaign. On 8th June 1940, the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her two destroyer escorts HMS Ardent and Acasta were sighted by the German......more

Goodreads review by gpt999 on July 12, 2023

While the battle if Britain may have been their finest hour, this may have been their worst? You have to applaud the author's fact finding on a such politically charged event. I am sure the old boys club in in the RN must have been ducking for cover over this disaster. Hard to believe that any war s......more

Goodreads review by Terry Smith on July 11, 2023

At times this book is gripping and holds one's interest (e.g. during Glorius' last action or the political machinations after her sinking). At other times it devolves into laundry lists of people, events etc told in a very dry way. Of interest to those closely involved or as an archive. But not so mu......more

Goodreads review by Adrian on February 21, 2023

I enjoyed the book. It may be too detailed or not have enough “action” for some. It is interesting that the book was written before the compelling conspiracy theories about the reasons behind some of the decisions were widely known and easily found online. I’m not sure if it is best to read the book b......more

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