military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (04/07/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Monday, 8 April, 1940 British destroyers engaged in Operation Wilfred mine the area south of Narvik. During the operation, HMS Glowworm becomes separated from the main force and encounters a German task force. After a gun-and-torpedo duel with the cruiser Admiral Hipper, Glowworm rams the heavier German ship and sinks. The damage is extensive but not crippling, and Hipper proceeds on to her destination, Trondheim. (Lt. Commander Roope of the Glowworm will be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross after the war, when full details of the action become known.) Norway lodges official protests against the British minings. Rumania detains a number of British barges on the Danube River. The barges are loaded with explosives, which German agencies claim are intended to sabotage that river's narrow channel through the Carpathians (the Iron Gate). Britain claims the explosives are meant for scuttling Allied river craft in case of a German invasion of Rumania. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker Moderator, sci.military military-request@att.att.com (614) 860-5294 Send submissions to military@att.att.com "Every day that the United States delays in joining the Allies will only prolong the war and increase the effort and the sacrifice that the United States may yet be called upon to make to save herself from the fate that now threatens all democracies of the world." - Attorney General Conant of Canada