Talk:HMS Glasgow (C21)

Latest comment: 13 years ago by RASAM in topic Flag Officer D

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Under the command of Capt.Hubback R.N. and with Admiral Palliser and his staff also aboard, she toured all major ports on the East Indies station in 1946/47 'showing the Flag' for the first time postwar. In each port of call a party was laid on aboard for local dignatories and entertainments were provided for any children. The windlasses on the quarterdeck were converted into roundabouts for them and the whole ship was open for inspection while the Marines band played. Now that the war was over the Admiralty grey with which she was painted was replaced with the pre-war East Indies colouring, namely a white hull with yellow funnels-really smart looking. At night in harbour she was floodlit and presented a most impressive spectacle. On 7/8/1946 she came to Trincomalee where the writer joined her. Her subsequent itinerary was as follows: 15/8/46-23/8/46 Port Louis Mauritius. 26/8/46-30/8/46 Mahe Seychelles. 2/9/46-12/9/46 Dar-es-Salaam.

While in Kenya a detachment of sailors andd Royal Marines paraded through the streets of Nairobi with the marine's band playing. 2/9/46-12/9/46 Zanzibar. The Sultan of Zanzibar was rowed out to the ship aboard the State Barge which had been used to visit HMS Hood in the 1920's. 16/9/46-20/9/46 Tanga. 20/9/46-5/10/46 Kilindini. 10/10/46-14/10/46 Aden. 19/1046-21/10/46 Maldives. 23/10/46 Colombo. 24/10/46 Back in Trincomalee. We left Trincomalee on 28/11/46 and proceeded to Singapore (arr 3/12/46)where she was drydocked for underwater inspection and painting. Leaving on 13/12/46 it was decided that as the ship's bottom was clean we should carry out a full power trial. Some of the engine room watchkeepers had never seen the machinery at full power as we normally cruised at 15 knots which only took about 8000 hp. Full power was ten times as much but we achieved full power without any problems and the bridge reported that the ship had exceeded 30 knots so was still capable of her original designed speed.. We got back to Trinco on 18/12/46 and joined the crew of HMS Jamaica in various revelries at Christmas time. Leaving again on 2/1/47 we arrived at Rangoon on 6/1/47-8/1/47. Then Calcutta 10/1/47-15/1/47. Madras 18/1/47-22/1/47. Trincomalee 22/1/47-3/2/47. Bahrein 10/2/47-14/2/47. Basra 15/2/47-20/2/47 On the way to Basra up the Shatt-el Arab river, despite having a pilot aboard, we ran onto a sandbank in the middle of the night. All engineer officers whether on or off duty went to the engine rooms to find the bridge calling for full power astern while the turbine condensers were gradually losing vacuum because of all the debris being thrown back by the propellers and sucked into the condenser intakes. Anyway, she came off the sandbank and while in Basra we had to strip the condensers and clean out sand, weed and little fishes that were blocking the tubes.

We were in Basra 15/2/47-20/2/47. Kuwait-then a small walled town of mud buildings! 21/2/47-23/2/47. Bahrein 24/2/47-28/2/47. Karachi 3/3/47-6/3/47. Bombay 8/2/47-15/2/47. Colombo 18/3/47-21/3/47. Back to Trinco 30/3/47, where I left her to return to Uk for demobilisation.

Expatjohn (talk) 16:00, 26 August 2010 (UTC)Reply


Benea 22:25, 2 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

Berber, Somaliland

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Is the Berber city mentioned here the same as modern day Berber, Sudan? In which case, I can direct it straight on to Berber, Sudan. Lilaac (talk) 16:52, 18 June 2009 (UTC)Reply

No, it's the city of Berbera (AFAIK). Possibly a spelling error, or an archaic name. I've fixed the link, thanks for pointing this out. Benea (talk) 19:33, 18 June 2009 (UTC)Reply


The Norwegian campaign

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I believe that the statement that HMS Glasgow carried King Haakon and Crown Prince Olaf to Uk from Tromso is incorrect. I have a book written in 1956 by Trygve Lie (who became the first Secretary Genaeral of the UN). The book is entitled 'Med England i Ildlinjen' ( 'with England in the firing line') Lie relates in great detail his escape from Tromsø with the King, the Crown Prince, Prime Minister Hambro and other senior Norwegians and says that the ship that brought them was HMS Devonshire which had Admiral Cunningham on board. He reports that Cunningham had been instructd to maintain radio silence and bring his VIP passengers to UK without delay. They were two days at sea and because of Cunningham's orders and the large number of people already aboard her HMS Devonshire had to press on to Uk without being able to attempt to rescue survivors from the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious which was sunk nearby with the loss of about 1500 lives. HMS Devonshire had so many passengers aboard that they were sleeping on the floors and practically ran out of food before they disembarked at Greenock. Expatjohn (talk) 16:35, 26 August 2010 (UTC)Reply

Since posting the above earlier today I have had a look at the Wiki entry for HMS Devonshire and found that it confirms that she was the ship that brought King Haakon and the others to UK.Expatjohn (talk) 18:48, 26 August 2010 (UTC)Reply
Yes, but both articles are right. Glasgow took Hakon et al from Molde, where the family and government had initially evacuated to by train after the initial invasion, to Tromso. As German forces steadily overran the country, the Royal family were evacuated from Tromso to the United Kingdom aboard Devonshire, two months after the first invasion. Benea (talk) 19:12, 26 August 2010 (UTC)Reply

Flag Officer D

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"In 1955 Glasgow returned to the UK where she rejoined the Home Fleet as Flag Officer D".
This quote comes from the 'Postwar' section. I thought that "Flag Officer D" was an officer's appointment. If so, how can a ship take up this post?

RASAM (talk) 21:34, 19 March 2011 (UTC)Reply