HMS.Glorious
The mysterious sinking of HMS.Glorious
On the 8th June 1940 HMS.Glorious along with her two destroyer escorts HMS.Ardent and HMS.Acasta were sunk in Norwegian waters. A total of 1531 men lost their lives on the three ships making it one of the worst naval tragedies during WW2 for England and Malta. On board HMS.Glorious 40 Maltese men along with more than 10 English ratings who had made Malta their home died whilst serving on her. Shockwaves hit Malta when on the 10th June news reached us of the sinking. However this was soon overshadowed by the news that Italy had entered the war on the German side and declared war on England and its allies, which included Malta. Fear was felt throughout the island with war looming on the horizon. The next day at 6.30am Malta suffered its first victims of the war when the Italian Air Force dropped their bombs and a pregnant mother and her two children were killed in Pieta. The story of the sinking was now almost forgotten, except by the relatives of those men. Malta now was suffering the horrors of war and there was little time to reflect on past tragedies.
The mystery behind this tragedy arises from the fact that no clear answers were given to the public in England as to why Glorious was allowed to leave the convoy and sail on its own. To make matters worse the government slapped a 100 Year Secrecy Act on all documents related to this story. HMS.Glorious is the only aircraft carrier to have the 100 Year Secrecy Act imposed on it. This added fuel to a conspiracy theory that was going around at that time and is still the most believed theory of them all. Two evacuation convoys were to leave Narvik in Norway hoping to be as secretive as possible to ensure minimal loss of ships and lives. But, along with this convoy, but travelling separately, was H.M.S..Devonshire carrying on it, the Norwegian Royal Family, as well as the Norwegian parliament and Norwegian gold bullion. This theory has the Glorious being sacrificed in order for the Devonshire and the two convoys to reach Scapa Flow in Scotland without mishap. This they did as no one was attacked during their journey to Scapa Flow.
Relatives of these men organised what they thought would be a one off event in June 2000 marking the 60th anniversary since the tragedy of the Glorious. Such was the response that they again met the following year. The response was even bigger than the first meeting and they decided to form a committee. Year 2002 saw the birth of The Glarac Association. Glarac is an acronym formed by using the first two letters from each of the ships names. Glorious—ARdent—ACasta forming GLARAC. The role played by the Maltese and the heavy loss for Malta was always felt amongst the relatives and organizers and from the beginning Malta was invited to participate in the annual event in Plymouth. The Maltese H.C.at that time, Dr.George Bonnello Dupuis was asked to lay a wreath at the Hoe in Plymouth. One of the new Glarac members, Kevin Walsh was a frequent visitor to Malta and along with his nephew Vinny Morscroft placed an ad in a local newspaper to try and reach out to Maltese relatives who had family members who died on HMS.Glorious. That ad was answered by Vincent Zahra and together they talked about a memorial for all the Maltese who lost their lives on HMS.Glorious. This came about in February 2008 when a memorial plaque was presented to The President of Malta H.E. Dr.Eddie Fenech Adami at the Maritime Museum in Birgu.
The large crowd that attended this memorial service and unveiling of the plaque included a war widow by the name of Carmela Spiteri from Nadur, Gozo. She gave a detailed account of what happened on her final farewell to her beloved husband Francesco when he left her to board the Glorious never to be seen again. Unfortunately there were other Maltese war widows who were still alive but either they did not know of the event or they couldn’t attend due to health issues. The large crowd present had thought that this was a one off commemoration and the following years there was a poor attendance. However by the year 2015 during the 75th anniversary the attendance grew once again and The Glarac Association Malta was formed. Since then we have met regularly every year to commemorate this tragedy. The pandemic brought a temporary halt to our service, however now that the health restrictions have been lifted we can again remember our fallen war heroes.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
