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Carrier Glorious: The Life and Death of an Aircraft Carrier

Price: $24.99 $12.50

Unabridged Audiobook

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Book
Narrator
Release Date
April 25, 2023
Duration
11 hours 19 minutes
Summary
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.
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Crompton B.

For those with in interest in the Royal Navy and the emerging Fleet Air Arm, this is a welcome addition to the available literature. Rich in detail, both in terms of operational history and anecdotes in regard to command dynamics and ship's company morale, the book is especially strong in documenting the ship's pre-war tours in The Med. It sometimes suffers from a bit too much factual material on less important sorties by its obsolete fighter and bomber squadrons, but is at its best when it counts with its description of the final reckoning with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the aftermath of the loss of HMS Glorious. Narration top notch.

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