HMS Glasgow was a commissioned in September 1937. She took part in the Fleet Air Arm raid that crippled the Italian Fleet at Taranto in 1940. She had the unfortunate experience of sinking two Allied ships during her wartime service, once through accidental collision and the other by gunfire after a case of mistaken identity.
Construction
Laid down on 16 April 1935, Glasgow was launched on 20 June 1936 by Lucy Baldwin, the wife of the prime minister Stanley Baldwin. She entered service without some components of her main armament's fire control system, which were subsequently fitted at the end of that year. She commenced sea trials in the spring of 1937. Designed with a maximum speed of she achieved at standard displacement during her trials.
On the outbreak of war, she operated off the Scandinavian coast, and in November was off the coast of Norway with two destroyers in the hope of intercepting the German passenger ship which had sailed from Murmansk. This was unsuccessful, but on 12 February 1940, she captured the German trawler off Tromsø.
On 9 April 1940, she was attacked off Bergen by Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111 aircraft and damaged by two near misses. Both bombs fell about from the ship's side, one bursting on impact abreast station 70 and the other under water further forward. A large proportion of the bomb which burst on impact entered the ship above the lower deck level, holing an area of approximately with about 60 scattered splinters entering the ship's side in all. The ship's movement allowed a considerable quantity of water to enter the hull causing the messdecks between stations 53 – 74 to be flooded by of water. Some minor underwater damage and a small amount of flooding occurred further forward, probably as a result of the other bomb. In addition the forward 'A' turret was temporarily out of action. Two crew members were killed and five were wounded. After returning to Scapa Flow on 10 April for temporary repairs and transfer of the dead and wounded the ship returned to sea 22 hours later.
On 11 April 1940, during the Allied campaign in Norway in World War II, Glasgow, along with and six s landed troops near Harstad and three days later on 14 April, again in company with Sheffield and ten destroyers, landed an advance force of Royal Marines at Namsos to seize and secure the wharves and approaches to the town, preparatory to the landing of a larger Allied force. On 23 April Glasgow, Sheffield, and six destroyers landed the first part of the 15th Infantry Brigade in Åndalsnes. On 29 April, she evacuated King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav of Norway, Nygaardsvold's Cabinet and part of the Norwegian gold reserves when they fled from Molde to Tromsø, escaping the advancing German forces. She then departed to the United Kingdom on 1 May, carrying among others the Minister of Foreign Affairs Halvdan Koht and the Minister of Defence Birger Ljungberg.
Mediterranean service
Whilst operating in home waters after the withdrawal from Norway, Glasgow accidentally rammed and sank the destroyer in thick fog off Duncansby Head on 16 July 1940. Glasgow was able to rescue the majority of the destroyer's crew but 19 lost their lives as well as two crew members of Glasgow. On 18 February she joined East Indies Fleet at Aden.
On 19 March 1942, Glasgow escorted convoy WS-16 from the UK to South Africa. In April Glasgow again underwent temporary repairs, this time in Simonstown, South Africa. She subsequently sailed to the US for permanent repairs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from 6 May onwards. As well as repairing the damage from her 1940 torpedo attack, additional 20 mm Oerlikon cannons were added to improve her close range anti-aircraft capability. She attended the Halifax bicentenary celebrations in Nova Scotia in 1949, returning to the UK in October 1950.
Together with , HMS Bermuda, HMS Eagle, seven destroyers and two frigates she escorted Queen Elizabeth II and Duke of Edinburgh on board the royal yacht Britannia at the end of their world tour to Malta where they arrived on 2 May 1954. She was still in the Mediterranean Fleet when together with HMS Gambia she participated in August 1954 in the withdrawal of 40 Commando Royal Marines from Port Said.