Charles was the son of James and Clara Young who lived in Heath Grove in Beeston and the husband of Matilda Young. He saw service in the Royal Navy in the First World War aboard minesweepers and in civilian life he was employed as a tram driver by Leeds City Tramways for 22 years .
In the Second World War he was recalled for service once again in the Royal Navy and he served aboard the destroyer HMS Acaster, the ship on which he died in the Norwegian Sea on 8 June 1940 aged 42. He is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial Panel 39 Column 3.
British forces were ordered to withdraw from Norway in an evacuation Codenamed Operation Alphabet which began on the night of 3/4 June 1940 and the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious was to provide support from 2 June. Ten Gloster Gladiators of No.263 Squadron were flown from their base in Bardufoss and Hawker Hurricanes of No.46 Squadron arrived during the afternoon of 7 June, this was the first time that a high performance monoplane without a tail hook had landed on an aircraft carrier.
HMS Glorious, under Captain Guy D’Oyly-Hughes, was granted permission to sail independently to Scapa Flow in the early hours of 8 June along with the two A-Class escorting destroyers, HMS Ardent and HMS Acaster because he was to preside over a court martial hearing at Scapa Flow; but nobody knew that the German Navy were in the area.
The three Royal Navy ships were spotted by the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at 15:46 hours and changed course to investigate but the Germans were not spotted by the British until after 16:00 hours when Ardent was ordered to recognise the German ships while Glorious and Acaster remained on their course. Ardent turned back to rejoin the other two, but at 16:27 hours the destroyer was engaged by the 5.9 inch (15cm) secondary armament, mostly by Scharnhorst, while both German ships fired their main armament at Glorious.
The first salvo hit Ardent in the forward boiler room and reducing her speed the ship zigzagged and laid a smoke screen while making repeated torpedo attacks but all were avoided and by 17:25 hours and on fire the Ardent capsized and sank.
Scharnhorst switched fire to the Glorious at 16:32 hours and on her third salvo at a range of 26,000 yards (24,000m or 15 miles) with one 11.1 inch shell (28.3cm) hitting the forward flight deck and bursting in the upper hanger. This started a large fire and splinters penetrated a boiler casing causing a drop in steam pressure.
A second shell hit the homing beacon above the bridge and killed or wounded the Captain and most of the personnel stationed there. Ardent’s smoke screen hampered German visibility from about 16:58 to 17:20 hours and they ceased firing at Glorious.
When the Scharnhorst recommenced firing Glorious was hit again in the centre engine room which made her lose speed and commence a slow circle to port and develop a list to starboard. The German ships closed to 16,000 yards and continued firing until 17:40 hours; Glorious sank at 18:10 hours with 43 survivors.
As the German ships approached Glorious, Acaster, who had been trying to maintain the smokescreen broke through her own smoke and fired two volleys of torpedoes at Scharnhorst one of which hit the battleship abreast of the rear turret and badly damaged her she also managed one hit from her 4.7 inch gun on Scharnhorst, but was so riddled by German gunfire that she sank about 18:20 hours.
With Scharnhorst damaged by the torpedo hit and unaware that Allied ships were not in contact with Glorious the German force withdrew making no attempt to rescue any survivors. It later became known that there was a Royal Navy ship within 50 miles of this combat, this was the heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire running in total radio silence on a mission to collect the Norwegian Royal Family.
The Royal Navy knew nothing of the sinking of the three ships until it was announced on German radio so no Allied rescue attempt was made. SS Borgund, a Norwegian ship, steaming for the Faroe Islands arrived on the scene on 10 June and picked up survivors, eventually delivering 37 alive to Torshavn two of which later died. Another Norwegian ship, Svalbard II also making for the Faroes picked up five survivors but was sighted by a German aircraft and forced to return to Norway where four survivors who were still alive became Prisoners of War.
Two of HMS Ardent survivors were picked up five days after the sinking by a German seaplane, one later died and the other was repatriated because of ill-health. Two survivors from HMS Acaster were picked up three days later by the SS Borgund, but one died of his wounds. The total losses for this battle were HMS Glorious, 1,207; HMS Ardent, 152; HMS Acaster, 161. Scharnhorst, lost 48 when the torpedo struck.
Main Photo: HMS Acaster
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