HMS Glasgow ( C21 ) The seventh HMS " Glasgow " , built on the Clyde , was a " Southampton " - class light cruiser , a sub - class of the and commissioned in September 1937 . She displaced 11 , 930 tons and had a top speed of 32 knots ( 59 km / h ) . She was part of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet ; she escorted the King and Queen to Canada in 1939 . She also took a large quantity of gold to Fort Knox as an emergency reserve . Norwegian Campaign . Captain Frank Pegram was commanding officer of " Glasgow " from July , 1939 to April , 1940 . 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 SS " Bremen " which had sailed from Murmansk . This was unsuccessful , but on 12 February 1940 , she captured the German trawler " Herrlichkeit " off Tromsø . On 9 April , she was attacked off Bergen by Ju 88 s and He 111 s and damaged by near misses . On 11 April 1940 , during the Allied campaign in Norway in World War II , " Glasgow " , along with and six destroyers 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 the 23rd " 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 . The Mediterranean . 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 . " Glasgow " was then employed as a convoy escort in the Mediterranean and as a reinforcement of the 3rd Cruiser Squadron based at Alexandria . She took part in the Fleet Air Arm raid that crippled the Italian Fleet at Taranto ; on the 14 November , " Glasgow " , along with , and , landed 3 , 400 troops from Alexandria in Piraeus . On the 26th , " Glasgow " , and " York " escorted a supply convoy from Alexandria to Malta . On 3 December " Glasgow " was attacked by Italian aircraft while anchored in Suda Bay , Crete . She was hit by two torpedoes and badly damaged . She was able to return to Alexandria , where rudimentary repairs were carried out . During this period she was temporarily replaced by . The Far East . On 12 February 1941 " Glasgow " left Alexandria and passed Suez Canal . On 18 February she joined East Indies Fleet at Aden . In February the sank the freighters " Canadian Cruiser " and " Rantaupandjang " in the Indian Ocean . Both managed to transmit distress signals , that were picked up by " Glasgow " , which deployed in search of the German ship . On 22 January , the " Admiral Scheer " was sighted by the spotter aircraft from " Glasgow " , the East Indies Task Force was deployed to the reported area . However , the " Admiral Scheer " had escaped by turning away to the south east and further searches were in vain . In March " Glasgow " , in company with , two auxiliary cruisers , two destroyers and two anti - submarine trawlers of the Indian navy , escorted two troop transport vessels containing two Indian Battalions and one Somali commando detachment , who were landed on either side of Berbera , in Somaliland , which had previously been occupied by the Italians . The town was taken after only slight Italian resistance , which was soon broken by naval gunfire from " Glasgow " and the other escorts . At midnight on 9 December 1941 , " Glasgow " sank the RIN patrol vessel with two lighters in tow " en route " to Karachi , with 6 inch shells at 6000 yards . The " Prabhavati " was alongside the lighters and was mistaken for a surfaced Japanese submarine . " Glasgow " picked up the survivors and took them to Bombay , arriving there later that day . 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 , which were completed in August . She then returned to the UK and joined the 10th Cruiser Squadron at Scapa Flow , where she was assigned to the covering forces of the Arctic convoys . In the Arctic and home waters . " Glasgow " escorted Arctic convoy s between January and February 1943 . In March she intercepted the German blockade runner " Regensburg " in the Denmark Strait . Her crew managed to scuttle the ship and " Glasgow " recovered six survivors . During June and July she supplied cover for escort groups in the Bay of Biscay . She then joined the Plymouth Command . In December she formed part of Operation Stonewall , ( the interception of blockade runners ) . In late December , " Glasgow " and the cruiser fought a three - hour battle with eleven German destroyers of which three were sunk and four damaged by gunfire . After this engagement " Glasgow " returned to Plymouth in spite of several air raids where glider bombs were used . On 6 June 1944 " Glasgow " was part of Operation Neptune , ( the Normandy landings ) . Along with the battleships and , the French cruisers and , nine US destroyers and three s , she made up the Gunfire Bombardment Support Force C for Omaha Beach . On the 25 – 26 June , in support of the attack by the 7th US Corps on Cherbourg , she shelled the German batteries near Querqueville . During this exchange of fire " Glasgow " was hit and damaged . In August 1945 she set sail for the East Indies , where she was the flagship of the Commander - in - Chief . Postwar . In 1948 " Glasgow " was transferred to the West Indies and was again the flagship of the fleet , returning to the UK in 1950 . In 1951 she was the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet based at Malta under Admiral the Earl Mountbatten of Burma . In 1953 , she took part in the film " Sailor of the King " . In the same year she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II . In August 1954 " Glasgow " and participated in the withdrawal of the Royal Marine Commandos . In 1955 " Glasgow " returned to the UK where she rejoined the Home Fleet as Flag Officer D , but was later paid off . The Suez crisis in 1956 caused " Glasgow " to be temporarily recommissioned , but later that year she was paid off again . It was then decided that she was surplus to requirements and was placed on the disposal list in November 1956 . In July 1958 " Glasgow " was broken up at Blyth by Hughes Bolckow .